WHO IS LIKE YOU? A Beautiful Kiruv Torah Chidush by BETZALEL

0:06Before I start, I want to introduce just a five-minute Dvar Torah by my dear friend, my dear student, the best of the best that I've seen since I've moved to Florida, and probably most of my life, I think. My dear friend Betzalel is making Aliyah, Baruch Hashem. We've been studying together for about four years now, Baruch Hashem.

1:41It's been a long ride, but a ride that's not long enough because it's not coming to an end, which means it continues even though not here, but in the Holy Land with Hashem. I want to say what I'm going to say in three parts. The first part is, of course, about Hashem. And I'm quoting a pasuk that says, "Who's like You, mighty one?" Who's like Hashem? There's nobody like Hashem. Eliyahu said this to Am Yisrael when he was admonishing them to choose: "If Hashem is God, follow Him, and if the ba'alim of the nations, the idols, are gods, follow them." Hashem made a miracle for him, and everybody saw that Hashem is God, and everybody screamed, "Hashem Hu HaElokim, Hashem Hu HaElokim." The second part is...

2:43With Am Yisrael. The same question, "Who is like you?" Am Yisrael. There is no nation like Am Yisrael. And this is something we say every Shabbat afternoon during Mincha. We say it. no one is like Am Yisrael among the nations, and Hashem says about Yisrael in His Torah that when people look at you, they will see the Torah that you have. This means they will see your laws and your mitzvot, and they will observe how you conduct yourselves among the nations. They will say, "What great nation is there that has a God so near to them that they can call upon Him anytime they need?" And also, they will look at your laws, they will say, who has righteous laws like this nation, Israel? So here I answer straight to our face: nobody is like Am Yisrael. In Tanna De'Vei Eliyahu, there is a pasuk he expounded on, and he spoke about the dust of Yisrael. Who has counted the dust of Yisrael? And one part he says, Bilaam saw; he looked over the camp of Am Yisrael and he saw how the Shekhinah was present.

3:54The Jewish men were engaged in limud Torah. They were learning and they were challenging each other. And they were giving chiddushim one after the other. And he saw this, and he saw how much they were into it. And he saw that the Shechinah came and rested upon them. And he gave another interpretation of this pasuk. This pasuk, he says, "Who has counted the dust of Am Yisrael?" And he says there was a young lady. and her father was engaged in business with a non-Jew. And the non-Jew looked at her and said to the father, "Let me marry your daughter." And the father agreed. The daughter kept her counsel; she didn't say anything. On the day of the wedding, she threw herself off a building and killed herself. And then Eliyahu HaNavi concluded that they had counted the dust of Israel. Now, what do we see here? A woman who'd rather kill herself for the sake of keeping the holiness of Am Yisrael, to not defile herself with a non-Jew. Now, we are coming to Mina. Why am I speaking about me last? Because when we talk about Hashem, Hashem is the beginning of everything, the first of all causes, and He's also the last. And when we talk about Am Yisrael, Am Yisrael is the reason Hashem created the world.

5:23And when we talk about ourselves, we are part of Am Yisrael. And therefore, when we talk about Am Yisrael, we include ourselves in it. And now we talk about ourselves for one reason only: to sanctify the name of Hashem in the world, which everybody understands under the term "Kiddush Hashem." This is why we do it. I was watching the shiurim for quite some time before I met Rabbi Reuven. He didn't know that I existed, but I was watching him. But for some reason, I didn't come to the story of his life yet. All the shiurim gave me a lot of encouragement, and I always said to myself, I wanted to come to the shiurim, but I couldn't. I don't know why. For some reason, I felt I was too busy to do it. But until I came to that one video that said, there is no greater act of kindness than to go to Kiruv. Rabbi Woven quoted from the Chofetz Chaim. And he explained what it meant for a Jew to be involved in Kiruv. And he also explained not only that when you're involved in Kiruv, you are doing something for other people, but really you're doing for yourself.

