Inside ArtScroll Season 2 Episode 12: Interview with Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Reinman (Avner Gold)

[Music] Hello everyone and welcome back to Inside Art Scroll where the books you read and the people who write them come to life. Today we are privileged to be joined by Rabbi Yakab Ysef Rinman, a noted Mahabarim as well as the prolific author of many best-selling books including those Rabbi Reinman written under the name Aar Gold. I don't know if this is the per first public exposure of Rabbi Reinman as Aar Gold which we'll get into but first let's start off with your upbringing the influences in your younger years and then we'll get into your writing career. Well, I grew up in uh on the east side of New York and then um then I went to we moved to um Crown Heights. I went to Kassan Cipher in the east side and um afterwards I moved to Kim Berlin. I was 14 years old when I moved to Khan Berlin and I had the the greatus of learning barak mo shin in the last year of his life. He was what grade was there? This was I was in the 10th grade but it it wasn't always parallel. That was that was a third year bish but in English I was in 10th grade. So it wasn't the only one. There are a number of people in the morning you learned in a higher grade than in the afternoon. Yeah. It was not unusual. Mhm. Jakamoshin was one of your rebin. He was my first reb third third year medish and um it changed my life. It was it was a revelation. Abakovish introduced me to the world of lumbus which you know I was not I was a pretty good baker but lumbus was just dazzling and and he's his sheer he just learned no and I thought that was fantastic because when you learn many mafarim the mafarim become another thing that you have to learn like you learn Gmorra, you learn Rashi, you learn Tyus, learn Yeshua, you learn this, learn that. They just more more information, but really that's not what it's supposed to be. They're supposed to be there to help you understand the garra. So what he did was that I'm sure many of the things that he taught us were taken from Sarim and but he didn't he didn't attribute any names to them. So it was just the ideas, the concepts and it was it was incredible and the shar was also very interactive like he used to say he ask a kasha and you know expect people say a ter and tell me kakira and you know I one time he asked he asked the question and and and uh I gave him an answer. So he turned to me and he points at me and he says London. He changed my life just by doing that my view of myself as a person like who has to work on on understanding and really getting to the gar just changed it. It wasn't just at now get a we used to get benas from Rnik and uh you know my always failed because we didn't know what the say one time I I cheated I went to the other b I took the first I asked him what he asked about so I went and looked it up and I was able to pass the I even got as a prize but it didn't come from the shar the he never mentioned mention never mention never mentioned the Rambam just focus understanding the concepts and the ideas of the Gumra that was incredible and so you would say Rav Shuriken shaped the and and afterwards I learned uh after he was nif uh maybe a few months after almost a year so he had son of m and shorgan organized the kabur of bakr and we used to learn on shab We met met Friday before Shabas and met before and we used to learn straight through until m Shabas. Then we used to go to his house and we used to take notes and a whole week we wrote. Where did this meet? In in East Flatbush called the Deja. I don't know if it still exists but it was just we learned in the back. It was not far from where he lived and it was uh I was in it and Belle both Rashiva of laterki who's very very of m revival kh's brother who was also a tremendous bish so he organized this small group and that's what we did and and it took it whatever I got by sikl brought it to a different level and you know that's that's where that's where I come from. Now later on you learned by rav but you did have other you had other in between right it was at the same time I was for four years first year was shin the second year I was by and the last two years by hutner and uh but concurrent with that I learned we learned this kabur was rautner you know was was you know he uh you know he once called me in and he told me I should write a mishtical we learn this was I was uh I was 17 so I was learning the co on president street at that time so so I wrote on the sim about I worked very hard on it for like three days and you know a few pages I came in and I gave him the and he sat They looked it over. Looked it over and he said, "Yeah, which means he wanted to see my handwriting." That he was just being provocative. He was That's what he was. He was What did he really? What did he really want? He wanted to see my style. If I could write, if I could capture what he says, if I could capture, of course, he gave me the job of writing a shurim. So like the last year I was a wrote. And you gave those gave them to him. to him and he wanted them for for his own private use. I don't know. Maybe they'll be published someday. I don't know. But I gave it to him. Yes. Do those does anyone have those writings today or you don't? I don't know. This is many years ago. This is uh you know what are we talking about in the 70s? In in the 60s. 