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Is this a NEW approach to TRAUMA?

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Rabbi Josh Zebberman avatar
Rabbi Josh Zebberman

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okay friends I'd like to tell you about a guy in ER Israel in the Holy Land who I find to be a real inspiration his name is Shai grer Shai grer is a yid who runs a charity organization he's been running it since 2017 and he's been helping families of Terror victims and when the horrible atrocities starting October 7th unfolded this guy jumped right into action he immediately built this huge beautiful tent for soldiers to welcome them to give them food and since then this guy is just the busiest guy in the world he's his phone is off the hook because he's constantly helping people constantly giving barbecues and feeding soldiers helping them with laundry he's helping families who have single parents you know they lost people due to the atrocities and can't go shopping you know they have little kids to watch he's just leaned right in and he is on fire you can look him up on social media um the the famous image going around video going around was him in Gaza not on an army base in Gaza with a flatbed truck with laundry machines washing machines and dryers bringing laundry to these soldiers who are fighting for us in Gaza so that they could have fresh clean clothing so they could feel like humans to me this is incredibly inspirational I was just listening to him on a podcast inspiration for the nation and I even donated no he has no idea who I am he did not ask me to to do this to plug him at all I'm sharing this with you because he is an incredible inspiration and a real example of how to react to trauma this is a man who just lost his father seven weeks ago and had a very difficult time with it then the atrocities take place and the normal human reaction when going through tough times is to revert into our own shells to hide it's scary I'm lonely I'm sad I'm broken that's normal reaction and him he leans right in and says what can I do he sees opportunity this is the Jewish response to trauma what opportunity is here to make my life meaningful I was thinking of this because in this week's paraa Abraham AO Abraham it says abam Abraham was old advanced in age and it's kind of a seems like a spous statement the Torah already told us he was old in the previous portion why I say that again another way to read it is like this Abraham was old he was Zak he was old but he would still come into his days that's how you translate it literally not that he advanced in days he would come into his days despite being old despite having a very mature and experienced a full life Abraham had been through a lot a lot of trauma he the entire world was against him in his ideology his monotheistic beliefs and he was tortured and tormented and even thrown into fire the fire for this he had fought Wars he had fought battles he had been childless for many many years he had to deal with a wayward son he his wife was abducted twice he's gone through a lot and it's very normal for After experiencing such a life to kind of just let's take it easy let's calm down it's easy to be desensitized it's normal to be desensitized it's normal to forget that life is so meaningful when life is really adventurous yet despite at Abraham's old age and despite you know it's over I had a kid let's move on no he leaned in Abraham Zaki he was old he would lean into the day Abraham believed that the day doesn't just happen to me I have to be in charge of what day this is going to be I think think of somebody like Rabbi Shai grer and it's not what what happened here it's what are we going to do about it how are we going to make people's lives better how are we going to improve people's lives how are we going to make this world a better place we all have the opportunity despite the atrocities taking place to contribute to make this world a better place you can contribute to his organization and we can spiritually contribute we can learn more Torah we can do more Mitzvah we can do whatever it takes to strength the Jewish presence because this is a war that is trying to wipe out Judaism and it's our job to strengthen it and we each can we don't have to be passive we can each lean in come into the day like Abraham and like rabash Shai grer that's my story and I'm sticking to it friends