Kollel Ayshel Avraham Rabbinical Seminary 10th Chag HaSimcha Rabbinical Alliance of America

0:47Good evening. It's a wonderful pleasure and honor to be here for the 10th Chag HaSemicha of Kollel Eisel Avraham. Before we start the program, we just want to recognize and thank a few people who are here tonight with us this evening. Of course, nothing in this Kollel would be possible without the leadership of the Rosh Kollel, the visionary, our leader, President of the Igud HaRabbanim, Rabbi Yaakov Spivak, Shlita. Rabbi, I would like to mention publicly, when I have so many people around, the hakaras hatov I have for you, and the thanks I have for you. Many, many years ago, we're not going to talk about how many years ago, I was sitting where everybody else is sitting here, as one of the musmachim. And we've been together now for about five or six Chag HaSemichah that I've had the distinct honor of leading. And Rebbe, when we got to our eighth, we said it represented infinity. And we didn't know if we would get to a ninth, a tenth. Now we have to go to, you know, the next round number. So we're going to be starting recruiting tonight for our 11th Chag HaSemichah class. And we're not stopping until at least we hit 20. So we have a lot of work ahead of us. Chag HaSemichah.

2:10I also want to thank the other members of the Presidium who are here: Rabbi Yaakov Klaas, who is also the Shaliach Tzibbur of Kol Neresh Avon; Rabbi Dr. Hanania Elbaz, Shlita, who is not only a principal but a wonderful educator of the entire Sephardic community. Thank you for coming. We'd also like to recognize, of course, our Executive Vice President, Rabbi Mendy Mirochnik. Our Director of Development, Rabbi Dov Katz. Our host for the evening. You know, many words can be said about him, but for a little bit of an embarrassment, for one moment. I used to live in Staten Island until about three and a half years ago, and I will tell you there are very few people around like Chacham Zev. You know, his love for every Jewish person is is unmatched, and he's proven it again tonight by opening up his shul, by opening up his kehillah, and being an active participant not only in Staten Island Judaism, but in New York Judaism, and Judaism around the world. We're very lucky to have you as a member of the Yeshivat Rabbanim, and thank you so much for hosting this evening. I'd also like to thank the dignitaries for coming, Judge Orlando Marrazzo, Jr.,

3:33Can I call him Judge yet, or is it still aspirational to be a judge? Assemblyman Matthew Titone, who's been a tremendous advocate on Staten Island, and hopefully a future judge. It is a great honor tonight to be addressing Rabbanim, who are here amongst us. We've been reading, and we’re going to be reading over the next few weeks, the Torah readings of Bereishit, Noach, and Lech Lecha. And really, for a rabbi, this is an amazing, amazing time. to learn from what happened previously. So I want to start with last week's Haftorah. It probably has one of the most famous lines of any Haftorah or one of the most used words. What is the representation of what a Jewish person has to be? They have to be a light unto the nations. As a rabbi, it's not enough to sit in your own little corner. What you really have to do is you have to be out there, advocating and working on behalf of everybody. It's not okay to sit in your own corner. You have to be a light unto your own nation, a light unto the entire world, and really be an example for everybody else. Another famous colloquialism that's put in last week's parasha in Bereishit is when Cain kills Abel. And the famous question is, he goes, am I my brother's keeper? God asks him, where is he? What happened to your brother? He says, am I my brother's keeper?

4:58And being a rabbi, yes, you are. You are your brother's keeper. You are your sister's keeper. You are everybody's keeper. These are distinct words that come from the beginning of creation that rang true at that time, which still ring true today. And then we get to this week's parasha, this week's Torah reading, the reading of Noach. And we know about the great flood that happens, and the world is almost destroyed, except for Noach and everybody who goes into his ark. And the real question he asks us is, in ten generations, from the time of Adam until the time of Noach, how did the world get into such desperate despair? And the answer is, people did not stand up for the right thing. As a member of Klal Yisrael, I'll tell you what Rabbi Spivak told me the day I got semicha. If you're getting semicha, and you're hanging your semicha on your wall, give it back. Because you meant... to take that semicha and go out to the world and to serve the entire world. It's very nice tonight that you're commencing and you're getting the semicha, but lo and behold, this is just the beginning. That's what a commencement is. It's the beginning of the next steps of what you have to do. Before tonight, you had a very minor obligation. Now that you have the title of rabbi, your obligation continues to grow greater and greater. The second thing that Rabbi Spivak taught us

6:22was that you have to fight on behalf of Judaism or on behalf of the world, no matter how popular or unpopular it is. You know, unfortunately tonight, I don't have my PowerPoint presentation that I've done in quite a few other Chag Hasemichas, where we see that Rabbi Spivak was advocating on behalf of Torah Judaism and on behalf of the world long before it was something popular to be part of a movement. He created his movement before there were any movements out there. whether it be equal rights or Me Too, Rabbi Spivak was out there fighting on behalf of Jewish causes and fighting on behalf of people who were not treating other people correctly. Now it's very politically correct to do this. But 35 years ago, he almost got arrested a few times. Thankfully, he didn't. But he was always fighting on behalf of true Torah Judaism. And the third thing that Rabbi Spivak always told us is that you have to be humble. When you're doing this, you can't do this for your own kavod.

7:22for your own kavod. If you're going to be doing it for your own kavod, what's going to end up happening? You're going to end up failing. You're not going to succeed when you do something for your own kavod. One who chases after kavod, kavod doesn't attain them. But one who does it very quietly, or sometimes very loudly, not on their behalf, the kavod tends to come to them. Rabbi Spivak, are we over 200, Ms. Malcolm, collectively? Over 200 leaders, I might even dare to say 300 leaders, you know, are out there today because Rabbi Spivak has ordained them. Rabbi Spivak has worked on their behalf. And Rabbi Spivak, you have more than 300 people you've ordained. Whether you've been on the radio and been teaching the entire world, whether you've been sitting and writing articles for many years in the Jewish Press and everything, we can take a great lesson from our Rebbe, from our teacher. Number one, be a light unto the nations. Number two, you are your brother's keeper. And number three, stand up and be counted. You're not just going to be able to sit down. And if we could really partake in these lessons, we also have a great ability to move the Jewish cause and the greater world forward. I'd also like to acknowledge a few other people tonight. Rabbi Yehoshua Hecht, one of the presidents of the Igud HaRabbanim.

8:50and a prestigious member of Igud HaRabbanim. Rabbi Wiener, who's the head of the Aleph K, which is Igud HaRabbanim's kashrut organization. And Rabbi Mark Meyer Appel, who is the head of our CAPS, and a great advocate for the Igud HaRabbanim. He's always hiding in the corner, never to be seen, but always to be heard. Thank you. So it is my great honor to wish our rabbis, who are going to continue to grow on behalf of Torah Judaism, to be advocates. And we're going to speak to you later. But the other hat that I wear, besides being a rabbi, is also I’m thankful to be the director of the Rabbinical Alliance of America. And I will be handing out applications to everyone at the end of the evening. as important as it is to be a leader, it's also important to be a part of an organization and to be counted. So we really look for your participation. To turn that membership list from over 950 rabbanim, 950 member rabbis, maybe tonight we'll get closer to 1,000 if we get more participation. And really, we'd like to also thank one of the most important people who are here tonight, and that's the Rebbetzins.

10:12the wives, the mothers, everybody who is really taking the opportunity. You know, we get a chance to go out at night. We're working on behalf of Yiddishkeit. We're working on behalf of everybody. And what happens? We pretend like nothing else is happening at home. And we can only do that because we have wonderful wives, wonderful mothers, wonderful family support. So a big yasher koach, a big thanks to all the family who makes it possible. At this point, it's my distinct pleasure to hand over the microphone to somebody who's going to be less winded than myself, Rabbi Mendy Margolin, the Executive Vice President of the Igud Harabbanim, and I might say my partner in crime here, for Klal Yisrael, in a good way. You know, we've been working together for over a decade on this venture. Thank you so much, and Rabbanim, may you continue from strength to strength.

11:18Thank you, Rabbi Schmurler. I also want to make note, we have Rabbi Stone here this evening. It's a great honor to have you. We wish you a refuah shleimah and tamim to be with us. I also want to take note, we have Ari Weiss, Rabbi Weiss and the Shomrim with us tonight, the coordinators. I told Detective Amon and Mohammed from the Auxiliary, the guys coordinated nicely. Thank you. Here's a common thread. Yes, I asked him to sit up front. He didn't listen to me, so my head is, my calculator's off. Our great friend, my Pesach learner. If you want to know a rabbi who I consider a mentor of mine, of what leadership is, that's Rav Werner. We thank him for every day what he does. With the coalition, together, what he does, the play is so awesome. Thank you, Rav Werner. There's a great common thread here tonight. We have Rabbanim, we thank Pnei HaKehillah, we thank our host rabbi, Rabbi Zev, Hacham Zev.

12:36We have a judge with us, Justice Marazzo, acting Supreme with the Lord's help, making a full subpoena on November 6th. A great assemblyman, a friend of the community, a friend of all Staten Islanders, Matthew Titone. Gentlemen, please rise for a second. There is a common denominator tonight between them and the rabbis. And what the common denominator is, is what Maish alluded to. When people talk, it's a good sign they're having a good time. I'm not a businessman, I can't compete, but it's a good sign people are having a good time. There is a common denominator between Rabbonim and between people, elected officials, who are askanim and sarei tzibur. And that is found in this week's Torah reading of Parshas Noach. In Genesis 6, verse 16, Actually, chapter 6, verse 16. Where God commanded Noah to make a tzohar for the teivah. There are two explanations. What does it mean? One is the even, the beautiful stone that illuminated the teivah, the ark. And the second explanation, there was a window where you can look out of the teivah, out of the ark.

14:00The obvious question the judge would ask me to answer, to issue spot, is: Noah was fleeing the flood in the boat, in the teivah. It's not an old ferry; it's such a very, very large boat. And when he's fleeing the boat, what utility did this window or this gem, this great jewel to illuminate the ferry, the boat, the teivah, the ark, help him with? At first glance, it's not necessary for construction. It doesn't help us to take these specifications. The answer is, I saw in the Toras Mordechai, that it's not a contradiction, and the teivah, the Ark, needed to have this window or this stone. One important lesson, as great as Noach was, and here's a whole Torah portion named after him, That itself is an accomplishment. But he had one flaw. His flaw, Noach's, was that he had a philosophy: I keep to myself. I'm not going to harm my friends. However, the flaw with Noach was that it's not good enough to say I'm not going to cause crime, I'm not going to cause mischief, I'm not going to cause mayhem. I'm going to be a good gentleman and a good person. No.

15:23The criticism is, now look, had you only taken that light and looked out the window and spread the same privileges that you enjoy in the Teivah, this whole mabul might have been avoided. And that's the problem. A great leader who has a semicha and your certificate of ordination hangs as Rabbi Shmuel, of course, Rabbi Steipler, in your living room to show and tell of an ordination certificate how intelligent I am, It does no one any good. But if you take that semicha and it lights up as a window, and you see a responsibility to help your fellow person, the fellow Yid, then that semicha is accomplished. It becomes the window, the jewel, to correct things. And that's the common denominator of the elected officials, the judge, the assemblymen, with the rabbanim, and the elder rabbanim. We have the whole Presidium here tonight. We have Rav Hecht, we have Rav Elbaz, we have Rav Klaas, we have Rav Spivak. The whole Presidium is here. Look through that window to make a change to help people. And that's where we are successful. The only thing I can say is my prayer: use that window to make a positive change.

