WEBVTT

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Mountain biking in Israel

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is something that I do with great passion

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and commitment.

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And when I'm on my bike,

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I feel that I connect

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with the profound beauty of Israel,

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and I feel that I'm united

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with this country's history

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and biblical lore.

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And also, for me,

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biking is a matter of empowerment.

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When I reach the summit

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of a steep mountain
in the middle of nowhere,

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I feel young,

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invincible, eternal.

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It's as if I'm connecting with some legacy

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or with some energy

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far greater than myself.

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You can see my fellow riders

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at the end of the picture,

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looking at me with some concern.

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And here is another picture of them.

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Unfortunately, I cannot show their faces,

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neither can I disclose their true names,

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and that's because my fellow riders

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are juvenile inmates, offenders

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spending time in a correction facility

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about 20 minutes' ride from here -

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well, like everything in Israel.

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And I've been riding
with these kids once a week,

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every Tuesday, rain or shine,
for the last four years

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and by now, they've become
a very big part of my life.

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So that's the story I want to tell you.

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This story began four years ago.

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The correction facility
where they are locked up

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happens to be right in the middle

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of one of my biking trips,

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and it's surrounded by barbed wires

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and electric gates and armed guards.

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One of these guards is actually
one of my students, also.

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Everywhere I go,
I find one of my students.

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So on one of these rides,

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I talked my way into the compound

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- you can understand how -

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and went to see the warden.

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I told the warden

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that I wanted to start a mountain
biking club in this place

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and that basically
I wanted to take the kids

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from here to there.

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And I told him, "Let's find a way

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in which I'll be able to take out
10 kids once a week

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to ride with in the summer
in the country."

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And the warden was quite amused,

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and he told me he thought that I was a nut

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and he told me,

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"This place is a correction facility.
These guys are serious offenders.

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They are supposed to be locked up.

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They aren't supposed to be out at large."

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And yet, we began to talk about it,

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and one thing led to another.

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And I can't see myself

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going into a state prison in New Jersey

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and making such a proposition,

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but this being Israel,

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the warden somehow made it happen.

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And so two months later,

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we found ourselves "at large" -
myself,

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10 juvenile inmates

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and a wonderful fellow named Russ,

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who became a very good friend of mine

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and my partner in this project.

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And in the next few weeks,
I had the tremendous pleasure

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of introducing these kids

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to the world of total freedom,

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a world consisting of magnificent vistas

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like these -

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everything you see here
is obviously in Israel -

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as well as close encounters

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with all sorts of small creatures

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coming in all sorts of sizes,

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colors, shapes, forms and so on.

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In spite of all this splendor,

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the beginning was extremely frustrating.

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Every small obstacle, every slight uphill,

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would cause these fellows

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to stop in their tracks and give up.

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So we had a lot of this going on.

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I found out that they had a very hard time

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dealing with frustration
and difficulties -

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not because they were physically unfit.

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But that's one reason why
they ended up where they were.

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And I became increasingly
more and more agitated,

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because I was there

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not only to be with them,

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but also to ride and create a team

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and I didn't know what to do.

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Now, let me give you an example.

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We're going downhill
in some rocky terrain,

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and the front tire of Alex

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gets caught in one of these
crevasses here.

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So he crashes down,

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and he gets slightly injured,

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but this does not prevent
him from jumping up

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and then starting to jump
up and down on his bike

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and curse violently.

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Then he throws his helmet in the air.

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His backpack goes ballistic
in some other direction.

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And then he runs to the nearest tree

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and starts to break branches
and throw rocks

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and curse like I've never heard.

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And I'm just standing there,

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watching this scene

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with a complete disbelief,

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not knowing what to do.

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I'm used to algorithms and data structures

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and super motivated students,

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and nothing in my background

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prepared me to deal

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with a raging, violent adolescent

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in the middle of nowhere.

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And you have to realize
that these incidents

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did not happen in convenient locations.

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They happened in places like this,

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in the Judean Desert,

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20 kilometers away from the nearest road.

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And what you don't see in this picture

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is that somewhere
between these riders there,

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there's a teenager sitting on a rock,

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saying, "I'm not moving from here.
Forget it.

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I've had it."

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Well, that's a problem

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because one way or another,
you have to get this guy moving

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because it's getting dark soon
and dangerous.

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It took me several such incidents
to figure out what I was supposed to do.

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At the beginning, it was a disaster.

