Bringing Out Your Inner Mashiach

1:50 But she said something to me many years ago when she started the JDRP Momentum Mission that I happen to have. The first one, Julie, you were on the first one. Where are you? You were on the first one also. My dear friend Edna Jaffa, that you all know, who really, very much wanted to be here but had to go back. She was here for eight weeks and had to go back to her family. But Edna was with me on that first mission, and I remember she said to me afterwards, "We came with a group of women. You've heard this many of you many times, but it's okay. It reminds us of what it's all about." And she said to me, "Barry, I came with a group of women that were just starting their Jewish journey, like a birthright for Jewish women." And she said to me, "Your, her whole life" From her, from generations to generations. She looked at me and she said, 'You are living in your little kiryuv bubble.'

2:38 There is a whole world of women that need to be on fire and need to be inspired. And for some, Nees Gadol, and I, I know it's a Nees. That same year, Baruch Hashem, we started the Chizuk Mission. What I'm so excited to say is that some of the real originals are sitting in this room. Where are you? Hello, you were a baby, Tamar, baby. Where's Alana? She walked out. She probably knew that I was going to enter the name. Julie, who else was on that first mission? From that mission 16 years ago has grown into something that's not just only in Israel, but Israel is the hub. It is the heart and soul. For the fact that quoting my dear friend Lori Platnick coming back, thank you Hashem for letting me remember this. She said that come Rosh Hashanah, right when Hashem writes down what's going to be and then seals on Yom Kippur.

3:34 It was chosen that each and every one of us will have the privilege of being in Eretz Yisrael right now And it's not something to take lightly. I don't care how many times you've been here, and how many times you've even been on a chesed mission, even if you've been on a chesed mission. I hope more and more that you know what a gift Hashem is giving you. It is nothing that our life as Jewish women should not take for granted, and that Hashem is gifting us this almost week to be able to fill ourselves up So that we can fill up in order to go back. We're really it. What you know that your home is going to be whatever you are. You're happy, you're gonna be. Everybody's gonna be happy. You're miserable. But Noam, thank you. But Alan, I just said you were the first one in the Chizuk Mission, and really were the heart and soul, and I'm grateful that you're here.

4:33 All of this being said, I want to say thank you to all of you. I want to always that it should be. The what we're learning, what we're gaining, what we're gleaning, that it should be an aliyah for my mother's mishama, shen lo bas mosha, uchamachaya from a bastofin chasam. As I said, had rabbi swanach ben yitzchak matziah. But I really am going to ask everybody, because there are so many people in so many lives in so many situations. I really want to say names myself, but I'm going to say it. I'm going to say it loud enough that Hashem hears it, that need refuos and these yeshuos and need everything. And I'm going to ask everybody to get quiet for a moment and just think about the people. Yourself The people in your life, and the people I'm Yisrael. Let's take a moment to dedicate this week to all of them.

5:28 That we should see from this nisi niflaos gadolos. I have a very special friend, and I am going to say this out loud, Hashem. She's a very, very special woman who is living in the old city right now. She's a walking niece. We were with her in May. She's fighting for her life. She's mamish, mamish, a tzadikis of a tzadikis. So I'm going to say Esther, Shifra, Basbacha, Devorah. Hashem Give her life. The world needs her. We are going to usher in geula with her, and for all the different people. Everybody, as I said, I'm going to say a few people. I'm going to say it out loud right now. And a Sefer Shoshana Malka Bas Bat Sheva and Am Yishuah Ben Sara Esther. Bless them, Hashem. Mamish, bless them, please. And for all the other people. That's just it. I would like to introduce someone who is really, really, really very special to the Chizuk Mission. I've said it. I'm going to say it again. You've heard it, but I will say it. That Rabbi Berg was not. You weren't a mistake. You were not a mistake.

6:33 You weren't a mistake. But it happened to be that Rav Gab was supposed to be teaching, and Rav Gab is very, very near and dear to the Chizuk of the Rebbe. And he couldn't come. And I said to him, "What are we going to do?" And he says, "I would like to introduce you to my very dear friend, Rabbi Berg. Trust me." So of course I trust him. And since then, it's been like literally, what could we say? Rabbi Berg is not only a main staple to the Chizuk Mission in Eretz Israel, but now Kanai Nahara all around the world in people's lives and people everywhere, and he really is a major educational facet. We are in the midst of putting together an unbelievable team, and Rabbi Berg is really playing that part for us educationally, and we don't take it for granted. And you're amazing, and Baruch Hashem, we just missed each other in Cleveland, but I'm grateful to Hashem that we get to be here. Without further ado, Rabbi Berg, take it away.

7:36 I'm used to hearing the introductions, like the Hespedim when people introduce here. But that's the best Hesped I ever got. You were not a mistake. Thanks, Mom. The it's true we did miss each other in Cleveland I'd rather miss each other in Cleveland than see each other in Eretz Yisrael. I'd rather miss each other in Eretz Yisrael than see each other in Cleveland. I missed you most of all, Mrs. The Gemara in Sanhedrin—a little bit of a strange Gemara. I'm only going to do one line of Gemara. I'm not going to do a million questions. I want to speak plainly today. But just one line of Gemara. The Gemara asks, "What's the name of Mashiach?" It's a long Gemara. I'm not going to go through the whole Gemara, but just one line of the Gemara. The Gemara says that in the beis medrash of Rav Shilo, they said that Mashiach's name was Shilo.

