To The Finish Line Film: A Heartwarming and Uplifting Jewish Film

foreign [Music] is the saddest time of the year it's a day that we commemorate the destruction of both temples as well as all the tragedy and suffering that we Jewish people have endured throughout the ages one of the most notable restrictions of Tish above is that we do not wear leather shoes now an objective bystander could perceive it as something comical when he sees all these Jewish men women and children wearing flip-flops and sandals sneakers and Crocs but there's one thing that the objective bystander won't see he won't see anyone wearing heels why the ban on shoes what's wrong with shoes now you could say the interpretation is that we're mourning and grieving and mourners don't wear shoes or the tissue love is correlated with the holiest most solemn Yom Kippur we don't wear shoes but there's got to be a deeper more Sublime reason what is that reason now in society at Large people are obsessed with shoes not only in America in England in Britain they say that the average British person has at least 30 shoes in their possession 30 pairs of shoes one out of eight British people have a hundred pairs of shoes in their closet but I think the greatest example of this is the former first lady of the Philippines who was reputed to have 7 000 pairs of shoes okay it's contested others say 3 000 pairs of shoes when they asked her do you have that many shoes she says no so how many pairs of shoes do you have she says yeah well how many beers how many beers 1060 pairs of shoes unbelievable in America and other countries as well the only article of clothing that they actually preserve are baby shoes they bronze the baby shoes for posterity why the fixation with shoes more than anything else it happens to be that the human being is the only specie on Earth there's no animal on this planet that wears shoes you could put a hoof on horses but the horse voluntarily is not putting on shoes there's no animal in this world that wears shoes a human being is the only creation that wears shoes why says the malbum because an animal is connected to the Earth the animal is mundane the animal is prosaic the animal is Earthly and material and it's always gravitating towards the Earth the human being is divine the human being is Holy and therefore the shoes are the barrier between the Earth and the human being to show that the human being is elevated to distinguish and differentiate the human being from the animal the brunette saucerer says that the reason why we wear shoes is because since the time of Adam and Eve the Earth was cursed and we shouldn't step on the cursed Earth and therefore the shoes of the interposition of the barrier between us and the cursed Earth and that's why in the temple and holy places we actually remove our shoes because that Earth wasn't cursed but the building says that the reason why we wear shoes is to show our Mastery to show our Dominion our sovereignty over the animal world because you wear leather shoes leather comes from animal and you tread you step on the elements on Earth and this way the human being is showing his Mastery he's showing his sovereignty his Dominion his rulership over all of Earth to me personally though the way I think about shoes and I don't mean to be morbid maybe I should be morbid I have to roll its Tish above [Music] etched in my memory engraved in my conscience and forever in my heart is the image of the Daniel River if you go there today as you see in ice on the pictures shoes shoes the memorial why because thousands of men women and children all Jewish Jewish Jewish there would be death in their clothing some of them in their finery some of them perhaps even wearing heels and they're ordered by the fascist Hungarian government collaborators with the Nazis our cross take off your shoes they stood by the river and there was shot by executioners that they probably even knew from the neighborhood Point Blank bullet they fell backward into the freezing cold Waters where their bodies were disposed of very efficiently because the German collaborators didn't want to have to deal with the Corpses and the only remnant of these very Regal and prestigious Jewish people were the shoes Auschwitz [Music] have you seen the pictures have you been there 000 pairs of shoes forcibly removed from the Jewish people in one day 25 000 pairs of shoes birkenau maidonic United States Holocaust Memorial Museum go see the exhibit shoes and shoes mounds and mounds piles and piles of shoes and shoes shoes the only Witnesses the only surviving part of those Jewish people that once were are the shoes why shoes what's with the shoes the measure says that when I saw her origami was the ten martyrs when they were to be killed by the Romans there would befuddled they were perplexed why are we being murdered and killed the Roman Emperor brought them to the Palace and he showed them in the palace a room full of shoes and he said to them your ancestors sold their brother for shoes and you will pay for the crime of your ancestors and you will be killed says that when the brothers sold Joseph Yosef they received 20 silver pieces and with those 20 silver pieces they purchased choose the perpeter of a laser says that they allocated they dispersed the 20 silver pieces the 20 silver the coins each tribe each brother received two silver pieces and with those two silver pieces each one bought shoes they gave up their brother for shoes the Nazis they took our shoes because we took our brother's shoes we dehumanized our brother our ancestors they took their brother and they debased him the shoe in Tanakh in the Holy books and the Book of ruse Ruth the shoe represents something very prominent it was used for transactions and even marriage ceremony the brother-in-law of the Widow that refuses to marry her to perpetuate his dead brother's Legacy what's the ceremony entail the Widow takes off his shoe and what is she saying metaphorically she's saying you were selfish you don't deserve shoes your base your following Instinct you're not being Humane you're not caring about your dead brother the shoe