16:43And through it, you'll say, you'll help people out, and you'll make a difference. That's Rabbi Malek's task force. He and Rabbi Weiss were the volunteer chaplains. It's all about giving back to the community, instead of only taking from the community. Before we go further, I'm going to say something that might get me into trouble with our highly respected president, Archie Rouvain. But there is a deep concept of a mitzvah. This wonderful party, this arrangement of changing this beautiful sanctuary into a banquet hall for the Chad Yitzmicha did not happen by snapping a finger or by the rabbi giving a blessing. Somebody had to do this work in coordination. And that was Eva...

17:46Thank you. And also I just saw our good friend Lisa Thompson from the Governor's Office is here. Thank you, Lisa. Pleasure to have you with us. A couple of proclamations from the Igud HaRabbonim, the Rabbinical Alliance of America, and from the Kollel, we want to present First to the Or Torah Sephardic Minyan congregation, and the second one I want to present to Rabbi Ze'el personally. Where's the president in the house, Mr. President? Should I come up with the president? I can ask the dignitaries to come up too. It's a good photo-op moment anyway. Whoever can come up. Whoever can come up. Whoever can. This is from the Avodas HaKodesh Award presented. The Avodas HaKodesh Award presented to the Or Torah Sephardic Minyan of Staten Island, Chacham Aharon Ze'el Moradatara, and Mr. Oshri Rubin, President. In recognition and appreciation of the great contribution that your Kehilat HaKodesh

19:12gives and the instrumental role, Kehilat fulfills in Torah Judaism, surely making a work of Avodas HaKodesh. Presented by Rabbi Yaakov Spivak, Dean, Rosh Kollel, Wednesday, October 10th, 2018, Rosh Chodesh Tishrei 5779. Mark. Robert Blau. Everyone, look here. One, two, three. Look here again. One, two. One more. One, two. Okay. Everybody, please stay where you are. There's one more presentation to make. I'm going to get the president to take it back to us when we're finished. Of course, I don't want to be responsible. I passed this point for him. Where's Chacham Ze'ev? Center. Again, this is an Avodah Sukkotish Award to Rabbi Aharon Ze'ev, Mara d'Atra, the Or Torah Svargami.

20:34Korah the Rabban at Yeshivas Chayim Klal Yisrael, presented at the 10th Chag HaSemicha of Kollel Eishel Avraham, today on the 10th of October, Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, 5779. One more from over there, hold on a second. Okay. Thank you very much. The truth is, the right, the question of the whole Torah, the whole Rebbe, Rebbe coming here, we make a gift for us, for me, special, for everybody.

21:53The truth is, the right, the question of the whole Torah, the whole Rebbe, the Rebbe coming here, we make a gift for us, for me, special, for everybody. I'm telling you, Rabbi Mendy is wrong. Sometimes he's not sleeping at night, Rabbi. Sometimes I tell you, really, I know he doesn't sleep at night to help the people, Rabbi. Rabbi Mendy, G-d bless him, really. I'm telling you, Rabbi Mendy is wrong. Sometimes he's not sleeping at night, Rabbi. Sometimes I tell you, really, I know he doesn't sleep at night to help the people, Rabbi. Rabbi Mendy, G-d bless him, really. and of all those who contributed to the whole food. Yoel De'luia Ben-Masodi Michal, who has complete health. In his mother's womb, Masodi Michal was born to his brother Eric, who has complete health. Also Elad Ben-Hayah Faktor, who has complete health. In his mother's womb, Sinit Elad Ben-Lefoah Hayah Bat-Adah. and of all those who contributed to the whole food. Yoel De'luia ben Masodi Michal, who has complete health. In his mother's womb, Masodi Michal was born to his brother Eric, who has complete health. Also Elad ben Hayah Faktor, who has complete health. In his mother's womb, Sinit Elad ben Lefoah Hayah bat Adah.

23:10The last, last friend, Osher Reuven, the president, thank you. He also is, not only money, he brings the money. Also, I had some time today to see the books, to learn. Every time I came, all the time I've been coming here, I saw him working, he and his wife, every time. I had some time, every time I asked him, he said he's not going to work today. He only knew how to arrange everything so that everything would be good. Hashem, give him from the parents, David Reuven, son of Dorit, who is a complete healer, Dorit in the generation, Einar in the generation, Rabbi Yaron Reuven, all the brothers of his are a complete healer, a good partner in all things. And that's why I want to say the truth. Only a few words, Rabbi, tomorrow night, it's the yahrzeit of our father and our father-in-law, our father-in-law, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Ben-Gurji, the leader, I was his student all my life. And I want to tell you, when I came to ask him to test me, I said, maybe it's ga'avah (pride) and shalom (peace). Sometimes, if I take a test, maybe it's ga'avah, maybe it's not good. He said, no, it's zechut (merit). If you take a test, you study better. You study more. And I tell you this,

24:37Today it is said, his right to protect us is great, and to protect others is great. I will only say a few words. It is written, "Lev tahor bara li Elokim, v'ruach nachon chadesh b'kirbi." The heart, the heart, it's Beit Lamed. Lamed Beit. The Torah begins with the letter Beit, "Bereishit bara Elokim et hashamayim v'et ha'aretz." We finish, the Torah ends with the letter Lamed, "l'einei kol Yisrael." What's the difference? Tamim and Tzadik, it's like Yosef HaTzadik. It's keeping the Brit Milah. For that we say, Yesod, Yosef HaTzadik. Also, if somebody mishelu gozer, mishelu goner, if somebody is straight, it's ben adam tzadik. What is this Tamim? What's the difference? Tamim and Tzadik, it's like Yosef HaTzadik. It's keeping the Brit Milah. For that, we say Yesod, Yosef HaTzadik. Also, if somebody is mi shehu gozer, mi shehu gonar, if somebody is straight, it's Ben Adam Tzadik. What is this Tamim?

26:06Tamim t'yeh im Hashem Elokecha. Tamim, it's temimut. Believe the parnasa is from Hashem. Everything that we pass, everything is from Hashem. Believe in Odeh Hashem. Everything, it's temimut. To believe in Hashem, it's temimut. So I say, this is the parasha. Why is it different this week? I say this for the rabbis. Whoever wants to become a rabbi, he has to be both a tzaddik and have temimut. Sometimes I'm telling you, maybe sikli, a few times I'm asking, Why does the rabbi think about the halachot? A few halachot are really very difficult. He said to me, I am telling you, this is halacha, I am speaking only for you. Don't say to everybody what I am telling you. He said to me, don't say to everybody. Why? Because the Gemara says it itself. There is halacha that is said and demanded. There is halacha that is said and not demanded. There is halacha that is said by the rabbis. There is halacha that is said only on Shabbat. Ask yourself.

27:33I just want to say something that the Gemara says. But this is the gashmiyus. Here, the Ben Ish Chai, peace be upon him, says something very, very interesting, my friends. What a difference between 100 and 101. It's a big, big difference. According to the Kabbalah, I'm going to explain it in detail. The one who comes out after the ayin, the Ben Ish Chai, peace be upon him, says here,

28:49It's not like reading 100 times to 101. He says, after all, Michael is the minister of Israel. Michael is also the minister of the Torah. Michael is the minister of the Torah. Michael, what's number? 101. So he says, if somebody, someone wants to remember, he says, the Ben Ish Chai, I'm a little bit of a family member of the Ben Ish Chai, so I have the right, like Rabbi Yosef Chaim, a"h, I also have the right to say the words from So he says, if a person really wants to know the good, he must... He also says, there are two names, two angels, two of forgiveness. He says something like this. He says... He also says... 86, 86, 86, 86

30:18And how much is it? And how much is it? 31. 31 plus 86. How many? 117. So it says, what is it? It's a law. The first God created the heaven and the earth. He wanted to build the world in the form of a law. And yes, what is this? 31. It's money. Money. How many times, Rabbi? One or once. One or once. And she says, "Moshe, Moshe." And she says, "Moshe, Moshe." And she says, "Here I am." Why two times "Moshe, Moshe"? Why Hashem? Why does Hashem say to Moshe twice, "Moshe, Moshe"? Not enough. Once, "Moshe." You know how "Moshe, Moshe" is full? Moshe is full. Moshe, how much is one? Forty.

31:40How do you say shin? Shin, yud, nun. Yud is 10. Nun is 50. 50 plus 10 plus 300. How much is that? 360? Bravo. How do you say hey? Hey in the word aleph. There is in the word yud, in the word aleph. Here it is in the word aleph. Alef plus 100. How many? 101. So Rabbi Ben Ish Chai says, Hashem said to Moshe, "Moshe, Moshe, you double." What is double? "Moshe, Moshe, you double to one." Why to one? You never forget the Torah. So Rabbi, you need to know all the rabbis, all those who received joy and receive joy. You need to know the Torah as the Holy One. It has no end. Don't accept it as the Gemara says. B'masechet Chagigah Shammah, Beit HaMikdash, Yudim Erek Moed, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, Ein Sof, Ein Sof, Gam HaTorah, Kutsha Brich Hu, BaTorah HaKedoshah, Ein Sof, Im Adam Yilmad, Yom Echad One Time, One Million Times, Deshem, Oto Davar, Kol Pam SheLomdim Et HaDavar, Lomdim Mashehu Hadash, Ein Davar Kaze, SheAdam Yilmad Et HaDavar, Oto Davar, Mish Yodea Leimod, Kol Pam Lomad Mashehu Hadash, Rabotai, Azzeh, Ani Be'emet Omer, SheKol HaRabbanim, Yizku Be'ezrat Hashem, Leimod.

33:03One or one time. And really, to be the main, as they say, the Torah has no end. Always to add, to add, to add. So, with the help of Hashem, for the sake of all the Torah and the rabbis who came to honor us, really, I want to tell you once again, my friends, Oshri Reuven, really, I say, a little bit of his blessing. He works day and night, he works day and night. He doesn't sleep at night. All the community that you see, I don't want to say a little bit of his blessing, but Thank you very much, Rabbi Zev, for those wonderful words. and always for your enthusiasm when you talk, you can really feel it when you speak. I was speaking with somebody before, and they said, "How do you tell a good Sephardic rabbi?" It's that he gets more pleasure giving the speech than anybody else in the room, and you can really see the love of the Torah from Rabbi Zev. One of the great things about having a night like tonight is the ability to introduce and to speak about some people

34:32who really never get the recognition that they normally get. And tonight, I had to beat Mehdi up for this honor, but thank you for giving it to me. It's my distinct pleasure to introduce our next speaker. Our next speaker advocates on behalf of all of Judaism, not only within Judaism, but multiculturalism in general. He brings together everybody from across all spectrums. Mehdi was lucky enough to go on a mission with him recently, to Israel, where he brought the entire spectrum. I was lucky enough to read it in about 25 to 30 papers. And if it would have been printed in 100 papers, it wouldn't have been enough to really publicize the work that Mark Mayer Pell does. Now tonight, I get to call him something different than he usually gets to be called, because he is a past graduate. I get to call him Rabbi Mark Mayer Pell, one of our proud past graduates. to address us for a few minutes, and Rabbanim could learn a lot from somebody who really took his semicha and advocated on behalf of the Jewish people and the world. Thank you, Rabbi Spivak. Rabbi, thank you so much. It's been a long time, a long journey, and we spoke earlier, and you have hundreds and hundreds of musmachim over these decades, so mazel tov to you, and mazel tov to all

