#108: Behind the Bima - David Sacks

from Boca Raton Florida rabbis Ephraim Goldberg Philip Moskowitz and Josh Brody are taking you behind the bema the BRS Rabbi schmooze about contemporary issues and talk to special guests who give up behind the scenes look at how they got to where they are and what keeps them going welcome to behind the bema good evening Rabbi from government my dear friend and colleague Rabbi Joshua brodday and we are here to take you behind the bema we're here to take you behind the Bima continuously still missing our dear friend by Moscow so we love and we miss desperately and even if we don't say it every week it's obvious hopefully but we are incomplete and we are only a fraction of who we should be so we continue to have we can't wait for him to rejoin us hopefully sometime very soon Rabbi Joshua Brody back in the USA back in the USA welcome back to America's highlight of your short Israel trip uh there's a great wedding but the Highlight I mean I'm not saying if the guy that had the wedding is listening that his wedding wants to highlight because that's the reason was the highlight but after that ephrat with one of the former guests of our uh behind the bema incredible guest rep Katz what a great job is yasi and rip it was just I love it I was so inspired you gave me a safer safer I think that you learned belvavi great safer yeah great safety yeah you know there's a big lesson in that we're actually thinking about it working on it we've done our base measures flying and we're going to do that again where we go to New York we go to different Russia Yeshiva to different shivas and we hear from them we're working on another kind of a guy's sometimes you gotta disrupt life in order to find inspiration you're just caught up in your own life like going to work paying the bills getting the kids to bed doing the homework getting to minion doing the DAP like The Daily Grind of Life on one hand that routine and momentum sometimes can carry you but on the other hand sometimes it makes it hard to break out and you got to disrupt it could be a trip it could be you know something in your schedule something new so you come back we're going to be rolling out something very exciting in there life is dirty gotta go behind the mask you know life can be complicated yeah sometimes you gotta disrupt you got to be vulnerable you got to talk you gotta share you gotta and you gotta break out no question we've been focusing a lot here in our community this year with mental health not Mental Illness but mental health how it be healthy how it can grow we've done we have our podcast Out of the Shadows the next episode will be coming out soon but we did an amazing amazing panel we've spoken about behind the beam a couple weeks ago with the foreman family there's a huge people have watched it listened to it many many thousands and thousands of people I've gotten countless emails texts and people I'm so happy that it resonated it touched people some people have reached out to get help and they're they're now confronting and trying to tackle their own challenge in this area of addiction and recovery so it was really really fantastic and really excited about if you haven't checked it out it's really worth it go on our YouTube channel Rabbi FM Goldberg on YouTube and find that that conversation with the recovering addict her parents and her brother because whether you're touched by addiction or not I guarantee it'll impact you so we're still focused on working on this area something all of us need help with and speaking of conversations I just saw an email that there's another big conversation coming up one that's obviously very personal for you it's you and your wife yeah going to be speaking yeah it's interesting story actually oh I reached out to me and they said they're doing a webinar about prenatal lost a webinar about people with pregnancy loss miscarriage stillbirth uh people who struggled in that area and they were reaching out to me as a rabbi you know it's a pretty pretty big show probably dealt with it anything you have to offer in that area so I said oh are you calling me because of the stillbirth that we had they're like we don't know anything about it I said yeah 20 20 plus years ago we had a a still birth it was after after the two girls Rachelle unitara Ayala and avigal it's that third pregnancy was um a tragic loss of a little baby boy which which end up being even more complicated because we're Beyond blessed a billion times over a healthy child is the greatest thing in the world we had six girls then we had our seventh as our little shy but six girls but number three was a boy who unfortunately didn't didn't live um anyway so yeah we've never done this before we've never spoken about it even to the community does the community know I probably in in shiram or something I'm sure I've referenced it but but actually sitting down and telling the whole story like how did she find out what was it like to be put into labor what's that recovery what were the feelings why did it happen what happened afterwards to make sure it didn't happen again were we on the same page did we deal with it in the same way what was supportive of the people around us and what was unhelpful we never ever not only have we not done it together I don't know that we've even thought about or all those issues through all the way that that I just said them to you so I'm excited not to share because it's about us in the least but if you could take your experience and hopefully help others in a way that either validates their experience or even gives some tools for their experience um and it's really in many ways you have its story obviously from my perspective it was a little bit different but it's her story and I'm happy that she's going to be telling it in uh in her way what she went through I will tell you this when I'll never forget when the wheel during the wheelchair out of that delivery room after having to deliver a baby who's not alive and hold that baby in your arms and they even send you home with a picture if you want to remember it's a different world today still have that picture so um you know they were expressing huge sympathy and she looked at the nurses and she said don't worry I'll be back I think there are a lot of people who don't want to get pregnant again don't want to happen again don't want to try to have another child again she said don't worry I'll be back and a year later she gave birth in the exact same room in the same room that she had delivered that that baby that wasn't alive so is she is she a little anxious yeah we got we get we have a little date planned to go out and talk through what we're gonna say what we're going to talk about what we're going to share which I'm also not used to doing right I speak a lot and and I'm used to getting some feedback afterwards from her but we know usually sit down and and plan or talk through or work through beforehand what we're gonna we're gonna speak about it's a there are other people on this webinar also which are great really amazing women who've started organizations and who have their own experiences amazing amazing people Dr Blumenthal from all be on it so we're just a small part of it it's a bigger conversation that I hope people who could benefit the truth is like all these things you don't have to be experiencing it to benefit from it there's nobody alive who doesn't have contact with mental health right I mean first of all our own mental health staying healthy having people in our family struggling with mental health friends or neighbors children classmate grandchildren there's nobody there's nobody alive there's not a human being who can tell me that they can't gain and learn from knowing how to navigate mental health and similarly here if you've been blessed have no idea what I'm talking about there was no miscarriage and a miscarriage also when we first married but if you've never had a miscarriage you never had a stillbirth you never waited fertility problems or sex secondary infertility then even if you think it doesn't relate to you I guarantee you there's someone in your life who it speaks to very personally and learning more about what you can do and how you can navigate and the tools that you can get can only can only benefit everybody so these things are worth listening to and thank God we're living in a blessed time that people are more comfortable than ever to talk about it so let me ask you a question you just mentioned two very very traumatic experiences did you feel as a rabbi an obligation or or something that you said I I should or should not share this with the community when