Chukas - Making Meaningful and Lasting Change

2:36 Kadosh Baruch Hu gave them an unbelievable gift. They had food wherever they wanted, wherever they needed. They just went and scooped it up off the ground. They were kafui tov. So this demanded a more extreme response from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. But still, even if we have that answer in our pocket, we have several other questions that now arise. Why does Klal Yisrael only begin to complain about the man now? After all, they've been having man for quite some time. So now it's like Klal Yisrael is kafui tov. They lacked gratitude to Hakadosh Baruch Hu for the gift of the man. They weren't complaining for all these years. Why now? Another question is when Hakadosh Baruch Hu sends a magefa, when he sends a plague, something terrible that happens against Klal Yisrael, it's very specific. It's midah keneged midah. What's the midah keneged midah of the snakes?

3:29 And finally, there's a symmetry here that needs to be understood—a symmetry between the snakes that bit the people and killed them. And them looking at the snake, and looking at the snake that Hakadosh Baruch Hu told Moshe Rabbeinu to fashion cures them. We have to understand the symmetry in a deep way. Those are the questions. I want to talk to you about a topic that's very dear to me. It's very close to me, and it's a topic that's very relevant to NCSY Kollel. But there's a question at the heart of this entire program of NCSY Kollel—an unspoken question. I'll be the one to say it out loud, but I'm sure everyone here has thought about this question. The topic that's dear to me, the topic that I love to think about, is how we create lasting change. How do we create lasting change? How do we move from excitement to inspiration? People say inspiration never lasts. They're wrong.

4:26 Inspiration lasts a lifetime. Most people confuse the words inspiration and excitement. Excitement doesn't last. Inspiration lasts a lifetime. Excitement, as I went to a fabreg and I went to a tish, I heard a powerful shmuz. I got excited. I was part of a chevra where everyone was learning, so I was learning too. That's excitement. That's not inspiration. Excitement doesn't last. You go up, you go down. Inspiration lasts a lifetime. What's required to make lasting change is deep inspiration, and we'll unpack what those words mean in a moment. That's the topic I'm very passionate about. How do we help people change? How do I help myself change in a way that's lasting? Not in a way I'm tired of going on the roller coaster of up and down in life. I'd like finally to achieve some sense of calibration, some sense of this is who I am, and it's lasting and it's meaningful.

5:21 How do we do that? And there's an unspoken question at the heart of this program, this beautiful program that we're all zocheh to be on this summer. NCSY Kollel. Can you make a meaningful change in a six-week summer Or is that just? You'll forgive me for saying it. Is it just like this, anxious, I'll flip out, type of thing. You come for six weeks. You have amazing madrichim. You have amazing rebbeim. You're in a beautiful, air-conditioned beis medrash. You're part of an avira. Baruch Hashem, we're moving. We're staking. Six weeks. I come back. You'll forgive me for being blunt about it. You come back. Your madrichim put pressure on you. You got to go to a top eleventh grade she'er so that you can go to a top twelfth grade year so that you can get into a top yeshiva in Israel. You come back all on fire. But then, what happens two, three months later?

6:14 Two or three months later, you're in the same place you were, maybe worse. Is this just Again, you'll forgive me for being blunt. Is NCSY Kollel just a stopgap measure? We all know the summer after tenth grade could be a not halacha summer. Or we come to NCSY Kollel, and Baruch Hashem, we're not involved in that. Is it possible that we could create real change this summer, something that actually lasts? Is it possible that we could be not just excited but inspired? At the core of this question is an even deeper question, which is why are you here? If I'm being honest with you, I would not have come on NCSY Kollel when I was your age. No way. Spend my summer learning. How many chevrut do we have sitting here? What time is it? 11:15 at night. 11:15 at night. How many guys are sitting in the beis medrash and a mishmar hearing a shir? I wasn't in your shoes when I was in high school. I never would have come on NCSY Kol.

7:11 If you came here It's either because. I don't know if I want to say this part out loud. I'll say it out loud. It's either because your high school pressured you to go. You got to go. Your Rebbe's got to go. You got to go. Summer after tenth grade, you got to go to NCSY Kol. It's been fed to you for a long time. Maybe, perhaps. In your heart of hearts, there's something that you came here this summer to hear. There's a part of you that says it'd be cool if I came to NCSY Kol and I was actually inspired. And I was able to daven in a way that I felt deeply connected. And I was able to learn in a way that I felt deeply connected—not just Gemara to Bate Hashem. I was able to be deeply connected to Shabbos, not just by not doing malacha, but actually to feel it.

