REPLAY: ALL TORAH LIVE! Rabbi Moshe Elefant | Zos Chanukah

e e e hello everyone and welcome to the oh you podcast hello everyone and welcome to the oou podcast today we have the honor the big coved for us of having with us Rabbi mosha schwed who is the director of all tor it's a pretty big title to be the director of all Torah that's a lot you do a lot we're excited to have you here we wanted to start by welcoming you saying because we have to translate into Lakewood and make sure that uh that everything is above board that everybody knows I live in Lakewood everybody knows now okay why don't you start by telling us a little bit about yourself my name is Mosa really it's mosha ped but once I got into the business world you I just dropped that and some family members weren't too happy about it so so everybody calls you mosha Pinas at home most people call me mosha penas and there's a story behind that yeah I'm named after my great great-grandfather who came to the United States of America in 1913 wow he came to Baltimore and he was a town leer of the NV wow Josh look at this for those who don't know Josh and we maybe we'll get to that a little bit later Josh gives a weekly short on the on the par platform on your platform you encouraged me to do it we'll talk about it a little bit later on so my namesake was a to the wow in Vin so his son which is my great-grandfather y um when I was born and they gave they gave my name after his father he wanted very much that I should be called by both names um and and we kept we kept to that and just to jump a little bit further when I got married my father-in-law who you probably don't know who he is um his name is Mosa ziml so I didn't know that either since I was he's called Misha Mishi yeah so I was called m p and he's called Mishi that that was good that was okay 20 years later we'll have to you know revisit that but call rbw now so that's good so you were born so I was born in M born born in M raised in M went through Elementary School in man two years Bago local man high school then I went out of town to Long Beach I was there for six years went to to learn in the brisker Yesa he asked which one and I I was there for a total of five and a half years as a b and I got married and moved back there so I lived in for five and a half years and I I still feel very attached and I love going back and I love people that I work with know that I love um speaking Hebrew if you want to go with the Hebrew you can the for short to speak to the taxi drivers very good okay and then when you came back married came back married I did the regular thing I moved back to Lakewood um my wife had a very good job she was a speech therapist and I was sitting in Yeshiva and I was learning um for quite a few years and in BAS magico okay and there are there's some people who learn there is this some people yeah some smalla people ask me where I live yeah um I say in a small town in Central Jersey and since we love you know we we'll get to this soon but we work with people who live in places all over so I I just I can't forget the person I met in EK New Jersey who asked me um is there a supermarket in Lakewood that the size of Cedar Market which is I guess the biggest supermarket in TK and you said there's nothing that small yeah there's nothing that small like probably 12 of them so um I moved back to Lakewood I was there for a few years in 2018 I was approached um by Rabbi elephant who knew me and he was giv a DA Yom here and he said the U wants to expand their online presence um with the da do you um know anyone that could do this the truth is I asked my wife for somebody's phone number which I think she had in her phone and she says why don't you just ask me if you could do it so I asked him and he says you probably could I just can't hire you because you know family says call Rabbi Steven wild so I mentioned him he was the one that you know I from jumping a little bit but he got a he had a very close relationship with stalam and he had gotten money to invest in broadening bavi learning um so I was brought on to direct the content and from there you know I really direct took that and pulled it out like a year project and we launched by the CM ASAS in 2020 andem we had EC bbam on board who sitting here in the room who was a tremendous partner to get this off the ground because I literally when I started I Ask Josh you know what UI and and um UA stands for uh not UA see I still don't know UI and ux ux is user experience and UI is user interview face very good okay so I didn't know what those two words for this interview very good I didn't know what those two things stood for right when I started but we had we had there's a lot that you didn't a lot lot you didn't know you're sitting and learning I'm sitting and learning you were sitting and learning in 2017 18 right yeah it's actually for two years I was teaching in the afternoon second seder I was going to M every day which wasn't something that was going to be long term but it was good experience in a this Mish learning with guys what age were you teaching it was older guys was guys in Bas manage post High School post High School guys um and it was a great experience and I loved it but I knew it was going to be long term um so when this came along I actually I had no idea what it would be right I didn't know what it would be when I took the job I thought I would spend most of my time like preparing shim or like figuring out content content to go on um but like with everything in life yeah things evolve and one of the things that I've learned from my parents and Grand parents and RAB is you got to follow try to follow and try to see where Hashem is guiding you and I think I so you started in 2018 August 2018 again this is you met with Alan Fagan who was sitting in this chair back then and he asked you how large how many users do you think you could get for ALU what was your answer I said if we have 10,000 app downloads I think that'll be a success and when we launched in 20 20 I think we had 25,000 downloads like a week after the CMAs right so we knew and now four years later four years later after olda all partial all mishna all were north of 185,000 app downloads now the truth be told not