Rabbi YY Jacobson: How Royalty Thinks

the yeshiva.net [Music] ladies and gentlemen the best kind of introduction for rabbi yy jacobson is as brief as possible he's legendary everywhere you go he's teaching torah everybody just takes his torah and keeps it to himself or herself and gives it over and the busyness of all the problems that people have it's also on his plate the truth is if getting to know him a little bit i don't know how he does it then the rev knows no knight the chronodrop however y jacobson thank you so much my dear friend rabbi katz von as i walked in here this evening where my cats came over to me and he said some people are worried for you i said why and he said because last time two years ago you couldn't get into the house you couldn't get into the mandela house and tonight most of the crowd is watching online and in quantity there's relatively a smaller crowd here so people are afraid you know maybe you're going to be upset i looked at him and i said three words just one life the truth is i was here last year too at aussies and rachel's home and i was speaking mommas to myself so just realize what an upgrade this is this year i was looking at a camera ozzy did me a favor and he sat down for a few minutes he even brought his dog to fill up the room a little bit rachel sat down for a few minutes um so this is an extraordinary upgrade by 9 000 there was a jew i knew he was one of the great rabonim of melbourne his name was rebechayam hakaian gutnek he was a telsa you remember matalza yeshiva baker came from england after the war moved to australia and was a prominent rabbi there for many years until his passing watched the rebuilding of the australian jewish community post the holocaust coupled with the renaissance of jewish communities of course in israel and the world over and he once shared the following story he would visit the united states once a year our winter time their summer one of the visits he said he visited the lubavitcher blessed memory this must be in the fifties or the sixties and the laboratory asked him what's the situation in melbourne in terms of paris hamersbacher family purity the mitzvah of mikvah so rabbi gutnik told the laboratory it's not very popular so the rebbe said may i suggest that you arrange a series of classes on the topic you put up you print nice flyers you advertise it in the newspapers you create a beautiful evening with some good food you create an ambiance an atmosphere and you give four five six eight weeks series people come women come men come families come and they learn about the preciousness of this sacred mitzvah of mikvah rabbi goodnight says laba cherebo the melbourne community is not ready for this he says how do you know if you don't try how do you know he says i know the community you know it's my landslide i know the people i know the the lay of the land as they say sad nadar they're not ready for this this is not on the radar there's certain things you can talk about certain things you don't talk about it was very hard for the rabbit to back off from these types of things so you urge them and he says try see see what happens right gutnik said he was pushing me to the wall so i'm a gentleman so blessed i had no choice i said okay i'll do it but in my heart i knew it's not happening i go back to melbourne i make the flyers i advertise i announce it at the pulpit here you had one of the biggest shows i bring food i prepare it me and my wife my rabbits and we're working on it we're looking forward to the first session lo and behold one person shows up one woman shows up now anybody who's a speaker in this room knows the only thing that's worse than nobody showing up at an event is what one person showing up if nobody shows up you know you can tell the islam the next day the prime minister of israel was here the the defense minister was here the president of the united states was here president of russia was here it works the whole world was here but if one person shows up and yiddish they call it it's a bishop you know you disappear you disappear the host disappears one woman showed up to supposed to be a big lecture a big class a lot of food there's no sushi in those days in those days the japanese ate sushi the jews started to eat chinese the jews were slowly becoming chinese in the 50s and the 60s but sushi was still in japan it took a couple of decades until we broadened our horizons so uh but whatever the display was i can assume maybe there was cucumber and sponge cake no it makes sense sir what was solar shooters in 1962 like rabbi marty what's like reuven feinstein's have rooster what was shallow shoulders in 1963 like anybody and that's before my days i know now it's jalapeno herring but those days i think jalapeno also didn't belong to the jewish people belong to the world of botany okay so this was supposed to be a big nice my scepter you know respectable evening one person showed up rabbi gutnik was an orator he was a speaker he was a grand communicator he knew how to give a drush he was extremely dramatic you know he had a pulpit he ever stood at a pulpit in front of one person i mean sometimes men try to do it to their spouses right they get up and they're giving this sermon or to their teenage children it's wonderful so the same level of success you can have with one person so he's standing at this there's one person and he's telling himself i knew it's gonna flop but she was there she wanted to hear about the mitzvah so what is he gonna do send her home she gave her they did a caruso rabbi gutnik with this jewish melbourne eye woman they had a harusa for an hour he taught her the basics of family purity his wife was there he was there the next week one person showed up again the same woman and every single week only one human being showed up it was the same woman the series finished he made a baraka borakshaya patrani it could be shema malchus that i don't know but he was certainly glad that this one is officer alpha's head one year later he put the story behind him he visits america once again and he pays his annual visit to the ever he decides not to bring up the topic because he doesn't want to make the rabbit feel uncomfortable and basically say i told you you know i told you it's not the respectable thing to do he was quiet during the conversation he later related the laboratory turned to him and said by the way did you ever implement what you told me you're going to do the series about mikra i have nu v is given how was it so he said as i predicted it was a colossal