Best of Living L Chaim | A Unite To Heal Exclusive

[music] It's that time of year and you are currently watching Ammudam's incredible live stream with you're getting the best of the best. My name is Yakov Langer. I am the founder of Living. I am the host of Inspiration for the Nation, one of our many podcasts and thank God we have over 1.6 million subscribers on YouTube. It feels crazy to say. I think we're the largest Jewish YouTube channel, but what we have for you right now is the best of the best. In the past few months, we've done thousands of maybe hundreds to be more accurate interviews with some of the most incredible, incredible human beings, sadikim, sadikos in the world. And we're going to show you some of our favorite, most heartfelt, most insightful moments. First up, you're going to see my conversation with Nikama Leapley. Now, Nikama Leapley sounds like classic nice Jewish name. Maybe Leapley is a little more uncommon, but she used to be Amish and now she is an Orthodox Jew living in Flatbush. There's more to it. There's more to every interview, but here is a very special moment with Nikama. I've been doing this for 5 years, and genuinely, this is the most excited podcast that I've ever done. How in the world did an Amish girl get to [music] a Orthodox from community? >> When I was 16, we moved to the Amish community. I like the idea of going and living where you don't have to drive cars and where there's no running water, no electricity, no heat, no air conditioning. >> Briana Leapley grew up in a pretty sheltered home. And at [music] a young age, her entire family officially became Amish. No electricity, no [music] machines, no phones, cut off from the world we all know. Years later, she wildly found her faith, Orthodox Judaism. But it came at a cost. She had to leave her community, her parents, the only world she knew. What's your first day like in Amish? >> For us children, it was more fun. >> If someone is like going through the house and they're caught with like a fax machine, like what happens? >> They will eventually excommunicate you. >> Was there fear of also like [music] if you leave like you're letting your parents down or >> 150%. That was hands down the [music] hardest part. They knew how to let go. It was difficult to know that I was going to do something that they weren't going to be happy with. My parents, they were regular Christians. They were their parents, they're like Baptists, you know, regular Americans. That's how they grew up. I was born in Rhode Island. My dad was in the Navy and all through till I was like seven, he was in the Navy. My I have six younger siblings. They were all born somewhere between like in nine years. We all kind of grew up together. [laughter] Um, when I was young, we moved up and down the east coast because dad was in the Navy, you know, we different houses. We kept moving all the time. Like being three years in a house, that was a long time for us. >> Oh, wow. >> So then when I was like seven, his time in the Navy finished and we moved to Pennsylvania. And all all through this time, like my parents became more and more conservative. Like we were always homeschooled as children. We basically our childhood was being taught by mom at home and playing in the backyard with each other. Like we weren't exposed to a lot of like TV and and movies. Like we didn't know about Disney. Like we it just wasn't it wasn't part of our lives. Like >> like a very sheltered childhood. >> Very sheltered. Like really really sheltered. When we got to Pennsylvania, they started becoming more interested in like some Jewish traditions. Not because they wanted to convert. Like they're they're totally Christians. They're totally happy being Christians. It's what they believe. But they but there were things about some of the Jewish traditions that spoke to them. So they started, you know, like lighting candles Friday evening, having a pesak seder, building a suka, lighting kaneka candles as children dressed up on pumm, you know, different things that they they wanted to integrate into our family. And I don't know, for me it was like like almost almost like they they threw a match on a bonfire that was inside me just waiting to be like like I was I was obsessed with it. Like I loved it. Every everything that had to do with being Jewish or with Israel or anything like it it meant it meant so much to me. Like I remember as a kid, a seven-year-old, like I'd go to my mom in tears like, "Mom, we have to be Jewish. like I have to be Jewish. There's no way that I can't be Jewish. Don't like don't we have any Jewish blood anywhere? Like we have to. They looked and we didn't have >> like and I want I wanted to go to Israel so bad. And when I was 14, they decided that they were going to start visiting an Amish community and see if we could move there because, you know, like by that time we were just so we were so isolated. We were on like our own little family island. We didn't have a whole lot of friends. We didn't really have fellowship. We were all alone, like I said, homeschooled, playing in the backyard with my siblings. Like, that was that was growing up. And it was it was a great childhood really. It really was. But, um, but they wanted they wanted to have more of a community. They were looking to see like where where can we go where we can actually where we can actually have friends, people we can people we can fellowship with. Um, and they thought Amish, the Amish might be the answer because they they liked the they liked the plain lifestyle. They they liked a lot of the values and they started looking into that. So, we moved when I was 16. We moved to the Amish community. >> What year was this? >> This was winter of 2017. Okay. >> When we moved. [clears throat] >> And