Amazing Life Saving Story

0:06I'll tell you a story and then I'll open it up for questions because I know you guys have some questions. I'll give you a story about emunah in the most difficult time in a person's life. There's a tzaddik by the name of Avraham Aronovich, who recently passed away at the age of 96. Rabbi Avraham Aronovich was a survivor of the Holocaust, and he tells a story of what he experienced during those harrowing times. Now, before the Holocaust, everyone looked at the Germans, the Nazis, as the most kind and polite people in the world, because they would always say, thank you, thank you, thank you. People think that if you say thank you, that makes you kind, that makes you polite. No, it just means you know how to speak. It doesn't mean anything. What's in your heart is what matters. So now, during the Holocaust, everything came out, and they started becoming what they really were the whole time.

1:30One of the evil Nazi generals decided for himself that in order to calm down every day, he had to kill at least one person a day. This was his idea of entertainment. You see, some people enjoy watching sports, some indulge in eating, while others might pursue various other activities. But for this individual, his twisted pleasure was taking a life. Every day, he felt the need to kill someone. So how did he choose his victims? He would enter one of the places, one of the barracks... Look at the group of guys, look at the people there. You, come, kill him on the spot in front of everybody. Everybody knew as soon as he pointed at somebody, they should start saying Kaddish. Because he not only killed him, he killed him in front of everybody. Imagine being that person. Rabbi Avraham Aharonovich says that one day he comes in, Everyone's scared to death because, even though we're living under the worst conditions known to man, the desire to live is something every normal human being has. The desire to live—every normal human being has it. The people who commit suicide have crossed that line; they're no longer normal. Once they jump off the cliff, however, they become normal again because reality checks in.

2:53But before that, they're chemically imbalanced. Something happens, and they lose their will to live. Literally, something happens to them. I know this from somebody who actually tried committing suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. He's one of only two people who have ever survived. He said, "I wanted to kill myself because my life was X, Y, Z, the worst, blah, blah, blah—all the worst descriptions in the world you can say. I wanted to kill myself, and I thought I was right for doing it, until I jumped." He says himself in the video: "The second I jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, the second my feet left the pavement, I regretted everything. Especially jumping because I knew I could have done this better; I could have done that better if I had more time, if I had another chance. All of a sudden, the problem wasn't really that bad." Why? Because death was staring me in the face. I knew I was going to die. The fact that he lived is obviously a miracle of miracles, allowing us to hear the story today. But for the people in the Holocaust, if this general pointed at them, they knew for sure they were going to die. Unfortunately, everyone else was there to watch because they still wanted to live. And one day, this general comes in, and he points at Yankale.

4:14And he says, Yankele, Yankele, I'm looking for Yankele, such and such. And Yankele couldn't stand it. He couldn't handle the test. And he broke. And he points at Rabbi Aronovich. He goes, Yankele, no, go, go, Yankele, go. As if it's him. Yankele, go, go, it's your turn. No, it's your turn. Go, Yankele. Now everybody knows he's not Yankele. That's Rabbi Aronovich. But they're not saying anything. Rabbi Aronovich says, in that moment, I decided to take upon myself not to be a Moser. What's a Moser? It's taking somebody and sending him to the goyim. Calling the IRS on him, calling the cops on him, calling the authorities on him, putting him in trouble. Why? A Jew is not allowed to do that. You have to be very, very careful before you call the cops on another Jew. You have to be very, very careful before you call the IRS or the authorities on another Jew. Why? Because din moser, if somebody is a moser, they do such a thing without doing teshuva, guess what? No Olam Haba. That's how easy it is to lose. How many people are jealous of their neighbor and they end up calling the authorities, saying, "Yeah, I don't think his balcony is legal."

5:31I don't think his driveway is legal. They called the authorities anonymously. Anonymously, they called the authorities to tell them, "I don't think that his balcony is legal, and his roof is legal, and the second floor he built is legal," because they're jealous. "It's blocking my view." If he steals from you, it's a different story. You take him to a Beit Din. Take him to a Beit Din, you have rabbis over there; they're going to decide if it is true, did he steal, did he not steal. You bring your evidence, he brings the evidence, and you go to a Beit Din. Now the Beit Din invites him, and if he rejects it three times, they first of all put him in cherem, and then you are allowed, you get permission from the Beit Din to go to a regular court. But you cannot simply call the cops or the IRS or the authorities by default. And Rabbi Aronovitch said, I knew if I said I'm not Yankele, on the spot he's killing him. So I decided at that moment, I'm going to be Yankele. I'm not going to say anything, but you're going to die. He goes in, he joins the general, and the general says, today I decided to do the opposite. You live, everybody else dies. And he killed everybody else.

6:48Hashem Yerachem. Now, Rabotai, you ask yourself a question: at the moment of truth, at the moment of truth, Hashem Yerachem, how many of us, even in our imagination, would do the same thing? I, as I told you before the story started, failed. Before the story, I'll start giving Yankele a Social Security number. Why? I want to live. I want to live. But that's why we tell the story about him and not me. You see, Rabotai HaYekarim, when he died, his kehilla, his talmidim say, he lived the pasuk that Shlomo HaMelech says, "Shomer piv u'leshono, shomer mitzarot nafsho." Shlomo HaMelech says in Mishlei (Proverbs) 21:23, "One who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles." If a person knows how to watch their mouth—what they say, what they should say, what they shouldn't say, and when to say it—it is not easy to do so, especially under difficult conditions.

8:04Under difficult conditions, you watch your mouth, you're going to watch your soul. You're protecting your soul. Which means that if you have that high level of emunah and bitachon in Hashem at that moment, then regardless of what happens, even if someone points at you and says, "Yes, you're the one that's Yankele," when you know very well you're definitely not Yankele, and you don't even know who Yankele is, you're going to say, "I'm Yankele for now." Why? If my din in shamayim is to die, Does it matter if I'm young or not? Hashem decided for me to die; it makes no difference if I'm young or not. If Hashem decided for me not to die, then what difference does it make if I'm young or not? That's emunah and bitachon in Hashem under difficult conditions. That's the point of what we're supposed to learn from the Torah. It's not about having emunah and bitachon under easy conditions. It's under difficult conditions, when you're sweating, when you don't have any money, when all the problems that we have in life arise— that's what the Torah is for. The Torah provides guidance and comfort even in trying times. It shapes our responses and helps us navigate life's challenges.