7:58 If you came here this summer with that in mind, and I imagine that many of you, most of you, perhaps all of you did. That means you're asking yourself the same exact question that I'm asking. Which is: I came here this summer to have a more profound relationship with Hashem. Can I actually do that? Is that possible? And is it possible to do it in a way that actually lasts? So I want to share with you a formula. It's not a hard formula, but you need to listen to the formula if you want to know how you work. This is how human beings operate. It's a very simple formula. It goes like this: something happens, an event. Something happens, good, bad, it doesn't matter. And when that happens, you have to interpret what happened. So you have a belief system. That belief system is your operating system.

8:53 And your beliefs cause you to focus on a certain part of this event. I'll give you an example in a moment. And because you're focusing on a certain part of the event, you tell yourself a story. And because you tell yourself a certain story, you start to feel a certain way. And because you feel a certain way, that's how you act. So it's a very simple formula. Something happened. You have a belief system that causes you to focus. That focus causes you to tell a story. Emotion Action. I'll give it to you in real time. Is a very famous family in the Jewish community. The name of the family is the Bachner family. How many of you have heard of the Bachner family? Not surprised. They're a very famous family. But there is no reason for you to know them. The Bachner family is a family Rabbi and Rebbitzin Bachner That for twenty years. Try to have children for twenty years. I boast, I could you imagine the pain of twenty years of trying to have children? It's hard if you're young.

10:03 But if you ever knew somebody that couldn't have children, the pain of not being able to have children is something unfathomable. Every single month, the disappointment over and over again. Going to doctors, going to labs, getting tested, treatments. You can't imagine the pain of what Rabbi and Rabbets and Bachner were going through for all those years. And after many, many years of going through trials and tribulations, there was one doctor that this was going to be the final psak. This is the event. If this doctor tells us it's over. It's over. And they went to the doctor. Could you imagine, Rabo, what the Bachners were feeling in that moment? They went to the doctor. And the doctor looked at their charts and the tests. And he looked at Rabbi and Rebbitz and Bachner, and he said, "I'm sorry." You'll never have children. It's not scientifically or medically possible for you to have children.

11:07 That was the gzeira. And Rabbi and Rebbitz and Bachner, and the car ride on the way home. It's an unbelievable story. Rabbi Bachner is driving. Rebbitz and Bachner, who after so many years of attempting to have children, now knows the g-zar din. It's over. There will be no kids from this family, from this union. Rebbitz and Bachner turns to Rabbi Bachner and she says Now we're going to start an organization. Now we're going to start an organization to help people have children. Because we are so uniquely suited to help people have kids. We know every doctor, every lab, every test, and how to negotiate with insurance companies. We can help people have children, and they started an organization. Started in that car ride on the way back from the doctor who just told them they can't have children. They started an organization called Bonaola. How many of you have heard of Bonaola?

12:07 A lot more. Boney Olam today is responsible for the birth of over eight thousand children. Over eight thousand children have been born because Rebbitzin Bachner, in the car ride on the way back from just being told that she can't have kids, said, "We're uniquely suited to help people have children." That's an unbelievable story. She didn't ask why me. She said, "What now?" Where does a woman get the strength from to do that? It's a very simple thing. An event happened. What was the event? The event was she was told, "You're no, you're not going to have children. It's not possible. The show's over. The game's over." That was the event. What were her options? She could focus on the negative. And she could say, "We're never going to be able to have children." Rabbi, would anybody here have said that she did the wrong thing if she broke down crying in that car ride?

13:07 Would anybody here say Rebbetzin Bachner missed it? She was in terrible pain. But that's not what she did. Instead of focusing on the negative, she focused on the positive. She said, "Look what we have. We have the opportunity to help others." Why did she focus on that? Because she had a belief system. Her belief system was that there is a rebonah shalom. That we don't just look at the physical existence of this world, we look underneath the surface of the physical existence. We see the soul behind everything in this world. And because she had that belief system, she focused on the positive. And because she focused on the positive, the story that she told herself is, "I could help people." I could start an organization. So she got excited to start this organization. The action was that she started the organization. Eight thousand plus children have been born.

