The Babysitters Message

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Yoel Gold’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

[Music] It was during the Iraq war in 2003. Jordan Schwarz was sitting on the top of his Humvey in gunner's position patrolling a neighborhood next to the Syrian Iraqi border. They were driving through a marketplace that was usually teeming with people. But on this particular Friday morning, it was extremely quiet. Jordan felt this impending doom, like something really bad was about to happen. We were getting attacked quite often. The attacks were becoming more bold. There was ambushes. becoming more bold. There was ambushes. There was mortars. Every day it was just getting very intense. Every day around their prayer time, the mosque would blare and then we'd start getting shot at. He was worried about the safety of his unit and his battle buddies. And he wanted to pray that they all make it back home safely. But with no connection to his heritage, he didn't know what to say or how to pray. The only thing he remembered were six words his babysitter taught him back when he was just 7 years old. I was born in Dallas, grew up in a I was born in Dallas, grew up in a secular home. We moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico when I was seven. Our family was close with the Jesmer. Rifka and her mom and JJ or Yakov was my best friend. And Rifka would babysit for us. I ended up putting them to bed and I thought maybe I could teach them the shama and that would help them calm down and go to sleep nicely and be an easy transition for them from the fun day that we had into feeling calm and protected before they went to bed. I remember asking her why, you know, what am I saying this

Jump to a moment

1. 0:02[Music] It was during the Iraq war in 2003. Jordan Schwarz was sitting on the top…
2. 0:32becoming more bold. There was ambushes. There was mortars. Every day it was just getting very…
3. 1:03I was born in Dallas, grew up in a secular home. We moved to Santa Fe,…
4. 1:34why, you know, what am I saying this for? And she told me that it was…
5. 2:04And as I'm leaning in to warn my guys about it, boom, a huge bomb blows…
6. 2:34A short while later, Jordan was back at the base and he was working on one…
7. 3:04think me saying the shama whatever path I'm on Hashem has guided me. He ended up…
8. 3:35years, nobody could have predicted the farreaching consequences a young babysitter's words would have on a…

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