everyone who has the app on their phone uses the app every day you know there's probably a number out there of how many apps people have on the phone that they don't use sure probably hundreds the fact that they have them means that they're already it's a good start it's a good start instead of the phone maybe being a distraction for other of things uh in in not healthy ways and there's enough we could talk about which is a great conversation you know that that's that's worthy conversation I'm sure that was a question back in 1819 when you're about to launch this and think about websites and apps and what are we really doing and and back it wasn't wasn't that much earlier than that when there was a big aifa at uh City Field right I mean I don't remember what what year that was that said you know these phone things yes trouble Torah technology Judaism and technology is something that is a struggle and a challenge in every sector yeah or across the Spectrum wherever you are everyone is struggling with technology how to use it how much to use it how much it should not become a distraction to your life right and it's something that has to be considered and and used for a good purpose I heard um there's a rabbi Feldman in in Atlanta I heard a story that uh first thing in the morning uh you know he he types in and he types a uh and there are two possibilities you heard the story the two Poss he published it say the story he published magazine Atlanta Braves Al off right and you have a choice right so like but the fact that it's a choice the fact that it's not just the Atlanta Braves the fact that people can pick up their phones right and I have my my reminder uh my thank you aam reminder no matter what that okay when I pick it up I have an opportunity to do something that's a bad distraction or something good the fact that we have something that could be good and now you have all off and and different modalities different kinds of things that are available there and Al mishna which has grown into Al mishna Jr which we could talk about and at different levels Al paraa I I I I was blessed by you to encourage me uh I don't know if you remember the story you you you came to me and you you asked if I would I would do a little sheer I said no and think how many times you said no to doing this podcast and I said no a few times and it happens to be uh my father was nifter and my father was a big lover and so I said wow this is might be an opportunity to do something with some of his Torah some of his thoughts and and now barem we're we're finishing up three years uh incredible and you probably feel like you've gained immensely from the nav not only have I learned from the NV but I've been in kuso with my father for three years right and I I I I owe you that just even not just as a user but as as as somebody who's able to share right and now we've launched at least in the beta all right so it's just going and growing and going when you were sitting in 2017 and 18 learning and base manage doing a little teaching could you have imagined uh you know five six years later the the breadth and the depth of the Torah that you that you're sharing with the world no I could not have imagined and I would lie if I say I thank hashm every day for it but when I remember I tried to just take a step back and thank Hashem that I have this opportunity to be able to um facilitate and allow people give them the opportunity to learn the breath and scope of people that are using this literally range from cish Williamsburg who beely speak English to people that are not Orthodox they're anonymous Ober it you know you you said you thank you Hashem to for putting you in this position we thank Hashem for that and we thank Hashem for you and one of the one of the things and and it's a theme in in sort of in our conversation so far but it's something that you do I'm not sure if you recognize that you do it but it's an man it's it's a genius management tool and it's a genius relationship tool which is you saw an article from Rabbi Krauss never met Rabbi kuss before you sent him an email thanking him for the article and talking to about it you saw somebody came on and signed up for a do you reached out to the person you saw somebody was doing something you reached out to them this is something that you do right where did you learn that this was the the right way to engage people that this right it's something that we we could all learn you have an opportunity somebody somebody let me go say thank you for writing an article let me go say thank you for giving a donation let me go say thank you for signing up for ad do and it's led to all kinds of great stories and and and fur relationships it's a great question I didn't have any formal training for it I would say it's intuitive but I don't take the credit for it I thank God have wonderful parents and grandparents who are personable people and they always and I would say it's part of my education from IIM is is looking and and recognize there are people out there people you could have an influence on and it's it's it's part of my personality but I I grew up with with parents who always had people over I talk about my grandparents who are Holocaust Survivors both my father's father especially who I grew up with the um had a tremendous influence on me he was someone he was literally a learning and machine a simple Babas um you know was first in diamonds and then you know worked in other on other areas but someone was up every morning learning at 4:30 in the morning he was somebody the the friendliest and warmest person he was in the nursing home feeding people yeah every single morning every shabas when he moved down to Florida he started in West Palm Beach so he was someone always always with a good word for people so that's probably where it comes from but again we got to we you got to pay attention you got to pay attention and um that's that's the great that's where you go so all of a sudden now right it's not one all and it's not just content right there's Five Alls there's and who knows where it's going each of the alls has grown number of deliverers and number of uh you know programs and different kinds of options and then there's content and then there's