An Open Conversation with Rabbi YY Jacobson on the State of the Religious Jewish World

The Yeshiva.net Okay, welcome back to the Meaningful People podcast. Right? Right. Right. What a guest this week. Rabbi YY Jacobson, it's a biggie. Yes. Yes. Big scoop alert. We got an incredible guest. Rabbi Jacobson welcomed us into his humble abode, his home in Monsey, New York. Right on his porch. Right on his porch, outside. as possible with One fact, started raining at the end, but don't worry. Hashem got us covered. Not really, kidding. It rained. It rained, but Hashem got us covered. It did, but we're good. We're good. The equipment was great. Sruly Saftler did an amazing job taking care of us. Um, but this episode is deep. We talk about some really, really strong topics that Rabbi Jacobson excels in discussing all over the world. He really needs no introduction, no? Yeah, no, he really does not. One of the most captivating personalities in Klal Yisrael. It was an incredible conversation. We sat down. The positive energy and just his view on so many different issues that some people might look at negatively, somehow he sees everything with such a positive light. And he just really sheds incredible light on everything. That's Rabbi Jacobson, and you'll get to this episode. But just wanted to give a big shout out besides for our friends at Bridge Credit Solutions and Touro University, we have our friends from Machshavous Yichezkel. If you get to spell that, you get a free like row at the same as Shas, I think, if you know how to spell that. But right over here there's a product of an image, Machshavous Yichezkel, a big talmid chacham, Rabbi Yichezkel Hartman, who actually lives in the Five Towns. And he actually posts every single day halacha on the Meaningful Minute app. He has something called Machshavous Yichezkel. Yeah, big talmid of Rav Moshe Shapiro, and really delves a little bit deeper, a little bit more meaningful perspective on some of the Torah that we might have learned very quickly in Yeshiva. Maybe we didn't unpack the aggadata, it's a story, we're not sure exactly what's going on, and he takes that depth, that pnimius, that meaningful approach to every aspect of the tire including Agata to Gamoras. So you can go ahead and actually search that on any podcast platform or you can just go to machshavasyitzchok.com. It's available on WhatsApp, it's available on all daf, it's available literally everywhere. So go ahead, machshavasyitzchok.com and enjoy this episode with Rabbi Jacobson. You are listening to the Meaningful People Podcast, the podcast featuring our nation's most impactful, influential and meaningful people. Rabbi Jacobson, thank you so much for hosting us beautiful home. Thank you. This beautiful back porch which I know in October has a nice beautiful sukkah out here with decorations, but nonetheless it's beautiful right now, so really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule and sitting down with us, really. My pleasure, my honor. No more, what do you say? Welcome to my four cubits here. Yeah, it's very nice, beautiful. It's really incredible to be here. We're in beautiful forest, so if you ever want to come to meditate. Despite of this, is that what the is that what the Rav does? Step out into that forest over there? Sometimes when I have to think for a few minutes, it's a good place to think. Right, right. Can't overthink, but you know, sometimes it's good. you have quite a few children, how many children quite a few children, how many children do you have? Seven. So you need to step out to think sometimes. Sometimes. Thank you to your wife and seven actually you have to learn to stop thinking. Sometimes you have to think. Thank you to your wife and seven children for allowing you to sit with us during a hectic time, might be bedtime. Thank you, my pleasure. Absolutely. So we wanted to to start by talking I've heard you describe your role within the ecosystem of Yiddishkeit as an ambassador of infinity. And you know, with the luxury of not having to you know, pursue any institutional goals, you really are an independent. And to be able to be an ambassador of infinity is uh it's a mighty big ask. And we'd love to hear how you how you see that role, how you execute that mission. Ambassador of infinity is uh quite a title. Because by definition, an ambassador of infinity means you can't have any titles because infinity defies any description or definition or space or time. I think maybe a more appropriate way of saying it would be that each and every one of us is an ambassador of infinity. And uh what I try to do with my life, at least part of my life, is to help empower people and be able to uh help them and myself and all of us become more cognizant of how much we are capable of being ambassadors of infinity. Because I think that in today's generation the greatest uh challenge, or at least one of the greatest challenges that so many people have, is not the challenge of pure evil or negativity or self-centeredness or laziness or the old classic yetzer hara that has bad middos. But I think the biggest challenge today is that people do not realize their inner wholeness. They don't realize that they're ambassadors of infinity. We uh easily fall prey to uh our toxic voices that deprive us from our ability to truly shine and be the person who we really are. Is is that how we as humans are sort of hardwired? Is there something that happens to us that makes us that way? Or what what do you think it is? I think every generation has its unique challenges and its unique opportunities. It seems to me that in previous generations, people's egos were much healthier. Really? Yeah, I'll give you an example. Okay? I grew up with Russian parents. My father grew up in Russia, my father of blessed memory, and he loved Pushkin. Pushkin was a non-Jew. He was considered the greatest Russian poet. The greatest. And my father was a very cultured man, and he knew very well Russian literature and history and poetry. He loved repeating Pushkin's poems. And uh his name was Alexander Pushkin. And then I once asked him, you know, who was Pushkin? When did was he born? When did he die? Uh he lived in the 18th and 19th century. So, he died in his early 30s from a duel. From a duel. And my father was sharing with me how some of the greatest talents in the ancient world, a man who was the greatest poet in the country. So, he was a literary genius. But he died to save face. Somebody called you out for a duel, and you simply died for a fight. So, a duel is old old term of saying he he he threw fist. He got in a fist basically for your dignity you were ready to die. Wow. You know, people today were ready to die for their dignity. The the the sense of self seemed so powerful. That's what it seems to me. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. Today you really see that. Why? What happened? I think on one hand there's I think there's maybe a certain humility after so many generations of trials and tribulations and persecutions and trauma, there's a humility that set in. And uh I don't see today the problem as people having big egos. I think every big ego you see today is is just a manifestation of profound insecurity Mhm. and profound fear. Um I once heard from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, he said that the yetzer hara of this generation is four words, "Mi ani? Omani?" The sense of who am I and what am I? I'm a shmata. I'm a doormat. I'm a rag. I'm a nobody. Am I really capable? In his words, "Do I really think I'm capable of being a home for the divine presence or as you call it infinity? Not me. You know what I was You know what I did yesterday? You know what I was thinking about an hour ago? If you would just know He said, 'If you would just know me, you would know that it's not even a question. I'm so unworthy and inadequate.'" And in many ways it's it's I think the yetzer hara of today's generation, at least a big part of it. I think we'll delve into that a little bit further and dissect it um because I think there's so much to learn and everyone who's listening, I'm sure, can resonate with what you're saying. But I want to like sort of uh rewind a little bit on on your life, Rabbi Jacobson. Um what was what was your upbringing like? What was your childhood like? I I'm assuming you weren't um you weren't born this inspirational talmid chacham who's just speaking all over the world. says in Niddah that every child every fetus is in the womb of its mother gets to learn the whole Torah. So I was wrong. You were a lot holier You were a lot holier than then. born that way, but you were also born that way. We were all born that way. That's the The difference between males and females is that males, when they're born, they forget the Torah. And females don't forget it. Mhm. Nice. That's why we make a simcha for males, not females. So then I think we're all There's there's a beautiful uh beautiful word from the Chidushei Harim, the first Gerer Rebbe. Reb Yitzchak Meir Reb Yitzchak Meir Alter was his name. So he once said, it says in the pasuk Mishlei, "Shma beni musar avicha v'al titosh toras imecha." Listen to the rebuke of your father and don't neglect the terror of your mother. She said why by your father is it rebuke and by your mother terror and why your father do you have to listen to the Musser and your mother just says don't I'll teach us don't neglect it. So he says the Musser of your father is what your father teaches you as you're growing up. The terror of your mother is what you learned in the womb of your mother. So you have to listen to the rebuke of your father but I'll teach us You don't have to learn it. It's in you. Just don't let go of it and it's not Musser. It's terror. It's as I tell my students what I think the condition is really saying. How do you know you're listening to terror? When you hear a sheer or a lecture and insight or anything you hear how do you know it's terror? The answer is if you heard it already. If it resonates. Doesn't mean that it doesn't challenge you. It may challenge you very deeply. It should challenge you. But if it's real terror you knew it already cuz it's organic. It's made. It's intrinsic. I know it from the womb of my mother. That's in terms of my birth. In terms of our birth I should say. But then we forget things after we're born. Goes downhill. So I grew up in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. There's a hospital called Lefferts General Hospital. I remember the name because today it's a big girl's school. It's called Campus Chomesh Bais Rivkah. But that used to be a hospital so that's where