The Vision of the Lubavitcher Rebbe for the Jewish World - With Rabbi YY Jacobson

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] came back kinda has easy healthy laces ho ho [Music] [Applause] came back on - how's ECE ho Leroy Sisco Idaho [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah Oh [Applause] [Music] Oh [Music] my soul thirsts to you to understand the soul and the song of the people one must understand where the people came from where the people stand presently and what is the destination of this people historical context is therefore extremely necessary today we the Jewish people stand in the year Tufts in summer tests five seven six nine in the Hebrew calendar 200 nine in this secular calendar to appreciate where we're coming from where we stand and where we're going I think it is important and worthwhile to try to capture if only briefly some of the most important moments of the hundred years gone by the past century the century in which the Lubavitcher ever lived functioned and taught and to understand the great metamorphosis and changes that defined Jews and Judaism during this century they tell the anecdote of the Israeli general Israel's defense minister Moshe Dayan whom some of you remember he had the patch on his eye a wound yet in the 1940s and he was once traveling on an Israeli Highway vish miss Parishad 145 km/h which in Israel is not too fast unfortunately a policeman stops him moshe dayan you ought to serve as a role model of Israeli society I've a lot on ahead come on which road are you driving like a madman your summons ought to be quadrupled and Moshe Dayan turns to the officer and says i don'tyeah tell my dear officer look at me I have one eye now what would you like me to do with this I look at the speedometer a look at the highway now I'm not going to be the nudnik in the crowd because they say that there are three types of Jews there are slow meals slow mazels and lewdness again present company excluded the schlemiel is the individual who pours the soup on the schlemazel the nudnik is the guy who wants to know what type of soup was it I will not be the nudnik and ask whether moshe dayan got a tickets or didn't get a ticket but I will say that his answer is insightful because often in life we look at this phenomena how fast or slow were going and we fail to see the highway the road ahead of us our vision our destination so today God graced us with what we call the GPS a little while ago I was invited for a lecture in New Jersey New York - New Jersey is not a very far journey besides the fact of course that the person who was hired to chauffeur me to drive me was a man was allergic to the instructions by the GPS I assume because the person giving the instructions was a woman and Jewish men Jewish men have a very very hard time listening to their wives because they know it's usually right and it's a little difficult for their fragile egos since the GPS its messages are uttered by a woman so this person refused to listen to anything she said notwithstanding the timeless commandment in the Bible in the book of Genesis where God tells Abraham coal ash tamari lisara Sh'ma buccola whatever sarah tells you you should listen and so I gave her a name the woman in the GPS mrs. Rosenberg just sounded like mrs. Rosenberg she said make a right and this man made a left she said it's two miles and he said it's three miles the bottom line is after two hours we were on the way to California instead of to New Jersey we got so lost I finally turned to him and I said I don't understand you why can't you just listen obey the commandments of the GPS and he tells me she's an anti-semite look how lost she got me I said how can a mrs. Rosenberg be an anti-semite he says they're the worst self-hating Jew she must be I told them but sometimes anti-semites have it right you know that sometimes you have to listen to what they say sometimes they just got it right so finally I convinced them to listen and we made it to New Jersey albeit late but I really felt bad for mrs. Rosenberg because what she was doing throughout the whole time was repeating one word recalculates the poor woman was recalculating recalculating recalculating again and again and again but I did discover a profound lesson in life that night and that is even if you are lost even if we are very lost there will be somebody who will recalculate your soul your God your never your mother mrs. Rosenberg somebody will recalculate but there are two conditions condition number one is you have to acknowledge where you are and condition number two you have to know where you're heading often we look around and we feel lost collectively and individually but there is a GPS God's positioning system but two qualifications are necessary we have to acknowledge where we are and we have to appreciate where we are supposed to be heading to understand where we are we must know where we came and how we got here the last century the century of the Lubavitcher ever was probably the most dramatic painful bloody and challenging century in Jewish history such which did not exist in the previous thousand years perhaps 2,000 years perhaps thirty three hundred years first of all on a worldly level the political upheaval which the 20th century has observed and experienced was unprecedented two world wars would shatter the planet and killed millions and millions of people totalitarian regimes which threatened to take over the world beginning with the Russian Revolution the Third Reich in Germany Spain and Italy ultimately all of them fell the blood the hatred of violence created through Joseph Stalin Adolf Hitler in that century alone was unprecedented in all of human history from the day the world was created then of course there were the revolutions in areas of science physics psychoanalysis and technology that were unprecedented the whole field of psychology and psychoanalysis introduced by dr. Freud I hope I won't simplify it when somebody stated there are the three types of Jews there is this psychotic the neurotic and the psychiatrist the difference the psychotic builds castles in the air' the neurotic lives in those castles the psychiatrist collects the rent from both [Applause] are you a psychiatrist or a psychotic or neurotic why is he applauding because you collect a lot of Renta recession I Harris at my hand psychiatrists are busy bora hashem at least somebody is not out of a job of course the tremendous contribution of the theory of relativity the development of the atom bomb the unique revelations and discoveries in so many areas of science and physics which created both tremendous hazards threats and opportunities as well as a new literature which development a new modernity a new sense of individualism modernity post modernity and so forth but as dramatic as the transformation in the world at large during the 20th century equally dramatic if not more were the changes in the Jewish world and we can identify generally three major changes which redefined Jewish life and Jewish existence in the last century change number one which began in the midst of the 1700s and gradually developed it was not noticed by everybody at the time but by the early 1900's it became quite clear and evident and really redefined Jewish history was the fact that while a few hundred years ago most Jews were more or less defined as observant defined by Jewish law by Torah by mitzvahs by halakha that were the exceptions the Spinoza's in town but the mainstream of Jewish existence was defined by observance of Torah a new way and many trends in the world changed that to the point that millions and millions of Jews as a result of enlightenment as a result of new powerful isms whether it was socialism or many other isms which captured the mind of so many young Jewish women and men created a situation where at the time of the first world war close to half maybe half maybe more than half of the Jewish people would not be defined as observant June one dressed exchange the second drastic change of course was the Holocaust the Holocaust which destroyed the core of the Jewish people the most vibrant active conscious element of our people six million of them were exterminated hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of communities flourishing for more than a thousand years in five short years were decimated and destroyed it redefined the state of the Jewish people and of Jewish history and then of course there was the third major change in the last century and that was the creation of the State of Israel also an unprecedented phenomenon in the two preceding millennia the Lubavitcher ever lived in this century born in a Ukrainian Russian city Nikolaev in 1902 he wasn't only a passive spectator of this most challenging bloody difficult century of Jewish life but in many ways an active participant growing up in a Russia saturated with pogroms against the Jewish people and Jewish communities observing as a youngster the Russian Revolution of 1917 and ultimately the complete takeover by the Communist Party Vladimir Lenin and then 1924 Joseph Stalin then relocating first to Berlin starting in the University of Berlin and then in 1933 after the rise of Hitler when he became Fuhrer the Chancellor of Germany the Rebbe and his wife moved relocated to Paris we continued to study at the Sorbonne in France and Paris observing firsthand the innovative discoveries and developments and science physics philosophy in Germany and France before the Second World War a year in nazi-occupied France and then rescued and arriving here in June 1941 from Lisbon to New York City beginning to assist his father-in-law the previous lubavitcher rebbe on the landscape of America experiencing America in the 1940s and then only five years after Auschwitz assuming the throne of the Chabad Lubavitch movement in 1950 which he led for 42 years until his passing in 1994 44 years until his passing on the 3rd of Thomas this year June 25 1994 towards the end of this century I want to reflect for a few moments how the Rebbe responded internalized these three unprecedented changes in Jewish history in his own century crisis or challenge number one the fact that already before the war half of the Jewish people did not see themselves as the amatory as a nation of Torah committed to Torah never mind after a Holocaust which left so many Jews confused broken dejected filled with dilemmas and questions you know they tell that anecdote about the Jewish father who comes in to the Hebrew school where his son David studies every Sunday it's a Hebrew school of a particular temple David his father asks him how are you enjoying Hebrew school and David says daddy it's great David are you studying he says daddy I'm stunning stunning very well David can you tell me who broke the tablets and David says daddy it was not me I did not break the tablets the father is upset he runs into the classroom mr. Cohen are you the teacher of my son's class yes I am I just asked my son David who broke the tablets and he tells me it was not me I didn't do it what type of class do you run and the teacher looks at him and says sir I know your son David now for seven months if he said he didn't do it he didn't do it an infuriated parent runs into the principal's office mr. Finkelstein you're the principal of these kids of this school yes I am I asked my David who broke the tablets he says it wasn't me I asked his teacher mr. Cohen what is going on he says if your son said he didn't do it he didn't do it what type of school have you created here and the principal looks at him and says sir I understand you're extremely upset and I understand and respect your frustration let me assure you one thing on behalf of the administration of the school we will recompensate you for the broken tablets you just give us a receipt and we will pay it up to the last penny when they once asked to do what is the difference between ignorance and apathy he said I don't know and I don't care facing facing a generation we do as often some ignorant and some apathy and sometimes a combination of both the Lubavitcher ever defined his response once in an unforgettable address retelling that story in the Talmud at the end of track date Marcos Marcos the Talmud relates the story how five of the great sages of Israel who lived in the era post to destruction of the second temple shubao Marcus are you alone the yerushalayim they were traveling to Jerusalem when they came to Mount Scopus Herod so film kuru big day em they rent their garments in sign of mourning and then they came to the place where the temple once stood on the mountaintop and at that moment these sages Rochelle yo say me biscotti ha kadosh they saw a fox coming out of that space which was once the Holy of Holies they began to weep Rabbi Akiva began to laugh they turned to Ravi Akiva and they said rabbi akiva nickname martha masonic why are you growling as a good Jew you answer a question