fundraising and then there's managing and then there's uh UI and UA and ux and all right you know and all these things um so your your job is is is pretty full um you also have a family canara how many children I have eight children Kara oldest is I think she's 19 youngest is four um and I'm the oldest of 11 so I grew up with large family and so that that that also when you have downtime if such a thing exists what what I do in my downtime so it's commute the commute from Lego yeah yeah I don't usually listen to the alls that was a layup I was feeding you know that that was you of course of course I love um Jewish history certain Jewish history speakers I like to listen to um Rabbi Dr D cats is always fascinating and and a good laugh um there Aubrey hirs from England who's fascinating elazar BR is somebody who's a who's fascinating um I I still have a little bit of my know baseball fandom there you know so I may check in check in on the Mets yeah it's the Mets I like to I like to read um and spend time with my family yeah we're going to do some rapid fire questions let's go okay um now sometimes they say rapid fire and people give long answers and you're not you're not going to be held to it what is a must-have dish at your shabus or yant Y table for my for my family they have to have their s which they make and I got to bring one for Josh because we've uh I'm ready yeah we got there we're on film we owe Josh a a homemade sour doala good save him 20 bucks in the bakery that week five towns is a little more than that but okay yeah yeah aldaf has learned in how many countries across the world you want options you don't have to give me options no okay so in the world of technology there something called IP addresses and you could have your IP address in Iran or in Iraq maybe there are Jews in Iran learning using olda it's possible but even in places where you probably don't think there are any Jews it's in as many countries as there are in the world that's where olda is is is access this answer then because what we have officially is 54 but that sounds like I don't know where that 54 is way more than 54 okay but again it's it's a it's like saying how many how many countries access uh Gmail it's l literally that in what year did Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes start the OU as a union for Jewish synagogues 1898 1920 1943 so the OU was kind enough at the end of every single one of their correspondents they write the OU was founded in 1898 I got it you got it what's your go-to safer to pick up and learn I'm G be a straight up plug for this person whose name is ruri Tiger ruri Tiger sure you could find his story on behind the be podcast with Rabbi eim Goldberg talk to him um I did a conversation with him um with RAB elazer brought one minute brief description who this person is grew up non-observant in Tel Aviv um became observa listen to this whole story speaks perfect English because he loved watching TV with all the English subtitles in Israel um has a whole story how he became from got married was learning in K during shmita and came across called actually honor of's C it says so that was like his uh his primary safer and he started writing questions toim and rim kki respond and says please keep on writing I like what you're asking me and after a couple years he said I got to go visit this Rabbi you talking about someone who didn't grow up observant and this is 25 years ago so wasn't a household name and he went to and he's like your deer who writes to me says yes from that time on he became R's proof reader wrote If anyone goes to are little little letters that are inclusive OFA yeah everything manuscripts everything and this person became his proof reader he took videos of him talking to real conversations he has hundreds of hours of videos of him talking to and he became extremely close to and he started writing SP so he wrote a saer it is a mindblowing written like like it's it's an incredible saf so right now that is my go to safer and he includes everything he has yes I got to pick it up yes yes okay beautiful this is an opportunity you've done this already with me uh once walking around the halls uh I think on all par maybe all do you get to ask me question turning the tables what gave you the energy and your passion for learning Torah so I think there's something that has to do with my my family and where where I grew up um you know just my father being a rabbi my mother learned herself so like in my family there there was that and I think over the years just you know having role models and teachers uh who were excited about who elevated who sometimes probed and pushed me Beyond you know what I thought I knew or what I thought capable of and so I really think it's you know again it's the role models in the family and the role models outside the family that that that helped you to to think Beyond who you are and then and and thinking Torah that's a great answer and I think we both could share even though we pray every single morning we beg and we need to do that to make Torah sweet Torah is not always easy and someone shouldn't think that it's going to be like it's going to be easy but when you work and you do it properly and you find if you need a mentor or someone to talk to there there are times some maybe you can relate to this there are times you feel like I just don't want to go away right it's not always it could be come once a week even right like just this is so sweet and like I just want to keep on having more of this so you know and and what's amazing is that uh at my Advanced age I'm still meeting people who are showing new sides of Torah uh in ways that uh I never really thought possible so for example we've spoken about my rebi rosi zakutinsky uh went to a sheare of his he gives a weekly sheare on shabas um where he begins in in the gamarra and it sounds like Yeshiva a brisker I went to the G so I learned a little bit the bris right and it's it's a gamar and you have the B and you havei and you have two you know and you you have a and you're going through it and the RAM and different LS in the RAM and there's the rash and Theus as and he brings it in and then he says and so from a pemus perspective and this is