I was born. So I was literally born and bred in in Brooklyn. Both of my parents were immigrants from the former Soviet Union. My mother comes from a Ukrainian Jewish family. Ukraine is quite famous today. And then they fled to Georgia South Russia because of the communist persecutions. Georgia was a little easy. It was easier to live in Georgia as a Jew because Stalin was from Georgia so he was a little easier on the Georgians. Really? My father his parents came from his family came from Georgia. Our name is really Yakubashvili, which is a Georgian name. I remember hearing that. Yakubashvili. Yes, so Jacobson is really a Which generation changed that? Well, my grandfather came from a place called Kutaisi, Georgia. His name was Simon, Simon Yakubashvili. Classic Sephardic Georgian name. Wow. My brother is named after him. My brother Simon Jacobson, who you had on your show. Yes, and that's where I'm remembering this from. Yakubashvili. So my brother and I share the same family name. Simon Jacobson is Yakubashvili. The same family secret. It's not Jacobson. Yakubashvili means Yacob is Jacob and shvili is son. Right, right. I was once at a lecture and I said it was Georgian Jews. I said, you know, my name is Yakubashvili. I wanted they should like me. Yeah. He said, "What type of name is that?" I said, "It's the name of every single Jew. Aren't we all sons of Jacob? I think, right?" Benai Yacob, Benai Yisrael. So and he left Georgia. He lived near near Moscow. So my father was born in a place called Mamontovka near Moscow. They suffered a lot in the Soviet Union and after the Second World War, Stalin, Yemach Shmo who was the undisputed dictator of the Soviet Union for 30 years from 1924 till 1930 till 1953 when he died, he allowed Polish citizens who escaped to the Soviet Union from Hitler to go back to Poland. So they forged passports and feigned made themselves Polish citizens and many families got out of the Soviet Union. So they left in 1946 and they ultimately came to Europe and the United States of America. My parents got married in New York and they built a family. We're five siblings and I'm the baby of the family. Really? And my father was all of his years a journalist, a very seasoned Jewish journalist. Remember this is the days before the computer, before the internet, before WhatsApp, even before Meaningful Minute. What? Those days. But my grandfather worked very closely with your with your father. So there's some sort of grandfather, whose name was Reb Nissan Gordon, was also a seasoned journalist. He was a Torah Vodaas student. He was born in Dokshitz, Poland. His father was a shochet in Dokshitz. There's one of the most beautiful Chabad niggunim is called the Dokshitzer niggun. Yeah, but every simcha we have that niggun. Beautiful, beautiful song. I love it. So your your grandfather sing it for us now. Yes. If you didn't start it off, I don't know if I I don't know if I feel it. niggun. It is. My my my Dokshitz family WhatsApp group, right when they hear this, it's going to just blow up. It's amazing. Yeah, it's it's a very It's a niggun of introspection, of conviction, and of triumph. Mhm. Dokshitz was a was a city, but it was filled with very high-quality Jews, very serious, genuine Jews. The rav was a Jew named Reb Leib Shainen, who was beheaded by the Germans. Your great uncle great uncle shared with me the last moments of Dokshitz Jewry because a survivor a survivor came to America, and he told your grand your great grandfather, Reb Yisrael Yitzchak on the whole story. He was already living in America. Anyway, so your grandfather Reb Nissan worked very closely with my father for decades in the Yiddish press. They worked on a newspaper called the Day Morning Journal, the Tog Morgen Journal, which was a Yiddish daily. People don't realize what Yiddish was at the time. The Forward, the Forverts, which was a leftist Bundist newspaper, had a quarter of a million readers. A quarter of a million Yiddish newspaper, a daily. Daily wow. A daily newspaper. It was the Jewish New York Times. A quarter of a million readers, all Jews, Yiddish. This was their ticket to America. Does does like the New York Times even have a quarter million readers nowadays? I mean cuz like the the industry has evolved so much. but some people don't understand what the Yiddish press was. The The power of the Yiddish press to shape the Jewish future was beyond our imagination. Today every community has a newspaper. Every house has a newspaper today. Yeah. Every person with a computer produces a book and a Haggadah. Yeah. Right? Every shul has a newspaper. Plus WhatsApps and everything else. But then the newspaper business really defined it. It It was really was the oxygen for so many Jews. My father found it very exciting. He was the correspondent of Israel's largest daily Yedioth Ahronoth in United Nations and New York. He worked with Elie Wiesel. And he worked in the Yiddish press. He worked for the New York Herald Tribune. He worked for Newsweek. And he worked for this daily Yiddish, The Day Morning Journal. And it closed down in '72. It just shut down one day. The publisher just closed. He didn't even warn them. Wow. And that's when my father, a few months later in 1972, opened up a Yiddish weekly called the Algemeiner Journal. And he got a group of tremendously talented Yiddish writers. Many of them were not religious. Some of them were left-wing. Some of them were right-wing. And one of the greatest talents was your grandfather, Reb Nissan Gordon. And they worked together for decades until your grandfather's passing in 1989, Hanukkah. And your father didn't censor what the My father was so allergic to censorship. But not just allergic. He despised it. And there was a reason for it. He grew up in the Soviet Union. the Soviet Union. And he didn't just grow up there. They suffered terribly. His father was arrested during the purges of 1938. Stalin murdered between 20 and 50 million people. He killed more people than Hitler. People don't realize how many people Stalin murdered. Wow. In 1938, Stalin did committed the famous purges. Almost everybody was arrested. Either you were shot immediately, you were sent to the gulag, you died in Siberia. And my grandfather was arrested Friday night and he was sent to prison. He was sentenced to death. And then his sentence was commuted to 25 years in the gulag. And my father was a 4-year-old boy. In the middle of kiddush, his father was taken away and he hasn't seen him for years. He actually made it out. He made it out. He came out of prison and he met my father and he met his wife. Wow. My grandmother and they made it out of Russia. He died early. He died in '53 in Toronto, a young man. But my father, because of that, had this uh He didn't want to censor anything. deep deep uh negative feeling towards anybody who censored views and censored opinions. So, his newspaper was interesting cuz he would allow every voice and the voices were very paradoxical. You know, you had from one extreme to another extreme. So, it was actually it was a very colorful newspaper. And yeah, I knew your grandfather very well. He also lived one block away from us on Montgomery Street in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. So, he was really um an indispensable part of my uh upbringing. So, much so, speaking of censorship. So, you know, like this is a good segue. That's the juicy stuff, censorship. I I I was thinking about about this topic and then and uh speaking to people close to me about this conversation that I'm going to have with with you tonight. Um there's a question on a lot of people's minds. Um there's this big movement nowadays with Hasidus where just because someone grew up not Lubavitch or not Breslov or not Satmar or whatever it is, they are connecting to Hasidus. If you see the Five Towns nowadays, there are shul shudises and love of Malkas that are just amazing. But in our mainstream yeshivas and and the schools that teach our children, Pnimius HaTorah is not it's not taught there. It hasn't been introduced into the curriculum. Why is that? And do you think that maybe it will change? It's a great question. Listen, I think the curriculum of most Yeshivas has been established generations ago. And many of the Yeshivas, at least in the Lithuanian world, follow the model of Volozhin, Mhm. which was built by Reb Chaim Volozhiner. And even though he himself, he himself was a student of the Vilna Gaon, and he writes that the Vilna Gaon, who is the father of Lithuanian Yeshivas and Lithuanian learning in so many ways, learned spent more time learning Kabbalah than learning Halacha, more nistar than nigleh. And Reb Chaim Volozhiner himself was an incredible Kabbalist. You could see it in his work, Nefesh HaChaim, and in his work, Ruach Chaim. And besides being a great Halachic Halachist, he was also a great Right. Kabbalist. But the curriculum of the Yeshivas in the Lithuanian world was based purely on Gemara. And more Gemara and Poskim. So, I think that, you know, that created the trajectory of the Yeshivas in one form or another. The Yeshivas in the Chassidic world also introduced a little bit of Chassidus, but also based on how much they learned in those communities, cuz even in the Chassidic world, not in all the communities did they learn a lot of Chassidus. Right. The exception was the Chabad Yeshiva created by the Rebbe Rashab, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, created a Yeshiva in 1897, tough freshman and 1897 in a little town called Lubavitch in Belarus. And based on the Chabad system, he introduced 3 hours of learning Chassidus every day, an hour and a half before davening, 7:00 till 8:30 in the morning, and then at night, 8:30 till 10:00. But from 10:00 in the morning till 8:00 in the evening, it was all Gemara. Just like the Litvish Yeshivas. But he put in 3 hours of uh Literally extracurricular activity. Literally extra early in the morning and late at night. Uh but the whole day from morning till evening, it was Gemara, Gemara and Halacha, Iyun Bkius, you know, this similar to the Litvish Yeshivas, actually. And the reason was he felt he felt that the dark days of Russia coming. He said this clearly. He write He wrote a whole book little about it. And he felt that uh the new nisyoynis, the challenges of a new generation um the youth is going to have to have a much deeper uh appreciation of a Judaism that's much more sophisticated and much more profound in terms of emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, intellectually. And he felt that Torah Samach B'Nistar can provide that. can provide that. I think what we're