with another question so Rebbe Akiva responds to them why am i crying me play martin boys and why are you weeping and they respond why are we weeping that's upon which the Torah says Hazara kyrov you must even an Israelite was not allowed to enter into the holy of Holy's only the high priest once a year on Yom Kippur and now look who hangs out there Fox is coming out of the Holy of Holies how can we not weep and maybe Akiva responds and says that is precisely why I am felling Lakhani Masonic that's why I'm laughing he quotes two prophecies in the Hebrew Bible of the tamaak one reads seeing saw that acreage Zion will be plowed like a field another one reads ideational skein Amos came as brave as usual I am then will you have come a time when elderly men and beats of June Bruce Allen and rebbi akiva said until the second prophecy until the first prophecy was not fulfilled I was not sure whether the second prophecy will be fulfilled but now that I see that the first prophecy was fulfilled Zion was plowed into a field to the point that a Fox comes running out of the kodesh a Kadam of the holy of holies I know that the second prophecy will be fulfilled and the sages responded to him and said the Russian has an unreal way they told him these words our Kiva may come tunnel may come tunnel you have consoled us and the Lubavitcher ever focused on one detail in the story which may seem a bit irrelevant but for him it was not irrelevant at all why a fox so you might say well that's what happened there was a fox wasn't a frog wasn't a mouse wasn't a weasel wasn't a cat there was a fox but the fact that the Talmud tells us this detail the fact that the Talmud relates to us what animal it was is significant that too is part of the story that too is part of the lesson there was another story about a fox elsewhere in town look in tractate Bracco's page 61 oh so with the same finger rabbi akiva rebbi akiva who was teaching torah publicly notwithstanding the decree of the roman emperor that to teach torah to the Jewish people is forbidden to the point that you will get the death penalty if you do it and Rabbi Akiva was executed brutally by the Roman Empire it was one of the 10 martyrs dassera rugae Mallicoat and a colleague or another jew papas once asked him rabbi akiva aren't you afraid why are you teaching torah to the Jewish masses and Rabbi Akiva gave him the famous metaphor and the metaphor is about the Fox was very hungry and he comes to the shore and he sees fish in the water and he says come fish come out of the water and let's hang out and enjoy life together like mozzie than yours aid they used to enjoy life together and the fish said Michigan we live in the water and he says no in the water you have to be scared of the fishermen who want to come and chop you and catch you come out of the water and we shall enjoy life you will be secure serene tranquil and the fish responded to the Fox and they said you are the Fox upon whom the sociologists and the zoologists say you're the pickax of Esaias you're the clever one of animals it seems now that you're not very clever because if even in the place where we live in the source of our life and oxygen water we still have to be afraid a fisherman how much more so if we leave the source of our life when we come to dry land our death is a certainty in water we still have a chance there every akiva said for the Jewish people Torah is like water to the fish their source of life if even in the water we have to be concerned if we leave the water there's certainly no home so we have the Fox in that story the Foxes the PK acaba tires the wise one the clever one among the animals comes the lubavitcher rebbe and says let's now go back to the story at the end of track dates markers here again there's a fox this time the Fox is coming out of holy of holies it represents a trend and an idea the Fox represents the wisdom among the animals it represents cleverness wittiness sharpness of intellect but the level which the animal can reach here is the destruction that rebbi akiva s colleagues are observing they're not only observing physically a fox leaving the holy of holies they're watching something much deeper they're seeing a trend millions of June are leaving the holy of holies they're going out of Kurdish akkad ashram they're bidding farewell to thousands of years of sacred traditions values studies rituals Commandments Torah and who is guiding them who is leading then the Fox the Fox which employs intellectual arguments the Fox which brings to light and persuades these Jews and says look at the intellectual future that awaits you if you leave the holy of holies the challenge to the Jewish people the first challenge described above was above everything an intellectual challenge new isms new ideas in the area of philosophy in the area of politics in the area of religion in the area of individuality in the area of history of sociology of psychology and so on and so forth new trans ideas perspectives philosophies coming from the Fox the clever of animals were leading the masses out of the kadesha Kardashian out of the holy of holies to what seemed to them would be a new more modern engaging promising horizon many sages weep they watch the scene and they weep they watched a crisis of the last century millions and millions of Jews who define themselves as non-observant only increasing after the Holocaust and with each year more assimilation more alienation more into marriage and they weep rebbi akiva misaki rebbi akiva is crying why is he crying and the way they're ever defined the voice of Rabbi Akiva was he turned to them and he said my dear friends there's another option and I'll say it in Yiddish and then I'll translate he said to them verse vain tear why are you crying blank say iodine and Kurdish a Kardashian instead of weeping that they left the Holy of all these bring them back into the Holy of Holies show them the beauty the majesty the depth of Judaism explain to them the power of you disguise the meaning of a mitzvah the Eternity of a black Kamara of a page in town show them what shooting leav hope pleases instead of crying lamenting crashing groaning and sighing bring them back into the holy of holies don't cry but with joy and with laughter show them the beauty of the Holy of Holies begin to rebuild a destroyed holy of holies interpreting those powerful words in Deuteronomy in the Ten Commandments the second set of 10 the second time the Ten Commandments are repeated in the portion of us Hannah Moses says God spoke these Ten Commandments it was a coil God Oh valo Yosef Carl got avila Yosef means a great voice a powerful voice the low Yosef what does valois of me so the Midrash explains one of the interpretations his voice did not get tired horse exhaustion and the question is is that really a big miracle with God would we expect that after 10 commandments or nine Commandments God would get hoarse and say I'm sorry I have to go for voice lessons I can't really continue I'm dehydrated let me go get a drink and this is the miracle Kyle goggle Villa Yosef he didn't have to enhance his voice because it was going strong what is the meaning of this but the way the lubavitcher rebbe I understood it was this the voice of God very often seems hoarse old ancient arcane hurricane a new century came beginning in the mid 1700 1800 especially the 1900s and said the voice of God the voice of Shabbos the voice of fillin the voice of mikvah the voice of kashrut the voice of torah study the voice of Jewish education its horse it worked for a thousand years two thousand years three thousand years but now it's getting dry it's an old voice you can hear this axes there's a new world order there are new powerful developments comes the Torrance's coil girdle villa Yosef the relevance of Torah is timeless trends come and go like designer labels for a few years they're in and then they go revelation revolutions even come and go revelation stands forever the power of Torah is that it never betrayed the Jewish people it never failed them it speaks to a dimension of life and of history that is eternal and timeless and thus they represent the core our holding in this generation responding to crisis number one is to look at the fish once again you know that image the Midrash gives it's a fascinating image that after a rain if you go to the lake or the river you'll always see lots of fish on the surface why so the Midrash says they come to drink the rain water and the Midrash asks but they're submerged in water 24 hours a day why don't they have to rise to the top to drink rainwater and the answer given in the mid riches is a villain flee shavasana they're looking for fresh fresh water they need the freshness they're looking for the freshness Obama cherub represent we can bring them all back into the Holy of Holies but do you have to give them fresh water in his brilliance he knew how to articulate a Judaism that is relevant exciting and appealing to the contemporary Jewish woman and man who lives today and now very often what happened is the Fox spoke in the name of excitement and contrast that it contrasted it with the boredom and monotony with which religion was so often associated in my travels people often ask me what is the most important ingredient in a shul they always say comfortable chairs they say why they Jews come for Shabbos to show they want to slump so make sure this comfortable chairs there was a synagogue where the rabbi and the president didn't get along as is the custom in Jewish synagogues so when the rabbi would get up when the rabbi would get up to talk the president who also sits on the stage on the other side of course would fall asleep immediately and when the rabbi would begin hollering he would begin snoring there was almost rehearsed for 25 years the gabbai of the show hated both of them so he decided it's time for revenge comes to the rabbi and says it ever you know it's a real hoods for how your president sleeps during your sermon the rabbi says I agree what do we do the gabbai says give me permission next Shabbos when you begin talking and he begins snoring allow me to take a stick and knock him over his head the rabbi says it's a brilliant and deeply moral idea great Shabbos comes the rabbi starts talking the president starts snoring the gabay goes over with a bat tada right over his head president wakes up looks at the GABAA and says do it again become buddies like why president says i could still hear him you see a rabbi wasn't shared with me a rabbi wasn't shared with me friends that when he gets up to talk Saturday so there's a man sitting in the front row but without exception takes his now every single week the rabbi starts talking and this man starts sleeping 25 years quarter of a century they both grew old by the time this happened one Shabbos the rabbi was walking up to the podium he hasn't started yet and the old man whose name was Berkowitz started to snore already so the rabbi couldn't tolerate this disrespect he screams out he says Berkowitz I've been silent for 25 years I understand you I begin talking you sleep you think I'm monotonous I'm boring and hardness is again I don't have anything to say fine I understand I can respect that but this week I didn't even start yet I'm just walking up approaching the podium the slavs to why're you sleeping already and he looks up and he says rabbi I trust you and so in a generation in a generation which experience Judaism often as very shallow boring monotonous irrelevant to the human spirits and to the real challenges that face us as human beings and as Jews the raba had the unique genius through his teachings and writings and talks and addresses and letters and discourses to articulate Judaism in a manner that is relevant meaningful exciting fresh and inspiring whether it comes to biblical narratives Talmudic laws legal debates in Maimonides philosophical doctrines cabbalistic esoteric dimensions Jewish history Talmudic legal issues and all fragments and aspects of Jewish thoughts to be able to weave them in a fashion that can show the Jew that the Torah actually constitutes the very DNA of the Jewish people and therefore as far as we traveled and as far as we got lost and as millions of Jews that have left their DNA doesn't change the Torah is the blueprint which captures the soul the raison d'être the essence the mission statement and the various colours and mosaic of the jewish soul torah is the most natural deepest voice of the jew but the fish are looking for fresh water so watching the Fox leaving the Holy of Holies and taking with him millions and millions and millions so many stood and weapons and their ever learned from every achiever to stand up and say was vain tear why crying Masonic don't grown inside brains eight Surrey Kincaid this a Kardashian bring them back into the holy of Holy's demonstrate to them what he disguises what tour is allow them to see that every ISM failed every