Why You Must Change Your Environment If You Want To Get Closer To HaShem.

0:32Most of the time, it doesn't work out. Most of the time, what ends up happening is that the one guy who became religious but still decides to continue hanging out with his non-religious friends falls back into becoming non-religious like them. That's what happened to me about 20-something years ago when I was 17 years old. One day, a crazy thought came into my mind during a break between college semesters, and instead of going and having fun like the rest of my friends, I went somewhere else. My father suggested I should go to Yeshiva, so I went for a few days or a few weeks—I don't remember how long it was—but it was moving. It was so moving that I decided I was going to start doing teshuva. So I started doing teshuva, I started putting on tzitzit, started praying every day, and started keeping Shabbat. But then I went back to college. In college, none of my friends kept Shabbat. In college, none of my friends learned Torah. So little by little, my learning and my doing started becoming more and more difficult. On Friday nights, when everybody else was going to parties, I was alone in my dorm room. In the beginning, it was okay. In the beginning, I didn't really care because I was still passionate about Torah and mitzvot, and who cares about them? I'll just do it on Saturday night. I'll just do this. I'll just do that. And that lasted for a little while, a little over a year.

1:58But after a little over a year, that strength went away, and the reason why is because one thing I didn't change: I didn't change my friends, and I didn't change my lifestyle. Little by little, I started getting weaker; little by little, I started learning less; little by little, I started keeping less and eventually abandoned everything. It took me over 20 years to come back to step one, but the second time I had to come back, it was a lot more painful. B'ezrat Hashem, our movie that we've been working on for the last year or so is almost done. There's a movie, there's a very well-known personal story that I have of what happened in my life, my transition from going from Wall Street to doing this, why, and what I went through. Baruch Hashem, we've been telling that story all over the world and we've turned that story into a movie. And B'ezrat Hashem, I would say over the next month or two, we should complete the movie and we'll have a big event, B'ezrat Hashem.

2:58To show you guys, to show the world a nicer version. You know, people have heard the story before, but never in a movie version, with all the effects and things like that. There are some pictures and short scenes of me from my past. Very interesting and fantastic job, oh Hashem, by Team Hashem. However, I can tell you that the second time, what you're going to learn from that movie, is that the second time I did Teshuvah, it wasn't so easy. It wasn't so painless. It was a lot more difficult, and it was almost impossible. Now, one of the reasons is because of your environment, because of your friends, and because of whom you keep around. Ensure that the environment in which you immerse yourself is conducive to growth in Torah and mitzvot. Surrounding yourself with people who encourage you in your spiritual journey is essential. This can profoundly impact your avodah (service) and commitment to Hashem.