Inside ArtScroll Episode 5: Rabbi Paysach Krohn

[Music] Hello everyone and welcome back to Inside Arts Scroll where the books you read and the people who write them come to life. Today we are privileged to be joined by the one and only Rabbi Pesak Cron the author of many art scroll volumes. Thank you for being here. I'm excited to talk to you and we'll get right into it. It's an honor to be here. I love Hearts. I always loved it from the time they were on Coney Island Avenue. I just would hang around there as much as I could. The people are just the most wonderful dedicated people to Claudius and I'm so proud to be part of it. Art Scroll is proud to have you as part of the family. Thank you. And I was going to say that your name has become synonymous with Arts Scroll. Uh I believe your first book on brisma was published in 1985 35 years ago with art scroll and we actually have a lineup here thanks to our wonderful friends in the arts school warehouse they were able to pull out all your books for us and line it up here so beautifully and I have your first book here brisma and the thing that jumped out at me was looking through it and we could show the viewers how similar almost exact the text layout is today to what we're looking at from 35 years ago with all the advents of of and advances of printing and design. Ripshia brander the genius of design created something that has sustained you know what could you comment on that just the fact that look at the fonts the pageionation is virtually identical to what we see today isn't that unbelievable one one of the things that always impressed me uh with Ramis Lawitz and Rabnasen Sherman and then eventually when I got to know Rabia Brander is their tremendous professionalism Everything that they did always had to be in such a way not only that it was artistically beautiful but that it made a kesh shamayim it made giddish kite look good and I could never forget when that first uh safer came out on McGillistor in 1976. It was so incredible because first of all you had an articulate person who wrote the overview and that was Sherman and then the commentary was brilliant and the way she brand put it together that cover became like a standard it was so beautifully artistically done and they followed that pattern since then and all the books are like that. It is incredible and I want to share something that I don't know if people know. I actually just heard it recently. I met R a Shman at aka and he told me number one that he was the one who made the shik between Ray Mayor's Lawitz and Ribbnasen Sherman. Wow. Which I did not know but then he added something fascinating. You have said over the story probably dozens of times about how Ray Mayor dedicated himself to writing a commentary on Malcester Leishmas Rayor Fogle. Rabbi told me that when the manuscript was finished and Ribor was looking for a publisher he went around to various publishing houses including Felheim and all the publishing houses turned him down. They felt that uh it was nice but it wouldn't sell. That was the way that was the way he described it. And I was thinking to myself, could you imagine at the time? I'm sure it was to his utter disappointment that no one would take the book. I'm sure he was devastated. He worked so hard on the manuscript. No one wants to publish it. But could you imagine if one of those publishing houses did publish it? I don't know what would have happened with the next volume. Maybe they would have published that as well. And who knows if arts girl would have materialized. What a a lesson in hashkah and in responding to seeming adversity by understanding that obviously everything is manim. I just thought of what an eyeopener. Well, I'll tell you something. You have hit on a very very delicate point. Just last night I gave one of the most difficult drushes that I ever gave. Now there was a fellow his name is Raisha Morgan Stern. He lost a daughter Razie or Razies fellow that's what he called his daughter five years ago in an accident in Arizona and um he was absolutely devastated and I remember speaking to him and telling him that he should start a support group for fathers who lost a child and it took a long time. Now I've spoken for women who have lost children. It's a wonderful organization called Tapestry and eventually Mishi Morgensson started this organization and I spoke for them last night and just this point that you're talking about is something that I said when my father Alvash was very sick and my brother Aban and I were in Washington Heights Schwab I will never forget we went to the hospital to visit my father and uh I came back to eat the sudu with Rav Schwab and his rebbitson and he said how's your father and I said I have bet that he'll be well and he got so stern with me and he said does not mean that your father's going to get well I mean I was terrified when he told it to me I was all of 21 he said means that Hashem has a master plan and maybe one day you'll understand it but difficult things happen in life and sometimes we get to understand it and that which you just said about Ramas Lawitz is a perfect example I'm sure he was devastated because he was a good writer and he had this manuscript ready and he probably figured how could people not see that it's such a wonderful thing and yet because he was devastated and then he had to go out and start his own look what it's accomplished thousands of volumes changed Israel the way changed the way they dabbed the way they learned Gumor and Kish and Medish and everything every aspect of Yiddishite it was all because he was rejected in a sense so Sometimes a person goes through a difficult time and can't understand why is hashem making this happen and mayor was able to live to see why it happened because he he changed the world. Just recently I was sitting in Ribbadalia Lanovitz's office uh with another visitor and we saw on a high shelf small but thick loose leaves and we asked him what that is and Gadalia said those are my father's writings the original writings of McGillesta and then the subsequent migillas and he