Alei Shur - 5

2:10 אלה הצדקנו על איוב ואיובנו על הצדקו. Elah hatsdaka no el Eov ve Eov no el hatsdaka. Righteousness was beautiful on Eov and it was appropriate for him. And that's what the Pasuk means. ועבית צדק לבשתי ויעל בישיני. That he wore tzedek and it wore him. Now Revobi is going to explain what this means. לא כל אדם מנצל מעלוסיו הטביעוס לעבודסו. Lo kol adam minatsal ma'alosav hattibios la'avodaso. Not every single person is able to be minatsel his ma'alos, to understand his strength, his natural strength, for his service. ולכן. V'lakin. Therefore, yesh asher, there are wealthy people, ve'ein shmola fi ashura, and it's not befitting of them. Yesh gibor ve'ein shmola fi g'vuruso. Why? Ki lo nitzlu ma'alosei, and ve'lo nishtam shvahem. They never got to a stage where they know their milas, they know the things they have, and they've never brought it to a place where it becomes actionable. So it's like they have these things, but they don't use them.

3:14 They have it, but they don't use it. U'lehepech, and the opposite is true. Yesh ve'od v'mizgaber a'chalishuso, ve'nisyonos aniyuso, u'mare ba'avodoso g'vuro, ve'gam hu asher amiti. Alaf aniyuso, reysh ve'ein shmola fi risho, chalash ve'ein shmola fi chalishuso. There are people that are mizgaber on their chalishus, on their weakness, and on their nisionos, on their tests. Okay? So they have tremendous strength. Yeah, it means they've overcome, okay? And you can see in their avoda, gvura and ashiras, wealth. Remember yesterday we spoke about an impoverished mentality, yeah? So you have an impoverished mentality when it comes to a nesayo, and what's going to be the attitude of somebody who has an impoverished mentality? It's not going to happen, right? So everyone always says, ha-kodeshbaru doesn't give you a test that you can't pass, right? So first of all, I'm not sure that that's true, but even aside from that, really the.

4:21 avoda there is, if I was brought to a particular place, I have the capacity within me to overcome. Does that make sense? If you come from a place, let's just be practical, okay? I'll tell you a true story. It was a man who was $100,000 in debt. Okay? My family was very close friends with this man and his family. My parents are very generous people, but we were not wealthy. Okay? But you know how, like, there's not wealthy and then there's like $100,000 in debt, not wealthy? So we were not wealthy, but we were okay. Right? I remember as a kid knowing that sometimes we would take them bowling on a Sunday night. Right? Like, we would call them up. I knew this even as a little kid. Like, we would call them up and be like, you know what? We're going bowling. Do you want to come? It'd be like a nice family thing. We could go bowling together and afterwards we'll go to Pizza Pies, if you're from the.

5:26 Five Downs. So Pizza Pies is right down the block from when we were bowling. Right? So I knew as a kid why were they coming bowling with us. Because my parents would pick up the bill for the pizza and this way they'd have food to eat. Right? I can't give too many details of the story, so I'll just skip ahead just so that it doesn't come out in any way, but. One day after a series of events the New York Times published that he was worth thirty five million dollars. He had stock options and something the options vested he was worth thirty five million dollars, So all of a sudden he wasn't a hundred thousand dollars in debt anymore, And all of a sudden they bought a house and nice cars and all of a sudden like their name started to appear on buildings You know like again a really great guy, so, His wife used to like pay for my tickets to Israel, But she was like she's like oh you want to go to Israel. It's okay It's on me so like my really good friend was getting married and his wedding was here in Israel And I mentioned that I'm like yeah, I can't afford a ticket right now. I'm in college. I'm I mean yeshiva.

6:27 I'm really learning like I just don't have like the 1,500 bucks to drop on a ticket over Pesach, And she's like oh, it's no problem. I'll just call my travel agent, So I remember being blown away by that, because I didn't come from a family that was able to do that. I don't know if anyone here does, but I didn't come from a family that was just like sending other people to Israel randomly. So I came home, and I remember telling my dad, like, oh, like, yeah, I'm actually, like, after the Seder, like, I'm going to Israel for Halamoi, so I could be there for my friend's wedding right after, I don't know if I was like, how are you getting there? I'm like, oh, she's sending me. He's like, okay, I'm like, isn't that a little weird?