ISM came and when it appealed to the world for 50 years for a hundred years for 500 years but where is Rome today where is Greece where is Assyria where is Egypt in Wikipedia but svaha and mutters : Shabbos Tara mitzvahs are not on Wikipedia they're right here this evening with tens of thousands of Drew's here in the world over and in the whole world in the Holy Land and abroad I am kokum I am they're alive they're vibrant in 1972 when he turned 70 the New York Times interviewed the rapper of Lubavitch and the reporter asked him a question would you define yourself as a conservative or a liberal you like the question huh so Jew with a white beard a black hat the black coat a rapper are you a liberal or a conservative and their ever respond that he said a liberal I'm not but I'm also not a conservative and the man said what do you mean your ethos your philosophy is to hold on to the old traditions to the ancient laws not to make reforms and changes of course you're a conservative he says no the word conservative by definition means to conserve something is getting old it's gonna become decadent it's going to decay so we have to hold on to it we have to conserve it that even as the new trends become popular we still hold on to the old but from my perspective from my vision to say that the Torah Judaism is old is not sure the most modern fresh commentary on what is going on today you will find in total and the reason is although it was written thousands of years ago but since it was authored by the source of history by God whose emissions so with the wisdom of Torah you have encompassed every mill you every development historically philosophically politically psychologically and sociological in the infinity of Torah you have all of history and when you look into the Torah you can glean the most fresh contemporary insights that is relevant today to the person who is in touch with what is going on today this was the first response of the Lubavitcher ever to the first major crisis that defined the last century of Jewish history the crisis of alienation of assimilation in one word instead of crying bring them back to the holy of holies it remains our colleague today as well I am what I am look I am believe Raqqa to one and all and now we will continue with number two and number three but of course instead of interrupting me harmonize with me [Music] Oh No [Music] yeah yeah yeah yeah [Music] I [Music] not either [Music] No [Music] ah [Music] No [Music] neeli [Music] Oh [Music] No [Music] hi-yah ha ha ha [Music] Hey [Music] I love hi I [Music] I ha [Applause] I ow [Music] [Applause] lehayim dear friends good evening and welcome once again welcome to everybody here to the hundreds who are here with us locally in the Crystal Plaza with labovitz of Essex County welcome to all of you and welcome to close to a hundred and fifty communities that are joining us here tonight around the world and a little later I will announce the names of all of these communities which are now coming in through the web joining us here for this evening a soul the soul and song of our people in tribute to the fifteenth yard site of the lubavitcher rebbe I want to especially thank my dear friends who allowed this evening to happen the vid and EDA schottenstein lehayim and god bless you and all of you Luke I am Luke I am please join me and say look I am so we come now to the second crisis and the second response a while ago I attended a conference and the subject of the conference was Jewish continuity and of course anti-semitism and somebody raised his hand and said rabbi Jacobsen I want to ask you a question sure can you explain to me what is the difference between a Jew and an anti-semite I said what do you mean he said well they both don't like Jews so I told him I said let me tell you the difference between a Jew and anti-semites you come to an anti-semite and we're talking here about the civil anti-semites they say in the name of Churchill I'm not sure he said it but somebody said it the definition of an anti-semite is somebody who hates Jews more than necessary so I'm not talking about somebody who hates Jews more than necessary I'm talking about somebody who in his mind hates Jews as much as necessary a civil anti-semite and you come to him and you say tell me what is your opinion of the Jewish people and naturally he'll tell you greedy selfish horrible horrible people they're guilty for all of the problems in the world Afghanistan Darfur Iraq Libya the Middle East it's all their fault the economy of course they're horrible trouble people and you'd asked anti-semite one second your cardiologist is dr. Goldberg he's Jewish then I'll say yeah Goldberg is different he's an exception but your lawyer is mr. Cohen he's Jewish he's an exception I know him for 40 years but your accountant his Rosenstein he's also Jewish he's an exception I known for 29 years he's an honest man but your barber is also Jewish mr. Klein he's a great guy my barber and your neurologist is my frien's he's a unique character but what about the Jewish people bacteria vermin of the earth that's an anti-semite now you come to a Jew ask any Jew what is your opinion of the Jewish people the jewel will say ah Jewish people me I'm sure I'll where do you have such a beautiful blessed and holy nation I love the Jewish people tell me what do you think about your neighbor and sure I gave a thief how about your other neighbor our lawyer our shock couldn't how about your brother-in-law don't trust them with a doll L pickpocket you how about your mother-in-law don't even get me going how about you rabbi you're president you're gob I you don't want to know about them if I would only talk they would be sitting tomorrow what is your opinion of the Jewish people I love the Jewish people so you see one of them hates the Jewish people but he likes individual Jews that's the anti-semite for the Jew it's easy to love the Jewish people but individual Jews it's a little harder to it's easy to love Claudius wrong it's difficult to love and abuse wrong the collective body of the Jewish people we can embrace the individual Rebbe you throw or debit Senor l is a little harder to embrace and here I come to the second response or at least one of the responses of the river to the second most important event of the last century and in many ways the defining events of millennia in Jewish history the Holocaust and I know present here in this room right now our individuals were their survivors were in Auschwitz who were in Dachau were in trebling care were in Bergen Belsen joining us here this evening physically in this room as well as on the web around the world and one of the key points in their Eva's approach to this black hole of humanity to this unprecedented and incomprehensible tragedy amongst our own people one-and-a-half million children and the gas chamber the gas and the gas chambers went up in the crematoriums but one of his responses was this what the teach us a thing or two about loving every individual jewel as there ever once put it at a Purim gathering and a poem for Brennan at an assembly of Hassidim in honor of the joyous holiday of he said let's dissect for a moment what happened the hatreds of Hitler was directed even to the Jewish infants how can you hate a baby how can you possibly hate me you can't accuse a little child of being on the wrong side of politics of being a capitalist or being a communist you can't accuse a child of holding onto the wrong territory of being the territory illness you can't accuse a child and wrong ideology he or she is an infant and yet the venom and hatred displays to the smallest and cutest of angelic Jewish children was incomprehensible the Glee the joy that passion the gusto which the Germans employed in exterminating every last Jew to the smallest child to the points to the points that he averted he used precious resources that were needed for the war effort that were necessary to fight the war and he used those precious resources just to make sure that a one another Jew and another Jew would be exterminated and if you were to tell him there's one Jewish child left in some little step the link Alicja or in Poland or in Hungary in Ukraine a little sniffle a little child he would make sure to send somebody to go and hunt down that child and cleansed the world quoting quotes from the curse the Jew who gave the world the conscience as hit Thalia mother my friends came full abhava cheer ever who himself lived through the war and lost many of his own family members in the Holocaust including a brother grandmother sister or brother in-law and many other family members and said how can you hate a child so much but it means that he saw something he saw a power he saw a sacredness he saw a depth in a Jewish child for him as long as one Jewish child was alive it meant that God was alive it meant that Judaism was alive it meant that the Jewish people was alive it meant that something very grand which he needed to exterminate was alive and well came the Rebbe and sense if every young if every Jewish child was Jewish enough was sacred enough was powerful enough that Hitler would hunt them down in hate should we the Jewish people not look at every Jewish science and see him or her as holy enough as precious enough as sacred enough to embrace him or her with love aim it has been suggested his mission statement 65 70 years ago every Jew was hunted down in hate no Jew was too small no Jew was too insignificant no Jew was too irrelevant no Jew is inconsequential every single Jew represented a certain power which in the eyes of Germans meant he or she needed to be exterminated so their ever said our challenge our calling is to take that energy and redefining and transform it do not look at a Jew as insignificant or instance and cat when show that you cannot love him and embrace him and reach out to him or her don't say that because in these flawed this far-flung Jewish community there are only a few Jews it's not large enough for us to spend valuable resources and reach out to them 70 years ago they were reached out to and hunted down to be exterminated our calling is to take that same energy and redefine them in the positive to be able to reach out to every single drew without exception with endless and infinite affection and love embrace him or her with all our heart and all our soul and restore them to their rightful dignified place in the structure of Knesset ISA role of the community of Israel you remember perhaps that moment in Amedeo Mozart conducts a symphony and Emperor Joseph the Emperor of Austria comes to participate I think he was a little tone deaf so what do you do if you're tone-deaf and you're at a symphony it's called Slav take a nap as discussed earlier so he Ana Slav he slept through the symphony Mozart finishes and as he's walking out the Emperor's Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart job well done but too many notes you have to get rid of a few right it's like when they tell me rabbi excellent but too long too many notes cut it down and I tell them the advice I heard from a priest he once said he was once giving a speech Sunday morning and he came bandage his whole face was bandaged he explained to the crowd he said this morning I woke up I decided I'm gonna take a nice shave for the sermon and as I was cutting my face as I was I was I was thinking about my speech I was shaving so as I was thinking about my speech my mistake I cut my face it happened that's why I'm bandaged so a child raises his hand and says dear father next week do us all a favor and reverse the process think about your face and cut your speech there was a rabbi like many rabbis who knew when to begin but didn't know when to end so he went on and on and on and on finally everybody evacuated the shore everybody besides one person finally the rabbi finishes he goes over to this guy and he says you know I'm so sorry for going so long and thank you for sticking it out with me I apologize for the length of my speech what should I do there was no clock on the wall the man says there was no clock on the wall but there was a calendar on the wall and so the Emperor tells I'm at Mozart job well done but too many notes couldn't you cut a few and Mozart responded and he said Nene your majesty there was not a note too many which one do you suppose I can't a true composer can indeed testify that there's not a note too many which one do you suppose icons that metaphor is used in Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism to describe humanity and to describe the Jewish people each of us constitutes a singular note in a divine symphony and there is not a note too many which one do you suppose icons which means you and you have something to contribute to the melody of the world and to the melody of Jewish history and to the melody of God that nobody before you and nobody after you will be able to contribute it's your indispensable