what we're seeing today is really a sign of Geulah. Because who are the two greatest Halachic authorities the two greatest Nigleh authorities in Judaism? I think most people would not dispute Rashi and Rambam. Okay. Okay. Both of them say something very interesting. Rashi writes in the beginning of Shir Hashirim that what Mashiach is going to do is he's going to reveal to Klal Yisrael Sod Ta'ameha u'Mistarei Torah. The secrets of Torah. The Rambam finishes his entire Mishneh Torah with these words. That when Mashiach comes, Lo Yihiyeh Esek Kol Ha'Olam Ela Lada'as Es Hashem Bilvad. U'Lefichach Yihiyu Yisrael Chachamim Gedolim V'Yodim Devarim Astumim, V'Yasigu Da'as Bore'am K'Fi Koach Adam U'Shnei Ha'Olam K'Mo Lo Hayu Esek Kol Ha'Olam Ela Lada'as Es Hashem L'Vado. Basically, the Rambam is saying that in the time of Geulah, the whole world, not just the Jews, the entire planet, all of humanity will be immersed in one thing, divine awareness. The Jewish people even more. So, I think basically, as we get closer and closer to Geulah, there is a divine consciousness that fills the universe. And the Jewish people who were sent to the world as ambassadors of God, ambassadors of infinity, are the first ones to be sensitive and and curious and thirsty for it. And that's what we're seeing. How it's going to affect the curriculum of the Yeshivas Well, why why I mean why why not? Like why isn't why if what you're saying is it's it's being introduced so much nowadays in in all different communities, why And the truth is even in most Yeshivas, you know, I think most Mashgichim or Rashei Yeshivas will often uh introduce consciously or unconsciously, deliberately or non-deliberately, naturally or by osmosis, uh so many ideas of Torah and Nistar and Pnimiyus HaTorah, um you know, the division of of of the olden days, I don't think exists anymore. In in terms of making it official curriculum of Yeshivas, I think it's going to take a few courageous uh people to do that. It's hard for a lot of people because, you know, we have this idea of uh Sure. you know, just Sure. Let's see B'Ikvei HaMashiach or is this a Mashgichim The Vilna Gaon himself, the Vilna Gaon himself writes, this is what he He clearly writes this. He says that uh it's going to be the spreading of Torah and Nistar that's going to bring the Geulah. He even says that in before Kriyas Shema, Ahavas Olam or Ahavah of Ahavas Olam or Ahavah Rabbah, depends which Nusach you daven. So, he says "Veseim libeinu binah l'havin ul'haskil ul'shmoa ul'lamed ul'lameid." We ask Hashem for a bracha for learning. But then after that we say "V'haer eineinu b'Torasecha." What you just asked for learning. So, he says "Veseim libeinu binah" that's Nigleh. "V'haer eineinu" open our eyes, that's Nistar. And over there it says "V'haer eineinu" right? And then "V'haveiyenu l'Shalom me'arba kanfos ha'aretz" because it's through that light that the Google consciousness will be introduced into the world. So, I think that, you know, we're talking about the ultimate revelation of the depth of Yiddishkeit that belongs to all of Klaal Yisrael. Maybe one fundamental misunderstanding could be that some people think it's two separate uh dimensions. There's the world of Nigleh and there's the world of Nistar for a few Kabbalists, you know, maybe over 40 or very spiritual people and there are a lot of learn that. That's how it was seen for many generations. The truth is, the Vilna Gaon writes this in three places in his safer on Mishlei, as a commentary on Mishlei, three places, besides in the Chassidic works, that it's really you're talking about one Torah, Torah Achas, it's one Torah, it's like a body and a soul. They're indivisible. Every Halacha is a physical incarnation of a spiritual idea and every spiritual idea is manifested in the physical concrete Halacha. It's not It's like I'll ask you, where's your body and where's your soul? Tell me, where does your soul begin and where does your body end? Uh if you're a living person, your body is a manifestation of your Neshama and your your Neshama flows through the body. So, really Yiddishkeit is is holistic and I think we live today in a time where uh we we see how meaningful it's for people when when people are given a Judaism that is really holistic. They say we Somebody once told me, Halachic and mystic, Halachic and mystic is holistic, holistic Judaism. It's the guf and the Neshama together. It's It's just it creates a different level of of animation, of vitality, of enthusiasm. People are not content today with just, you know, robotic ritual. They need much, much more depth and excitement. Something that fills me physically, viscerally, psychologically, emotionally, spiritually. There's also one more element that a lot of people don't realize. And that is in the secular world, in the non-Jewish world, the cutting-edge revolutions in science, physics, quantum physics, cosmology, therapy, healing, psychology, philosophy, neuroscience are so profound and incredible that basically the language of mathematics and physics and healing is changing today into a spiritual language. Mhm. And if Judaism does not compete on that level for so many intelligent enlightened people, it easily becomes obsolete and irrelevant. And I see it constantly. Jews who had an education and then they open themselves up to what's available Wow. and Judaism is almost like it's very sad, it's archaic. And the only way the only way to really deal with that is if you study the writings of the Bal Tanya, for example, that he wrote 250 years ago. I've had people sitting in my classes, you know, from the secular world who are at who are at the cutting edge of science, physics, especially neuroscience. And one guy once jumped up and said, "How did he know this?" Because in Pnimius Hatorah, you have the spiritual DNA of creation. When you have the spiritual DNA of creation, it's just a whole different dimension that reveals the infinite depth of Yiddishkeit. So, I want to double click on on something that you mentioned before addressing, you know, what's competing out there with all the developments in the secular world, but that craving that the products of the Yeshiva system have for a deeper you know, a deeper meaning within Yiddishkeit from what they might have been offered within the Yeshiva system. Let's Let's help people navigate this tension, this struggle where they've been through the oilam Yeshivas. They've They They were completely immersed in it. And it was it was an amazing stage of their life. Now they find their self themselves craving more. And a lot of a lot of what they consider to be more is available to them in different mediums and they can find it online and they can find content that is resonating with them. But they might feel like they have to let go of everything that they've been taught and that they've become familiar with until that point. And it's very confusing for them because they had an amazing time in Yeshiva. It was it was an incredible development of their person. And they feel like they have to let go of that to embrace something else and they don't want to have to let go of something and they want to reconcile it and they want it to all be consistent. But how do they do that? Excellent question. And that's fearful. It's fearful and it's also uncomfortable. And it also seems like a betrayal of uh of so much holiness and so so much goodness. So I'm going to share with you an insight of the Vilna Gaon and an insight of the Shulchan the holy Shulchan. They're both incredible insights. The Gemara says in Sukkah daf chof ches that Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai lo heniach davar gadol ve'davar katan. He did not abandon the big things and the small things. So the Gemara says, "What's the big things?" Ma'aseh Merkavah. The learning of the divine chariot which we call nistar. What's davar katan, the small things? Havayot d'Abaye ve'Rava. All sugiyot all the sugiyot of Shas which are called the world of Abaye and of course Abaye and Rava lived after Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai but it's just an expression to the whole world of the Talmudic analysis and and and development. And all the Rishonim say, "How could the Gemara call Havayot d'Abaye ve'Rava davar katan, it's a small thing? When this is like the the meat and potato of Yiddishkeit. This is what talmidei chachamim, tana'im, amora'im, rishonim, acharonim, poskim have been learning for thousands of years. They say, "This is this is the Yeshiva curriculum. This is what This is Judaism. The Dover cotton? The rich for ask this. Other ask ask this. So the Shallah writes, Rabbeinu Yeshaya Horowitz, who was the rabbi of Prague, Frankfurt, and Jerusalem. Buried in Tiberias. In the 16th and 17th century. And he says, everybody misunderstands the Gemara. He says, when you look up and you see a star, it looks very small. Just because of how our eyes deal with distance. But if you can really see the size of the star, it may be as we know today, it may be larger than the sun. It may be millions and millions and millions of times larger than the earth. It's just if it's 4 billion light years away, you know, we we barely get to see a speck. What's What looks like tiny from one vantage point is really beyond gigantic from another vantage point. So what the Gemara means is Dover Godol and Dover Katan. Hava is that by every raven, my summer cover are one. What may look from down here as a Dover Katan, it's like an intricacy in Halacha. It's a diuk. It's a It's a shaila from Tosfos. It's an answer of Rashi. It's a raya in the Rambam. It's a svara of Rebbi Akiva Eiger. It's like a Dover Katan. It may look like a pasha shita in Shulchan Aruch dealing with some intricacy in dikkus chametz or hilchos ribbis or hilchos muktza or hilchos taros. But if you would see it from the perspective of my summer cover, what you would call, you know, I always tell people, if you take out the dot in my email, yeah, by yy@theyeshiva. All right, you take out one letter or one dot, what happens? The email doesn't pass. Why? Cuz what looks like a dot to you from the back end is really a lot. So the Dover Katan is the Dover Godol. It's just you have to have the vantage point of my summer cover. The Vilna Gaon writes, it says in Mishlei, yehi mekorcha baruch usmach me'eishes neuraycha. Literally, it means it's like a blessing. Your makor, your your procreative source should be blessed. And you should rejoice with the wife of your youth. Means you should have a great marriage and build a beautiful family. The Vilna Gaon says this. Yehi mekorcha baruch. The makor, the source of