8:41 And in the beis medrash of Rav Yannai, they said that Mashiach's name was Yannun And in the beis medrash of Rav Chanina, they said that. Mashiach's name was Hanina. That's the Gemara. The Gemara goes on, but for us, that's the whole Gemara. It's a strange thing. I guess it's not the first time that somebody thought that their Rebbe was Mashiach. There's precedent for this in history. Ashali, what's the Gemara saying? What does that mean? That they said their Rebbe's name was the name of Mashiach. That their methodology and learning, their derech achayim, was the name of Mashiach. Many years ago, the Lubavitcher Rebbe said a very strange thing. I don't know if everyone understood what it meant. I don't know if anyone understood what it meant, but it's worthwhile to explore. At a very remarkable Fabbregen The Rebbe said, "I've done everything I can to bring Mashiach. The rest is up to you."

9:40 What did he mean by that? There was a lot of hack about that. What exactly did the Rebbe mean? That he was Mashiach. There was a lot of hack around that time, but there was something in that, something embedded in that In that one sentence, I think is very profound for us. Ulaameh kulam tzaddikim. Every one of us is a tzaddik. There was a video that came out a couple of months ago. I forget his name. There was a rav who was very chasveh, a rav in Staten Island. Moshe meyer weiss. Is that possible? Yes. Isn't that nice? And I think the video went pretty viral. Somebody had written to him a question that they had a big problem with the song. Noach is a big tzaddik. Some of you may have seen the video. Nicholsberger Rebbe Who is a big tzaddik Wrote this song.

10:42 Noach is a big tzaddik from his kapila to his feet. Noach is a big tzaddik. Every year is a big tzaddik. From their kapelach to their feetzach And the writer of this question was very upset. Not everyone's a big tzaddik. Look around, not everyone's a big tzaddik. And Rav Weiss was saying, this is the line in the sand that thou shall not cross. This is the great problem in Kali Yisrael that people are proclaiming that Yidden are big tzaddikim. This is a big avodah. And he had an answer to that question, and I want to try to, obviously, relative to him, I'm a nothing. But to piggyback onto that question, and maybe to offer something for us I was talking to Barry before the beginning of the Chizuk Mission. I'm very privileged to be on the board of the Chizuk Mission. I'm not a hundred percent sure I know what that means But if Barry asks you to do something, then you do it. And the reason we're all here is because when someone like Barry, who's giving her life to Klali Yisrael, asks, you have to say yes.

11:57 I remember once I was talking to Rav Gav, and I hadn't been picking up the phone because I was teaching. And he said to me, "When I call, you have to pick up the phone." So I said, 'Why? I love you, but he said, "Because I'm calling because I need something, and I'm doing things for Yisrael, and you have to help me." When Barry calls, you have to say yes. So Barry called, and she said, "Well, you'll be on the board of the Chizik Mission." I said yes. But I think I finally figured out what that means. What that means is that a week before this trip There's a 30-minute phone call, which she promises is going to be five minutes, and it starts off with, "I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna" Listen. You said I wasn't a mistake, so we have to get on even ground here for a second.

12:44 Rebbe Berg, I need five minutes of your time. I need five minutes of your time. Half an hour later And I've only said about three sentences in half an hour. She explains to me with a torrent of words. It's a hurricane, a tidal wave of words. Because Barry talks around ideas, and you have to fall into them. And about six times over the course of that torrent of words, she says to me, "Do you know what I mean?" And I do. That's amazing. I do. And sometimes I have to ask a couple of questions, but eventually we fall into it together. And Barry says to me, "It's very important that we get this started right because this is going to be whatever we talk about right now is going to be the theme of the next week." And she's super excited for this Chesed mission, and I've seen her get excited for every Chesed mission, but this is like two levels above what it normally is.

13:44 Was that? Have you been noticing this? There's like a level up here. The group of women that are coming, Rabbi Berg, you don't understand that we have some originals, and I always hear her say something like this, but it's very leveled up, and this is very precious to her. And we spoke out this idea, and it's the idea that I really want to share with you in the clearest way possible. I hope that I'm going to do a good job because I myself have been working on this since we spoke. To think about how we could frame this mission, not only so that it lasts us for the next week But that it lasts us for a long time. Because the avoda that Barry came to It's really not just the avoda of this week. It's not just the avoda of the rest of our lives. This is the avoda of this final stage of bringing Mashiach.

14:37 And because we're in. The final moments Like the Friederke Rebbe said, that all that's left is to polish the buttons on the uniform of Mashiach, because everything else is ready. But the final brushstrokes, which are the most delicate, because the painting is basically finished. What does the painting need? It needs that final touch-up until it's perfect and ready to go. That's what we're holding. In some ways, this is the biggest avodah. There's always that question that people ask: Really, I'm going to be the door to bring Mashiach? It's not going to be the door of Avram Yitzchak Yaakov. Moshe Aaron David Shlomo. It's not going to be the door of the Chleisenberger Rebbe after the Holocaust, when the Chleisenberger Rebbe went into the DP camps. And he said, "Really, this is it?" Because they knew. The Amim knew in the Shoa. They knew that for sure, Mashiach is coming. There's no way that Klal Yisrael could go through this amount of suffering and for Mashiach not to come. And the Kleisenberg Rebbe was waiting to greet Mashiach Tzidkenu.

15:45 Now it could be that the process of Mashiach began to unfold in that period. The shell had to crack to its absolute completion for us to be sitting here in this unprecedented time in history. It's a beautiful day. It's always beautiful to be in air. It's a beautiful day, no? When you were on the roof just now, did you? I said out loud, I really didn't want to come downstairs right now. I don't want to be indoors right now. I think y'all. It's not like a sheer shemesh, you know what I'm saying? Like when you're a kid and you just want to not learn and just be outside. I really genuinely want to be outside right now. I don't want to be here. I love to be here, but I don't want to be here. I'd rather if we were all outside. There's no better place and time in history than to be in this moment. You said a moment ago, Barry, that what was that?