6:49So when I understood the value of that, even though I tried to support here and there in the past, this video affected me to an extent where I came to the realization for the first time. And I said to him, you're part of my teshuva. And he says, “Ma? How?” And I said, “One of your videos.” He said, “Well, I have many videos.” And I said that video spoke about the power of Q. It is part of my teshuva because my teshuva started before that. I'm a convert, but that's the beginning of my teshuva. The second part of the teshuva is to understand the importance of learning Torah. Even though I admired Talmidei Chachamim, I admired the fact that people learn Torah, and I admired the Torah itself, but to come to a more to a much closer understanding of what the Torah can do for someone. I only learned with my rabbi, who encouraged me and supported my learning, not only in our personal interactions and coming to the shiur, but also in getting me started on learning Gemara. With Hashem's help, we were able to learn, and we're continuing to learn. By Hashem's will, we'll continue to learn until Mashiach comes.

8:16The point of me talking to you tonight is only, in the hope of encouraging every one of you, to take your teshuva seriously. If someone who has no family that's Jewish, who grew up Christian, found a reason to look for Hashem and to look for Hashem in the right place, one of the reasons I came to look for Hashem... What the Jews are is only because everybody is talking about the Jews. Oh, these are the people that Hashem did this with. But I didn't hear from the Jews themselves. So I said, let me go look for the Jews and see what they have to say about themselves. And one of the ideas Hashem put in my head to go do that was to understand that I'm not American. I speak a different language. And I came here, and I'm learning English. And I came here as an adult. I learn English, and I understand. There are things in my native language that I cannot translate into English. It doesn't matter how I try to put it. I can come close to an expression that more or less means the same thing, but it's not going to convey the correct idea. And there are things that are not even words at all. But there are expressions that, between people from the nation I'm from, Haiti, we can say and we understand each other without even saying words. Sometimes just a sound. So from this, I understand all the translations that we've been reading and from the other side before we transitioned into Judaism were lacking. Baruch Hashem, I was able to see some videos of Rabbi Mizrahi and also some family members of mine that were also involved in fighting the Christian ideologies and continuing my teshuvah, Rabbi Reuven who also...

9:40sometimes just a look. From this, I understand that all the translations we've been reading before transitioning into Judaism were lacking. Baruch Hashem, I was able to see some videos of Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi and also some family members of mine who were involved in fighting the Christian ideologies. This inspired me to continue my teshuva. Rabbi Yaron Reuven, who also... Speak strongly about Christianity and show proofs that it is false and to continue on with my teshuva beyond that aspect of it. If anybody has any doubt about who Hashem is, you don't have to look anywhere. Just look within you. Why? Because there's also a video from Science and Ancient Wisdom that Rabbi Rubin published. If you look at the strands of the DNA, the sequence of it, the name of Hashem is in there. The numbers.

10:41If you look at the gematria for each letter, you will see this is the sequence in the DNA strand in the human body. This is the name of Hashem. Hence, this is the fulfillment of a pasuk that says, Hashem created man and took a part of a piece of Himself and put it in him. The breath of Hashem blew His breath into the nostril of the man. This is literally a part of Hashem He put in the man, and the man became alive. So we will keep that in mind every time to remember that we have a purpose in life, and we owe all that we are to the One who created us. We have to follow His Torah because that's the only hope we have. I hope that just as much as the Rabbi, Rabbi Reuven, and also Rabbi Mizrachi, and other rabbis, we will all strive to adhere to the teachings of the Torah. What a shame it would be if it tried, because those who listen to them will follow the strict instructions. As it says in Psalms 25:125, the men of truth will teach what is correct, and this is what I see fulfilled in front of me.

12:08May the same be true for each one of us here, as well as for those who are not here, those who are watching online, and those who will start coming here at some point. Thank you very much, and may Hashem bless all of us. I don't know; I think I should have been learning from you for the last four or five years. Baruch Hashem, Baruch Hashem. Let's see. We just finished another masechet a few days ago. So we're going to continue finishing masechtot, getting closer and closer to the truth. Closer and closer to where we're supposed to be.