it was happening at the time it was 21 years ago so I was in the cola and Boca Raton was a different time I wasn't even the assistant around by yet I was in the Colo um I think we I don't even think we were thinking that way I think we were focused on just I was focused on on and us and it's it's implication and taking care of the other the two kids um while she was going through it so um yeah I don't think I've thought about it in that in that way did the other kids know about it yeah yeah I remember at that point yeah somebody gave us a children's book that you like can read to a little kid about what they're because imagine your your Mom is pregnant right yeah you know from like the third month of four months she's getting bigger you're talking about the baby you're talking to the baby you're feeling the baby you're listening to the baby you're getting ready for the baby and then Mommy comes home she's not pregnant but there's no baby right so how do you how do you explain that that explained so uh so how do people tune in and hear this this talk there is a link to register it's on oh hell um we sent it out as a schul email is there a simple way to tell people how to do it that is a great question but we could share it afterwards and people will be able to find it online um you can register oh hello Comfort I was supposed to have a baby and hug hope understanding and guidance are all doing it together reimagining perinatal loss so really great great group of of women and moderated by David Mandel the CEO of all Norman Blumenthal and again these conversations everyone can learn everything again can all learn better what to say or not say or do or not do for someone in our life you know a third of pregnancies end in miscarriage people don't realize I don't think we do a good job getting we should already be teaching your senior in high school let alone you're in seminary let alone in a Kala class we weren't ready for it I don't anyone tell you did anyone like we were under the impression that you get married and then when you want to have a baby you have a baby yeah nobody said like it could not happen right away nobody said it could not you know your dream could be crushed you could it could go through lost a third of pregnancies like a high percentage um so I think we could do a better job also not scaring people but Preparing People and building that resilience to know and to feel grateful when everything does work out what an absolute incredible it is that nobody should ever ever take for granted but I think that experience is horrific as it was at the time made us a better Rabbi in Robinson made us more empathetic understanding I hope I hope made us capable of taking that experience and using it to to try to help others in that way so yeah yeah I'm a little nervous I mean just nervous because it's Uncharted Territory I haven't really shared it hasn't been about us or our story right usually I'm teaching Torah and telling other people stories right you know listen it's great story very personal but yeah it's personal but on the other hand you know thank God we feel very blessed 21 years later I will tell you this and then let's bring on our guest and get started I will tell you this and um I we don't think about it I don't think about it often again thank God we're blessed we have a big family children and at this point grandchildren feel incredibly incredibly blessed and we bless everybody trying to have children should have healthy and successful children a lot of Marcus um but there was that day that it happened here in Boca there was another Rabbi Nicola also who had a baby that day a baby boy that day right so okay well that wasn't hard for me um I was able to be happy for him I didn't think one was connected to the other but even now like they moved a long time ago they moved a long time ago shortly after it happened but that family's name came up recently for some reason you haven't mentioned it and I said I wonder I wonder what their son's up to like he's 21 years old is he married does he have kid like what's he up to because that moment makes you think like I have a thought about it I don't think about it because I've got a funny life I've got six girls and then I have this night just 10 years old shy so I'm like an old man father who's got a lot of experience raising daughters but everything with shy is new with 10. you could give me a lot of lessons about that but but I could have had a 21 year old son would be a different stage wow so yeah life's interesting in that way but we got a very exciting conversation we're super grateful for those two Stewie wax our good friend thank you for continuing to hook us up with great guests David sacks born and raised in New York went to Harvard and moved out to LA to become a writer for television he's worked on a lot of very famous shows that you could Google and see yourself I will say this disclaimer and and we'll have the conversation with him momentarily there's a lot to learn from him this is not about glorifying that industry or telling everybody they should watch or be exposed to everything it has to offer obviously we don't believe that but on the other hand it's something to learn from so many people and David sacks is a person who's made enormous sacrifices in life to be observant and teaches five shiram a week quotes total leftand rights for h.com and so much more there's a lot to learn from him that's almost incidental to the very famous shows that he's won Emmy and golden Club awards for so if you if you think that kind of thing's cool you'll think this is very cool if you're not impressed by those particular shoes you're still gonna think he's really cool and he's really cool he's really amazing and he is and it's super exciting to be able to bring him on without any further Ado David sacks we are super excited to go behind the beaming with the great David sacks David thank you so much for being with us we've heard so much about you our mutual good friend Stewie wax our beloved holy brother he's been talking about you forever and I'm so glad we were able to make this happen and and to hear from you and learn from you and learn from your story so thank you so much thank you for having me so David there's so much to talk about your award winner uh Golden Globe award and many awards Emmy Award you're a person who has a total podcast you've written for h.com Torah Cafe just a fascinating person so you know let's start with as an Emmy award-winning writer somebody who's broken through and made it in Hollywood um what you've written for all the names of those shows are are familiar to so many people um what's it like to balance being an observant Jew and living with Torah values and a Hollywood World maybe a pop culture which increasingly is less compatible with that Torah world how do you balance how do you navigate that okay great question so um I think my simple answer uh by the way I think um there's this great quote that I love from Steve Jobs which is simple is hard right so like we're really nothing to Breslin talks about being a sinful Jew like civil is hard it's really hard to get it down to that I can tell you um in terms of writing when you come up with a with this story uh it's so complicated and when you can get it down where it's just total Clarity I think that's one of the reasons why I love the the cuts for ready so much and in his ability to just like I I remember learning in high school one time that like a teaspoon of a dwarf star weighs billions of pounds you know what I mean to to be able to condense like incredibly you know complex things and just like a very simple form is just so uh so ethereal and wonderful so why am I saying all that because you're asking me about balancing Hollywood in the world well so my simple answer uh which maybe isn't so simple is that God is one so we're all experiencing that in our lives we're all experiencing that in our lives just in terms of a different degrees and God puts us into this world in order to um you know I'll say it in a slightly mystical way um to turn ions into olives you know that in my learning I found that that's a theme that many rebius and kabbalists go to the idea that they're both silent but the letter Ayan is the number 70 the 70 Nations the eye iron is not just a letter it's the I it sees multiplicity in the world and we have to take credit and and evolve it and reveal that there's just Oneness the the olive behind it all so so in a practical sense you're sitting you're around a table of writers you're part of a um you're part of a sitcom you're part of a show and you've won awards and your brilliant writing