16:36 Two floors up. I want to be three floors up. I just want to be. We're close. We're adjacent to where I want to be. I really want to be about a couple hundred feet that way. Still wait for Moshiach for that. You said it right. Rav Nach was a big dreamer. Did he dream of this? I guess he did. It was a much smaller building when he built it. It's a building full of dreamers. It's a nation full of genius. So what's this avoda? So I think the avoda is this And there's a lot of different ways to say this. But basically, there's a movement right now in the world And the movement is to radically turn inwards. That everything that's happening outside of myself, I'm not in control of. And the only thing that I am in control of is the deepest parts that are inside of myself.

17:34 Meaning, I'm not even in control of the external parts of my being. I'm not in control of my thoughts. Certainly not the first thought. As we all know, that first sometimes embarrassing thought that pops into our head. Not necessarily in control of my emotions. I can learn to control my emotions, but the things that come up naturally, the feelings that come up naturally They're very difficult. Certainly, my actions. I do things all the time that I'm embarrassed of. You ever have that cringe moment where you start to think back to what you were like 20 years ago? I had a cringe moment like this past Matzah Shabbos. I was in Bergenfield, New Jersey. I ran into a Talmud from my first year of teaching. And I was thinking of how all the mistakes that I made in the beginning And then it starts this. This is a very anxious, intrusive thought of like, and then all the mistakes you made as a parent, and all the mistakes you made as a husband. By the time you're five minutes later, you're off the dark completely.

18:37 I messed it all up. And now all I can hope to do is a little bit better than I did twenty years ago. You know that forever empty. The not defining ourselves by any. Of the things that happen to us, not defining ourselves by any of the ways that we behaved, by any of the thoughts that were in our head or the emotions that we felt. But achvirak to turn inwards to the most essential point of the soul and to live from that place. That is the inner nikkudah that we all have. That's called a tzaddik. And the challenge of every generation, but for sure of our generation Is to come to the radical conclusion, Ula Amek Kulam Tzadikim That Am a Tzadik That every Jew that I've ever encountered is a Tzadik That there has never been a Jew that hasn't been a Tzadik.

19:41 That the biggest Russia in the world has the capacity, in just one moment, to radically turn their life around. And to access that inner nikkudah of tzaddik that is truly them, and to become the biggest baltuvah in the world That is the avoda of every generation. But for our generation, that's the avoda. And it's very disconcerting to people. When you say this to people, the first thing they say is, "What about accountability?" If I'm going to look at everybody, if I'm going to look at my husband and say he's a tzaddik when he's not behaving like a tzaddik. Which is a big pain point. Does that mean that I don't get to hold them accountable? My children, if I look at my children and I say, 'You're tzaddik, you're not tzaddik,' I know where you were on Motzei Shabbos. I know where you were on Friday night.

20:30 I got that report from the Rebbe that says you have a lot of potential. You know what that word potential means. I was soaking in the Nachas. I had Asifah Horim. For my son on Monday night, I landed. I landed on Sunday night, back in Eretz Yisrael. Monday night had a PTA, Asifat Horim. And he's in third grade. His rebbe is the sweetest Jew in the world. One of these real Santa Claus yidden. I'm talking about a real long beard and a real smile and carrying a sack of toys everywhere he goes. And he writes the most beautiful takenachas. He writes the most beautiful mitzvanoos, and he's famous for it. I don't know when he teaches, because he's just writing mitzvah notes all day long. He makes every kid feel amazing about themselves. My wife and I walked in. Asifaho Rem was less than sixty seconds. He looks at us and he goes, "Ben Porat Yosef."

21:25 And I was like, "Ooh" Thank God he got my wife's jeans. " You know, like. No It's Kosovos. It wasn't from me. The. We know we just got that bad report. We know who our kids really are. It's funny that our kids don't think we know who they are. Like we thought our parents didn't know who we were. Parents know very well. I'm supposed to look at you and say you're a tzaddik, but if I look at you and say you're a tzaddik, then how am I going to say? But you have to stop doing this. Or you're treating me in a way that I don't appreciate. Where's the accountability? It's exactly the opposite. If we're holding somebody accountable without looking at them like the tzaddik that they are, we're not holding them accountable. We're just pouring out our stuff onto them. They're not accountable.

22:27 Just because you said what you felt you needed to say because you needed to relieve yourself of the burden of your own pain. Doesn't mean that you held somebody accountable. That's why they don't feel like they've been held accountable. They feel like they've been attacked. Because until I see you as you actually are Why in the world would you ever listen to me when I say I need you to behave in a way that's more pleasant for me? It's such a challenge because we are in pain. But the only reason we're experiencing the level of pain we're experiencing is because we also don't know that we're a tzaddik. Because if we knew that we were a tzaddik If we knew with clarity that we are okay Then we could actually feel the pain that we're feeling. But we don't feel the pain that we're feeling. We feel ten times the pain that we're feeling because we don't allow ourselves to feel the pain.

23:32 This is the paradox of pain. If I would be okay Then I would actually feel through all of my feelings. I remember many years ago when I was very, very, very psychologically unaware. I was a young married man. And my wife was very psychologically inclined, and I knew everything. And I remember that my wife said to me, "The hardest thing in the world is to feel your feelings." And I looked at her like she was from the moon, and I was like, "No" You just feel them. And she was like, "I don't really know why she married me. Maybe I was like a test project. I'm not a hundred" Or maybe like an experiment. Let's see what happens if you know what I'm saying. Can we train the monkey to be psychologically aware? Don't laugh. You all did that to your husbands. I know exactly what you did.