nigleh is nister. Nister is the official theology of Judaism. It's Kabbalah, it's Torah she'baal peh, it's nister. It's the spiritual chemistry of the universe. It's the spiritual science of the soul. It's the spiritual science of Torah. It's the back-end program of the cosmos and the back-end program of the divine plan behind the cosmos. That's what it is. So, that's the makorcha. Yehi mekorcha baruch. So, the Vilna Gaon says, when you get to the makor, when you get to the source, usmach me'eishes neuraycha, you'll find new joy in the wife of your youth. When we're children, we don't learn nister. We learn nigleh. You'll learn Chumash, then you'll learn Mishnayos, then you'll learn Gemara. When you're 10, 20, 30, 40. He says, when you'll find the makor of Torah, you'll go back and suddenly you will realize that things that seemed most irrelevant and insignificant, is this really a logical argument with your Rav and Shmuel? Do we really have to argue about everything? Are these halachos meaningful? Are these details Are you going to tell me God really, really cares about these details in terms of purity and impurity, kosher and not kosher? I mean, come on. Are you really going to tell me that on Shabbos, if I don't like onions and I take out the onions from my salad, right? I deserve a death penalty because it was borer? I mean, he says, usmach me'eishes neuraycha, you'll find a new simcha in the Torah she'baal nigleh because you You see every detail from a perspective of depth that is uh that is infinite. And and I'm sure that someone who hears this now and that resonates with them, that is comforting. That is comforting to know and to be confident that it is consistent that they can embrace it. I want to stay on the struggle for a minute if we can and be me yates with someone. How do they navigate this journey to embrace the consistency and in the terrorist on niggle they had a jerk off. They had the enough. They had the rabbeim. They had the context. They had the relationship with someone that they respect that they can look up to that can lead them down this path. Had but they don't feel like they have someone today that can lead them through that consistency. Right. Beautiful. Great question again. So, there's a beautiful story about the Baal Hatanya. He once went to a city called Shklov. Shklov is a city in Belarus at the border of Lithuania. It depends who won the war that week. It was either Russia or Lithuania. You know, there was the old Putin and Zelensky, yeah, other incarnations. So, he once got up in the base madrash in Shklov and the Baal Hatanya would speak with a niggun. He would say everything with a melody. So, I'll I'll I heard it from the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He said it over with the melody that he heard from his father-in-law all the way back to the Baal Hatanya. He got up and he said these words. Tam u ru ki teivu havaya farzukht vet ir zen az der eibershter is gut. Which literally means taste tam u taste and you'll see that Hashem is good. Like with the best food in the world, you tell people taste tam u. You need to taste. You have to start learning. You have to start tasting. And then taste after 40 days, after a few months, you'll already make a decision. Now, but you have to find the right person, that's true. So, I think Hashem has blessed us today with a unique opportunity. And that is that we could learn from people even if we're not physically in their presence. So, yes, it would be nice if every one of us had that, you know, perfect teacher in flesh and blood that we could sit at their feet and learn Torah from this teacher. But I think today there's so much available, I would encourage people, find a sale find a teacher, find a mentor, find a guide, alive or virtually, who you could learn from. Somebody that speaks to your soul, somebody that empowers you. Somebody, how do you know that this is your teacher? Because the Gamara says in Rav Dimi Hashem Yevakesh Torah Mipihu. Right, if a Rav is an an angel, you should learn Torah from him. So, one of the interpretations is, you know, if you're learning with a person who brings out the angel inside of you, somebody who makes you feel angelic, your heart is on fire, your soul is on fire, it speaks to you. It speaks to you in a real way, go go go for it. And either you'll meet them physically, but even before you meet them physically, maybe even people who are in the world of Amas, maybe Sefarim or maybe Sefer on the internet or on MP3 from books or from whatever it is, find that person or people and uh you know, and allow allow yourself to soar. The flip side of that is that people, and that's very much happening nowadays, where people will consider a Rav or Rebbe of theirs someone who they've never had the chance to meet yet. Yeah, whenever I go people say, "I know you very well even though you don't know me." So, I I have I have a couple of questions with that. I want to start with one of them, which is on on the flip side of that, it's amazing because nowadays there's this accessibility because of the digital world. But on the flip side, there's this ability to sort of tap into what you like, sort of like a spiritual Amazon and and not check out with the things that maybe you don't like so much but are important. Meaning there's that discipline and that rebuke that comes from a close uh rov or rebbe. And if you don't have that relationship face-to-face or they know each other, that's lacking. Right. So, it's important every person needs a support system. A say like every person needs a mentor, a guide, a rov, a mashpia, a confidant, a real friend, somebody be in whose presence I can think out loud. Right. Somebody I could be honest with. That's extremely important. But today we have that ability, you know, the navi Yirmiyahu says that when Mashiach comes, lo yelamdu ish es achiv ki kulam yed'u oti lemiktanan Nobody's going to learn from anybody else cuz everybody's going to know me. What does that really mean? It's a fascinating prophecy. But it's really what we're seeing today. It's a time where God says, everybody has access. There's not any more control. I don't want control anymore. It goes back to the beginning of history when Eldad and Medad start prophesying outside of Moshe's group of 70. Yehoshua comes running over and he says, "Adoni Moshe, kla'em. Put them in prison. They are going to wreak havoc in the Jewish community. We need centralized power. They're prophesying. You will speak in the name of God. We can't have Eldad and Medad speaking in the name of God." Right. Gut tana. Mhm. Not bad. Kla'em, put them in prison. What's Moshe's answer? It's one of the most glorious pesukim in Tanakh. Moshe tells Yehoshua, "Hamekane atali? Umi yiten kol am Hashem nevi'im ki yiten Hashem es ruach alayhem." I you jealous for me? Do you know what I My wish is? My wish is the entire nation of Hashem should be prophets. Hashem should confirm his spirit on them. Yeshua you don't get me. If you think this is about Mosha being in control of the information, you're missing the point. The ultimate vision of Yiddishkeit is ME EATING CALL HASHEM THE VM. I WANT EVERY JEW TO BE A mouthpiece for infinity. I'm going back to you opening. This is that my goodness. It's my mission to be in this goodness. That's what I want. I want every Jew to be an ambassador of It's not about us Jews. This is not about everybody running their own show and frivolousness. We're talking about real divine conscious. When you become a mouthpiece for infinity, then we realize that we're all part of in the move on there. We're all part of in safe. It's not about frivolous self-centered expression where nobody tells me what to do. I am my own boss and I have no authority, which is what people are afraid of. But that's not what the is talking about. The is cool and I see when everyone has a real relationship with the divine. It's not anymore I'm going to teach you. I'm going to take responsibility for your life. I'm going to take you under my wings and you will submit to me and I will make sure you're a good Jew. There was a time and space for that perhaps, but it's not now. That passage from Mosha Rabbeinu is I think is very responsive. People ask us in our in our little roles here. You know, there's other podcasts and is there a competition and and it's such a good response where where our avoida is spreading the light, the infinite light. There is no competition. Listen, if I'm living in a world of competitiveness, I get it. It's human. It's normal. We get jealous. We get competitive. You know, he has more clicks. You're getting more views. I'm getting more views. Who's getting the ads. I get it. We live in that world. But, it's not the real world. Right. It's the world of Katnis. It's the world of Katnis. I said on Purim, the Gamara says in Megillah Daf Zion that there was a Sudas Purim, right? So, come Rabba with a shachtel of Zera. Rabba got up and he slaughtered up Zera and all the Rishonim, of course, struggled with the story, what it means. There's a beautiful Chassidic interpretation. Rabba means greatness, Ralph. Zera means smallness, it's a era. The Gamara tells a whole story why it was called up Zera, he shrunk in an oven. There comes a time where come Rabba, your greatness, shachtel of Zera, has to eliminate your pettiness. Right. So, of course, we have that competitive streak, you know, it's going to be more me, more you, more you. But, Moishe says Yeshua, if you want to become a leader of the Jewish people, you got to change the paradigm. I get We get We know how jealousy works. We know, it's a human trait. We all deal with it in our own way. But, how me can I add to leave? Doesn't work that way. Me eating kol ha'am navi'im, I have a different agenda, a different perspective. Right. Rabbi Jacobson, you had just mentioned um just before about the dot in the email. And you very freely said your email is [email protected]. And everyone I know knows your email address. And you know that everyone knows your email address cuz if you look at your phone right now, there's probably 7,000 emails For whoever did not forget the dot. Yes, [email protected]. Um I I'm really curious how someone who grew up in Crown Heights and was very much part of the Lubavitch Chabad world, um you were a chazzan by the rebbe, and you're on that track, is now receiving emails and has, I guess, a shichus with all different corners of the frum world, from the most Litvish to the most Chassidish to the irreligious to the religious. everyone is emailing Rabbi YY Jacobson. Is that something that you set out to accomplish? Is it something that