14:03 Every single thing in this world happens with that exact formula. If you want to know people's belief systems, it's very simple. Take two people; they go to the same exact event. But they have two totally different experiences. And if you talk to them and you go, "What happened?" They go, "That's not what happened. This happened." You talk to the other guy. You go, "That's not what happened. This happened." What happened? It doesn't matter what happened. It matters how we interpret what happens. Do you understand the difference, Rebbele? Let's go back to this week's parsha. I'll show you an unbelievable thing. Klal Yisrael is walking in the desert. Listen to what the B'chor Shor says. The B'chor Shor says, "You know why they started complaining about the manel?" Because they were on the border of Eretz Yisrael, they were looking out into Eretz Yisrael, and they saw the fruits and vegetables, the delicious food that Eretz Yisrael had to offer.

15:05 And what was their response? Their response was despair and hopelessness. We will never get to eat those fruits because we are the generation destined to die here in the Midbar. Could you imagine Robosai being so close to paradise, but not being able to enter? That's what they were going through. They were this close; they couldn't reach over and grab it. They couldn't get there. So the contrast in their minds, the story they started telling themselves was, "We are going to die here." And they started to complain, 'Robosai, isn't that what people do when they get hopeless? Isn't that what people do when they start to despair?' They start to say, 'why'd you take us into the midbar to die anyway? We should have stayed in Egypt.' " Rabosei Mitzrayim was Auschwitz times a million. Who in their right mind says let's go back to Auschwitz?

16:06 Nobody says let's go back to Auschwitz. But you know why they said that? Because it's hopeless anyway. We're going to die here in the midbar. And then they said something unbelievable. The month wasn't even that great. The month wasn't that great. Why are they talking about the month? Says the B'charei Shor. Rabbi Osai, you know why? Because they were looking at the fruits of Eretz Yisrael. The contrast was they were going crazy. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, "fine." You want to be ungrateful? You could be ungrateful. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives them the secret to change, and He says like this. I'm going to send snakes. Why snakes? What does Rashi say? Does anybody know what Rashi says? Rabbeu says it's a good idea to learn Chumash with Rashi in your life. You should know Chumash with Rashi because it reminds us of the hate of the Nachash Kadmoni. It reminds us of the sin of Adam and Chava. What's one thing got to do with the other? We know the Gemara in Chulin says Haman menatayr minayin. Where do we find the source for Haman Arasha in the Torah? What does the pasuk say? Amina itzazeh.

17:17 Just like the Nachash convinced Adam and Chava that even though they could eat from every single tree in Gan Eden But we can't eat from the Eitz Hadas. We can't eat from the Eitz Hadas. Haman, the Gemara says, Haman. Everyone in the world was bowing down to him except for Mordechai. He said, "V'chol zayinenu shaveli." It's not worth it to me. I need every single person to bow down to me, just like Adam and Chava said. We need to be able to eat from every single tree, rather than expressing their hakaras hatov to Hakadosh Baruch Hu for giving them everything. They focus not on what they had, but on what they didn't have. That was the mistake of Adam and Chava. This is why Hakadosh Baruch Hu sends the nechashim. He sends these fiery serpents. He says, 'Chevra, you want to be ungrateful? You could be ungrateful, but listen.'

18:10 And this is a big yisod. If you came here six thousand miles just for this, it would be worth it. If you want to be ungrateful, you could be ungrateful, but there's a penalty that you pay for being ungrateful in life, and the penalty is death. And if you look around in the world, you'll know I'm right almost immediately. Look around at people that are ungrateful for what they have. They are the walking dead. They have no joy in their lives. Imagine a kid. He's a good kid, but he's spoiled rotten. He's been given everything. So what does he focus on? What he doesn't have. He's constantly focusing on what he doesn't have. This is not good parenting strategies. Because when a kid walks around, focus their entire life. But this kid got to go to this camp, and I only got this type of car, and this kid got this type of car.

19:03 I remember when I was a kid. I was 16 years old. I grew up in the Five Towns. I grew up in a community called Lawrence, New York. Anybody here from the Five Towns? One or two guys from the Five Towns. Interesting. So I remember when I was 16 years old. There's a rite of passage in the Five Towns at 16. What do you get? A car. You get a car. I got a license. I got a car. My parents weren't buying me a car. So they gave me access to their blue station wagon. I thought I was the coolest kid in the world. I'm rocking Central Avenue in a blue station wagon. It was the farthest thing from cool in the world. But me and Rabbi Asher Klein used to go down Central Avenue, ripping it up in my station wagon. And then there was a kid from Hafter.