something i' had never heard before and he pulls a threat and he brings that thread back through the entire C and so here I am learning Torah in a brand new way and it's just an amazing thing with Torah that it can become fresh and new every single time you and that's and to be inspired to have these people who are who are inspiring role models who thinking in different kinds of ways uh it's just it's just amazing and it's it's a testament to you you keep finding a lot of these people who are who are now popular a lot more we can talk about and there's a lot more lot more to do do love with everything in life but we focus on what's what's you know so along those lines in order to to send us off uh we ask our guests to give us a braa for the for the OU for your colleagues for for your participants and all the alls uh give us a bra please there's one that really encompasses everything just says you know so he says two words which accomplishes everything but really we ask hasem that he should fulfill everything that we we ourselves don't even know what we need we just know that we need to have the the Basics right good health you know good family and and we ask Hashem please take care of everything that you know that we need and we should have energy and we shouldn't waste our time important oh we we should recognize you know what's important and I it's always joke around people ask like you asked before like what are you doing your downtime so some some people say like I do this and do that I say I wish I you know I wish I could do that also by I prioritize how how I waste my time you know it's that's and we should all we should all be able to recognize our and the things that we need and be successful amen and we with that BR we send it right back at you call sometimes we know what our La wants sometimes we don't even know your story is you didn't even know you thought I want to learn maybe I'll do some teaching and now you're doing some teaching right and so even the things that you are you know are in your on your heart should continue to give you strength give you to keep growing to am me thank you I can't hear you m can't hear you Kaneka and I thank everybody for joining every elephant taking some time out of his busy day and Josh Goldberg whose idea this was to have this gathering on the last day of Kana there are two important reasons why we're here on the last day of Kaneka one of the major themes of Hana is what we do every day we spend our time on all Torah promoting and sharing Torah and that is what the essentially wanted to take away from us as we say in and the nce was that we were another important point of is the say it's the last day of the anecdotally I was at a little this morning and the Gabi sells the alas so this morning he says that it's the last day of the Y and there's a big today I don't know if that's true or not if there's a source to that he obviously wanted to make a few more dollars so he was selling the Alias with that in mind so we thought who better than har by elephant join us to share a few words about what we should walk away from kanaka with hanin followed by a brief question answer on some of the interesting questions in the cashus world today and perhaps a few daff questions and then to end off with Josh sharing a little bit about how he got involved in all Torah and what he's been able to do using the platform and then actually learning with people live in Anglewood a few times a week elephant shalam Alim it's a pleasure to be here even though it is quite a busy day but it's good to be able to reach out elephant on mute I'm not not on mute I'm not on mute rade do you hear me bant continue so it's a pleasure to be here particularly as you said Ona a day which is the most supicious day where we could accomplish so much and we collect and we collect all of what kanaka brings to us and these last moments of the Yan is I I do want to begin by applauding you Rabbi sched for the incredible incredible work you've done in growing our platform what we thought was just a dream something that we could never have imagined and now look where we are in number of programs that we have all or mishna or par or it's incredible what we've accomplished it's incredible how many people listen to our programs and it's really you get a lot of credit we're very very fortunate that we have people supporters like Josh Goldberg on the call as well what he's done and continues to do we didn't know J he just showed up a Malik from Shay a Malik from Heaven showed up and said I want to be your partner in helping this wonderful project grow and and and we're so we're so thankful we're so thankful for him to be here with us and continue to be with us for many happy healthy years um you spoke about khaka and Tyra the say that when we look in the when thear begins to speak about the says my asks the question what is Kan and thear answers the T thear quotes AA that speaks about what the entire Y is about the many explain my what is all about the t is a time to re-energize ourselves in T and the learning Tyra and that remains with us for the rest of the year but I think that the message of Kaneka is a little more than that you know the is that if you're lighting kanah candles and you want to write an auka you want to light a torch you want to use a candle a big man big half dollar candle to light your manur so we would all assume that that's the best way to like your manoro you're really going to have a good fire going the is that that is disqualified you have to look light a little candle and why do you have to light a little candle what's wrong with that big candle and the answer perhaps is because the Y of kanaka is to teach us that these little things the Small Things Are what count and a big torch is not what does it the little candle and that's really what happened then by the N of Kaneka where you had these 13 kashim who don't really count next to the Greek Empire but their little action goes so very very far and the I I recently saw most incredible story which I think is so related to this lesson of kanaka and then we're going to tie together to what we do every day we who learn the Dai or learn other things there was an individual there was a l there