took you by surprise? And And what is What is it like to have that responsibility? There's a line by William Shakespeare that uh some people are born into greatness. Some people develop greatness. And some people have greatness hurled upon them. Um This is not something that I planned. It's not something that was part of my trajectory. I didn't go to a coach at age 24 and say, "What type of career do you think I should choose for myself?" And he said, uh you know, "Tell everybody your email." Um What happened was I grew up at the feet of the Lubavitcher Rebbe of blessed memory. But one of the things that I learned from the Rebbe constantly almost every Shabbos cuz he spoke every Shabbos for many hours and I was on a team of uh chazzanim of oral scribes. There were three ideas that were constantly uh that were constantly communicated and they, you know, they went into my kishkes. One idea is our job is to change the world. Do not be parochial. Do not stifle your talents. Do not retreat into a cocoon as beautiful and as spiritual as the cocoon is. God sent down your soul to change the world. Um the Rebbe was a very tolerant person. One thing he could not tolerate was when people didn't care about others. And the second thing he couldn't tolerate was when people repressed their creativity. Mhm. So that passion, that idea that you, you know, flex your muscles. God sent you to change the world. He didn't send you to repress yourself. I once heard from the Rebbe, it was such a beautiful interpretation. It's like a Maran Beisa Bais. Koiser the heter of this. The power of heter of being matter is is greater. So, Rashi says to say something is also you don't have to be a Talmud chacham. Everybody could say treif, it's treif, it's treif. I don't have to be a scholar. To say something is matter, you actually got to know your stuff, right? To forbid something is not a big deal. And every ignoramus could forbid. That's That's what Rashi says. The Rebbe said there's a deeper interpretation. To also some to say something is prohibited, to disengage from it, that the neshama had before it came down to this world. It was disengaged from anything that was impure. What's the chiddish? What's the novelty of the neshama coming down into the world? Not disengagement, engagement, transformation of the world. Of course, in order to transform, you have to disengage. The shashamus of slices, you have to have boundaries, you have to have red lines. Sur mera of us. Say toiv. But the the koiyach, the power of life, is not to say this is not good, that's not good, that's not. Power of life is to to to reveal the sparks, to sublimate, to to sanctify, to utilize. That's one message that really left a very deep impact on me. Another message is was the idea, the basic idea of the Baal Shem Tov, that ain't no move out of there. That at the core, everyone and everything is is godly infinity. And our job is to reveal it. And that there is a oneness that is innate, a oneness that's organic. And all divisions between Jews is superficial. And the divisions inside ourselves is superficial. Now, we live in a world of conflict. We are conflicted. We have conflicts in our families, in our communities. But the Rebbe would always This was his thing, that all all division is superficiality. If you'll go deeper, you will see that everything is And uh it left a very deep impact on me. And the third the third component was what the Rebbe always taught that people are really really good. They are not bad. They're good. If you believe in them, they will believe in themselves. And uh if you speak to them in a way that is non-judgmental, and you really love people, you will reveal incredible treasures that you have never seen before. But you have to first be that person yourself cuz you're not going to see it in other people. So this was really the you know the message as I grew up with. But I didn't plan. I was just over there. Part of the group. What happened was um I was learning. Then the Rebbe in 1992 I was already a Yeshiva older Yeshiva bocher. The Rebbe fell ill. Two years later he passed away in 1994. Mhm. And I was just learning. I was learning in Yeshiva, you know. I was a pretty good learner, I would say. I was you know I I tried not to waste my time at least too much. And and then really this happened by mistake. My father had a newspaper, the Algemeiner Journal. He had a writer called Dr. Hillel Zeidman. Hillel Zeidman was one of the best Yiddish writers of the last generation. He was a survivor. He was from Warsaw. He was a great man, very interesting man, Dr. Hillel Zeidman. He used to write a weekly column on the parsha. He died like the whole the generation of the old Yiddishists Yeah. passed away in the '70s, the '80s, and '90s. And at some point my father needed a successor. So he asked me if I could write a Yiddish column in on the parsha. So I did. I wrote a Yiddish column, some ideas on the parsha. One day a rabbi from Chicago who received the newspaper calls me up. He had a community. He still has a community in Highland Park, Chicago, very affluent. And he says, "I read your Yiddish column in the Algemeiner, and I like what you write. Could you come to my shul for Shabbos?" I said, "I don't do that." He said, "I'll pay your ticket." I said, "I don't do that at all." He said, "Just come and share some whatever YOU WRITE, JUST SHARE IT." SO, he nudged me for 10-20 minutes. He paid my ticket. I came. I spoke. And I guess he liked it, and a few other people liked it cuz the next Shabbos I got a call from another rabbi. And uh what do they say? The rest is history. Right. So, really I can't say that I planned it. I I uh I started to speak. People started to invite me. And uh but I realized from the experience of the contact with people, I realized I realized how all those three things were so true. Number one, there was such a thirst. There was such a yearning. And I realized how when you could speak honestly with people and non-judgmentally with people, how deep you can touch them. I also realized something else. And that is that this is a generation where God wants us to deal with our pain. For many generations in history, the notion was you put one foot ahead of another foot, and you forge ahead. And it allowed us to survive, no small feat. But today, if you tell that to people, It's not enough. It's not working. It's just you're not you're not you're not bringing out the best in them. Do you find that not enough people are doing what you're doing and speaking honestly and trying to solve people's pain? I think everyone is doing the best they can with the tools they have. You know, I really feel it. I think people I I even know myself, you know, the way I operated 20 years ago with the tools I had, I really tried to do the best. But our tools are sometimes so limited. And what I would encourage all of us is have the courage to ask yourself maybe your tools can be updated. You know, you did amazingly well. I think that by the way, this is another element of back to the Nister question. You see, it's a real question of how Judaism deals with pain. Right. How Judaism deals with trauma. How Judaism deals with addiction. How Judaism deals with real real emotional wounds. Now, when you learn only halakha, halakha is basically a blueprint. This you do and this you don't do. And that's why there's such a thirst today. Cuz when you have somebody in recovery or you have somebody who was molested and their entire identity is wounded and they're struggling every day when they wake up to get out of bed. Right? What's your message to them? If you cannot speak to them about what a soul looks like, you can't speak to them. I can't just give them a sheer on what to do and what not to do. That's critical. I can't just give them a sheer how much a kazayis of matzah is. That's true. And why we eat matzah and then maror and then karpas and then shulchan orech etc. It's all great and important stuff. But they need somebody to speak to my my inner inner inner stuff. And and chassidus is the language for that. It's a language. That's the language. There's not a single maimer of chassidus that doesn't talk to that dimension of the self. And that's why you ask why it's taking off. It's another major reason it's taking off. There's a lot of anxiety today. And people could say there shouldn't be anxiety. Mhm. We have all the comforts in the world. Our great grandfathers in Russia and Ukraine and Lithuania and Dokshitsy. Yeah, Dokshitsy. had nothing nothing. And why were they happy? I don't know if they were happy, but officially they were happy. And today today you're on a Pesach program in in Los Cabos or in Cancun or in Arizona or in Florida. What are you complaining about, you spoiled 17-year-old brat? That you lost Wi-Fi. Oh, you lost Wi-Fi? Yeah, yeah, it's one of my one of my better jokes. This this teenager has to go to a funeral of his great uncle. So, he's sitting in the cemetery at the eulogy, and he's not interested, of course. So, he turns to the rabbi and says, "Rabbi, before you begin your eulogy, you're here all the time. What's the Wi-Fi code in the cemetery?" So, the rabbi loses it. The rabbi screams, "RESPECT FOR THE DEAD!" TEENAGER SAYS, "IS that all in capital?" So, so people Why is there anxiety? What are What What do they have everything? Right. They have food and shelter and comfort and prosperity. Baruch Hashem. Charcuterie boards and stuff like that. Even though we we have tragedies, we have losses, no question. But relative to previous generations, Mhm. But anybody who says this is out of touch. Because if you're suffering from anxiety, the most stupid thing the most foolish thing I could tell you is you shouldn't have anxiety. Mhm. Rabbi, you think I'm choosing to have anxiety? You think I wake up one morning and say, "God, please give me anxiety. Please, I want anxiety. Please give me stress. Please give me trauma. Please shut off my prefrontal lobes and prefrontal cortex, so my amygdala can fire up and I shouldn't be able to function and my executive function should be compromised." Nobody's asking for this. If a person is suffering inside, just to tell them, "You shouldn't think like this." is sometimes cruel. Yeah, yeah, that sounds cruel. foolish. So, I've learned from you, actually, that that epigenetics has taught that trauma has bequeathed Yes. Yes. And this is incredible. This comes from Mount Sinai Hospital, a Jewish professor. People thought that genetics is what allows your eye colors to develop, your height, your metabolism, your physiological components. But if I experience trauma, what does that have to do with with my Elter Zayde experienced trauma in Russia, what does that have to do with my genes? Today we know that's not the case. The symbiotic relationship between the sham and guf is so deep. And by the way, this is one of the yesod of chassidus. Today many of the atheists want to deny the existence of a soul. They say everything is basically bioelectricity. It's all biochemical. There's no soul. You're a machine. And the machine also has consciousness. The machine also has emotions. It's all a machine. The truth is it just demonstrates unity. The soul and the body are so connected that you can even deny the fact that there's a soul because it's completely one with the body because the body itself is is divine. The body itself is spiritual. The body keeps the divine score. So the So the genes carry everything. So sometimes your child may be displaying trauma that comes from 100 years ago. Really? Of course. 