failure in yiddish a colossal it was a colossal catastrophe remember what happened he says i advertised i announced it from the pulpit i promoted it i spread the word one woman came for eight weeks one woman came from the whole melbourne one woman came it was beyond embarrassing rabbi gutnick said at that moment he saw that the laboratory face grew serious he looked him straight in the eyes and he said one sentence that would change his life i'm going to say it in the original yiddish and then i'll translate it into english rabbi gutnik's first name was said rabbi gutnik let me ask you a question how many mothers did moisherabenu have was it more than one mother how will you ever know who that woman was or in other words just one life and then he realized some people just have a different perspective for him success meant the shul was packed there were 400 women there enjoying the display catching up on the latest australian news and recently australia is pretty uh pretty dramatic about its news but this is a couple of decades ago and then he gets up and he speaks to an islam but he realized that from the perspective of a genuine jewish leader history doesn't unfold that way no had one mother he didn't have 400 mothers he had one mother one mother who brought him to the world one mother who had the wisdom to place him in a casket and rely on god that things will work out as the little baby sister miriam predicted one mother who had the wisdom of playing along with pharaoh's daughter playing the game making believe she doesn't understand and nursing this strange baby really allowing her the ability to nurture and protect her little baby maishirabenu it was one woman who gave the world the person who single-handedly changed history created the jewish nation gave the jewish people and the world the torah as the rambam calls it the perfection of what a human being can achieve like come navi beast alchemist it was one mother it was one mother how can you call a failure when you are talking to one jewish woman and sharing with her a mitzvah that may change the entire family dynamic the entire future of this family and who knows of the jewish people and who knows of the world moishe only had one mother i reminded rabbi we reminded each other earlier one of the great rashes shivas of terror terrier vadas of blessed memory the famous snow of the early 1940s in new york they still talk about that snow before my days but they still talk about that snow he came to yeshiva and two boys also showed up in yeshiva interior vidals but nobody else did and he got up to give his sheer to give his class and he would give a long fiery class put his soul and heart and passion into it and he's standing in front of two boys in this big bass madrid in this big auditorium and he's screaming and he's arguing and he's fighting his way through the suggestion and the rambam and their azerbaija and iran and the ramban and finally one of the boys was half asleep one of the boys was dreaming about the snowman so finally one of them gets up and says what are you giving this year with so much passion there's barely two boys there nobody showed up and he looked at them and he said you think i'm giving the share only to you i'm giving the shia to your children and to your grandchildren and to your great-grandchildren and to your great-great-grandchildren until the end of time i don't just see one person in front of me i see as you quoted before the mission of sanhedrin one soul a whole world never mind when it's not one life nineteen thousand lives nineteen thousand mothers similar to martial who had one mother but nineteen thousand times who can estimate the value who can estimate the significance who can even understand the profundity the depth of it these are things that human imagination can't grasp because who knows the secret the mystery the blessing the meaning the purpose and the impact of one life who knows it only the one who knows it all atelier raziel knows it you know sometimes people come with different requests having a conversation with a woman and she says rabbi why why i need the perfect husband can you help me find the perfect husband i'm like that's a tall order but define to me the perfect husband you know one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter the perfect husband for you maybe for another woman you know a bandit a despicable despat low life give me some definitions and i can work with you she says for me the perfect husband is somebody who wakes up every morning no later than 4 45 a.m spends at least two hours a day in the gym makes his own breakfast makes his own bed works hard and diligently is responsible for his own lunch and his own dinner and doesn't put it on his wife does it all on his own his room is tidy and clean and he's responsible for it he goes to the library every day to read a little bit to enhance his brain he's predictable i always know where he is there's no such a thing he disappeared his phone died i can't get through them he's on a vacation with his friends he also doesn't go on ski trips he doesn't join the kiddush club no alcohol enters his system ever and he's always in his bedroom eight o'clock at night and he's asleep 9 15 pm no later that's for me the perfect husband rabbi why why where can i find such a man can i find such a man and where i said absolutely yes in prison we all love structure especially in this neck of the woods people like structure people like discipline mighty told me be on time the yeckers can't deal when you're late in the meantime i was on time you were late but we won't we won't go there at the moment but the truth is structure is cherished but structure is only good if it's a foundation for transcendence we don't worship structure we use structure when people start worshiping structure then they're worshiping an idol like many other idols it's called the idol of structure we don't worship anything we worship a god who's undefined who has no image who has no structure structure is a tool like every other blessed tool to be able to touch infinity an organization needs structure an organization needs say there an organization needs discipline but more than everything an organization needs a soul there are people who are great at structure but there's no soul everything is about structure no passion no life no fire no vitality it's like you want to call the chevro kadisha okay that joke is over only he got it okay you know the mice the other day there was a teenager he had to go to a funeral now it