three thousand years after our ancestors sold their brother the Nazis in the 20th century the most sophisticated people the most cultured educated the people with etiquette and finesse disproportionately doctorates Nobel laureates they did an industrialized systematic methodical murder one out of every three Jews killed and what's the witnesses what's the Survivor shoes because we still haven't learned our lessons we're still dehumanizing our brother we're still selling our brother we're still making our brother subservient to us as Joseph as Joseph was sold into slavery and we celebrated by purchasing shoes which was a status symbol and that's why I'm Tish above we relinquish we surrender we remove our shoes because on Tish above we're proclaiming I don't want shoes I will not repeat the mistake of dividing the Jewish Nation of discriminating against a brother of hurting someone's feelings of making someone feel bad rejected alienated I will not make that mistake I don't want the shoes I want my brother I want to embrace and not forsake I want to love and not despise and Hate I want to unite and not fracture I want to bring together Claudia straw finally to put aside our pettiness our silliness and to realize we're all or none if we're not all we are none they eradicate us they obliterate us it's over and that's the shoe I'll tell you an incredible story I mean Silverstein was giving a class to Physicians medical professionals and after the class after this year a doctor came over to him clutching a child's sitter a little prayer book and it was clutching it for dear life it was so precious to him it was so beloved to him but it was a strange sight for a grown man a doctor to be holding a little child sitter Robert Silverstein said Doctor what does this mean to you why are you holding it he said let me tell you why is my wife and I we suffered from infertility for many years they said biologically it's impossible you won't have a kid we were despondent we gave up on having a child we decided to adopt a sweet little baby this little baby grew up and it was in pre-185 years old they had a sitter party he received his sitter and he turned to me and said Abba Daddy I'm so excited to have a sinner I said to him why why is because now I could dive and I could pray for a brother I always wanted a little brother I want a brother and the doctor said it broke my heart because he never knew that he's not our natural biological child he didn't know he's adopted he didn't know we can't have children and I just didn't have the heart to tell him it's impossible for you to have for brother Mommy can't have a baby he said I'm gonna pray I'm going to Darvin the doctor turned to Robert Silverstein and he said the reason why I'm holding this sitter is because it's the holiest prayer book in the world it has my five-year-old's tears and you know yesterday was his little brother's circumcision Bruce Mila nine months after the sitter party why don't we say I want my brother let's pray for our brothers I want my brother I don't want shoes I don't need 1060 shoes like the former first lady of Philippines I don't need a hundred shoes like the British have I want my brother here in bgx it's all about welcoming it's all about the love it's about people coming no matter the background no matter what they've been through no matter how many times they've been judged no matter how many times they've been rejected no matter how many times they were told no here they're told yes here they're told you're given a chance you could do it you're precious we love you you're ours you're our brother and sister let's end this in our screen and the faceless hatred the bickering the arguing the fighting don't be involved in fights run away like it's Gahanna run away like it's fire let's get to the Finishing Line the way we get to the Finishing Line Is by forgiving and forgetting and moving on stop holding grudges and vendettas don't be vindictive be someone who will embrace be someone who love the help of Hashem my prayer is my feelings that this should be the last time we fast on Tish above because next year Tish above should become a true maid a festival a holiday in Jerusalem the holy city surrounded by all our brothers and sisters so please help bgx you can go to helpbgx.com and special help make this a reality so we could get to the finishing line thank you I love Carla I I love like nice warm clothes I like to think about ganoush I think you can't go wrong with that [Music] thank you foreign country team in ninth grade I really started um I've exploded starting it more seriously um I got started like more like like running intensive workouts um that really push yourself they're hard you know what I mean races are very hard I started racing more taking it more seriously and really trying to get like a faster and faster time and so kind of has evolved I guess a lot for me over the ages in some ways it's like a competitive thing that you can like you can compete at to like do to be the best you can be and like for glory in that way to push yourself to try to find your limits so in somebody's running is like a pursuit of like um a pursuit of Excellence you know what I mean in many ways it runs the thing you do to try to like be like the absolute great SMF and like you can be to really push yourself just do like the most possible and that's definitely like an aspect of running that I like a lot and that I really um enjoyed and things foreign my dad's been in America for a few Generations that his side of the family my mom's from South Africa and that's her side of the family My dad became my dad was more reform my mom was in South Africa that wasn't really conservative Orthodox reform it was just more I should make it more religious and less religious people and so I guess Judas and my family really followed my mom's side and um and so we kind of grew up I guess mostly conservative around Middle School I started want to become more religious it was very gradual process but I started want to become more religious and start keeping Shabbat I guess around that time I started like seeing like oh it's