Rabbi YY & Nissim Black: From Islam, to Christianity, to Judaism

The Yeshiva.net Rabbi, just before we start, I would like to make a confession to to you. Uh I've been listening to Rabbi YY for years, years, years, years. Maybe oh yeah, almost like 10 years or something like that. I used to even listen to your sheerim on Shabbos when I could listen to them on Shabbos. You should know that. And you gave me a lot of chizuk, a lot of chizuk. So, baruch Hashem. So, thank you so much. That means a lot to the neshama. That means I'm just a key just a key in where he's talking about the social um gravity you have to break through. Okay. So, that that was the topic. And if I may say, Rabbi Jacobson is someone who grew up in the Crown Heights ghetto, if I may say, and who really uh Speak for yourself. Speak for yourself. I did not grow up in the ghetto. I grew up in a very, very open environment and a very non-judgmental environment. If you knew my home growing up, I did not grow up in a ghetto. But most people in Crown Heights, if they didn't grow up in the son of a journalist's house, was pretty you know, you knew Chabad. You when growing up in Flatbush, people I have I beg to differ with you. I beg to differ. We grew up in the presence of one of the most expansive personalities in Jewish history. So, I really beg to differ with you. Completely. Okay. So, growing up Maybe maybe not everybody listened to him or but he was a person whose ambition day and night was really to transform all of humanity and create a revolution in the world of goodness and kindness and higher consciousness. That's if if if that's called a ghetto, what's not called a ghetto? But you I'm sure you've heard this time and again people say people Chabad they don't never heard of the Rosh Yeshivas in Telz, they don't know their names, they never recognize or heard of other Rebbes in Bnei Brak or Williamsburg or other great people. So obviously Rabbi Jacobson is someone when you hear him speak and his knowledge and his reach is definitely cross all boundaries in a similar way that if I may say this I'm also really across many boundaries if I may draw those those connection here between the two stars we have on our interview here today. Yeah, but today I did get a compliment that I didn't get I don't think I ever got somebody who listen was listening to me a logically on Shabbos. And was inspired was inspired towards Yiddishkeit. Thank you. I'm going to I'm going to never forget the Shiur. I still I still I still have it. I haven't listened to it in a while but it was an oasis of calm. I don't know if you you've given a lot of Shiurim, you know, you have a lot up there so but I remember the Shiur and it was very very powerful, very very powerful. An oasis of calm? You mean creating a Shiur? It was an an I don't know who you know, I don't know if you were in charge of putting it in the in the feed on on chabad.org back then but it they they named it an oasis of calm and it was a Shiur you was giving and you talked about the Yish Kiev over there. It it it was shortly after 9/11. You gave a story from 9/11 when the building was collapsing and the two guys that walked into the bar with the Jack Daniels, you know, and then his friend you know, I I remember the You even remember the jokes, listen. Yeah, I remember the jokes. The jokes were hilarious. Okay, wow, that's a long time ago. Yeah, it was a long time ago. That's how much of an imprint it made on with But that's 20 years ago. Yeah, yeah. Oh, wow, was it? No way. Oh, no. That's 2008. Okay. You heard it you heard it 10 years ago, okay. No, it said after it. I hear. Oh, yeah, right, right, right. So, here's my question to you. It's very obvious to when the when I ever I hear you talking when we met in the past, you came to my shul in Monsey, remember Shabbos? Right, right. Fine. I always see how personal and intimate relationship with God you have. Right. What can you tell? Many people grew up with Yiddishkeit. They grew up from religious homes, Orthodox homes, or whatever types of homes. They read the Tanakh, they read the parashah, they know all the stories. Adam, Chava, Noach, Avraham, Yitzchak, David, Shaul, they know it all. Mhm. They even learn every day a blood Gemara or many other things. But if you ask them, "Did you ever experience a personal relationship with God?" they don't know what you're talking about. Right. be your advice to all of these beautiful and holy people? How can they find a real personal relationship with Hashem? I think the the the biggest things that was the for me um was the tefillah part. The tefillah part he both did and he both did. Really contemplating everything I was learning because there's one way you can you can read through a lot of the material you just described and and you you either read it like a book or you read it because you have to or you read it because you you or you read it and you're told that nothing ever is what it is. Right? And that's one of the biggest problems, right? Nothing ever really happens to some degree. And what I mean by that is is that um whether or not it happened, whether or not the pashat is the pashat people are always trying to find learn out some lesson. I tell you I was sitting with the with the someone and we started reading. We were talking about Nach and a lot of the boys that been in Yeshiva that they didn't learn Nach so much. So, I was talking to him about a story of when Eliyahu Hanavi when he was called up. So, we opened up Tanakh and we're reading it and Adam and Elohim and he's and he goes over there, "Okay, but what is it trying to teach me?" I said, "It's just trying to teach you that did look at the power of Hashem." Like when I seen it, I see what the power of Hashem was, you know? And and and you know, even reading Nehemiah Ezra and I and I read Nehemiah, you know, after such sorrow he was in after he heard what was going on in Yerushalayim and and and and decided to go back. What did he do? He went out and he cried to Hashem in the courtyard. And I was looking at when I read the stories, I'm seeing like how much the person depended on Hashem. And so, for me, I was able to grow from that and realize that hold on that if I depend on Hashem, there's a certain level of relationship and the expectation that I can have from Hashem that I'm going to be able to get if I invest my time and my my my devotion towards Hashem. So, I think that that's the biggest thing to sort of like getting new eyes, looking at everything brand new. That let let me let me just read this and never hear like, "Okay, but this what am I trying to learn out from it?" Like let me look for Hashem over there. I'm looking for Hashem over there. Amazing. What was the moment I mean, you grew up as a Sunni Muslim, then you become Christian. Right. And then one day you decide to become a Jew. What's the moment? I don't know what's the probably was an evolution, but can you point a moment or something you read or something you felt or or something in the time or some life experience that really clinched it for you? I think the thing for me was it was the overall experience of after I got into a horrible situation with another rapper. It was a killer be killed situation. My life was like, you know, on the line and I started praying. Because I had the familiarity with the Christianity and so on so I started praying. I got out of that situation and I stayed home and I kept praying. I was thanking God at that point and I realized for myself that if I continue in that same life, then the next time it could be the real thing. So, what I decided to do was continue praying. Then I decided to pick up the Bible again. Now, when I was younger I had a lot of questions and I wanted to know a lot because I just didn't I didn't understand everything. It wasn't like I grew up in church and and went to Sunday school and all the other stuff. So, when I was I also came into that Christianity realm 14 13 14 years old. So, I I had a lot of questions. Not a lot of people had a lot of answers. They're not so big on numbers over there. So, then not everybody had answers, but you know, whatever. So, I tried to to spin by myself. I tried to look up the answers. Of course, obviously that's how I came to chabad.org and Yoshiam and Rabbi Mendel Kaplan and a few other, you know, people that were really like inspiring me on on Chabad. I think it was this. I got to a place where I said to to God, I only want to