was his great uncle who died you know 89 years old the teenager had to go to the funeral 17 year old kid he sits in the front row the rabbi gets up at the grave to officiate and the teenager looks at the rabbit says rabbi rabba before you begin i know this is going to be a long day and a long long eulogy do me a favor you're here all the time what's the wi-fi code here in the cemeteries i should be able to do something with my precious time during your long boring monotonous eulogy the rabbi lost it you know sometimes the rabbis could lose it i don't know in this area but sometimes rabbis can lose it he lost it he looks at this boy and he's like respect for the dead the boy looks at him calmly says great rabbi that's all in capital i guess right yeah talk about people the rabbi was screaming it's almost being capital you know it's not lower case it's it's it's higher case it's emphatic talk about people from coming from different worlds different perspectives with a woman once she came out of her mansion at beverly hills so this homeless fellow comes over to ma'am charity charity you haven't eaten in three days she looks at him and she says wow i envy you i wish i would have had such willpower like you sometimes people just come from different worlds they don't understand you there's no empathy there's no soul there's no passion it's completely two different wavelengths and it's here where we see the blessing of just one life but i want to introduce it through a very fascinating story in the talmud and the gemara that relates to this time of the year base tractate yuma 39 talmud tells a story about the high priest shimon azadek he was a high priest during the first era of the second temple for 40 years his tenure lasted four decades he's mentioned the beginning of pre-k of as the ethics of the father-son he was from the last remnants of the men of the great assembly the 120 sages who created the renaissance of the jewish people in the jewish homeland after the second aliyah when they rebuilt the second temple the second besamiktas the rabbis thought there was a story about shiva natsadiq one yom kippur after he came out of the holy of holies as he did for 40 years he turned to the student and he said i'm going to die this year they said rebecca how do you know and he said every year when i walked into the kaido shakardashian to the holy of holies in the holiest day of the year there was somebody i encountered there an old man dressed in white bedecked in white lovers lavena he would escort me out but this year i went into the holy of holies and i also encountered somebody but he was lover he was bedecked in black and dark clothes he escorted me out i knew i'm going i'm going to go the talmud says after sukis shimanatzadek fell ill the next week he passed away there was a little magazine a monthly used to come out it was called hapardis it was published by rabbi simcha elberg the head of a buddhist or abandoned with rabbisha feinstein i once saw in that magazine appared this from 1944 the speech that reby yoshi bear salvation of blessed memory thereof gave for the first or second khaga smith of his students at yeshivas during the second world war his father had moisturized passed away in 42 i believe and rabia shabera by j.b salvation succeeded him and this was the class that was ordained as rabbis in yeshiva university in the early 40s he quoted this story from the gemara in his speech to the students this was quoted in paradise which i read years later and he asked a question what is the meaning of the story he walked into the holy of holies and yom kipp and there was somebody covered in white and there was somebody covered in dark clothes what's going on the passage says in vayikra no adam no person was allowed to be there even in the heckle even in the sanctuary on yom kippur he was there alone the urushalami says even angels who are called pine adam also were not there what's the meaning sheminat saudix saw this fellow covered in white every m kipper and one day one year he was covered in a different color uniform and therefore he knew he's going to die what's this me what's the meaning behind the strange story and rabbi presented the following interpretation and he said sheminatsadek was the person who encountered the beginning of the hellenistic influence over the jewish people remember the story he himself met alexander the great alexander from macedonia alexander who was a disciple of aristotle his father paul hired aristotle to be the tutor of alexander negligent would conquer the world and he would introduce greek culture greek philosophy to all of the regions which would ultimately ultimately lead to the syrian greek revolution which would lead to the revolt of the hashmanayam decades later but shimanot soundek already saw the beginning of the end and he wondered each year what's the future of the jewish people until him kipper he went into the holy of holies and when he went into the holy of holies he saw an image this wasn't a physical statue or a physical person or an angel he saw an image of the jewish people bedecked in white he saw the ancient glorious collective soul of knesset yisrael and he saw that it was so bright it was so luminescent it was so filled with whiteness and positivity albino he saw the purity the pristine glory of his people and he walked out from the holy of holies renewed invigorated empowered yes during the year he may have become pensive or maybe cynical or doubtful what the future holds but any kipper when he went into the holy of holies not just geographically when you go into the kaido shakodashim to the deepest quintessential space of the jewish soul and suddenly sheminat sadiq saw whiteness he saw the purity of edison he went beyond politics beyond corruption beyond insecurity even beyond trauma beyond fear beyond confusion he saw the whiteness and he knew that the future is bright he says this year i walked into the holy of holies and i looked at my people but what i saw was darkness not light what i saw was bleakness not positivity and therefore i know that this is my last year why because a leader of the jewish people has to always be able to see the bright future and potential of his or her nation if i walk in to my classroom to my home to my school to my school to my community to my country and all i can see is darkness bleakness negativity i cannot serve as a coyote i can't serve as a high priest i can't serve as a rebbe i can't serve as a monah as a leader i can't serve as a father as a mother as a pedagogue