35:57the graduates, the Presidium, Rabbi Hecht, Rabbi Elbaz, Rabbi Klass, Mendy, elected officials, assemblymen, the Honorable Justice of the Supreme Court. You know, at last Rosh Chodesh seder we talked about strength, why the Yeshivat Rabbanim has come from point one to point ten in one year. We talked about the strength of the Jewish community. So I just want to, last week, this month's Shabbat Saturday night, I went on the radio and did a controversial show. I talked about the effect that the Supreme Court will have on the Jewish community and other religious communities as well. And then I talked about what to expect and also whether Orthodox Jews have to fear the new progressive movement, which is in most cases a little bit a little bit out of control. Even for Democrats, it's a little bit out of control. So what do I say about Kavanaugh, which is the most controversial political story of the century, this thing? What do we learn from Kavanaugh? First of all, on the radio, I said the following. We live in the State of Israel with 10 million Jews, 8 million Jews, surrounded by hundreds of millions of Muslims, most of them peaceful,

37:24There are some that are not peaceful and try to attack us. But we don't live in fear in Israel. Mandy, do we live in fear? We walk the streets. We walk the streets with Muslims, with Arabs, with Jews. We all walk peacefully, right? So we have nothing to fear in Israel. So I want to reassure you, as far as the legislative agenda of our organization, CAPS, which is part of it, I guess we're waiting for the election results on November 6 before we start coming to Albany and hitting on you guys. And before we start... advocating for special needs, there's a lot of issues on the table, but we're just waiting for the elections so we know who to approach. But basically, we should know, no matter what happens in the process, no matter who wins in the election, no matter what progressive anti-BDS, anti-Semitic person operates, we will survive. We will survive strongly, just like we survived in Israel... just like we survived in Israel, and just like we survived for thousands of years. So, we can't live from fear. And that's what I think the Igros to Rabbanim is about, that's what Rav Spivak is about, that's what Rav Kloss and Rav Hecht and Rav Eliyahu always talk about, strength. We have to stay strong, be strong, committed to our faith, committed to what we accomplish, committed to what we do. And you members of the judge and assemblymen, you know that we are very much involved with what's going on in Albany,

38:51very, very aware of all the bills coming down and all the legislative matters we're involved with the legal system constantly. We want you to know that we wish you well, and we have to continue from strength to strength. Let's not be scared of anything happening in the political process because we will survive. We have two of them; the small group will be addressing us tonight. We're keeping a good pace. We're going to call first the partner of the second Muslim who will be speaking, the executive director of Amatzpiq of Kings County, Robert Wertheimer. He'll join with Rabbi Tassel, one of the graduates who is, I think, the managing director of Amatzpiq of Kings County as well. So let's move the program along. They'll be hearing from Rabbi Malik. So please, Rabbi Reuven, please. Thank you.

40:18Thank you very much for having me. It's a great pleasure to meet everybody all over again and be part of an amazing organization where we read in Tefillah every day, that in the generation of the Beit HaMikdash, there was... of destruction because there was no Anshei Emunah. Chazal asks, what do you mean Anshei Emunah? What, people didn't believe in Hashem? How could it be? They saw a miracle every day. Imagine, you wake up, you see a miracle. You go to sleep, you see a miracle. In the afternoon, you see a miracle. There are miracles all day, all night. There’s an Esh, a fire, coming from Shamayim in the shape of a lion to consume the Korban. It’s not enough to have Emunah? So what does it mean? The Gemara in Masechet Shabbat, chapters 55 and 56, talks about it a few times. It says that in the generation of the Beit HaMikdash, originally Hashem wanted to punish the wicked and reward the righteous. But for the first and last time in history, He had to change a decree. And He had to punish everyone, Hashem yirachem. And the reason was,

41:44Because the reason was because there's no men of truth. Not in the sense of believing in Hashem, but in the sense of standing for Hashem. Standing for Hashem at a time where it's not so popular, like the Rabbi said before. It's not so popular. You're not going to win every popularity contest by telling the truth to people. The question we all have to ask ourselves is all of the musmachim, all of the people that are in the world of Torah, is, be'emet, whether you have semicha, you don't have semicha, what changes? It's a big deal. But what's the big deal? Rabbi Mendy said, if you put it on your wall, do me a favor, give it back. If you're going to put it on the wall, give it back. I had... Nine security licenses. I was on Wall Street for 16 years. I was very accomplished at one point. In the business world, each license was a test, no less than 300 questions. I had nine of them. Instead of wallpaper, you could just make the licenses. At a time of need, not a single license was worth a quarter. Why? Hashem runs the world.

43:08Hashem runs the world. It's one thing we have to remind ourselves every single day. The one thing that changes between someone that has a semicha and someone that does not have a semicha is responsibility. If you don't have a semicha, you just know a little bit of Torah. You're a regular yid. You learn a little bit here and there. You try to get to Gan Eden, hopefully. Be'ezrat Hashem, we succeed. But if you're musmach, That means that somebody gave you a responsibility. A responsibility for your brother much more than the typical Jew. Much more than anyone else out there has the responsibility for. Because now, you're the ish emet. If you spread the truth, you'll breed emet. If you spread falsehood, you'll breed falsehood. In this week's parasha, there's a Midrash called very famous Midrash, that I only learned this week, the Chochmah inside the Midrash. It says the famous story that Noach, ish tzaddik tamim bedorotav, Noach, ish tzaddik, kodesh kodeshim, saved the world, took care of the animals, took care of this, took care of... Okay, fine. He's feeding the animals for a year. So you would think at the very least, the animals would have a little bit of hakarat hatov.

44:37Animals say, "Thank you, Noach, I'm alive because of you." But what do we hear? We hear the lion didn't get his dinner on time. And what did he do? Taach! Gave Noach a nice chapcha. Gave Noach a nice chapcha. Noach suffered the whole year. Why? Because the lion didn't get his food on time. The question is, Chachamim ask, why did the lion hit Noach? I mean, at the end of it all, technically, he's dependent on him. I mean, if it's not for Noach, the lion would die. If it's not for Noach, the lion would stay outside. How dare you hit Noach? Why didn't Hashem just kill the lion? So Rabbi Ephraim and I learned this sugya this week. There are a few reasons we came up with. The first one, the obvious one, is that the lion is a kafuy tovah. Simple. The lion is an animal. An animal does not know how to say thank you. An animal can also be a kafuy tovah, can be ungrateful. Very simple. Second, second reason, also logical. The animal is not a typical animal. He's a lion. He's not just your average animal.

46:06He's a lion, meaning he's the king of the animals. There are not many like him. There's only one king of the animals. Originally, it was supposed to be the serpent, the snake. But after he sinned, Hashem took his job and gave it to the lion. So, the second reason is that the lion, being a king, deserves special treatment. He's not like your typical animal. He says, "I deserve my food on time. Why? I'm not the snake. I'm not a bird. I'm not the deer. I'm the lion." Lion deserves special treatment. The third reason is that, at the end of it all, the lion's a lion. He's not your friend. This is the mashal. The nimshal, rabotai yekarim, is that a rav needs to know if he's going to do zikui harabim, if he's going to talk to the public, whether in a kehillah or in speeches like we tried to do for the last five years. He has to tell people things that sometimes they like to hear and sometimes they may not like to hear. But he's not allowed to not say it because people don't like it. He's only allowed to say it because it's emet. He has to be a lion. Now, sometimes you're going to spend an enormous amount of time helping people as a rabbi.

47:32An enormous amount of time. They're going to call you at 2 o'clock in the morning, you're going to pick up. They're going to ask you for help, you're going to help. They're going to ask you for all types of things that they don't even have the courage to ask anybody else. But you're going to do it. Why? Because you don't want to be one of those people. You want to be Ish Emet. Ish Emet is Emet all the time, even when it's not comfortable. And sometimes you should know that those very same people you're going to help, you know for sure they're not going to be grateful in the end. You know for sure they're not going to be grateful. But you still got to do it. You still got to do it. Even if you know for sure, they're not even going to say thank you. Why? That's your job. That's what you signed up for. The second thing is, Rav Kalmanovitch says, That the lion, he's not just a regular animal, he's a special animal. He's the king of the jungle. He's the king of all animals. The king deserves special treatment. An ish emet is a special ish. In a generation of Mashiach, in a generation where the Gemara in Masechet Sotah, page 49b, says that the emet will be hated.

49:00people will hate emet. Chutzpah tezgeh, there is going to be an enormous amount of chutzpah. Meaning, you see somebody that's a chutzpan, you see somebody that's rude, oh, he's bringing the Mashiach. This guy's a chutzpan, oh yeah, he's bringing the Mashiach closer. Why? It's going to be a lot of chutzpah. People, women want to be rabbis, men want to be women, Hashem yishmor, what people want to do today. You have to ask people. You have to ask their gender today, because sometimes they don't know themselves. They say, I'm in the middle. When you're an ish emet in this generation, you're the special lion. Why? There's not many like you. There's not many good rabbis in the world. There's only one. There's not many organizations that are willing to stand for the emet. There are many organizations, Baruch Hashem. There's a lot of Torah in the world, Baruch Hashem. But there's not many people that are willing to stand for the emet, even if it costs them a ton. There's not many.

50:04Rav Kalmanovich says, if you're one of these people, you need special treatment. Where are you going to get the special treatment? Hashem Yitbarach. The Prophet Jeremiah says to the people of Israel, if you bring a righteous person who used to be a lagger, used to be a glutton, You bring them back to Me, you'll be like My mouth. What does it mean you'll be like My mouth? Rashi al haMakom says, Hashem Yitbarach told Am Yisrael, I created the world. I created the heaven and the earth and everything in between. I say something, it happens. You will be the same. Why? Because you bring people back to Me. You bring My children back. If you just want to collect money, I suggest you go to Wall Street. But if you want to bring Jews to Hashem and get special treatment, or your kids get married to tzaddikot tzaddikim, parnassah will always be on time, you're never going to lack anything. Many people make a lot of money, but very few people have bracha. You want that bracha? You need kpeidah. Last but not least, rabotai, the last part of this, in the sugya we thought,

51:33that the lion represents the king. Hashem is the King. A person can be a servant of a king for 70 years, perfect, never messing up, always serving dinner on time, always doing whatever he needs to do. But one time, just one time, instead of giving the king what he wanted, he had a bad day. His wife yelled at him. The kids failed at school. Something happened on the way to work. He had a flat tire. He was really in a bad mood. So he decided, when the king told him, "Listen, can you bring my dinner? Can you bring my lunch? Can you bring me something?" Instead of bringing him his something, he just decided to spill it in his face. The king says—He says to the king, "Your Highness, I've served you for 70 years perfectly. For one thing. I did one thing wrong. One thing. One thing." that you're going to judge me on one thing and forget the 70 years? The king's response is, yes, for one thing. Why? I'm the king. I'm the king. I'm Yisrael. Baruch Hashem, I survived many wars, many pogroms, many inquisitions, many holocausts. Looking at the Midrashim

53:00You see that the Holocaust was horrible, but what happened at Beit HaMikdash was even worse. All of it happened when we got away from Hashem, we got away from the truth. We had millions and millions of Jews fight for what truth? What did millions of Jews sacrifice their lives for? What we say every day a couple of times a day. Now, if you think about it, the goyim don't really have much of a problem with the whole statement. Shema Yisrael, they don't care if you say it's your God, it's their God, they don't really care about that. Hashem Elokeinu, they have no care in the world. You say it's your God, their God, makes no difference to them. What do they really have a problem with? Rabbi Ephraim has a phenomenal chidush. He says they only have a problem with the Echad. That's it. And not only with the whole Echad, with the Dalet in the Echad. Why? Because they say, "Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem," no problem. They have a problem with the Echad. They want to do it Acher. If you say, oh, he's God, no problem. We just want other gods too. We want J.C. Penny, we want Muhammad, we want Buddha, we want all this god-nificent in the world, we want all that to be god also. We want money, we want gold, all of those people, all those things are going to be god too.