and um and something comes up that that is kind of outside the bounds of what we believe the cringe do you step back do you nevertheless view it like I'm a professional let me add my my touch and and my Flair and be funny even though it doesn't I don't have to take it home with me how do you sort of navigate that yeah so um so that's a complicated question and and different situations I've reacted differently to to that um so when firstly I was on the show I had this idea it it ended up being called Lewis Black's root of all evil right it doesn't sound like a very promising title of business from a charter perspective but but it was very much born from a Torah idea it ran on Comedy Central for a couple of seasons and like I said created the show and what my intention was I wanted to put American pop culture on trial and so we the so you had a judge and you had two stand-up comedians as the prosecuting attorneys and kind of the joke was that each attorney was out to prove that their client was more evil okay and so so we had shows like we had episodes where like Disney versus Scientology like which one is more evil and and they would each make a case um for for why their client was worse and so what I was able to sort of like come up with which is hard to do which was a way to critique popular culture in a way that would be genuinely funny and to smash these sort of like sacred Cavs and these Idols that people are making out of you know celebrity and things like that um without preaching well now that was that was the idea on paper now how did it actually work out well these stand-ups that we were hiring were like the top stand-ups in in Hollywood and this is on Comedy Central in late night which means that a lot of them an industry tournament I don't know if you're familiar with it it work blue which means that they would use very off-color humor in order to make their very intelligent quotes right so so we would we were scripting they're sort of like um their material but a lot of stand-ups want to do it in their own voice and a lot of them write for themselves and so they kind of like took our script as a suggestion and then they got up there and they kind of did their act which was often extremely off color but at the same time they were serving the purpose of attacking and tearing down these idols and so I I found myself in a very kind of ambivalent place where language was being used not quite in my name but my name was on the shy it created the show I was producing the show so it was sort of in my name but at the same time this is what I was going for right and I thought to myself well you know something if you have a conversation with someone say in a shul and then you have a conversation about morality with a Ruffian in a bar you have to speak in two different ways to get your point across and so I and again maybe this is just an elaborate rationalization of my part I'll find out at 120. but I felt I did feel in the moment that this is how you talk in a bar in order to get your point across did you get pushback did you get pushback from colleagues or from the industry in general that why are you tearing down that secret cow Oh you mean for tearing the job no no no they they love that stuff just as long as um people are watching and it's getting you know ratings and good reviews yeah as long as they're happy let's take a step back now and there's a lot more to talk about navigating that and and we'll get back to that tell us just your story your background you know I know that you didn't grow up observant and quoting the cutskar um and how did that happen how did you discover that what what is it that inspired you yeah so I grew up across the street um from Rabbi Carlo box wow and I could actually see it outside my kitchen window on 79th Street um and Broadway you could kind of see it on West stem the canopy there and uh yeah so so I started going there when I was 14 and and rickshawa was like a father to me and he he really brought me to Torah observance and you know inspired me to learn all the or you know as much as I could from the uh great Hasidic Masters and he he married me and my wife and so he he really was you know alongside with my parents just like probably the greatest influence you know but how'd that happen specifically was it a did you hear him singing you know there's a member of our community it's an amazing story he's no longer alive uh who was a holocaust Survivor and after the Holocaust obviously with no judgment understandably he was filled with doubt and and anger and resentment and he really walked away from a religious observant life and he told me the story himself that he was walking um in San Francisco and he heard this music that just touched his soul so deeply and made something come back alive that had died he thought had died and he was drawn to it almost like a magnet he couldn't resist it and it turns out it was sukis and it was the house of love and prayer and was singing and that music those nigunim they just drew close and he came back to religious life and he was a student of and he lived in our community and his family's children grandchildren still living in our community and the way he described that was was so beautiful so what was it did you over here comes this did you hear a concert was it the music did it was there was there a sermon was it a challenge on a Shabbos what what was it yeah well great question so so let me just create a context for a second so so in this apartment building that I grew up in it's kind of a famous building in New York but probably most people haven't heard of it it's called the app for and it's one square block and it's got a big Courtyard in the in the middle there and hundreds of families and when I was growing up there was only one from family in the entire building um and as of bar mitzvah present they gave my older brother a subscription they they were like very you know Mainline why you people uh but but they gave my the mom gave my older brother a subscription to the Chabad children's magazine talks and tales which is like a really like modest simple little pamphlet but in every issue there was a Hasidic story in it and so when I was like a young kid when I was growing up in this reformed family and going to you know Temple and Sunday school and all the rest I was reading these Hasidic stories as a as a young kid and I that became really the foundation of my my my Jewish Education because every Hasidic story is to say they're all different but they're all the same and but by that I mean they all have like three main things in common that that I notice one there's a guy two he loves you three he's intimately involved in every detail of your life so like if you know that what else do you mean to them right right so so when so toward the end of my grandmother's life she was staying with us and she wanted to go to school and she couldn't walk so well so this neighbor recommended well closer show is from shomo show across the street so she started going she loved it she brought my mother my mother looked up my brother brought my sister she loved it and then they brought me and what's kind of slightly different about my relationship with rep shuloma than than say like the average persons is that I didn't know anything about the music and all to me my relationship with him was as a Pulpit Rabbi which it was just sort of a little bit not the common experience and so what what just completely galvanized me like just changed my whole life was when he started telling nobody the Hasidic stories that I remember reading from earlier in my life and just the stories of it's a deacon and the Mysterious and just the the Vegas kite and just just the beauty of their Taurus like that's what didn't well I can ask you a question what was it like you've been to so many shouls I'm sure and you walk into his show what was it what was it the experience like before he you know he even got to know him well you know I don't know why because it's almost the opposite of what I want to say but there's a great Torah I wish I could tell you which Webby said it he said you know that you know the difference between an Avera it's doing something wrong and a cold Mikvah he says with within Avera you go ah oh and with a cold mic for you go ooh ah so why am I telling you that because it really is the opposite when you walked into rep Shalom or sure it was like walking into a warmth there is no oh it was only uh you just looked in and there was just this Embrace and this atmosphere and just this just this beauty that just even though it was a very simple pretty small very small people but there is just