as a mentor as a teacher as a rosh yeshiva as a mashbi as a a figurehead who can inspire the people a leader must first and foremost be able to see the glorious potential intrinsic to every soul the divine sacredness innate to evidence doesn't mean the leader is naive and out for lunch but when all somebody can say is the good old days you know you ever had in school somebody said you know when your father was here there was still mention in the world but you and your bratty friends you lost the plot not because the youth doesn't have challenges but because in our world you could only be one of two things either you're part of the solution or you're part of the problem and when you're standing in front of your students and your children you either see their weaknesses or you see their greatness you either see their failures or you see their glory you either see their mistakes or you see their potential you either see their darkness oh you see their light shadow says i cannot be the cayenne goddess anymore i cannot be the high priest anymore my tenure is up i belong to a different milieu i belong to a different generation i have to graduate it's time for me to bid farewell it's time for me to pass the baton to transfer the throne to another person and abhyosha bear says to his students he says this is a dark time for the jewish people this was the middle of the holocaust not just dark the darkest black hole in human and jewish history but he says but you are graduating as rabbis if you look at the jewish people and all you can see is blackness and bleakness and darkness and pessimism and negativity and you will surrender to the spear you can't serve as spiritual leaders yes it's a tough moment but you have to look at our people and be able to see nets you have to be able to see eternity you have to be able to see glory you have to be able to see holiness you have to be able to see an eternal extraordinary future from sinai that leads straight to meshiach if you cannot see that whiteness in the holy of holies you can serve as a leader you can serve as a rav you can't serve as a teacher and i would add you can't even be a successful parent in today's world but you know it doesn't only begin with the people we the people doesn't even begin with your students and your children it doesn't even begin with your friends children and students it first and foremost as always begins with yourself with myself how you view yourself only people who have compassion for themselves can have compassion for others only people who know how to recognize their own light within their own darkness can help see it can help others see it in themselves or as david says in tehillim 27 that we say now twice daily for the next month and more akash is i ask one thing of god this is what i beg i plead with for i want to dwell in the house of hashem all the days of my life to gaze at the pleasantness of god and to visit a sanctuary everybody knows this is a quite intense spiritual refined and deeply genuine prayer i ask for one thing i ask for one thing if you were given one request if you can ask for one thing what do you ask for and king david of it says i just want to dwell in hashem's home for the rest of my life lach joyce i want to see the messicos the sweetness of the divine i want to experience oneness with infinity open up a madrid to hillem where we look for commentary and i quote um the son of kahana said king david was really asking for the throne he was asking for kingship from monarchy and i look at the matters and i say we boy noise but this is unfair where do you have an intimation of malchus he doesn't mention a word about a throne about power about winning the elections about being the most powerful person of the free world about controlling the jewish people he says i ask one thing i want to dwell in god's house all the days of my life and see his glory and visit a sanctuary where did rabab get this idea the commentators are so perturbed by this commentary that they really search they search for some explanation you know what they come up with they come up with the following explanation david said i want to sit in god's house are you allowed to sit in the basement who's allowed to sit in the basement the answer is the only ones who are allowed to sit in the azariah were the kings of david so when david said shift i want to sit i want to have a seat in the basement i don't want to stand ooh obviously he wants to be the king really this is what david malek was thinking about one day when there'll be a basement which he never bend the building everybody's going to be standing right but i want to see well in this case all you guys are sitting and i'm standing so i guess times have changed but david was thinking everybody i want a seat okay that's that that's his great ambition of life oh he's give me a seat i don't want to stand with everybody else how do we how are we supposed to understand this friends i think rabbi is saying something extremely profound about life and he's teaching you how a king thinks how royalty thinks how aristocracy imagines where was david geographically and emotionally when he said this capital to hillary look at the context who should i be afraid of why should i tremble oh you already see that he's not so he's not in a comfortable place and if you doubted it for a moment the croiberlai miraeum there are people who are cannibals they want to eat me alive they want to eat my flesh hey makash loving follow they will stumble in a whole platoon is descending upon me alibi i won't be petrified in tokumalai mohammed they're staging a battle against me bizarre this is not a capital terrillum that is said while david is lying on a hammock on a beautiful summer august evening in bergenfeld new jersey rated the second to the safest city in the united states of america i won't tell it to the people in charge on the taxes pay enough taxes i'm sure he was not on a hammock drinking pina colada being offered this beautiful buffet of sushi by the great hosts are mandels asean rachel mandel and their wonderful family he was a fugitive he was on the run keith [Applause] don't abandon me my mother and father already abandoned me vashem yasfini and he finished his cave hashem khazakh this is a man who's on the run this is a man who's surrounded by enemies his own mother and father abandoned him finally he marries and his father-in-law the king of israel's shoal wants to murder him later his own son of shalom would stage a mutiny and almost kill his own father they have