54:22And Am Yisrael has been mesirat nefesh, Am Yisrael has been sacrificing their lives, willing to die for that echad, for that dalet. But in reality, Rabotai, everyone knows that there's a very, very small difference between the letter resh and the letter dalet. Meaning it's not even the whole echad that they have a problem with. It's the little kutzo shel yud, that little difference between the dalet and the resh. meaning one point, one point, makes all the difference. One point. If you're going to serve the King, you always have to remind yourselves, and I'm talking to myself now, everything depends on one point. Whatever you're going to do, sacrifice. Why? That's the point. That's the difference between a Yid and everybody else. We continue to bring Am Yisrael back to Hashem like Hashem wants. We have an enormous amount of beautiful Torah in the world. Our organization, which started only a couple of years ago, has been doing everything possible to publicize Torah. We have a couple of thousand shiurim already online.

55:50with millions of views, Baruch Hashem, myself, Rabbi Freim, many of the Rabbis. I have one of our recent newsletters that we published; we started publishing a few months ago. For anyone that wants, I brought some extras here. It shows all the different Rabbis that work with us. Any of the Rabbis that want to be a guest writer in one of the Alonot Kodesh, as we call it, one of the newsletters, please, we'd love to have you. Of course, we'd love to have the Rabbis. if they want to contribute, if they have the time, we also help publicize a few books, which I wanted to give as gifts to the Rabbanim. We have three different books that, Baruch Hashem, we've helped publish. Rabbi Efraim here has a couple of books about Halacha, different Chiddushim, but also one of the most recent ones is, of course, everyone knows, regardless of whether you're Sephardi or Ashkenazi, everyone knows the Chida. but very few people know the work of his rabbis. So Rabbi Yisrael Meir Mizrachi is one of his rabbis, but his work is less known because much of it has unfortunately been out of print for a couple of hundred years. So one of the Avreichim that we work with in Yerushalayim, Baruch Hashem, succeeded in reprinting one of his works in a very easy to read, but obviously very high-level Torah,

57:17So, we have these books over here as a present for the rabbis. Anyone that wants, please let me know. It's all free. It's all for Am Yisrael. It's all for you guys to publicize to Am Yisrael. And the key is, Rabotai HaYekarim, that we have to be the Anshei Emet. We have to be the Anshei Emet because there's nobody else left. There's nobody else left. B'ezrat Hashem, anyone that wants to be in touch with us, we'd love to come to your community and speak. We speak for free. The key is to get Am Yisrael to wake up. Sometimes we can do it by ourselves. Sometimes we need help from other rabbis. The key is if we stick together, then we can get Am Yisrael to succeed. Because it's all about unity. Thank you very much for having me. Thank you. Excuse me, sir. Of course, yes, yes. Yes, please. Ashrei, Ashrei. Ashrei will be...

58:45Thank you. Excuse me, sir. Of course, yes, yes. Yes, please. Ashrei, Ashrei. Ashrei will be... Robert Rubin, I want to thank you very much for your inspiring words. And you reminded me when you talked about responsibility. Would you get your attention, please? Roll the dice. Robert Rubin, I want to thank you very much for your inspiring words. And you reminded me when you talked about responsibility. Would I get your attention, please? Roll the dice.

59:46Robert Rubin, thank you very much. You reminded us about responsibility. And when he kept on mentioning the words responsibility, responsibility, responsibility, it made me think of somebody who's not here tonight, who always used to give us the words of that achrayut, responsibility. And that was, of course, Rabbi Eisner. We have Rebbetzin Eisner here tonight. Rebbetzin Eisner, thank you so much for coming tonight. As many people don't know, is Rabbi Eisner. I consider him one of my closest rabbis. From the time that I was a little kid, the first person I learned to worship Hashem with was Rabbi Eisner. The first person who introduced me to Rabbi Soloveitchik was Rabbi Eisner. The first person who brought me to an Agudas Rabbanim meeting was Rabbi Eisner. And it's because of Rabbi Eisner that we get to be so involved today in Agudas Rabbanim and Klal Yisrael. And we want to recognize him Thank him for the responsibility that he instilled upon all of us, and the responsibility that we push upon all of the musmachim. It's because of his actions that everybody is sitting here tonight. So, I know Rabbi Eisner is up in Shamayim, looking down, he's smiling, saying, ah, you know, another class of musmachim. But he'll say, but don't forget the fifth chelek of Shulchan Aruch. And what's the fifth chelek of Shulchan Aruch?

1:01:12Responsibility. Responsibility and common sense. You can't be a rabbi without having common sense. Another person who has also had a profound impact on the kollel is who the kollel was named after, Eshel Avraham. I don't know if many of you know why the kollel was named Eshel Avraham, but it's named after Rabbi Spivak's father, Reb Avraham Spivak, and he instilled the vision and the responsibility... Upon him, we teach the future generation of Klal Yisrael. So we even know that they're not physically with us here today, but we know that their influence, their hashpa'ah, that they had upon everybody sitting in this room, whether you know it directly or indirectly, and for the next kollel, and the next smicha class, and the next speakers, are all influenced by these two people. So we just, Rabbi Rubin, thank you for bringing up responsibility. It was a... It was a great thing to bring up. We always find the right time to speak about Rabbi Eisner, and that was definitely the right time. So thank you so much. So at this point in the program, I just want to pull up the official program to make sure we're still on track. I know we're a little bit behind schedule, so we're only going to give people three and a half hours more, and we should be done.

1:02:37In all seriousness, it is one of the greatest honors when we have one of our musmachim address us when they have responsibility within the greater Klal Yisrael. They step up to be heard. And tonight, representing the class, we'd like to call upon Rabbi Tzvi Wertheimer, who's going to tell us It's an honor for me to stand up and to be a part of this class. But when I started this class, the first minute, everything has a starting point, why you're starting something, why you're getting into something. The first minute was really...

1:03:38We all were looking at a point, how can we do more for Klal Yisroel? How can we do? What can we do? How can we be greater advocates, greater at that? What I did not know at that time, that I will gain something else really tremendously, just to be able to be a part of that. That alone is something I learned so much. And I think I could speak on behalf of the entire class and all the classes. Just to be a part of the tzibbur, to be a part of this, and to be a part of people who are thinking and trying to be advocates and help for Klal Yisrael and for our community. That alone is a tremendous zechus, and that zechus alone should help us all to succeed in what we are looking to succeed. I will start with a story that happened to me years ago.

1:04:52when I was still not thinking at all about the idea of helping somebody else. I had a job. I ran a company, a big company in upstate. I had to drive daily up. I drove every day up and down from the city towards upstate, towards Monsey. It was a daily ride. It was not easy, but I'm not the only one. A lot of people are doing this. This is for a living. What don’t you do for a parnassah? What don’t you do for a couple of bucks? We drive day up and down. I got one day a phone call from the great organization Chesed. They called me up. "You're driving anyway. We know, we've heard about that. We have many people in hospitals and we need volunteers. We need people to pick up other people coming down." At first glance, I had an entire stockpile of excuses why that does not mean anything at all. Why I am exempt totally from it. On the way, I need to do business. I need to speak to people. I have what to do.

1:05:54a long list, why not me? Many years ago, one year, on Rosh Hashanah, I sat down, like every Yid, and made a cheshbon hanefesh. I started thinking, really, did I come down just to do business? Is that really what I need to do? Maybe I should do something and add something more to that? After Rosh Hashanah, I made a phone call to Chesed, I spoke to one of the coordinators, and I told them, I am ready. I want to try. But I'm going to do it on a trial basis. I want to try one trip, and I will see how it goes, to put it bluntly. I will see if it works for me. Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and the Yamim Tovim, it's impossible to do anything at that time. So right after Yom Tov, Yom Tov was Sukkos, which ended on a Friday. That means Shabbos Bereishis was right after that. Monday, I called up the coordinator. I want to do it, but at first, the late night will be, not this week, that would not be Parshas Noach. The week after, that was Zuntik left. I want to try one trip. Zuntik left. I was on the road. He called me up. We have a trip from Lenox coming down. Do you want to pick up that person, bring him from Lenox towards Borough Park? I said, sure, I will try, but remember, it's on a trial basis only.

1:07:21I was sure. I will park the car. I'm calling up the person. I'm ready. I will find a Rabbi with a big beard and some... I will now be... I will be doing some sort of mitzvah that I never imagined. That's my foolish imagination putting together what I'm expecting while doing that. Knocking on the window a few minutes later, a person with a cap, jeans, not even a shaved beard, you could see that... Bold head. Knocked on my window. Chesed. I said yes. Opens up the door of my car. Sat down in the front seat. Boro Park. At that point, I made my commitment. That's it. I'm over. I had my chance. As we start driving down the highway, he asked me, in Yiddish, "Do you want to hear a dvar Torah?" So, I step back. Okay. I will ask you a question. And the question really is a question that asked me and changed my life. And the message is really profoundly astonishing, what I learned at that time. Besides the point, a person sits down, don’t judge, it’s not a look what makes, nothing makes. The question he asked, Avraham Avinu went through 10 nisyonot. He went through 10 tests. He was tested 10 times by Hashem.

1:08:49If we would sit down and try to imagine which test must be the hardest, we would for sure think that Avraham Avinu being thrown into the Kivshan HaEish, being thrown into the fiery furnace, must be one of the hardest things to endure. It must be; it's impossible to think differently. Somebody who is trying to fight and persuade people... And at the end, to end up so tragically, he didn't know he would survive at that time. So that's got to be one of the hardest. But if we look into Chumash, we will not find it mentioned at all. Chazal said that it was one of the Ten Nisyonos. We believe every word from Chazal, and it's hidden in between. But written out, it's not mentioned at all. What would we imagine would be one of the easiest? One of the easiest we could say for sure would be Hashem telling Avraham Avinu, "Leave Ur Kasdim, go up, next, etc. Leave Ur Kasdim and head up towards Eretz Yisrael." Who was Avraham Avinu at that time? A 75-year-old person coming from a village that tried to burn him.

1:10:09His father despised him. His mother despised him. His family despised him. Nobody is left. Whatever he has is ready to go wherever he wants. Plus, to all that, he doesn't have any kids. He has nobody who really believes in him. He has nothing. The only thing he has is his family, but no kids. He believes in Hashem 100%. Hashem alone, God alone, comes down to him and tells him, if you move to Eretz Yisrael... you would get a child. You will become a millionaire, and you will have the biggest Chassidus. You will have the most followers possible. I believe today, if any Mekubal will come from Israel, we didn't hear from him yesterday, and will promise these promises, and we would have 5% credibility, we would run. And now Hashem alone is telling us that. That was supposed to be one of the easiest things to do. There is nothing to lose. He could only gain. But when we look into the Torah, we look into the Sidra, we see this entire parasha on that. From the beginning to the end, how Rumi is going. Why? What we would imagine is the easiest has a full Sidra, full parasha, and what we believe is supposed to be the hardest, and that's only hidden this week in the Sidra, at the end of the Sidra, has two words. We'll learn why. Chazal said that. Why is that so?