you where where is this community located? >> Kentucky. >> Kentucky. Okay. >> Kentucky. Just over the border from Tennessee. out in the middle of nowhere. [laughter and gasps] Like [snorts] if you if you don't know about like you you wouldn't you would never hear about it. Like people people tend to ask me like how is there Amish in Kentucky? Like we thought there was Amish in Pennsylvania. There's Amish in Ohio. I'm like yeah there's a lot of Amish in Pennsylvania. There's a lot of Amish in Ohio. But there's there's Amish communities all over the place. You just don't necessarily know about them. There's not there's not so many. And most of them aren't like big tourist attractions like the ones in Pennsylvania where it's a lot of tourism. >> Okay. So, you go to Kentucky. What's What's your first day like in [snorts] Amishville? >> Adventure. So, like it it's fun for for us children. It was more it was more fun than like it was it was an adjustment, but it wasn't it wasn't like so hard for our parents. It was a really big adjustment. Like they're in their 40s. They were they were used to living a certain way and to totally like my dad after working in the Navy, he worked in a nuclear power plant as an instructor. Like he literally taught the guys who were operating the reactor to make electricity and he went from that to being an Amish farmer living without electricity. [laughter] Like >> right like can you imagine like such a such a huge switch. It was hard. It was very hard. I came to the point when I was like 20 that I decided, you know what? I can't stay here forever. Like, I need I need more than I'm ever going to find here. I don't necessarily know what I'm going like how I'm going to find what I need. But I can't I can't stay here. Like, it's not going to work. I've got I've got to I have to I have to leave. And it's going to be it's going to be hard. Like I can't like the decision to leave it was it was crazy hard. Like it was it was so hard. >> What's the other side of it? Like what's the reason not to leave? >> Reason not to leave >> everything I knew was there like uh it was it was my family that I'd grown up with. It was the community that I had spent 5 years in. I like I didn't I didn't have and I did I didn't know anything about the outside world. Like literally I didn't know how to make a phone call. I didn't know how I didn't know how to do anything. Even before we moved to the Amish community, even the amount of technology that we did have in the house, I was resistant to using because I like like I said, like I was an outdoors kid. I didn't I didn't care for it. Like if I if I had a choice, I would always I would always use a I would always be reading a book rather than working on the computer. Like that was just me. >> So I really didn't know much about the outside world. I didn't know how to get along in it and I'd never really wanted to. So the idea of okay, I'm going to leave. I'm going to go out into a world that I don't know anything about and I'm going to have to figure out how to survive in it. Like it was very daunting. and the idea of leaving everyone I knew and I had no clue how I was gonna how I was gonna make it. >> Was there fear of also like if you leave like you're letting your parents down or >> 100%. 150%. In fact, that was hands down the hardest part. I mean, they were they were my parents. They raised me. They wanted me to stay. They had hopes and dreams for me. I didn't. No, I didn't want to let them down. I didn't want to hurt them. And yes, they always love me. They always will love me. But, you know, like it was it it was it was hard for me to do something that I knew they weren't happy with, even though they weren't even though they weren't like up, you know, they they they were they were they're good parents. Like they're they're like, you know, we don't necessarily agree with what you're doing, but you're an adult and we're not going to we're not going to stop you. We want what's best for you. you can like we're going to let you go. Like they they knew they knew how to let go and I give them a lot of credit for that. It was still it was it was difficult to know that I was going to do something that they weren't going to be happy with. I desperately wanted to find Jews, but am I am I comfortable doing it? Not really. It's just it's not my cup of tea. So I but I was looking and I thought, okay, maybe if I Google Jewish classified, something will come up. So I did and I found this website called luok.com, but it's like mostly chairs and tables for sale. Like and I'm [laughter] and I'm I'm I'm scrolling on it like what am I doing? Like I'm just I'm I'm I'm being so I'm being so stupid. like I'm stuck. I'm never going to I'm never going to find what I want. I'm trapped. I'm like, I can't I can't do this. There's just no point. I should like I should literally just shut my phone off and and and say, you know, like I tried. It's too hard for me. Like I can't. And so I was I was praying and I was like, God, you know what? I am totally at the end of my rope here. Like I I'm done. I can't I can't do this. If you want me to find juice, you're gonna have to make it happen because because I can't do it. Like, it's too hard. I can't figure this out by myself. So, if you want me to get to Brooklyn, you're going to have to make a way because like you're going to you're going to have to do it. I was almost at the point of shutting my phone off, which by the way, if you're wondering why I was able to charge my phone when I was in an Amish community where there was no electricity, >> I [laughter] wasn't. But that's a great that's great plot hole. What's going on over here? [laughter and clears throat] >> People have asked me that question before when I get when I get to this