In a lecture delivered this week in Manhattan, Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto called on his students to create real change in their lives. “You can’t hide all day,” Rabbi Pinto said. “Ever since we were little children, we’ve been playing hide and seek. Hiding, returning, searching—but enough. Stop playing hide and seek. A person needs to be serious in life.”
Rabbi Pinto painted a picture of true maturity—not one measured by age or status, but by inner depth and personal responsibility. “There are people who’ve grown physically—but stayed children in their minds. We’ve sat with presidents, with prime ministers, and you look at them and say—he’s just a child. Maybe he got somewhere through power or strategy, but there’s no real intellectual development there.”
According to Rabbi Pinto, a person should not be measured by how far they’ve reached, but by how they’ve built themselves along the way. “There’s a difference between being ‘elevated’ and being ‘great.’ Elevated is just high—but hollow. One small blow and it collapses. Greatness is climbing, one level at a time. That’s someone who’s truly built.”
Rabbi Pinto emphasized the need for emotional resilience, the strength to withstand life’s storms. “A person needs to have a strong face. To be unaffected by a bad name. If someone says something negative about you—it just doesn’t enter. Hashem knows what He’s doing. You have to say to yourself—‘I heard, I understood, I’m moving on.’”
He concluded with his central message: don’t run, don’t hide—stand tall. “A person must be strong in mind, strong in thought, strong in faith. This world isn’t a child’s game. It’s a test of character, of inner strength, and of real self-construction.”This article was written in cooperation with Shuva Israel