24:24 She doesn't say it out loud because then it would ruin the experiment. I really have to bring her. Yeah. But that's only because. I don't want to say the next part. Yeah. She said the hardest thing in the world is to feel your feelings. It took me a couple years to figure out what that meant. Oh, I'm not feeling my feelings. I'm feeling everything but my feelings, which is why I'm feeling them in a way that feels so debilitating. " Because. Because if you don't feel your feelings, those feelings turn into fear and anger and rage and resentment, because you're not actually feeling them. The reason we don't feel our feelings is because we know, with a deep level of clarity, that we are not okay. And if I allow myself to feel this feeling, I will be completely overwhelmed by it. So I don't allow myself to feel this feeling. I'll either feel ten times the feeling or I'll feel nothing. I'm going to numb out or I'm going to feel it in its most exaggerated form because I'm not okay.

25:33 But if I would know that I have an inner tzaddik that has never moved That I am completely righteous and completely innocent and absolutely pure Then I would actually allow myself to engage the reality of this moment with all of its beauty. And beauty involves pain. Not suffering. But beauty involves going through the chaos of this world and feeling through all of the feelings And then on the other end of that, because I know that I've actually felt what needs to be felt when I'm talking to my husband, or when I'm talking to my children, or I'm talking to a friend that hurt me, or I'm talking to a coworker, or another woman on the Chizuk Mission, then I can actually say, "Ouch, that hurt" And because I see you as beautiful, and because I see our relationship as beautiful, I want to share this with you. I'm looking to build boundaries that include you.

26:29 As opposed to weaponizing the notion of building boundaries to keep people that I love out. And then, when we burn all of our bridges, we wonder why nobody comes to visit. So we blame the entire world because we behaved in a way that isolated ourselves. The reason we behaved in a way that isolated ourselves is because we were confirming the fact that fundamentally we're unworthy. I should live alone. And so we're behaving in these maladaptive ways not because Chassidus Shalom are bad. We're behaving in these maladaptive ways because we don't know how beautiful we are. And it's very painful to watch. The moment you realize this idea is true, everything shifts because once you start to realize that you're forgivable. You actually hold yourself accountable, but you hold yourself accountable in a beautiful way. The most frustrating thing in the world is if you have something that you really like to wear.

27:34 And it gets stained in a way that it can't come out. Somebody just have to. I thought that was that. Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. Bad. I'm gonna come out. I went on. I went on vacation with my wife this summer. I had a shirt that I really liked. It was an expensive shirt that I bought in Lakewood. Which, by the way, how did we arrive at this moment where we say an expensive shirt that I bought in Lakewood? When I was growing up, it was an expensive shirt that you bought in the Five Towns. You went to Lakewood to go shopping if you wanted to save some money. It was worth going over the bridges and the gas. You still saved money. I was stuck. There was a wedding in Lakewood. I didn't have any clothing. Actually, I was on the Chizuk Mission. There was a woman that said you'll shop at this place in Lakewood when you come in for the wedding.

28:24 I didn't realize what it meant to shop in Lakewood, and I ended up getting this very expensive shirt. I was going on vacation with my wife. I was holding an Osherad bag, those plastic Osherad bags. Turns out they melt in the sun. If you hold them on your shirt, you will have Osherad on your shirt. And because I wear white shirts, because I'm very frum, and that is the definition of frumkeit. So I get to the hotel and I'm like, Osheret. So now I'm like, I don't have this shirt. And because I'm in Netanya and I'm not gonna bring it to the dry cleaner in Beit Shemesh, because I'm on vacation for three days in Netanya. By the time I got back. Even the dry cleaner in Beit Shemesh is like this. There's this Haredi dry cleaner in Beit Shemesh. I don't know what chemicals this man is using. There is no stain he can't get out.

29:14 Even he looked at it, he's like, nope. And that's the end of that shirt. Why is it so frustrating? Because it was a good shirt. The reason why we clean a good shirt is because it's a good shirt. You don't throw out a shirt that the stain can't come out of. The notion of being cleansed by Hakadosh Baruch Hu Of going through a Yom Hadin That's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. We grew up with this distorted notion of the way that Hakadosh Baruch Hu judges us, something to be afraid of. I'm not afraid of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's judgment. I love the fact that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is judging me, because who wouldn't want to be seen through the eyes of an infinitely compassionate father? The reason why back in Europe they could talk about emasadin is because they knew with absolute clarity that they were tzaddikim.

30:11 Today we live in a world where we think we are mamash on nothing, so the notion of judgment is terrifying to us. That's why, if you listen to the kids, if you listen to the teenagers, if you ever want to know what's going on in the world, really listen to the teenagers because they're just articulating all the things that we're afraid to articulate. They're saying the things that we don't say. So they don't judge me. First of all, don't tell me what to do. Second of all, why are they so afraid of judgment? Why can't they handle any criticism? They're right. They can't handle criticism because they say you're not looking at me with beauty. You're looking at me and defining me by my lowest moment. And the reason you're doing that is because you're defining yourself by your lowest moment. I don't want to be seen the way you see yourself.