point in the story. They're like, "How did you how did you keep charging your phone?" Like, great question. The answer is we had non Amish neighbors who I could I could go and charge my phone in somebody's house. Ah >> like we we we knew people who weren't Amish that lived around. >> Cool. >> So I could charge my phone there and then take it back and use it. >> Um >> and that's where the Amish community watches sports games. Not I don't know. Maybe. Got it. Okay. So Okay. [laughter] So you had nice neighbors charge the phone. >> Yeah. No, like I I wasn't I wasn't Amish anymore. like like I could I could do it. So, it was it was fine. >> But I almost shut my phone off, >> but I told myself, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna scroll just one more page. One more page and then I'll be done for the day. Like scrolled through one more page thinking it was just going to be more tables and chairs on this on this website. At the bottom of the page, there's an ad that says companion wanted for elderly Orthodox Jewish lady living in Flatbush, Brooklyn. The pay is free room and board and you have time to get a day job and you're basically, you know, you're basically living with this older lady who doesn't want to doesn't want to live alone like and you don't have to be there all the time. You just it's just someone someone else in the house. And I looked at that and my jaw just dropped like like who would have thought? Like it's too it's too good to be true. It it was like it was like totally made to order and I was like I'm seeing things like I'm like like like really like it's like how is this happening? That afternoon I called the number on the ad and talked to the lady's brother and I said, you know, like is the is the position taken because I' I'd really like I'd really like to take it. like I this this is this is what I'm very interested in. He said, "No, it's not taken, but where are you calling from? Because [laughter] this is not a New York area code. Um it's a it's a North Carolina area code." And I I bit my lip thinking, how have I ever got myself in this situation? How am I going to explain to this guy where I'm from and why I want to come to New York? I said, "No, you're right. It's a North Carolina area code and actually I'm calling from Kentucky. I'm visiting family here and I want to move to New York. And he was like, "Do you know anybody in New York?" I said, "No." And he was like, "Do you have a driver's license?" I said, "No." I was starting I was I was feeling like at that point like I'm not I'm not starting off on a good foot here. And he was like it's okay. It's okay. Like it's not it's not a prerequisite for the position. Like you don't have to have a driver's license. I I I just I just wanted to know like like I'm like I'm curious like why why do you want to come to New York if you if you if you don't know anybody like like you don't want to be all alone. And like eventually we decided to have a video chat so that we could we could talk about things more and he could get to know he could get to know >> more face to face. Yeah. >> Face to face to face and he and he could tell me about the position. And honestly is also looking to see if you're a serial killer cuz he doesn't know. Like [laughter] >> I know I the truth is I was on pins and needles for that video chat because I knew I was going to have to tell him that I was not Jewish and I wanted to convert >> and I wasn't I I I felt like probably at that point he's going to he's going to like he's not going to want me. Like he's going to want he's going to want a Jewish girl for this job. Like I felt sure. >> So I told him, you know, I'm not Jewish. I want to convert. I want to I want to come to Brooklyn for that reason. And and he was and and he was like, "Well, you know, it's it's not it's not a it's not a prerequisite for the job. Like, you can you can do the job without being Jewish. Like, that's okay. You don't have you don't have to be Jewish to to take the position." I was like, "Wow, okay." And then he was like, "But, you know, it's it's really not necessary for you to convert." >> Okay. like like you you don't have to like you're totally good. Like you don't need you don't need this. You don't need to be Jewish. And I was thinking I hear you. You can think that, but I don't agree with [laughter] you. Like Like I want this. I need I need to be Jewish for myself. Like I don't care what you say. Like I care I care what you say. Like in a in a nice way. like I care what you say, but but I'm going to like I need to do this. I didn't say all that out loud. I was like, you know, okay, but but I want I want to anyway, you know, and he was and he was like, well, we'll see. We'll see. And I thought to myself, yeah, we'll see. We'll [laughter] see. >> Um, but you know, you know, it's like it's protocol. Like people have to they have to they have to tell you no. They have to tell you no to start. Like it's it's it's not a thing. Like being Jewish is hard. Like I always say, you have to you have to be stubborn to be Jewish. Like you have to you have to you have to really want it. >> So yeah, of course, tell people no right off. Like they shouldn't they shouldn't become Jewish if it's not something that they need. If it's not something that they're if it's not something that they're willing to work harder for than anything else in the world, like it's it's important. It's a big deal. You don't you don't become Jewish just just because like if you if you become Jewish, it's because your soul's at hari and and it's where you belong. It's a it's a big deal. Absolute best day of my life. Like it going to the mut coming out like I was I was screaming. I was I was yelling. I was jumping over like I was I I couldn't I couldn't contain