19:51 He's a very wealthy kid. And he switched into my school. He switched into my high school. And he pulled up on day one in a beautiful black Range Rover. And I remember thinking to myself Man, how come my parents didn't get me a Range Rover? I had a car. I was totally fine having a car until this guy pulled up in a black Range Rover, and then all of a sudden, my blue station wagon wasn't cool anymore. You could focus on the negative, you could focus on the positive, but if you spend your life ungrateful You're the Walking Dead. You're disconnected from the source of life. A person who lives with gratitude lives with joy. Gratitude comes from the recognition that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us everything that we need. Whatever we have is what we're meant to have. If we don't have it, we don't need it.

20:43 You're disconnected from the source of life when you're ungrateful. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, 'Fine, you want to be ungrateful? That's fine, but you're going to pay the natural price for that.' Just like Adam and Chava, when they sinned and they lacked gratitude, they brought death into the world. So too, you will be bitten by the very same snake, and so too, you will die. And Kallah Yisrael got the message. They came running to Moshe Rabbeinu and said, 'You have to heal us.' So Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, 'Fine, I'll give you the refuah.' The refuah is this nachash nechoshes, this snake on top of the staff. Why is that the healing? Why is that the refu? The Gemara tells us: Does a snake kill and does a snake heal? Hakadosh Baruch Hu heals. So what would happen? They would look at this nachash and nachoshes. They would look up to Shamayim. They would recognize Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and then they would be healed.

21:39 The Ramban says a pleiadica thing. I'm not sure I understand this Ramban. Certainly not according to modern psychology. The Ramban says that it used to be that if somebody had a traumatic event, let's say they were bitten by a dog. So it was very important for them not to see dogs anymore. It was very important for them not to even see the shape of a dog. The Ramban doesn't use dog. I'm just using that as a mashal. The Ramban says why? Because otherwise the mind will be gripped by this image, and it could kill a person. So medically speaking, the Ramban says when a person goes through a traumatic event, you have to separate them from that trauma. It's interesting. Today we don't do that. Today we spend a lot of time focusing on the trauma. That's what the Ramban says. And the Ramban says, and this is an unbelievable pshat That's why Hakadosh Baruch Hu took a snake, because it was counterintuitive. They knew for sure not to look at a snake if you've been bitten by a snake. If you're looking at a snake and it heals you, then what must that be? It must be Hashem.

22:47 What's the depth of this ramban? The depth of this ramban, I believe, comes down to focus. If you're focusing on the rabonu shelolim behind the snake, then you will be healed. Because you'll be connected to Hashem. You'll be grateful for what you have. You'll live in a state of joy. Or alternatively. You could live with the bite of the snake. You could spend your life ungrateful and die. That's the choice you have. Let's take it back one more step Rabbeinu. Let's put ourselves in the shoes of those Jews that were on the cusp of coming into Eretz Yisrael. Do we understand their despair? Of course we do. It's kaviyachol. I hate to use this marshal But I remember. I had a conversation with a friend of mine in twelfth grade. And this guy had tried out for the basketball team all four years. And in twelfth grade, he thought, "This is my chance. I'm a senior."

23:51 He was just good enough to make the team. Like that guy who's not good enough to play, but just good enough to make the team. But he didn't make it. Coach chose to take a couple of eleventh graders who were less talented. But he had the opportunity to develop them. So he didn't make the team. I remember talking to him. And he's like, "I'm never going to play ball." I'm never going to be able to say I played ball for my team. It was hopeless. It's a hopeless state. I'll never be able to do it. Now that times a million is Klal Yisrael. You're the generation that left the Mitzrayim. You saw Nisim V'niflos. You were told you're going to the land of milk and honey. And you get so close. What story would we tell ourselves? I would tell myself the same story that they did.

24:47 If I'm being honest, I would say, "What's the point of everything? What's the point of anything? What did we do? We did nothing." So they went into despair. They went into hopelessness. They complained. They did exactly what 99% of us would do. But then they had a radical and lasting change. Once they looked at that Nachash, once they looked at Hashem, once they looked behind the scenes, and they said, If I'm here, it's exactly where I'm meant to be. If I'm not being brought into Eretz Yisrael, it's because it's not for me to go into Eretz Yisrael. My children will go into Eretz Yisrael, but I can be appreciative of the gifts that I had that I left Mitzrayim. And I could be appreciative of the man and the slav and the water that I was given in the midbar. And that made all the difference in the world.

