Why You Should Tell People Your TeShuva Story?

0:08That's why I always tell people, one of the greatest things that you can do to help other people do teshuva is tell them your story. Tell them how you did teshuva. Tell them how you're doing teshuva, the struggle that you're dealing with. We have a section on our website called Teshuva Stories, where different wonderful people from around the world that have been influenced by our work over the years wrote a letter, wrote a different story about how they did teshuva, and where we came into the picture, And once a week, Baruch Hashem, we publicize it. And these stories motivate people much more than the shiurim sometimes. The reason why is because in a shiur, you're going to hear what I'm saying now. You're going to hear what I'm going to say tomorrow. You're going to hear different shiurim, different things that the sages said. And some things seem like they're impossible for you to do. Some things seem like they're so unreachable. Some things seem like they're unimaginable. It's too big for me. But when you hear somebody else do teshuva, someone who had a life just like you, who also came from a different religion, who also believed in Yoshke at one point, who was also married to a non-Jew, who also was eating treif, who also went to public school, or who also had other challenges, and yet she did teshuva, that means I could do it too. Because I'm just like her.

1:35I'm just like him. He's a person. He's not a rabbi. His father is not Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Sometimes these stories are worth a million times more than the lecture. That's why, till this day, Baruch Hashem, the most popular and influential lecture that we've ever had has been the personal story. Now, technically, if you listen to the personal story, the original version is two and a half hours with a little bit of Torah in it, Baruch Hashem. But it's tiny in comparison percentage-wise versus the amount of the personal story that's non-Torah. It's just my life. But when you compare it to the other shiurim that we had, let's say, for example, the Pirkei Avot series, the Pirkei Avot series' average shiur was three hours. Out of the three hours, two hours, 59 minutes, and 40 seconds were Torah, and 20 seconds were the intro. I'm horrible at jokes, so none of the shiurim have any jokes. The joke is there's no jokes. That's the joke. A three-hour shiur, the whole thing is Torah. That three-hour shiur helped a lot of people. But in comparison to the personal story, you can't compare. The amount of people that have done teshuva from the personal story is unimaginable. It was worth suffering just for that.

2:55It was worth all the surgeries, the money loss, the enemies, the headaches, all the things that happen and continue to happen; all that stuff was worth it just for one single Ba'al Teshuva. But there have been tens of thousands of people that have changed their lives. So now we did the movie, Baruch Hashem, even more people. That's why I tell people, do yourself a favor. Tell people your story. How you did teshuva. Why? Because sometimes that story could save another neshamah that's not going to watch a shiur with this guy with a beard and the hat and the whole thing. But they'll watch some regular average Joe that has a little kippah on that tells them that he used to believe that he came from a monkey, but today he only believes in HaKadosh Baruch Hu. This woman that she used to look like a rock star, but today she has kisui rosh. Tzadeeket she keeps him out, my son. How could it be that I'll listen to her? Why is she like me? Just there's a before and after; she's already in the after part. I'm still in the before; I want the after though. This rabbi is simply putting yourself in a situation where you become a kiruv machine by yourself, and...

4:13You could send us your story. Please make sure to add how you're connected to B'ezrat Hashem in our teachings. If you've never learned anything from us, then there are other organizations that you should send it to that helped you so they could benefit from it as well. For instance, if you benefited from Rav Mizrachi, then send Rav Mizrachi the lecture so he can publicize it. If you benefited from my shiurim, send them to me so I can distribute them and allow more people to make the connection. You could still send it to me anyway, even if you didn't benefit that much. But the point is that... You want other people to follow the same path as you so far. We've done various letters, then a few small videos with sheitels. B'Ezrat Hashem, we'll also create more videos with other people. But the point about it is that this shows us that HaKadosh Baruch Hu can allow every single one of us to help other people do kiruv simply by our behavior.