melody it's easy in our generation to come out with slogans that we have to love the Jewish people it's easy to talk about Jewish continuity anybody here who attends dinners if you have the great misfortune to attend Jewish dinners like myself and listen to speeches if you have the great fortune to attend Jewish conferences and summits every month akin donors take every Monday and Thursday by the 1099 Jewish organizations in the metropolitan area if you have the fortune of the misfortune you know that the word Jewish continuity saving the Jewish future saving the Jewish people we have to save Claudia stroll save the Jewish it was the brilliance of a leader the Lubavitcher ever came to his disciples and pupils and students and anybody who wish to listen to him and he said my dear Eden stop saving the Jewish people and don't worry about Jewish continuity this is what I want you to do you have a neighbor reach out to your neighbor you have somebody who works in your office invite her or him for Shabbos the Jewish people are made up of individual Jews men women and children touched one heart at a time embrace one soul at a time Kindle one spirit at a time increase one Mitzvah at a time learn from the greatest evil man in history that there's no such a thing as a small jewel there's no such a thing as an insignificant drew there's no such a thing as a worthless drew as a Jew not worthy enough or not holy enough or not religious enough for you to spend time and energy with the hate that they expended 70 years ago you expend the same energy and woth to every single one without exception I recall the last words I heard from my rabba before he fell ill in 1992 well Baba Trevor had a custom that every Sunday he would distribute dollars for charity whoever wished came took a dollar to give to charity and gave a blessing he once explained his custom why a dollar to everybody you know it adds up usually you'll excuse me usually rabbis and rappers like taking dollars not giving down awesome and not for bad reasons they have to support institutions cost money right you know the rabbi got up in front of the shoal and said ya boys I my dear friends there's a hole in the roof of the synagogue there's good news and bad news the good news is we have all the money to repair it the bad news is the money is in your pockets this was a commercial for Lubavitch of Essex County [Applause] that was a word from our sponsors rabbi Cara by caso it's the rebel would give dollars and add it up every week I was the nudnik I once asked one of the secretaries how much did a nice amount of money could be $7,000 $10,000 lots of Jews would come by every single Sunday signature can claim them at baya right why and did ever once said I heard this from his mouth once on a Shabbos he said I heard from my father-in-law when two people meet even if the meeting lasts only four seconds they have to make sure that during those four seconds a favor comes out from it to a third person if you and I meet we have to make sure that a third person benefits it's not just about you and I so every person he met he gave a dollar to give to somebody who needs sharing and so it was Sunday afternoon around 6:30 p.m. I was traveling to the Holy Land that day that night for a wedding so I growing up in Crown Heights in Brooklyn I usually would not go take a dollar every Sunday because I was a native as they say a local but that's some day traveling to the Holy Land I went online I was already towards the end of the wine that ever was standing for more than seven hours this was a man who was 89 years old wasn't 19 he was 89 men women children religious non-religious observant non-observant all types all stripes all colors our skin as inspired in me you see vish litva Shabbat well have the non-jews all types in front of me there was a little girl I'll never forget the scene she stood out because she was young maybe six seven beckel ah cute sheets the way she was dressed I saw she was not from what they would call a custard example I don't know where her parents were whether they went already or they were in back but she happened to be right in front of me and she was adorable she just has this this cute adorable face and it was her turn she went by to the river and they never gave her a dollar and told her Ahava hats Lahab blessing and success and she looked at him and she said I love you some of their ever secretaries froze they were unaccustomed to that lingo as you can well understand one of them even got a little upset I think but their ever began smiling and smiling in a way that I've never seen before I've had the fortune of seeing him smile many times in my life but the way I saw the Lubavitcher ever smiled that day was unique he was Belem his face was radiating literally from ear to ear there was a luminescence a graceful luminescence on his holy countenance it was something special and she moved on she said what she wanted to say and she moved on and the replica hold her back and when she came back he gave her an extra dollar in gazing at her with his glowing pure innocent blue eyes untarnished by 89 excruciating ly difficult years he looked her in her innocent youthful eyes and giving her the second dollar he told her a few words this is for the love and she went on and then came my turn and his face grew Stern you're laughing now but then it wasn't so funny and serious and when his secretary told that I was traveling to the Holy Land he gave me also a second dollar and told me of Jeb enough stuck in there it's a craters to give it for charity in the Holy Land the next day Monday praying at the resting place of his father and well the six lubavitcher rebbe in the month of fury Cemetery in Queens New York well voucher ever suffered a stroke from which he never recovered and passed on two years later on the 3rd of tamos June 1994 those were the last words I heard for my rather this is for the love and in my imagination they captured one of his responses to this unfathomable crisis in Jewish history the Holocaust the hate that was expended ought to be now transformed and the same energy be redefined as love towards every single Jew in every single location in the entire world and now you can hear this message in the words of the master in the words of the lubavitcher rebbe himself at a gathering of 1961 he spoke in Yiddish but here it's translated into English I have today sign an executive order providing for the establishment of a Peace Corps on a temporary pilot basis I'm also sending to Congress a message opposing authorization of a permanent Peace Corps this call will be a pool of trained men and women that oversees by the United States government or through private institutions and organizations to help foreign countries meet their urgent needs the skilled manpower is our hope to have between 500 to a thousand people in the field by the end of this year who send Americans abroad who are qualified to do a job who send are those abroad who are committed to the concept which motivates the Peace Corps it will not be easy none of the men and women will be paid a salary they will live at the same level as the citizens of the country which they're sent to doing the same worth even same food speaking the same language we're going to put particular emphasis on those men and women who have skills in teaching agriculture and in health I'm hopeful that it will be a source of the satisfaction of Americans and they contribute [Music] o.co forgive nied entitled messenger - action of the Saha medina - to the home in the air whatever media glare of negated homage to advance recruiter was a iranian design of a Andaz Noveck was the art at home allowed to home base of hijo on avec firm in a friend north on in a valley lot was hadn't eaten trickled we're not talking that there dozen health again is a collection and trickles are on health as a boy and Isaiah say that are hiring a boy 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written signal is dr. rusev estate a McGee mckaela mckaela Shane our Lee suna decay Israel Bonita reckford funda more work on homie auditory shamil or neighbor darkest the darkest were consigned France ahead as a coronation holidays Robin pass across and does not double famille orders Anna - terminus oil washes I'm with the country's word Orton of knittin trickle zulan & Li Zheng yeh mera nucleophile of the neighbor himself his other caution recover hey mate see the father's Martin began hero was we adopted Lakota tariff I was hot I each Peter the father's and answer for not smooth solution for Barack oh.what daughter the rain she cannot with adoption across she needs to raise ray she shall never or did hooniverse Earhart Mossad aruba's coal oil or female as was athlete a Swede not Adam Cruz was you're from Amalfi shillelagh malady about same team as a versus royal in the soir invoke defensive because we table ramen at Kimmel Live Nagisa universe fairness modalities royalist innovation it King concern our state were after very yahoo kamijo maintenance they are hostile lib home a mental area or need the inmate mentored in treyton hukum acres outside punta david ostriches todo seguida your Nahum and odd motors grade me below zero Viswanath moto de Vaca moto Gaudreau piensa que toda feng goes on dosa given a Geneva Dawson aspartamay oh venus overdose iguana madonna is the erosion Amita Harris info assassins in core dakari Ensenada Rosemont I began Jordan Burton is 10 below zero so divas easily obovate zero ozone diminishes army devastation as Arizona's reason endure from Porter who never wins a citizen Toxie me tree demises oh no today motivation to astronaut Michigan Mo was in darkness was ill gotten drinking is aqua Siebert work as a Jana officially physician working while there a majority her Anglicans I novice a shammy novices royal read about shanties dog who meter to debate the armies are more horrid orotava cartero there are mutual that men are bringing the you lo ha Metis was read novato's and Angola swastika commonality seen as genome anaerobic in the universe's communally they are Liholiho [Music] I aha [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey [Music] I [Music] nah my [Music] haha [Music] I [Music] [Applause] [Music] my [Music] the hey little alive Lala yeah yeah I brothers and sisters we are joined here tonight with 300 cities from across the world 300 cities and communities from across the world joining us here this evening with Lebovitz of Essex County here in the Crystal Plaza in Livingston New York I stand corrected a very bad Freudian slip of a that which death penalty please join me in saying lehayim to all of us to all of the Jewish people Luke I am Luke I am LaRocca I want to welcome the community of Cape Town South Africa they'll be chin and st. kilda Australia and Zurich Switzerland and - the Holy Land rata slur Belgium in Paris Brazil Vancouver British Columbia Herzliya the community inherits alia in the Holy Land Jerusalem yerushalayim Iroquois - Guatemala City London Bondi in Australia the Gold Coast in Australia Burma thing gland I know what time it is in all of these places they must be having a late night some of them Santiago in Chile Lima Peru like ivali Gonzales in Argentina Johannesburg South Africa Melbourne Sydney Abbott's Ville Abbott's field in Canada in British Columbia Stoneham Massachusetts Brookline Massachusetts Foxborough Massachusetts Peabody Massachusetts Detroit Michigan Bowie Maryland Pompano Beach Florida Jacksonville Florida Kansas City Bloomfield New Jersey Bergen T New Jersey anishka Hertz Bergen teen Greek green canteen lehayim I stand corrected Laurel Laurel Maryland Mississauga Ontario Canada while Scottsdale Arizona free old New Jersey Buffalo New York Philadelphia Houston Cincinnati Columbus Ohio and thank you David and EDA once again god bless you cancer Hawk in Pennsylvania I have to study some geography not Lee New Jersey Glen Ridge New Jersey Lakewood New Jersey I heard of that city suffer in New Jersey suffer in New York I give out that was I just trying to atone for my others in Wappingers Falls New York Long Beach California Moorpark California Toronto Montreal Los Angeles you ever heard of a Jewish community Crown Heights Crown Heights New York Fort Lauderdale Florida Chicago Torrance in California Maplewood in New Jersey Newton in New Jersey Bronx Rio Rio in Brazil Rio de Janeiro in Brazil material Louisiana Colts Neck New Jersey East Orange New Jersey Hollywood Florida West Palm Beach in Florida Boyton Beach Florida Ottawa in interior tour nil and interior it's now 340 cities and they're gathered together and I feel it's appropriate to acknowledge and welcome all of you out there in the world Westville Connecticut Mount Olympus California Westminster Colorado Teaneck New Jersey Columbia South Carolina the den of Denver Denver Jewish Center shallow house in Brighton Massachusetts Annapolis Maryland Western Florida Albany New York Brandon Florida West