25:39 We are living in a tefufa in Eretz Yisrael in Klal Yisrael's history. I hate to be the guy to bring this up. I'm sure it's going to be the topic all summer. We're living in a post Simchas Torah October seventh world. Look at this country. Look at this nation. Mikamchuy Yisrael. It's not just a WhatsApp status. It's not just cute videos. October seventh happened. What we went through was the worst day since the Holocaust. I'll tell you. In our yeshiva In our yeshiva, we saw on October seventh on Simchas Torah. We saw the Avreichim and the Meretz Kolol leave the basement. Turn on their phones, get called back to duty. They said goodbye to their wives. They said goodbye to their kids. They got in cars and they went to fight. And many of them did not come home for the next two or three months, just for a short leave.

26:40 Was a guy in yeshiva who, as this kollel guy, was driving away in his car on Simchas Torah morning. He turned to me and he said, "Rebbe, I just saw a man who had a look in his eyes like I don't know if I'll ever see my wife or kids again." And I said exactly right. That's what you saw. That's what you saw. You saw somebody who might not ever come back again. Baruch Hashem, that guy did. But how many haven't? And what did we do? When the whole world we knew was coming. We knew. For those of you that are young, I want you to know. Any adult knew exactly how it was going to go. World opinion was going to be with us for the first week. It was going to be with us for the second week. By the third week, we knew it would start to waver. The only thing we didn't know is that by the fourth week, people were going to start to go. Takai, I understand Osama bin Laden.

27:34 That we didn't see come. And then by the fifth week, and the sixth week, and the seventh week, and all of a sudden it became Israelis are murderous, genocidal people. And here we are today. How have we survived? This has been the most trying year by far to be in this country. Ever. How is it? I want to ask you a question. How is it that people in our community here People in our community, I'm sure everybody here knows somebody. How do you have an Eli Moshe Zimbalist from Beit Shemesh? Grew up four houses down from my mother and father. Ali Moshe was the sweetest kid in the entire world. He literally grew up in my parents' house. Three times a week, he was in my parents' house. How do you have an Ali Moshe Zimbalist who goes out to fight, who goes to Gaza, and is ultimately killed?

28:35 Hashem, you come down And the entire community comes out as his parents are going to go to the levaya. The entire community comes out to the streets. To be malaver them out to the levaya, and thousands of people from the community go to the levaya. Where do we get the strength to continue? How do people dance? How do Israelis still dance? It's easy if you're six thousand miles or nine thousand miles away, wherever you're from. It's easy to have cognitive dissonance and pretend like the war isn't happening. But it is happening And it's real. How do you have the capacity? We asked ourselves on Purim. How are we going to have a Purim this year? We asked ourselves that question. How are we going to have Purim? How are we going to dress up? How are we going to dance? How are we going to make lechayim? Who could say lechayim with all of the death that's going on around us? I'll tell you the secret. It's a very simple secret.

29:30 It's just a question of what you focus on. You could focus on the tragedy, or you could focus on the heroism. You could focus on all the death, and all the hopelessness and all the despair. Anyone who does, we totally understand. Or you could focus on the miracle that is this country and the fact that after thousands of years, Hakadosh Baruch Hu has returned us here. We could sit here and talk about all the things that are not right in Eretz Yisrael and be ungrateful. Or we could make real change. And we can experience the joy of living in this country. We can experience the gratitude to Hakadosh Baruch Hu for being able to come here for a summer. Something that your great grandparents never in a million years would have dreamed of. You want to make lasting change? It goes back to your belief system.

30:19 Then you focus differently. You'll tell yourself a different story. You'll feel differently, and ultimately, you'll act differently. Is it possible to change this summer in six weeks? The answer is absolutely. It is. But you got to go back to the very beginning. You want to change? It's very simple. Ask yourself: What are my core beliefs? Do I look at the external or do I look at the pneuma? Do I look at the internal? Do I look at the body or do I look at the soul? If you look at the soul of something, you're connected to life itself. You look at the body, you're connected to death. The body will always die. The soul will live forever. Ask yourself: What do I deeply believe? And then you'll know. If I deeply believe in a soul, see what you focus on. In any story, you'll always focus on the positive. You'll always focus on the beauty. It doesn't mean you'll shy away from the pain. Adraba, you'll look into the pain, but you'll find the beauty in the pain also.