7:00 He goes, well, if you think about it, right, money is a little relative. When you've got not that much of it, $1,500 seems like a lot, right? But if you have a tremendous amount of money, how do you think of $1,500? It's like 15 bucks, right? I can go to a bistro and get a steak sandwich. That's for you, right? Yeah? I can go to a bistro and get a steak sandwich in the lunch special. it's not that much money it's 15 bucks anyone can have it but imagine if like a plane ticket was like that for you right so that's called having an abundance mentality so when you have an impoverished mentality it's because and actually i think this speaks to the point we left off with. yesterday right when i have an abundance mentality i know my talents i'm an asher right literally i'm wealthy i'm strong i know my talents and i'm able to harness them right if you don't know your talents if you haven't been right as revolving says so then how are you going to overcome so if you overcome it means you've accessed the resources that you have they say that that's what depression is right depression is that when you come to a situation and you realize that the circumstances outweigh the talents because what that's that's where it comes from right because.

8:06 i'm looking at the situation i'm going i'm never going to be able to get out because the circumstance outweighs the talents that i have what's the value of telling someone that i called this bar who wouldn't put you in a test that you can't pass the value of saying it is, It must be then that you do have the talents. And I'm not saying that that's true, that every single test you can pass, I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is if you do think like that, it's quite possible that you'll end up realizing you have more talents than you initially thought you did. Does that make sense? So I'll give you a classic example of this. Young man in Mimassarit can't wake up for shakras. Can't wake up for shakras. No matter what I did, can't wake up for shakras. Then he went to medical school. And he woke up every single morning. Isn't that amazing? What changed? It wasn't the fact that he didn't have the talent. Relative to that circumstance, he couldn't access the talent. All of a sudden, when it was important in medical school,

9:08 he was able to do it, right? Same thing when it came to the guy who couldn't wake up for shakras and somehow joined the YU baseball team, which practices at five o'clock in the morning. And the guy never missed a practice. How did that happen? As the Rashi Shiva always says, somehow you don't sleep through a flight. So people say, yeah, it's crazy, I just can't wake up. If it's a flight, I'll wake up. What's the shot? Because if you know your talents, then you'll be able to overcome. If you don't know your talents, you won't be able to overcome. Does that make sense? Yeah, I'm going to assume yes. Okay. No, no, no. Thank you. The talents and the circumstances don't seem to, uh... Yeah? The talents and the circumstances don't seem to be, like, equal. I don't know. I don't see the comparison. What do you mean? I mean, if you know your own talents, then you'll know how to overcome challenges. Then people are probably going to appreciate it. You got there? Yeah. Good? Okay. All right, then. Vahakkhlau b'mai saha tov.

10:12 Here's where we go, when it comes to good things. What does that mean? Your knee hook, the way you behave, it needs to be you. It needs to be you. It can't be someone else. It's very possible for a person who is behaving in a certain way and doing good things that it's not him. I'll explain what that means in a second. When you have a suit made for you, has anyone here ever had a custom suit made for them? I had a custom suit made for me once in my life, once in my life, my wedding suit. My father said, you're getting married, I'm taking you to a place in the city. This is where wealthy people get their suits made. We're not buying you an off-the-rack suit central special, right? It's your wedding, so we're going to this place in the city. So, nobody's here ever done it? You never done it? Good for you. Never done it.

11:19 It happens to be a really cool thing. Like, I get it. I get it. Like, you do feel like... I wish I... I know I'm about Geiger, but like, it kind of feels awesome, right? Because this is how you pick out a suit. First of all, they show you a book full of fabrics. Now, I wasn't used to this. I mean, a book full... I know how to look at a suit and go, I like that one. They're like showing you a book full of fabrics. And then they show you pictures of different cuts. And then they take every measurement in the world. It's like a totally different thing. And then when you get the suit, it's not like, okay, now it's done.