Parkland Pinellas County Berkeley California we did that Monroe Monroe townships Fox Chapel Pennsylvania Delray Florida pakusa New York Sunny Isles Beach in Florida Sharon Massachusetts West Hampton West Hempstead Naperville Florida Marion California Atlantic City you know Jersey Guilford in Connecticut Venice Florida Moorpark California East Valley Arizona or South Orlando Florida San Antonio Texas Manalapan New Jersey fair Luna the cop County Georgia mid-hudson Valley upper Montgomery County Chestnut Hill in Massachusetts Chabad of Kendall Florida and Mason Ohio and st. Paul Minnesota as well as swass the holy city of Tomas in the Holy Land Brooke Lemar Boehm welcome welcome to all of you Luke I am Luke I am a LaRocca let's hear it for Jews tens of thousands of Jews the world over my dear friends they tell a story that a few years ago when our economy was still doing pretty well but the Israeli economy was failing miserably and the Israeli Parliament had an emergency meeting what do we do to help build up the Israeli economy and different Jews gave different suggestions and then one Knesset one Jew Israeli Parliament member said I have a great idea my idea is that we Israel the clear war on the United States of America America will then destroy us completely as they have once destroyed completely Japan and Germany but then America will rehabilitate us and turn us into an economic superpower as the United States once rehabilitated Japan and Germany so we declare war we get destroyed and then we become a major economic force and one Knesset member raised his hand and says but Friends does one problem what happens if we win the war and here friends we come to the third issue one of the three defining components of the last century namely the reality of Israel the reality of Israel there are those of you who remember still those days in 1948 or the aftermath of 1967 but after Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen the fact that Jews could come back to their homelands now governed by Jews themselves with their own infrastructure and with their own military was and is a great pride and blessing for the Jewish people came the grandpa and while others dedicated their lives to establish the Jewish state the lubavitcher rebbe understood very well that for the Jewish state to be healthy and vibrant the state of the Jews must be healthy and vibrance meaning it's not only enough to establish a Jewish state we have to also re-establish the Jewish soul and give it its inner sense of harmony and wholesomeness because he understood that Jewish statehood without an internal sense of what it means to be Jewish can ultimately create a generation of young Jews who will reject the very foundations of Zionism an ideological passion that characterized their parents and grandparents deprived of an inner understanding and awareness of what it means to be a Jew what does it mean to live in the land of Israel what is the land of Israel what is our relationship to the land of Israel altum Utley with the tremendous pressures and surrounded by such hostile Connor country as a historian once said about Israel he said Israel is a good country it's a great country it's just in a bad neighborhood but when you're in a bad neighborhood you have to be able to have the resources not only militarily certainly militarily but psychologically emotionally and spiritually you have to have a soul Israel and the Jewish people need a soul because if not what happens is what we have seen in our own generation you want to know what a Jews a Jew makes a fist and what's the next step after the fist a sham no but God knew ghazan another person who's not true which makes a fist the next step go to the doctor and check your nose out but when the Jew makes a fist he immediately begins to confess I'll catch a ton of the Faneca I'm sorry for existing I'm sorry for winning I'm sorry for being triumphant Jewish pride you see anti-semitism had two casualties casualty number one is it created non-jews who despise Jews but it had a second casualty and sometimes it's more dangerous than the first anti-semitism created Jews who started to hate Jews self-hating Jews now one search from that torski he was on a plane dressed like a Hasidic Jew wrong black coats square white beards round black hats Jewish woman sitting near him turns to him and begins to address him in Yiddish a Shanda she said a disgrace why can't you people dress like everybody else why can't you behave like everybody else why can't you be fully integrated with mass culture and they will begin to love us and enjoy us and like us but because you are determined to stand out you evoke and inspire their ire and their hatred to us you know enough become normal he looked at her and naively responded and said in a perfect English accent excuse me ma'am I fail to comprehend your verbiage perhaps you're mistaking me for somebody else but I am Amish she said I'm so sorry I thought you were Hasidic no I'm Amish wow she said I really respect the Amish why so did he ask because notwithstanding there being a minority they still maintain their heritage with such pride and dignity call her covered god bless now it was his turn to respond in Yiddish ah Hisense I piss vault give an Amish most Amish Lipka hats if I would have been Amish you would have cherished me loved me but because I am Jewish you're embarrassed so I want to bless you that that which you appreciate in other people you should be able to appreciate in your own a rabbi once related how shortly after the fall of communism a woman approached him and said you know I was walking down the street and some Russians who wanted to insult me saw me and screamed she'd a derogatory will turn Jew to embarrass me I felt horrible here I thought I was just a regular human being what do I do about it and the rabbi who happen actually to be a Chabad rabbi responded well he said you know interesting thing I also walked down the same streets and I looked the part I look Jewish I wear a kippah yarmulke have a beard laughs it's us and yet nobody ever screams it why not she thought for a moment and she said I think I know the reason when they see me they want to insult me they don't like Jews they want to insult me they want to denigrate me and they ask themselves how can they denigrate me in the street and they figure out that by screaming G they will insult me and you know what they're I get embarrassed I get self-conscious I feel awkward and uncomfortable then they look at you walking down the street and they think to themselves we would like to insult him too how shall we scream jid if we scream jid he'll take it as a compliment and therefore they don't scream you see the great challenge of the modern Jewish states is that when you have only a state strong army thank God but lacking the inner Jewish dignity that comes from an education and understanding of what a Jew is and what Judaism is ultimately you can be defeated because you become embarrassed ashamed self-conscious it's hard today to find a Jewish leader a Jewish politician a Jewish statesman who at a press conference when asked aren t you occupiers aren't you foreign occupiers would say in unambiguous respectful terms billions of people in the world Muslims and Christians believe in the Bible look in the Bible and you'll see that the creator of the world gods took a little lands and he gave it to a small nation all the Jewish people Jews don't like saying it because it sounds too Jewish so we come up with every excuse in the world why we belong in Israel Balfour Declaration United Nations this one supports that one supports but skin-deep because all of these declarations and resolutions have changed over the years and the same United Nations equated Zionism with racism and so forth but to speak the truth coming from a deep place of Jewish pride and dignity about Israel is difficult for so many of us because we like the roots the connectedness to our own soul so Israel experimented with everything they experimented going to the right they got criticized they experimented going to the left they got stuck they experimented going to the far left they got even more stuck to the far right and they got even more criticized frontwards and it didn't work Obama got upset and backwards and somebody else got upset they experimented with everything and there ever would say is one thing is realist experiment with going upwards coin upwards upwards to our own source our own origin upwards to our past to our history to our soulful identity to our gods I think it was Wittgenstein who spoke about the bug trapped in the jar when he tried explaining what philosophy is and said that the bug goes in all directions but just fails to look upwards and thus get out of the jar to be able to really look upwards and inspire that deep sense of Jewish pride and Jewish dignity the word for holiness in Hebrew is what kedusha what's that Pythias of holiness in Hebrew which words hoh-hoh kodesh and Kol what does call mean the mundane but what does it literally mean it means sand why is that tith is's of holiness sand and one of the answers given in Jewish literature is you can't plant trees and sand sand is not the place that contains roots the sand may be here but then the wind comes whatever you placed here is as they say gone with the wind the sand is here one moment and the air the next moment the opposite of holiness is not always profanity the opposite of holiness is rootlessness not a ruthlessness but ruthlessness when winds are blowing we need to be able to have roots not sand you need to be able to have deep sure Russian deep roots and every one of us has tremendously deep roots we have to explore those roots nurture those roots nourish those roots those roots are thousands of years old hundreds and hundreds of generations those roots are there so Israel the Rebbe understood must have a soul a spirit a spirit rooted in Jewish identity Jewish consciousness Jewish faith and Jewish roots and only then can the Jews pursue a peace that's not based on a shame on self denigration and on self-criticism and this is an important message today when there's so much anti-semitism today there ever would say make sure that if your child ever hears the words eat he or she should see it as a compliment because if the world will ever come to respect the Jewish people it will be Jews who respect themselves if the Jews will ever come to love the Jewish people it will be till Jews who love themselves it's hard to respect their love people who hate themselves it's hard to appreciate people who don't appreciate themselves and this comes only through education study learning expanding our horizons and opening ourselves up to what it means to be a ye2 what it means to be a Jew look I am with high in Villa Rock okay [Applause] please join us with the next lovely acidic melody not to interrupt but to harmonize [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] yeah she [Music] she's our [Music] Oh [Music] see [Music] No [Music] I'll say there [Music] I [Music] I Oh I [Music] I [Music] in my [Music] yeah [Music] hi [Laughter] IIIi [Music] [Applause] I good evening and good Hitesh to one and all dear friends brothers and sisters ladies and gentlemen here in the Crystal Plaza in Livingston New Jersey dear friends from all over the globe literally from Guatemala City to Zurich from Gold Coast and Naperville and everybody in between from Columbus Ohio to Haifa welcome we are thrilled to be with you pshhh a couple a bahut as one person with one heart and this special evening dedicated to the soul and the song of the people in the commemoration of the 15th the art side one of the great leaders and teachers of our generation Baba Batra so we attempted to convey at least briefly some of the ideas of the record in responds to the three great transformations of our past century the transformation created as a result of a new secularization that redefined Jewish identity the transformation as a result of the unspeakable destruction and horror of the show ah and the transformation created by the blessed reality of Eretz Easter all of Israel but as every blessing which comes with its own unique challenges difficulties and also opportunities and here we are here we are today there is however a common denominator which defines all of the above three responses and it's this common denominator I want to address here at this moment in one of the most faithful and enigmatic and mysterious moments in the Hebrew Bible Jacob our Father wrestles with a mysterious man in the portion of ieshua in genesis the eye of a Kish Amoy a delicious honor jacob remains alone in middle of the night and a man wrestled with him till dawn broke and when dawn breaks the man sees he cannot kill Jacob so he decides at least to maim him ye cabaco Fiorito he wounds he creates a wound in his sight Atika nerve as a result of which Yaakov Jacob begins to limp and