pulled them down and we looked through them. Yeah. Painstakingly written in longhand. Yeah. And it was just an insight first of all into his brilliance. You see the original writing before it was edited. He wrote like a poet beautifully. First of all his handwriting is beautiful and you see the depth of his understanding as Havana. He was a tremendous Tom and it really gave me a extra appreciation of who Reb mayor was and what his accomplishment is and how it's really everlasting and lives on and he's given us all an opportunity to be educated and to learn and people like yourself an opportunity to use your unbelievable talent. Well, I tell you it's just so incredible. I'm so indebted. My whole family is so indebted to Raba Rabnen and Rabia. I will never forget how it happened actually. You know, I knew Raba from camp. You know, he was an artist in camp. He was in campaur, right? And of course, he made the banners. Nobody made a banner, you know, he was the greatest artist of all. And so I knew him as an artist, you know, as a lefty artist, you know, he was a lefty. And uh I I I that's that's where I knew him from. That's where I knew Mayor Fogle, the one he dedicated uh McGill Cester to. And I remember when arts scroll came out with McGillester. I was fascinated by it. Now at that time I was going to a shar called Lyore. the Long Island Commissioner of Riser. David Cohen was the RV and he gave the share to the Raon in Long Island and he spoke about this safer that had just come out and I always loved writing as a child because I learned it from my mother. You know, we would talk about writing and she gave me the love of writing when we should mention we have one of the books here. The way it was I believe the way it was was written by your mother. Hindi, right? Hindi, right? And and that's one of the things we're so proud of. I think we're the only family that has three generations of writers for Arts Girl Scroll. My mother Allah Shalom and uh you know she wrote The Way It Was and uh of course myself Bashem and uh my daughter Bhasham Khaviva Chrome Feifer who's written a couple of the children's books. But uh getting back to what I was telling you was that um when this McGillis Esther came out, I thought, "Wow, you know, there's a place for Jewish people to write something good." You know, when I was growing up, there was not that much Jewish writing. I wrote some stories for Olenu and uh you know, the way the war was won, I made up a story and it was printed. What year was that that you were writing for? It was shortly after high school. sign must have been about uh I graduated in ' 62 so maybe 68 or maybe 70 or whatever but there weren't that many platforms for someone who wanted to write and get a message out there and then and then Rab Nissen Walpin was just so wonderful to me he was so special every time he saw me he wouldn't even say shamikum just give me a pen you know he was great and I wrote a few articles in the Jewish Observer and one of the things I'll never forget it just happened to be that uh in one of the Jewish Observer I was published right before my article was Rabnasan Sherman's article and uh I was so happy to be close to him you know I didn't really know him I knew that he was the mania of turretima or you know and he was a rebian stolen or he was the manal in stolen as well and uh so I was so proud that my uncle was next to him who would ever believe that and then I remember one time I I always learned with David Kh which I still learn with him today um would learn once a week and um I met mayor Lanowitz in the driveway he was visiting Ra David he loves Ra David and Rab David was in a sense his rebi and his guidepost and his mentor and I said to Rab mayor you know I'd love to write for for you he said well you could write anything you want and we'll edit it you know you just write it so I said well can I do kahelis because you know they had just done migillas and then I think a came out and he said no the five migillas we're doing ourselves so uh I said Okay, let let me think about something. So, I thought about Mish Mish. That would be a good idea. So, it's probably the dumbest thing I ever thought of, and I'll tell you why. Um, so I never forget. I went to the 42nd Street Library. I don't tell this too often. And I I I got about a 10 Swarum, you know, there, you know, Swarum on the Mish. And then I bought a few Swarum. And I knew I can't start in the beginning. Let let me start right in the middle. I started with pedicure olive and I figured you know I'll start writing commentary and you know they'll edit it and then I saw this is impossible because mish mish every word every sentence every singing is is a book by itself there's no storyline so what am I going to write 400 books you know like mish has got so many and each one is a different concept and it's a obviously wrote it you know so it's tremendous so I had written a couple and I saw it's going to take over my life. It's impossible. So, I was devastated because I really wanted to write for art scroll. You know, they were doing well and people were beginning to compliment them and say what they were accomplishing for Clausro. So then I then they wrote on Keshma little pamphlet then they wrote on Kadesh and I figured, oh my goodness, they're writing on topics. I've got a great topic to write on. I'll write on brisma. Yeah. Nobody could do it better than me. I was a male already a couple years and I knew the Ashkanazi customs, the spartic customs about babies being yellow and you know about names and alderman hogen you know that would be great. So I called Mayor Lawitz back because you know he knew that I was starting Mish and then it just didn't work out. So uh he said okay why don't you write a a chapter and Rabnen and I will look at it and uh we'll see if it's worth writing if we'll do it. I said, 'Okay, fine, but don't let anybody else do it. Please, just give me the opportunity. And I went home and I said to my mother, "Mom, we got to write something. We got to do this because, you know, for me as a male that I wrote the book