60s. Yeah. I went to of course we're not giving away any ages here but uh well I'm I'm past retirement age but never retire so so um so then but I was 18 I went to Lakewood I move I moved to Lakewood how did you choose to go to to base maja I felt it was more for me I felt it was better of Yankee Belle who was my very very close friend and we were together in the Kabura and he had gone to Lakewood and he encouraged me to go. He said I would and I I did I think it was a very good move. I liked it very much. I joined a very good Kabura. We learned in the back of the right corner of the Bismish there was um no Vulian and Ginsburg and Goodman and Schmal Miller and Yak Busel and Frankle and Baka Fensteim and Bash and and the beginning of Yasitzki was there. It was it was a very and I learned with this for uh for a number of years. Uh we learned Kachchim I learned Kachchum there two years and while we were learning Kachchum we learn Kachum the front left corner of the Bish and and uh the Rashiva Rashiva of Lakewood. Yeah with whom I had a very close relationship. He used to you know he he was he was a genius. used to at the end of everyman he used to tell me I had to write him I had to tell him I'm sorry I had to tell him so I had you know I had I had some is longer and I fig I'll go in take me 40 minutes yeah so I come in and I tell him this yeah okay go to the kasha yeah he whatever I said he caught it like so fast and when I said the vart oh yeah oh there was there good took like four minutes or three minutes you know I thought it would take 40 but uh no but he was he was a wonderful wonder wonderful person and I loved him you know when he was when I put out my safaris so to him he was which I should mention we have here hiding hiding behind the books here we have Rabbi Raner Shuer dish we also have here I'll grab here without knocking anything down the shiba that's more recent. That's more recent. And also your safer on we have back here. Yes. And you'll be putting out a new safer soon on on. Yes. It's almost done. I mean it's hypet and everything. I just have to I have to do the dama. So um Oh, so I I went to that's the whole story. I went I got vasoma from from Rav Shak on my safer and how I ended up doing the safer was because Reneer was complained that all the best bakim and the yeshiva were sucked out by the kabura and the yeshiva was not uh was a little bit dry. So he so on one's man we were learning I think tamura. So he wanted that second su we should learn with the yeshiva. So second s we learned the yeshiva thehiva was learning the second pair of the ofus and I loved it. It was it was so complicated and so difficult so challenging and so lumish. I loved it. So afterwards I I decided I'm going to work on stories. I learned Gitton I worked very much stars and later maybe 10 years later I decided I'm going to write a safer onto. So I had about 100 pages of onto I figured okay I have this I'll do a little more. I'll have a safer. So he sat down to learn stories and I think the when he wants you to do something he gives you some self delusion you think it's going to be easy you know a person gets involved can make a business you otherwise you never bother otherwise you wouldn't do it but once you're in it if you have any kind of uh backbone you just persevere and you do it so ne I started learning and next thing I knew I was like in over my head you know what's going on here the hundred pages that I had I used practically nothing and I had the concept of how to do it got too much into this but the safer it has like 400 smaller size proim on all different aspects of and then and I think that's why the safer was and you got you have I saw Dian wise dice so so dice by the way I I moil Cutotler was install then I didn't go to him I didn't see him I sent him the safer he took it to Dian Weiss and Dian Weiss sent me a scoma and so he told me I'm waiting for I'm waiting I'm waiting and it's nothing nothing here so I called him Moil and he tells me he sent him with this and this bakar so I went over to found the bakar I went over to him and I said where's my he said I lost it said you lost it why don't you tell me he didn't tell me so I called Moil. He got another one and he told me the second one was better than the first. Okay. It was about anyway I went to Rshak to get us and gave me a letter to to to give to Shak and I came into him have a letter. So he takes letter he says thank you very much and he said it's finished. So he said the letter is about me. So, oh, so he opens it up and he reads the letter and he said that you know what you did by you know the regular thing and I said listen you know you know is of shak like he was an expert on it that was very special to him also so so he said look you know he made a gather on himself that he doesn't give us commas but he uh he said because of this letter from it was very close said I have no choice. So I'll give you the ask. Do you want to leave the safer with me or you want me to give you the Aska now while I'm here? I was there for a few days. So I said I'll leave it. So I got the I got the I don't remember how long ago a couple of months later I got to ask. It's really really good as he went through the saver. I don't know if he went through every single thing but he wrote he wrote that it should be a safer shimiat. Wow. And he said that he wanted to write Hagagoyas on it but that