200 years ago. How How does that work? That's this epigenetics. Epigenetics is trauma that the clique that I may have in my genes. Yeah, the trauma of not hundreds of years, of thousands of years. That means each and every single one of us It's an expression in Gemara and higher years stuff. Hey, tzibur lo yimusu. The Gemara speaks there about a carbon chatus that if the the owner dies, the the ear can't bring it. So the Gemara says, "How did they bring a carbon chatus in the beginning of Beis Sheini?" For the chato'os that they were mechuyav at the end of Beis Rishon says it's a tzibur lo yimusu. Individuals can die. Klal Yisrael never dies. It's the same Klal Yisrael that left Mitzrayim and was at Har Sinai and did the and was there by Chanukah and Purim. It's the same Klal Yisrael. Tzibur lo yimusu. Today we know it scientifically. Today we know that the individual may pass away, but that genes we are carrying the genes of Jews from 3 and 1/2 thousand years ago. And that means we carry trauma. We also carry their wisdom, their resilience, their faith, their emunah, their mesiras nefesh, their avodas Hashem, their avodas We carry everything. So, today you have children. Nobody knows why, but they are displaying things they may It may not come from them. May come from their great-great-grandmother. But, I think it's all coming out now because God wants us to fix it. Because when you fix it, when I fix it, we fix it retroactively for all the previous generations. It's an incredible opportunity. We'll be right back to this episode. Right back. We'll be right back. Right back. Right back. Right back. Right back. But, Will we though? I don't know. Maybe we'll just like stop it here. We might talk a lot about Touro University. Touro University. You know what? There's an alum of Touro University. Her name is Miriam Abraham Salts. Yep. And her father was an accountant. Her Is an accountant. Her sister's an accountant. You know what she wanted to do? She wanted to be a vet. Right? Nah, I'm kidding. She wanted to be an accountant, too. So, where'd she go to school? She went to Touro University. Why'd she go to Touro University? She really went to Touro University for a well-rounded education, one that would rigorously prepare her for the CPA exams. Yes. And really catapulted her career to a top Big Four PricewaterhouseCoopers Yeah. accounting job. Yeah. And the PricewaterhouseCoopers, PWC as they say it, PWC. That's how the kids say it nowadays. They were really impressed with her training, with her readiness for the exams that she took. Because she went to Touro. They give you more at Touro. So, that's why you should visit touro.edu/more because honestly, 95%. What's that stat, Mama? Yeah, don't be in the 5%. Do not be in the 5%. 95% of Touro University grads within 6 months of graduation, right? Right. They are either placed at a job, which may or may not be at PWC, or are in a graduate or professional degree program. Don't be part of the 5%. We'll be right back to this episode, right now. So, let's accept the premise that there is a tremendous amount of anxiety and trauma that is now manifest either as the result of actual trauma experienced, abuse, whatever the story may be, or if it's just genetically, but the premise that today's generation is struggling tremendously with with this pain and and trauma, how do we systematically destigmatize getting the help in whatever form it's manifest? Yeah. So, I do have to say something. I often get a lot of backlash, you know, for after this program, I'm going to get a few emails. goal. Why would Y Jacobson issue that in it? Which basically with the message, you know, it's all fictional. It's all in people's minds. Instead of telling people, "You're not anxious. You're just dreaming. Everything is good." Why are you you're being you're appeasing it's appeasement. The more we say it, the more we invalidate it. Winston Churchill said appeasement is feeding the crocodile in the hope that you're going to be eaten last. You know, you don't appease terrorists. You eliminate terrorists, right? It was Israel's big mistake with with Oslo and and Gush Katif. You don't appease terrorists. You eliminate terrorists. So, lahavdil, of course. They say, "This Just say it's not true. It's just not true." And the truth is I would love to say it's not true. I would be the first one to say it's not true. But you can check my email box. I get a few hundred emails a day. And unless every single person is lying, there's so much pain that people are experiencing. And just to dismiss it as as as as, you know, delusional, and you're just spoiled, and you're narcissistic, and you're self-centered, and just do what you have to do, and and and that's it, and be quiet. It's really It's really closing our eyes to the reality. I think it's the exact opposite. This is a generation of healing. It's a generation of tikun. You can't heal things if they don't emerge. So, nothing is repressed anymore, but that's not bad. Right. We're We're given a gift. It's a gift. It's the navi the Daniel says that before Messiah comes Everything is going to become clear. Everything is going to become Um it's going to be brought out to the open. There's going to be a light cast on reality. Demons, ghosts, skeletons live in closets. They live in darkness. When there's light we could begin to heal. We can begin to fix. So, I think the last thing we need today is a stigma of talking about these things. To be very honest and frank when you speak to a crowd if you're honest and vulnerable, you'll see everybody comes to life. If you start preaching from an ivory tower with this holier-than-thou attitude, you know you'll have a few people who will nod their heads. They'll also fall asleep after a few minutes. But uh you'll see. You'll you'll you'll you'll lose the crowd. Today, people tune in to vulnerability. People tune in to authenticity. And it's an incredible thing. It's an incredible thing. I've heard rabbonim have told me at conferences. They said, "What happened to the art of the old Shabbos Hagadol drasha? The old Shabbos Shuva drasha? You got up. You spoke about ideas. You did not make them emotionally relevant. You didn't use the word emotions." You didn't talk about people's emotions. You didn't talk about shalom bayis. You didn't talk about the crisis with your children. You spoke about ideas, and everyone loved it. And the rav said, "Everybody's sleeping." I'll take this as a license to ask you what's what's the hardest part of what you do. That's a good that's that's a good question. One of the hardest parts of what I do is uh when you see and you meet so much pain it's very easy to become either cynical or angry or vindictive or just want to detach. And that ability to be able to be fully present for people and on the other hand not get entangled in a way that I can't be helpful to them is an ongoing uh is an ongoing challenge which requires a lot of internal work for me to be able to be There's a beautiful verse from the Kotsker Rebbe. It says in Maseches Eruvin daf chof alef that HaMelech made two takanos eruvin eruv chatzeiros so that we could carry in a bungalow colony or in an apartment building or in a neighborhood. And uh netilas yadaim to wash your hands before bread. So when he made those two takanos a bas kol came out and said "Im chacham bni yismach libi gam ani." For such a brilliant child, God says I'm also I'm so happy. So the Kotsker Rebbe said why are these two takanos so brilliant? And he said eruvin and netilas yadaim are two opposites. Eruvin means to mix, taruvus. It allows people to mingle on Shabbos to eat by each others homes. The kids could play together. We can go from one apartment to another apartment, from one house to another house. It's all about socializing and uh community building and connectivity, integration. Eruvin to mix. Netilas yadaim is about having pure hands, reine hent, which is all about boundaries, integrity, disengagement remaining above the nitty-gritty and the dirt of life. He says some people are very good at Aravan." You know, they're they're people's people. And some people are very good at Netilat Yadayim. They know how to be separate, pure. The Hadash of Amalek was he was masakin Aravan and Netilat Yadayim. To be able to be fully integrated with people, present, attentive, empathetic. And for this you have to be there. You can't run away. On the other hand, to always maintain your Netilat Yadayim, that your hands and your heart is pure. You remain really pure. You remain focused on your mission. Not allowing yourself to get entangled in in politics of any form. It's uh it's it's it's constant work. It's spiritual work. Is there something that you you do for yourself on a very either spiritual or physical level? It could be going for a hike once a week that you're able to just stay sane? Cuz the amount that you deal with I can imagine is overwhelming. Yes, I have to I have to I I so I sometimes I sometimes fail to do the things I need to do in order to uphold this type of relationship with the people around me. But I try. Yeah, I try to both dedicate time spiritually and physically to be able to anchor myself in a space that uh allows me to be the person that uh you know, I think God wants me to be. Right. In a world that um There's a beautiful I once heard something very gashmak from the Lubavitcher Rebbe was Sukkot. So the Gemara Mishnah says in Sukkot there was Shimon ben Gamliel used to juggle torches Shmona Vukash Lebasim Khas Beis Hasho'eivah. Shimon ben Gamliel was the Nasi of the Sanhedrin, right? And the Gemara goes through a list of Tannaim and Amoraim who would all juggle. This one would juggle eggs and this one would juggle