for art school on brisa, you know, that would be the greatest advertisement, right?" So, we decided that we're going to write a commentary on the tis. I figured, you know, there's a text there, there's something I don't have to start, you know, of brisma and I'll write a commentary on it and let's see how it goes. And so we worked on it, you know, we took the twice and I translated them and I found commentary in different sorum and I presented it. And Rabnen, I'll never forget this, Ramnas, I'm going to try not to cry. met Rob Nassen and Raba they were on Coney Island Avenue and um I was waiting you know for them to get back to me and uh and they said it's good we have I think we could do something green light the green light and two things happened I came to the office and um I said do I have a deadline and I'll never forget what mayor Slowwood said we have no deadline but I want you to keep this in mind as you're writing the book You have to write the type of book so that nobody in their right mind in the next 10 years is going to write a book in English on Bruce Miller. In other words, it has to be so allencompassing that you got to cover everything. That's the deadline. We're not worried about the time. Just make sure that it's all accomplishing. Were you intimidated by that? No, I was thrilled because I I felt that I could do it because I had experience as a mile. I knew what had to be in the book. And then the thing that was so touching to me, of course today nobody has telephone books anymore, right? But Nelson Sherman had a little telephone book in his pocket and he took out the telephone book and he wrote my name in his book with my telephone number and then he put it like I always say next to his heart and he said, "Now you're one of us." that was that I should be one of them was just so special. I'll never forget that little gesture, you know. I'm one of them because it because you were an aspiring writer. Yeah. And that just made you feel made you feel that validated you. Yeah. Validated. Exactly. That's the right word. Wonderful. And um and then of course you know I spent a tremendous amount of time. Um my favorite part was writing on names because as a male many many times I help people give a Hebrew name especially I do many Brit from people and they're always looking for names you know they'll have the English name you know Justin or Brian or whatever and they don't know what to use for the Hebrew name. I've heard you say that you actually keep a log of every single brisk you've performed with the name of the job. Of course. Just and what was your motivation to do that? I'll tell you what, because my father will show him did that. And the reason that he did it and the reason I did it just happened just the other day. I got a call from somebody that I did a bris. That was about um 12 years ago. The kids going to have a bar mitzvah. They forgot what they named him in Hebrew. Wow. And I always give a certificate in the back of the brisa book. There's also a certificate and it has the Hebrew name. And um they just didn't remember the name. It wasn't really so connected to the boy's English name. That's why they didn't remember it. But I had the record in a second. I just went downstairs and got it out, you know, and told it to them. Wow. I mean, how long did it take you to put together the brisma book? So that took about two and a half years because I wanted to make it not only the minhogim and not only the extra you know that there are benching and um I wanted to talk about certain topics names was one of them the significance of eight eight is very important in yiddishkite there's eight strands on sites there's eight big day kahuna and there's eight generations from a until they went out of eight is luminat Exactly right. From the moral and so therefore I figured I would write about that and then I wrote about the Sandic and uh in general I wanted to make some very very strong essays and somebody who was fabulous fabulous in the translation of the was Avi Gold. Sure. Avi Gold worked for many. Yeah. Really he he was just absolutely incredible. And uh he could put together the translation. He was absolutely amazing. And I'll tell you something very interesting. I don't tell this often, but but it just shows, you know, what I felt about what they are. I remember one time I had a certain problem. I forgot what it was. And I went to Abn Sherman, you know, in his office in Coney Island Avenue. And I asked him for a bro and he said, "Why why are you coming to me? I mean, there's so many that you could go to." I said, "Nasan, is there anybody else who is Marbet's like you?" I mean, think about it. It's all over the world. there's no greater habitat than you and so of course you have more than anybody and that's how I looked at it and then and this was even before the shas so uh it it's it's humbling to be part of them and I'll never forget in 19 well they started in 76 and then they had their 10th year anniversary I remember gift was one of the guest speakers and I was invited to that dinner that they had it was fabulous to sit among those ha people that uh just changed the way as I said before the way people ded the way people learned it was just it's all art school what was it like for you back in 1985 when you first held your book that you pined for for so long I'll tell you and you were finally holding it what what was that you will not believe I'll never forget it was a maze line it was his kitchen and I came on a Friday Eric Shavez and um he told me that he had the book. Mhm. And I had worked on it two and a half years. Now, I had never seen a book that I published because this was the first book, right? So, I'm waiting for this thick book, right? This thick hard cover. And he gives me a soft cover that was so thin. I thought I would faint. I said, "Did you print everything that I wrote?" He said, "It's all here." I said, "I can't believe how could it be all here? Look at this." And I felt o this this looks like nothing. You know, it was a thin paperbank book. But of course, it was all in there. You