Benoliel Brothers - Vision for the Future

Heat. Heat. [Music] Tell me what your visions are, what your dreams are, what you see, and what you want to see the future to be like. pretty much in the way of your legacy which you're entitled to have and want. Well, I must say that uh we've seen we've seen wonders and miracles over these last few decades. As you know very well, the community is is different. The community is growing. Yes. And it's uh u you know and the other places the the learning the morning the early morning the late morning the day the night and uh should just uh continue this way uh and I I I do think that uh history is very important we should learn more history our own history uh especially about the gdole is and if we have time. Now I'll just relate one little uh anecdote. We have time to hear that. A number of years a number of years ago uh we were in at one of our shs and the guest speaker was a a prominent uh u gaduli is won't mention names is not necessary but a very uh uh famous uh rashiva came to uh from Ashkanazi to to to speak to the to the crowd and um among his remarks was saying, "Oh, we owe the safarim. They gave us the Rambam. They gave us the right and u I thought that was very nice." But next to me was sitting a uh safaric rabbi from Israel, right? And he was shaking his head uh like like this. So afterwards, you know, he whispered in my ear, "They don't know. All they know is the Rambam and Rabosph Caro. Do they know? Do they know that we had hundreds and hundreds of right and aaron in the Baltic countries in Morocco and right Spain? So I said, "Yeah, so I I I made a little mental note to myself, you know, I said I I said I I better brush it up. I better uh start start learning some history, too, because and it's true. It's true that uh you know everybody uh we know about Maam Loes but uh we have to know that Mam Loz um right that that that he was the star student of one of the Gdole the Mishel Melik that these uh his his memory is is remembered with with awe and respect from the Gdim of Turkey in a in a golden age in Turkey and um so it's important It's important and uh uh you know history and uh specifically about the the the Torah history gdim and roads and Turkey and Greece and Sal you mentioned Salonica and just as an aside you know I mentioned Salonica pre-war Salonica of course it was a port city in Greece right and the port was closed on Shabbat Salonica was closed Nobody would have known that. Why? Because most of the steadors, most of the workers were were Jews. So the port closed down unfortunately. And I had to do a study on this and I was asked to to speak on the subject I knew nothing about but I did a little research and most of the 80,000 pre-war uh uh Jews of Salonica were wiped out in Awitz and by the which is a whole different topic that we we don't realize that safari communities also not in the same number as a bench but we we suffered terribly in Yugoslavia. and and and so forth and other places. Um [Music] and I want you both to know that I didn't go off the cards. I went just from the emotion and the feeling of speaking to you Rabbi Haim to you Joel to hear about your lives to understand a little bit just a little bit about the Mman family the Benal family and to see how far you've both come in your lives the successes that you both have accomplished you're not nearly done you're going to keep paving the way you're going to keep being trailblazers and doing what you do best you in Seattle for the safaric community worldwide. You here with us in Baltimore and Brooklyn and of course your yeshiva the mikdash melik where thousands of boys have passed through over the last 35 years. They will continue. I am a supporter of yours rabbi. The community is a supporter of yours. We look up to you. We rever you. We admire you especially for your humility for what you've accomplished and created in your life and career and to be this humble. You're an example of what a man or a woman should be like and how they should act and their mid and how they should be. and to you Joel for the success you've accomplished and yet you just brush it off and say 77721 you had the most amazing career and I know you're smiling because you did it and you're only just now beginning to look at and research and I hope I've inspired you to go on and push both at the university both with Isaac Ike and and keep doing the things that you could financially support and keep giving back to the sphotic world so that they could see all the greatness that the rabbi was talking about these rabbis that came in the 1800s, the 1900s, how they struggled, how hard life was, and and how good it is today. We pray for peace in Israel. We pay pray for the hostages to all be able to come home and be reunited with their families. We pray for the success of all the MMAN family, of all the Benalo family and everybody that is near and dear to both of your hearts. If you want to give a closing comment now, I will take it from you Joel first and then our rabbi. I want to say that uh while my career path was different than my brothers, all of our brothers are are are different paths. It's never been lost on me. Not for one minute. As I recount the story of my career. Just like explaining his, it's yashim. Every time the phone rang and an opportunity was offered me, I never had a resume. I never applied for a job. They the doors open for me. I'm very much aware that uh that this is a zahoot that uh somebody else earned for me. It's your mom and dad. I see it every day also in my life. It's got to be someone up there looking after us because how else could it be? Exactly. And it's wonderful to see I look forward to meeting you again. I met you years ago when you came to the city. I think Michael Jamal asked you to come, whatever it was at the time. But I look forward to seeing you for us to be spending more time together to talk about the sphartic culture and the things that you and I both see so near and dear to ourselves and to the communities that could benefit from it. Rabbi, we're going to allow you to close for us this this great day. I'm glad that that we ended on on the note of I haven't mentioned too much about my father shalom but uh first of all uh you know he taught me is so he gave me the the the very first the basic of of Judaism right and and he was ishashar he was a person that taught us honesty I love that taught us love love of uh love of of of family and uh I hope that all all that we're doing will be a nishmat for him and dear mom shalom. Amen. Beautiful. Amen. Thank you both. It was uh a great honor for Harry Ame to participate in this and to be speaking to two great men both that took different career paths in their lives and ended up being brothers that love each other, care about each other, looking after each other. And I have to tell you, it's beautiful to see. And it's an example, I hope, for many other families when they enjoy hearing a little bit about your lives and your career path and how you know where things went in your lives that they will learn from it, they'll take from it, they'll experience from it, they'll get strength from it. Thank you both. Thank you for the opportunity, Harry. Thank you. All the best and your family. Thank you for doing such a great job of uh moderating. Thank you, Joel. Thank you. All the best.