wine. Now, imagine today I don't know, the biggest Rosh Yeshiva or the biggest Rebbe, you know, standing and juggling at some Yeshiva. We wouldn't find it so appropriate, but then apparently the greatest sages were juggling. What what was this? He once said that juggling is the art of life. In in in in Kabbalah, this is called ratzo v'shov. A part of the neshama always when you juggle one ball is up as the other ball comes down, but not for long. One has to come down, the other one has to go up. So, he says that's what a neshama has to look like. One part always has to be connected above, completely above the world, transcendent. But that's not enough. Another part has to be down here. But if it's down here for too long, it can get tainted. So, it has to be able to refresh itself and the other part comes down. Yeah. And that that, you know, that vacillation, that fluctuation is integral to avoid the shasham. Using this framework of of juggling, I think there's another challenge that our generation faces as we transition from being full-time either in Yeshiva or in college or whatever it may be, more immersed in ruchniyus, and then venture into the secular world, whether it's for an education or whether it's directly in going to work, and there's not a lot of chinuch that goes on within Yeshiva to prepare someone um coming out of a Yeshiva or coming out of seminary and going into the world, right? The world, quote unquote. And it it requires a lot of juggling. And I think there's a there's a big vacuum of chinuch in this in this regard. What what can you tell our our listeners? Yeah, very important. that. Very important question. And you'll allow me to quote from two uh opposite spectrums of the Jewish world, okay? Rav Kook and the Satmar Rebbe. Oh, wow. Granted. Wow. So, fasten your seatbelt. Sort of Cook once said Rebbe Avraham Yitzchak Kook once said, "Tells him pick your apples." We're learning pick your apples. Now, I'm going to be Yaakov. Somebody goes on a hike. I look at the he's going for a hike with Shaina, he's learning. Oh, mafsik he stops the learning for I'm a man now he learns them and now near this a beautiful landscape, beautiful tree. My love of a custom kill him is higher but now she's endangering his soul. I'm afraid to say, "What did he do?" He took a hike. He took a Sunday afternoon he went on a beautiful hike at spring in New York and he was learning. And then he says, "Wow, kinderlach, take a look at God's world my no and here's a in fact there's a halakha if you go out the main Nissan you have to make a bracha on the trees by all my club right by previous times all honest times all honest by all of them. Look at David Amalech shall we speak about the creation every day my rabble my there's many brachos that has all made on various phenomena of creation. So, so what is my higher what do you do? You said that the world is beautiful. And he said there's two words in the Mishnah. I'm a better he's traveling with Shaina, he's learning. Oh, mafsik Mishnah say. He interrupts his learning and says how beautiful is this landscape. In other words, there's no continuing between Torah and the celebration of nature. In his or her mind it's mafsik Mishnah say. There's the world of the base madras, there's the world of the Yeshiva, there's the world of shul. That's where I learn, that's where I dominate, that's where I that's where I connect and then mafsik Mishnah say. Now, it's over and now I go into a world. He says that's endangering your soul. It's antithetical to the very core of Judaism. It's not just we need a for this. This is the ultimate of. The ultimate is I once heard from the Lubavitcher Rebbe there's a Rambam in Hilchos voice and he put it. At the end of the day and keeper the kind God will take off his golden garments the lawyers begin the aromas is towards the and he goes home. This is a what is it put obviously when you wish you go to pizza shop which you go bowling which you go to the gym. Bowling pizza is very in because Where SHOULD THE KIND GOD WILL GO AFTER TELL ME WHAT WERE THE OPTIONS in Jerusalem? I'm a person the goes home. And is it a lot what if he wants to go to show for two hours what if he wants to go to the what if he wants to hang out and kind God will I'll never forget the said it's a lot. And it's maybe the most important a lot. You're in the show. It's very easy not to go home after that. And how many people will have the celebrities go to a concert? They're worshipped by 50,000 people. They go home their wife says can you take out the garbage? They can't the marriage doesn't last what do I need this for 50,000 people think I'm superhuman. I need my wife to tell me clean up after yourself. The show of is the base. You win the Holy of Holies go home. Go home. It's not an interruption of it's a continuum of because the foundation of everything is in Nevada. There's a beautiful word from the market of Mizrich in fact from sky was a lot of the Vilna God what made him a lot of the market of Mizrich he heard this word. I'm of college. We say that every morning what's the skin you literally it means the earth is filled with your acquisitions in other words you own this world God owns it. The market said it can you have a The earth the planet the world is filled with Kinyana with things through which we could be Kinyana you. The whole world is filled with things through which you could be Kinyana the world. In other words, there's nothing that's divorced from divine reality. The question is only vantage point, perspective, how you look at it. So, if the world keeps you in the holy of holies, wonderful. Wonderful, but there comes a time where you got to go home. And then, don't be afraid of going home. The whole purpose why you went into the holy of holies was to bring it home, to bring it into the workplace. The Satmar Rebbe once said, Satmar Rebbe once said, "Yoyel, we there's a in Shabbat, it's a beautiful in Kinyana in the place of the meal. Right? You have to make Kinyana in the place of the meal. So, if I make Kinyana in the synagogue and I come home, I have to make Kinyana again unless I start the meal in the synagogue. At least I eat something so I drink some wine, but you have to do the meal in the place of Kinyana. This is in the Talmud and there's two reasons over there in the Talmud. There's two reasons over there in the Talmud. The Satmar Rebbe gave a homiletical, spiritual reason, or spiritual reason if you wish. He said there are people who know how to make Kinyana. They know how to be holy. They know how to say they know how to say they know how to scream they know how to make Kinyana in the synagogue. But then when they get to the meal, it's completely divorced from the Kinyana. When I get to the office, I could backstab, I could lie, I could become a shark. In the synagogue, I close my eyes and I scream I go home, I scream at my wife, I scream at my kids. Suddenly, I'm so triggered and I become a narcissistic narcissistic, depraved human being. In Kinyana in the place of the meal. The only Kinyana that Judaism recognizes is the Kiddush that informs, enlightens, infuses the meal, the feast, the party. The party also got to be holy. And I think this is so fundamental, so fundamental for people to understand. We don't live in a world of duality. That's not the Jewish path. The Jewish path is to live in a world of oneness, not in a world of duality. Mhm. So, bringing the concept into the into the practical for a minute, I think you mentioned the the Bnei Shmuel of Adar, the the evolving challenges of our generation. the word shalom. It's from the word shalom. Yeah. Bnei Shmuel of Adar. So, I think we're we're finding within the evolution of of the nation, we're finding we're finding a generation today where there are young Balabatis that have made that transition from fully immersed in this to going out into the world and the Balabatis is being inspired by the nation in unprecedented magnitudes. And very young Balabatis are experiencing fabulous success. A lot of money. Yeah. Financial success. And there isn't that direct from the Balabatis of how does a young 30-year-old guy that all of a sudden has millions of dollars with which he can really make choices that he never dreamed possible? Where where does today's generation get that from and how to deal with the financial success that they're experiencing? Right. Excellent, excellent question. And it's another reason why this is this is so important. Because the model for many people of piety in Judaism was Tzimtzum. If you're poor, it's better. If you're really poor, even better. And if you mommies don't have anything, give all the you're going straight to the harbor. And suddenly all these young guys are smelling private yachts. And if I have to go to Miami, I don't have to wait in the Guardia for Shalom online. I'm not on that level. I wait online. I wait online with all the schleppers. I have what's it called? The clear? Not clear, TSA. So, I got 5 minutes faster. But and suddenly you smell a new world and you're right, it's a whole new world. But when you go into the consciousness of the world, it's not about living in a place of poverty. There were times that Jews were tested with that and you know what? We passed with flying colors. We're still here. In fact, most of us come from situations. I think most of our parents or grandparents when they came here, you know, maybe had a nickel to their name. Today, it's the one Jews to flex their muscles, to be strong, to be prosperous. The mixture of the through the castle and the churches. He wants the Jewish people to experience the after the young of the kingdom to find the nectar. Because as we come closer to the world, what's the world? The world is not that we're going to be and we're going to be going to be means we're going to have the most expensive mindset spiritually, physically, emotionally, and financially. That opportunity here is the greatest opportunity in history to realize that the whole affluence is divinity. It's a divine flow. And take it and transform of world. And if that means that you need to live in a more comfortable way so you can accomplish more, as they say in Russia, "Pazhalsta." Pazhalsta if again. This is not a time to say, "Oh, these guys are low and they're deprived and they're horrible and they're gluttonous and they're Is there Is there a limit to the a good divine blessing. Of course, now, like every blessing, I can misuse it. I can become selfish. Of course. But if you know the people deep down, they're not selfish people. They're good people. On the contrary, inspire them and say, "This is a divine flow