We're Not Doing Enough to Help Poor Jews for PeSach

0:11Hi, everyone. I just want to give a quick message to all of the people who have seen our campaign, Kimcha DePischa, to help the poor Jews in Eretz Yisrael. Kiruv... Am Yisrael to be closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And of course, part of what we do in our organization is help different people who are Avreichim, Bnei Torah, and poor families in Eretz Yisrael. Every month, we send money to Eretz Yisrael to help people. And usually, we do a little more before the holidays to help as many people as possible. a little more before the holidays to help as many people as possible. Well, with the COVID-19 coronavirus that has hit the world, including Eretz Yisrael, Baruch Hashem, not as much, but nonetheless still, the economic situation in the world is worse than many have seen in years. And of course, everyone knows that the poor people suffer the most.

1:38We started a campaign a few days ago to try to raise $100,000 to help poor neshamot, poor families in Eretz Yisrael. We already sent $10,000 ahead of time. We're trying to raise a little bit more money. If you look at the campaign link below, we raised about maybe $9,000 or so. And we already sent another $20,000 on top of it. Pretty much the money that was raised and money that wasn't raised. And the reason why is because the calls that we're getting are simply heartbreaking. The stories are horrendous. And it's time we, as a nation, we as lovers of Torah, we as lovers of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, fulfill the verse where HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "Who did Me a favor, and I will pay him?" meaning that there's nothing in the world that we've ever done that Hashem didn't already do us a favor to allow us to do it. But when it comes to tzedakah, when it comes to doing chesed, when it comes to helping His people, this is very different. The Gemara in Masechet Beitzah, and also in Rosh Hashanah, both on page 16, say that HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides how much parnassah, how much money a person is going to make, already on Rosh Hashanah.

3:03ma'aser, then you have to recognize that it's a different category. There are times we all know that we have to do a lot more, a lot more than normal, especially when you have a plague in the world that's putting all of our lives in danger. Now, as everybody knows, our world hasn't changed in the sense that we're still doing shiurim, we're still putting ourselves out there. Coronavirus or no coronavirus, the Torah has to continue, the shiurim keep going on. B'ezrat Hashem, we will have another shiur tonight. And... The live crowd is not as large; obviously, we only have a few people coming. But the audience around the world has grown by maybe 150-250%. The numbers are exceptional. People are waking up. But, at the same token, we have to take advantage of the opportunity that we all have right now. HaKadosh Baruch Hu put all of us in seclusion in order to think about what we're doing.

4:22One of the things that I'm realizing is that we're simply not doing enough. Nobody's doing enough to help the poor people that don't have another choice. In the next couple of weeks, we're all going to be celebrating Pesach. And you can have matzah, you can have maror, you can have your nice seudah with the nice dishes and the nice plates and the nice everything. And everybody enjoys the luxury that Hashem gave them, especially in Western society. But then, there are families that we're reaching. We're seeing it, not just hearing. We're receiving messages from them. We're meeting them. We know them. They're not going to have that support. There’s one woman that I told you about on Sunday whose husband was murdered right in front of her a few years ago. The organization that promised to raise money to help her and her kids ended up taking all the money and ran away. This is one of the people we're trying to help right now. We are helping already. Another woman has eight kids. Her husband ran away, leaving her with no money, and took all the money they had, to the extent that she didn't have money to turn on the electricity. We paid her electricity bill two weeks ago, Baruch Hashem, right before Shabbat. But with eight kids, no money, practically no food, this is a person who is part of our nation.

5:50We're helping them. There's a whole community in Yavniel where several of the kids are very sick. It's one tragic story after another. Another family with six kids has no food, nothing. Another family is facing severe hardships. Several families are Avreichim, Bnei Torah, who have been learning Torah for 40-50 years straight. They struggle throughout the year anyway. where several of the kids are very sick. Several families of avreichim, Bnei Torah, 40-50 years learning Torah straight. They struggle throughout the year anyway. One guy didn't have even chicken for chicken soup, so he asked one of the other avreichim to give him the bones from the chicken that he's going to eat on Shabbat so he could put some flavoring in his chicken. uh, you know, the following day for the first kids, um, several orphans, several divorces, uh, one family with, uh, 13 kids, one family with 10. Um, I mean, one family, the father just, uh, had a stroke this year. He, uh, uh, several, many, many sick people, um, and...

6:58All I can tell you is that we're not shortchanging anyone. We're giving everyone that we can, money or food or both, to help them. And the people are simply crying from joy. They're crying from joy. They saw no hope. They saw no light. And then suddenly, an organization they had never heard of gives them money, gives them food, more than they even buy for themselves when times are good. And because we can't just sit here and do nothing, we cry to HaKadosh Baruch Hu all the time. We cry because we're sick. We cry because we don't have enough money. We cry because there's all types of disagreements with families. We cry because of this. We cry because of that. It's time that we do something about it. Now, everybody has something to give. Some people have $5. Some people have $5,000. I ask you to step it up and do more. This is not going into our pockets. As I mentioned, we've already sent $30,000 before we raised it, and we're trying to reach at least $100,000. Trust me when I tell you, even $100,000 wouldn't be enough, but at least it would make a difference. We will have some type of impact on thousands of people. We're already, with the $30,000, close to assisting 1,000 people.