31:12 And then you'll tell yourself a different story about your life, and you'll feel differently about your life. You'll experience great joy, and then you'll act differently in your life because your life will be driven by connecting deeply to the soul of every single person. Is it possible to do that in six weeks? The answer is absolutely. It's possible to do it very quickly. It just requires a mental shift. Once you make that shift, everything clicks into place. So you could come to NCSY this summer. And you could say, "great" Nice summer, good frabrangins, good tishes, great madrichim, great rebayim Exciting. If you do that, it's a short long road, Rabbi Osay. It'll look flashy on the outside, but it won't be real change. It won't be lasting change. It won't be meaningful change. You could use this summer as an opportunity to go back to your most essential beliefs about yourself. Ask questions. Ask deep questions. Try to learn how to see the world. Try to get deep into your belief systems, and that's how change really happens.

32:27 I want to finish by sharing with you one of the greatest tishes in NCSY Cole history. Friday night, the first Shabbos of the year, the first Shabbos of the summer. I usually speak at the first Friday night tish. I'll be here for Shabbos Beis Hashem this week. But I am not a guy who has a good voice. I'm not a singer. So I always tell them, look, if you want to have a singer up there, you got to have a good singer. I'm not that guy. There are people that could do it. I'm talking about very vulnerable people. They're happy to get up and really be in that way. So they had this guy at the time. He was Justin Madrich. Today is Adam Chashev Admaeid. Today his name is Rabbi Doctor Yaakov Danishevsky. Some of you may have heard of him. He wrote a pretty good book.

33:20 Rabbi Danishevsky from Chicago. Now from Chicago Rabbi Danishevsky got up at the tish and he gave the following speech. He said, "There's two types of people that walk in the rain." Some people walk in the rain. And they're huddled over; their shoulders are scrunched in, and their neck is pinched down, and they're trying not to get wet, even though it's impossible not to get wet in the rain. It's so deeply uncomfortable. He said, "There are some people." That they say, I'm going to get a little bit wet And the rain is pouring down, and they look up to Shamayim, and they let the rain just pour on their face, and they walk with their head held high and their shoulders back, and they're just so much more in such a pleasant state. And he said, Rabbo said that's what it means to come to a tish.

34:12 Some people come to a tish and they're scrunched over; they don't really want to participate. And some people come to a tish and they let it wash over them, like the rain pouring on their face. And then he got up. I'll never forget this. And with the most passionate scream ever, he goes, "Rabosi, let's get drenched!" And the whole place went crazy. It was like one of those real NCSY Kohl moments. The guys like, "Yeah, I thought people were going to kill each other in the crowd." It was unbelievable. What Rabbi Danishevsky was saying at the time, and I'm not even sure he understood what he was saying There are two ways of coming to NCSY Kohl. There are guys that come and they're protective. They're in a protective cocoon. They don't want to be challenged. I have my belief systems, and I just want them to be the way they are. And there are people that come to NCSY Kollel, and they turn their face to Shamayim, and they let it pour down upon them, and it changes who they are as people.

35:03 That's our goal this summer. You can change. Change is a dirty word. People get very nervous about change. What does it mean? Change doesn't mean becoming something you're not. Change means becoming something that you are. It's growing into who you are. We're not asking you to become somebody that you're not. We're asking you to develop into the people that you already are. But that's deep work. That's hard work, and it's possible to make lasting change. Rabba, I want to bless us all at the very beginning of the summer. It's going to fly by. Six weeks are going to go like this. I want to bless everybody here, and I want to bless myself as part of this beautiful, holy chevrut that we should have the courage. To really take a deep look at ourselves and ask ourselves, what do I believe? Who am I really? What story do I want to tell myself about my life?

35:52 Do I want to be connected to Chai or Chassidus Shalom Mabes? Because Hashem, in six weeks from now, people are going to be walking back—not just choosing to go to a higher she'er in eleventh grade so they can get into a higher yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael—but they're going to choose to challenge themselves in their Yiddishkeit in their lives because they recognize that they are Godly souls. We're here for a godly mission. And we're going to dedicate our lives to fulfilling that mission. I have a beautiful shot.