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I tried harsh words and threats

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and they took me nowhere.

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That's what they had all their lives.

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And at some point I found out,

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when a kid like this gets into a fit,

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the best thing that you can possibly do

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is stay as close as possible to this kid,

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which is difficult,

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because what you really want to do
is go away.

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But that's what he had all his life,

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people walking away from him.

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So what you have to do is stay close

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and try to reach in and pet his shoulder

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or give him a piece of chocolate.

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So I would say, "Alex, I know
that it's terribly difficult.

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Why don't you rest for a few minutes

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and then we'll go on."

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"Go away you maniac, psychopath.

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Why would you bring us
to this goddamn place?"

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And I would say, "Relax, Alex.

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Here's a piece of chocolate."

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And Alex would go, "Arrrrggg!"

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Because you have to understand

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that on these rides
we are constantly hungry -

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and after the rides also.

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And who is this guy, Alex, to begin with?

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He's a 17-year-old.

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When he was eight,

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someone put him on a boat in Odessa

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and sent him, shipped him to Israel

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on his own.

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And he ended up in south Tel Aviv

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and did not have the good luck

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to be picked up by Karen Tal,

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and roamed the streets

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and became a prominent gang member.

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And he spent the last 10 years of his life

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in two places only,

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the slums and the state prison,

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where he spent the last two years

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before he ended up sitting
on this rock there.

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And so this kid was probably abused,

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abandoned, ignored, betrayed

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by almost every adult along the way.

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So, for such a kid,

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when an adult that he learns
to respect stays close to him

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and doesn't walk away from him

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in any situation,

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irrespective of how he behaves,

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it's a tremendous healing experience.

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It's an act of unconditional acceptance,

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something that he never had.

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And so I found out that's the way
to actually get close to them.

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Just to be as close as you possibly can,

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as close as you physically can

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around this whirlpool of flying objects
that sometimes surrounds them.

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I want to say a few words about vision.

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When I started this program
four years ago,

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I had this original plan

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of creating a team of winning underdogs.

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I had an image of Lance Armstrong

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in my mind.

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And it took me exactly two months

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of complete frustration

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to realize that this vision was misplaced,

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and that there was another vision

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supremely more important

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and more readily available.

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I have to tell you,
I met Hedy Schleifer almost 20 years ago,

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and became a great fan of her
and an avid student of Hedy

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and I think I learned
a few things from her.

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It all of a sudden dawned on me,
in this project,

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that the purpose of these rides

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should actually be to expose the kids

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to one thing only: love.

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Love to the country, to the uphill

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and the downhill,

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to all the incredible
creatures that surround us -

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the animals, the plants, the insects -

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love and respect

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to other fellow members in your team,

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in your biking team, and most importantly,

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love and respect to yourself,

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which is something that they badly miss.

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Together with the kids -

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you know, we went through
all sorts of exciting experiences.

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And, you know, in mountain biking,

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it's very simple to develop self-esteem.

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Just look at this picture here.

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Which was taken, by the way, by Ran Navok

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in one of our mutual rides.

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This is Ein Akev,

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the cliff above Ein Akev,

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I [went] there two weeks ago,
with the kinds.

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And it was full of water,
we swam, it was great.

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I found out

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that what I really had to do
with the kids, once again,

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is to take them
to all these spectacular places

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and share with them the love
that I and other bikers have

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for the country.

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Together with the kids,

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I also went through a remarkable
transformation.

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You know, I come from a cutthroat world

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of science and high technology.

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I used to think that reason and logic

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and relentless drive

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were the only ways to make things happen.

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And before I worked with the kids,

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anything that I did with them,

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or anything that I did with myself,

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was supposed to be perfect,

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ideal, optimal,

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but after working with them for some time,

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I discovered the great virtues of empathy

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and flexibility

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and being able to start with some vision,

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and if the vision doesn't work,
well nothing happened.

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All you have to do is play with it,
change it a little bit,

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and come up with something
that does help, that does work.

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So right now, I feel more

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like these are my principles,

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and if you don't like them, I have others.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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And one of these principles is focus.

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Before each ride

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we sit together with the kids,

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and we give them one word

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to think about during the ride.

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You have to focus
their attention on something

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because so many things happen.

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So these are words like "teamwork"

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or "endurance"

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or even complicated concepts

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like "resource allocation"

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or "perspective," a word
that they don't understand.