know your character. I ruled out Islam. I was sitting with all three books. I had the Quran, I had a few versions of the Christian Bible, I had a JPS Tanakh and maybe a Chumash and I was going through these different texts 8 hours I was really trying to to get it and I nailed it down because the the the the the the story inside the Tanakh everybody was messing up, you know? It was just like the story of everybody screwing up over and over and over again, right? But Hashem's unwavering love and I would have had to believe from the other two that God can change his mind at any point, right? He could change the whole entire script and I didn't feel that that was a stable stable thing for me. I set it to not on a table and I said, "God, I'm going to read through this and I'm only going to look for your character. I want to know what you love. I want to know what you hate. I want to know what you And along with that, I started fasting. I was going 3 days without food. Not because I I didn't read any books on tzadikim except for the ones I've read inside the book. When they had sorrows and they wanted to shiv they started fasting and they started playing so I just did what was inside the book and that that was it. And the sensitivity to to to ruchniyus and spirituality was so strong. It was so thick that I felt like Hashem was mamesh holding my hand through the whole entire process. And what I noticed was as the love that Hashem had for the Jewish people was beyond and I started to feel jealous. I started to get very jealous. And I was saying that how could it be that these guys keep messing up and Hashem keeps saying that I'm going to take you back and no matter what you do I'm still going to take you back. And so I came to a very weird conclusion. I say it's weird only because on one level it sounds like heresy but I'm not really saying what I'm saying but I'm saying what I'm saying and I think the rabbi will understand. I came to a conclusion that if there is no Jewish people then there's no Hashem. That was my take on it back then. Why? Because the whole entire integrity of all that I was spending a lot of time on obviously on eschatology and what's going to happen in the end whatever. Hashem's whole entire integrity was on the fact that there has to be a Jewish people. There has to be a Jewish land. There would have to be a Jewish king. And the fact that there were still Jewish people in the world after I started learning Jewish history. Now mind you I grew up in the hood. I knew nothing about the Holocaust. I didn't know anything about Jewish history. I'm learning everything on my own. And it just didn't make sense and it only can reveal that there has to be a God because there's Jewish people. So that's the that's the So that was like the biggest thing for me. And when it out to whoever made this video. We started keeping biblical kosher. We started after that we started doing like, you know, keeping the Sabbath. We didn't know what that was. I just like stopped doing the dishes on Saturday. Whatever the case was, I called it Sabbath. And I was on chabad.org and there was a video. There was a video about Sabbath, a day of rest. It's a 20-minute documentary done by I think the Rohr family in Florida. I don't know who they are, but shout out to them. I seen this video and I probably I was 20 minutes, I probably cried for 18 minutes of the video. With such yearning and kissufim for Sabbath and it was just a crazy It was a crazy experience. So, all those things like trickled into me wanting to convert. Sorry, I talked too long, Rabbi. I have Rabbi syndrome. You can You can ask me No, no, no. It's It's amazing. I'll tell you you called it heresy, but the Sifrei, which is one of the earliest earliest rabbinic texts in Judaism, on parsha Devarim, says, and literally I quote, God says, "When you are my people, I am God. When you're not my people, I am not God." That's a direct quote from the Sifrei, which predates the Mishna and the Gemara. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. I was I was onto something. Amazing. Rabbi Jacobson, bachurim people in from yeshivas are always talked and educated not to listen to non-Jewish music. Could you elaborate what's the better what's the What does it mean non-Jewish music? What's wrong with non-Jewish music? What's considered Jewish music? And since Nitsonz here, I thought it'd be an appropriate question. Well, I think there's two someone else said, if I may, Rabbi Jacobson, someone who really welcomes music in his farbrengen this year think it's a very a kind of a kind pertinent question if I may say. Yes, no question. I think there's a few components here. Very briefly I would say and I probably miss him could for bring on this much better than I that music has a tremendous impact on people. Like the altar the Balatanya said that words are the pen of the mind and music is the pen of the soul. And the author of the music, the composer the writer of the lyrics really puts his or her soul an imprint of them is in their music. You can feel Nissam's neshama in his music. You can feel people's presence. Their art, their creativity, their passion, their convictions, their values, their umph, their gusto, sometimes their nuclear energy. And it it it hits you in the spot, you know, it penetrates. And that's why we're just very very sensitive. We are all sensitive people. The music we hear, the types of lyrics, the content as well as the nature of the composers, it has a very powerful effect on those who listen to them especially when you're young and you're being formed and your identity is being formed. You know, a lot of the content of music in the last half century is really based on the notion that there's no inhibitions in life. The more violent, the more crazy, the more meshuga, the more insane, the better. It's really based on the idea of enticing the most primal and basic urges in people and giving them carte blanche, full full, not only the right but the duty to not recognize any boundaries whatsoever. And it created a whole a whole culture. So that's why people who are sensitive to our purpose in life of creating a world that is moral and ethical and good are extremely sensitive to the nature of music, both the content, the messages that are being conveyed, the style, the art, and also the composer. Now, within that itself, there's so many gradations and so many levels. You know, you have a niggun like the Alter Rebbe's niggun, like Reb Aaron of Karlin, like some of the great tzaddikim and the great masters. You know, Jewish music through and through, you could sense right away the spirituality, the holiness. You know, you sing a niggun like like even Tzama Nafshi. The words are from Tehillim. The tune comes from the Alter Rebbe. Keili Ata Vi'odecha. Again, words from Tehillim. So you know, that's one genre of music. Then you have different genres of music, and it's different levels of sensitivity. Some people who are very sensitive right away notice, you know, what we're talking about. But that's the general approach. And I think it's important for all of us to realize this, to realize the impact on our lives, on our conscious, and on our unconscious. So you're saying it's the composer, and would you say the genre also has a spiritual element and effect? I think the genre I think all aspects I think the genre has an effect. I think of course the lyrics, the message has an effect. And I think the composer has an effect. I think sometimes it's conscious, and sometimes it's just organic by osmosis, it just it it into us, and I think we have to be aware just like what we call you eat. Sensitive people know that I am what I eat and before I take in physical food, I have to know that it's going to become part of my bloodstream. Music in a way is deeper because it becomes part of my soul stream. So, is it a barrier to listen to to other music or it's not recommended? What would you say Rabbi Jacobson? The word of barrier is a very strong word. The word sin is a strong sin. So, everybody should consult their a competent uh Orthodox Rabbi and a confidant that they trust. But generally speaking, there's certainly songs that I would say that to listen to them is morally destructive. They have messages that are are destructive messages. And then I would say there are songs that are literally they inspire your soul towards a deeper relationship with God. And then there are songs, I think, you know, in the