know, the hard cover made it look a little better. But uh but I'll never forget then what I did was at that time in the beginning I had many many soft cover editions printed and I would give it out at every bris. And then a couple days later after the bris the people would call me and say, you know, we wish we had this before. It was so good. So then I started a new thing. Then I had UPS come to my house every single day and the moment I got a call, it's still Adama. The day I get a call, I fill out a UPS label and send them a book. And like this, they can read it, you know, a couple days before. And there's a tremendous amount of information in there. After completing the brisma book, what prompted you to go the story route and start writing up stories? Well, I'll tell you, I really feel that I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to a dear friend of mine, Kanuk Teller. Kanuk is a brilliant writer and uh initial I think it was at the end of the 80s or right around that time when the brisma book had come out. So shortly after 1985, there was a contest in Israel for writers to write about Yeshua and he among I'm sure it must have been a thousand writers put a piece together about the significance of Yoshalim and the history of Yushim and he won the contest and um I know that it was printed. I was very impressed with the way he wrote and then shortly afterwards he wrote his first book of stories and I think it was called sold s o u l e d and then I began thinking hey wait a second this guy's writing stories I have access to stories that nobody has because I was very close to raw my brothers Colin and were even closer than I was at that time and you know the American public certainly the young generation didn't know Yiddish they didn't know Hebrew and he had such great stories with such wonderful lessons and um I thought you know that would be a great idea. So I called him and I said uh you know that maybe we should write your stories in English and it would be for the public and I told him about art scroll and he said yeah that would be a great idea and he wanted that I should get started right away but I couldn't do it right away because I was still involved in the brisma book. I couldn't have my head involved in two books at one time. It was just too much. And then the sitter was coming out just at that time. And of course they had a hund,000 orders in advance before the sitter even hit the market and you can understand that there cannot even be one tiny mistake in a sitter. We're not talking about a mag book that you can you know you made a mistake so fine the next time you respell the word or whatever. I mean this is you're talking to Hashem can't mix up a seg and a te or a coma. So they had to do it over and over and over till it was absolutely perfect. But that delayed the publication of the brisma book. And so between me and you and the 100,000 people that are going to watch this, he got somebody else to start writing the stories. Really? Yeah. I was I was devastated because I gave him the idea. But you know, he he felt it had to be done. But you know sometimes somebody's mistake is your uh your advantage. And what that fellow did was he was translating literally for Shalom's Yiddish to English. And you can't do that. You can't translate one language to the other. You got to get the flow of what it was. And so by the time he realized that because people were telling him, listen, it's not readable in English. So then I started writing. And I had a cousin who learned inh. And what he did was that he took the stories that I sent him in English and he sat with Ramshalam and he translated them in Yiddish for Ramshalam. Is that to for the veracity to make sure that they were correct? Right. To make sure that it was correct. And Rab Shalom started writing me notes on the stories, how I wrote them, whether he liked it or not. And then it I guess his hand was hurting because he was just writing on every single story and my goal was to have about 9500 stories. And then he would tell me good you know like it was so beautiful how you touched this ma and then he would say from them has a different meaning alto together. So because of that a certain element happened in the market books that I've carried it till this day and that is the story is in one font because the first book that was only his stories. So the story was all his but the lesson from it was in a different font and in a indented chapter indented paragraph I should say and that was my lesson from it and he went along with that because like this the story remains the story whatever anybody wants to learn from it you know that's fine the way you learn it and you understand it that's in a different type face so it was clear that the lesson was yours and he gave you the liberty of doing exactly exactly and that's how I carried it in every book even the stories that were not from him and all the other subsequent books. I let the story stand for itself and then the lesson that I learned from it. And you know the Gomorrah says that Kazera god loan that the man was like a white coriander seed but the kazera god god comes from the word magged and so a story is like the mun the mun could be different things to different people and a different taste and that's how I touch the story can have different flavor to different people so I write the story and you learn what you like from it but I'm going to tell you what I learned from you could agree with me or you could not agree you know that's your prerogative but in that way it's like m and you know then it worked and what happened was after the maget speaks came out and that really took off no because nobody arts school had never printed a book on stories and that was selling left and right and I figured that's it you know I I got all the drop show stories what there is you know one time I was in arts school and Dustin Sherman says to me you know you got to write again I said what should I write he said listen to He said, "I just got back from South Africa and the Rebi was reading from your book to the