just kind of love there you know yeah I'd been there many times including for his funeral which was held outside that show I was a I was a student NYU at the time as the talmud NYU and had gotten into his music had really touched me deeply so I had been there and we're talking about how you've taken what you learned and now you've built your own as a Founder co-founder of the Happy minion and what you did with that but but first tell us more so what age were you when you started going and and inspired you and with that you started keeping Shabbos where were you in terms of a career in Hollywood was this before the career you started the career did any point you think about pivoting that maybe this isn't for me now that I'm observant or maybe I'll bring the observance and and bring that to this world yeah so I started going there when I was 14 years old and I remember um I was almost 15 it was like just maybe a few days from my birthday but it was it was some close Torah in that Jewel which was a special event and I remember holding the Torah having the Torah and I wasn't you know observant at all at this point and I remember feeling like this is my whole life you know I I just I I felt this closest there now the reason why I'm telling you that is because I started keeping Shabbos when I was 24. so 10 years past 10 years passed and um during that time you know I I you know tried to keep that flame alive inside of me you know that's when uh the years I was in high school and when I went off to Harvard and when I started out in Hollywood the first couple years out in Hollywood that was that 10-year period and there came a point where I felt like I had experienced a lot like I broke into Hollywood when I was 21. I was writing for an HBO show on a writing staff of an award-winning show when I was 21. I'm right after college it was a total brother I bring that up because I I was really kind of blessed to set like a lot of big goals for myself when I was younger and actually see them fulfilled and and I was able to see up close and personal that all these things were wonderful I was having a great time by the way you know it was all great but I felt like there's got to be something more there's something more than this you know and a lot of people I think I I really was really um blessed in that a lot of people they have certain dreams and things like that and for whatever reason you know maybe they never see them fulfilled in the way they want and so they always think maybe in the back of their mind you know something my life would be different if I had gotten that and and then I'd have a better sense but I was able actually to get those things that I wanted and to see them up close and say you know what it's nice but it's not it's not like the greatest thing in the world it's like this is like the Beatles And end-all I tell you a crazy story tell you a crazy story I was making this point I was giving a speech at Harvard um and before some alumni at the hill Elder it was like a reunion and I was basically saying what I just told you and and the way I was phrased it was he said you know something and then I was elected president of the student body at Bronx Science right which is a big school and I said I saw this was good but I thought the truth wasn't there and then I really wanted to get into Harvard I got into Harvard but I saw it was great I loved it but the truth wasn't there and I hear a voice from a very offended person in the audience and she says yes it is and I said no it isn't and she said yes it is and I said no it isn't and she got up and she walked out the door wow like wow this is like it was still like well you know wow I've been have you been invited back there since then that is amazing so what so 24 years old when you started keeping Shabbos and where were you what were you working on then and and how how did you start keeping Shabbos what happens if they have a script writing or script reading or or they're they're producing the show and the sun's setting on Friday you know Frisco Kid style and and now you're keeping Shabbos you've determined you could keep Shabbos and maybe that that sounded better in theory than in practice how did you actually do this so so again great great question um here just uh hang on once okay I'm just gonna hang out here for a second any questions here we go did you have to go find the answer somewhere was that uh yeah yeah exactly let's tell you what to say it's like Shabba something open up shop it's page 24. foreign [Laughter] yeah so so I started keeping Shabbos I had been keeping Shabbos for about three months I was unemployed at the time I get a job on this show called women in prison it was a comedy uh it was ranked 99th out of 99 shows in prime time if it doesn't sound very funny to you America it was it was like not not a big hit but I was very happy to get the job and uh it was my first sitcom I had been doing what they call Variety kind of like late night you know comedy uh before then and yeah so so that first Shabbos came around I I out of naivete I didn't know because I had never done it before on a job I didn't know that you're supposed to talk to your bosses or alert your bosses I just kind of again I wasn't trying to be sneaky or anything like that just kind of didn't think it through so I I found myself it was it was the it's Friday that the sun was sitting in front of my eyes you know in front of these palm trees it was very very Hollywood and I lived just a few minutes from the studio but there came a point where I realized that if I didn't leave that meeting and there were about 10 10 or so strangers in front of me you know these things are very personal spiritual things especially in the beginning you don't necessarily feel comfortable discussing them with anyone much has a room full of strangers in a business in it and now I found that I had to leave this needed and I I did not know what to do and so I just stood up and I looked through it and I think in retrospect I think people probably thought I was going to the bathroom but I never came back they're still looking for you see okay in there I mean there's never like running run into my car and I always think of the story I Rabbi uh mortified Bedford I just was with him in Johannesburg for the Shabbos project a couple weeks ago um everybody Bedford gave me permission to to use his story uh because I love it so much he was he was put up in Hong Kong like something like on the 80th floor of some high-rise for the Shabbos program we was doing and he didn't feel comfortable using the elevator and so he was walking at the service stairwell and he was like on the 75th floor right and he sees this like Asian worker like looking at him and he feels like he has to give him an explanation and so he said so you don't understand it's my day of rest so so anyway I felt like for a day of rest this was gonna kill me you know this is total you're stressing me out so I talked to my bosses um the next week and and I I think the exact words that I use for it I I said would it be okay if I left a few hours ago we to observe the Sabbath and they looked and they said no well it's not okay and had we known that you wanted to do this we never would have hired you to begin with and now you have to make a decision so think about it and my decision was already made but they told me to think about it again I didn't want to be confrontational with him so I said I would think about it and I called my agent I got back to my house and he said what are you gonna do I said what do you mean what am I going to do and he said well then you'll never work in television again and you know there's this famous line from old Hollywood movies which is you'll never work in this town again and it's like I was like Wow people actually saying that and someone's saying it to me you know weird moment anyway that we we went to the studio and long story short they liked me and and and they they made the they made the accommodation but but it got more intense that you know anyway it's a longer story uh but David let me interrupt you because I want to make two observations before you continue with it yeah um one is you know the fact that you shared that you had you had met these benchmarks you had realized these dreams and you realized there was still some more and you know that's why I think it's amazing to be having this conversation and thank you so much for for joining us behind the bema because there's a world of people who grew up religious who grew up with Torah grew up with Jewish Education grew up with strict Jewish observance and they mistakenly think there's so much more if only