middle. And it really depends on on where you are in life and what it does for you. But generally speaking, as Jews, our mission statement is that what we do and what we engage in, every move, every word I say and every song I listen to can either bring me closer to truth or further from truth. And in life, our goal is to every moment to try to become closer to truth, more truth, more awareness, more goodness, more love, more light, more depth. Jesse, you want to chime in on that about music reflecting culture and impact on a person? Absolutely. I would agree with the Rabbi 100%. Um I think that the the the biggest thing is is is the the impact of of the individual. And then I think afterwards, I would say the lyrics. The reason why I'm saying this uh um Rebbe Nachman talks about this in Likutei Moharan and Torah Gemul about the the effects of of of the listening to a person who's not such a good person and what type of an effect that it have on you. Now, when you hear this whole entire Torah, he goes very very uh deep into and how much it can cause a person uh to be neutral and how it could uh damage a person's avodas Hashem. Then he gives a tikkun on how to fix if you happen to hear such a person and you don't know. Now, when you read the the backstory on this Torah and why he gave it, you would think that he was talking about, you know, the the the latest Eminem album or something like that. He wasn't uh actually talking about that. He was talking about a chazzan who happened to be uh the the neighborhood chazzan who happened to be involved with another person's wife on on the side and and and no matter how beautiful the words were and how much he may have been accepted, the music was being neutral to a person, he said, because by listening to a person like that who was unclean uh was damaging to a person's avodas Hashem or coming closer to Hashem or coming closer to the truth. So, I definitely think so. For a long time, I thought also too for myself that, you know, I'm less of a stickler obviously on genre, right? Because I only came from the music. My mother did hip-hop, my father did hip-hop, and this was the way that I knew how to communicate with the world. So, I remember having a thought about this and uh uh to say I never thought and went back and forth on it would be a lie. Left music altogether because I couldn't figure out how to make these two things work. I felt that it didn't work. Finally, I came back to music as a host before there, but I I I would take uh much longer to even talk about that. And then I got to a place I was sitting at my Shabbos table a few years ago and I used to host a lot of bachmann Shabbos. I used to have a lot of bachmann Shabbos, like maybe 30, 40 boys every Friday night when I was in New Rochelle, and they had a big suit up. It was like I miss it. I miss it. In Bayit Shemesh there's many covers walking around, but over there, you know, you got everybody there. The mayor, I was right by Brisk. I I was at a I had a lot of boys. But there was one particular friend, Mordechai ben Avraham, shout out to him, who stood up and embarrassed me. What he stood up to embarrass me for? He goes, "Nissim, and immediately when he says Nissim, I'm ready to sink into my seat cuz I'm here to be with the chevra. I'm not here to to make a a show. He said to me and said to everybody else, he said that the Kodesh Baruch created rap music just for Nissim to do what he's doing with it right now. It made me think of something in Kokhav Or. Kokhav Or is is a book written by Avraham ben Reb Nachman, or Avraham cousin, who's the son of the son of the Chernobyler Reb, who was a talmid of Reb Nachman. Uh Reb Nachman Reb Twersky, he says like this. He says that he was speaking about the air balloon. He said that just like with any new creation that comes into the world, the whole reason why Hashem allowed for it to be brought into the world was only for the sake of kedusha. But there's a klal that the klipa gets it first. The klipa also gets it first, right? Uh look at the internet. Chabad was there first. But it's for the sake of kedusha, and had it not been there, I wouldn't have probably came to Yiddishkeit if I didn't have Chabad at all. But it's a But we know that the klipa mamash gets it first, right? And they're doing every single thing that they could do with it possibly, but the actual purpose for it was for the sake of kedusha. And so, he was talking about the air balloon 100 years ago, and he said that eventually you'll see people traveling from wherever they need to be in the world by the air, right? He was predicting it calling it already. And this is what he was talking about new creation. So, I'm I'm And because I understood that there's a lot of other in jammas I don't really understand, and it would be very very hard for me to say that I would know how to be elevated or lifted from it. But and in terms of what I do know, I do feel like genre is not as important as a person that is momish working on themselves, that's a clean person, that's saying clean clean things. I think that that's much more of the of the but I'm not disagreeing with the rabbi. I'm just adding my two cents. 1000% not disagreeing with the Rabbi YY. So, don't take it that way, please. Can we expect to have a more traditional Jewish album coming out in the future in the future or is it sticking to the rap? No, I mean, you know, I'm I I do I do what my heart feels and what I feel like is is is stirring inside my neshama, you know? Few years ago I I thought to just like start making like niggunim and stuff like that and I had to really come to like, you know, like I don't know if that's what Hashem put my neshama into the world to do. I don't feel like it's my, you know, start singing probably about nig- niggunim, you know? That's not really my No, I love Carlebach and I listen to it. You would think like I'm just riding around listening to rap music. I haven't been a real listener of rap in years, several years, several years because it's not so much to listen to, you know? So, I think that the the the thing for me is I and I listen to mostly and I'm not a big listener of of all the modern stuff as much either as so much I I like listening like Carlebach. I listen to Carlebach, Yossele Rosenblatt, do not love. So, I do have a lot of like type of when I listening to music. I don't always listen to music all day long, but I don't know if that's really in my I just did a song with I'm working on a song with Zusha that I'm really happy about. So, that's really a little bit different out of my lane, but I'm one I'd rather do more collaborations that challenge me cuz I'm all about being challenged, you know? So, you know, I'm I'm not saying really no, I'm just really saying that I don't really foresee that doing a traditional thing is really my thing. Got you. All right, Jacobson. If I'm a a question regarding the general seems like you open the Chumash they they talk and discuss about Garen this and special Halachas and cool cool cool. Was there once a a point or time that you decide was more into uh missionizing to bring people to to become Jewish or that was never a thing or just by the way like Garen the Torah keeps on mentioning how you have to treat Garen in a certain way, special way. It seems to be a special treatment. Was there this ever this Kiruv movement of Garen? Did it ever exist in history? Yes, no, and why did it change or anything happen? Right. Good question. So, historically the word different points when various Jewish leaders were into it. But, traditionally Halachically it was criticized. And that's why the Chazal formulated in Halachic Shulchan Aruch and in many Masechta Yevamos and in Rambam that we do not seek uh to proselytize. And if you read through the Chumash, you read through the Tanakh you read through the basics of our belief, the idea that there's no salvation outside of the church. The idea that to be a good person you have to be a Jew and accept Judaism is ultimately foreign to Judaism. That's why the Halacha formulated in the Rambam from Tosefta is Chasidei Umos HaOlam. Yesh lahem chelek l'Olam Haba. You know, the good people among the gentiles have a portion in the world to come. And in many ways that was one of the revolutions of Judaism. The revolution of Judaism is that we all have one God even if we don't share the same religion. And you don't have to be Jewish and accept Yiddishkeit and the 613 Mitzvahs to be