how excited I was. Like it was literally the best thing that ever happened to me. Like like like finally like I was like I was a Jew and I wait I'd waited I'd waited so long and I wanted it so bad and and like like really like I'd come home like it was I I don't I don't even know like there aren't even words. There aren't words to say. Like like I literally I was I was yelling at the top of my lungs. I was I was I was crying. I was laughing. Any like anything like I just I couldn't it was I was I was on cloud nine. I was higher than cloud nine. Like it was so it was so amazing. >> It's amazing. And you're actually next week going to Israel for the first time? >> Yeah. Four days. In four days I'm flying to Israel. I keep thinking of what it'll be like the moment the moment my feet touch the ground. And I know it's I know it's Israel. It's the ground that Hashim gave to Romania. It's got of it's the ground that we do. It's it's the ground like it's home. Like what's it going to be like to stand on that ground? I've I've dreamed of it so long. Now it's actually going to happen. I It's so real. I can't believe that it's actually going to happen next week. Like [snorts] I just I can't believe it. How do you How do you like when you want something so bad and you dream about it for so long and you wait for it so long and then it and then it happens? Like how do you even describe the emotions? My older brother Ellie hosts the show Kosher Money and we've had some episodes get millions of views. This interview in particular is pretty recent but it is the trajectory is going up there. Rebase Ta is a larger than life personality, a holy Reba and he is giving really incredible advice in terms of how money relates to Yiddishai, how it relates to Jewish people. Here is a glimpse of that episode. this this belief. Yeah, I'm gonna work more. I'm gonna make more. I'm gonna make more. No, you're not. No, you're not. You have to understand the purpose of work. Purpose of work is to provide God with plausible deniability. God has to be able to deny that he did a miracle. Even though it's really a miracle, when God sustains us, it's a miracle. like Moses in the the desert with uh the children of Israel 40 years eating bread from heaven. You know, they were miraculously sustained. Today, we don't have bread from heaven. Today, we have bread from the earth. We don't even take it from the earth cuz we're not farmers. We go to the store and we we buy it, right? But the bread that we buy is just as miraculous as the bread from heaven, the the the mana. Um why why is it just as miraculous? Because think about it like we create our own our own sustenance. We don't create it. We can't create it. It we we receive it and but you know we have a natural narrative for how it occurred. So we don't observe or appreciate the miracle involved. But of course it's a miracle. But we have to hide the miracle because God desires that there be free choice and that things appear natural in the world. So therefore, you go to work to hold out a cup to catch the flow of the blessing, but the cup doesn't generate the the flow of the blessing. The cup just catches it. So you go to work to have a natural vessel. By natural, I mean non-miraculous, but it really is a miracle. But God can turn around and say, "I didn't do a miracle." See, if you were just to sit on your couch and never do anything and then God would have to somehow make you rich while you sit on your couch all day, you'd have to do an obvious miracle. But if you have some alibi for God where you can say, "Oh, it wasn't a miracle. I have a company. I made some investments. Uh I bought something. I sold something." Now God could say, "I didn't do a miracle. It happened naturally." We all know it didn't happen naturally, but that's again that's the plausible deniability. So when you're working, don't think that your work generates income, doesn't your work is merely the cup that you're holding out within which to receive the income. And therefore, if you really want to put in extra time, don't put in extra time at the office. Now, you have to put in some time because it can't be a miracle. It has to be natural. So you figure out what what would be the natural amount of work that you'd have to do. But don't do more than that. You want to do extra. You want to put in overtime. Okay, I got an idea. You can put in overtime doing acts of goodness and kindness. You can put in overtime studying Torah. You can put in overtime in prayer. That's what you should put in your overtime >> because that's what really the determines the flow of the blessings. >> What would a world look like without money, right? Imagine AI is the future. Okay, there's no need for work. Everyone who's worried about their job, don't worry about it. Everything's taken care of. The machines get so good, they can produce all sorts of goodies. >> Well, first of all, you know that we believe in Messiah, the messianic era, >> which is the second part of that question in that will money even exist when Messiah comes. >> So, will money exist? Money is an instrument. So, I have a better question. Will commodities exist? >> Like what? I don't know. Wheat [laughter] will wheat exist >> as oo and the world will just get fed off mana, >> right? You just photosynthesize like a plant. I don't know. >> Mhm. >> Okay. So we know at least the initial phases of the messianic era which are prophets foretold is basically just a world of bounty where f well first of all we should explain that in the messianic era which are prophets foretold there's no war there's no not even competition why because the corrupt nature of humanity is healed everyone lives only to serve God and do God's will, everyone becomes enlightened, so to speak. And when everyone