because of Rios Alakuya because he couldn't he had trouble seeing those years so he couldn't do it but the I think the is even more famous than the than the but so I was saying when the safer came out and he was sick then he was like in you know towards the end of his life so in his sick bed he had that safer on his night table all the time. It was very it meant a lot to him. So um and at that point in your life when you're writing Shu Dtara did you have any uh aspirations as far as habata sat outside of the Shiva or at that point were you you mean like saying shim shim. What was your aspiration person? My was to write five shafras. Really? That was my aspiration. I thought I could do it. Knocked them off every year and a half, two years, but that was my aspiration to write for him. I didn't have the I guess I could have been a Rashiva Makir and uh I didn't want to I don't want to do that. I wanted I felt I felt it was too restrictive that I would have to be limited to have to be busy a lot with Bakram. And of course it's very very rewarding but you can't do everything right. So and and then you have to learn the same things and you can't and when I'm when I'm learning my like braer I just said braer right so I mean brea is wide ranging I'm all over all over shas and I could sit down and learn learn sukias in zury and in kachim and in yuma and and above bastra and I just have the freedom the freedom to learn whatever I want and to really do it and without having to be you know to adapt myself to something else. So, so that's I didn't have I didn't want to that's what I wanted to do. That's what I wanted to do, but I need I needed Pasa, right? That's a problem, you know. I mean, so so um I did a translation of Samar. So I did parts of it. I used in those days in the 80s um yeshivas used to send out books. I don't know if it's so common today. Mailings mailings to raise money. Sure. They send out books to raise money. So I did translation of Samar and I took parts of it, made booklets out of them and would give them to me alteras was one of them. And baswood wanted uh wanted um stories. So I said, "Okay, I'll get you stories." I figured I'll find somebody to write some stories. and um not so successful finding you know whatever I got you know I wasn't so successful so then we came towards you know he he has a mailing he has a mailing waiting so you know and I don't have anything so they call so he tells me who's he shankleski from vshankleski so he says why don't you write something so I was a good writer you know I aspired to writing books. So I was in ninth grade I wrote a book I wrote a a uh a report on the automobile industry and uh cyer still nth grade and the teacher um he gave me an A but he said it's definitely plagiarized. It was too good. Yeah. So he said he had no choice because he couldn't find I never plagiarized a word in my life you know but I but you know I I was good in English you know I was uh I learned that I learned uh no I really um strong interest in grammar in all languages that I speak I you know you know I I learned the grammar I learned the the science of the language and I read read a lot and I and a natural natural born gift for writing and I was very good in the sixth grade was my most influential teacher right he was he was uh same as Mr. Brown he was a poet he used to get up on put his chair on the desk in Cipher and he used to recite the telltale heart and Edgar Allan Poe it was like and then and he taught us different things about writing and you enjoyed that I loved it and and he uh he like gave us writing assignments and he taught us something called fine writing that if you use big words where you could use small words he took off points really. Yeah. And you know he was he was very I learned a lot by him and then I was just good at it. So I would never I would never I'd never plagiarize of art from anybody or anything. It's I mean I have too much self-respect. But this is what I did. I did I I had this assignment. I did it and he okay but he gave me an A because he had no proof was too good you know I was innocent or proven guilty but I was innocent so going back to the base getting best mailing many years later so he knew somehow I don't remember why that I I know how to write so he said I should write something so and it was late what could I do so there was a story that I used to tell my kids sometime like you know so I figured okay let me take that story, make something out of it. So I locked myself in a room and I wrote the first promised child in five days. I just stream of consciousness. I didn't outline it. I didn't do anything. I had no idea what century I was in. No idea. It was just a story. I mean, they didn't have cars. They went with wagons and horses. There were no cars that I knew. But other than that, I didn't know. They went from Pulichev which was in south. Pulichev is narol where I come from. I knew where that was and they went from there to Krakco. So I didn't take out a map. I don't have time. I didn't look for anything. Every place they went to I made up the names of every place. I made up the names of towns and cities. I just just and just finish the story. So in five days you wrote the promise. Five days I wrote it. It was not a tremendously big book. It was like 95 pages, but I wrote it. I figured and then I needed a name. Author's author. Yeah. I didn't want to put