1:11:37I looked up at that passerby and I asked him, so you say, tell me what you think. So that's what he told me and that's the message I want to bring out. Hashem didn't write in the Torah just stories. What He wrote is what He wants us to take a lesson from. From going into a furnace, we need to know something like that could have happened and if that chas v'shalom happens, there is a way, we have something. In the history lighted from Klal Yisroel, we have to take this route sometimes. But that's something we don't need to know on a daily basis. What we need to know on a daily basis, lech lecha me'artzecha, travel and go on ways to do and help other people. Avraham Avinu, says the Midrash, was going from one place to the other and doing as Moshe said, helping not only Jews, but Gentiles, everybody, whoever came across to try to help and do whatever they could. On that, that's why the first words next week in Asher is, I promise you, if you do that, helping other people, then you will see it will be for your own benefit. And that's not written just for Ruach. That's written for us, for later on. That is the message. At that point, I made my decision. We must go in and try to help other people. And that's the reason why I started looking out how we could help people.

1:13:07Baruch Hashem, I had this special zechut from Hashem to be in that position, to be able to help people. But there are so many problems Klal Yisrael has, there's so much we must do, and it's not enough. We need a lot more people to contribute, and everyone here is a big piece in this effort. But still, to end up and to get Avraham Avinu, after all, I have seen Harav Spivak just released his sefer now, and... It’s a grace of his. I read it almost from cover to cover. I could tell everybody, and I told a lot of people, I don't know if you're going to sell it or if that's going to be something. There's another way to get it. Because, besides seeing from that side how much we see the snake issue and what the Holy Spirit went through. Because we could hear about Crusades. We could hear about what happened in the past. But hearing from somebody who lived it, And reading it from somebody, you could feel certain parts. You could feel it. It's tremendous. It really takes you at some point. But he asks in between, how really Avraham Avinu had a chance to stand up against the entire world, against the entire establishment. That's the word he's using in the sefer there, against the entire establishment. It was done only because he had Mesirat Nefesh.

1:14:31And that's the Mesirat Nefesh that Rav Shach put into the kollel. That's the Mesirat Nefesh he wants to pass on to us. That's the Mesirat Nefesh we need to learn. And with that Mesirat Nefesh, to have Mesirat Nefesh to help another Yid, when we come into a Beis Medrash, to be a Rav in a Beis Medrash, to be involved in anything. The Gemara says, Rav Gamliel heard once from Rabbi Yeshua, there are two talmidim. These two talmidim are poor, hungry, have nothing. What did he do to help them? He called them to make them Rabbanim. He wanted to make them Rabbanim. The two talmidim came to him and said that if he accepted it, they didn't want to become Rabbanim. So he said, "Do you think I'm giving you kavod? Do you think I'm giving you leadership? I'm giving you slavery. To help and be involved with Yidden, to be a Rav in a Kehillah, to be a leader, it's not about leadership. Even if it feels that way sometimes, it's a form of servitude. But it's a servitude that is a zechus, and it needs to be seen as such. And with that, if we do it properly, we will be zocheh to see great results. It's a zechus, it's something special. We should all be zocheh, we should come out more elevated in this avodah. We should never err, may none of us make mistakes.

1:15:56We need a special prayer on that. It's not easy not to make mistakes, not to make errors in judgment. And with Hashem's help, with siyata dishmaya, thank you again to everybody. We should be zocheh to the geulah sheleimah. Thank you. On behalf of the Bais Medrash Kollel, we need to ask you to play a message from somebody who couldn't be here tonight, one of our benefactors of our Kollel and one from Eretz Yisrael. So if you could just pay attention. It's literally a three-minute message. I want to talk a little bit about...

1:17:18Because Chazal tell us that we should not give too much shevach bifneihem in front of a person. But I'm technically not bifneihem, Rabbi Spiva. I'm only virtually in front of him. So I'm going to continue. He's courageous. He's empathetic. He has the eyes of Shamayim. He hears the cries of the Jews. All Jews. Those that are observant and those that are not observant or yet to be observant. Now the Gemara says, that's a tremendous statement in the Talmud, which means that we are part of a mesorah that literally holds up the heavens and the earth. But there's even a stronger statement in the Gemara. The Gemara says,

1:18:42So we are part of this great tradition. So I want to say to the mispallelim today that when the Mashiach comes, the world will go on the same, except there won't be shibud malchuyot, Jewish sovereignty will exist. But the Rambam says something also very important, that the primary preoccupation of all people will be learning Torah. So we will need hundreds and hundreds of Rabbanim to go out to the millions of Jews who were not exposed to Torah, who didn't have the privilege to learn Torah. And we will have to go out and teach them. So I say to you what my Rebbe told me: Go out with the strength of Torah, and save Israel. Thank you very much. Thank you, Rabbi Friedman of Stenitza. Picture. Thank you. I'm going to introduce the next speaker. I know that we're getting short on time, so please, you know, I ask for people to give me a little selicha.

1:19:51for not making the introductions as good as they should be, but I'm going to make an exception for 30 seconds. The next speaker is, I consider him a good friend, a good pal, somebody who I look to for guidance and help on a lot of questions that I have. Sometimes he doesn't even realize it, but he also does very important work. He heads the Orthodox Jewish Division on the New York State Chaplain's Task Force. It's not a very easy job that he does. It's not extremely hard, you know, to see why Rabbi Malachi is successful in doing something like that. All you have to do is speak to him for 30 seconds, and you'll understand why Rabbi Malachi is very successful in that. So to address the Nesimuchim,

1:20:51I'll start with Mazal Tov. What a great honor. I'm not going to speak too long. I'm just going to add to the great message that we played. I was just thinking that he said that... So, I'm not so sure because the regards that we get back from the work that they do is all over the world. So...

1:22:10I wrote a whole, but time doesn't allow. If anyone wants, let me know, and I'll give it to you. I'm just going to say very briefly. This week, we spoke between the lines of the shiurim. that mamash gave the shiurim. It was amazing. We see here that we're in a new city. The passuk says that everything that Hashem asked them to do. But in a way, we see that after all, in his generation, the model happened. We see that, and later it was mentioned by the previous speakers, we see that Avadon lePasik adds a small line, which says,

1:23:38I think that this is an amazing message for Rabbanim. There's something called that, I do my job. I have to lead the davening, I have to pass a few shaylos, and then I go home. But I think that we always have to remember that Lot went with Avraham, he did something magical, he did something magical, Whatever he did, he did mitavren, he did mitazach. He had a whole kehillah ready with him. That means that he did something right. We have to know that there is something that we do what we do, and there is something that we do it right. We always have to remember that we have to do what's right. We see, I heard an amazing... This week, we see that by...

1:25:02He was doing teshuva, he was fasting, and he was doing the teshuva for the chet that he felt he did. So, the Midrash in Bereishis says that Reuven wanted to rescue Yosef. When you know that your brother is in the bor, that's not the time to do teshuva, to fast, and to do that. We're going out now in the rabbinical field. We have to always remember. Not always is the time to daven. Not always is the time to do a taanis and a tzedakah. That's very important. But we have to know when. We're going into the field. A lot of times, I spoke to rabbanim about this issue, about that issue. We heard so much by the shul and kollel. The risk of the rise was unbelievable on that topic. We have to know. It's time to step up. Not always can we say, "Well, I don't deal with these things," and of course, don't go into areas where you don't have expertise, but maybe it's time to get yourself some expertise to look into it. I think that before we were talking, this is the beauty of it as well. Our coordinator is going to hand out applications later.

1:26:24This is what the Yeshivat Rabbanim is all about. We get carried away with Rabbanim, but we always have to know that we have to have support. We have to have chaverim to support each other, and we have to have strength to stand behind, to have behind your great work an organization like Yeshivat Rabbanim. I can tell you one thing. I looked around before I joined Yeshivat Rabbanim. I did not see something like that. If you do something right, and you're looking for the support, they'll back you all the way. And amazingly great work, what we do, the colorful work that we do, it's unbelievable. I want to end with a bracha, that Hashem should give you the kochos, that we should together be able to do great work, to be zocheh at the geulah shleimah bimheirah b'yameinu.

1:27:27Thank you so much. I just want to call for a quick moment Rabbi Weiss to give us an update from the task force to speak for once a quarter. I also want to recognize the chairman of our Halacha committee who's here, Rabbi Gil Student. Thank you so much for attending. I know many of you may know him by face and many of you have read his well-published Torah articles. There's no such thing as coincidence.

1:28:33But people who took money that didn't belong to them got married to whomever they weren't supposed to. The Torah even brings out, goes into the inyan, even the animals got married over there when they weren't supposed to, with whom they weren't supposed to. And because of all this, Hashem brought on us the mabul, destroying everything. I want to bring out a lesson from all of this that pertains to us here. The lesson we can learn from all of this is that we, as Rabbanim—partially, I think a lot of us are chaplains at New York's Chaplain Task Force—have to do the right thing. We go out there, we serve the needy, we comfort all the broken people who need our help. We help the people who come to us, who come towards us. We sometimes see, as rabbis, as chaplains, we see a lot of things that no other person sees out there. We are an example to everyone around us. You must live up to that, to a higher standard. People look at us. People look around us. You go out there, you're a rabbi,

1:29:58or as a chaplain, you deal with each situation as it comes to you. None of us should walk out there wanting to conquer everything. We are not made for that. Everyone here knows what he can do and what he can't do. Don't take on something you can't do. Leave that, as Rabbi Wallach said, leave that to the experts. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's not good to jump in a million directions and mix in where you don't belong. Sometimes, that's more damaging than helping people out there.

1:30:59Let's remember who we are. We're representing, you're not representing yourself anymore. You're part of a larger organization. You're part of a larger group now. You belong, you remember where you are out there. When you go out there, when you help somebody, you're representing the Agudath Harabonim. You're a part of, I was gonna say 950, but I think Rabbi Schmelzer just moved it up to over a thousand rabbis. You are not just yourself anymore. You have support around you. You have people you can trust. You can ask if you need help. And for those who are in the chaplaincy, you're representing the New York State Chaplain Task Force, which comprises over 2,000 chaplains of all kinds of faiths. So there's always somebody to support you or to help you if you don't know something out there. Remember this. Carry this with you.

1:32:00Every time you're out there helping someone, it's you who will give this organization, which is the Yeshivat Harabonim, a great name, a great reputation for everybody. I have to acknowledge Rabbi Mordechai, our director, who will give out applications. I encourage you to become members of the Yeshivat Harabonim. Let me take a second opportunity to acknowledge a dear close friend of mine, somebody who became very, very important in my daily life, and that's our own Executive Vice President, Rabbi Mendel Miraznik. I also want to acknowledge someone who became very, very close to me. He became my mentor. Unfortunately, he couldn't make it here because of prior commitments that he had. and he's the founder and president of the New York State Chaplain Task Force, Reverend Marcus Miranda. Now let me wish a heartfelt Mazel Tov to all the new rabbis who are graduating today and getting their semicha. Welcome aboard. Hashem should give everyone chizuk and mazel, and you should be matzliach in all that you do.

1:33:28I want to mention, I handed out some flyers tonight about an accredited bachelor's degree, applying to Yeshiva University. If anybody has any questions, they can see Rabbi Lerner, who's over there. Or, of course, they can see the Rosh Kollel. Or if you email me at rabbi.eco.us, I will, b'ezrat Hashem, make sure to take your application, your money, and pass along the information to Rabbi Lerner. At this point in time, I'd like to introduce our Shalom Meishiv of Kol HaLashon HaRav. He plays, I would say, a triple role, really, in education. Number one, being somebody you could ask anything to, with encyclopedic knowledge and belief. Number two, he's one of the Presidium members of the Yeshiva. And number three, of course, he may have one of the largest congregations in the entire world through the Jewish Press, where he happens to be the senior editor.