Jacob holds on to him and the man tells Jacob shall Haney send me away leave me alone Keola Hasan cardona's I will not send you away he embarrassed on me until you bless me I will not send you away until you bless me and the man ends up blessing him he asks him for his name he says Jacob and he says your name should not be Jacob your name should be your name should be Israel but I want to ask you a question imagine somebody is wrestling with you all night in a dark alley somebody is wrestling with you all night in a dark alley trying to kill you trying to destroy him you hold on to him and he's just leave me alone and you say I'm not gonna leave you alone so I would expect till I call the police Jacob says no I will not leave you alone till you bless me I need a blessing from you but it is here where we come face-to-face with one of the great secrets of Jewish history in almost every generation we are confronted in the middle of the night by a mysterious man who wants to defeat us this is true of us collectively and individually we the Jewish people face in each generation that person wants to destroy us may it be Ahmadinejad in Tehran or the various Ahmadinejad's that still exist in our midst that's collectively but then there is individually as well each person each person sitting here each person with us each person in the world has their own mysterious demon skeleton ghosts which appears the middle of the ninth and wants to defeat you and if he or she may not be able to kill you god forbid and destroy you at least they can make you limp at least they can paralyze you at least they can make you walk slower at least they can make you become smaller and stature smaller and dignity weaker and strength weaker and resolve and a determination comes our Father Jacob and he says the great secret of Judaism and of Jewish history is not only that you fight and you don't let it go but that ultimately you turn to your adversary that you turn to that force which serves as your opponent and you say lawyer shall I talk I will not send you away Kimbra throw me only if you bless him which means the Jew is determined to find in every crisis the seeds of a new blessing in every difficult and challenging moment he or she observes the birth of a new horizon of a new dawn it's not just I'll send you away I'm alive I will not send you away until you bless me I am determined to see crisis as opportunity they tell the story of a king who summoned the Jewish artists and he said I need you to draw a portrait of me two conditions number one I must appear handsome in the portrait number two it must be accurate the problem of course the two were mutually exclusive the king had a horrible blemish in his eyebrow on top of his eye so the Jewish artists faced a predicament if the portrait will be accurate he won't appear so handsome if he's to appear handsome it won't be accurate lost its man what do you do now in the good old days with these monarchs if you do not fulfill his requests you can come out with a head shorter what do you do mr. Jewish artist went home and he draw this beautiful drew this bee he drew this beautiful painting of this king engaged in deep thought and meditation and thus the hand of the king was right over his eye deeply engrossed in the thought he presented the portrait to the king who was felt so honored and respected Wow now this Jew respects my intellect and my cognitive abilities he rewarded him five times the amount he planned to reward him and so the portrait was both accurate and the King appeared handsome what was the talent what was the skill he took the problem and he turned it into that purr tunity the problem was a blemish above his eye from that itself he redefined the situation I'll have my king displayed as an intellectual as a man of great wisdom ravi Akiva we spoke of Rabbi Akiva the Talmud says of Arabic even one more thing this is the Talmud tractate manavas page 29 B when Moses comes up to the mountain and sees God writing the Torah scroll God on top of seven letters wrote what we call Tagum if you know how a Torah scroll looks there are seven letters in a Torah scroll and on top of each of those seven letters there are small thin lines which are look like little thorns they're called tagging or Kitson and Rabbi a Moses asked God who are these lines for who is going to appreciate them who will study them and God told Moses one day there will be a Jews name is Akiva the son of Joseph Akiva Ben Jason I'll call kites or kites or sidled race till eight till our waters on each one of those lines and thorns he will expound mounds upon mounds of Jewish law what is the meaning of this Talmudic statement homolytically there was an interpretation once presented by Rebecca bear rabbi JB solavei chick who said we're did Rabbi Akiva get the courage to do what he did wasn't purpose right how do you stand up to a Roman Empire which literally control the human human civilization controlled the world and Rome decreed no Jewish study Rome was determined to uproot every remnant of Jewish life Jewish spirituality and Jewish learning and observance rebbi akiva was a single man who defied the dominant Empire of the time and created a whole generation of students 24,000 Jewish students when such courage when such vision when such inner power and he paid the greatest price he was executed he was murdered this God showed Moses rebbi akiva is approached rebbi akiva z' approach was I'll call crates of Akkad's till eight till inshallah lodges kites means a thorn in the context of the discussion of the town when it's referring to the little thorns on top of seven letters in the Torah little lines they're like little Zions but it also means rabbi Sol of a chick said a literal thorn God told Moses you want to know the uniqueness of Rabbi Akiva I'll call kites or the kites for every thorn with which roam perforates the body of Jewish existence what is rebuked Eva's response to each of those thorns mounds and mounds of Elohim for every thorn that he observed with which the Romans penetrated and attempted to undermine Klaus row each thorn became for him a catalyst and a springboard to create another halakhah a new law on ouya shiva a new centre of study a new idea a new concept a new feeling for every thorn with which the Romans perforated the Jewish soul in the Jewish body the Akiva said my response our response is going to be we're going to rebuild a lot of Jewish law in our generation too we have our thorns and when there ever became the leader of about a 1950 observed not only nation devastated by thorns but a nation actually reduced to ashes not figuratively mounds and mounds not of halakha mounds and mounds of ashes ashes of the Six Million kadai scimitar um Kadesh Aeolian the holiest of the sake for every achiever he learns this message call great summer kites every floor and must serve as a catalyst to create a new mound of Allah the Germans destroyed thousands of shoals and yeshiva Zin but emigration our task then is not only to rebuild the same number but to double them and shrimp all them and quadruple them they destroyed six million and therefore every Jew ought to do everything he or she cans can to rebuild the Jewish people quantitatively and qualitatively we lack 6 million he would say every Jew must see himself or herself as a representative not of himself but at least of a hundred when you wake up and you look in the mirror there ever said you can't look at yourself as a small insignificant person you have to see yourself as an ambassador of 10,000 Jews 20,000 Jews who were left in Auschwitz and can't speak you become their mouthpiece you become their heart you become their voice you carry their torch their baton their light their power I'll call crates with kites for every thorn with which Hitler and Stalin perforated the Jewish people he said we have to use it as a springboard and a catalyst to create an unprecedented Jewish renaissance a rejuvenation as in je w a resurrection of the Jewish spirit to her soul Jewish study and Jewish life here and in the Holy Land and the rest of the world it's not enough just to let the adversary go and say I'm here but rather I will not let you go until you bless me I need to find in every crisis the opportunity and this is true psychologically as well whenever you face a challenging moment in your life a crisis in your life deep in that crisis as difficult as it is their ever taught there is an energy powerful energy which is a blessing it just comes eclipsed as a challenge and sometimes as a curse but it's your power to redefine its context and to redefine its meaning think about your own life I could think about my own life and we know that moments that were extremely painful haunting challenging and scary often carried within themselves in a dormant and latent fashion the greatest potential for our growth and if we use them that way we then had the ability to look at ourselves in a new way to appreciate parts of ourselves which we have not seen before to go deeper beneath the surface and beneath the external layers and thus to each of the three challenges of the last century whether it was the challenge of the Fox taking Jews out of the Holy of Holies secularization whether it was the unspeakable challenge of destruction and whether it was the great military military military and cultural challenges and security challenges over the Land of Israel the rebbe loyal to that story of Jacob loyal to that story of rebbi akiva understood our greatest calling always is to see opportunity where others only see crisis and to see the potential for where others may only see doom and to look at the end of an era also as the beginning of a new one and to be able to identify a difficult and a challenging moment as an opportunity to create the new awareness and to create a new identity don't let go of that angel until he blesses you don't let go of that crisis until that itself is transformed into a new opportunity for a new awareness for a new consciousness and for a new growth today 9 years after the beginning of a new century we to face various thorns and our approach to must be to remember not to let them go until they don't bless us [Music] with ah [Music] yeah [Music] I [Music] No [Music] by a road [Music] lehayim were high in Villa Rosa hi Eden I am Who I am to life I am to your health I am to your happiness time to your well-being all of you and all of those who are here with us via the web and all of our Jewish brothers and sisters and all good people in the world may God bless all of you with tremendous blessings materially and spiritually like I am Who I am and everything that your heart dreams and desires lehayim [Music] there was a Jew a rabbi who was once walking on the second Avenue in Manhattan it started to pour and he didn't have an umbrella say went into the nearby building little did he know was a cathedral and it was Sunday morning and there were two thousand people sitting so he sat down at some point the priest turns to the audience and says whoever would like to enter into the kingdom of heaven shall rise now and two thousand people of course rose besides one person the Jew and the priest seized is one person sitting he turns to me says hey yeah tell me why don't you rise don't you want to enter into the kingdom of heaven and the rabbi says father sure I do but what's the rush [Laughter] which of course brings to mind the classic one about the Jewish the rabbi and the priest and the minister who meet in Starbucks for a latte for 9.50 know how much they cost and Livingstone and homers they cost in the city what are you going to talk in Starbucks about they discuss what they would like to hear people say at their funeral the priest says I would like to hear people say at my funeral he was a true servant of the Lord he introduced the light of the Lord into countless lives the minister says I would like to hear people say he was a real friend you could rely on him in a moment of need you had somebody to call rabbi how about you what would you like to hear people say at your funeral and the rabbi says you know I would like to hear somebody say at my funeral I think he's moving it's in light of these anecdotes that I raised to you and I present to you the following deeply enigmatic statement and story in the Talmud the Talmud in tractate service page 104 coffe dolla dolla dolla 104 a relates the story of the passing of one of the greatest luminaries of Jewish history Rabbi Judah the prince Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi he is no.1 in such reverence that we refer to him as raba in Jewish literature when you call somebody Rebbe it refers to Rabbi Yehuda the author of the mission of the editor of the Mishnah who lived in the second century after the Common Era Rebbe Rabbi Yehuda was very ill suffered tremendous agony during his illness he was struggling for his life holding on for his life the rabbi's the sages were praying