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You know, perspective

00:12:22.742 --> 00:12:24.741
is one of these critically important

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life-coping strategies

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that mountain biking can really teach you.

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I tell the kids

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when they struggle through some uphill

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and feel like they cannot take it anymore,

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it really helps to ignore
the immediate obstacles

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and raise your head and look around

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and see how the vista around you grows.

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It literally propels you upwards.

00:12:49.834 --> 00:12:51.749
That's what perspective is all about.

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Or you can also look back in time

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and realize that you've already conquered

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steeper mountains before.

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And that's how they develop self-esteem.

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Now, let me give you
an example of how it works.

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You stand with your bike
at the beginning of February.

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It's very cold, and you're standing
in one of these rainy days,

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and it's drizzling and cold and chilly,

00:13:14.657 --> 00:13:17.454
and you're standing in,
let's say, Yokneam.

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And you look up at the sky
through a hole in the clouds

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you see the monastery
at the top of the Muhraka -

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that's where
you're supposed to climb now -

00:13:25.839 --> 00:13:28.838
and you say, "There's no way
that I could possibly get there."

00:13:29.010 --> 00:13:31.183
And yet, two hours later

00:13:31.204 --> 00:13:34.203
you find yourself standing
on the roof of this monastery,

00:13:34.842 --> 00:13:37.986
smeared with mud, blood and sweat.

00:13:39.558 --> 00:13:41.148
And you look down at Yokneam;

00:13:41.169 --> 00:13:43.168
everything is so small and tiny.

00:13:43.350 --> 00:13:46.597
And you say, "Hey, Alex. Look at this
parking lot where we started.

00:13:46.597 --> 00:13:47.695
It's that big.

00:13:47.695 --> 00:13:49.575
I can't believe that I did it."

00:13:49.676 --> 00:13:51.491
And that's the point

00:13:51.512 --> 00:13:53.512
when you start loving yourself.

00:13:55.680 --> 00:13:57.412
And so we talked about

00:13:57.433 --> 00:13:59.432
these special words that we teach them.

00:13:59.453 --> 00:14:02.197
And at the end of each ride,
we sit together

00:14:02.218 --> 00:14:03.792
and share moments

00:14:03.813 --> 00:14:06.482
in which those special words of the day

00:14:06.503 --> 00:14:08.502
popped up and made a difference,

00:14:08.732 --> 00:14:10.731
and these discussions

00:14:10.752 --> 00:14:12.292
can be extremely inspiring.

00:14:12.313 --> 00:14:14.313
In one of them, one of the kids once said,

00:14:14.334 --> 00:14:17.165
"When we were riding on this ridge

00:14:17.186 --> 00:14:19.185
overlooking the Dead Sea -

00:14:19.700 --> 00:14:22.115
and he's talking about this spot here -

00:14:22.136 --> 00:14:23.695
"I was reminded

00:14:23.716 --> 00:14:26.750
of the day when I left
my village in Ethiopia

00:14:26.771 --> 00:14:29.314
and went away together with my brother.

00:14:29.358 --> 00:14:31.357
We walked 120 kilometers

00:14:31.700 --> 00:14:33.376
until we reached Sudan.

00:14:33.397 --> 00:14:36.397
This was the first place where
we got some water and supplies."

00:14:36.418 --> 00:14:39.397
And he goes on saying,
and everyone looks at him like a hero,

00:14:39.418 --> 00:14:41.417
probably for the first time in his life.

00:14:41.700 --> 00:14:44.699
And he says - because I also
have volunteers riding with me,

00:14:44.700 --> 00:14:46.699
adults, who are sitting there

00:14:46.700 --> 00:14:48.697
listening to him -

00:14:48.718 --> 00:14:51.842
and he says, "And this
was just the beginning

00:14:51.863 --> 00:14:55.699
of our ordeal until we ended up in Israel.

00:14:55.700 --> 00:14:57.437
And only now," he says,

00:14:57.458 --> 00:14:59.620
"I'm beginning to understand where I am,

00:14:59.700 --> 00:15:01.294
and I actually like it."

00:15:01.477 --> 00:15:03.286
Now I remember, when he said it,

00:15:03.307 --> 00:15:05.080
I felt goosebumps on my body,

00:15:05.101 --> 00:15:08.611
because he said it overlooking the Moab
Mountains here in the background.