11:53 Then they measure it all again, and they're willing to do it again. So, when you put on that suit for the last time, meaning for the time that it's like finally ready, it really does fit you differently. And you're like, oh, that's the way this is supposed to feel. Because you're like, up until then, when you buy a suit off the rack, I don't know if you've ever had this before, but like, it could fit you, like the suit could fit you but not the pants. The pants could fit you but not the suit. And especially if you're like me, that you're like the expanding, contracting man. So like, you know, it fits today, it fits like that, it doesn't fit like that. When a suit fits perfectly, it feels awesome. Feels awesome. Same thing when it comes to your myosymptom. There are people that try to be something that they're not when it comes to myosymptom. And what happens is, it doesn't suit them. It doesn't fit them. So I'll tell you the story. I've said it before, I'll say it again, some of you have heard it before, but it's g'day to repeat. The Mashkiach of the Yeshiva, when I was in the Vassar, was Rabbi Waldman. And he used to sit right in the corner of this room, okay?

12:55 This was when this was the beis medrash, right in the corner over there. He was facing this way, and we were facing that way, okay? One time. I'm walking up the path, right behind here, and all of a sudden the window opens and Meshkiyach Yehzadi Yeshiva, Berg, what the heck are you doing? What was I doing? I was walking up the path like this, with my hands clasped like a little edelmeidel, right? With my head down, kafi the way the Ramban describes in Igeretzer Ramban, and I was walking like a tzaddik would walk. All of a sudden I hear this voice from above me, Berg, what the heck are you doing? So I looked up, he was a very big man, so I looked up and I'm like, what? I was looking like a malach, like what Rebbe, what could I possibly be doing, right? He says, come here! So I come in, and he says to me, you're not Vogel. Who was Vogel? Adam Usher Vogel was this, he was a revisor Skavrusa.

14:00 I guess the pillar is covered, but there used to be a pillar, like right here, and we called, because they sat, Rav Beiser and Adam Vogel, Asher Vogel, sat by this pillar, so we called them the pillars, because they were as immobile as the pillars themselves. They just sat in the beis medrash and they didn't move. Everybody looked up in yeshiva to Rav Beiser and to Adam Vogel, the whole yeshiva. Rav Beiser was Rav Beiser, he had his personality, but Adam Vogel was the biggest tzaddik I ever met in my entire life. And I was just like, when I grow up, I want to be like Adam Vogel,

14:34 because he was the sweetest, nicest, softest, most gentle person ever. And like I would go to talk to him and he'd be like, he'd be like, Adam, can I talk to you? I'm like, I'm really having a hard time with this girl. He'd be like, yeah, tell me, I can help you. He was like, you know how like every time these people speak it's like the decibel level is like lower and lower, and it just makes them that much more like, you're amazing, right? Because I know I'm a yutz for speaking like this, right? But just like every time he spoke it was like gold was coming out of his mouth. There are people like this. I don't know if you know Rav Mordechai Finkelman. Some of you guys may know Rav Mordechai Finkelman.

15:05 Oh, no. From Dora Golding. Yeah. So Rav Mordechai Finkelman was my seventh grade dad, but you know Rav Mordechai Finkelman? I do, I do. Frank Rubin keeps telling me what? Oh, you got it. Frank Rubin Golding. He's unbelievable, right? And when Rav Mordechai Finkelman speaks, it's like literally it's like gems just flowing out of his mouth, and you just want to be so close to him, and I was never like that, but I just assumed that that's because I was a shegitz. So I was like, okay, I'm not like, but I said I'm supposed to be, right? So I decided, I remember making a conscious decision. I'm going to be more like Vogel. So I started walking around the way Vogel walked around. Just fast-forward, it's been 20 years since this story. Literally, Vogel just sits in his house all day and learns. His wife supports them, they live bar Chasham very nicely. He doesn't even learn in a kol, he doesn't even have a chavrusa, he doesn't ba'ak l'minit. He's a machine, and he's just the biggest tzaddik in the world, and that's all he does. It's unbelievable. Very close Talmudic review, did you? Believe it or not. You wouldn't think that would exactly go, but like, Mamesh, exactly the same. So, I decided I'm going to be Vogel, and when guys would come to speak, they're like,

16:08 Hey, Berg, what's going on? And I'd be like, Bar Chasham. Now, you know me. I'm not the Bar Chasham type. I'm not that type. I'm not. So, he saw me doing it, and thank God he saw me doing it, and he's like, What the heck are you doing? You're not Vogel. So, I had this conversation, this crazy conversation, I'm like... But I'm supposed to be, right? And I have to tell you, you don't know him, but the look on his face was the most incredulous look on his face. Like I was the biggest moron on the planet. And he was like, no, no, you're not supposed to be like that. He's like that. You're not supposed to be like that. And I had this argument. I'll never forget, I had this argument. I'm like, but he's a big bambidos. I'm clearly not a big bambidos, right? I'm a big balgaiva. I started quoting the Sefer HaChinoch. If I start acting that way, then I'll start becoming that way, right? You can become a tremendous lambda when you're a liar, by the way. You can do unbelievable things. So I have like all of these like... And he just saw right through me, and he's like, you're going to end up jumping off a roof.