was a funeral in Israel is in and the person who was leading the Lev was a regular individual not a rabbi and people came over to him and asked him since when did you become a rabbi that you're officiating at a funeral he says I want to tell you a story he says it was suus and I my family bar hasem has grown and I wanted to build a new Su a larger Su and I but the place where I would build it I needed permission for my neighbors to be able to build a Suk over there and my building is a mixed building religious Jews and not religious Jews I thought that the religious Jews will be happy to give me permission so I could do the Mitzvah I wasn't sure about the non-religious Jew so I went first to him see if I'll get his permission I knocked on his door his name was Saki and he answers the door he says what could I do for you I told him what I want Ed and on the spot he says no problem I'll be happy to give you permission he says let me tell you my history my history is that my family originally lived in Poland and in World War I we immigrated to Bulgaria and on Bulgaria do we know yeshivas there wasn't much of an orthodox religious life our family became secular and then we ultimately moved to Israel I really I'm totally irreligious I have two children that really one doesn't even live in Israel anymore and don't really have any connection and if you I see you I see your family I want to support that so this person says I see I saw I had a moment that this person wanted to come closer so I told him you know every Mitzvah that every Jew does is so so vital why don't you do one Mitzvah day says okay what do you recommend says I recommend that you say every day he says what is it all about and he brings a s and he teaches him what kishma is our represents our relationship to God God's special feeling towards us our feelings to him he says you got a deal I'm going to say I'm going to say krishma every day he starts to and that that was it a couple weeks later this man gets a knock on the door early in the morning I know for people like us who learn the D it's never that early but for some people ared up at 5:30 in the morning and he knocks on the door and this man's wife and she's completely hysterical and she says what's the matter he can't get her even to talk but to make a long story short he goes into the apartment and and this person person this person had passed away person passed away and she says to him you know the day after the night after you came you came to see my husband it came night time and he took out a s and he said kishma and he said you know it's a good idea I'm going to say krishma every day to affirm my relationship with God he said every night my husband who was totally religious and knew nothing started saying krishma and last night he went to sleep but he said before he went to sleep and he didn't wake up this morning but the last thing he did before he left the world was said krishma to God when I thought of that story was such a powerful story I thought about it you know people talk to us about I learn the daff I learn every day what am I accomplishing with learning the daff do I really remember do I really need to do this and here we see what it mean means when a person takes out from their busy busy schedule the time to learn in a Shear whatever she you attended you attend wherever you attend and you connect yourself that don't think is insignificant that's that little kanah candle that burns and burns forever and that's why the gar says if somebody is constantly doing the Mitzvah of candles candles on chabas candles on the says will we have children we'll all have children that we have muchas from we'll have children that will continue in the way that we want them to continue and again the people not me but the people who are so supportive of us and help this happen you certainly will be blessed with wonderful children have children and you yourselves will be and you'll bring the light of Torah to the world thank you Rabbi elephant let's jump straight to the questions that came in most of them are Cashers related so the first one what' you say why why they must be speaking to one of the leaders in the Casas industry so they want answers how does the U decide which questions to present to which P's involved bki was involved is involved are there certain questions that go to certain and how how do how do they get directed and how is that decided so I hate to bust anybody's bubble but most of the questions that come up here you know I tell people we in cashus you might have heard the different tummel the different issues that come up I'm doing this so long I'm here at the OU 37 years that there's almost nothing that that isn't a rerun every issue I'm dealing with we've already heard and we' already dealt with so I would say the vast majority certainly almost up to 90% of the questions we got we get are questions we've all received many times and have studied those questions and have written decisions from Rabel have was most helpful to answering questions so 90% of the questions are not new the 10% of questions that are new we bar here in kasas have a very talented staff a staff of that do know how to answer questions and if not we bring the questions whether you know I often tell people that when rosu was alive and I used to travel to Israel I used to travel then maybe even more often than I travel now every time I came to Israel I had no problem getting an appointment with Ros andos giving me time and somebody told me they once asked Ros you know Rebel yash's time was so so limited and it was so hard to get an appointment with him and even if you got there you were in and out before you walked in and somebody asked him why are you so generous to Rabbi elephant he said because I know he's not asking for himself when somebody asks a question at from the OU he's asking for clol and I feel a responsibility to help him and give him the answers that they need and we really barem have had that experience with almost anybody we reach out to in our world that when we have a question we these people will give us the time and the energy and the resources to get us the answer okay thank you next question when buying Frozen fruits whether it's