and stunning for his health and the Talmud says interacted silvers the following statement the rabbi's and the sages the contemporaries and the students of Rebbe declared that anyone who comes forth and states no enough shaded rabbee rabbee died Yacouba tariffs should be pierced with a sword they sent a colleague whose name was Barca Parra to go examine Rebs health his state of being and he went into the home and he discovered that Rebbe indeed passed on it returns fearful of telling them the news he put it in different words he said friends there was a conflict is a war there was a war going on between the angels on high and the righteous men below one of them would win the angels above wanted to triumph and claim Revie for themselves and the righteous people below wanted ready for themselves Nitz who are a limb asam Itsuki the angels above came out triumphant over the tsadikim the righteous men below the sages turned to him and said not now flee their ever do you mean to say Rebbe died and he said you said it not I and that's the end of the story what is the meaning of the statement whoever says not now surely rebel rebel soul passed on he dug up a sheriff should be perforated should be stabbed with a sword Rebbe was very ill he was very sick we were they living in a lala land in a fantasy world what did they mean kill the messenger in the old Greek tradition as though it's the messengers fault what did they mean there are many different interpretations the márcia one of the Tomita commentators but i want to share with you an insight given by this asam cipher some savory of moisture Schreiber was the rabbi of fresh word who was an Austrian garyun Empire today it's Bratislava because I'm so forgives the following interpretation similar to an interpretation given by a contemporary of his little younger the SAR Shalom of bells a great sound dick the helices are shalom of bells they say this the talmud says at the end of track they'd brothers tell me data from him in lehem in lucca labellum house of allah by allah muhabba torah scholars don't have rest not in this world and not in the coming world it's not like when they die when they pass someone finally now they go on vacation they don't have serenity and tranquility not in this world and also not in the future world why because of their real Torah leaders they are so connected to their students to their disciples to their people that even in the next world in the world to come and paradise they don't rest they don't find souls they don't find comfort because they are deeply intertwined and interconnected with each one of their people who remains here below participating in his fate and destiny praying on his behalf experiencing what their disciples are going through and trying to help change the situation this is what the sages meant whoever will say no math shader ever the soul of Rebbe will have Manuka will have serenity and tranquility when it dies his agony is torment will cease finally he will reach a place of tranquility of comfort whoever says not enough shady rabbee rabbee will be relaxed Rebbe will be able to go on vacation finally he died he left this world of misery you documentary' he doesn't understand whoever he is he doesn't understand the Rebbe Adonis he is the Buda inácio true leader of the Jewish people he will not find rest through solace and comfort he passes away he doesn't leave this world and go into an oasis a transcendental cocoon of majestic purity and says good bye evil world catch you later see you on the other side that's not your Evie a rapper a real master real teacher never abandons his people never abandons his flock never really bids farewell to his nation to say not nafsi their ever the soul of rebel will be not will finally graduate from its agony is a complete distortion of who he is and furthermore you duck here but sheriff you will be perforated with a sword because the rabbi's tell us the voice is the voice of Jacob and the hands are the hands of Esau I call call Yaakov ayodhya Middle East so Jacob Isaac told them our Harbach Epiphany you live on your sword so the Talmud says as long as the voice of Jacob persists the sword of Esau is weakened the moment the voice of Jacob is impoverished the sword of ezel is increased and so somebody who says knock-knock shader ever somebody who really believes that the Rebbe soul came to rest came to a place where it's not working any longer we were just graduated from this world I now found serenity you dock here bruh tariff will subject himself and his people to the sword of Esau because Rebbe was a contemporary of Antoninus of Antony the Roman Emperor one a descendant of Jacob Rebbe and one of the Cendant of ISIL as long as Rebbe functions and operates the sword of ESO is weakened if you say nothing after their ever the soul of Rebbe is not functioning anymore you subject yourself you duck ever terror to the sword to the sword of Esau this I think applies to our gathering and our evening as well knock knock she deliver the Rebbe the lubavitcher rebbe boo was Restless in his life you know Shabbos afternoon Jews have a nice custom to go to sleep they eat a good show and a good cold kugel some good kishka and then the forces of gravity pull them down to a great Shabbos swamp as Jews in New Jersey know very well Jews all over the world where I grew up in harm Heights there was no concept of sleeping on Shabbos there ever didn't sleep himself nor did he allow any others anybody else to sleep he believed that as long as we are in exile we're in Gullah s-- there's no room to sleep there's no room for real vacation and relaxation of course we love making believe that we know how to go on vacation and relax but as you know Drew's on vacation usually have a very difficult time relaxing right it's like when you go out to eat dinner drew the other day somebody tells me he was in a Jewish kosher restaurant and the waiter was going around from table to table and asking one question is anything all right there's a restlessness there's a recive restlessness at the core of the Jew some of us try to run away from that restlessness the rebel felt that that restlessness is actually indicative of a genuine spark that the Jew knows that he or she is empowered to change the world and to turn crisis into opportunity and to take every kites and every thorn and transform it into a mound of halakhah and felt that all of the upheavals of the last century discussed at length bomb and all of the upheavals of this new century are essentially birth pangs which are there to lead the world to a new place to the era of mashiac of redemption and that's the main objective of the Jew it's not a fairy tale or a fantasy idea but actually something to fight for something to work for to change the consciousness of the world to change the consciousness of the Jewish people to permeate it with a consciousness of godliness of depth of meaning of love of a certain selflessness of a camaraderie of a deep unity to be able to graduate and transcend our pettiness our narcissism our differences and to be able to see all of the tremendous upheavals as a preparation for something really grand which in Judaism we call Russia huh this was his dream and he never stopped never stopped inspiring himself inspiring other people and then there ever passed on 15 years ago for Habad naturally it was at crisis a very difficult moment the very challenging moments their relationship and connection to their ever who was very deep but I think today we could say clearly those words the sages said how long ago eighteen hundred years ago in the times of Rebbe that you can't say not enough they're ever in a way worse than the passing of Rebbe Ahuja is to say then he passes on and not enough shame now he reaches relaxation Lubavitch arab didn't leave a legacy he went to relax you know good rewarded you know in the reward that awaited him and he left a nice legacy a beautiful enriching legacy there ever didn't leave a legacy there ever left marching orders marching orders to finish a task to complete the test and to say knock knock shudder ever rebus soul is serene and tranquil in another world is a misunderstanding of the nature of it the nature of it was infusing selflessly an urgency a consciousness within the Jewish world and within every Jew individually to reach in and to reach out and to make a difference to become a leader to infuse your corner of the world with the light of Torah with the light of mitzvahs with the light of Yiddish skite and with the light of a higher godly consciousness Rebbe his soul did not go to rest an hour soul must also not go to rest and asleep Oh hiya MA hiya I [Music] ah [Music] I [Music] we [Music] Oh we Oh my [Music] Oh [Music] and once again look I am to all of you here and to all of you across the globe welcome we are so happy to be joined literally by thousands upon thousands of Jews in hundreds of cities around the world brew him huh boy him to one and all some of you are getting tired and some of the you a grounder globe are just waking up to join us so good morning and my Danilov Anaka for Inayat ugh for a new day i want to make a special hyeme and express a special thanks to a couple which dedicated tonight's evening the vid and either Schottenstein from columbus ohio which i am which i am the rocket to you and to all of you here and abroad and globally lehayim the following episodes I heard from one of the secretaries of the Lubavitch Rebbe Rabbi Yehuda Labe groaner who shared with me that as a secretary often individuals would approach the drebber and share with them a problem a crisis a challenge they were having in their life and the rebel would give in response and answer what that whatever the answer he chose to give to that person but this person or that person would frequently repeat the story again and what this would happen he tended always to subtly or maybe not so subtly indicated this person that it's time to move on he already said what he wanted to say he shielded with their ever their ever heard it ever responded the way he wanted to respond why are you repeating it again but do you know how the nature of people they would sit and dwell in it well on it and repeated again push them away you told me that once did ever told them afterwards and sense why do you push these people away so he told her that but they they said what they wanted to say he never heard never responded why should they waste and squander their Evers time and just repeat a story again so that's why I asked them to leave to move on and their ever told him these words he said when a Jew comes to me and shears a problem she was a challenge he or she is having in their personal life or in an aspect of their life and they shared they express it to me gate buys a I robbed a stain from hearts and he said neither a stone is removed from their hearts when they eat the story again to me naka stayin get her up from Hartson another stone gets removed from their hearts and when they repeated a third time there's no curse then I'm not this stone gets removed from their hearts they share it with me I hear it he says his vows aren't there so why do you care to allow Jews to remove the stones from their hearts by sharing the story with me if not once twice and three times and it reminded me of another episode's dear ever had a custom he had a tradition he would open all the mail himself I don't know if you know imagine a person receives five or six or seven or eight hundred letters a day and each envelope the Rebbe who had opened himself he would not allow his secretaries to open the envelopes for an Rev a groaner told me at once there was a radio personality who came to see the river and when he went into the secretary's office and he saw the pile of mail of envelopes and he asked what's this and a beggar owner said this is going into the Rebbe and he said I have three secretaries opening my mail and he doesn't have a secretary to open his mail and the Secretary of the Lubavitcher episode he doesn't let us open the mail said why not you know what I mean he would speed gain so much time so ever grown us you're gonna go you're going to go into the river ask him and when he came out he told her if I granted don't you dear open the mail they asked him he said what happened so the radio personality told them I went into the little barber chair ever and I said I don't understand you I have three secretaries opening my mail why don't you allow your secretary open your envelopes to make your life easier you have to open hundreds and hundreds of envelopes a day but yourself it's not enough that have to read them and respond to them you have to open them the hood you have to open them too and their ever responded and he said what do most of the people write about I receive lots of letters so often the letters are about problems in a relationship in a marriage or problems in a relationship between parents and children