17:12 because you're going to be somebody that you're not. I'm like, but no, but I'm supposed to be. How do you know that I'm not? Maybe I do have it in me. He's like, you don't. I'm like, but, no, but maybe I do. He's like, no, but you're lying to yourself. And it was just like this whole like back and forth, back and forth. And I realized he was right because it was off. It was just off. I'm not ever going to be like that. And by the way, Baruch Hashem, because none of you would have ever come to my shiur if I was like that. Right? Nobody would like me if I was... Again, maybe some people would rather have me this way, right? Sometimes. But I'm not saying anyone in particular. I'm just saying, right? But by the way, a tzaddik never would have done that, right? So there's... There's... It's not you. That's what Revolbi is saying over here. It has to fit. It can't be too big. It can't be too small. It has to be mat'im ale ma'huso. It has to be you. And by the way, the best way to know if it's you or not is ask yourself how it feels. Check in with yourself. Right? So when it comes to your ma'isim tovim, don't be somebody that you're not. I'll give you an example on the positive side, right?

18:14 That was the negative side. I'll give you an example on the positive side. I had the privilege of growing up in Farrakoi, New York. Beautiful place to grow up. I had the privilege of being very close with Rabbi Yaakov Bender Shlita. Okay? What he's done for the world, everybody knows. You say Rebbe Bender's name, people go crazy, well, the things Rebbe Bender has done. I'll tell you the truth. He has a son who is exceptionally talented. His name is Baruch Berbender. Baruch Berbender is a year younger than me. My place in my life growing up, you know, like some kids don't have a place, but they have a camp. Like I didn't have a school, but I had a camp. My camp was Simcha Day Camp. I was there since I was a fetus. And by the way, that's not an exaggeration. Was I? You were there? Wasm Camp. I like it. That was my camp. That was my place. My mother was a counselor there when she was pregnant with me. I was literally there since I was a fetus. I was born. I was in Mother's Helpers. I was in the nursery. I was in the, you know, I was in the regular bunks. This was my place. Every year of my life, I never missed a summer.

19:16 And then Baruch Berbender came back from Israel, and he was living in Farakwa, and he needed a job. And all of a sudden, he got a job in Simcha Day Camp. And I was a little like, this is my place, right? And then he was promoted ahead of me. It bristles, man. It bristles. You know, your dad's the Rosh Hashanah and all of a sudden you get promoted. I'm not going to lie to you. It bristles, right? I was blown away by him. Blown away. I've never seen someone come into a camp and make the changes that he made. He lived and breathed that camp. It was amazing. And I want to tell you something. He's a year younger than me. It was a privilege to work for him. I learned so much from him. He was on Atzalah while he was running the entire camp, which meant he was out all night on calls and working all day. And every kid and the things he knew and the chesed that he was doing on the side, you can't imagine. I was blown away by him. And then he started today an organization called Akhiezer and the Five Towns, which is like this incredible organization. He started it and just literally did the whole thing by himself. He's an exceptional person. So that summer I tried to be like him.

20:17 because I learned so much from him, right? So Barth bare-bender is that awesome, and he can be everything for everyone, then Berg should be everything for everyone, right? But it wasn't me. And I ended up getting resentful, and I ended up getting frustrated, and I ended up ignoring people, right? Because I didn't have that system built in. His wife married him with a certain expectation. My wife married me with an expectation that I was going to be around a lot, right? If it's not working for you, the chances are it ain't you. It ain't you. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't work on ourselves, but you have to be you. So when you're doing good, positive things, you might not be the guy to run high lifeline. That might not be the way that you have your myosymptom. You don't have to go into chinuch to be a good person. I love this. There are guys that come to me like, I want to do good things with my life, so I'm going to become a Rebbe. First of all, if you want to do good things with your life, the last thing you should do is become a Rebbe. There are amazing ways of helping people that don't involve going into chinuch. But you have people that feel the need to go into chinuch, and it's not them, and you know it's not them.