a good person. You could live up to your potential and your perfection of becoming a Jew. And that's a very important idea. So, there were movements, there were situations, famously during the Second Temple, and other times, but ultimately, the it was it was criticized. It was not seen as an ideal to force, compel, and even really push and nudge, you know, non-Jews then or today to become Jewish. And there's a fundamental reason for it. Because every person has their unique genre and their unique contribution and their unique music that they bring to the world. In fact, as Reb Nachman says in Likutei Moharan, every single creation has its own niggun. An insect, a reptile, a fish, a mammal, a bird, and uh certainly a person, every creature, every living organism, and really every piece of matter, even that which is not organic, sings its own song, it has its own niggun. Right? The Baal Shem Tov said Har Yuh La Shem Kol Ha'aretz is the acronym of Halakha. Halakha is really tuning into the music. The universe is a symphony. Everything has its own niggun. So, therefore, the Jew and the non-Jew as well. Cuz there is an idea of Sheva Shev'im B'nei Noach and Noachide, yeah. And mitzvot B'nei Noach. So, in that case, Maimonides writes in the Laws of Kings that Moshe Rabbenu instructed the Jewish people that it's their obligation to ultimately change the world in a positive way, that you meant humanity should observe the seven Noachide laws, which is the basis of a moral and civil and ethical society. Rabbenu Ovadia Sforno, the 15th century Italian Renaissance man and great physician and rabbi, commentator on the Chumash, writes, "When Hashem told the Jews by Sinai, you will be a kingdom of princesses. Mamlachet Kohanim v'Goy Kadosh, a holy nation. So, what does it mean? It means that your job is to be ambassadors, divine ambassadors, to change the world. But, the fact is that most of our history we couldn't even dream of this. Cuz we were on the defensive. We were always on the defensive. The most we can hope for is that our non-Jewish neighbors would allow us just to live as Jews. Imagine if Jews would come and say, "You know, we have a mission to influence the rest of humanity." Really? We were barely we could barely breathe as Jews. Today is one of those unique moments in history when God in his grace has given the Jewish people an opportunity to become part of the moral conversation of mankind. And people are yearning for it. They're longing for it. From my journeys and experiences, I'm sure Nesanel could talk about this much more after obvious reasons, I have found that the world respects Jews who respect Judaism. They are embarrassed by are embarrassed by Judaism. When Jews bring to the conversation of mankind the ethical values spiritual consciousness that Torah tries to inculcate in us people from all walks of life and all persuasions, non-Jews from various tribes and religions and faiths and countries and demographics and nations really look up to it. They they they soak they take it in with such a thirst and such a yearning. Yeah, I said I have found wherever I went Right. I would definitely I would chime in on that, Rabbi. I'm sorry. I don't want to I just wanted to say I really definitely agree with that. A lot of people don't know that. And I think some of it is that since I I've had the the Islam background, the Christian background, and all that, I've been able to see very very sincere people who are not Jewish, also, too. And I there's a there's a lot of times, you know, I've been places and I've heard people say that oh, like the and the are like this and that and I say and I used to say you know, to people I would run from Hashem, right? Just like Yona did if he told me to go take a missive like Yisharim inside of a church and you would see what these people would do with a with a missive like Yisharim and how much they would wail over it and really try to how much of a kiddush and how much they were honored with, you know, I've seen it so many different times with different ethical books that you know, ends up in a in a in a handful of Christians and you it's a busha to to to us. So, it is a right now I was going to say that it is a major yearning right now during this time that people want the not only just the just the ethical we don't understand the richness so and we don't understand the the richness of what we have that could contribute to humanity. It's a it's a it's a whole 'nother story completely. So It was a great Jewish writer. She is Cynthia Ozick. So, she once wrote in a column a very beautiful insight. She said, you know, that there are Jews who are very self-hating. They're very embarrassed. It's like they don't want to stand out as Jews. They like to duck and maintain a very low profile. She gave an example of a shofar. She said, imagine you try to blow from the wide side of the shofar. Right. What's going to come out? Gornisht. Bubkes. Right. When you blow narrow side of the shofar, ah The Jews that we're not national. I'm not particular. I'm not parochial. And she says there's no voice that comes out. There's nothing distinct that you have to offer to humanity. When a Jew is rooted in Yiddishkeit, when you're breathing Torah, when you're living with Hashem, when your soul is on fire, and your mama should trench in a stickle Gemara, in a stickle Rambam in a Chumash, yeah? Look at the maran like is and your mama should you filled with Yiddishkeit, the halakha and the spirituality and the godliness and then you blow the shofar from the narrow side. Ah, Right. voice comes out the wide broad side resonates far and wide. So the more Jewish you are, the more universalist you can be. I think that's one of the most counterintuitive and important lessons of our generation. The more narrow you are, the more broad you are. I don't mean narrow from a place of insecurity. Narrow in this sense, the more uh committed you are to your own essence, the more in tune you are with your own message and your own individual song, Mhm. more people can hear your song and will be inspired by your song. Let's ask this one. If you start mimicking other singers, who's going to be interested in you, right? You start mimicking Right. other people. But when you speak Right. some uh everybody wants to hear you, even people who don't come from your culture. The truth is hard not to come from your culture in this sense cuz your culture somehow uh You you you Right. culture's. You know what the Gemara says about Esther, right? It's top The Gemara says in tractate Megillah, what was Esther's appeal? It says Vayehi He Esther noses chen bene kol raya. Whoever saw like this. Mama says, "Why?" So the Talmud says every nation felt that she was one of theirs. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. All right. In other words, she spoke a language that was so universal that everybody took credit for her. Now that's an that's an ama- amazing amazing idea. Amazing idea. When you touch a certain place in people what is it? Oh, this is mine. This is mine. He's mine. Right. Right. Right. He's mine. And that that's really uh that's that's really I think the calling of a Jew in many ways, you know? Right. Absolutely. the more the more broad you can be. I was I was thinking about something this time. I think it'll be helpful for people. Reminds me with your permission. You know, you have shared in the past about the difficult childhood you had. You were involved in gangs for years. Sometimes life gang. Right? You were involved with gangsters, grew up with drugs. Right? I think you said both your parents and your step father Right. were selling and dealing and and you were dealing. Mhm. Your mother died I think very young, right? From an overdose, yeah. From an overdose. Your parents separated when you were 2 years old. Right. Today they call it in America difficult life. Mhm. Many people who would go through what you do would either become very atheistic. They would get very angry at God. They would not turn to God at all. They would say this is a sick world. It's a They would become cynical, bitter. Or generally they would be they would see themselves many people as victims of a horrible upbringing and they would justify to them whatever path they take in life. What can you tell people who have lost their innocence at such a young age, grew up in a family that was very very Their own mother, their father left them when they were two, their mother died