31:02 And that's why kids today Every one of them is flocking to that rebbe. There's always that one rebbe, or two. That in the school everybody's going to that rebbe. Is that rebbe the biggest talmudachem? Maybe, maybe not. Is he the best pedagogue? Is he the most educated? Did he have a master's and a doctorate degree from Harvard in education? Probably not. He does it right. He doesn't need it. He knows that when a boy comes into his classroom, he smiles at them and he's happy to see them. It's a very simple thing. I look at you and I see something beautiful. I'll share with you a beautiful story. And I don't want to say all the details because I don't think it would be appropriate. But one of my closest friends growing up He actually just married his German girlfriend. Who may or may not be Jewish She might be Jewish. He doesn't want to find out.

31:57 If she's Jewish, then I have to break up with her. So he doesn't want to find out if her grandmother was found on the side of the tracks and taken into an orphanage in the early 40s. I'm wondering who would abandon a child in the early 40s. Maybe your grandmother was Jewish. Maybe she's Jewish. I don't know. Akol Shabbos has a funny sense of humor. We'll find out, Lasev Lavo, who he actually married. So I have this close friend who's completely off the derech. I have another close friend who was also off the derech since he was like, as soon as this kid, kids who go off the derech, like before, kids go off the derech when it's trendy, like summer after tenth grade, right? That's the time where kids go off the derech. This kid was out way before that, like eighth grade. He was already like amen. He was expelled from yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael.

32:47 He was doing Kol Me'ed Vareim after he got thrown out. This is one of my oldest friends. He used to come to my wedding when my wife and I got married. Used to drive to the house on Shabbos. We would invite him for Shabbos meals. He would park a block away, which was very sweet of him. But we had a bay window, so we could see him parking. He would perch a yarmulke on his head, like the satin yarmulke from the hotels. He didn't know how to wear a yarmulke. He grew up in Farakawa. He knew how to wear a yarmulke. He would come and he was always the sweetest guy. And he got married after dating his wife for seven years. Seven months later, his wife died. And it was in a tragic way. And shortly afterwards Six months, eight months, Mashu Kazer, all of a sudden, I started getting different Torah from him.

33:38 Chabad.org, Ace.com. I listened to a shirt of yours online. What in the world is going on? So he told me that our rebbe in high school and I could say this rebbe's name. Anyone here from Woodmere? Where are you from? You grew up in Lawrence. I also grew up in Lawrence. So we all think we're better than everybody else. Where'd you grow up? Where'd you grow up in Lawrence? You're from Toronto. You live in Toronto. So you tried to do tshuva. I hear. I live in Eretz Yisrael, but it's in my bones. I can't kick it. Where'd you grow up in Lawrence? Western ridge. And you? Pirate drive. Harbor View. Something Park. Nowhere you know. I went to every school in the five towns. I got thrown out. I got thrown out of Hefton. The I said, "Ask me any school. I got thrown out. I did two limbs of the school. I did a little Shpatzir. I spent a little time here, a little time there. We'll do the Jewish geography later."

34:56 Rabbi axelrod from woodmere, the Rav of young Israel woodmere. To me, it's a pillar that Rabbi Axelrod is the Rav of a Young Israel. He's the last person you would ever think is the reb of a young Israel, the reb of a young Israel. And I'm not saying he's not polished. He's polished. But you know what I'm saying? There's like a certain. I don't know how to describe. There's a certain way rabbis button their suits. You know what I'm talking about? Like, there's a certain formality you have to have if you want to be the reb of a young Israel. You have to have great diction. You have to really be able to remember everybody's name. I want to recognize there's a way of speaking. They train you in rabbi school. I actually was the last guy in the world who studied rabbi of Yisrael Winmer. In twelfth grade There was a very choshev rav who joined the school. He was a very big talmudachem. He was R' Parnas's chavrusha for many years. He learned by R' Parnas for ten years. He joined the school and the school decided that they were going to make a powerhouse she'er.

35:59 They were going to take the best eleventh graders and the best twelfth graders and make a she'er. And then they were going to take the less best 11th graders and the less best 12th graders, and they were going to. The Axelrod was going to be there. I was stuck in between. They couldn't put me with the top kids, but they also couldn't put me with the other guys. So they made a group of like 12 kids. Baruch Hashem, the Rosh Hashiva's son was in that group. We had a very nice babysitter for all of 12th grade. It was a tremendous gift that they gave us. That the Axelrod took this class, the biggest moshagayim. The biggest Mishkenot. These guys were crazy. They were absolutely crazy. The school made a very big mistake because they knew they weren't going to learn, so they didn't put them in a proper classroom. So they put them in the science lab. Which is a terrible idea. These are not the kids you should put around fire and beakers and chemicals.

36:48 So all day long they're running experiments in the science lab, and Rabbi Exord is trying to make sure the school doesn't blow up. It came to a head when my good friend Shimon. You remember those old rulers that were like the giant rulers, the yardsticks. So he found a long rubber hose and a long metal tube. And he made a bow and arrow, and he shot out the window in the science lab. He made a bow and arrow, and the window exploded, and the principal, Dr. Katzal of Hashalom, came running in. He looks at Shimon holding the bow. He looks at the shattered window. He looks at Shimon and he goes Not again. So they finally decided to move these lunatics to the basement, which they then dubbed the padded room. Rabbi Aizel R' just came down every day and chilled out with these guys in the padded room.