21:22 And you're like, I just don't see it. And you talk to people, they're just like, yeah, I just don't see it. You can do amazing things. Do you. A guy comes to me and says, I want to be a doctor. Why do you want to be a doctor? I always wanted to be a doctor. That suits you. That makes sense. You hear the difference? That's you. Don't try to be somebody you're not. Okay, later. If you're really working on this Avodah Protest, if you're working on yourself, being an individual, you're going to hold yourself back from these different Chassidus type of things, these Midas Chassidus that you see by others. If there's no internal motivation to do it. If you have an internal motivation to do it, but if it's an external motivation, and you see somebody else doing a Midas Chassidus, boys, that doesn't mean it's for you. It doesn't mean it's for you. If you're a simple guy. You know your place. You know you're lower.

22:28 And you start to act like one of the Gedolim. That's Mechse Kiura. You know what Mechse Kiura, guys, means? It's prideful. It's distasteful. Don't be somebody that you're not. Again, you see this sometimes in yeshivas. Guys start to be macabre on themselves, external things, without doing the internal work, and what's the feeling that people have around those people? Mechse ki yura. Right? Guy in yeshiva, he's not learning, he's not keeping his starim, he's not learning post-night seder, but all of a sudden he's wearing a gartel for davening where he's showing up 20 minutes late, and not because. he was at mitzvah. What was that? Right, shtik not shtak. I like that. Hashtag shtik not shtak. Yeah, that's a... That's an unbelievable... And why do you say that? Right? Because... No, no, but I'm saying... You see through it. By the way, who's the only one who doesn't? That guy. You know what he's walking around thinking? Amazing. And by the way, some of those guys... I'm sad to say that this is a story that I've had in yeshiva, this is a real story.

23:31 The same guy that's not keeping a star, the same guy that's not coming to davening on time, but he's wearing the gartle, you know what he comes to me and says? He goes, I don't know if like the guys in the yeshiva are like keeping up with me. I'm like, they're definitely not. You know, like, that they're so, so not aware. What are they doing? They're doing something. You want to wear a gartle, that's a beautiful thing. That's where you're at, if that's your family minor, or if that's something you want to take upon yourself, let's say that we can have that conversation. But if it's not you, it's mexiki yura. You know, we have to be sensitive to these things. You're davening a five-hour shmoneh esri, my friends, you might want to think about where that's coming from, right? You might want to check in to see if you have some letters. Yeah, O, C, D, other letters like that, right? You shouldn't be davening a five-hour davening if that's not you. You've got to be careful. You've got to be careful. You've got to know yourself. And then he says even shtakht. O yura manesh. Maybe it's not mexiki yura, maybe it's actual yura. That's the shtakht line from Mvolvi. It looks like it, or maybe it actually is.

24:34 Come and see how Cleisour were medoctic in this. He said, what do you mean? I'm wearing this sackcloth. I'm wearing this clothing of Avelus because, what do you mean? The Dome of the Rock is sitting on our Malkam HaMikdash. They asked him, are you such an important person that you're being the S'avel on Yerushalayim? חשבו על יהודה וחשבו על המסר עד שנספר שהוא אדם גדול. And what did they do? They said, hey, he's being prideful. Until it came out that he was who he was, what were they saying to him? Who are you to be מסבל על ירושלים? מידך אדם חושב המסנג כאחר הפשוטים בעם, אין זה מכרס מקומו, והרבה יוסרים משהו אוסן נג'ש ממנו.

25:44 On the other hand, if you are an adam gadol, don't act like you're not. If you're an adam gadol, accept the responsibility of what that means. If you have the capacity to do great things, accept that for what it means. So I want to tell you something. It's a very interesting thing when you meet very sincere, authentic, righteous people. You see this mida in them. They're not trying to be something that they're not. I'll give you an example. This is always what's awkward for me. Tisha b'Av is awkward. Tisha b'Av is awkward. Why? Have you ever been in a Tisha b'Av? Maybe you haven't. I hope you haven't. Have you ever been in a Tisha b'Av where there are people crying, but you're like... You're not that level, like you're not, like I know you. And on the one hand, you want to be a person who's down-to-earth, so you want to say maybe they are on that level. But most people looking at them are just going, it's really uncomfortable to be around you right now because your mom is putting on a show, right? You have it on Purim also, people that pretend to be drunk even though they're not, right? That's the flip side, right? But it's like, it's so uncomfortable.