I could break into Hollywood those actors those writers those Golden Globe and Emmy Award winners they're happy they've made it they're famous they have money they have and here you are you have all that and you came back to to what the person who grew up with it had you came up you came back to it you said I've I have it and and I'm missing something I want truth and I want and I want Shabbos so that's observant observation number one because I think it's really important for us for our audience for our kids for our community to hear from somebody who who reached it and who's still there and it still says there's something more and that that more is total and number one number two is and I think this is is really amazing is that you know the cynic or I shouldn't say cynic the religiously cynic cynical person might read your bio or see you're on our program and say you know this guy he wrote for he writes wrote for The Simpsons Third Rock Malcolm in the Middle who was black you know this is Torah to which I say have you ever had to make that choice between your job and Shabbos your career and your dream in Shabbos have you had to Once on a Friday be most our nephesh and look in that mirror and answer that question of an agent what are you gonna do what are you gonna do so many including me and my job I hope I would I mean I work every Shabbos but I've never been asked to file a child but you know I've never I've never been forced and so many have never before so you're really a hero in many ways and and that's an amazing amazing story to be talking to somebody who did it in modern times make a choice between not just a particular job but one that was posed to you it was a career a dream a future that you were well on your way to achieving and and the way you described you didn't hesitate you said yeah decisions already made I'm keeping Shabbos it's like wow wow well you know something I in in terms of screenwriting I I heard a great comment which when when a movie begins the entire life of the character is leading up to this moment that you're about to watch right so that's that's like a well-written screenplay and so you know you say I didn't hesitate I didn't hesitate but at the same time I do want to you know go back on something that I said earlier I I really felt it in my bones in the deepest way when I was 14. and I started keeping Shabbos when I was 24. and so I went I really I heard a friend of mine Rabbi seidenfeld said that has the word which means to walk and not to run and you you go step by step and you you try to make each step very real and to fully integrate it within yourself so that you're proceeding as a coherent human being where your body your soul your mind and your heart are becoming integrated with each step that you take and so I I didn't you know I didn't just just wake up one day and say I'm going to be religious and they said oh we're gonna fire you and I said oh who cares I'm good anyway I mean this was you know that my whole life was leading up to that moment is what I'm trying to tell you understood and how have you navigated it since have you been able to smoothly navigate your career have there been other times since then that someone says look we love you you're really talented but as an observant too it's just not going to work with this project it has but most of those conversations don't happen in front of my face anymore I mean I think that they happen behind my back where they go yeah he'd be good but you know you know it's complicated and I think that does take place um I find that people are really supportive and and and when I'm on the job by the way my philosophy is they're not hiring me to be you know the the the you know anything like that I'm not like they're they're hiring you to do a job so I'm there to do a job now if people want to come up to me and to ask questions I'm happy to answer all their questions but I'm not there to you know to to teach essentially you know what I mean sure are there Jewish and are there Jewish and non-jewish uh can you share with us are there Jewish and non-jewish actors other writers producers who knowing how you live and what you know have have come up to try to learn more about Judaism and anyone or any story stands out a lot I mean you know I I mean I had an amazing experience where when I was on Third Rock From the Sun you know there was like a a new writer who kind of would come into my office and ask me questions and uh then I invited him over for Friday night and started we next thing we knew we had a room in our house that was just for him for Friday nights and then not so long after that he moved to Jerusalem and got an orthodox Smith wow he hand out to his shoulders and you know wow you know he's an amazing guy funny guy still working in the industry you know learns heavily it's like a real Thomas and Other Stories you know not as extreme but as serious where people who I've worked with has absolutely become from or converted to Judaism by the way wow yes it's amazing you said you're not the mashkiak and you're not not a rabbit but you did start a minion the Happy minion well I have to give that to Stewie wax Stewie wax is our our founder and uh president you know wherever he lives he's still the president still going strong here in Boca yeah yeah I played um yeah you know I I was fortunate enough to live in one of the areas in the world where there was a core group of rip um students hasidum who were within walking distance to each other which isn't you know because he was traveling all around the world that wasn't always the case but here was like a core group that lived near each other so we were actually able to form a community and we've been going now for about 27 years approximately yeah what makes it special to stand out how is the Happy minion different than the typical Shabbos morning minion well we we've got the world's greatest cousin we've got you know Yehuda Solomon uh from the moshala of the band mosha and he he grew up learning the gunum sitting on roshoma's lab I mean so I mean he's you talk about musora he's he's got the authentic massora and there's just every every you know you've got people with strangles people with tie-dyed t-shirts dancing next to each other people who've never walked into a show before you know uh non-jews with dreadlocks walking in like you've got you've got really this unbelievable spectrum and there's just this feeling no one feels judged there's there's just whatever you're wearing is the right thing to be wearing and everyone who's there wants to be there so it's just a an awesome place it's very special now when you went to Harvard did you know that you'd be on the path of writing writing comedy and Hollywood I know you got a degree in government so maybe you thought you were going into politics when did you know you had this Talent were you funny as a kid did you stand up for the family at Thanksgiving dinner when when did you know you have this talent and when did you know you wanted to direct this talent I know you also were the editor of the Harvard Lampoon so you knew you were funny even in school but how did you know that you wanted to go in this direction so okay so end of freshman year at Harvard I overheard a conversation between two people one says what are you going to do for your summer vacation and the other one and says well you know I think I'm going to go trekking in Asia and the other one says oh yeah I'm going to be doing this you know high-powered internship at you know this Investment Bank on Wall Street and I remember thinking I'm supposed to do something Fancy on my summer vacation I thought I thought just getting into this place was enough right I I call my mother I say mom what am I gonna do and she says well I could talk to the superintendent and you could be the elevator man in our building make the call she calls me back you got the job I was like amazing you know so you know some elevators are like this you know what I mean like you have to mine was like this it was not it was just the push button one right well in order to stay sane and also because I I wasn't really much of a student in very in terms of being studious you know I wasn't much of a student ever um so I felt like this is an opportunity for me to start reading like the great books like things that I really never read and so while I was an elevator man I was reading like you know you know like magical realism of the novels of South America and you know like all these Nobel prize winning works of literature and and I I was amazed I was like I as as as corny as it sounds I was putting the book down and because I read sentences