strawberries or blueberries or vegetables that have an OU certification I guess a most common one is you walk into Costco and you could buy a bag of frozen strawberries with an OU does that mean that they are fully certified and there's no need for any checking afterwards for insects what's the process once you buy that bag with the U on it absolutely you know I I'll tell you you know I always have a story to answer the question so many years ago there was a h certification that was certifying Roma lettuce now when you speak about vegetables probably one of the most complicated vegetables that we speak about that have infestation issues are Roma lettuce and they didn't have a special system in place for washing or for checking but there was this supervision on the bag and I called the rabbi and I asked him how do you put your symbol on that that bag what are you doing he said I'm not doing anything he said so I say to him if you're not doing anything we know how problematic Romain lettuce is so what are you doing he says I don't certify the insects I only certify the vegetable so we don't have that attitude here at the OU when we put the OU on a bag or whatever unless we're expecting the consumer to do something and then we'll say so but that's very rare you could eat it because we say it's kosher and we're taking responsibility for all of the halakic issues that are involved including the insect infestation piggybacking off that I remember people have asked in the past they buy raw do with an OU do they have to take Kal afterwards I'm assuming the same answer applies the same answer applies if it if it's not a Jewish owned company it's not a problem and if it's a Jewish owned company we'll make sure the Kal is taken off as we do when weever we give as to bake Goods whether it's the matzas that you buy with the OU or if you go to a pizza shop that you're buying piz and that makes a dough you have to take off kala of course we're not just saying that the ingredients are Kosher we're saying you could eat the food the next question may not be so relevant to actual U products or OU restaurants but it comes up in people's houses all the time especially those who have younger children what is the rough think about separate bottles of ketchup for dairy and meat you know I could think of situations in my home with little children perhaps they're not that careful and they may take the ketchup that's for meat you know and maybe touch it to the hot dog or the hamburger how crial does have to be with that would it make a difference if you're dealing with little children or not so it's a it's it's a better question than you make it sound I think it's a very decent question I know that the pisum say that every Jewish Home should have separate s shakers for dairy and for meat so you know the salt shaker of the time of kazal is a bottle of ketchup of nowadays you know maybe people don't want to eat salt because they're not supposed to eat salt but who doesn't eat ketchup and if you really feel that you're putting that somebody you know I didn't grow up in a world that you had to put ketchup on everything but I'm also an old man but if you live in a world where ketchup is needed to put on to every food and you're putting it on top of food that's hot and the steam going up from the food into the ketchup botle I could see a strong reason why you should have separate ketchup or whatever condiment for fliks and for mils these are the kind of things and I and I speak about this often I'm sure not at this this time and place we could have a long discussion why it's it's not necessary you know no you could tell me that the food that you're serving on your table is not that hot because it was that hat who could eat it and the steam that's coming out is not that hat and it's there's all sorts of reasons why it should not necessarily affect the cashous of the ketchup and I'm also certainly not saying that if I were to come to someone's house and I discovered that they only have one bottle of ketchup that they use for Flik and mils I'm not going to eat in the house that's just not true but you know part of the lesson of Kus is is the lesson of and to train ourselves and to train our family to be thinking about these things could you imagine the of a child that sees that his parents her parents are so careful they buy two bottles of ketchup and one is dairy and one is meat that child sensitivity to kasas as they grow get older and as they will have their own home will be so much more serious than the person who father or mother had a heter had a reason to say everything is kosher and I think that's an important element in in training our children what casus is all about okay last question before we get to Josh I'll it's really two questions I'll put them into one we got two interesting Cur questions one is does a curig have to be toed and in fact the person wrote that he sees on the U website that some say to sell it to a non Jew Elan could explain what that process is the second question is an interesting more of aabas question there is something on the market it's a manual curig on the person even shared a link to it um is there a way perhaps to use it on chabas maybe if you're doing cliche is there a bishell issue is there a Bor issue is there perhaps an issue when you plunge that needle into the foil on top of the cake cup maybe you're ripping letters so elephant can C on both of those and then we'll get to Josh in terms of the of a curing machine and it's great that you ask the question RAB because if you're following our on all which I don't know if you are you know that we're learning to feel as now so if we're learning to feel as most appropriate time to ask the question there are many reasons why one does not have to tile a curing machine it's primarily plastic and since it's primarily plastic we don't tal plastic most people don't say plastic is requiring F there are only two metal pins in the curing machine if you're able to take them out and toal them and put them back that would be great most people will take them won't figure out how to take them out and they certainly won't figure out have put them back in and therefore it's not necessarily rebeli told us that we don't have