cool I have friends who like keep Shabbat and things like that [Music] Shabbos is gonna be a lot of freedom you know whether it's like I'm busy with work and then like you know taking a day off or something or um it's kind of like take a break of like the physical world and kind of enter the spirit realm you know like in many ways he gives me freedom and um I guess when you um and also like I guess if you keep it you're pursuing Excellence by like seeing how far I'll go in some ways so I guess there definitely are lost similarities [Music] there is a a lot of pressure um I mean just like I mean I don't want to be race you know what I mean like my teammates want me to race because without me racing we didn't have a good chance of like our chances of winning were a lot lower my coach want me to raise my parents want me to race or my mom wanted me to race at least um my dad was wasn't as pushing um like my friend's parents I presumed with me to race a lot of people as well a lot of people want me to race and um there's a lot of constant pressure from them from outside of school from inside school from like a lot of people everywhere to embrace because it was a big deal it was a big deal to a lot of people there's a lot of pressures from everywhere to race um you know how pressure I felt to race was probably it was a lot you know like a uh nine and a half I don't know something like that maybe 10. it was like a lot of pressure uh most can I was constant and I was building up it was a lot of pressure and I I now cried I broke down multiple times and I like if it has my Max limit that's a 10 like you know it very much pushed me to my limits I think the hardest part was after my coach showed us how our numbers like our race times compared to our main competitor schools and then he showed what the projections would be with me what they'll be without me with when you're losing and basically the message I took away from that is that if I did run we have a pretty good chance of winning if I didn't run we'd probably lose and what I really I got to realize that if I was gonna like well I had to walk like I guess the hardest part of the decision was saying no not just myself but uh looking every single one of my teammates my coach everyone in the eyes and telling them that you're not going to win a state championship this year because of me not because of like the weather or something but because of me and so it's the hardest part is like telling not just myself but every single person all my teammates everyone that the reason we weren't winning was because of me foreign like everything that's seriously like half a year like before it happens because you start over the summer like a state championship occur in November you really start training in June they're taking it seriously and you start just going like in distance runs over the summer gradually building up into our ends and then like also you do like push-ups like physical activity like things core strengthening things things just uh improve your overall strength and then as you get into like the actual season that starts in late August like you've already been training since June and they already started pushing the intensity during your runs and your workouts become very very intense and you have races and like all these races are building off like the big race As you move on to the state championship in a mentality kind of shifts from like training overall it's like I know you kind of start you start visualizing like the big races state championship race you start visualizing what it's going to be like in each of your runs each of your workouts your even your race is building up to it you're visualizing like the big state championship race what it's going to be like and really start I guess like immensely preparing for the big state championship race and trying to like have synthesize at all and like feel like how you're gonna be like but the big thing about like when I didn't race in the state championship and about like stage championships in general is that you're not guaranteed to win it every year or anything like that and so while you're training for a specific race like for the state championship race for us will occur like I guess formally about half a year before the actual race like and in some ways you've been training for that race your whole like cross-country career because um you know you're not guaranteed to win every race every season's like a different thing I want to get that opportunity to win a state championship fight for just for us like we had the opportunity um it was like a big deal and it really felt like for us that our whole season not just like a whole season but our whole careers in that sense will build built up to that point because you know like every year beforehand count was kind of building up to that point and so in some ways uh it starts to go happy beforehand formally but really in many ways it starts like up to like multiple years before the actual race I because they cross country a lot I was also a very big fencer I still am I fence a lot I find saber um as well as cross country those are my two big Sports I played chess um I like playing chess a lot what else I also enjoy biking a lot but I'm a big biker um I did some wrestling in high school as well I really enjoyed physics and math I really enjoyed those a lot um the way of thinking I'm very like mathy like logical I really like the way of thinking and kind of like those big ideas and I also thing I really enjoyed those are my favorite classes generally in high school yeah foreign it's broken um Shabbos isn't like that it's uh it's not like one of the other there's like a lot of uh I'd say device like do the small things you know what I mean like the small things are the big things I'd say like really focus on the small like try to do what you can and um don't like don't think like oh I can't do this so I can't do that don't be like oh since I don't be like I have to drive I'm like unless I have to drive to band practice um every Saturday at 3 P.M so I can't keep all of Shabbat that's not true like there's