that literally took my breath away and I thought to myself I want to be a writer and you know somehow because I was also on the land pool which was humor magazines and somehow that instinct guide directly challenged into humor writing and and also I liked to joke around I'd never been a performer and in terms of like stand up or like telling jokes or anything like that you know it's more dialogue driven my my humor um and then a lot of people I found I so I sort of discovered later in life that I did have this creative side which like you pointed out I was a government major I figured I'd be a lawyer or something like that and then I saw some friends were getting jobs in Hollywood writing for television for shows like Saturday Night Live and the David Letterman show and they thought wow that would be something if I if I tried that like what would that be you know and then just the heavens opened and next thing I knew that that's for Ellen's did you ever embed and once he became observance did you ever embed Jewish themes or Jewish icons into any of your writing yeah I just finished a series I I produced it with um Conan O'Brien who who I was on the Harvard Lane coonwood so I've known him for you know a long time and and it was called final space it was on Adult Swim in HBO Max it was this we ran for three seasons it was this animated sci-fi drama comedy action adventure it was a very elaborate thing and and I put a lot of ideas into that I can give you two examples um one is there was a conversation between a robot and a ventrexian now that's a made-up alien species which were like these very militaristic cats what kind of so what what does one say to the other one is consoling the other and says um you have to believe um that if you're capable of breaking something you also have to believe that you can fix it right which is word for word ribby nothing at bresler dialogue between our robot and ventrexia and and I'll tell you something like people today when they watch TV shows you know there's every shell has like a hardcore fan base you know um especially like sci-fi stuff and you know so people live tweet meaning to say that everyone's like watching the show at the same time and whenever they see a line that they like they they tweet it at everyone was tweeting you know you have to believe if you can break something you know you also have to believe that you can fix it and then one time you know looking at the treats I see I don't know if you're familiar with the Thai t-h-a-i script from Thailand it's beautiful it's very unusual it looks like um almost like paisleys or columns I mean it's a very different alphabet than than we're used to and then there's a little button underneath where it says translate tweet so there's this like thing that looks like you know this this beautiful design I click it and it says that if you if you believe that you can break something you also have to believe you can fix it I mean in every culture all over the world you know that ribby nothing teaching was was resonating and at another example which was very close to me they actually made a poster of this and and sold it um it sold out I don't think you can buy it but um but anyway I remember feeling like in this one piece of dialogue I put everything I knew in my entire life and this one phrase which was there's this friendship between these two characters and one of there they become like Fast Friends and one of them has like a really bad past like a pretty murderous past and the other one learns about just how dark the guy's past is and he turns to his new kind of best friend and he says well I guess you don't want anything to do with me anymore right and this is what he says back to him this is what I wrote he said all of us are broken the only question is how much and how far are we willing to go to fix it well deep it's amazing I was actually just in a fraud and a friend of mine has a big big painting outside his house and it says you're a nachmann quote so everyone that walks up and down the street in zait you can see this big this big quote Yeah it's one of the best it's amazing I'm just wondering you know I'm looking at at your description we have here on the screen and it's Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning writer you don't often see that with the word minion you know or anything significant you know we win an award what's the award is uh you know you get honored by the school or the synagogue gives you an award you got a Golden Globe you know is there a certain amount of pressure that comes with that and you say well you know I'm a Golden Globe winner or is it no I finally got it and now I'm gonna do something else yeah it depends on the person you know I mean part of me feels like you know I sort of proved myself right and in that particular category anyway and you know now I can concentrate on things that I find more important you know and then part of me says I should also concentrate on paying my mortgage yeah those are two two very important voices that you should uh you should be listening to know knowing what you know now knowing what you know now about Hollywood and and also sort of prophetically looking to the future of where pop culture is headed some of its ideals and values or lack thereof or some of the boundary blurring if a young person came to today and said you know David sacks I dab with you or in the minion you know me you've seen me growing up I'm getting a Jewish Education I've grown up there my whole life I'm really deciding I could do accounting I'm thinking maybe medical school maybe law or maybe Hollywood writer what do you think knowing what you know now would you steer a young person away you're navigating it because of when you began and and when you became observant or would you say no if that's a dream you can make that happen today in a way that won't compromise or uh impact your family yeah I mean I genuinely believe that every single person has like a very special individualistic light inside of them and and you know you have to reveal this special truth that's been put inside you uh into the world that's part of the Gola that's part of the that's part of the fixing of the world and you know um I think it would depend on a few things is the person genuinely talented right that that's one thing a lot of people want to do something but they're not that doesn't mean they're great at it is the person genuinely great at it are they going to make a a contribution they can make a contribution that can change the world through a movie by putting an idea into the world that can change the entire world and bring Michelle closer there's no question about it um not only that but you know comedy is not a small thing to make someone laugh and to give them strength to deal with the challenges of their life is is a very healing very important thing so it's not just bittlesma you know it's not just a waste of time um you know there's a great example um you may have heard it but two people give one dollar to a homeless person right so well for one of those two people that was his last dollar right so on the outside it looks the same but on the inside two different stories going on so I think that you would have to really understand what's going on with that individual who wants to go into the industry and one thing that I would say is that even me who's had you know you know by certain measures you know a great deal of success I've still had tremendous ups and downs in my career you know there's there have been feast and famine periods and and a lot of difficulties and so it hasn't been all fun and games and it's not like um you know if you go into a career in Hollywood or in any aspect of show business you have to be ready the battle um great instability and you know so even if a person has top talent they they also have to have a partner and and the and and the the desire to to weather that type of Lifestyle which is maybe not necessarily the case at say a corporate firm or something like that where you've got a steadiness and so that that's a factory yeah I'm just wondering do you get a lot of people asking you hey I got my you know my my son or my relative is is wants to break in can you help them or or do people come to you and say you know even for the local uh shul dinner you know you have so many connections with so many celebrities can you right can you help us basically basically everybody wants to know if you could get Conan O'Brien from behind the beam as well Conan was great you see the one where he goes to Israel that was so much fun yeah he's an awesome guy just so down to earth and intelligent yeah um