Rabbi Yoseph Vigler

the throb of the pulse of ammi soul reverberates loudly through this room because talk is cheap talk is easy what you experience in this room is people who talk the talk and walk the walk there is a secret that the people of israel are looking that needs to be shared it is a secret that is clear to those in this room ever since i got to know avi fisher a bunch of years ago and we learned harusa together we were learning tanya together and then i saw that the theory is something that he was able to take and bring into practice and to be able to actually help in real time when push comes to shove to be able to make a real change the secret that needs to be shared is the practical rendition of what it means to be a yid this past rosh hashanah i was in seoul walking out of shula was about 2 30 in the afternoon i'm walking out of shoal minion's over everything's done even the minah was done and i was walking with the gabai coming out of shul as i walk out we had paid nypd detail looking after guarding the show wearing full uniform i'm not sure why but the nypd had in order to pay them you came in six hour increments so the first cop was there from 8 30 to 2 30 when the minion was pulled and then 2 30 there was another guy who was coming to guard the shoal for minha which was 6 pm and there aren't that many people in milk i don't know why we had to get a cop for that but as i walked out there were two policemen standing over there what do you say when you meet a cop and he's looking he's guarding the shull i walked to the gabai i said politely thank you officers for protecting us and as i walk down the block my gabba looks at me we live in flatbush right just that looks at me and he says rabbi something's wrong that wasn't like you i said what did i do wrong he says you walked past the cops i said yeah i said thank you rabbi i know you're long enough you're supposed to say excuse me are you jewish my bad i'm going back he says no i got your back i'll do it he goes back down the block i'm standing waiting at the end and having you in and he comes in front of the cops and i look from far and i say you know that guy may be jewish the other guy nah no chance so he asked the cops the guy was there in the morning jewish nope nothing the guy who looked like he was from our cousins on his badge was the name ibrahim he says i'm not jewish but my mother is he says rabbi i think you got some work here i come down i look i see these two offices and i said ibrahim if your mother is jewish you're jewish he says i'm not jewish i come from azerbaijan he says i came when i was 14 years old my mother lives in bensonhurst she's jewish she doesn't practice anything she told us she's jewish but i'm muslim i don't do anything i said listen you're jewish like it you don't like it and today is the new year rosh hashanah there's a thing to do right you gotta hear the we the rams horn we're going to blow i said come with me let's blow the rams on he said sure we come into the show just me and him nobody's around i'm standing by the bummer i'm taking a year to 34 year old yid and they're standing over there he stands by the bimmer and i pull out the ram's horn he says just explain to me what we're doing now have you ever explained kia schaefer to a jew who's never in his life heard about kia schaefer we're so used to the blowing of the shaffer we don't even notice what we're doing i say basically god wants to become the king he wants to be relevant to us in our lives he wants to be connected to you he wants you to recognize him and when you blow the ram's horn you're coronating crowning him as king he says well i blew the shofar i made the sablu the guy listened and i watched a yid his face his nashama started to shine when you hit kia schaefer on rosh hashanah something something changes inside every jew but when you hear it the first time in your life his neshama was on fire and i saw the guy was inspired at the end of kia schaefer i said ibrahim you know in my house now we have a meal it's like a just eat food but it's really nice and it's a festive meal maybe you want to join us he says come on i'm i'm working you know i'm full uniform i'm working like one second you're working for me we're paying you he says but i have to guard the synagogue i said listen the synagogue is empty now very dangerous these days in new york and the rabbi's house is a top target so the rabbi needs protection a lot of guests there please he says okay so i'm walking down the street me and a cop next to me on the way i stopped at one guy's house we blew the shaffer he says who's that i said my bodyguard come into the house and we go up the stairs it took me a while to realize you know americans you have this thanksgiving like what's so special about thanksgiving when you keep shabbos every week you don't have that thanksgiving is the once a year when you have a what a shabbos meal and we do it every week twice at least he comes up the steps he walks into my house he sees this big table honey wine it looks like a royal table it really looks regal and guests around the table his mouth dropped he looks and i explained to him just a few jewish words kiddush sat down we washed at the table he was enjoying himself we were speaking and discussing he sat for about an hour and then he said okay i gotta go i said where you going i have to go protect the synagogue he couldn't take it anymore was very interesting because he was the only one in uniform everyone else is in jumps of clothing before he left i said say grace after meals one paragraph he says rabbi can i ask you a question i said sure he said no no privately took him to the kitchen just me and him in the kitchen says rabbi let me ask you a question i'm 34 years old my wife is jewish just because you know happened to be that way i practiced nothing in judaism when he was at the table i told him you know just want to put it out there the last time there was a cop he came outside my shoe and someone had told me the day before he was jewish he was giving a ticket to a firm guy i said to them he said want you to know that i pulled him in to be at center three years later at 36 years old he had a bris he said okay i had a brace when i was born and i put on to fill in once those are my two jewish things he looks at me ibrahim and he says i'm a jew i don't keep anything he didn't know young kipper was he'd never in his life faster than your kipper he had had absolutely zero connection that day his soul was ignited because when a yiddish shaver something changes inside of him he heard the schaefer and he sat at a yamcha meal and i saw this on fire he says rabbi do you think that god is angry at me do you think he's frustrated is he disappointed am i gonna go to hell because i didn't keep judaism i looked at the sky young beautiful jewish face and i said them i dive into hashem first because sometimes you need hashem's help and you realize almighty god just help me say the right words and i said to him listen my friend i want to tell you something yesterday we have this thing we go to the we go to the the sea ocean i went to the ocean nearby i said on my way to the ocean my little baby was with me and when we left she fell asleep she's one year old when she fell asleep there was you know brooklyn has this beautiful stunning view the houses are just magnificent and all she could see was claustrophobia all around her and 45 minutes later she woke up and we were by the ocean and this one-year-old baby i said she woke up and you should have seen the face of a one-year-old who woke up went to sleep in brooklyn and woke up by the ocean she jumped she looked so delightful her face was shining bright and when she woke up she was so excited i looked at that kid and i said i'm going to go to toshlet every day to get that face i said ibrahim today in the prayers on rosh hashanah you know what we said that the navi says you're miyo havain yakir liya you want to know what a jew is to me ephraim is a dear precious child he's delightful meet you know what hashem thinks of a jew he thinks of him that he's his own precious child like that little one-year-old baby who wakes up and a delightful child he doesn't care the first rashi in the torah reiterates the point base reishi's boro kim is it doesn't say for israel who keep torah it says bishwil israel separate bishvilhatara god didn't make the world for jews who keep torah he made it for jews god doesn't love you ibrahim because of anything you do he doesn't care what you do he loves you because you are having yakir lee efraim precious dear beautiful delightful child and he challenges for you and he loves you more than anything else in the world if you want to love him back if you decide that there's a good way to do through toyo and mitzvahs but his love for you is not hinges on anything you do or don't do ibrahim walked out and i realized that i had learned from him the greatest secret known to clarissa the secret is that what we do belies what we are what we are is every single person in this room gets that secret the secret that our children will bring us the biggest narciss when we're able to tell them we don't love you because of anything you do we love you because you are and when i realize what you are i know you want to be the best and that energy that secret from this room should be unleashed to the world at large because it's the secret that the world needs for good [Applause]