26:46 You're not that person. If you're Miss Avala or you're Shalayan, that's because you're roy for that. Now, how come the Gemara doesn't say, but isn't that such a good thing, that he's Miss Avala or you're Shalayan, so that he can get to that place? You know why? Because it ain't him. But on the other hand, there is something called makeres makoma. You guys are too young to have met Rav Elyashev. Anyone here meet Rav Elyashev? You ever see Rav Elyashev? Let me see your thing. I want to tell you the most amazing thing about Rav Ayyashiv. I had the privilege of seeing him. From the time that they would wheel him from shul to the car to take him home, there was like people waiting because like they were you know like we're a little aggressive with our Gedolim to try to get our questions answered. Sometimes there's like these real like life or death questions and Rav Ayyashiv you would see him they would ask him like they would like quickly.

27:50 like jump in front of him like give him the Shiloh and he was this, this. It was the most amazing thing to watch. Life and death Shilohs. How did he do that? Isn't that gayvidik? There's no gayvi in that whatsoever. If you're the guy then what do you do? It's who I am. Imagine you're a doctor, right? You're an amazing surgeon and let's say there's somebody who needs an emergency trach in a restaurant. Is it appropriate for you to do this? I don't know, like... Yes, I'm like a big doctor in my place, but like, honestly, there are bigger doctors. No! That guy is dying! You pull out the knife from whatever thing you're on, you quickly wipe it over the napkin, you perform the surgery right then and there. Why? By the way, it's not me, I'm not, I'm just gonna be honest, I'm not that guy, right? But if you're the guy, you can't not step up to the plate. There's godlessness in knowing who you are. And if you know who you are and you don't do it, so then...

28:54 In a certain way, you're responsible. Again, I tell a lot of stories about Relaya Bender because I was lucky to see so many things, but I want to tell you one story. I could tell you many, but I want to tell you one story. I'll tell you two. I'll tell you two. I could, but I'm gonna keep it at two. Because otherwise I could go forever. I'll tell you two stories. Stories I saw with my own eyes. I'll tell you the one that makes me look like less of a doofus first, okay? I was sent on a shlichus by a certain Rav, who was a Baal HaMechaber of Sephardim, that he had a new sefer that was out and he asked me to deliver it to Rabbi Bender. So I was excited. Deliver a sefer to Rabbi Bender, it'll be a good opportunity for me to interact with him. So I showed up after davening and I went over to him with the sefer and I said, Rabbi, this is a gift from the Baal HaMechaber. Mordechai, thank you very much. How are you? And if you know Rabbi Bender, he's a very big person. So he grabbed me by my arm and he sat me down. Sit, sit, sit. I'm sitting down next to him. You know how he is, right? So a person comes over.

29:58 to Rabbi Bender and Rabbi Bender goes, how's your wife? That's how he took it. How's your wife? She was in the hospital. She wasn't well. So he said, Rabbi, honestly, she's not doing so great. It's hard. She's in the hospital and the nurses aren't treating her so nicely and she's having a really hard time. He's like, okay. He walks away. He pulls out his cell phone. He calls up Zevi Boldt, who's the executive director of Darja. He goes, Zevi, who do we know at the hospital? And here we go. Okay, tell them Bender said they gotta take care of it. Okay, but I don't know what's going on. Turns out that Rabbi Bender didn't know anyone at that hospital, but a member of his board knew a member of the board of that hospital. So he made a call and made a call. 20 minutes later. Couldn't have been more than 20 minutes. The guy comes running back in. He goes, Revi, what did you do? I said, what? He goes, the head of the entire hospital came running down. A whole meeting and nurses were coming over and apologizing. What could we get you? It was all this uncovered malachem for this woman in the hospital. Why? Because Rabbi Bender was sitting there. Now, how many people would have gone like this?

