The Miracle That Saved My Life & Soul MUST WATCH (7 minutes)

0:58She starts calling people all over the United States, all over Israel, anyone and everyone she could find. Only today, no one wants to answer. Hashem dictated that no one will answer. Eventually, she calls a number in Israel, and a woman answers. She asks for a certain Rabbi, and the woman says in Hebrew, no, there's no such person. It's the wrong number. My mom loses it and starts crying hysterically. Imagine you're phoning for an hour, trying to find one Rabbi. No one is answering. You're crying for your son. You know he's losing it. You're seeing him. He looks like an old man. He's always in pain. And no one wants to answer. And my mom starts crying hysterically. And all of a sudden, the woman on the other side of the phone in Israel, the wrong phone number, says, "Dolly?" which is my mom's name. My mom says, "Well, how do you know my name? Who is this?" She responds, "It's me, Pnina, your niece." How did I get to you? I don't even have your phone number. We've never spoken on the phone, ever. How did I get to you? I don't know how you got to me, but if you got to me, there has to be a reason. Why are you crying? My son, he's in bad condition. I think he's dying. She says, well, I'm looking for a rabbi. If you're looking for a rabbi, why don't you talk to my brother Ephraim? He's a big talmid chacham, and he lives next door to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

2:27You'll talk to me? Of course, I'll talk to you. You're the famous aunt from America. So she calls Ephraim. Ephraim is in the kollel, but his wife has him call my mom back. Ephraim and I have never met. When I left Israel, he was still a baby. He starts talking to my mom and hears her out. And he asked a question, he says, does he speak Hebrew? Yeah, he speaks Hebrew. Well, he talked to me, because I don't think he'll talk to you. He doesn't talk to me. He doesn't talk to anybody. I became very antisocial. When you're in pain, you tend not to want to have friends, or family, or anyone. At that very moment... When she said, "I don't think he's going to talk to you," that's when I called her. At that very moment, remember when I told you a few minutes ago, I told you I called her, and she's hysterical and telling me, "Talk to Ephraim"? That's exactly when I called her. I was calling her to say goodbye, and she's telling me, "Talk to Ephraim." So you see the Hashgacha Pratit from Hashem.

3:35He watches every single step, and He's only going to give you a test if He knows for sure that you're going to pass it. As soon as you get to a point where you cannot pass it, He intervenes. We got to that point. Efraim calls me. I agreed to have him call me. Efraim calls me, and we talk. He tells me my favorite story to this day, which is the story about Yehuda and Tamar. and the complicated parts, the Midrashim, and all these different things, and then I ask him questions and he gives me answers. We talk for an hour and 40 minutes. I tell him a problem I have, and he gives me a source in the Torah of someone who had exactly the same problem. I ask him a question, and he gives me an answer. The next week, he calls me at the same time, Thursday at 4 o'clock, and we have a conversation for three hours. Same thing, questions and answers. The week after that, we'd talk for five minutes. The week after that, we'd talk for seven hours. And from that day forward, every Thursday at four o'clock, we had an average conversation of about six to seven hours. And obviously, it became even more than just Thursday. And little by little, we did teshuvah. Little by little, we started realizing that the signs weren't just a, hey, you know, and I exist. The signs were, it's time to wake up, son.

5:00It's time to wake up. You don't want to be the one that receives the reward in this world. You want to ensure your reward is in the next world. Even though that might mean that the reward in this world may or may not come. The key is ensuring you receive the reward for the next world. Why? Because this world, according to Chazal, is like a hallway or a corridor. Where are you going to live? 70 years, 80 years, or even 100 years? In comparison to the real life in Olam HaBa, it's nothing. Imagine a drop of water in the entire ocean. It's nothing. So, seeing both sides of the world, observing the business world of ultimate success—success that I think anyone and everyone would ever want if they're after monetary success—we reached it. Of course, I wasn't the richest guy in the world, but... very rich. Enough to buy whatever I wanted to. What anyone out there that's after material wealth wants, we had it. But still having that and nothing at the same time is mind-boggling, because what's the difference between someone who's depressed who's rich versus someone who's depressed who's poor? The guy who's rich is hopeless. The guy who's poor still has hope. Why? Because he says, "I'm depressed now, but once I get money, I'll be rich. I'll show you guys how to be happy." However, as we understand more deeply from Torah learning, true happiness and fulfillment cannot be bought with money alone. The value of spiritual growth and connection with Hashem far surpasses any material gain.

6:25He still has hope that money is going to buy him happiness. Once we reached that point, we realized it's not so true. Since then, we started learning Torah, Baruch Hashem, and le'at le'at, we began getting more involved in that life instead of the business life. I've closed down my business at this point, and I'm more focused on Torah. I try to do kiruv, and my goal today is to... And every day, we should strive to accomplish two things: to aid those who either lack understanding or faith.