00:15:08.611 --> 00:15:10.979
That's where Joshua descended

00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:12.999
and crossed the Jordan

00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:15.999
and led the people of Israel
into the land of Canaan

00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:18.639
3,000 years ago in this final leg

00:15:19.752 --> 00:15:22.056
of the journey from Africa.

00:15:22.635 --> 00:15:24.469
And so, perspective

00:15:24.490 --> 00:15:27.992
and context and history play key roles

00:15:28.510 --> 00:15:31.434
in the way I plan my rides with the kids.

00:15:32.019 --> 00:15:34.018
We visit Kibbutzim

00:15:34.039 --> 00:15:37.038
that were established
by Holocaust survivors.

00:15:37.507 --> 00:15:40.820
We explore ruins of Palestinian villages,

00:15:42.965 --> 00:15:45.964
and we discuss how they became ruins.

00:15:46.364 --> 00:15:48.983
And we go through numerous remnants

00:15:49.004 --> 00:15:51.174
of Jewish settlements,
Nabatic settlements,

00:15:51.195 --> 00:15:53.126
Canaanite settlements -

00:15:53.147 --> 00:15:55.146
three-, four, five-thousand years old.

00:15:55.690 --> 00:15:57.283
And through this tapestry,

00:15:57.304 --> 00:16:00.051
which is the history of this country,

00:16:00.690 --> 00:16:02.813
the kids acquire

00:16:03.479 --> 00:16:06.528
what is probably the most important
value in education,

00:16:06.528 --> 00:16:09.526
and that is the understanding
that life is complex,

00:16:10.013 --> 00:16:12.500
and there's no black and white.

00:16:13.115 --> 00:16:15.114
And by appreciating complexity,

00:16:15.306 --> 00:16:17.305
they become more tolerant,

00:16:17.544 --> 00:16:20.291
and tolerance leads to hope.

00:16:22.967 --> 00:16:25.311
I ride with these kids once a week,

00:16:25.500 --> 00:16:27.353
every Tuesday.

00:16:28.100 --> 00:16:31.100
Here's a picture I took last
Tuesday - less than a week ago -

00:16:31.339 --> 00:16:33.652
this is in Nahal Zin, I stayed up,

00:16:33.736 --> 00:16:36.578
asked them to go down 
and took this picture,

00:16:36.757 --> 00:16:38.466
and I ride with them tomorrow also,

00:16:38.474 --> 00:16:42.154
which is also a Tuesday, and tomorrow
some of you guys are going to join me.

00:16:42.154 --> 00:16:45.879
So it's going to be a mixed ride
of juvenile inmates

00:16:46.617 --> 00:16:47.774
and TEDx guests.

00:16:47.911 --> 00:16:50.442
And it's going to be
the experience of your lifetime.

00:16:51.400 --> 00:16:53.299
In every one of these rides

00:16:53.320 --> 00:16:56.885
I always end up standing
in one of these incredible locations,

00:16:58.280 --> 00:17:00.989
taking in this incredible
landscape around me,

00:17:01.010 --> 00:17:03.279
and I feel blessed and fortunate

00:17:03.680 --> 00:17:05.299
that I'm alive,

00:17:05.300 --> 00:17:07.299
and that I sense every fiber

00:17:07.300 --> 00:17:09.299
in my aching body.

00:17:09.300 --> 00:17:11.299
And I feel blessed and fortunate

00:17:11.300 --> 00:17:12.674
that 15 years ago

00:17:12.694 --> 00:17:14.611
I had the courage to resign

00:17:14.632 --> 00:17:16.631
my tenured position at NYU

00:17:16.652 --> 00:17:18.651
and return to my home country

00:17:18.672 --> 00:17:20.671
where I can do these incredible rides

00:17:20.692 --> 00:17:22.691
with this group of troubled kids

00:17:22.712 --> 00:17:24.711
coming from Ethiopia

00:17:24.732 --> 00:17:27.114
and Morocco and Russia.

00:17:27.482 --> 00:17:29.481
And I feel blessed and fortunate

00:17:30.021 --> 00:17:32.020
that every week, every Tuesday -

00:17:32.300 --> 00:17:34.597
and actually every Friday also -

00:17:34.618 --> 00:17:37.319
I can once again celebrate

00:17:37.340 --> 00:17:39.962
in the marrow of my bones

00:17:39.983 --> 00:17:43.506
the very essence of living
in Israel on the edge.

00:17:44.300 --> 00:17:45.685
Thank you.

00:17:45.685 --> 00:17:48.419
(Applause)