from an overdose. What do you tell people? How is it that you instead of becoming a cynical, bitter, angry, dysfunctional, victimized person, you actually have discovered a whole new relationship with God. You're filled with joy and with a sense of promise and positivity. What Why? What did that for you? Rabbi, you know, it's a question that I have for myself all the time. How did it happen? You know, and I think part of it is like this, you know, and uh in in in Torah Zion of Likutei Moharan, there's a piece of nothing makes out into little into parentheses. And he talks about a person being a mommy, that a person if they're left untouched and they're not brought any uh philosophical ideas outside of of of, you know, of of what's natural to the human, right? They're automatically still just a mommy. They just believe in Hashem. And And even in the olden days when people didn't when when there was a lot of avodah zarah amongst the nations and there was a lot of idol worship or whatever, they still believed that there was something. They didn't ever just not believe that there was a a nothing, right? That's a human untouched. It takes much more hokmas and and sivuvim and going back and forth and to for a person to get there. Thank God there was no lumbas around me. That was That was a good part. There was no any of that around me, so my my brain never thought. My whole thoughts all the time was even though it was a place for a weaker mumana, okay, God, why? God, why? Why Why do I only have my mother for 19 years? And I know, you know, this one over here, he's had his mother for 50 years or 60 years or whatever, you know, and they had a longer relationship. But at the end of it all, since I was a kid, I always believed that there there was a God. And I think that it's a natural natural thing. It wasn't something We didn't go to church, you know what I'm saying? None of that was going on. But you just believe because it's natural to the human to believe because Hashem placed it inside the person. It's only after a while that it starts to getting ripped out. You go to this school, you know, but Hashem also didn't go to college. That probably also would have took it out, you know what I mean? You know, thank God that I was I was I was saved that I was just didn't have to be bothered by anything. So, it it left me opportunity for when Hashem opened it a little bit, I was able to choose to run or to not run. And I feel like as soon as it was open, I ran. I always tell people like, you know, it was for years I didn't talk to a lot of my family and and Baruch Hashem I have a relationship with a lot of people now that, you know, that I I, you know, we've been on hiatus for a while. But it's one of those things where I didn't run from anything. I was running to something. And and and and everything else that was back there, I just couldn't even think about it cuz I knew what I wanted so bad, right? And so, I think that that's the biggest thing also. And I'm not a extra super motivated type of guy, neither. It wasn't like this just like, "Oh, that's just your personality." But that that the the God piece and wanting to be closer, that was something that was in me from the time I was a kid doing stuff I didn't know. I morally felt that things were not right, you know what I mean? You know, and I feel like I great Jewish poet in Spain. His name was Rabbi Ibn Gabirol. And he has a beautiful long poem and he writes there a line about God. He says, "I run away from you towards you." That's amazing. Amazing. And I thought, you know what? I I was thinking about this. I was sitting with with one of my rabbis a while ago and and I asked him. I said, "How is it fair that Hashem would go and and kick out and destroy all of these these nations, right? Before befo- before us and they didn't have a Torah. How did they know that they weren't supposed to pass the kids to the fire? How did they know him or whatever? And he said, "Because Hashem created a man with a certain Yashrus." There's a certain Yashrus that a person has and they're born with. And they already know that there's this emes inside of them. It's only that after a while we build a callus by trying to ignore ignore Hashem. And and I feel like, you know, I since I never had those moments, I was able to maintain that sensitivity somehow. I don't know through all the mix of everything. I wish I had a better answer. But uh I feel like Hashem was able to to to keep me. Correct me if I'm wrong because I I don't know I just know this from anecdotal data from my experiences. In all my travels, I've always seen in the black African-American community a unique of deep spirituality. Absolutely. natural love for God. I'm telling you Absolutely. I I don't have the opportunity often as often as I would like, but the few times I was invited to speak to African-American communities and crowds, I'm telling you feedback. The passion It was it was I I was asking myself like, "I'm in the wrong audiences." Listen to speeches. Listen, you know, you just listen to speeches. They're all sitting like this. Picking you apart. Huh? Picking you apart. Picking You psychoanalyzing you. Already criticizing you. They already know what you said already. This I heard. This I know. This this The best you is at the end. Koyach. Shkoyach. Right? I speak to the blacks, "Am achai. YEAH, REBBE. YEAH." AMEN. After You're getting the Hallelukahs. Right. You're getting Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right. You're right. You know, there's so much there's so I I always felt, you know, people are talking a lot about, you know, the relations of blacks and so forth. What I really feel is if we get rid of all the politic Right. toxicity and you know, getting caught up in certain, you know, unfortunate and difficult situations, we get to the core of things. The Jewish community and the black community could create a spiritual revolution. I'm with you. I believe it. I believe it. I definitely believe it. You know, I I always say that also, too. You know, it's like a lot of it, you know, discussing with, you know, I've had built some relationship with a lot of Christian artists, like contemporary artists and stuff like that. And people have asked me about it. I'm just like right now, this war against God is so strong, right? The whole world of of of anybody that believes in God needs to be unified to fight against everything that's trying to snuff out God from the world, right? And that's one of the biggest things I right now is like you know, there's been a whole talk over this past year about who's an ally, who's an ally to the black community, all the others. The allies, first off, that that we're on team God. Team God is everybody that's on team God, that's the ally, right? And and fighting, like you said, against immorality and fighting against these things that are trying to destroy all the the the next generation. I think it's I think that that's the most important thing that that could be said right now in terms of humanity right now. I I I I believe it. Spiritual revolution underway. Will not be televised. You you're But listen, you're you're an artist. Which means you're a sensitive person. You're a spiritual person. Mhm. All that sensitive and spiritual people often suffer terribly from either depression or despair or melancholy. Or they wake up in the morning and they have the imposter syndrome. I'm just a a thief and a faker and a charlatan. And the world doesn't know me and if the world would know who I am, they would never of mine. Right? Sometimes waking up in the morning and it's like who needs this? I just want to come a you know Nobody ever I don't need to walk in THE STREET AND THIS AND BLACK AND THIS AND THAT. HOW do you How do you Do you Do you suffer from that which many of us do and how do you deal with it? I think recently over the past year I think after Corona and I I think really good Corona contributed to it. I haven't really talked about this publicly but I did start to experience like anxiety and being very low then I think it was you know really the after effects of that. Prior to that I didn't have I never experienced it didn't know what it was. Um and and and I started of not growing up as an Ashkenazic Jew, YOU KNOW. COULD BE. I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT WAS. I DON'T Rabbi I didn't say it you said it. Okay? But I think the thing is is that you know and and and I was really