1:34:29And we at the Kollel and the Yeshiva are very lucky to call them one of our own, and I'm very lucky to call them also my dear friend. I'd like to introduce Rabbi Yaakov Klatt. Any questions whether I was here or not? My tie proves it. I just, I tried, I tried to be careful, but you know, it happens. Interesting, Rabbi Soloveitchik used to speak, I'm talking about Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, he was Rosh Yeshiva in YU, Yeshiva University, Yitzchak Elchanan, and he used to speak, I believe it was every Wednesday night, either Tuesday night or Wednesday night, in Moriah, a kehillah in Manhattan. And he used to speak to, maybe there were 300 people there, and they came literally with bated breath. He would speak for three hours straight. He would always talk on the parsha that was. He would never talk on the kumendikah parsha. One day, one time, he gets up and he says,

1:35:57you're probably wondering why I always talk about the Friyedikah Parsha, the Farginigeneh Parsha, the Kumendikah Parsha. They were all waiting to hear. And he said, among the people there were at least 75 shul rabbis. He says, do I need to have every one of you in every shul telling over what I said now? The problem is it's a famous mitzvah with the Chasam Sofer. Someone said something, wanted to say something over from the Chasam Sofer. So the Chasam Sofer said, say it over in your name. Don't say it over in my name. Because what happens is there are always shinuim. The story changes a little bit. It happens that way. It changes.

1:36:59What is so terrible if the story changes a little bit? Your own chiddush going into the story is spectacular. You know, Talmai HaMelech, Talmai HaMelech, he was the Greek-Egyptian king, and he was the one who ordered that the Torah be translated into all the languages, into shivim lashonot. He was the one who ordered that. How did he do it? He put 70 chachamim into 70 rooms, and it was min ha-shamayim. Elokim boreh ha-brachos. Everyone changed every iota in the Torah that could have raised questions for someone who didn't understand, which could have led them to minus, to apostasy. They all changed exactly... The work that came out was exactly the same from all 70. It's funny. Rabbi Zev quoted the Gemara in... Where is Rabbi Zev? He left? Oh, he'll be back. Rabbi Zev quoted...

1:38:17He quoted the Gemara Chagigah, which I was mamash. It's here. It's here, right here. That's what I was going to quote. The Gemara Chagigah, in fact, it will appear in something that I am writing. But interestingly, it's a phenomenal concept. What do you mean? Do you understand that? Is that something that we can understand? Imagine you went, you reviewed something a hundred times. It's an impossibility that you should forget it. So 101 makes a difference. It's a pilpul. And what happens if it was only 99? The concept of 101 being more than 100, it's something that we don't even understand. It's a phenomenal concept. But what it just proves is that we constantly have a musar badin. We're told, Chazal tell us, be very, very careful with your din. Yes, we became rabbis today. 100%. But as we mentioned, we mentioned our responsibilities. Responsibilities, Rabbi Zev, I mentioned...

1:39:40I was going to talk about the Gemara, which I actually started to quote now, the Gemara in Chagigah, Daf Tes. Incidentally, my father lived till 105 and a half and two days. I always add, make sure there's two days. My father started his chinuch at the foot of his father when he was about four years old. My father went over the Torah. He went over the Torah 101 times. He was zocheh to go over it 101 times. I'm talking about the parashah. Whenever I came to his house, there he was. He had his Chumash open. He was going over the parashah. So he did it 101 times. So you see that if someone goes over, you never know what... a person can have. We have to, it's our, this is our responsibility. Our responsibility is to give chiyus, to give chiyus to people. Give chiyus to them, give them an ahavah, an ahavas haTorah. The only way they can have that, I'll tell you, I heard the two, the two musmachim who spoke, they spoke with such gefil. And I'll be honest, before this particular class started,

1:41:08I told Rabbi Spivak, I want to come and just see who the people are. I wanted to see. And when I came, I saw a seriousness, that this is not just something that they're looking at, thinking, "I'll get out of this, I'll get a plaque that I can put on my car, and therefore I can park at a hydrant." Okay? No. No. I saw that this was a serious class. This was a group, a group that came, and they want, they want very much to accomplish and accomplish for Klal Yisrael. We have to give Rabbi Spivak the greatest hakaras hatov for what he has done. He has given the possibility for all of us, all of us to accomplish, to do whatever we can and to bring us up to an extra, an extra high madrega. And of course, the chaverim from the mesivta, and all of the chaverim, and all of you, who are now the members, I hope, you're all going to sign up. Membership is not that expensive. What is it? $125. Think about that. What is that? A coffee? What?

1:42:30Oh, the pension plan, the pension plan is, let me tell you something, a phenomenal pension plan. Our pension plan, you don't have to worry. See, most pension plans, when you take the money out, ha, ha, ha, a favorite uncle comes and says, you know, I'm your uncle. You know which uncle I'm talking about, Uncle Shmuelik. You know him? Okay. With our pension plan, uh-uh, you don't have that problem. So... there are so many good reasons, those are the physical reasons to join, but the real reason to join the Igud Rabbanim is to become part of a group that advocates. And of course, we are, and I have to give a great yasher koach. He came out with something phenomenal this week. I have to give a yasher koach to Rabbi Pesach Lerner, from which a number of us are part of the CJV, the... Core Jewish Values? Coalition for Jewish Values. They came out... Yes, it came... This week... The email that I got this week I thought was just out of this world. I believe so. It was spectacular. So... Okay.

1:43:57I don't want you to see my card. We will be talking more about the retirement plan later. We always see good benefits. But right now, we'd like to give the mic over to Rabbi Sivek to make the next introduction. I just want to say a short word about program many times, and he comes from an illustrious family, and he always talks about his pride in that family. I have known him now, and I can honestly tell you that his family should have incredible pride in him. He is a leader.

1:45:24you to fill my shoes, but I expect you to walk in my path. But you're sure. You know how we walk in this path. You walk with big boots. Big boots. Whenever there's a difficult thing to say, whenever there's something that could cause all kinds of political ramifications, Brotherly love, we refer to him. Let Shia write it up. Let Shia make the statement. He will give it up, and he will present it in a way that...

1:46:33Thank you very much, Rabbi Spivak, Rav Shalkelo. The hour is not young, but it's not old. So first of all, I want to recognize the Mara d'Asra, Rabbi Ze'ev, Chacham, Chacham Ze'ev. I want to recognize my Chaveirim HaNe'emanim, Chacham Rabbi Elbaz, Chacham Rabbi Yaakov. I also want to recognize a Karev of my Mishpacha, but also a Karev of Klal Yisrael who really cares about each and every one of us, Rabbi Pesach Lerner. Give him a hand, please. I also should mention the Rabbanim Tze'irim, the young rabbis, the Mekablei Semicha.

1:47:33as well as those that are here this evening, as well as the officers and directors of this great Sephardic Minyan Beit Knesset. It's a beautiful Beit Knesset. It's a beautiful shul. And I think all of Staten Island has or has light because of what you are doing together with your great Rabbi Zev. He deserves a very big round of applause. My friends, we're living in very interesting times. Thank God we had the Yom Tov of Sukkot, that the Almighty kept us in His beautiful Sukkah of Shalom, of peace. And while this great country of ours, this great republic, was being torn apart with hate or love, yes or no, with Justice Kavanaugh,

1:48:37Many of us were protected because we were in Sukkah Shalom, we were in a Sukkah, we had more things, more important things to do than to become involved with partisan politics which showed the world the underbelly of American society and what ails our country and what ails our society. The solution can only be what Sukkah shared with us, Sukkah Shalom. that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is watching over us at all times, that we are involved with mitzvot, with chesed, with respect for every individual. But Sukkot is over, and the Jew has to live with the times, and as Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi says, living with the times means living with the parashat hashavua, living with Torah. because the word Torah comes which means teaching. It's called a Torah of life. So comes the Baal Shem Tov and he gives us an understanding, and this is good for Rabbanim to speak about this Shabbos and next Shabbos and not to forget it. The story of Noach: Bo el HaTeiva.

1:50:08He's there an entire year. My father once asked me, he says to me, how is it possible that Noach did not go out of his mind being in a teivah with all those animals? This was shortly after my mother had passed away. And he looked at me and he said, Because he had with whom to confide. He had his wife, Na'amah. Rabbanim have to know that they became Rabbanim because they have parents who must have instilled within them a sense of responsibility never to give up. And to realize, although you are dealing sometimes with an ark, which is filled with a reality that is not so humane—animals, domestic and non-domestic—don't give up. Let me go to the word of the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov says, what does this really mean? "Come into the Teivah." Obviously.

1:51:32So the Baal Shem Tov HaKadosh says, Bo el haTeivah. Teivah is haTefilah, v'Teivah is haTorah. That when you go and you daven, you have to put yourself into the davening. What is davening? Davening, which our forefathers did. Don't go to davening like, God forbid, water off a duck's back. A Rav has to show that when he davens, he's davening with a chayus, with life. He's connected to a drip that is giving him life. Davening is not just an exercise. Prayer is not just an exercise. Come into the teivah, the tefillah of the prayer that you're praying. You're learning, you're giving a shiur. Give it with a chayus. Give it with a chayus. Give it with life. Ki hem chayeinu v'orech yameinu.

1:52:34Boi el ha-teivah. Mayim rabim lo yuchlu l'chabot et ha'ahavah. What other mayim rabim says Rav Schneur Zalman of Liadi? Tirdei ha-parnassah, worries about your livelihood, concerns about family, all these things can wash away all that fire that you have. A rav has to be on fire. in order to ignite the baalebatim and the people that you are leading. When they look at you, they see a person who davens, bo el ha-teivah, and they see a person, bo el ha-teivah, who looks at limud ha-teivah as something which is essential. Bo el ha-teivah. But interestingly enough, the Baal Shem Tov goes further and he says, tzohar ta'aseh la-teivah. Tzohar? It's mentioned before. It's a window. Or as Rashi also mentions, we won't mention the Sefer Yetzirah, that each word, each letter is... That's the Kabbalistic. When you come into the teivah, is your davening illuminated?

1:54:05Is it giving you light? Is it uplifting you? Are you engaged with the davening? Are you engaged with the limud haTorah? With the Nosain haTorah, the One who gives us Torah? Tzohar has three different shorashim. Tzohar means light. Tzohar can be tzara. a narrow, difficult place. And tzara can also be a Jew has the power through tefillah to take a tzara and make it a window of opportunity. Tzohar. Illuminate. Not only for yourself, but for others as well.