Tamidim." He says, "You know how far South Africa is from here? Thousands and thousands of miles. And your stories are having effect on children in South Africa." I had never been to South Africa before since then. I've been there many times. I love going there. But he said, "If those rebay in South Africa are teaching the kids from your story, you got to find stories." I said, "Where am I going to find them?" He said, "Go back there. I'm showing my son. I got most of his good stories already. He said, "Well, then you're going to have to find others." And that's what happened. That's the first book was the mag speaks because it was only him. And then the second book was around the mag's table because when you're sitting around the mat's table, the mag tells some stories and other people tell stories. And that's what happened. I got some more stories from Rab Shalom. But basically I started asking different raonim and I started asking aim and I started asking people about stories and I started writing them down and that's why the second one was called round the market's table and it still had Rab Sham's picture on the second book because many of the stories were from him but the idea was that that's how it started going and once I started asking people for stories people would stop me in the street and tell me a story and you know they wanted to know if I know how to spell their name because they wanted to be printed. But and and then you know every time I've written a book I I figured okay that's the end. There's nothing else it can be but it's been going on. And what's interesting is that your first book on stories is called the maggot speaks right and the mid was referring to right what happened over time is that you became known as the mag and I tell you that was very embarrassing to me because you know I felt that that's an exalted title. I didn't want to take that on myself and that's why every book it's the illuminations of the mag you know the original mad reflections of the mag the original mag the splendor of the mag because I can't I I don't think I've ever called myself the mad I know many many people refer to it I remember Rabbi Brahman shalom he was the first one who introduced me that way still remember shalash yes farway when he mentioned that I was like so enamored and so thrilled and and humbled you you know that I should be called that. But I'll tell you a little secret. When Abalam was here the first time and my father was alive at that time, I was so amazed at what he could do with an audience. He could make them cry. He could make them laugh and he he moved them so. And I said to my father, it's hard to believe, but I said to my father, I said, "Is it possible to be a mid in America?" And my father said, "In America, you could become whatever you want to become." Now when I was 18 19 I was not thinking of becoming a maggot but just the fact that he told me that you could become anything that you want you know it was that was liberating you know but I will say that I think the reason why you became a known as the magid is because of your unbelievable oratory skills. So you started off writing, right? But it was the ability, like you said, to connect to an audience and to articulate in a way that resonates and that penetrates and that's compelling. Yeah. And that leads me to my next question. At what point did you know that besides for being able to convey messages via the written word that you'd be able to do it orally by being an auditor? When I'll tell you I'll tell you how that happened. It's very interesting because many many people when they see a book they think well if the fellow can write a story maybe he could tell a story. Now in camp of course I was a counselor and I was a learning rebby so I had some oratory practice so to speak you know I was a color war general you know and I always loved you know speaking I p leader and things like that but never you know on a broad scale in the family I always spoke at chevraas but I'll never forget Rabarak Gman actually I was his counselor in camp he was known as Barry Gman but today Rabbor and he called me to speak at a graduation he was running a Russian school and the book had just come out and in March I think it was or I think so that's when the uh first mag book came out and he called me for a graduation in June and it started from there now of course in the beginning you don't speak at the agura convention you know at Sinai and Daba in South Africa you know or in Kinlas in England you know for a thousand people but you know it slowly builds and once I began speaking and began to hone the speaking skills how to make it presentable how to make it orderly and then to review. I'll never forget the first time that I had spoken together with Rabbit Zahab Bronstein Shalom. She was such a tadas and I reviewed at the end of the speech as I always do. She said to me, you know, that's a great way of speaking. You must do that at every speech and that became like a u a trademark that I always review, right? I always review at the end and and it's there's a very important lesson there because it shows that there's a structure that there's a beginning, there's a middle, there's an end and it just flows. And many many people ask me, do you ever get nervous when you speak? And I always tell people the same thing. I never get nervous when I speak. Why not? I always get nervous when I prepare. When I'm preparing, I'm sweating bullets. I can sit at a table for three hours in a row. My wife says, "What are you doing at the table three hours in a row?" And I said, I'm thinking and I'm writing and I'm rewriting and putting the cards in order and figuring out what is going to make the audience listen and follow in such a way that they won't get lost and and and that's and that's I I I think that's part of it. So somebody just you know one of Kanya's friends uh Rosenberg just told me yesterday he said you know you should uh have a course in teaching people how to speak publicly. True. You know, so I was going to ask you growing growing up, were there any speakers