like going through this experience of trying to figure out what's going on with me. Every day I've been feeling like wow I'm going to die and something's going wrong with me. Like things I never experienced before. I never thought about that at all. So um So what I do I I increased the amount of time that I was spending with the Shem. I increased the amount of time that I was spending with the Shem and that's that's just that was just my that's just my natural that's my that's my go to. It must be that the Shem is trying to tell me something. So I started going out for longer he's building this and going and fighting and fighting and fighting and I can't and and for myself that's always been my go to was just to feel I don't know it's it's some of those things that each person has a voter. You know, like right now in the Torah world, they go like, you know, oh, oh, he's he's not such a learner. Maybe he's a worker. He should go work. Oh, he's you know, oh, he's a learner. He should he should be in the basement. Like that's all you could do. What about, you know, a person that does What about a person who's a misboded? What about a person who does different avodahs inside avodas Hashem that there's other people? I would say I say on, you know, Rivka Rivka imainu when she would walk past, you know, the birthday of Avraham Avinu Sara Esav, he was Esav, he was kicking, you know, they say in the midrash. And then also when he walked past the, you know, a yeshiva, Yaakov was kicking. He was he was kicking. A person has to learn the Sifrei Hakadoshim and read what the tzaddikim are saying and see these different avodahs and feel when the neshama starts kicking. Start kicking. When I hear stories of the Arizal leaving for six years on an island to go be with the Shechinah misboded, my heart starts screaming inside of me. You understand what I'm saying? When I start seeing these things and how much this one broke down and and the feeling in my heart starts screaming inside of me. Okay, and baruch Hashem, I also I also love to learn outside. I would have never came across these stories. But at the same time, you have to trust and feel when and where your neshama comes to life. Exactly. Exactly. You have to feel it. And I feel like for me, it has definitely been just tefillah and sitting in that space. And it almost has opened up every single door for me. I mean, people who think that they know me because there was some like great like, oh, well, yeah, you're black and you're Jewish and you rap. So, of course, it's sort of like a breakout. There were other people that were black and they were Jewish and they were awesome. And then I I I mean, everything that led up to the the the song Hashem Melech with with Gad Elbaz, it was tefillah. I was in the forest 6 hours every day crying to Hashem for 22 days. This is how And then the song comes out and it and it and it almost changes whatever it changes in the in the Jewish music world and that's how people know Nising Black. There was no marketing plan for me in place. I didn't think about that. I didn't follow up with any of those things. Everything was throwing myself in a ship and I find whenever I'm not doing that then life starts to crumble. I start to feel lethargic. I start to feel like that. And so as Shem himself is my his. I don't know really too many other ways outside of that. I tried exercising. I tried other stuff. As Shem is my his. Exercise is also good. How did but how did you deal with Did you have trauma from all your youth experiences or no? You just spit it out. I think that I think the trauma Like the impalas doing the jungle, you know? They say when a attacks an animal and it survives, it shakes for a few minutes. It doesn't Right. Right. Right. therapy. It relieves trauma and it goes back to the herd. Well, I think so. I think it was like um I think it was cultural It's cultural traumas. Like, you know, like for instance, we talk about moving to Israel like in uh people bumping into you, stepping on your on your on your foot and all that stuff. And it's like where I come from, man, this means we're we're boxing. The next level from here it means we're boxing. This is the next That's what happens after it. This is a prelude to to to boxing match is is what And so you have to get, you know, you know, over these things like culturally and and and and that type of of trauma or We don't call it a boxing match. We call it an argument. We start arguing. Yeah, this this is no argument. I would say like this though, you know, Rabbi, it's very interesting because my um Uh I just lost my thought. Oh, I'm saying that when I came here and and my coming into like Youdish I even before I came to to Israel when I was coming in, there was so much hesed that I didn't I didn't even know what to do with it. You understand what I'm saying? Like, we don't we don't understand these things and, you know, obviously anybody that knows that who grew up in the black community and stuff like that and as as much as much as there's beautiful things and anything like that, when you grow up in the hood, part of this is black people that grow up more middle class and and suburban and stuff like that. But, when you grow up like in the hood hood, everybody feels like it's just crabs in a pot, the next one trying to pull the next one down, you know what I mean? And and and so, when coming to Yiddishkeit and the amount of hesed that people were doing for us and the amount of warmth that was there, it was just like amazing. You know? You work for the You work for the It's a mess, you know? It's It's one of those things that's like where you really are are are are are stuck and you don't know what to do. I'll tell you a story. After we we we were in Magaya, Hashem really put us to the test. We one one year we were homeless, me and my family. We one year we were homeless. Uh from June 1st to June 1st, I lost my job. The landlord needed to move back immediately. We didn't know where we were going to go and you know, I tried to do what I can. We ended up bouncing from basement to basement, house to house, hotel vouchers, vouchers. Ended up at my mother-in-law's. I love my mother-in-law, but that's never a place where anybody ever wants to end up at, right? So, you have all these different bouncing around and everything else that we did for 1 year. By the time we got back into our house, we were like uh afraid to leave a light on cuz we were so used to being in somebody else's house and being worried about that, not to run the water. We were very like scared to move inside the house cuz we were so we were we used to to being on someone else's You understand what I mean? So, uh so, in the same way I would say like coming to Yiddishkeit was also like that. Was very very uh uh frail and fragile and not really understanding what relationships were. Why are you being so nice to me, you know, type of thing. So, I think that that was sort of the sort of the trauma uh expressing itself in a different way. Listen, what was the biggest cultural shock for you coming into the from community? What was like the first like woah, was it with the challah, the kugel? Like with the strudel? Like what was the biggest if it you know, outside coming in? What was the craziest thing that hit you first if I may ask? One of the craziest things So, one of the first things was the first time I heard the word niggun. That was like really That was a moment. Uh niggun which for people who maybe not Jewish or whatever not familiar with which means it's like a a tune or a note or whatever. Like that was said like let's sing a niggun and I was over there and I kind of like heard out the sound and said, "What?" You know, like you know, what you know, I didn't know what it was. I think that was one of the first things that that caught me off guard. Um and definitely it was gefilte fish was the first thing that made me just go like, "Man, what do are these people eating?" You know, And I hadn't actually liked it. I actually liked it. There's certain things I haven't done. I definitely graduated from gefilte fish onto herring. I galah I still don't do. Um p'tcha I don't I'm not I'm not really not really there. Don't really do liver that much also, but uh you know, there's definitely been some uh some shocking things landing on the table. What what do you tell someone wants to get into the Jewish music scene or as a singer? What would you tell you know, most people well their grandmother would tell them they're a great musician, they sing so nicely. How do you really know if you have it? And what are the steps you should take to try to move in that direction? Rabbi Jacobson, if I may ask you the the question as a top speaker in the Jewish world, what is the indicator? Did you Did you just talk and talk and one day it's like, "Okay, let me pay you $50 to speak." How did you know? I mean, was it a passion mixed with your mother nudging you? What was $25, not 50. 