always like something you can do and so I'd say really felt like something like what you can do and focus on like the smaller things that you can accomplish and by doing the smaller things like their own like victories and their own rights and also by doing the small things you will eventually do the bigger things the small things are very important I guess don't underestimate the power of doing like the little things in your life because there's little things really the big things I'd say um if you try like to take a really big thing on then like it's really hard to do it but if you can like um like do small things keep Shabbos but whether it's like not using your phone for like on Friday nights or um um or whether it's like not writing or something like that you can do like small things um or whether you keep Shabbos between hours like 2 p.m and 4 P.M if you can do like small things and they'll they build up something's better than nothing uh just because you can't do anything doesn't mean you shouldn't do anything I'd say uh um the gamara if you like reach like if you someone who grabs I think grabs nothing without tour without mitzvotes but um it's um there really is there's no like Pandora purpose of life you know we're all born we're all gonna die um and actually without that I got anything we do is you know go into the grave with us and like you know the real if you want like a real like meeting out of life and something that's truly impassable and that's gonna stay for an infinite amount of time Android also develop a relationship with Hashem who like stands Beyond Time death and everything it's due tournaments votes and so um I guess if you want to do anything that makes a difference and doesn't just like you know it's like if you want to do something that's actually sticks it's just a wave it's cool up for like for a moment then it dies out um yeah that's like you know it's the tournaments felt it's like the like the one true thing in this world that like what stands the test of time and like death everything it actually stands forever when they're um like running in a race or you're training for a race it's not always easy it's not going to be enjoyable every second and like there are some runs that are fun and enjoyable but a lot of the time it also isn't enjoyable all the time it's painful in many ways and it's really hard work but like you know like deep down that like the the ends are worth that too and I mean you know that like the reason like you know that we know why you're doing that you know it's like the Victor Frankel quotes like he who has a like a y can like bear any how it's like if you know why you're doing something it's gonna race if you know why the purpose of your training why you're doing something then like even though like you're not enjoying necessarily async you know why you're doing it it gives you like motivation gives you it gives you it gives you an awesome motivation and gives you discipline you see the discipline to keep on like training and going and doing uh it's the same with the opening like diving isn't always going to something you enjoy I mean it is often I found very inspiring things but it's not always every second like every time gonna be something that you enjoy sometimes it's not always there's like a great quote I like saw it's like not only about motivation sometimes it's about discipline um like it can be done it can be very motivational in many ways to be motivated to do so but sometimes it is then someone isn't about motivation it's about discipline it's about knowing why you should do it it's about knowing why Dominic's important to you and it's about even though they're not exactly like wanting to do in that moment so having a discipline to um do what you what you like do what you don't want to do because you know you should do it you know deep down you do want to do that it's about like sacrificing like a short term like temporary like discomfort I guess or something for like a much more long-term SAS Factory pleasure if you're like well grounded then you have strength if you know why you're standing up for convictions and you're convinced you've convinced yourself and it makes sense to you then it gives you the strength to like withstand like other challenges because you know why like they're not worth like going out like they're not you're not what you know why it's not worth giving up on Commercial extract to sell on the Rock like water came out it's like we're talking about well it's like the imagery of that that says like in tough times and like when like a rock is like something that's like hard and uh it's like a tough time like like and like hard times comes like water to the Salvation so um like times got tough but like the true test of like someone's character is what you can do when like the times get hard so I'd say you know there's water inside the rock you know like the times are hard but like yeah like you're almost done salvation um there's like a quote from like Thomas Alves and I think it's like most people like give up they don't know how close they were to success um I'd say like you're almost there um you're almost there and like the biggest growths come from the hardest times so keep pushing and you'll get like the biggest gain um I think just this whole like I guess for me I guess like the whole like you know ESPN this and that came from uh like and like I came from not racing became like one of the hardest moments of my life and I guess like the the best the bigger the big the most growth like the biggest uh rewards come from the hardest times I think if everyone like does something small I think there's something I could be wrong I think there's something like tomorrow at States like that like all of Israel like or maybe I was like kept Shabbos for like two weeks or something like that like I'll bring my Shia and like if you think about it it's it's not about like one person something big or everyone doing a big thing it's everyone like doing they're like doing around doing a little bit like they're a fair share and I guess um if everyone does a little bit so it's a lot