8:25So each family, Baruch Hashem, is growing and is big and unfortunately has major needs. We're not going to those who already have. We're first starting with people who simply do not have anything else. They don't know how they're going to finish the week and get food for Shabbat, needless to say for Pesach. So please, I beg you to look into your heart and understand the need. Don't sit there quietly. Don't be stingy. Don't be one of these people that says, wait, but we have issues right now because I don't have a job and coronavirus and this virus. Listen, HaKadosh Baruch Hu knows what He's doing. There are people right now that are losing and there are people right now that are winning. Why? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu already saw what they did and what they're doing, and therefore He is doing what He's doing. If we give, HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives us. That's why He said, who did Me a favor, meaning who helped My children, who did something for Me, who became My partner and I'll pay him right now. There is no better partner in the world than HaKadosh Baruch Hu. When you're helping His children, you're not the only option He has. You're simply making yourself into a vessel. And

9:49That's the reality. If you don't help, somebody else will. Hashem will find somebody else. But why not take advantage of this opportunity to help Klal Yisrael, to step it up, to do something about it? And again, it's one of those things that I hate to talk about. I hate talking about money. I was in the money business for almost 20 years, and the last thing I want to talk about is money. But at the same time, I can't sit idly by when my brothers and sisters don't have food to eat. There are thousands of them, hundreds of thousands of them. And we're just trying to reach some in different communities, in Bnei Brak, in Yerushalayim, in Yavniel, in Beit Shemesh, in Netanya, and all these tzaddikim and tzaddikot are helping us. They're going to buy food for them, or they're just giving them the money so they can buy the food, or both. We're making sure that they're going to be okay. Why? Because we're okay, so we have to make sure our brothers are okay.

10:51Don't just be okay; make sure that your brother's okay because that's what brings peace to the world. I'll finish it off with a story. There's a very famous story in the Gemara where there were two brothers who had a business together. They had all types of fruits and vegetables they would sell in the market. and one of the brothers was married with kids, while the other brother was single. And after they had accumulated all of their fruits and vegetables and so on, and went their own way, one brother said, "Listen, I can't believe I'm such a bad brother. I don't have a family. I don't have any kids. My poor brother, he has a family. He has kids." I'm taking just as much as him. Why? He has more expenses than I do. I can't. I can't do it. So he got up in the middle of the night and decided to take some of the sacks of fruits and vegetables that he had and go and drop them off on his brother's side. That same night, the other brother…

12:15The brother wakes up and says, "I can't believe I'm such a bad brother. I already have a family. I already have kids. I've got things taken care of. My poor brother, he's going to have to start a family soon. He's going to have to get married. Surely, he's going to have a lot more expenses than me. How can I just sit here while my brother is going to struggle? I can't do it. I can’t do it. I can't be such a horrible brother." And so, he gets up in the middle of the night, takes a few sacks, and goes to his brother's side to leave them there. The same thing happens the following night. Each one wakes up and goes to the other camp and puts the sacks there. And every day, they wake up in the morning, and they're amazed that no matter what they do, they're still left with the same amount. How could this be? I give him two sacks, and I'm left with the same 10 that I had. I give him three sacks, and I'm still left with the 10 that I had. Every night, it's the same exact thing, and they can't figure it out. And then they just say, wow, Hashem is blessing me even before I have done anything for it. And then after the third night, they both do the same thing and they meet in the middle of the journey, seeing each other. "You're the one that gave." "You're the one that gave." And they embrace each other. They hug each other and they tell each other how much they love each other. HaKadosh Baruch Hu

13:38saw these two brothers hugging and he was smiling and he was happy and he said, this is the place that I'm going to build my Beit HaMikdash. Why? These two brothers cared about each other without waiting for the other person to ask, without waiting for the other person to plead, without asking the other person to convince. These two cared enough about each other to think about each other before it was too late. Before they had to embarrass themselves, before they even knew they needed, they just thought enough about each other that they said, you know what, he's probably gonna need, so let me just go help him. The difference here, at this time, is that we already know that our brothers need. I have stories of people crying... was too late before they had to embarrass themselves; before they even knew they needed, they just thought enough about each other to say, "You know what? He's probably going to need, so let me just go help him." The difference here, at this time, is that we already know that our brothers need. I have stories of people crying crying to me, crying to Rabbi Efraim, crying to the Rabbanim, from happiness that we just gave them a few hundred dollars for food. We're not talking about giving people tens of thousands of dollars. For a couple of hundred dollars, you feed a family. For two thousand dollars, you feed ten families. Here in America, the average family is going to spend two thousand dollars on itself. How can we live like this?

14:52And let them not eat. How can we spend $1,000, $2,000, $3,000, $5,000 on ourselves, on our seder, and knowing that with that same kind of money we can feed hundreds of people? I'm not saying not to eat. I'm not saying not to enjoy. But let's not forget our brothers, because kol Yisrael arevim zeh lazeh. Please, Rabotai, be generous. This is not a joke. This is not a sales pitch. This is simply me trying to tell you that it's time for us to all step up. If we want HaKadosh Baruch Hu to bring the Shechinah to the world, to bring good to the world, to end the bad and bring good, we have to do good. And it's not just worrying about the neshamah of our brother. It's also worrying about the body of our brother. And that's what the Baalei HaMussar say. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter says, yes, you have to worry about your friend's neshama. You have to worry about him doing teshuva. But you also have to worry about his body too. Please, Rabotai, let's worry about our brothers. They simply need someone to step up and be a vessel. Let's be that vessel. Kol Tuv. Hatzlacha Rabba.

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