is living in a selfless way, so there's no corruption. I mean, today we have enough food to feed everyone in the world, nobody needs to be hungry. So then why are people hungry? Only because of corruption, which causes the the misappropriation of resources. We have enough resources. It's just it's simple corruption that causes any famine today in 2025 and for the at least for the past few decades with the the how advanced technology is um how advanced agriculture is. Any any any scarcity today is is man-made through corruption. either intentionally creating scarcity or accidentally creating scarcity as as a byproduct of some silly competition or jockeying for power or you know hoarding resources. At any rate, when Msiah comes and the world is perfected and everyone has everything they need, so you're still going to need to go get a loaf of bread. You know, you're not going to stand out in the sun and photosynthesize like a plant. You're still going to need a house to live in, right? So, where's that going to come from? Things are still going to exist. Stuff is still going to exist. But the point is that there's going to be so much of it or as my manity says that in the messianic era that all of the delicacies, I don't know what's a delicacy. Cheese Danish. >> Cheese Danish. Yeah. Are going to be literally they're going to be as as readily found as dust. So just like there's no scarcity of dust, you know, it has no value, you know, supply and demand. There's no real scarcity of dust. So there's no real and there's no real demand for it either. So there's, you know, it's free. You can get dust for free and it's everywhere. So all the delicacies are going to be liked up meaning you know just everything will be uh whatever you need you'll you'll have. So at that point you know what will what will money even mean? We've been talking a lot about people using money to measure things that money really has nothing to do with. Like money really is for accomplishing things. Instead, we spoke about people using money like for a sense of self, a sense of identity, right? And how much money I have, that's how much sense of identity I have. So they're using money to measure stuff that really money has nothing to do with. So in a perfected world, in an ideal world, in a heaven on earth type scenario like the messianic era, no one's going to have that desire, that false sense of self. And so money will not have that purpose anymore. No one would use money for that. What will they what will they use if people still use money? What will they use it for? They they'll only use it for accomplishing things. Only use it for doing good. But it won't have any of that that meaning that we attach to it. That'll be a whole different whole different psychology money. But will money exist? I don't know. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But, you know, will financial instruments exist? I don't know. But things will still exist. We'll still be souls and bodies. It's we're not talking about something that happens in another realm of existence. It's here in the in the physical world. So, stuff will still exist, but you're not going to be attached to it in that way. You're not going to attribute importance to it that way. It will have a much more practical attitude toward all physical things. >> That indeed does sound enlightening. >> Yeah. Well, well, it's enlightened. That's the enlightened attitude toward physical stuff. And and by the way, you don't have to wait for the messianic era. You can have that enlightened attitude now. Why not? You can have a healthy attitude toward physical things now. That's why also, you know, you're talking about Jewish attitudes towards money. Jewish attitude toward money. We never really glorify aseticism. There are other faith traditions that, you know, aseticism like, you know, oath of poverty, that kind of stuff. We don't glorify that. There's no a shame in that. If someone's poor, it's not shameful to be poor, but we don't glorify aseticism or renouncing material possessions because there's nothing again we're going going back to the same concept, but what do you want it for? What's the purpose? What are you going to do with it? It's a tool. It's a tool. And and and if you're not attaching meaning to it that it doesn't have, if you're looking at it practically as a tool, like imagine a guy running around with a hammer so everyone can sees he has a hammer. He doesn't have to bash an nail into a wall. He just wants everyone to see him with a hammer. Like that would be ridiculous. But if you need to bash a nail into a wall, of course. Give me a hammer. Of course. Then the ham, right? And then as soon as you're done putting the nail on the wall, put down the hammer. Right. the the the concept of attributing value or meaning to money that it doesn't have. That's when we say having an enlightened attitude toward money, that's what that means. And therefore, you don't need to be an aesthetic. You don't need to take an oath of poverty and renounce all worldly possessions in order to be holy. You can have money. You can have a lot of money. Just don't lose sight of what it's for. You don't have to avoid it to be holy. You just have to make sure you remember its purpose. We have a show called Not Your Typical Podcast hosted by Charlene Ammongh, but when she got cancer this year, she and I discussed that she should be on the show Inspiration for the Nation. This is a piece about her finding out about the cancer and opposed to what the classic thing of crying and worrying, she decided to something else that's very special. >> We ended up doing a biopsy on my 40th day of Nishmat, which is crazy because Nishmat is like my my most favorite project in the world and people see so many Nishmat