you know if like an individual level I feel like let's move into something really big but we can focus on doing something small that that's like might be a little bit hard but you know you can do it if you can like get those like small victories then that ultimately means a lot and yeah that'll probably I thought I guess that'll probably bring my shoe that closer I'd say so they can help us get to the Finish Line is uh not giving up um I I think it happened to me in a lot of races as a metaphor I guess is that um like a lot of times the race is like oh it's so hard I want to stop like I don't want to keep on going like I just want to stop but and like sometimes you like convince yourself like oh maybe I should slow down a bit but like the reality is once you cross the finish line you all like be breathing happily and then you'll start to cool down and then like within like another like 15 30 minutes like you won't be as tired and like within a few days like you won't you won't be feeling the effects anymore what was what won't stick is how like how it felt during the race but what will stick is like the results got out of it and so I'd say well like during like during tough times like you want uh like you want to give up you have to realize that like the like what you're gonna remember from the tough times is not you're not gonna like forever remember how tough they were but rather you're gonna remember like what you what you did and just how much you push yourself like not not how bad I felt but just so much like just how much you pushed yourself and like how well you did and so I'd say don't slow down because um when you get to the Finish Line you'll you'll regret to take it I mean if you need so that you can slow down but when you get to don't don't do something you would regret later on so when you pass the Finish Line I know it's about taking it easy um so I'd say do something during the race that you'd be proud of once you cross the finish line do side and I guess to make the metaphor do something with your life that you'll be proud of um like once it's over I hope you all the strength to uh continue through um hard times in your life and uh and to benefit from them and to really grow from them and to um also realize um how helpful I guess they were and your quote that's an overall person a number of years ago I was invited to South Africa by Rabbi Warren Goldstein that Greek Rabbi who wanted to introduce the program of keeping Shabbos together all over the world he invited numerous speakers from different places I'm so grateful I was one of the speakers at one of the whole weekend session and one of the other speakers was the Great treasure in Claudia Israel Rabbi Beryl wine he should be well and Rabbi Beryl wine told the most amazing story you see I had to interview him because he had written a book with Rabbi Warren Goldstein and I asked him this question I said Rabbi wine I've been to your home many years ago I was in Miami I had to do a briss I stayed with you on Shabbos to me I said you're the only guy I didn't say guy you were the only person in Miami without a suntan you're always home you're writing you're making CDs and tapes and nudes letters and swarm how do you do everything that you do it's almost unbelievable that one human being can accomplish what you've accomplished how do you do that he said I'll tell you a story he said you know in 1946 I was 11 years old a single child and one day my father said to me we're going to the airport I said Abba why are we going to the airport he said there's a great Rabbi coming the chief Rabbi of Israel from Isaac halevi Herzog and he's going to speak to all the rabbis so we all went to the airport in those days you could go on the tarmac we all came into this big show everybody was there all the rabbis were there 200 Yeshiva Boys from Skokie were there and Rabbi Herzog gave a Shia gave a lecture and after the lecture he said now I would like to speak to all of you especially the bahram especially the boys in the Yeshiva he said I just got back from Rome and I met with Pope Pius and I said to Pope Pius I have the list of ten thousand names of Jewish boys and girls and you have them in your institutions many of the Jewish families gave them to you so you should protect them during the war and many of them your people kidnapped them give me back these children I have the names of all of them said the pope said I can't give you back even one I should I said why not you know they're our children and he said because we have a law that if a child is baptized we can never give him back to any other religion I remember I heard such said I begged him I pleaded with them I showed him the names and he wouldn't budge and Rabbi wein said we were watching Rabbi Herzog speak and suddenly he fell his face on the podium and he started crying I was never so scared like that in my life I never saw an adult cry like that and he just wept and then he picked up his face his face was so red and he called out and he said I can't do anything for those ten thousand but what are you boys gonna do for the children of claw Israel don't ever forget what I said remember what I said what are you gonna do for the children of Christ Israel those ten thousand I lost but the future Generations you can save them and then he sat down all the boys got up to shake his hand long line I was only 11 years old but I stood online and when I came to him he heals my head I don't know why he picked me of all people he held my hand and he said he looked me straight in the eye like you can remember what I said don't ever forget what I said what are you gonna do for the children of claw Israel rabbi weinstead every time I get tired every time I want to put my pen down think of those holy words what are you going to do for the children of christra and that's why no matter what I do it's never enough and that's what I'm saying to all of you on this dish above what are we all doing what are you doing for the children of Clark Israel we want to make it to the Finish Line we're not going to make it alone we're only going to make it if we do it together