37:41 And he stayed in touch with my friend the entire time that he was in Eretz Yisrael. He was in touch with him; this was before the days of smartphones. This was before the days of FaceTime. This was like the end of the Asimonim, beginning of the calling cards. Everyone had that IDT calling card that their parents sent them. It was the beginning of that phase. So Rabbi Axelrod got a hold of him back and forth. They really kept in touch. He dated this girl for seven years. Rabbi Axelrod married them off, and then seven months later, he buried her. And when I asked him why he came back on the derech after all these years He said because Rabbi Axelrod never stopped loving And he just couldn't go off the derech. There is no mystery to chinuch. There is no big secret. We think that we can't hold our children accountable. It's become in vogue to have no boundaries for children. This is a terrible mistake.

38:41 Children crave boundaries. They want boundaries. They just want you to see them as beautiful when you give them those boundaries, so they'll understand that the boundaries are to help them bring out their inner beauty. There's no great secret to marriage. There is this is like the big that's why you when you get older and you stop parenting your children And it's like The older kids think that you just got tired of parenting, and they say to the younger siblings You should have seen the hurricane that was when we were growing up. We weren't able to do anything, trauma about their socks. And they're looking at my 11-year-old daughter going. Thank God, Imanava got too tired to parent you. It's not true. We didn't get tired. We just learned that it's 99% unnecessary. That all of the things that we said, 99% of them didn't need to be said.

39:37 Because the kids knew themselves what our values were. They just wanted somebody to say, "Ula amech kulam tzaddikim." Every kid's a big tzaddik from their kapelach to their feetelach. That's all they were waiting for us to say. Our children were waiting for us to realize that we were okay, so that they could be okay in our presence. It's very rare. Unfortunately, to have a system that actually tells kids you are okay. It's very rare to have a system where rebbeim are checking in with themselves: what's triggering me when this kid? Miss Beis, why am I so bothered by what's happening from what that kid is doing? And they'll give you all the reasons of why that kid is doing something wrong, and you'll keep asking these rabbis the same question over and over again. I understand what that kid is doing wrong. What's coming up for you?

40:36 What's your need to control this situation? What are you afraid of? It's very rare to have a system like this. The avoda of polishing the buttons is to be able to recognize I. Have a piece of Mashiach inside of me that's meant to be brought out. That's Mashiach doesn't come because I do something for someone else. Mashiach comes because I access the inner nikkudah of Mashiach within me, and because of that, the way that I treat everybody else is different. This is the mistake that we keep making. We keep talking about we have to love every Jew. Absolutely we do. From where? From where are you going to love every Jew? How are you going to love every Jew? I can't love every Jew. I can't do it. How do you want me to love that Jew when they just had an atzeres Tefillah but they don't want to go to the army?

41:29 How am I going to love every Jew when they're marching in the streets that they want judicial reform? How am I going to love every Jew when this left winger wants us to end the war and ignore the realities on the ground? Everybody has a reason not to love every Jew. And they're good reasons. They're good reasons. There's a guy in yeshiva. He said to me something so beautiful. I was so proud of him. This boy went to Chavetz Chaim in Florida. And he's in Sheer with boys from Frisch and SAR and TABC and JEC and DRS. There's one Sheer. It's like a hodgepodge Sheer. And he said to me, I was so proud. He said, Rebbe, in a million years, I never would have gone to high school with any of these guys. My parents would never have sent me to high school with these guys. Their families come from different hachshavos. They grew up in different camps and with different rebbeim than I did and different hasagos.

42:21 I'm so happy I'm in shir with them. They're amazing guys, and I never would have had the opportunity to meet them. Sinas chinam is easy when we sit far away from somebody else. My grandmother, Allahu Akbar, told me this. I asked her when she was 90 years old. Last time I saw my grandmother in person I had the wisdom to ask my grandmother, who was a simple person. It's not like my grandmother was a worldly person. But she had a depth of wisdom to her that you couldn't find on paper. I asked her why there is so much anti-Semitism. She said it used to be when she was growing up, you sat with the Italian kids and the Polish kids, and everybody was outside playing on the stoop, like back in the age of the Depression. And somebody had a phone. Like where one person has a phone in the entire building. So we'd all be playing outside.

43:09 And then they would call up. Phone call for shames, and somebody would run up to that apartment that had a phone. She said, "It's hard to hate each other when we sit next to each other." It's easy to hate when we're far away. I can sit across from another Jew, and if you're far away and talking about judicial reform, and I'm sitting over here talking about the Atzirus, and you're sitting over there So then it's easy for us to hate each other. It's hard when we're sitting next to each other. Because now I see that you're a normal person and now I see that you have a point of view. Aviva just told me this. For those that are part of the shir, the Chizuk Mishnashir from Monday nights, Aviva just said this beautiful thing. She was quoting from I forget the name, the chief of staff of Ruby Rivlin, this Haredi woman with 11 kids.

43:55 She said it's called point of view. Which means that you need to leave your point of view to go to somebody else's space to see the world through their lens. If we're sitting next to each other and we're actually having a conversation, it's easy for me to see your point of view. But how can I see your point of view when you're marching on Tel Aviv? The answer is, I can get close to you if I turn inwards. And if I'm connected to my inner tzaddik, that means I'm connected naturally to every tzaddik in all of Klal Yisrael. My natural refrain becomes ule'amech kulam tzaddik. I'm the child of Avram Yitzchak and Yaakov, and you're the child of Avram Yitzchak and Yaakov. So the Lubavitcher Rebbe was very upset. Somebody came to him, very proud, to say that they started some sort of program for people with no Jewish background. And the Rebbe looked at them like they were from the moon. He's like, "There's no such thing as a Jew that doesn't have a Jewish background."