to tal curing machine I learned but toia gon and he many times felt that any electric um U appliance that you could only use when it's plugged in is considered connected to the ground and may not require Fus it's not something I would he said we should rely on by itself but it could be part of a consideration um if you could somehow make it nonusable and then make it usable so then many pisum as we said on the shear would consider it a a Jewish manufactured vessel because you made it usable and if you want to be able to sell it to a nonu and then let him use and give him he gives you permission to use it great I don't know if it's absolutely necessary your other question about the curug machine on chabas I don't know I would not recommend that anyone should Brew Coffee on chabas there are so many questions that come up with brewing coffee on chabas would had to make coffee on chabis clich Lei um I I I just don't think um you can you Comm I think that that's part of being a religious Jew and being a sham and shabas just not you could survive the shabas without the Cur machine excellent okay thank you bant for joining us and for the message what to take with us to focus on the small things and elephant called me out for not being up to date on that's a small thing that perhaps I have to follow better even though I'm administering the app but I am not up to date on the kits are learning so thank you reab elephant and Josh are you there here he is he's still muted okay he's unmuted Josh first of all thank you for this idea wonderful to spend a few minutes on go ahead those um I just want to say every beginning has some ups and downs so like if we didn't have the volume on right at the beginning and stuff this is our first project of trying to get more interactivity with the all app and the opportunity to speak to ream so this is just the first pilot project of what might be an exciting next few months ahead yes so Josh we could do an hour you and I discussing so many fascinating aspects in your life that would inspire people but we have a few minutes now so let's focus on the learning and da part of it when did you start doing Dai well it's uh it's been a long winding road I actually started um uh studying the do in college at the Wharton School where we hired a teacher from Lakewood to come in and teach with us uh hard to believe it was almost uh 28 years ago and after that I started learning on the west side where I where I lived and uh went to different shum during uh during the day or in the afternoon um depending on my schedule um my uh my commitment to learning the do has increased dramatically uh over the last 10 or 15 years and I might I'm like a lot of people who are probably listening to this or are on the AL off regularly we use a shottenstein talud most of our learning is somewhat self-taught we spend as much time on the English side as we do on the Hebrew or maybe even more and even with all that the aloff app has added so much more so about 11 years ago I was offered the opportunity to teach the doomi one day a week uh at the Sho uh I was attending in Manhattan and I used to wake up at 4:15 in the morning on Tuesdays that was my day and if my kids weren't sleeping they remember seeing me learning at the table with the gamar which by the way I want to thank my kids for allowing me to always be able to give classes now I've started to teach on Sundays at 8:15 uh in the morning in Anglewood New Jersey and that started in 2020 so sometimes my kids don't know what's for breakfast that morning but he had they still let me uh get out and it was really then in 2020 as you know Rabbi schwed that the alof became a much more fre frequent and more powerful tool for learning Torah as the new cycle of the D yomi just began so you've mentioned your family so I'm gonna get straight to that how has the your commitment to daily T Tor primarily DFI how has that changed yourself and your family you mentioned a little bit but maybe elaborate a little bit on that sure so first of all obviously um what I tell people who want to start learning is that when you D in it's your commitment to talking to to Hashem to God but when you're learning it's that God or Hashem is talking to you and in all relationships you want to have a two-way communication you want the ability to talk and to listen and I think that having that in my home has really changed the entire my entire home and the way my kids uh uh react and behave and and and focus on Torah learning as well as my extended family my parents my sister Etc but let me just tell you a little bit more about what I've done with the aloff so uh in 2020 I started using the aloff more frequently and for those of you who are not familiar the aloff is a powerful app it's not just the amount of learning you could do but the ease of the app of the app all the shum there is nothing else online that I can think of that has made such a difference in learning like the OU aloff app and someone even mentioned to me a few months ago when I was traveling that outside the Arts SC doomi which was commissioned by the Shan steam family there is no single gift to the Jewish people for learning like the OU alof app so starting in 2020 and until now since I give a Shear on Sundays on Saturday nights my kids know it's usually Pizza uh taking uh take out pizza bringing it back to the house and I listen to Rabbi Rosner Rabbi elephant and Rabbi lewts on Saturday night and then I finish off with by stefansky on Sunday morning so I listen to all four shum as well as other aspects of what's on the alof app for me and for others I'm sure it's a complete Game Cher in terms of understanding the page and also being able to really uh review it and study it in a lot more depth really appreciate the support Josh one last thing which is something I'm passionate about and something you do very very well there are so many people out there who are working businessmen family men like yourself who have realized that they have the opportunity and the wherewithal to inspire others to learn as well could you just share with the audience how you've done that what you've done very briefly and how you do it and maybe others out there to do do it as well they don't have to