25. And as someone who owns an art gallery, I put it in the stack. you know, someone who Someone who owns an art gallery, I also often have to be in a position to tell artists, you know, I don't I I don't think you're ready yet. As I tell the balance of I don't want to be the one to discourage them and versus knowing that they have talent develop more. What would you tell an artist Or what's the indicator that you got it or you don't have it? It's a very good question. Um I don't I'm like I said, I was I was sort of to some degree born into it cuz my mother were rappers and I Not to say like that was still like going on even by the time I was born, but it was just sort of a natural gift. All my family, you know, was involved in music like uncles and my aunts and my grandfathers um were all, you know, involved in music. So, I think it was a very natural thing for me to um to to do it. So, you know, I have a lot of friends that like discovered after high school they wanted to start rapping or they want to Like for me, I've been doing it for for my whole life. So, I don't I don't really No, but I think the thing is like to take it serious is that first off, you have to really um you have to first I think goes back to what we're talking about earlier is like understand what is your message and what are you going to contribute that nobody else can contribute, you know? And and and and and that is like what And that's what the rabbi was saying and quoting what we're talking about your own niggun. What's your own song? What are you going to be able to give that nobody else can can give, right? Or that nobody else can uh um uh can can can give over in the way that you give it over. So, I think that's the first thing is recognizing that. The second thing is that it is that you have to be willing to fail. You know, you have to be willing to to put yourself out there and to see if what you have is also interesting to other people. You know, a lot of people make music and they make music for themselves. And and that's great that they like it but they didn't make it for you know, for everybody else and and and not everybody's going to have the same taste as you. So, you have to figure out the you that fits amongst the robin that fits amongst the people that's going to be able to connect with everybody else. So, apart from that any like technical and and and and marketing so I really don't know from that like I said I really everything's been to feel as by me. Rabbi Jacobson, when did you know that you had it or this is a desired product in the market? Rabbi Jacobson and his incredible drashas. And what would you tell someone else younger who wants to be the next Rabbi Rabbi Yacovson? Tips or indicators or some direction or whatever, I don't know. It's an interesting question obviously. In terms of my own life it may be a little strange but my first public speech I gave when I was 5 years old. And I think the decree was sealed right there and then. If I'm not mistaken, I have to ask my mother but I think my Yeshiva where I learned how to dinner and they asked me to speak at the dinner and I did. And apparently it went well because somehow the stigma was just attached. You know, there was an imprint on me and uh I began doing it as a child a lot pretty often. I never thought though that this is going to be really my work and my daily work. Um when I was older uh I was brought into a small group of oral scribes of the Lubavitcher Rebbe which would transcribe his talks after Shabbos and Yom Tov from memory, and I would also verbalize them and share them and teach them and repeat them. They had the hookups. This is before the internet. Before cell phones. Communities all over the world after I started to give over the Rebbe's gatherings. So that was certainly a very powerful experience. But again, I didn't think that it's you know, something that's going to be part of my future. And then really what happened was I I a rabbi from Highland Park, Chicago called me up one day and he said, "I read an article of yours. I was very impressed, and I want you to come for Shabbos." I'm like, "No, I'm not Come, I'm paying your tickets." Okay. I came. Uh I guess it was pretty successful. Baruch Hashem, people liked it. Because the next Shabbos somebody called me from Great Neck. And uh it just, you know, it morphed from one thing to another chavr chavr is lay, and uh requests started to come in, and that's how it really developed. So there was no way It's not like I sat down with a coach uh or with a life planner, you know, telling When I took inventory and making tests and exams what I'm good at what I'm not good at. It It didn't happen that way. No, sometimes you sit by Sheva Brachos and you would almost hope that certain speakers would get indicators that that should not be their career anything close to it. So there may be ways you do have indicators or insights people should know this is not for That would be helpful. The The thing I see happening is a guy gets up at a Shiva Brachas after 10 speakers and he says, "After all the speakers, I have nothing to add." And I'm like, "Great. Wonderful." They mazel tov him and sit down. But then minutes. He said he had nothing to add. You know, fake humility doesn't work. Like if you have don't add anything, you know? Cuz people get up and they say, "I really have nothing to say." I think you agree. You know? There was an MC who introduced somebody and he said, "This speaker doesn't need an introduction. He needs an ending." I once heard somebody tell me a good line, two lines. Somebody once said, "Rabbi Jacobson, the only speech you'll ever really give is the way you live." I thought that was very powerful advice. Somebody else once said, "Get up, tell them what you're going to tell them, then tell it to them, then tell them what you told them, and sit down." Very sound advice. But generally, what I would tell people who aspire to go build is a few things. First of all, it's important to really, really challenge yourself. Learn and learn and learn and grow intellectually, psychologically, emotionally. Number one. Nonstop. Stimulate yourself. Be excited about the material you're sharing. Uh the Medrash says that after a rain, you'll always see a lot of fish on the top of this lake, on the top of the sea. That's when the fishermen come out. Why? Because they come up to receive rainwater. So, the Medrash says, "But they're in water a whole day and a whole night." But they want fresh water. You know, a speaker gets up. People want fresh water. Don't just tell me the same thing again and again. It's coming out of my ears. Give me fresh water. They want fresh water. I think it's also very important for people to get real feedback from real people. Open yourself up to real constructive criticism. Not just the like you, you know? Get real feedback real people. And And if you see that you're getting such feedback also then pursue it, but learn from the best. Learn from the greatest. What did the father tell his son about basketball? I'm not afraid right? If the hoop is low. I'm saying he said I'm not afraid if you aim high, you miss. I'm afraid that you aim low and you never miss. Right. Learn from the Learn from the best. Learn from the people who who speak to your heart. As this hymn says, those who make you kick, those who make you live, learn from them. And emulate them in a good way, you know? See what speaks to you and then make your own, internalize it. It's very important to be alive with your material. To really be able to learn from mistakes, learn from errors, learn from failure. And then, you know, if this is your mission in life it will come together. From Jacobson as a legendary storyteller do you have a authentication process of a story or if it's good enough, you know? It's it's the message is the message. Great question. It's a great question and the answer to that is I used to I used to think if it's a great story, just