44:49 We really need to change the educational system to be a Kehiru system. Because how would we deal with that kid if they weren't from? And why are you dealing with them differently because they grew up in the Orthodox? If we had a kid in school that wasn't keeping Shabbos because they came from a conservative or reformed home, and then they made a mistake and went against the rules, the last thing we would ever do is say you have to go. We would say other, but say there we need to bring you even closer. Every yid's a big tzaddik. I but what about accountability? Memeila, Memela—they're held accountable, and this is what the Rambam writes. The Rambam writes in Avos that the way of Aaron Akohen, the kira of Aaron Akohen Was to be able to look at every Jew and see their beauty, and then Memela they started acting that way. Aaron Akohen didn't need to tell them you're doing the wrong thing. He told them that they were beautiful, and Memela they said, "If I'm beautiful, then I shouldn't be doing this."

45:56 The goal of this week, which is the goal of all of everything. Especially in these final moments What is our inner Mashiach? What is our inner Tzaddik? Every one of us has an inner Tzaddik. What are the areas where we're holding in a deep place of shame The belief that I'm unworthy of love and connection because I thought things, felt things, acted in a certain way? What are the relationships in my life that I'm embarrassed of, that I would never want to admit out loud? And what is the inner tzaddik that I need to bring to those things, in order to shine a light on my own inner beauty and to reframe? I want to give you an example of this. A boy comes to me and he says to me I have terrible anger issues. Terrible. Maybe you don't understand. I've treated my family.

46:57 I erupt on them like a volcano. What do you say? And he was, how sometimes if you like speak to an eighteen-year-old young man, in the name of being honest They say all the bad things about themselves. You ever have that where they like they think now I'm finally going to go into my rebbe's office and close the door and just unburden myself by saying all the terrible things about myself. This is like a thing that happens. Like keilu, it's like confessionals. You come and it's a safe space. At the end, I'm gonna say seven Hail Marys and give some tzedakah and then you'll be cleansed of your sins. They just say they sit there and they say all the terrible things about them. Said Rabbi, I'm mamish of terrible. You don't understand the things I've said to my mother. You don't understand the things that I've said to my father. You don't understand the way that I treated my sister.

47:52 Whenever it happens, I try to help them just by saying, "Wow, it seems like you really care about your family." No, Rebbe, you don't understand. I just got done telling you all the ways in which I poured out my anger on my family. I'm a terrible person. You must really love your family. They have no idea what I'm talking about. Why do we get angry at the people that we love? How could you have done that to me? Don't you know how much I love you? The beauty, the inner tzaddik of anger, which doesn't express. Use our rage on another person, but the inner beauty of anger is: I love you so much. I feel so pushed away from you. The last thing I want is to be outside of your boundaries. Anger is our attempt to draw somebody close while pushing them away. That's why we don't understand why our anger doesn't work. If you've ever gotten angry at somebody and then they move farther away, you're like, "Didn't I just tell you how much I love you?" I mean, it was a valiant attempt to tell somebody how much you love them. But there is an inner beauty to anger.

48:58 Every emotion has an inner beauty. But we framed it And we do it so quickly that we don't realize it's happening. We framed it as I'm a terrible person. In this cycle of violence, you don't understand. I'm the center. I'm the bad one. I'm the mother that messed up her children. I'm the wife that pushed away her husband. I'm the employee that nobody can stand, or the employer that feels distant from their employees. I'm the person in my community that people, no matter how much I am for everybody else, for some reason, it's never enough. We all have these beliefs about ourselves that are formed from this trauma of I'm not enough and I'm not okay. Does that make sense? Over the course of this week. We're going to ask you. I'm coming back Mitzvah Shabbos Bar. I think we're coming back Mitzvah Shabbos. We'll talk afterwards.

50:05 Over the course of this week What we would really like to see is because we want this trip to be transformational Like every Chasuk mission trip. What we really want to see is If I came out fundamentally knowing that I'm not my lowest moment That I am okay That the name of Mashiach is the name of my beis medrash That my house, the name of Mashiach, is the name of my house. If I'm in the beis medrash of Rivshilo, then the name of Mashiach is Shilo. If I'm in the beis medrash of Rivyanai, then the name of Mashiach is Inun. From the beis medrash of Chanina, then the name of the beis medrash is Chananiah. We are—my house is bringing Mashiach. They weren't saying my Rebbe's Mashiach. They were saying my chilek in this world is what brings Mashiach. My house brings Mashiach. It's a Mashiach home.

51:09 My house brings Mashiach. That's why in our homes we have a zeichel l'chorban because our homes are not complete. My house has not yet brought Mashiach. When I was doing Shupitsim a couple of years ago Strangest thing ever. During COVID So it was a very good time to do construction in this country because nobody was doing construction in this country. Construction was very cheap in this country. So some of our cousins came to my house for three or four months, and they slept in the house. I'll be honest, they're excellent builders. They're very good. And it's really At least back in the day, it was inexpensive. Now we can't have them in our house because they sometimes want to murder us. They're very good at shi'putzim. At the very last day, Muhammad came back to do the last touch-ups. And he's walking into the house as I'm making my zeir chaluchurban because he fixed everything.

52:06 So Muhammad walks in, and I'm sitting there with like a chicken mallet. Something like one of those giant chicken mallets, and I'm smashing into the wall. And Muhammad looks at me and he goes, "What are you doing?" He's there to make sure every last thing is perfect, and I'm there making sure there's an imperfection in the house. Which is, by the way, a very beautiful way to bring Mashiach, to embrace the imperfection of your own home. So I said to Muhammad, 'I have to explain Azeichah lechurban to him. I don't want to start another war. So I'm trying to figure out how to do this. Since Allah's house is not shalim, my house can't be shalim either.' And he's like "Why is Allah's house not shalim?" Like it was the first time that it ever occurred to him. I said "Only when there's peace on earth will there be complete shalimas to Allah's house."

