Dignified Differences - Rabbi YY Jacobson

Over 200 people came to an evening of awareness and inclusion for individuals with special needs at the Jewish Children’s Museum, on Sunday, March 8th, 2015. The event organized by the Friendship Circle of Brooklyn, featured speakers who implored the crowd to look at everyone in our community as equal, even if we perceive them as being “different”.
At the center of the event Rabbi YY Jacobson, the dean of the TheYeshiva.net, a popular motivational speaker, addressed the crowd. Rabbi Jacobson told the crowd that we need to look at the Rebbe’s last sicha in 1992 and learn about how to have Ahavas Yisroel. He recalled that the Rebbe said that the pasuk says to give a half a shekel, but also says the amount of a whole shekel is 20 gerah. The Rebbe explains that every person is only a half without another person and one becomes complete “20 gerah”, only when recognizing this fact.
Between all the stories and anecdotes, saying, when you meet a person, before you open your mouth, think to yourself, “What does G-d think of this individual?!”