This Changes How You See Jewish History - Rabbi Hillel Eisenberg

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]But people like to say that the reason the Jewish people are still here was because of basically one reason.

[00:00:07]Mesiras Nefesh. We were moser nefesh over the years over the years moser nefesh over over the years over And you hear things like "Yankee, Zaidy was in moser nefesh his whole life for you to sit on the couch and watch movies."

[00:00:19]"Ricky, Bobby was not moser nefesh her entire life every second of her life for you to be a couch potato."

[00:00:29]People look at Jewish history as this giant long tunnel of grief, darkness, pain, blood, and mesiras nefesh.

[00:00:39]And there's no question.

[00:00:42]There was blood. There was pain. We're not sugarcoating anything.

[00:00:46]But if that is your understanding of Jewish history, you missed the boat.

[00:00:50]The Jewish people have lived the most magnificent lives of any group of people in all of world history. I'll say it again. The Jewish people have lived the best, most magnificent lives in all of Jewish history at any point in all of Jewish history. What are you talking about? We were hunted. We were crushed.

[00:01:06]We were in caves. We were We were We were banged on in That's only if you look on a very superficial level.

[00:01:13]Because who had the best tables? Who had the best houses filled with light and laughter? Yeah, they weren't always the biggest. We had Shabbos tables that made kings look poor. Yeah, we weren't always rich. We were rich in other ways, in the real ways. We actually knew who our fathers were. And if you didn't have a father, the entire town raised you. We had community events you couldn't find parking at. We didn't need to treat loneliness. We didn't need to invent industries to treat loneliness.

[00:01:39]We have safer to hillum guiding us.

[00:01:43]We had the most harmonious lifestyle out of any period of any time.

[00:01:48]And yet we like to say it's all mesiras nefesh.

[00:01:51]It's a mistake. If you are telling yourself that you just got to say mesiras nefesh, you're selling yourself short. And if you're telling that's your kids, you're selling them short.

[00:01:59]No one is saying that keeping a Jewish lifestyle is not hard. No one is saying that.

[00:02:04]All I'm saying is that it's harder not to.

[00:02:07]Yes, it's hard to keep Shabbos. It's harder not to.

[00:02:11]Yes, it's hard to keep all of Hilchos Tznius.

[00:02:15]It's harder not to. Yes, it's hard to watch what you say.

[00:02:19]It's harder not to. Yes, it's hard to watch what you look at.

[00:02:23]It's harder not to. Yes, it's hard to be careful with how you treat other people.

[00:02:28]It's harder not to. Yes, it's harder to keep the Torah and to defend the Torah and to live by the Torah and to die by the Torah and to be proud of the Torah, but it's way, way, way harder not to.

[00:02:41]Life has two types of hard. The hard that will build you and the hard that will crush you. The Torah screams, "Bacharta Bachayim, choose the hard that will build you."

[00:02:53]For some reason we bought into this lie that if you live a Torah lifestyle, you're missing out.

[00:02:59]You're missing out on what?

[00:03:01]You are MISSING OUT ON WHAT? ON CHASING validation from people who are about as shallow as a kiddie pool?

[00:03:07]What are you missing out on?

[00:03:08]You're missing out on a life that's exciting for 5 minutes, that's empty for 50 years?

[00:03:14]You're missing out on nothing.