or children and parents or people or friends or communities or spouses conflict wars arguments disputes and they come and they seek my advice through episode it's bad enough that I have to know their secrets you want me now to allow my secretaries to also know their secrets it's hard enough that I have to be exposed to the private intimate information in their life you want other people to also know and be privy to this information so he says but rabbi the secretaries will anyway become aware of what's going on because when you answer the letter you give it to them and they're going to see an idea you see the scissor on the table when I write the answer I cut out the letter and I just leave the signature and my answer so that my secretaries never see what they wrote to me they only know that this answer has to be given to this person with this signature and they don't know what they wrote and that way I respect and retained the confidentiality of each person so when he came out he told her by kroehner don't you dare open any lenva lopes because he was in awe of that type of sensitivity and that type of respect once this I heard from somebody else Ali Baba Chaka said decided to buy their ever on electric envelope opener if he wants to open the envelopes himself I could at least let him have an electric opener you put in the envelope and chick shocked it opens up you don't have to sit with your own fingers and tear open every single envelope he sent it into the wrapper and shortly afterwards their ever returned it why he asked the answer that came back was it's too noisy it generates too much noise so he went and after much effort he found a silent model it opens envelopes and doesn't make noise he was overjoyed with his discovery which did not come easy and he sent it into the lobby to revel a little while later this too gets returned to him so now he inquires why my hi what now it's Ireland doesn't make any noise and the answer there ever gave over to him through one of his secretaries was this not verbatim but this was the content you know different people sealed their envelopes in different ways some people seal envelopes with the saliva of their mouth and some seal envelope with glue or scotch tape or with the natural glue in the envelopes and then there are those individuals who seal their envelopes with their tears ville stoessel FN and meta machine mo Sayid what foremast McLaren do you want I should open with the machine that which a juice sealed with his tears in other words the machine will not pick up the tears the machine is insensitive to the tears with which the envelope of seals but when I open the envelope with my fingers with my hands I open the envelope I can sense the tears with which the envelope was sealed and in a way I can embrace those tears I can make them a part of mine and as a result a stone is released from this person's hearts I stated a both and then I heard this from one of the Lubavitcher Eva's doctors dr. Robert Feldman who shared with me that one night after the rebus suffered a very severe heart attack it was the night of Schmidty at Sara's 1977 in middle of a coffer sensual and upstairs in the room in his room there was a debate should he go to the hospital or not the doctors felt he must go to the hospital on yom tov on the holiday their ever refused he didn't want to go to the hospital and the Feldman told me that at one point alabama Trevor Tom when he said look around this room you see these tables you see this desk you see these books you see these bookcases for decades they have listened to and absorbed countless tears and stories of the Jewish people this room is a witness these walls have within themselves decades and decades of stories of experiences of emotions of tears of Jewish souls that's the power they have in them if anything is going to heal me it's going to be this energy that's in this room and that's why I don't want to leave there's no knock mouths shudder ever Ariba passes on he doesn't rest and we don't rest we continue this is a calling for each and every one of us how you could embrace another individual the tears of a person the stories of a purse and allow the stone on their hearts to be released and every person has an individual whose agony you can alleviate whose distress you can eliminate and whose stones you can help remove even if only a little bit there's an interpretation once presented by the red bow on that verse concerning Moses the first Jewish leader when moisture comes out in Egypt first time what does he see what is the first image he sees an Egyptian striking a Jew beating a Jew to death and what does Moses do by - Kovach Oy Vey archeonys he turns here he turns there he sees there's no man oh yeah hey Sam its tree strikes the Egyptian dead Viet Minh aobut Hayley hides him in the sand what does it mean he turns here and he turns there and he sees there's no man was nobody really present we know that the next day there were informers who saw the whole story so Rashi and others give different interpretations and explanations but this is one once presented by the Labov ature ever moses comes out as a young Egyptian growing up in an Egypt different pattern ended in an Egyptian Palace and he sees an Egyptian striking and mercilessly beating a Jew to death via fan Kovac I am he turns here and he turns there by Aaron he sees he ain't ish there's no human being who cares it's not that he sees there's no person present he ain't East there's no mensch there's no individual who cares there's nobody who is perturbed by the fact that an innocent person is being beaten to death there's nobody who makes a Pips there's nobody who screams there's nobody who shouts there's nobody who protests nobody cares and at this moment he has to make a decision will I join the masses and say nobody cares why should I care everybody is apathetic why should I be the only nerd the only to take a stance July 4th is coming it's time to go to the Catskills it's time to go on vacation it's time to relax it's time to say goodbye to everything and everybody it's time to chill out either somebody being beaten physically or conceptually emotionally or psychologically or literally nobody cares why should I care what made Moses Moses what made moisture moisture was his response was different by archaea she saw nobody cares therefore I must care therefore I must stand up to the plate therefore I must take a stand therefore I must reach out I must turn the crisis into an opportunity save this person he did so this is the first story we know about Moses why is it the first story we know about him because it defines him and it explains why he was chosen we live today in a time sometimes you look at a situation you look at a reality by a key a mission nobody cares nobody cares enough to say boo nobody cares enough to utter a pimp's people wallow in their own orbits we circle in our own orbit we live in our own cocoon and we take care of our own issues and our own issues are stressful enough life is stressful enough if you worry about yourself and your mortgage and your tuition bills and your health insurance there's enough stress to go around the table and to go around the block so now you want me to worry about other people not nafsi there ever the uniqueness of Rabbids is no naka now say he never becomes complacent never becomes smug Tommy there how come in mainland Mendoza and this is what most Shara Bey no Moses and Rabi and you're a rabbit in every generation and efuses and in steals and inculcates within the Jewish people disciples students and anybody who wishes to listen that you have a spark of Moses and when you see there's nobody so then you and I must stand up and embrace a soul Kindle a spirit and give solace and comfort to an aching heart may we emulate this example okay I'm okay I'm on the rock [Music] and [Music] I know Hey [Music] [Applause] [Music] and so my dear friends one of of the concepts and the realities that the rebel wolfin emphasized and stressed and not just often I think at almost every gathering or every assembly continuously and I guess was the best living example of it was the preciousness and the necessity of perpetual study and learning because as the Talmud says Ain ani Ella badass poverty is in the mind poverty is and the consciousness all change happens in das in a person's awareness in a person's sense of perception in a person's sense of reality we spoke about many a crisis a crisis of the previous century and crises that continue to this very day on a geopolitical level on a collective Jewish level on individual level the ability to be able to withstand and to rise up to a crisis and to a difficult era in history with clarity of vision and with determination to turn a crisis into an opportunity only occurs through learning individual learning person continuously starting Torah and enriching and expanding their consciousness and their horizons you know the famous midriffs that kora in this week's portion disputes Moses and the way he disputes Moses the Midrash says he comes to Moses and asks a question towel is so cool Achilles llevas but tsatsis or not which means if you have a talus prayer shawl that's completely woven out of turquoise wool the blue turquoise wool does it still need fringes sits us with one thread that is made of turquoise and Moses said yeah & korek laughed you have a whole garment that's made out of turquoise of kailas you still need a single strand a single spread a single thread in your tits Asst that's turquoise the whole garment is blue Australis and Cora began scoffing at Moses verdict a similar question if you have a home that's filled with Torah scrolls do you still eat a mezuzah on the door and Moses said yeah Cora said the whole home is filled with Torah scrolls and you need a mezuzah which has two portions of the Bible on the door and he began scoffing at Moses and the one of his talks the Lubavitch should have explained that this was a deep philosophical debate Cora was a mystic and Cora's advocated complete spiritual ecstasy cover yourself with the prayers shul filled with turquoise which reflects the color of the water the color of the heaven the color of the throne of glory fill your house with many Torah scrolls and Moses said it's not enough you need individualized strands of Kahless and you need an individual mezuzah it's not enough just to create a global sense of inspiration and ecstasy and awareness and consciousness a person needs to be able to have the discipline to make it part of his or her daily life in a very defined and individualistic fashion sometimes we get inspired we get awakened we feel Jewish we feel holy we feel uplifted but it doesn't translate on a daily basis into any individualized action and the inspiration fades away into oblivion and the high ends up in a low kora was a great mystic and maybe a great philosopher but Moses was a leader he understood people and he understood that when you want to have an impact it's not enough just to create revolutions there's also the aftermath here's the day after it's not enough just to come to the concert and sing your heart out and scream your soul out but then the lights go out and everybody goes home and the next morning you go back to the same thing you need to be able to take the turquoise and translate it into a single strand into a single citizen in other words turn it into a pragmatic concrete reality that makes a difference if only a small difference and reduce it to two chapters that are there at the door when you go out to work and to the street and when you come home and this I think is true today as well that each and every one of us has the power and the calling to be able to take one element of our life may be a strand it may be a little parchment a little mezuzah and make it holier make it more refined that means if our I on a daily basis introduce a few moments of Torah study it may be a few moments it may be small it may look insignificant it may be a single strand but this ultimately makes all the difference and this was the debate between Korah and between Moses carafe believe let's change the whole world and Moses says you changed the world by changing one person at a time one Mitzvah at a time one day at a time one action at a time in a pragmatic in a realistic way this too is our calling today which I am was I am [Music] I believe they're tired of me the bones in the desert like to say maybe to be giving it's up to Levin Bellamy for it so we're never found my desert tired of me they're tired of play the repeal director said well the writers say they make this entire depleted finally comes in like this a everything everything Bellamy for this tired update that I deleted my bells of it--there's and repels invite to say they never Shiva gaming isn't 11 Vela before it's over rounds of the might say tight every date item in the realms of the right this a rebounds it evaluates it pretty terribly