expelled me from being inheritance of god prophet malek doesn't have one peaceful night he ends up at the plishtim who almost kill him and he has to feign insanity just a few chapters later le david bishop if navi malach whose wife never had a mental illness says my whole palace is filled with mushroom i need another machigan and he that's how he saves his life by feigning insanity now i ask you a question when you're a fugitive trauma after trauma after trauma after trauma what do you ask for when you turn to god what do you ask for people suffering in such a state like king david before he was a king he was a fugitive he was a lone man he was vulnerable and an absolute danger he calls himself a worm i'm not even a man i'm a worm herpes i'm the founder of the people i'm the scorn of the nation what do you ask for when you pray what do you ask for in such a state maybe to die a natural death in your bed maybe to have a roof over your head maybe a little bread to eat a fresh garment to put on a little water to quench your thirst maybe just to find a place where i could feel safe and secure and comfortable that's what you asked for right that's what a fugitive asks for i remember hearing once from rabbi lao shlita former chief rabbi of israel israel mayor lao you know he said something it was so obvious when you hear it but it takes somebody to say it he was describing his years in buchenwald as a child and he said as follows he said did you ever rabbi lao's imagery he said did you ever watch an insect being hunted down trying to save itself from you in your bathroom did you ever get annoyed with your mosquito you have mosquitoes in this part of new jersey or it's also the second most city with the least mosquitoes that you have that bug that roach i don't want to say a mouse or rat my mouse or rat in your bathroom in your pool wherever it is and it's crawling and it fell it and it's just trying to do anything to survive and the focus is only survival and it's operating on its most basic instinctive level and rabbi lao says that's who we were we we went back to our reptilian brain and we were just operating on the most basic instinctive level he says i was like a hunted down insect just looking for the next morsel of bread the next morsel of food the next drop of water trying to protect myself i remember once professor elle ellie wiesel eliezer visels coming to my home he and my father my late father were good friends they were both journalists for many years so they remained pretty close until the end of my father's life he was the one person who eulogized my father at his funeral sally wiesel once came to my home this was an official interview my father who was a journalist he had a a newspaper that he founded the algamena yiddish weekly he would interview professor eli wiesel my father of blessed memory was a great interviewer because he knew very well how to listen he could listen and listen and listen and then ask the right question at the right moment and he was listening and wiesel was a storyteller and at some point i saw ellie wiesel break down crying on the couch in our living room and i've heard many speeches from elie wiesel i never saw him cry before it wasn't so easy to hear watch see a holocaust survivor cry for many of them the wellspring of tears was closed it was too intense he was crying what happened my father asked him what was the most humiliating moment in auschwitz and elie wiesel said i'll tell you i was walking with my father came from the city of sigit sigit in hungary it's the center of which they were from vision of vishnuts i was walking with my father in auschwitz we were both emaciated we were skeletons muslim all i could think about is food 14 year old boy we all know what we feel like kim kippur at the break right after music especially with the help of our hazonium and our rabonum who make it more enjoyable but you know that feeling right and i imagine the next night is no food and another day and a third we don't even imagine what it does to people you know just breaks you down you're done you lose your humanness you lose your humanity thank god we don't understand what it means you know we fast him keep it we veg for 12 hours we say our head we hope that the food will be good and coming fast and sunset will be a little faster joshua held up the sun and we try to rush the sun and so be it shallayim and we get to the drinks but day after day after day elie wiesel says all i could think about is food and finally it was time for dinner we call it dinner in auschwitz what they called soup and what they called bread and we both got our little portion we devoured it within seconds and i was schlepping there with my father and elie wiesel said my father was still holding on to the food i have consumed that he still had his food and at that moment i had a wish and the wish was that my father would die right there so i could take his food and have another little piece of bread and another little soup and he looked at my father he says this is what the germans did to us that a fourteen-year-old boy what's his dream in life foster's what's his ambition everybody has ambitions dream what's a 14 year old's dream that his father should die that was my most humiliating moment but rabbi lao explained it to us once he said you'll never understand we became insects all we wanted was survival now come back to david you'll understand the depth of what rabbi is saying when a person is surrounded by such calamities when a person faces such adversity such pain what do you ask for you ask for the beer minimum the beer minimum you ask for a drop of water you ask for a drink you ask for a mattress you ask for another day of life what did david ask for what did he ask for ask for a roof ask for a bed ask for food no shift hashem how do you explain that surah abbas says let me teach you how a king thinks because a king a prince even in captivity even in darkness even in exile is still a prince david never allowed the excruciatingly painful circumstances all around him to turn him into a small person he always had his eyes on eternity he never forgot who he was meant to become and what his soul was capable of even in these dark trying conditions what does he ask for intimacy with infinity i want infinity to rule my life i want to dwell in the presence of the reborn of shalom for the rest of my life all i want is intimacy with the divine [Applause] who thinks about these things abraham maslow's hierarchy puts them in a different order and maslow understood