53:00 But there is. This is pre-October seventh. So I said, "Well, not with everybody." So he looks at me. He says, "that's just governments." He's not right. He's not right. We don't have universal harmony. That's one of the gifts of Mashiach that we turn our swords into plowshares because the notion of hurting anybody else is absolutely foreign to us. The reason it's foreign to us is because every yid's a big tzad. Ula amech kulam sadikim. How could I ever hurt anybody else? And when they're shameless in Klal Yisrael, when we realize that every yid's a big tzaddik in Klal Yisrael, then we will naturally shine that light out onto every single person in the world. That every single person in the world will grow up not in a post-traumatic reality where we're trying to figure out our own source of worthiness. That's how Mashiach comes. Our homes need to be Mashiach homes. That our last name becomes the name of Mashiach. That when our children walk into our houses, and they come in, and whatever time they come in, and whatever way they come in We're saying this is the home of Mashiach.

54:11 But we can't do that unless we really work on ourselves. I was talking to one of the women from the Chizuk Mashiach. And she said a very profound thing to me. I like this. She, I was pushing a little bit, and I was saying turn inwards, and she said, I know, turn inwards. I've been on the Chizuk Mashiach. Turn inwards. I like that. I like that the yisod of the chizuk mission is turn inwards. I don't know if we have a tagline, but that's a good one. Chizuk mission, turn inwards. I like that. We want this change to be real. I, you'll say, let's be real. Can you make a change like this in a week? The answer is yes. Can you finish that change in a week? No. But can you make a change? Absolutely. If we come out of this week. With a deeper sense of worthiness, a deeper recognition that I am here to bring Mashiach. That the Lubavitcher Rebbe said, I've done everything I can.

55:06 As a tzaddik in this community, there's nothing left for me to do. The rest of the work is on you. I've told you as many times as I can possibly tell you, you're a tzaddik. The only thing left for you to do is listen. And no tzaddik could do that for us. And maybe that's why. I'm hesitant to say what I'm about to say. Maybe that's why our generation has less tzaddikim. If you grew up in the '80s, it's like everywhere you turned there was a tzadik. There was the Sadmer Rebbe and the Labavitcher Rebbe and the Blushover Rebbe and the Babaver Rebbe and Rav Moshe Feinstein and Rav Salavechik and Rav Kook and Rav Aaron Kotler and everywhere and Rav Shach and everywhere you turned there were unbelievable tzaddikim. And then, like we started talking, like a little bit, like they started Passing away, and we started if you were older, so you remember, it's like.

55:57 How many are left now? And it's not that Klal Yisrael hasn't developed new tzaddikim. There are Baruch Hashem. But it feels less. It feels almost like. And again, we don't read the tea leaves of history and know anything why Hakadosh Baruch Hu does anything. But it does feel a little bit like Post Holocaust, we needed a lot of tzaddikim in a lot of communities to come in to remind us you're okay. But then those tzaddikim needed to move on because that mission was done, and now the only tzaddikim left are, by the way, they're the only ones just saying ule amech kulam tzaddikim. Why do you think everyone's falling in love with Ravitcha Meir's tayr? Everywhere you turn, it's biyamda kecha. It's all the different tayrs that are coming out of Ravitcha Meir's beis medrash. Because he's just saying ule amech kulam tzaddikim, introducing ourselves to the essence of who we are.

56:45 There's not that many tzaddikim left because it's time for us to be the tzaddik. And we have to take responsibility. And abdicating that responsibility and saying no, it's up to how come the leaders of the generation don't. There's no more leaders of the generation. There's only us. How come the big Rashi Yeshiva? There's no more big Rashi Yeshiva. There's only us. How come the rebbeim? There's no more rebbeim. There's only us. We have to take responsibility. We can't pass on the chinuch of our children to our rebbeim. We can't pass on our own trauma to our parents. That's why there's a big avoda of forgiving our parents. Remember that they were. In their early 30s, when they were messing us up, they were children. There's no more blame. I'm okay. I'm enough. I can take responsibility. I can take achraz. And I think it's worthwhile to finish with this.

57:34 Barry started off by speaking about Rav Na'ach. You were zayich to a relationship. I only met him once or twice. I know for sure once. I think maybe twice, but only I know for sure once. Rav Na'ach had a dream. It's a dream that is not yet fulfilled, but it's more fulfilled than it was. He wanted to wake the sleeping giants. That's what he spoke about. I want to wake the sleeping giant. That every single Jew should become a balkiruv. That there should be no such thing as a kiruv professional. That reality has arrived But it's not kiruv in the sense of I need to go out to Kathmandu. There's an avoda for the people that are going to Zimbabwe. There's an avoda for the Chabad shliach that's going out to India and running a Pesach seder for two thousand people. Over a hundred thousand Yidden were at Pesach shtarim this year of Chabad shluchim. A hundred thousand is an enormous number.

58:34 All of us need to be balekiruv in our own homes. The sleeping giant of Klal Yisrael is that if I will be so in touch with my own inner giant, then naturally I'm going to be in touch with the giant that is every other year. And so sitting here in Rav Na'ach's dream That he knew about us, that we were giants, and that he knew about every year that they were giants. That be'ez Hashem we should be ze'icheh to really acknowledge our own inner righteousness and the melech to see the inner righteousness in every other person. And be'ez Hashem to bring Mashiach and to be able to point to Mashiach and say, Mashiach is mine.