to Klal Yisrael, to be able to build in unprecedented ways, to be able to change the world in unprecedented ways. Think big." Is there a rotten lash beer? Think big. Change the world. Don't think anymore in petty ways. Come, rabba, fershach til rab Zeida. Eliminate your katnus. Think about godlus. When I was a kid, I learned in a yeshiva. It was a very poor yeshiva. And the two deans, the people who directed the yeshiva, they were from Russia. So, they grew up in poverty themselves. One of them was in Siberia for many years. They were walking on Eastern Parkway and examining a dilapidated yellow school bus. You remember those old yellow school buses where most of the seats were celebrating, you know, many bar mitzvahs. Torn. So, the Lubavitcher Rebbe was walking home and he sees these two chassidim examining the bus. It was like a surreal picture. He says, "What are you guys doing?" They said, "The bus broke down. So, we're looking and we see for sale. This bus is for sale." So, the Rebbe says, "This is the chazer's shmatteh the bus. This is a horrible bus. You're going to put the kids on this?" They said, "Listen, even this bus we can't afford. Even this we can't afford, this shmatteh. You want us to think about a a nice updated bus? This is in the '70s." So, the Rebbe says to them, he says, "You know why you can't afford You know why you can't afford the luxurious bus? Cuz in your mind is In your mind, it's justified that Jewish children could could get a ride in a dilapidated bus. If you would change your mindset you'll be able you you would find the resources. So, today God is Hashem is helping us broaden our mindset. You know, it says in the first from the first contribution for the Mishkan, he says first thing, V'yikchu li truma. The first thing is zahav, gold. You you start off with gold. You Imagine you you you're making an appeal. The The first donation, $10 million. You start You start off dalit, $18. 10 more 10 times high, 20 times high. No, no, zahav. He starts off with gold. Because the truth is the Jews left Egypt and they they got my research in the a lot. You know, business was time in business I am. And today my research in I am. It's a tremendous opportunity for people to give tzedakah like never before. To build institutions like never before. And to think in ways like never before. So, this is uh I see it as as an incredible opportunity. As we wind wind down this conversation, I want to get some rapid-fire type questions out to you. And I want to start with It might not be so rapid, but we'll try. Um For sure fire. For sure fire. So so much fire. But in a in in a world where everyone thinks that they know Rabbi YY Jacobson. They email you, they text you, they call you, I know Rabbi YY Jacobson. What's one thing that nobody knows about you? That they'll that they won't not know about you for long. Yeah, I didn't expect this question. I have to say. Listen, if people know me, maybe they could tell me who I am cuz I'm still trying to figure it out. Listen, I have uh the The of a human being are very profound and uh uh I don't think I know myself. I try to know myself, but how much, you know, the tools that we use to know ourselves are our conscious brains. How much percent of our brains are conscious? I don't know, 1%? 2%? 3%? So, for me, life is an ongoing discovery of self. I figured you'd answer like that. And I think uh and in a way it's a blessing. Uh if I could get to know one new thing about myself every week, every month, it would be amazing. And I think, you know, when we're married, I think it's one of the great gifts that your spouse at least my spouse, but I think many of our spouses, they help you discover new things about yourself. And your children even more. Right. Yeah, somebody once told me, "Tzaar Gedol Bonim" doesn't mean the pain of raising children. It means Tzaar Gedol Bonim is the pain of raising yourself through your children. Pushing and wrestling. Right, the pushing and wrestling. Yes. Or as a teenager once told me, he said, "Rabbi, why would you think it's easy raising parents today?" So, I think if we're open to our spouses and our children, we get to learn new things about ourselves. So, I look forward to that every day. The problem is when you get angry, some of us don't like new discoveries, you know? We don't like I I know who I am. I'm in my comfort zone. Right. And then we get stuck. I think if we can have that humility to say, "You know what? I don't know who I am. Maybe there's a lot that I don't know. It's a blessing." But it's a lot of humility. It takes a lot of humility. Right. I think a lot of our viewers have consumed a tremendous amount of of your content and of your wisdom. And I think they'd love to hear what a Shabbos table looks like. What does a a bedtime with children look like? I I don't mean to disappoint and be a party pooper, but it's not very dramatic. Bedtime is bedtime, you know. I think there's a lot of wisdom even in that answer. It's not It's not not a lot of fireworks. A shop is not Cuz people think people think that uh the big rabbis, the big celebrities, the big influencers in our in our world, they have a secret potion going. They're doing things differently differently than everyone else. What I'm sort of hearing from you is it's I'm human and this is bedtime is bedtime and I'm very very human. There's an expression in Yiddish, a mensch is not a mention on all the signs. The human being is only a human being and sometimes not even that. So, if I can be a human being and keep it together as a human being, it's already uh it's good. Dayenu. I'll hit you with one more and this is going to be the question that by far you're definitely If you have an answer for this, I'd be I'd be amazing. If they were to make a movie about the life of Rabbi YY Jacobson, I'd be a vast room. What would the title of that movie be? Wow. Pause for dramatic effect. That's a very It's Makes you think, yeah? It's It's It's It's a beautiful beautiful question. You know, I don't know cuz in terms of title, I have to think what the you know, a title is takes a lot of Cuz you want to sell tickets, I get it. artistic reflection. But I would hope that uh I would hope that if I could fulfill the mission that God has given me, that Hashem has given me to be an ambassador for love and for light and for hope and for authenticity and for healing and for wisdom and for redemptive consciousness that would be very meaningful. It's a long title. I know. We'll go with the uh I'd watch it. We'll go with The Ambassador, maybe. I'd watch it. Shluchai. The Gemara says shluchai shel adam kamoisoi. So an ambassador really means that you uh assume the identity of the one who sent you. And I think, you know, each and every one of us, me and my life and you and your life, the moment we can redefine ourselves into shluchim of Hashem, shluchim shalom kima say in every situation, ask not you know, what God can do for me, but what I can do for Hashem at this moment. What is my shlichus? What is my mission? Right here, right now. Even in very painful, mundane, challenging, traumatic moments, moments of confusion, moments of uncertainty, but I think it changes everything. Right. And and I'm with this, if if you could give a a message to somebody, a boy, a girl, young or old, and imagine they're sitting right in front of you right now, and they're struggling. They're going through a lot of pain. Maybe they're anxious. Maybe they had some trauma. Speaking directly to them, maybe they're driving in their car right now to work and they're listening to this. What what would you say to them to offer some chizuk, some insight, some inspiration? There was one of the great Chassidic masters was a man named Reb Boruch of Mezhibush. He was a grandson of the Baal Shem Tov. His mother's name was Odel, and she was a daughter of the Baal Shem Tov. His name was Reb Boruch. They called him the Rebbe Reb Boruch. And he gave a beautiful interpretation interpretation in Ashrei. We say it every day. Such a beautiful interpretation. We say in Ashrei, L'hodi'a k'vod malchusecha umedaberu, l'hodi'a l'vnei Adam g'vurosecha v'chvod hadar malchuso. Literally, we speak about the glory of your kingdom, your strength, your majesty, so that people should know about Hashem. He said there's another interpretation. Dovid Hamelech is giving us a mitzvah. He's saying kavod malchut shamayim al rosh kol adam. You know why we speak so much about Hashem's greatness? Because there's a mitzvah. And the mitzvah is lo hideia lifnei adam. To let people know. To let every person know gvuroisav. His own majesty, his own strength, his own power. Kavod hadar malchuso. And the glory and the beauty of his own royalty. He says that's a mitzvah. Hashem gave everybody a mitzvah. Let every person know lo hideia. Let every person become aware in an intimate and real way gvuroisav. His own power. What I would share with that person behind the steering wheel or wherever you're hearing or listening to this is never ever see yourself as a victim of your circumstances. You may have anxiety, you may have trauma, you may have had a difficult youth, you may have grown up in a dysfunctional home, you may have grown up in a wonderful home, but you're struggling with something that everyone people struggle with something. Never ever see yourself as a victim of your circumstances, ever. Rather, lo hideia lifnei adam gvuroisav. Realize that you are really infinite. You are the manifestation of Hashem in this world. And therefore, at your core, you're invincible, you're indestructible, you're full of possibility, you're full of potential, you're full of joy. And ask yourself, was I sold? Was I just thrown into these circumstances? Or maybe, as a piece of Hashem, I was sent. Hashem decided to work through this experience through me. So just be a conduit. Let Hashem work through this experience through you. So you're going to be there, you're going to be present, and you'll feel all the pain, but without fear, without timidness, and without the need to run away. Beautiful. Rabbi Jacobson, as the shefa is coming up coming down on us from shamayim right now. It's starting to rain. Everybody's perfect. We're outside and it's starting to rain. Thank you so much. I love it. I love it. Thank you so much for giving us your time and Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for the honor. And you should have tremendous hatslocha in your sacred work of saturating the world with a deeper awareness. This class is brought to you by the Yeshiva.net. Please help us continue the classes. Make even a small contribution at www.yeshiva.net/donate.