miracles, especially on the 40th day. So, I was really I was so convinced I'm going to go in for the biopsy on day 40 of Nishmat. Of course, it's benign. There's no way it's going to be malignant because it's the 40th day of Nishmat. And unfortunately, or not for not unfortunately, the way Hashem wanted it to be was that it turned out to be breast cancer. And the result actually ended up taking two weeks. We were in Miami was January 6th. I'm at the altter with my husband and all my kids. were having a beautiful time eating breakfast. I fully like forgot about it even cuz it would took so long for them to follow up and I kept saying for sure it's nothing. It's fine. And then they called I picked up the phone with all my kids around me on speaker and the doctor really slacking in the bedside manner department very matterofactly. Hi Charlene, this is Dr. So and so I'm calling from radiology. So it is cancer. do you have a breast surgeon or would you like a phone number for one? And I was like, what? What? What? What just happened? And my kids are all around me. And one of my kids thought they should text Zachary in Israel. >> Oh no. >> In the middle of this crazy hurricane and say, "Zachary, mommy has cancer." Oh no. >> Send. Oh no. So, I'm on the phone with a radiologist and I'm hearing this this tsunami wash over me and Jonathan is really not handling well. Hashem, he's totally obsessed with me. Thank you, Hashem. Leah, it should always be. But I sometimes I see him like, I think you love me too much. Like, chill. Like, don't love me this much cuz I don't want you to get sick. He was not. He was screaming. He was crying and he was stomping and banging. and my kids are all screaming and crying. And I promise you, I promise you, Yakov, as I hang up with the radiologist, I started to dance with my kids and they're like, "Mommy, no." And I I took a page out of my mother's playbook. I watched my mom dance the moment she heard that she had stage four non-hodkins lymphoma. And here I am hearing I have stage one breast cancer. How dare I not dance? And I I danced. I was crying, but I was dancing. And Zachary's trying to FaceTime me. He's screaming and crying. I'm coming back. I'm getting on a plane. I'm coming home. I'm like, "No, you are not. I'm dancing. We got this. Hashem knows what he's doing. It stinks. I'm not going to lie. It's not fun, but Hashem got he's got this. It's 10:30 p.m. and my house phone rings. Like, no one uses a house phone anymore, right? >> Yeah. >> So, when the house phone rang, I thought, "Who in the world is calling the house at 10:30? Your people will call my cell till 2 a.m. cuz they know I'm awake." But the house, nobody. And all of a sudden, Alisa runs and picks it up and she's like, "Mommy, mommy, it's Dr. Kro." And I'm thinking, "Why is she calling me at 10:30? Oh my gosh, why is she calling me at 10:30?" And my logical part of my brain at that moment ceased to work. And I started hyperventilating. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh." And I picked up and she goes, "I figured it would be worth it to wake up your entire family to let you know that it had not spread." Thank you, Hashem. It had not spread. Your lymph nodes are clear. Your margins are clear. And the encoype, which is a number that they decide whether you benefit from chemo or not, the encoype was low enough that it rendered me ineligible for chemo. It it wouldn't it wouldn't be effective. And I do I do have a long road ahead of me still. I have, you know, 15 rounds of radiation. I have seven years of tmoxifin, which is not the most pleasant drug, but of kilo. I've never ever felt closer to Hashem than I [clears throat] do right now. Which sounds weird. I had so many friends call me and say, "Okay, so you had 11 miscarriages. You watched your daughter drown and you became completely religious as a result. You lived through your mother's stage 4 cancer diagnosis. Your best friend died. You are 43 and you just got diagnosed with cancer. Why are you happy? Why are you not mad at Hashem?" And I'm like, Shalom. Who who who would ever be Hashem doesn't owe me anything. And I think this is just a message that all of us need to be reminded of. Hashem owes us nothing. Everything that we have and everything that we receive is an added bonus gift from Hashem. You can stand up right now and walk. That's a gift. You're not you're not entitled to it. And I would explain this to people and they were like, "No, you're you're you're actually a little messed up. You're crazy." And I was like, "So be it." So I'm crazy. But I have zero questions for Rashad. >> My brother and I get into many disagreements respectfully. And one of them that I was completely wrong about is he was doing street interviews. This is 3 4 years ago. And he saw this woman together with a few guys and they're like, "She looks like a star. She's wearing this like purple coat." And either way, he did an interview with her. He told me about it. And I said transparently, I don't really think it's going to too well. I think as of today has over 2.3 million views and is one of our most famous clips episodes that we've done. So this is my brother's conversation with the Jewish grandma. >> What are your biggest money tips for people watching today? >> First of all, you should have a savings account, no matter how little you have, and put it away every week something. Then you can buy secondhand clothes. The women are spending too much on clothes. The designer thrift shops in Manhattan and all the expensive neighborhoods have the most wonderful consignment clothes and buy for your children yourself. Save a fortune of money and you look lovely. That's two. What are you going to do with all the money you're saying? Buy real estate. Real estate's the best