who you aspired to emulate? That's a great question. Whose style maybe you incorporated into your own I'll tell I'll tell you some of the great speakers that I loved. John Kennedy was a fabulous speaker. Aba Eban. Oh, what a speaker. I think I heard the speech that he gave in the UN after the six day war. I think I've heard it 30 times. You know, I loved that speech. It was fabulous. He didn't mention Hashem's name in there. That hurt me. You know, he was an Israeli guy. How could you not say Hashem's name that it was a miracle of the six day war? for for whatever reason you know but Rabbi Jacobitz Emanuel Jacobitz oh the eloquence of this man Rabk Gifter Rav Schwab these people who spoke Rabankov Kameki Rabankov wasn't in order but the emis and the the hayasha of these people when they got up to speak or gift was of course very powerful so what do you what makes a master order is it the content is it the the ma the mastery of the language is it the cadence Is it the energy? I mean these things today we're inundated with so many different speakers. Everyone has their own style. What do you as the I think that what you just touched on it's all those things. First of all the audience has to feel that you respect them. That's the first thing. I always wear cufflings when I speak. Always. Always. Always. I mean even on Zoom I would never do a Zoom without a tie and a jacket. How do you speak to an audience without a tie and a jacket? So you respect them. You dress accordingly and you never talk down to people and you're always trying to build people. Tell people they're good but they can be better. Don't tell people they're bad. Nobody wants to hear that they're bad. And many times a speaker, you know, will try to show, you know, he'll give them muser, especially in l tell them how awful they are and they're going to burn a gem, you know, and that uh rash is the dinner and they better be afraid, you know, of what they've done. it's not my style, you know. So, you have to build people and I think that's one thing you have to connect to the people and never ever say anything that you don't believe in. And never ever ask an audience to do something that you don't do. You know, they'll see through it. They'll see through it. If you ask them you want them to do certain things, whatever to do in a certain part, I'm very big believer in saying Alira after Alenu. I always say it. I would never ask people to say it if if I didn't do it. I tell people to say kabonas you know there's certain things you know to give uh stucker every day there's a wonderful organization called dailygiving.org I'm involved with that. But that's only I could ask people to do that because I do it. So I I think that you have to have a powerful story and don't get bogged down with the details. You know, if you went to Shel, nobody cares if you went to Air France or LL or, you know, Delta Airlines. That's not important, you know, and you've got to get to the main point of the story and then relate to the story to the lesson that you want to give. And it's true. You have to face your audience. I never ever read a speech. Ever. Don't ever read a speech. Never. Because then you Yeah. Then you have notes. Yeah. I have notes. What I want to say? General. Have you ever used a teleprompter? No. No. No. Never. So you're speaking extemporaneously. Right. Just like I'm speaking to you right now. It's a conversation to give you structure. Exactly. Are you ever are you ever nervous that you may not have the right formulation of words and you may sometimes if I want a key word I may write that down because I have it in my mind you know what I want to say so I'll write down that key word another thing I never ever start with a joke many many speakers start with jokes you say most of the jokes are not funny and what happens is when the joke is not funny you turn off the audience what did he think what did this guy think and I'm so stupid, you know, that I think that's funny. It's not funny. Well, humor is tricky because what what some people find funny, others don't. I always say with a story and inspiration, yeah, very often you'll find that common theme that will inspire everyone, right? With a joke, a joke is not there. There's only one joke, one speaker that I know that started with a joke that was the greatest joke that I ever heard in front of an audience who was absolutely fabulous. And that was Rabbi Barl Wine. There's nobody like him anyway. Sure. And um he and I were at the was supposed to speak for the neffesh organization many many years ago and I said to Mrs. London who called us I'm not speaking after him. You know I got to speak first because you know this guy knows everything. You know what am I going to say? So I'll never forget it was preparing for goula and I'm telling you I prepared for that speech at probably two months at least two three months and I I'm telling you a week before the speech I called Rabbi Wine and I said you know what are you going to say because I'm very well prepared. I don't want to say something if you know you're going to say it. He said well you didn't even think about it yet. You know I'm preparing two and a half months and he he's not even thinking about it. Right. Okay. There were a thousand people in Mont High School in Burough Punk that night. I'll never forget. And I'm telling you, I covered that topic from head to toe preparing for Gula. He gets up, he said one sentence and he had the whole audience in his back pocket that he continued to dra. He said, and I can't imitate a Chicago accent, but he said, "I learned a lesson in the rabbinet a long time ago. When the mile gets finished, there's very little left for the rabbi to do." And that was a Oh gosh. He had the audience screaming in laughter and and then he gave a speech. But unless you have a a crack like that, don't start with a joke. How many hours does it take you to prepare one speech, would you say? Oh, it's days. Days and days really. You think about it all the time, you know, because you're constantly compiling information and you probably have an