the human condition as many jewish thinkers scholars therapists and sages but of it defies the imagination because he was always a king the gomorrah says about shloima his son first he was a king over the world he's a king over his country and there was a king over his city then he was a king over his palace and then he was a king only over his own family and then he lost it all ulla at the end he was a king over his stick over his staff over his skate i ask you did you ever try declaring victory over your stick maybe we should offer this to every candidate trying to run for mayor governor president just take a stick and become a king who's a king over a stick maybe i'm a king over my hat maybe i'm a king over my pen if i would be a king over my smartphone that would be a nest usually a slave to that we don't have kings with technology we're slaves a king over the stick so the brisker of one said in yeshiva language he said you don't understand king solomon was essentially a king when there's people it's expressed with people if there's only a stick it's expressed even with a stick nobility does not need the masses to display its true grand power of course it's nice but that's an extracurricular activity this malchus before there was anybody to be there before the audience it's an inner attitude to life it's an inner perspective it's my inner veltam sound it's what makes my heart beat it's what the capitalist used to call an atsumi somebody who's in touch with his own atzmios with your own essence i'm a king i'm a royal i'm a monarch i'm an aristocrat if there's only a stick it will be expressed with the stick where did shloimer get this from he got this from his father it's a vision so when sheminate comes out of the holy of holies he says if i'm looking at myself and all i can see is i'm petty i'm traumatized i'm in pain i made so many mistakes and this is what jews do especially this time of the year if you don't if you're jewish and you don't feel guilty what do you do you blame yourself where somebody once said when a jew makes a fist the next step is a sham nu bagadnu gaza the time of the year of introspection i look at myself i seem so messed up in so many ways and even if nobody knows at the bar mitzvah i smile at the buffets i look perfect at the wedding i'm dressed to kill i'm a great standing member in the community but you and i and the therapist know what's really happening and even the therapist doesn't know everything says you have to be able to walk out of kardashian and know that behind and beneath everything there is light there is positivity you're a peace of god you're a prince malchus you're a fragment of god now you can speak to your children now you could speak to your students now you could speak to other people simply the voice in the image mirrors israel articulating the deepest quest of every jew you're really looking for oneness you say come on i'm looking for this and i'm looking for that as an extra activity we'll also do shifting i'll go to y'all for seven hours he says you don't know yourself you don't know your mouth you know your pettiness you know your addictions you know your numbers you know your distractions you want to know yourself you have to get to know your mouhus and then you'll see we're really looking for oneness we're really looking for access you're looking for real intimacy with the divine intimacy with infinity which every relationship especially a marriage is a manifestation of that ability to be able to see that to be able to see that glory to be able to see that potential so you come to israel you're looking at one person who's experiencing a crisis in their pregnancy it's very easy to just let it go plenty of headaches that plague israel that plague the people of israel that plague the jewish people the world over but that's only when you're not in touch with ah when you're in touch with the vision of sheminat sadiq when you're in touch with the vision of david melech you look at this single woman and you know vietnam is at moisture this woman is carrying eternity this woman is carrying a universe this woman is carrying cloudy stroll this woman may be carrying a moisturizer it's a different perspective it's not just seeing what i see now from my superficial vantage point seeing the full picture seeing the future same perspective just three weeks ago our family suffered a loss my father's baby brother passed away my father had two siblings he my father's name was garrison jacobs and he had a younger brother but salah and a baby brother shalom who just passed three weeks ago at the age of 74 from complications connected to diabetes and as i went to the funeral to the montefiri cemetery in queens to pay respects and bid farewell to my dear uncle whom i was close with a thought came into me when i remembered the story my father my late father shared with me once about his baby brother my father was born in mamantovka near moscow this is in 1934 during the darkest years of stalin's tyranny in the form of soviet union in 1938 during the stalinistic horrific purges my grandfather whose name was simon aka bashville he's a georgian jew our name is not jacobs and that's fake our real name is jacob was arrested in the middle of kiddush friday night sentenced to death sentence was commuted to 25 years and the gulag he was imprisoned and tortured in exile he made it out towards the end of the war and the young family on false papers and passports made it out of the soviet union because stalin allowed polish citizens to leave after the war so if you could prove with forged passports that you're a polish citizen you left they left they made it to the dp camps the displaced persons camps and parking in germany and then to paris and finally at the end of 51 my young grandfather and mother and their three young sons came to toronto they made it to the west but my grandfather fell ill and he died shortly after in 1953 he was 53 years old and one year later his wife my grandmother died at the age of 44. my father tells me i was a yeshiva boy i was in the dormitory but my little baby brother shalom who just died three weeks ago was a little kid six or seven years old no tati no mommy there were no grandparents there were no uncles there were no ants when such a tragedy happens a boy loses both parents there's an uncle there's an aunt this episode grandmother a grandfather a close friend a neighbor a cousin he said we had nothing grandparents were either dead or back in the soviet union uncles and aunts were non-existent