yeah I get all that on a pretty regular basis yeah yeah okay talk to us about your total podcast spiritual tools for an outrageous world uh who's your favorite who's your favorite Torah commentator to draw from who do you like learning and maybe we can guess after you know the time already we've spent together we know what genre you like but what do you try to accomplish in that Torah podcast how do you come up with what you want to share who's your favorite commentator yeah you know I would say probably the the per the tour figures that I've been going to well I'll give you a few can I give you a few please yeah I would say the cutscar ready for sure and my wife actually is an inner call of the cutscar ready wow and so she's a Morgenstern so um his teachings I find just to be just so just endlessly deep and and just just such a uh description of of The Human Condition and and the solution to The Human Condition so anyway I love him I love Robin uh I've been learning a lot of reviews um he was a student of the girl nagoon a couple of generations afterwards and had really the kabbalistic tradition from him the last year so I've been really working in a book called uh which is kind of like a a description of reconciling the shitas of the ramachal the Ari and the villanue so that's that's been like that's yeah just some some light you know some light pillow reading you know uh um and of course rep shalomo you know rev sloven is like that's they're just having the trampoline that can take you everywhere it's interesting that you love the cut skirt because the cutscure of course Cuts right to the MS his commitment to truth without any but on the other hand the katsuka was you know pessimistic is the wrong is is not a fair description but he was a sobering personality his Torah is very sobering and and you come across as so happy and you're the founder of the Happy minion and it's a positive it's optimistic in that and that demeanor so it's interesting that you say the cutscure how do you reconcile that but even even more direct how do you stay happy even this conversation you tell a lot by a person's default demeanor some people look miserable and depressed even when they're in a good mood and other people just have a permanent smile and it could be the worst day but the default face feature is a smile and you're just you're smiling and our buddy Stewie tells us you're happy all the time and you've got that is that something you work on that happiness does it come naturally do you have to overcome some some inertia to stay happy sure so probably a little bit of both I think that I probably have a disposition toward happiness definitely but at the same time it's something that I definitely work at you know there's the there's the that great phrase that we all know even so so the simple way of Translating that is that you know you should serve god with happiness but I remember one time I was not in a great place emotionally and and I I thought about those words Eve to a session and I thought to myself oh you know another way to read that is it's work it's like hard and work it's a vote it to serve the show with happiness it doesn't come easily all of the time um and so so but it's it's worth the work and and I think for me if I were to sum it up I remember I went through a very very you know I talked about the ups and downs of careers and things like that in my career careers in general but I I remember I had weathered a particularly challenging uh stretch really challenge and I remember just kind of talking with myself and asking myself how did I get with that and I remember an answer came to me like instantly which was that I never questioned the goodness of God one moment during the process you know and I think that one of my campaigns you asked me about the podcast one of my campaigns in in life in terms of what message I'm trying to get across is there a lot of people who believe in God and they believe that God gave us the Torah and all the rest but but they don't know that God is good and which means and this is kind of tragic if you think about it it means that they believe in an all-powerful dictator and it's it's it's kind of heartbreaking it's kind of heartbreaking God loves us to pieces and if you want to believe in God as a Jew you can't just say that God is one and God is all powerful and God gave us the Torah you also have to understand is one of these premises that God is good and that everything that happens is for our good whether we can understand it or not even if it's painful it's 100 for organ and so so I I really think that that's one of the things that that can keep a person in a positive place but a person has to work at that they they can't just decide that that's the case you know I heard something from uh Rabbi Wolfson uh shlita um in the immunity said something amazing he said that isn't like breakfast can you imagine I go up to you uh Rabbi what we're going to ask you did you eat breakfast today and you say to me no I ate breakfast yesterday like what is breakfast yesterday anything to do with like breakfast is always relevant if you're handed to that do you understand so he says that about a Luna that okay maybe you had to move it when you were a child maybe you had last week but a Luna is something that has to be renewed every single day and now I'm gonna put it in my words in a more shocking way you can't have a moon you can have a sofa because you can't have a movement a moon is something that has to be generated and work done and and that's a thing that I think a lot of people Miss they say these words you ready I'm from okay be careful be careful right you know I'll tell you a story um just very quickly one of my all-time favorite stories from the sons already one zerobe is looking at his window who calls over a hussard he says if you found a bag of money on the road he said what would you do plus it says ready you know I I would find out who it belongs to and I would do everything that I could to return it he says fool and he sends them away he calls over another custody he says if you found a bag of money in the road what would you do he says ready I'm very sorry to say my times are very tough for me honestly what I would probably do is look both ways and he's going around how do you keep the money from myself he says Wake it and he sends him away and he said because over another if I said ask some of the same question and and and the husband says back he says rebby I would like to think I would do the right thing but I don't know until I'm in the moment and he said that's the right answer hmm that's like a teacher I was ever like a you know maybe not a rabbi but but someone that teaches regularly and and they do you know I travel around the world getting speeches I do podcasts I teach about five classes a week these five classes a week yeah some more than most Rapids it's all through the house you're doing it through the Happy minion where are the clouds where can people find it I get provided to places and you know wow I mean I just was invited by the chief Rabbi in South Africa for the third time actually to Johannesburg for the Shoppers project I was just invited to um Miami to be part of the uh chabad's National Jewish retreat great um you really you made me think when you were describing a Muna yesterday today you know that's like your spouse says do you love me like I loved you yesterday I have love I have love for you you have love you don't have love do you love and I loved you yesterday where you loved me yesterday why is that relevant to right now today so that's what a what did you change Jackie Mason has a joke like that he says you know you go up to a couple you say are you happy and they say that 15 years like they don't answer the question they just how many years it's been so as as an Insider in the world of media popular media are you concerned about children and and the community in general about where media is going and overexposure you think people should be very careful in filtering and what what we're being exposed to and watching and listening to and its impact on us yeah I mean there's a lot of toxic content out there you know true and um yeah and I I don't have an extreme view about it right I think that parents really have to be on top of what media their children are consuming absolutely absolutely and I think that there's a happy in between if that's how they want to raise their child they don't have to be so black and white about it unless they want to be I mean these are all personal choices because there's a lot of great stuff out there too but um but yeah there's a lot of really ugly