archive stories. Yeah. Well, that is true. But like for example right now um the last 10 years bar hashem I've been going to at least 10 years to England in L I'm not going to go this year because of you know they don't have the main audiences are not getting together and even it's a very big show but there's a thousand people that come so you can't social distance so we're going to do is gonna film a video but it's a brand new topic it's a great topic but I have to think a lot about it Mhm. which I really have to get into and that is how are we going to da this year rash without our regular that gets us into the ding and what if the regular can't be there and the regular is the one who usually is so you know you might not be in the regular sh that you're not going to be with your crowd you might not even be with your how you going to connect you know these are all givens you know Bil is there, the naguna are there, and the is there, but they're not. Wow, that's a that's a tough speech to prepare. I really have to think about that. I don't have the answers yet, but you know, we have to get them. I've once noted a difference between, let's say, those who work in music and entertain and inspire and those who write or speak. A singer, he could sing his hit song for 40 years and sing the same song again and again and the crowd will love it, right? A speaker cannot reuse his material. And especially in a world today where things are recorded, it's so true. What do you what do you do? What do you do? Din, you know, at one at one time before recordings and before videos, you could say a speech in one sh and say it in another and another and you're good to go. It's true. till the story makes the rounds. Nowadays, your material is only as good as the day you say it. Well, you know, it is true to a point, especially when it goes on to anytime.com, which is one of the great organizations includes all over. And my wife many times tells me, don't give it to them. Don't tell them you're speaking, you know, in Brooklyn because they come and record it and then you're stuck in Los Angeles. But my policy is and I keep a record of every single speech just like I keep a record of every Oh, every Sure. Of course. Every sing. Every single one with the topic and the content. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, sure. I could tell I can you tell me a speech that I gave in a date. I'll have a few in five seconds. Wow. Yeah. It's not on computer. It's all written out, but whatever. Although now I have it on computer and I could find it. And um so if I gave a speech in Los Angeles, I won't give that speech again. But if I gave it in Chicago and they listened to it, you know, I can't be blamed for that, you know. So I may repeat in Los Angeles what I said in Chicago, right? Or I could say in South Africa, you know, what I said in Switzerland, but um in the same place, I would never repeat the same speech. Now you're we're looking here all the books you produced. It's a real nas. What do you see? What's your next step? Well, you know, I had a tremendous tremendous with the Haga. Now, um, people have been asking me for years that I should write a Hagoda. And then two years ago, I decided, you know, now's the time. And the way I decided to write the Hagoda was different than any Hagod that was ever printed. In other words, I'm not going to write a commentary because there are thousand of Perushim on the Hagod. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to take every part like nowadim you know what aim stands for. So in the first word of the answer that the father gives he's talking about Msiah. That's the goal. It's amazing. now and um so what I did was I took the theme of every piece whether it was or whatever and um wrote a story about something about the essence of that piece. So it wasn't the commentary on the piece but somebody could read it now and I worked very very hard on it and has the greatest editors in the world Sherman who edits all my stuff and um tell you a great story about that in a second and for me Eisner Mrs. Felic they are fabulous there's no editors like them in the world and they've been doing my the last number of books and that I I said to Rob Nelson I said you know why don't we publish a book of the way I gave you the story and the way you edited and people will learn how to write she says I don't want to embarrass you but he's masterful it's just there's no way I I love I love seeing what he does with the sentences and and the structure he's fabulous So um what happens is that I I give in the stories you know they edit it and they bring it back to me they send it to me and then and they're working very very very diligently. So now when the haga came out it was right before pur before co now I had worked very hard I worked a year and a half on it and when co happened I figured that's it finished you know it's not going to sell all the stores are closed they to go home and then Oscar moved to raw and governor Murphy allowed them to be open even when co started in New York so they were able to sell thousands and thousands of hagodas even though the stores were closed people were calling and they were ordering them. And to me, one of the most rewarding things was that so many almans, so many people told me that they were alone at the sedar and they read the hag until 2:30 in the morning. You can't imagine so many almans said to me, "It was me, you and Hashem." And we loved it. We read it both nights. One lady wrote me, she said, "I never said shia shirum at a seda before in my life, but you had it there and you explained it and I was alone and I was up till 2:30 reading it and it was so special." So Gdalia just couldn't get enough of the emails, you know, I was getting all these emails and I forwarded to him. He said, "You got to do something else." I said, "What?" So I had an idea, but you know, of course, they always have better ideas. And he said to me, "What you should write is on elashana and yamipper and do like a hag just like you did. Don't write a perish on the mer." So the working title