so i'm a yeshiva and i have a little boy on my hands what am i supposed to do with them take him into the dormitory with me you know what yeshiva dormitories look like we can ask the yeshiva boys they're wonderful places but not for a six-year-old kid he needs somebody to bathe him and feed him and put him to bed and nurture him and take care of him my father was lost and he shared with me that a jew came over to him this is 1954. and he said i love what that little kid looks like my wife and i are religious people we never had children we're very affluent i'm going to give you 150 000 in cash which in 1954 was perhaps a few million dollars so you'll have it and let me adopt your brother as my child my father told me he said why why it's a great idea 150 000 in 1954 refugees we had nothing i'll be able to marry off me and my brother put ourselves you know establish ourselves in life without any family and my younger brother will have a nice home to grow up in an affluent nice jewish home it seemed like the best possible solution under these tragic circumstances my late father decided to consult who was then the young laboratory ever about the situation you don't sell your brother i'm not trying to sell my brother trying to give my brother a future and myself and my other brother a future that episode he's gonna adopt him change his name there's no relationship anymore the family is broken for all practical purposes he's not your brother and you don't know if they're going to allow visitations and when they're going to live hesitation they may want to hide even the connection it's a whole different world adoption so my father looks at the red and says what should i do with this boy so the laboratory says let's find a jewish family that has kids his age you pay them a stipend to give him room and board in their home they don't adopt him he's your brother you visit him whenever you can you pay them for the food and for the shelter and for the boy and he grows up in a home with other children his age says 54. my father turns to the devil says where am i going to find such a family he says well look we'll find because how am i going to pay them i'm a yeshiva we'll help you get a job gets him his first job for 17 a week 54 17 a week now they need a family so there was a jewish family that also refugees they became farmers in new jersey in desperation you know when jews become farmers yeah first day the cow kicked the farmer and his two teeth got rid of his two front teeth that was the shalamaleka to the world of farming heights town new jersey you know heights down new jersey check it out they didn't make it as farmers so they moved to brooklyn they had nine children without a penny to their name my father goes to meet the couple who have nine kids and the man is like we're trying to feed nine children the woman you know the power of the jewish woman she's like what's the question that abrasive spice nine kinder which spies not senten god feeds nine kids he'll find the food for the tenth of course we're taking him and he's an orphan and this family of nine overnight grows into a family of ten extremely poor family my father got a job through the laboratory representatives making 17 a week don't get too impressed pays this money to this family raising his little baby brother continues his studies in yeshiva and goes to visit once a week twice a week as often as possible and his brother at least has a home to his brothers there's sisters there's action there's there are playmates there's food there's a breakfast there's a dinner there's clothes there's a bathtub there's a bed there's a teddy bear there's a doll whatever there is no my father goes to visit this is his brother his baby brother this family of nine of course has younger siblings and has older siblings they also have an older sister who's 19 years old and of course even though it's not official but you know this old yeshiva boy comes to the house and he notices that when he comes by the dining room table there's a 19 year old girl sitting now according to the constitution of that community the yeshiva boys were not supposed to talk to the bessiakov girls she's a bashaw student he's a yeshiva boy but nobody ever told them that they're now at a glance at each other that memo they never got and even if they got it i don't know if they executed it so the glances were shared week after week after week but of course all unofficially one day this woman once shared with me the man didn't show up my father never showed up so she suddenly finds herself wondering where he is this was the first time she could admit to herself not so easy that there are emotions so she turns to her mother very holy woman and like why didn't he show up to see his brother of course her mother got very irritated why is it your business to know why he didn't show up i'm just wondering why he didn't show up maybe he's sick maybe we should call him maybe he i should deliver some hot soup maybe the mother's like oh this is none of your business he comes to see your brother yeah but it's good to know sooner or later providence dictated the way things should go and this young man a young woman got engaged and i know the story because she's my mother there the name of their family is lipscore they had nine children they came from a farm so my mother's parents my maternal grandparents took in my paternal uncle and raised them so now my mother was both his brother-in-law and also his brother so to speak and my father was not just a brother but also so to speak a brother-in-law and i couldn't understand because i was growing up all the parties of my grandmother my mother's mother shalom jacob said my paternal would always attend and i didn't understand this hybrid of families like what's going on until i heard the story of where he was raised and as i was standing and saying goodbye to my uncle i thought about this and i thought you know who understands the mystery of a life here my father could have easily and naturally giving them up to another family which many would have advised would be the right and noble thing to do but the vision of one man who said don't separate from your brother stick it out with your brother and he didn't know that by doing that he found his own shidduch he found his own soulmate my mother in that family where his brother was being raised and when i was watching the family that he created my cousins and their children and to see dozens and dozens of descendants when you looked at that moment it was such a tragedy and