stuff out there do you feel there's a pressure in the industry to keep pushing the envelope well you know they just want to make money so if you found a formula where just bought some Tove stories made a lot of money they'd be happy to go that way they don't care we've got to find that we've got to find that route it's interesting your answer because we had saw blinkoff also on behind the Bima and and you know obviously similarly in a different way a similar industry and I think again people think that um you know there are many people even if they are observant of their children are going to an orthodox school but it's kind of like every kid's got their own device they've got seven of their own devices they've got unfiltered Internet it's in a bedroom it's in and like that's the way we do it that that's what we do and many people dismiss that if you encourage some level of filtering and I don't even mean filter proper but I mean in a bigger picture some level of discriminating and being judicious what we let in now you're a fanatic now you're from now you're an extremist and I think it's refreshing to hear you to your soul to your hear people involved in producing the content like are you out of your mind that you don't you're not careful what you bring in like there's a lot out there's a lot that's good and you can debate where those lines are what's good what's bad how if like you said there's a healthy debate but there's probably no debate over the fact that there's got to be some concern and Care being placed to protect not only our children ourselves from from the influences for sure yeah it's powerful David's incredible conversation and and it's so inspiring we've learned really so much um thank you for sharing your wisdom and sharing your life experience your life experience what didn't we ask you that we should have what are we leaving on the table right now that we should be I've ever written a book have you ever written a book I just wrote my first book that's amazing it's not in your bios you got to get that into the bio well you know it hasn't been published yet but I'm just kind of putting it out there and uh tell us about it yeah I well you know it's what I've tried to do is just pick up a book that you can open up to any page and read something that's um that's deep and clear you can think about or will make you smile and so I'm quiet right now in the book of closeness and it's uh it's it's like an awesome collection of thoughts like some of my favorite thoughts and teachings um and I've been you know putting on the podcasts and things like that for the last 20 years or so where can we get it where can someone get it well it's not available yet but um it's gonna be coming out on Deuteronomy press but it's on all five books it's not just on Devon well yeah right that's right actually it's just general teachings just general teachings of thoughts we are definitely going to look for it thank you for sharing your your light and your joy and your wisdom with us really amazingly inspiring and we look forward to continuing to to find you online and offline and listening to a new podcast every every Sunday just about um spiritual tools for an outrageous World wow we can all use it we can all use them so thank you so much and and hopefully we can host you in our happy minion here in Boca Raton soon get a little reunion for you and Stewie we'll we'll get together and sing and dance thank you so much David you're welcome Robert Brody what'd you think what's that to you about David you see that smile that joy that sweetness the sweetness it's that story that he told about how someone became uh I guess religious and they started becoming a lot more more engaged and observant you could see why because when you have people that just love people that are just always so happy people are curious like what's doing that for you so it's got light and he's got joy and he's got wisdom and just it's it is contagious like you just said it is contagious and so many people that are dark and down and pessimistic and fabisana and that energy we all put out an energy what's amazing is we're on technology we are there are some podcasts that insist you have to be sitting in person in multiple camera angles and for us this is just like a side thing we have full time I couldn't even get on the link before yeah there you go so we are Amateur hour sort of by Design not because we don't want to bring you the most professional experience but this is not our life but but why am I saying that because David sacks over technology from far away there's an energy that just comes through the screen and I don't know yeah it's kind of the thing that's unsaid he had so much wisdom he said there was a lot that was said but even unsaid is is the Wiz is the energy and I think we could all work harder to put across at different energies just have a good energy and he's a lot of energy let's say the guy can be very arrogant you know I just want a golden globe and I mean I mean I'd be pretty pretty uh I might have actually had that Golden Glove like in the image like in in the scene now he's got a look by the way because here are our picture we have on the flyer and and the overlay He's Got The Look the black T-shirt black jacket black hat black glasses and the interview who's wearing that do you think his closet is filled that's the only wardrobe he has it's a great question that's a great now you've got you've got a similar feature because you've got a defining part of your wardrobe what is the defining part of your wardrobe for those who don't know it's my boots show show us lift your foot rub everybody for those I'm not I'm actually not wearing them right now but they're right the boots what kind of boots are they Doc Martens and uh I just ordered a new pair because every two three years they get worn out they still make them are you the only consumer in 2022. I think there are actually a lot of uh girls there are some starting to wear them again now how did you get is it because it gives you a couple more inches how did you get into Doc Martin that's a good question um it was actually a thing it was like back in the day it was like uh it was a look it was a look I was going for it still trying to go for and um first I love the the the idea of a boot because it's like I'm I'm I'm you know I'm working I'm I'm for the tough the Montoya Circle Terrain but the best story is I just ordered a new pair so I get it on I forget that website it's a website where you order shoes and um you know I just go in every two three years whenever you need a new pair go back just reorder reorder reorder I feel like just to be safe you should probably order like 20 put them in a closet because any day you could go on to reorder and they'll write discontinued discontent not only that but the price I can see what I've paid for the last 12 13 years right man they're gonna definitely gone up they've gone up they're going to discontin dollars a pair but but I I noticed I was like you know what I don't know if I'm if these fit so well so I took out I I went on Google and I said how do you measure your own foot like how do you find out your own foot size so I go online I see so it says trace your foot then measure it and then do the equation I realize because it's a UK it's a it's a shoe from from Great Britain I've been wearing the wrong size shoe for the last 13 years so I gorgeous size oh you've been wearing too big too big I was a nine but I'm really an eight so no that's a signature look I recently was at an event I ran into Jeff Seidel who who's going to be coming on Jeff Seidel he's got what are they called not bowling they've got another name for them he's got also a look now I think his look is by Design because you know if he says meet me at the hotel I'm gonna hook you up for a meal I'm wearing saddle shoes saddle shoes look for the guy in the saddle shoes so you're the guy in the Doc Martens he's the guy in the saddle shoes what am I I'm the guy with the huge yamaka is that me well I don't have like a like a like a Twitter account for shoes that's true not until wait we'll see we'll see somebody listens somebody watching Brody's boots can you make Brody Doc Martin Twitter account yeah listen those boots have a lot to tell a signature signature look those so you walk in Another Man's Shoes you know that's it that's it especially when they're the right size there's nothing like it 100. that's it right at the right size Brody always an amazing pleasure and a great time always a great time we learn a lot we miss our dear hover can't wait for him to be back but until next time we wish all of you stay happy