31:00 I don't know anyone at that hospital. That's what I would have done. Somebody's in a DASA encounter. I don't know anyone at that hospital. Finished. It didn't occur to me. That's who he is. You understand? It's not an act. It's who he is. And he has the capacity to do it. I'll tell you another story. This one makes me look like much more of a doofus. I don't know if you know anything about day camps, but day camps have a particular challenge. You know what the challenge of day camps are? Making sure that every kid gets home from camp. That's the challenge. Why? Because you know that there are going to be kids. that get off at the wrong stop to go with their friends home without asking their parents. And then what happens? Then you go into crisis mode. This is happening every summer. You go into crisis mode. Mom calls up, where is my son? It's now 45 minutes after he's supposed to be home. And now you've got to figure out where the kid is. And so you look really foolish. So what's the system we have, Sammy? What's the system we have? Bus counselors. So there's bus counselors, and the bus counselor's job is to make sure that every kid goes where they're supposed to go.

32:04 You may not know this from your perspective, but I hate bus counselors. I hate bus counselors. You know why? Because I'm the division head, and there's a rotation of division heads who have to stay late every single day after camp so that the bus counselors can call in and say, everybody's home, okay? And as a division head, you know that bus counselors are irresponsible and they're not going to call. So after about 45 minutes, when everyone starts to get home, now you have to call all the people that haven't checked in to say, everyone there? Yes. Please don't forget to call. Fine. So I'm sitting there and I'm manning the phones. You've got to keep yourself occupied, because you're there in an office by yourself. So what did I do? You guys, I don't know if you know this, but it's the jingle for NBC. It used to be NBC. Is it still like that? It used to be that was the jingle. Do you remember that? NBC Musty TV Thursdays? Okay. I'm not outing anyone. I'm just saying. Yeah? Friends, Seinfeld ER. Anyway, the, um... So, I used to pick up the phone, S-D-C, Simcha Day, yes, S-D-C, I would do different things to pick up the phone. I would like answer in a Russian accent. I was a young kid.

33:05 I was like, hello, you have reached S-D-C. How can I help you? You know, like, anything to keep myself busy, right? And like, sometimes like parents would call me, hello, I'm like, hello, you know, like as if it didn't happen, you know. So, one time I picked up the phone, S-D-C, Shalom, can I speak with Rabbi Bender, the woman's, a female voice. I said, Rabbi Bender is not here now, who is it? Batsheva Kanievski. I was like, oh. Wait. So, I'm like, Rabbi Bender, Batsheva Kanievski is on the phone for your father. He's like, put her through. I'm like, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm putting her through. And I was like, I bet he like picks up the phone, he's like talking to her like with such deference, you know, like. Turns out, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm like, you know, that there was somebody in Brooklyn, no sheikhs whatsoever to Rebbe Bender, who needed something. Rebbetzin Kanieski found out about it. So I don't think Rebbetzin Kanieski probably understood Brooklyn, Queens, Farrakhway. I don't know if she knew any of that,

34:06 but she knew Rebbe Bender. Somehow somebody gave her the phone number of Darche. So she called the phone number of Darche, not recognizing it's the middle of the summer. Rebbe Bender was up in the mountains. So Barchbert took care of it. He took care of it. I remember thinking, I went home that night. I went home to my wife. She's like, how's your day? I said, I spoke to Rebbetzin Kanieski today. She's like, okay, like really, how's your day? I'm like, no really, I spoke to Rebbetzin. Also, I made a fool of myself, but I did speak to Rebbetzin Kanieski today. I was so blown away though, that it's like his name in the world was like, yeah, he'll take care of it.

34:39 That's the way it is. We'll take care of it. I said I wasn't going to do it. I'll tell you one last story. I had the greatest einfell of all time. We have two minutes left. I had the greatest einfell of all time. In camp, it's hard. Nobody wants to give tzedakah to camps. Even though it's true that camps need tzedakah because not every kid can pay, nobody wants to give tzedakah to camps. It's not like an attractive tzedakah. So camps have to figure out, because we don't want kids on the street. We want every kid to be given the same opportunity. We all have scholarship funds. We needed a way to defer the scholarships. I came up with the greatest idea of all time. It was my idea. Totally. One hundred percent. I had come back from Eretz Yishola and I decided I wanted to educate the kids in Simcha Day Camp.