1:55:09And what does HaKadosh Baruch Hu say? They should all enter into the Teivah. Because when the Rav is in the Teivah of Tefillah and Limud HaTorah, then the Baalei Batim are in the Teivah of Davening and Limud HaTorah. So then you'll have to ask the question, go out of the Teivah? And the answer is yes. A Rav is Kulay Torah. But a Rav has to be willing to go out to his Baalei Batim and to those who do not yet know that this is their Rabbi. That this is the person who can help him or her. And a Rav has to feel and has to be concerned about each and every individual in their area. Say Min HaTeivah. Take the fire of Davening the insight of Limud HaTorah, and bring it into the world. How do you think that all the Chayos and the Behemos were able to live together? There was a spirit of Mashiach, says the Zohar. But the Kavanah is the same in the Teivah, which brings us to a concept of Adam HaRishon. Adam, who is Yetzir HaNivra'im,

1:56:32he's the only part of the creation that is created in a two-step process. You know what two steps are? One, two. Everything was created, says the Gemara, as they were formed. Everything came out, and everything grew. The only thing that was a golem, that was made out of a clot of earth, and that's why Adam is called Adam, he was taken from the earth. The second step, HaKadosh Baruch Hu puts into him, and the Alter Rebbe adds the word mamash. So the question is, Adam, why should he be created in two steps, when everything else was created in one step?

1:57:35So this is for Rabbanim. A Rav is a spiritual leader. What are you leading? If everyone was spiritual, you wouldn't have to be their leader. They're already metukan, they're all where they need to be. But a Rav has to realize he's part of the process. He also is Adamah. It's two steps. The Rav cannot forget about his Gashmiyus, and the Rav cannot forget about his Ruchniyus. But the beauty and the challenge of being a Rav for Klal Yisrael is to bring the two together. HaKadosh Baruch Hu shows Adam, Bechirat HaNibraim, Medaber, the one who has the power to speak, Chai, living things, Tzomeach, things that grow, Domeim, the inanimate, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu makes from Adam, Medaber, and Afar, Domeim, two steps, Yud Kei Vav Kei, the Hei, HaAdama, HaAretz.

1:59:00And HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, Adam, you have the power to transform this world. That's why the Maharal MiPrague says, Adam is also Miloshon Adameh Le'elyon. There's a duality. Adameh, Adameh Le'elyon. It's a very big job. But Rabbanim have the koach and the siyata diShmaya of HaKadosh Baruch Hu to be able to fill the responsibilities of what it means to be a mara de'asra. So what is Adam? Adama, he takes the golem and he makes it into a chelek Eloka mima'al mamash. He brings his baalebatim and the people that he influences, both the men and the women, both the boys and the girls, both the yeladim, the children, and the zekeinim, where everyone plays an important role.

2:00:01And you reach out to them. Adam has the power, like a lever. You know what a lever is? You put it on the bottom, and you're able to lift up the whole binyan. Adam is the lowest thing. But the person was created to recognize HaKadosh Baruch Hu and lift up the whole b'riya, the whole creation of the world. But becoming more, in particular, you take a look at Avraham Avinu, which has to do with your koel v'yita eshel. Eshel, say Chazal, achila, shtia, lina. So when Rabbi Spivak says, "Go to sleep," what does that mean? It doesn't mean you go to sleep. It means you take a sefer and you fall asleep with a sefer. But seriously, achila, shtia, lina, Torah is compared to mazon, b'seir asra b'soich me'ay. Shtia, drinking, is the living waters of mayim chayim of Torah. You have been given the wherewithal to do what you need to do. You have the achila, you have the shtia, you have the lina.

2:01:21But Avraham Avinu's greatness was not "Vayikra" (he called), but "Vayakri" (he caused others to call out). So when the mayor of the city of New York has the temerity, the chutzpah, and the foolishness to think that he's doing something great, and he announces, and it's printed in the Wall Street Journal—that's why I saw it today. that when you come, God forbid, you should never have to go to a hospital, only for happy things, like having a child. So how is the child going to be recorded on their birth certificate? HaKadosh Baruch Hu told us already, but this ben adam, which is a question whether he is a ben adam, decided that you can put an X, a third category, on a birth certificate, and this will help the family identify what they had. This is not according to Noach. This is certainly not according to the Torah of Avraham Avinu. Moshe Rabbeinu was the seventh generation to Avraham Avinu. And it's certainly not what HaKadosh Baruch Hu intended with Adam, the Bechir HaNevi'im.

2:02:38I want to conclude with a Mishnah. And this will tell us what the Rabbeinu is. And had I not been called to be this keynote speaker, Rabbi Spivak, you could be sure I would have been done 10 minutes ago. I was told, speak at least 20 minutes. So I'll do it just 20. So the Mishnah says, Asarah Dorot meAdam ad Noach. L'hodiah kama erech ha'payim lefanav ha'patient la'Kadosh Baruch Hu is. Ha'cheivi aleihem me'ha'mabul. End of the Mishnah. What's the next Mishnah? Asarah dorot min Noach ad Avraham. L'hodiah kama erech ha'payim lefanav ha'patient la'Kadosh Baruch Hu is. He waits so many generations. Ha'cheh bar Avraham Avinu. Everyone finish the Mishnah. V'kibel. No? You don't let me pick you up. V'kibel s'char kulam. And he received the s'char of everyone. So the Rebbe asked an interesting question. The first part of the Mishnah, ten generations, HaKadosh Baruch Hu has tremendous patience. But they're washed away with a mabul. They don't get to go into a teivah. But by Avraham Avinu, v'kibel s'char kulam.

2:04:04The Rebbe analyzes it. It gives us to understand how important it is for a Rebbe to be careful. Not only to be mindful of your own community and Klal Yisrael, but also general society. That's why this Mishnah is brought that we should study it. We are all Bnei Noach, but we also have the additional beautiful designation that we are Bnei Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, Sarah, Rivka, Rachel, and Leah. Noach was a tzaddik, but he failed, after a hundred years of building the Teivah, to have any ba'alei teshuvah. He inspired himself. His wife was a tzaddeikes, Na'amah, Shem, Cham, and Yefes. They were born at that time. They're not yet responsible for their deeds. Shem was a tzaddik. Okay, Yefes maybe, Cham definitely not. But they all got into the Teivah. Why no one else? Batimalei Ha'aretz. Like in Israel, near Israel. Hamas, there was Hamas. There was Hezbollah. There were all these rotten, terrible people that were killing each other and saying, "Oh, we are charitable organizations raising money for the Middle East." Rahman al-Islam, what they do here in America, raising funds for terrorism and raising funds in the Middle East for terrorism and no one says anything.

2:05:31And unfortunately, we just lost a very good advocate, Nikki Haley, but B'loi Alman Yisrael, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, will definitely take care of us as He does constantly. So who went into the Teva? What kind of zechus did the people of those generations have? Batimalei Ha'aretz Hamas, avodah zarah, gilui arayos, shefichus damim, gezel, geneivah. There was nothing to be earned. And Noach had no effect upon them. So Noach and his family. Noach was a tzaddik. But Avraham Avinu, Vayakri, he changed the whole world. The Gemara says Avraham Avinu was a sar. He was the captain of the world. Every one of us has to hold on to the rudder or the steering wheel of the shul, of the community, and try to help and to be helpful. Avraham Avinu, his generation, they rebelled against HaKadosh Baruch Hu. They made a Tower of Babel. They didn't have. But they did have. They all were talking to one another. They helped each other. So there was a tremendous amount of reward

2:06:58But they didn't deserve to get it. It's Avraham Avinu who got it. The kibbutz har kulam. The bein adam lechaveiro aspect Avraham Avinu got. Received. The Rabbi goes into this much more, but I just want to give the tanzas. Rabbanim have a power. The kibbutz har kulam. Can't do it all. But you're not free from trying. We can't do it all. as the Mishnah says, but we're not patur from doing what we could do. So we have Adam, we have Noach, we have Avraham Avinu. The first thing that a Rav needs to know is to be an Adam, a mensch. Don't get carried away with yourself. Who are you? What are you? I'm just a person. Don't forget, Adam haElyon. HaKadosh Baruch Hu made us in two steps. We have the power to lift up the whole world, Jews and Gentiles. The whole world is against us. You could be like Noach, enlightening the world with the Teiva. But you're not yet free. You need to be like Avraham Avinu, like Sarah Imeinu. That's what it's all about.

2:08:24Very quickly, just a papara l'chochmah. Yesh darshan l'gnai, yesh darshan l'shevach. I want to ask you a question. Why would anybody be yesh darshan l'gnai? Especially chachamim, sages, they always picked us up. They always lifted us up. What's the job of a rabbi? How are you doing? I'm feeling terrible. Good. You should feel even worse. No, God forbid. You can lose your congregation in less than three seconds. How are you feeling today? You're not so good. Joe, Yosef, Max, tell me what's going on. Maybe you need a listening ear. Don't say I can help you and take care of all your problems. You can't. But you can be a listening ear. Shema Yisrael. Be there when they need us. And trust me, very often they will not tell you that they need your help. But when you see, what my father used to say, when he came to the minyan upstairs at Shaarei Zion for Mincha, and he saw everyone smiling, he would say, "I know the stock market did very well today." And when he saw the people who were a little bit concerned, he would say to himself, "I think today the stock market went down." You've got to look at the faces of people. Panim el panim.

2:09:50So, I can go on and on, but I have 20 minutes. I have two minutes left. So, let's get to the point. Yesh. What is yesh? But yesh is also yirat Shamayim. Maybe it's, if it's correct, good. If it's not, it's a drasha. A Rav has to be a yirat Shamayim, number one. That's the first thing. For yourself, l'ganayim. Yes, I gave a wonderful talk and a great class today, and I really think I helped Mrs. Finkelstein in the hospital, and I really think that so-and-so felt better after we spoke. Did you give it your all? Yes, darshan l'ganayim. Demand more of yourself. But when it comes to people that you're working with and dealing with, your Yerushalayim will tell you, "I see the greatness in this other person." Perhaps that's one of the things that our sages are telling us because if the Torah says, the Torah is emes and there's no word that is superfluous. Let's hope and pray that wherever there are Chachamim,

2:11:09wherever there are Rabbanim, wherever there is Torah, there is Shalom. You should go and continue to do your good work for Klal Yisrael. And as you help Klal Yisrael, you are helping yourself, you are helping the world, and very, very soon, we will be zocheh, because the whole world will have peace with Yerushalayim and Eretz Yisrael. Now we're going to get to the part of the program that most of you have been waiting for. I am going to give a little bit of an introduction, and please give me one minute to make this introduction. So many people around this room are graduates or talmidim of many yeshivas. We have people at the presidium from Ner Yisrael, from Ner Yeshiva, Ibn Sardim. We have people who went to Lubavitch. We have people who went to Torah Vodaas, Chaim Berlin, Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchok Elchonon, YU, Satmar. We have people who went to Chasidic yeshivas. But there's one thing that we all have in common, and that is we are part of an igud,

2:12:35an alliance, or a union. And what is one of those determining factors? What are those people who pull everybody together in this alliance? It's the Rosh Kollel, Rabbi Yaakov Stevick. He has an uncanny ability to control, and even me, sometimes as well. Not easy, I admit it. To control a situation where it gets very difficult. I feel very privileged to call him one of my Rabbanim. I have more of a privilege to call him Rebbe. Whenever I have a shaila, I call the Rebbe. He's always accessible via text message, which many of the Rabbanim don't really do that much anymore. He answers text messages, video chat, Skype, television, and radio. Whatever it is, Rabbi Spivak is always accessible. And today, when you receive your semicha from Rabbi Spivak and you get your handshake, realize that you're not just getting it from a rabbi, but you're getting it from a Rebbe. Rabbi Spivak forever continues to be my Rebbe. We are proud to now introduce Rabbi Spivak to present words to the mesmachim and to give out the semicha to everyone.

2:14:11By my side, I have to first apologize to paraphrase... Never mind. It's all good. It's all right. We'll get over it. By my side, I have to first apologize to paraphrase... Never mind. It's all good. It's all right. We'll get over it.