what a genuine tragedy sadly not the only tragedy but a tragedy and a tragedy with seemingly a very bleak future like what can come out of this and then when i saw that sad day when we had to say goodbye but i saw the legacy he created the spirit the beautiful family and i understood you know i don't know what would have happened if he would have been in the other house certainly he wouldn't have been connected to our family nobody ever understands the full story of a life the mystery of a life the meaning of a soul's journey the power of a journey this is part of the infinite plan and scheme the grand plan of the reborn shalom of the master of the world when a soul comes down when a soul leaves whoops why a soul comes down where a soul comes down why do certain souls come into the world easily and why do certain souls don't not come into the world easily and if not for the great work of rabbi marty and the whole holy favor who work day in and day out to make sure those souls are born the most powerful and special resource of the jewish people our children our future our destiny who knows what would happen with those souls and yet they're born nineteen thousand of them and become an infinite lasting light for the world and for the jewish people i conclude with this reflection my friends with this reflection and story if you had to choose the torah reading for rosh hashanah what would it be anniversary of creation which parishes should we read rich hashanah anybody gracious creation creation of adam and eve right that's what i would choose chanukah we read about the dedication of the mishkan pesach we read the portions about pesach the story of the exodus shmu as we read israel so why don't we read rosh hashanah gracious you know what we read about rich hashanah we read about sarah being promised a child and giving birth to yitzhak we read about hagar being promised a child giving birth to your small and then your small being saved from thirst we read about avraham avinu getting back his child after that k that we read about his brother knock her having children and then then after what do we read about hannah having a child shmuel rahul weeping for her children excuse me rosh hashanah is children's day i thought rosh hashanah was the anniversary of creation read about the cosmos teach me about the black holes teach me about the atomic structures teach me quantum physics tell me about schrodinger's cat or particles or waves tell me about light frequencies and velocity tell me about the structure of the genome and the 80 trillion cells in the human body teach me about photosynthesis i mean the world universe is grand and infinite but what our sages understood is you know how jews celebrate the creation of the cosmos you know we celebrate the creation of adam and eve you know how we celebrate it through focusing on children for us the greatest celebration of life and of the universe is by being attuned to our children every child that becomes the focus of rosh hashanah just one life so till they built the world trade center before the tallest building in the western hemisphere was serious towers in chicago it had that record from 1973 when the world trade center was unfortunately destroyed 20 years ago obviously it became the tallest building again until they rebuilt the world the museum of the world trade center in 2014 but if you go to chicago and you'll ask to visit sears towers attracting millions or million visitors a year tourists a year because of its height they'll tell you that the name was changed today it has two names people call it sears because that's the old name but the classic legal name is willis towers so my son was learning in yeshiva in chicago i was thinking about the stories i asked him how do you guys people in chicago how do they call these towers he says they call them sears and they call them willis who came to visit so the ceo of willis holdings groups joseph plummery shared the story a few years ago at a graduation event for students and he said i want to tell you how the name change came to be i wanted to move into the building but i only needed two percent of it twenty percent of it was vacant at the time sears and it's four fourteen thousand employees were gone from 1993. so i went to the owner and i said i need to rent out two percent of your building he said great prepared a contract a date lawyers negotiations before i signed joe says i share with the owner i said i have one request you know sears is an old name what you would call an altenoman it's an old name it represents decay we need a new name that will present youthfulness and freshness and vibrancy not the fa past the future so the owner says what name would you like she says let's call it willis towers of course he's the ceo of willis group holdings and the men should fight fine and joe plummery the ceo is telling this to the students that all my friends told me i was crazy i was insane it will never happen but he did it he agreed i moved in and the name changed willis towers he looks at the students and he says one evening i was interviewed on the evening news by brian williams and he looks at me and he says mr plummery how in the world did you manage to get the owner to change the name from sears tower to willistower and he said i looked straight into the camera and i said two words how i asked i asked akhasati we are afraid to ask we're afraid to really ask who wants disappointment i've had too many disappointments too many backstabs too much frustration too much ridicule too much cynicism i already gave up on my own real power and happiness you don't ask problem is when you don't ask the answer is always no david was a melee under any circular ah he didn't stop dreaming he didn't stop asking and when you ask things happen if nature has to change it changes if you need a miracle miracles happen but you have to ask you have to be able to ask so tonight rabbi marty and all of his people are asking they're asking to partner with them to be able to allow all the future mothers of our people all the future mothers of myshirabenus or students and children of mushrooms to be able to light up our world with their eternal glow thank you very much [Applause] this class is brought to you by the yeshiva.net please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at triple w dot the yeshiva.net slash donate

Channel: Rabbi YY Jacobson

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Length: 71min 58sec (4318 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 24 2021