35:12 about things in Yiddishkeit. So I was in charge of leagues. That was one of my jobs. So I started naming the teams and leagues after different things. I started naming them the Mirror Mets, right, the Voloshin Vipers, that was the yeshivas in Europe, you know, half of the summer. Then I switched it, second half of the summer we did different chassidus, the Breditsh of Bears, the Lubavitcher Lions, right. It was just funny when you have all these, like, five towns kids walking around going, I'm on the Breditsh of Bears, you know, like, every team I made the councils, I teach them about that Rebbe and about that yeshiva, like, it was all in Irishkeit, but whatever, it was a cute educational thing. Then it hit me, one second, team names are a commodity. I could sell team names to stores on Central Avenue. Do you remember this? Were you in Simcha Day Camp? Never went there. I sold the team names to stores on Central Avenue. So there was the Sabra Sharks, the Pizza Pius Penguins, the Five Towns Variety Vipers, the Visionville, whatever. Every single store sponsored the team for 350 shekel. And then there was a league sponsor. 350 shekel, 350 dollars.

36:14 I've been here for so long. 350 rubles, yeah? So cutbacks, yeah? So 350 bucks. Who's not going to do it 350 bucks? The first summer I got a couple teams together in one league. The second summer it blew up. Stores on Central Avenue were calling me. Why can't I be a part of this? I had sponsors. I had 24 sponsors. I didn't have that many teams. So I decided, okay, we're sponsoring all of Simcha Day Camp Leagues. Not just the 5th, 6th, 7th graders. Not just the 4th graders. 3rd graders, 2nd graders, 1st graders. And I even got the Five Times Jewish Times to be a sponsor. The way they paid me was they had full-page ads every single week thanking our sponsors. It was the most genius thing. That every single, every single league was a thousand bucks. And then I made a full sponsor. Brach's was sponsoring the entire, all of Simcha Day Camp Leagues was $5,000. Sponsored by Brach's. This was the greatest I thought. We made like an extra $15,000 just in scholarship for kids just by selling the team names. Brilliant, right? One year, I called up Suit Central.

37:17 Said, are you guys sponsoring a team this year? No, we're not sponsoring a team. We did it the last couple years. We're going to take a year off. Okay, I'll be honest with you. I didn't like fight for sponsors. It was just cool. I'm making my pre-summer phone calls. Bart Baird was in the office when I made that phone call, Bart Baird Bantler. He says to me, did Suit Central just say no to you? I said, yeah, they've done it like for a couple years in a row. They don't want to do it this summer. He goes, don't give it away yet. Goes into the other room. I hear him. He calls. He goes, did you just say no to Burke? Yeah, you're sponsoring a league this year. Yes, goodbye. That was the whole thing. I'm like, I just went from not getting 350 bucks to you got 1,000. I'm pretty good at sales, but that was pretty impressive. So he looks at me. He goes, no, it wasn't that I'm good at sales. My father's account in Suit Central is a six-figure account. I said, what do you mean? I know your father has a lot of suits, but he's not spending $100,000 on suits. He goes, of course he is.

38:18 Of course he is, because any time there's a kid in the school that can't afford, any time there's a kid in the school that's a yasum, that's lost a father or a mother, I bet Bender takes care of those kids. And he tells them, you go into Suit Central, you get a hat, you get shoes, you get belts, you get ties, you get shirts, you just put it on Bender's account. And he raises money every year to take care of those kids. So when they said no to me for $350, he was like, look, we could just move our account to the other suit store in Central Avenue, right? And it's blow away, it's blow away, it's blow away. My own brother-in-law, my father-in-law passed away a long, long time ago. My brother-in-law got married in America. We were all here in Eretz Yisrael. Of course all the siblings were flying in, but not me. My wife was going to fly in, but not me. But Bender flew us all in, flew us all in. Mikhap? Because it's him. It's not me. If I tried to do it, it'd be bad. Yeah? But it's him. And when you have the capacity to do that, you have to know. So here's the homework for today.

39:24 What's the talent that I have? Something that I can contribute. Something that feels right to me. I'm going to excel in the area of chesed. I'm going to excel in... What are the ma'isim tovim? What are the talents that I have? And what are the ma'isim tovim that I'm going to do to make them actionable? Shukran khaira baisakhi.