2:15:19Now they're explaining what I mean. First of all, I would like to say that the important rabbis, the rabbis of the Jewish community, and also the important Muslims and all the Muslims here, it is a great honor to meet you today. And, or as a, if I'm talking to the yeshiva bochurim here, you know, I have to use their sprach, which is, what's the hock? What's the hock? You know, that's the yeshivish sprach. At any rate, I am not going to say any divrei Torah, because if you want divrei Torah, you can get my papers for free. And I want to, first of all, thank the rabbanim. And after so many years of working things on my own with the rabbanim, Hashem sent from heaven the people that I work with, who this day would not, it would not happen. You're all quoting tonight from, okay? I want to quote from Bereishis.

2:16:48If it weren't for these people, we wouldn't have what we have. There would not be. I don't know what the future holds for Mindy Mirajnik, but he is an incredibly talented man on so many fronts. And he can't even sit there and take it without being busy. I want to also thank the get-it-done person who wouldn't be here, who can seem almost impossible, but he also has a yesh mei'ayin quality in him. And that's someone who I'm proud of, whose growth in the last two or three years into the difficult position of leadership is amazing. We owe a debt of gratitude to Rabbi Moshe Shmurler. And one last thing before I give out these papers. You have no idea what it's like to sit in a group in the shiur that we had with this class and other classes. You have no idea what it's like

2:18:13When we got them, take us from the four corners of the earth and bring us together. I guarantee you, 150 years ago, the Yidden in Yemen never heard a Hasidic shmuess. And I guarantee you, 150 years ago, the Yidden in Ukraine never heard a Mifal HaMizrachi. And when we talk, we're talking about going there as well, but first it came to America, and then it's going. To sit there, I sit in that chair, I can't tell you. And I hear the learning from a Shabbos drasha last week. And one young man, one musmach to me, said it was a Hasidic shmuess over. And then the next one says it with a... And I think to myself, how many in the past were to hear what this little old man hears right now. No such thing. We're seeing it together.

2:19:42That doesn't mean she saw better than anybody. What I happen to see comes in second to the shift of what she saw, but it's pretty close. And the man who broke so much ground that made this happen, who did a groundbreaking, unprecedented thing, who took the Satmar community, which was groomed beautifully in itself, and said, no, we have to bring it out to the world. And I'm bringing it to the kehillahs through my chaplaincy program, a groundbreaking thing. It took a lot of courage, and the Ribono Shel Olam gave them a gevaldik talent. We also owe a tremendous amount to Rabbi

2:20:44It is time. Tonight, we're giving out the smichas, and we're also giving out items from governmental officials, so that we not only make you a musmach tonight, but we also make you a karov b'malchut in a good way. Okay. And a membership form. First, you'll get a copy of the safety agenda, and you'll get... The first speaker goes to Rabbi Tzvi Bertheimer. Bertheimer, you are a man who has an incredible responsibility on your shoulders. You're a man who makes sure that people have what to eat and great things. And it is an honor to be able to give you this so that your power should even increase more. And I say to you, I say to you also, as it says, "Yeah, don't be scared." your power should increase even more. And I say to you, I say to you also, as it says, "Yeah, don't be scared."

2:22:09I want to introduce you now. I want to introduce you now and come up after I introduce you. One, two, three. Vesak Reuven Charney does tremendous work. Reuven does tremendous... You're with... He is an adjunct professor at Searle College. He understands Bal Tashchit and Vivaldi, and we are very proud of him. So it is my great pleasure to bestow this speech upon... What? I'll call on Rabbi Reuven Charney for a piece of moving. Rabbi Charney, are you ready? One, two, three. Let's do that.

2:23:35Yeah, one, two, three, one more. He is not here tonight because he had a... Shlomo Krasner is not here tonight. He is a grandson of Rabbi Krasner. He's the son of Rabbi Shimon Krasner, who wrote the famous peirush on Tanach. And Shimon, his father, was with me in yeshiva when we were younger. and he was a great person, but he said to me, he said, I'm sorry, I can't make it, I have to teach Torah. And I said, So I just, you'll hold this for three, or I'll hold it for him for later. Okay? What can I tell you? I can't tell you about this person, Yaron Reuven.

2:24:35I first saw him on television, on the internet. I don't know if it's good to say that, but I first saw him. He speaks. Anything that would describe Yaron Reuven is that he's been there and done that. Nobody, no matter what, in business or anywhere, can say that. You don't know, you don't understand. And that makes him an incredibly compelling speaker. All right? And it's my great... I could say more and more, but... It is my great pleasure to bestow this speaker upon Rav Yaron, the Rav David Reuven.

2:25:37If anybody ever walked out to say, does this look like a Litvish yeshiva bochur or It's Yitzchak Fretter. He is classy. He learns everything that my Rebbe would have wanted from Yitzchak Fretter. Yitzchak Fretter represents. And he has learned twice in two years. He learned in Lakewood and in New York. And Yitzchak works thoroughly.

2:26:37living in a nursing home setting. He has been an active volunteer and dispatcher with Chevra Hatzalah for over 16 years. Talk about fun. Thank you. Yehuda Goldberg is a chavrusa of Yitzchak Breuer. We talk, we meet, we talk on the phone, and we talk in learning. When you want the Yiddish word "shtayg," which means to excel, these two as chavrusas will sit in a beis medrash, or their shul on Shabbos, and how do they know what they're learning from the next one? And people gather around them just to listen to them. It's an amazing thing. Yehuda Goldberg graduated from Yeshiva Darchei Erez in Far Rockaway and learned in Yeshiva Madregas HaAdam while pursuing a degree in computer science. Dispatcher and member of the Chaverim of the Five Towns for almost ten years. And if you know what that is, and it is my great pleasure to bestow this upon

2:28:12Okay. One, two. Okay. One, two, three. Okay. Okay, next. This is a very special person. Rabbi Yisrael Zev, Rabbi Yosef Chaim Schlesinger. I got to know him. He lives in Monsey, but I got to know him as we traveled, as he drove me to Brooklyn from Monsey and out here many times. He is a very special person, and he is a teacher. He teaches in the yeshiva, and he also is very well-versed in graphic arts and computer science, and he has a desire to help Klal Yisrael... And I really like him. There wasn't anything we discussed that we left out of our thorough discussions on the way back and forth from Brooklyn to Monsey. So it is my great pleasure to show this speech upon our Rabbi Yisrael Zabriskie and Yamin Moshe Schlesinger. One, two, three.

2:29:40By my side, I have to first apologize to paraphrase... Never mind. It's all good. It's all right. We'll get over it. Rabbi Ozer Babaj is a tremendous scholar, and he is the Rav of... what is the name of his role? He's the Rav of B'nai Yisrael, and...

2:30:44One, two, ready, one, two, three, one, four. Okay. All right. Rabbi Shmuel Zipper is a learned and confident talmid chacham and is currently a Rebbe and assistant principal at Mesivta Torah Emunah High School located in Queens. A school that, as you see, takes in all types of kids, From any level and background, including kids from public schools that want to ignite that in summer, it is my great pleasure to bestow this upon the honored Rabbi Avraham Zipper. The next are three young men. Three, two, one, two, three, one more.

2:31:47There are three young men who are brothers, who are very special, and they have a great love for each other. And I want to start with Yishai. Now, they already got their semicha earlier in the year, so they'll be coming up now. I just want to tell you about them. Come up here when I call you, and I'll get to each one of you, my dear brothers. The following three brothers decided to pursue semicha following the footsteps of their maternal grandfather, Rabbi Ephraim Fishel Ackerman, who received semicha from Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner in Washington Heights. He served over 50 years as a pulpit rabbi. I want to start with Tzvi. Tzvi, come up. Tzvi Miller is a graduate of Yeshiva Gedolah Torah Yaakov in Lawrence, Long Island for three years after high school. He hopes he uses his speech to further his community service for all Jewish people during different periods of life. Shmuel? Shmuel, can you come up? Are they still here? What? Okay. Okay.

2:33:13Moshe is a graduate of Yeshiva in Far Rockaway, Queens, and he continues to learn in Yeshiva in Far Rockaway, Queens. Moshe enjoyed the program tremendously and hopes to serve the community for many years. Menachem is a graduate of Yeshiva in Far Rockaway, Queens, and he continues to learn in Yeshiva in Far Rockaway, Queens. groups in the local shul and conducting services in local nursing homes for seniors. Okay? Now, Naftali Tesler is from the leadership team at Hamaspik of Kings County, an organization that provides community health and human services. Naftali is an active community

2:34:13Remember advocating for the community and for the people in the community as he told me that his higher calling is to help people. He has a strong passion for leadership and is very influential in motivating business owners and directors to become better leaders and in creating an uplifting environment of collaboration among team leaders. It is my great kavod to discuss with him upon arrival. By my side, I have to first apologize to paraphrase... Never mind. It's all good. It's all right. We'll get over it. The next one is a basman, Rabbi Dovid Rosenberg, who studies hard, learns well, and is great at divrei Torah, and it is a great honor to present to you, Rabbi Dovid Rosenberg. Dovid, please come up here.

2:35:40By my side, I have to first apologize to paraphrase... Never mind. It's all good. It's all right. We'll get over it. Rabbi Yehuda is a person who does tremendous work, tremendous klal work. When you talk to Rabbi Yehuda, you see something in him: he is with the people; he is there. He is Doresh Tov L'Amo. He cares for his people. He works among his people. He does tremendously good things. I've always been impressed when I've talked to him, and I look forward to continuing our relationship with him, and I expect to follow his example. It is my great pleasure to bestow this upon you.

2:37:06Three, two, one, smile. One more. Okay. When you talk about Chesed, you talk about Rabbi Ben-Zion Blau. Rabbi Ben-Zion Blau is the symbol of Chesed in the community, and he walks in the footsteps of Avraham Avinu. It is my great pleasure, is he here, Rabbi Ben-Zion, to present to Rabbi Ben-Zion Blau. Saul Shemesh is not here. Do you want me to read this? Okay, good. Rabbi Dr. Yaakov Shemesh did not make it tonight because something positive is going to happen. Okay. And Rabbi Saul Shemesh is a good friend of the Kohel of the Eid al-Rahman. He wanted to be here tonight, but unfortunately, he had to go to Israel for his sister's funeral. Saul is renowned as an Ish Chesed helping in the community of Staten Island.

2:38:35Saab Saab is active on the national scene with Igud Harabbanim, meeting this past year with both the Rishon LeZion, Yitzhak Yosef, and Chief Rabbi David Lau. Locally in Staten Island, Saab is active with Keren and Kojo, just to mention a few of the important organizations that he follows up with here at this time. Rabbi Mendel Kalfin could not make it. He is one of our out-of-town respondents. Canada. He's a long-time educational expert, serving multiple positions within the Haredi fields, teaching Talmud for over 18 years, as well as serving as principal of the Skver School in Montreal for eight years. He's the founder and director of the Torat Mishpachot Montreal Teacher's Centre.

2:39:38Michelle Ornstein is here. Michelle Ornstein. I've spoken with him. He really is a... By my side, I have to first apologize to paraphrase... Never mind. It's all good. It's all right. We'll get over it. By my side, I have to first apologize to paraphrase... Never mind. It's all good. It's all right. We'll get over it.

2:40:45Rabbi Michael Zed is the son of the martyr Asa. He is from a very prominent family, the Ascari family, and holds a very esteemed opinion. It's my great pleasure to present to you. One, two, three. One, two, three.

2:41:46over here, over here.