say it. You know? And then I got burned a few times. Some very powerful stories and I found out they weren't true. I relied on the email or sometimes I relied on the book and then I did a little research and it wasn't true. So I try now to the best of my ability to avoid that, to eliminate that. In other words, I try to authenticate the story either with the person or at least some good reliable source. There was stories I told in the past, they were unbelievable stories. And then I did a little dig. People asked me, "What's your source?" I said, "My source." And then I went back to the source, and they didn't have a source. It was concocted. So today I I feel it's very important. It's very important. You know, people say, "Are these stories made up?" I have no issue. I do it my to accentuate details. To bring out, you know, the full uh juice, the full energy of the story, which many people don't do. But but but the story has to be MS. Story has to be true. You know, I don't let a liar speak, and that includes myself. Unless I get up or somebody else gets up and says, "This is a metaphor. This is a parable." That's fine. We can give All I can say is that this past Pesach I had a discussion with Rabbi YY. Yes, we spent all Pesach together. The my our gallery adorned the walls of the hotel for 8 days. Very much so. And we're sitting in this room with, I don't know, 400 people who could afford to pay KMR rates, who probably are their own boss. That would be my gut feeling. And when Rabbi YY would speak over time, they sat there the room was silent and zip. I'm sure in their own shuls, if it's a half a second, you know, as myer starts, they're, you know, I'm sure there's stones and bottles being thrown all around. So, whatever it is, it's something something very special and powerful that you have Rabbi YY. Listen, the Nissim, you know, this teaching of the Maggid of Mezrich, you know, the teaching. The na- Which teaching? This is what he says. God tells Yeshayahu Navi, Yeshayahu the prophet, "Harei chashifrecha lecha. Lift up your voice like a shofar and rebuke the Jewish people. But the says, "Why like a shofar? And what if it's like a cello fiddle or a violin or a drum or a trumpet? Why like a shofar?" Harim k'a shofar, raise your voice. And he says a shofar we see immediately, it's very obvious that the shofar is a channel. It's a tool. The shofar doesn't produce any sound. You blow into the shofar. The shofar just tells the sound. It's a transmitter. So tells Yeshayahu, before you rebuke anybody, make sure you're like a shofar. Don't take your ego seriously. You're right. With the divine infinity flowing through you. The more you'll be like a shofar, the more people will be able to absorb it cuz it doesn't become personal. They won't be able be defensive. They don't have to say, "Who does he think he is to tell me?" He says, "You have tell everything." So I would say all of them, us, communicators, singers, including myself, it's one of the hardest thing for me to become like a shofar. Empty myself from every There's nothing there. I'm Right. I say, "What do you mean? But I have to prepare. I have to be creative. I need the right stories. I need the right message." Of course. Of course. That's hard work. But the hardest work is after everything, to become an empty empty vessel, an open channel for the energy to flow through you. And everyone knows when you're in that zone, when you're in that moment, you don't feel yourself. There's no self-consciousness. Right. Right. So that's why You want to know why people are not self-conscious? When when if if I'm in a place of self-consciousness, they'll feel it. I can my own self-consciousness, which is I can't always do. But when I can do it, really transcend my self-consciousness, and become like a channel for a for a deeper energy, everybody goes into that place with you. Right. It's very It's very It's very funny what you're saying, Rabbi Jacobson. When I try to sell my paintings in my gallery, I tell them, "A painting is the best educator, cuz it just sits on the wall. All it is is nice colors, happiness, and and it's like you But you described it much better. There's no self-consciousness of the painting. So, whatever message it's saying, there's no agenda, there's no this, they don't want this. The painting's not worried about your shidduchim, they're not worried about your career, it's just a nice, happy, positive message. But you just uh enlightened why I was trying to figure out what's the best way to convey the idea when you're you're not yourself, the message goes straight in. There's no uh there's no blockages, there's no twisted, it's just straight through, pure and clear. We have to open ourselves up to it. And you know, Absolutely. um I think I'm up a lot with what Nissan was saying. One of the great great Chassidic giants was a man named Reb Hillel Paritcher. Reb Hillel of Paritcher was one of the Chassidim of the Baal Hatanya and of the Mitteler Rebbe and of the Tzemach Tzedek. In Chabad, he was a a legend of an Oved Hashem and a Chassid. Reb Hillel of Paritcher has a nice forum, Aleichem Rebbe and others. So, he once said, he said a beautiful line. He said, "You know the story of the neshama coming down to this world? He says, imagine a person heard a niggun. You heard a niggun, and it touched your soul in the deepest place. It literally brought you to life. But then you forget the niggun. You forget it. And you try to remind yourself, but you don't remember. And every person you meet, you say, "Maybe you know that nigger." And you go everywhere in the world to search for the And people are singing the and you like them, but it's not that And then one day you hear the and you're like, You know when you hear it. The pillow right. Every neshama is a chelek elokai mima'al. It's a piece of Hashem. It's a fragment of infinity. And that is its And then it comes down into this world, and we forget the There's so many distractions, tragedy, difficulty, vicissitude, and cynicism. And traumas, and insecurities, and fear. We forget the And he says, "Search everywhere for the nigger." We try to make money to recover the Some of us gamble, go to websites, become addicts. And by the way, addicts search for the much more than everybody else. That's why they're so they're so crazy. You know, great food, great culture, great cinema, great architecture, great art, yeah, great science. It's amazing, amazing nature. It's all part of the but we're looking for the And Reb Elul says, "Ah." And then God graces you when you hear the He says, "Don't let it go. Don't let Hold on to Wow, wow, wow. I want to bless brother, my dear brother Nissan, that wherever you go, you should be able to help people recover their own Amen. What's love Amen. Amen. longing in another person's heart, and when they forget it, singing it back to them. Right. Amen. Amen. I should be zocheh and Hashem should give me everything. The right music, the right musicians, the right everything. And Rabbi, if I could mention also to you should you should go on and and and continue blessing people. You're already helping people find their new union, but uh it should continue, it should increase because of that the shame that shame should give both the the chef of the roof means the gosh means the everything good and And I think we must feel that when each of us Uh-huh. Amen. has the courage to start singing our own nigan, Mhm. and all of our nigonim come together, we create one large nigan. That's Mashiach. That's cool. That's Mashiach. Right. Right. Right. Sure this. Sure this. The Sure this is is composed, it's woven from everybody's nigan. Right. Right. No nigan is excluded. If any nigan is excluded, it's not the Sure this. We don't have to add any nigan. Every nigan is part of it. Every nigan. Right. Shalom to so much Rabbi Jacobson, Rabbi Nesanel Black. And thank you Zalman Hertz for producing this amazing uh Thank you to Moshe. Thank you to Moshe. Moshe, thank you. Thank you. Thank you Nesanel. Everybody knows Nesanel means miracles. Right. Is that the shame we should be so old so good to miracles. Yeah, and we should become and we should become the miracles we're hoping for. Amen. Become the miracle you're hoping for. Amen. Shalom Shalom. Have a wonderful day. Good Shabbos. Thank you. Thank This class is brought to you by the Yeshiva.net. Please help us continue the classes. Make even a small contribution at www.theyeshiva.net/donate.