investment. And there are always places that [music] from people are starting like today it's Tampa. I just heard about it. Tampa's great. The prices got went up already in the last 6 months. Then you have to learn not to over buy and not to waste food. Use your leftovers. Use them wisely. And teach your children. You don't give a 2-year-old an apple. You cut it up because he'll take three bites, throw out the rest. Have you noticed that? Don't give them a whole apple to eat. Oh, I can go on and on. You don't want to hear it all. >> Oh, we love it. >> Because I learned that you have to do it all with a smile and a and a chuckle and laugh it off because otherwise you're going to be in pain all day. So on my fridge I have in Hebrew the words which means translated maybe there's no um we're not that smart as you are. I grant you that. But we have wisdom. And where do [music] we get it? Just from experience. Whatever you're doing 15 times you've done it. We've done it 150 times. And after a while, the brain goes through all those motions. You have to have gained something or else you're a total blooming idiot. So that's why we tell our kids, why waste all those times you have to do it? We've done it already. Listen to us. And we find that the smartest of our children are the ones that listen. They don't have to do everything we say, but just have an open mind. And some of them will admit, you know, ma, I'm glad I listened to you. You know, pa, I'm so glad you said that. I didn't realize it. So, talk about saving money. You have to watch your receipts when you go to the local supermarket because I can tell you that I tell I I do not allow them to start scanning my my uh wagon load of groceries until I'm ready to see the scanner machine and then I check the prices. And sometimes if I forget, I look through my receipt when they're finished and I see the mistakes invariably. They make a mistake. It's not always the cashier's fault because sometimes there's a sale on an item and you're very excited to get it and you put it into your wagon. When you get to pay for it, it's the regular price and you say, "Why?" And when you complain to the manager, he says, "Oh, we didn't put it into the computer yet. That was the mistake. Too bad." I have to tell you that about a year ago, I said to my husband, "Look, I saved you $14." More than one item, there was a mistake. And yesterday, I went to buy red peppers. So, there are Holland red peppers. And then there are other red peppers. One was close to $5 a pound. The other was two and something. Of course, she I took the cheaper ones, but she scanned it with the price of the expensive ones and I caught it and I said, "Ah, $3." And it goes on and there are families who don't have money for food and there's and it's hard and they're not realizing or they don't have the time to check it. Check your receipts because it happens to me three times a week. Toys. The children today are being given too many toys. The floor is filled with toys. They don't know where to look first. They get so distracted. It's not good for their mind. Their brain can't focus on any one thing. They're not given that chance. And the toys cost fortunes. And every kid comes to the other one's house says, "Oh, I have that." Why not borrow toys? If you don't have a toy and the other one has one you like, so borrow. What happened to borrowing? People don't borrow from each other anymore. Everyone has to own it. It's not good. And the children do not develop in their minds properly because they're not focusing. My kids, I have to tell you, I remember when we had plain blocks, when colored blocks came out, I bought them a set and they would sit on the floor for hours building things from the colored blocks and that was fun. We didn't have a lot of toys. There wasn't money for that and it would they were better off. So why spend all that money on toys? You think the more you give them, the happier they're going to be? And it's not so at all. So the bottom line is move to Israel. You got to leave here. America has seen better days. We had it good here for a long time. I've been doing interviews for 5 years now and it's been and a blessing, an honor. And if you haven't subscribed yet, go to live and subscribe after you've donated to Amudam. Don't leave here yet. But uh one of the biggest honors that I've had is we've had a lot of hostages come on Inspiration for the Nation to discuss what happened to them, how they found their amuna and their betan. People that didn't grow up with God or Hashem in their life and they they some of them have lost their lives but they refused to give up. Ellie Sharabi tragically lost. I want to say lost. His brother was killed. His wife was killed. His two daughters were killed. He was starved. He was beaten. And he was in Gaza captivity for almost 500 days. This is a snippet of my live conversation that I had with Ellie Sharabi in the young Israel of Woodmir. >> Could you take us through what happened with you on October 7th? We just woke up from a lot of um red alarm and um Lean's application of this red all the alarms was just quite crazy and we didn't understand why it's happening. Usually it's happening because things that happened and we were sure it's going to finish another 10 15 minutes. But after something like 15 15 20 minutes, we got an a message from the from this team that protect the kibuts and says it's a suspicious of terrorist in the kibuts. Even then I told Leanne that it probably finish in half an hour and probably it's nothing. An hour or two hours later all the WhatsApp groups from the kibuts the kids and start to write somebody shot mom somebody shot dad the our house setting fired and it wasn't easy at all and we start to understand it's they arrived to our neighbor and me and in that time we made a decision that we're not going to fight with them of course we didn't have any weapon but we said we're not going to fight with them just to protect the girls. We presume that I'm going to be kidnapped, but they will be all right because the British passport will protect them. And around quarter to 11, they arrived to our house. 