be a rabbi they can go to work and help other others learn with their passion for learning well thank you Rabbi I mean um so I've been working since I graduated college it's been uh uh over two decades on Wall Street and what I found was that especially postco people in the communities uh around that I were involved in liked to go to shum to feel connected again there was a lot of uh loneliness during covid the inability to be part of a pod and since 2020 a group of guys in Anglewood which were affectionately known as the grumberg minion which was named in memory of Irving grumberg one of the fathers of the the Min grumberg and this was really since the be probably since the CM ofis we became this Band of Brothers and what I mean by that is that each one of us took a page or a day and we would commit to teaching it to the other people in the KRA and this learning has reel electrified a community the RAS and daily opportunity these have increased dramatically the Torah learning in Anglewood and it's not just the learning it's the banter it's the camaraderie and learn the doth is infectious many of the guys in the group actually said they have not learned for over 30 years some of the people in the group said they haven't even learned for 60 years and the growth in the learning for this group of 15 to 20 consistent guys has been incredible there's also an Anglewood tourist center at night which has 65 guys learning in Anglewood all the rabbis and in the community are supportive of all the learning that's gr on and the mid Shear that we have in our kbra really try to personalize the year so for me I try to do three things when I try to start to get people ready for this year the first is the significance of the day happy birthday is and other events obviously Rabbi elepant talked about Z Sonica in 1839 the first photo of the Moon was taken by French photographer lisis tour and that's connected with a lot of the stuff we've been learning recently on the of when the son hedin decides on when it's an i or when it's Roes we try to do a bibliography of a rabbi on the page today's do talks about RAB baraba and some of us know that in kadan he was born on the same day yud Nati died we also know how much he spoke publicly and M Tanis he was one of the rabbis that was known to pray for water and we also read W Rashi out loud as well but the reason why I decided on the alaf is because Torah learning on online is the future anyone who's tracking any of the sites whether you're using the aloff which is the number one site all Torah all paraa all mishna or other sites like safaria or Wu Torah you will know that the online website is the growth of Torah learning and without being involved in that your head might be in the sand over the next 15 to 20 years it's as a high growth potential as any of the technology Investments that I would study getting involved in the aloff today somewhat near still the ground floor can make a dramatic difference not just in your own learning but really for the entire Jewish people going forward thank you Josh see Josh didn't think that I invited him I mean I invited Josh on to speak about learning thei and here he's a paid commercial for all that I will appreciate it I've only known you for about five years and some people uh who might be on this because I told some friends I'd be on I'd be on the uh on the webcast today but truthfully the amount of learning that I have picked up has really been catalyzed by aloff and I speak among a lot of my friends and this is the site that people have gone to to Really uh solidify uh their growth and learning so I hope you don't realize it's not really a commercial it's really the truth of my life that without this site I certainly wouldn't be anywhere near the learner that I am today I really appreciate it the genuine feeling from your heart and I had one question for my elephant if he's still on I don't know if he still is or not on let me see I know he had a busy day is he still on I see Jacob ketki is here and I see Y is here thank you for joining I'll I'll mention one quick thing Rabbi which is the masin is known as the only M that starts with a Greek word there are other masas that start with Aramaic words but there're only a few Greek words have been accepted in the Jewish language Sanhedrin apit tropus gatria Etc why do we choose San hedin as the name rather than it's even a stronger question today on Z where the fact is is that the Greeks were trying to nicku Al have a stop learning Torah and yet we name one of our Mar on with with with a Greek uh with Greek background which means counsel and clearly there's two messages there one the more uh the more rational answer is that at that time when the gamor was being written you know the Greek was the accepted first language and Sanhedrin was a right name for it but I really think it means more when you think about the history of the Sanhedrin how T that the key for the Sedin is to really have all different languages understood and all sort of aspects of azden and therefore Sanhedrin might be better way to describe what really happens in a Jewish Court rather than the traditional bezden which is what people uh usually would describe a court of three or 21 or 23 or 71 and that's really something that I see in the OU Al off as well many different shum different types that you can choose from all these aspects of it it's a it's sort of like a virtual Sanhedrin for people who want to learn the do that's an amazing VOR and analogy and I appreciate it so let everyone get back to work it's it's day it's the first day of the new year so the people on Wall Street really have to pay attention to what's going on in the stock market so really thank you for taking of your time Josh and I see there only nine people on the zoom but there are many people the zoom was only for the people that Josh shared you know his inner circle and everyone else was on the YouTube channel so thank you everybody for coming whether you're on YouTube you're on Zoom you're on the old platform and as Josh said let's hope this is the first of many and let's try to get together and talk and learn and grow frah and a great New Year to everybody thank you Rabbi appreciate it [Music] I [Music]