Richard: Thata' be me... What's up?
Booming voice: Do you choose
life or do you choose death?
Richard: I, uh, choose life.
Booming voice: You choose life, huh?
Well, good choice!
You'd be surprised
though that most people choose death.
In order to save your life I need YOU to
work for me.
I need YOU to give hope to
those people who would normally choose
death.
I need YOU to fulfill that mitzvah
[Commandment] and do chesed [kindness]
for them.
I need YOU to form a non-profit
volunteer group and like an army march to
do kindness for stroke survivors and people
with brain injuries.
I know that you're the
only one in the whole world that's qualified
to do this.
Richard: ME? Qualified? I'm just a nothing!
A nobody! I'm not a big chashuv [important]
Rabbi. I'm not that frum [pious]. I'm not such
a scholar!
Booming voice: Look my son, when you wake
up, go down to your basement and sit down
in your "man office". I want you to gaze around
and look around this room. In this room you
have all those plaques and diplomas. That is
your resume. It will be apparent why I chose you.
I woke up... I could feel this powerful surge of
energy flowing through my body! I had this new
energy, enthusiasm and excitement that I hadn't felt
for years. And then suddenly I realized that having a
stroke was one of the biggest brachas [blessings] that
I've ever had in my life. This gives me the opportunity
to have something that I've always dreamt of having.
A PASSION. A MISSION. A mission is what makes
people happy. That passion for doing a
mitzvah [commandment] is what gives you a purpose
for living. Why?
Because you are doing what you were meant to do.
I now had that purpose and felt supercharged.
Today, my purpose is to go out as a "superstar" stroke
survivor and help other stroke survivors and those with
head injuries. My mission is to form an army, to get
other people to do the same thing: Stroke and head
injury survivors helping each other. Only superstar stroke
survivors understand what it's really like. People who
have never had a stroke can't understand how it feels.
Superstar stroke survivors would be like the special
forces and they would be the ones to go in and rescue
the people from their despair and give them hope and
show them and inspire them of what the possibilities
are and show them what they can do as their example
as role models, and those who aren't survivors can still
make a contribution of bringing sunshine and reinforcing
some of the things that the special forces do.
I still needed a name for this group but I wasn't sure
yet what it should be called.
I decided to go down to my basement and think
things over. I was so excited and enthusiastic. I
hadn't felt this way in a long time. I felt like I just
had a revelation. No, I couldn't have!
"Revelations".....no, I don't think that's a Jewish thing.
"I saw the light"? Doesn't sound Jewish.
I don't think Jews do that anymore, right? It was only
in the biblical times, in the time of the navies [prophets]
and I don't think that happens anymore. I have to call my
Rabbi son. He's an expert in Kabbalah and Chasiddus.
I'm going to have to ask him whether modern Jews, simple
regular Jews like me, can have a revelation.
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