is the mag on the makar but it's not going to be on the m only it's on el it's on cha all these wonderful stories that I've picked up in different places many of them new some of them from the m books and it's going to be on the different type on you know all these things the theme of them and rabnos is just masterful now the story that I just gave in the other day and felis just gave it to me back Today the final letter thing I don't know if you know that in 1943 in Denmark Hitler and Himmler they wanted to finish off the yidden and they had planned they had planned that on the night of Russia Shana when all the yidden were in shoos they were going to round up with trucks around all the shs take the yidden get them on ships and ship them to concentration camps and there was one guy his name was Duckwitz he was a Nazi but he was in the government in Denmark and he was a German represent. He hated the Nazis. He hated their cruelty and he decided he's going to, you know, betray his country and tell the Jews that they got to get out. And that's what he did. He let the Jewish people know through the president of the Jewish society who let the rabbi know. And on the day of two days before Rashashana, the RV got up, Rabbi Melikar, and he said, "Rabisai, we're not saying, I want you to go home right now, and I want you to run. Tell everybody they got to run up north because this guy, Duckwitz, went to Sweden to try to convince the Swedish prime minister that the Jews would come over by boat and he should take them. They should take them." And it's hard to believe. There are few books about this. And I I I was going to ask where the story is documented. Yeah. So there's Mrs. Shariffstein who I know in Cran Heights she grew up in Stockholm she wrote a book it was morning it was evening or it was evening it was morning and Rabbi Bamberger wrote a book about called the Viking Jews and he has the whole story about it how the Yidden ran 6,000 yidden was saved within two weeks from before Rashana until after Yam Kipper and they stayed in Sweden some for 19 some for 22 months and what's shocking is when they came back they went into their houses Everything was still on the table the way they set it for Rashashana. The beckers were there, the candalabras were there, the silverware was there, the dane did not let anybody go into the houses. That's how Rabbi Bamberger ends his book. It was just unbelievable. So there's one of the stories that you're you're including in the volume and you hope to have this done for next year. Rash do do you foresee doing then following it up with something on Kaneka Purum and who knows? Yeah. Who knows? I don't know. Maybe we do another market book of stories. I don't know. This is something that I've wanted to ask some of our guests. What other than a Rabbi Cone book, of course, or Khaviva's book or your mother's book, what is your favorite book or two that you could think of that either impacted you or that you particularly mean? Not the ones that I wrote. Not the ones that you wrote. That's a good question. I have to think about that. What book? You know, there was a Rabbi Donan many years ago who wrote a book to be a Jew. That was fabulous. That made a big rushim on me. Um, trying to think. I mean, I've gotten all of Rab Schwab's book selected speeches and things like that. Now, of your books, any one that in particular? Well, there's Traveling with the Mag was the most difficult one to write. uh that was about our trip to Lithuania, right? And that had to include the history and what went on on the trip and the so that was three books in one and it's a coffee table book. I was hoping to write something on Poland. Maybe one day I would do that. Then there's a book called the glittering world of which has fabulous ideas of of Israel in different places all over the world. And of course the brisma book is something that I'm very proud of. you know, that was the first one and uh Hashem, you know, it's uh I'm very very gratified. You've enriched us all. We love the stories. I hope so. My only question is whether you're a better writer than a speaker or a better speaker than a writer, but either way than both of them. I just did Kanya's grandson, buddy. Yeah. That's right. Mazu. Yeah, that's right. And of course, we should mention that it's Kanya who's the brilliance behind making us look good on the show. I mean, we sit, we talk, but someone's got to be behind the can camera and Kanya and his team at Kum do a fabulous job. So, we thank all of them and we thank you for joining us today for giving us uh some insight into what has become a tremendous career of inspiring, inspiring all of us to be better people, to be better and You should continue to use your considerable talents. Amen. Amen. And I just want to encourage all the listeners that have your kids read a lot so that they can learn to write and they can learn to speak because today with technology the way it is, you could be speaking here in New Jersey in Raway in New Jersey and somebody in Chile and Switzerland is going to be inspired by it. And that's what Torah anytime is all about. You know, you have speakers in Queens, but it it goes all over the world. So if you know how to write and you know how to speak, you have such a possibility of reaching tens of thousands of people. That's why it is so important. 100%. I can tell you just from being here at Oscar, we see where orders go to. It's worth a visit just to the just to the warehouse to see the addresses of where books and gar and are going to. And it is inspiring that the written word has that power to go to go all over. And like you said, well that's the you know motto the written word is forever. Exactly. It really is. So we thank you again and I thank Shalom for the opportunities that he's given me and Raim and Rabia Ellie Cone all these guys make me look good. Believe me, you know it's not me but uh I'm so grateful. We are fortunate and thanks for your for enhancing the arts world brand as you have. Thank you. Thank you so so much. Okay and everything you do. Thank you. [Music]