10 terrorists opened the door of the safe room. Our dog barked and they got panicked and start to shoot. We jumped on the girls and after 10 seconds they stopped [snorts] and we shout them like British passport like as we planned and they asked to collect the our phones and it all got calm and two of them grabbed me and another two of them took the girls to the kitchen and they asked from Leanne to get dressed because we've jumped from the bed to the safe room. And after two or three minutes, the leader there said um said to them to take me away from there outside. And I understood I'm going to be kidnapped now. It was last minute, you know, last time I've seen my daughters and shout them, I'll be back. And I probably would say something else if I would knew it the last time. Um, and that's it. They took me away. >> When they were taking you, were you able to see your surroundings? Did they block you from being able to see? They grab me out from the house and the first thing I've seen it's um um my friend's house uh getting burned. It was Yat and D or and I understood later that um after my release that he was murdered 5 minutes before me and you not as well and they grabbed me something like 200 m they dragged me to the to the fence all the way I've seen something like 100 or 250 terrorists coming in and out from all the houses and I understood that probably our defend on the kibuts and probably the army as well that nobody exist anymore because they've done whatever they want and they put me into the car one of the kibut's cars that they stole and since then since that minute I said since then I did it every day we start our routine in the tunnels we had no choice you have to have routine so every day you wake up you say Shakar and laughing and talking and if you eat good you train and to move yourself because your the chain is on your legs all the time 24/7 but still you acting like normal person you look for the things that give you a bit a little bit of humanity and actually you know and waiting for Friday usually on Friday, they gave us a little bit more food and we waited because um we said and I said to my mom and to my sisters and my wife and we kept every time like a quarter of a bread, a bit of bread just to say and all this like gave us a lot of faith and remind us our families and it gave us a lot of uh friends and it was very good for us. And 2 days before the release, February 6, the Hamas leader in this tunnel showed me a picture of Yosi, my brother, and he said to me happily that he was kidnapped as well and he was murdered. I didn't really believe him because I don't believe any word of them they're saying to us. And after he gone or took me to the side and said to me that Yosi Yosi is dead. He saw the film of him and that been murdered as well. [snorts] and Noah Gammani was with them and she was released. [clears throat] That was very difficult moment for me. Difficult two days until a release to know my brother is not alive anymore. But still I just waited for them no mention and Noa and Yahel and my mom and my sisters. So I'll hold on to that. The day I was released, I cried because probably all the surviving mode just went, you know, through me and I could cry. When I was crying, or asked the the Red Cross where they've been for 491 days, why not arrive to um visit us and give us food and see if if we're okay and give us medicines. and their answer was that Hamas didn't let them to to see us. Well, we start to move from this area to the Israeli um to the IDF and it was some like 15 minutes drive and all this drive and just imagine how Lean and my daughters running to me. when I arrived to the IDF, um psychologist coming to me and said to me, "Your mom and your sister is waiting for you." And I said to her, "I want to see Leanne and the girls first." And she said, "Your mother and your sister will tell you." And of course, you don't need to say anything anymore. I understood that they've been murdered. I was crying for 5 minutes and then I said to her, "Okay, I want to see my mom and my sister." Because I knew that I need to choose now that if I let the grief bury me or I can find a way to continue, I always choose to continue and see the next step. I wanted to see my family because I want my to hug them and that they give me this strength and be there for me and that was very important for me. I didn't choose to been kidnapped and I didn't choose for what happening to us on October 7th. But I'll always choose how to react and what to hold on and how to stay human being when the conditions is extreme and you don't have any food. And for me all life is choosing and I choose life. I choose to see the light. Um I [clears throat] cannot make anything that bring back Leons and bring my daughters back to me. I can I cannot do anything. But [clears throat] [snorts] but I'm alive and I really really love life. I don't want to live in a sadness. I can't see anything good to be sad or um I don't get any thrust and the grief and the loss of my wife and my daughters and my brother will be always with me. But beside of life, not [snorts] instead of life. >> These are just a few moments. They're the best of the best. We can't wait to be back here next year. Go ahead and help Amood as much as possible. They are literally saving the lives of so many people in Claustrol. I'm Yakov Langanger and thank you so much for watching. [music]