my name on it, first of all. I didn't think I thought it was just a throwaway. I didn't think it was anything. And I didn't think that. I mean, people now know me a little bit better. they know I'm you know a little bit uh so but at that time I thought it would be too disconcerting for somebody wrote a safer onto which is very all over the world and to write the stories it it's in congruous but uh so I figure I needed need a pen name so what kind of pen name I like to name a need a last name gold so one of my neighbors Her aunt's name was Gold. So gold. So it was random. It wasn't with a big nob just nob just it's not a bad name but just uh just just a name and I figured okay it's going the mailing it's finished be forgotten and that's it. The problem not a problem. What happened was that people liked it. They liked it and they wanted a sequel. So now I'm going to write a sequel. So I have to figure out when the story took place. So um like the climax of the promised child is that there is a a debate with uh you know one of these disputations with the church in in Krakco and they asked Rendle who is the RV of Pulichev to come represent the Jewish community in Krakco. Now Krakco was a major Jewish center and had huge rub on him. So why would they go call Ra Mendel from Pulichef to come? So I had to find a gap and I found there was a gap between the Bach and the Bach was until 1640 in 1643 there was a three-year interregnum and during that time they're probably running searches. So running searches you know till you go to till you invite a ro from there it takes them a couple of weeks to come to go it could take time. So there was a gap there. So that's where my story took place. Now I knew, okay, so now I have to carry the carry the story forward from then. So I had to study the centuries, the 1600s. So it turns out that it has theat, you know, the the the Kazaks, the Melnitki rebellion, right? Then there was shopsite. Then there was the expulsion from Vienna. And then there was like the big eruption of the Inquisition in the 1680s. And then there was so it was a very rich century and that's what I wrote about and I just wrote one after another. I studied all of them like the year of the sword is about What propelled you to keep writing the books? Was it the popularity? Yeah. Yeah. Well, he kept he kept mailing them out and people kept waiting. When's the next one coming? you know, so I had, you know, kept doing them. So, um, and these were written mostly in the 80s, right? What would you say? The first eight books were written in the 80s. In the '8s, the last four were written at the end of the s like 2008, 2009. That's why I wrote decided to revive and these books were all re rewritten, re-released now by arts, right? So, so the when this when I decided to go to Oscar and write more books, I made changes. Mhm. I gave first of all the family. The family in the first book was called Pulichevver. I didn't even bother giving them a last name. Was based on the town. They came from Pulichev. I called them Pulichev. I didn't bother, you know. I'm not just saying that. And then that's what they were. But now I decided to give them a name Strawber and give them a history and called the series the Strasburg Saga. So the last four books were written for the Strasburg Saga. Now at you know recently the last few years I took the first eight books and I tried to bring them up to par and they should be like the first eight books of the Strasburg saga. So I I revised them, I edited them and I added a lot like the promised child even the earlier had also gone through several revisions and it was eventually it was like you know decent size book but for this I doubled it. I wrote the first half of the book is completely new and for each of the books I added a lot. I also added a guttle at that time in each of the books. So anybody reading one of these books would also be introduced to a guttle who lived during that period. Not always did he play a big role. For instance, the uh the tisto plays a very big role in the dream you know and the story of the tyisant that he wrote in the migilla how he was arrested and sentenced to death and that's that the whole story is in there. It's just that people didn't know. Is that just to make the story feel real? No, because what do you mean? It's it's that was the story. I put I made that part of the story, right? I made that part of the story and it's all true. The only thing that people didn't know was that Rendel Strasburg was the one who helped get him off. But other than that, it's all true and that they were very close friends. But other than that, it's all true. So, so some books the the the god plays a much larger role and the morirano prince the moan is more like a cameo role but it's still you meet him you know about his life you know about uh his yeshiva what it was like so do you and so you get to know where he places in history and a little bit about him sometimes more sometimes less so where did you draw your historical knowledge because these books are historical fiction. There's a lot of fiction, but there's a lot of history and it has to be accurate. It's all very researched. I did a lot of research, even more than Wikipedia. I did I did a lot of research like the Morirano Prince for instance, the last one. Now, there there's a famous um Morano book called Family from Marcus Leman. The the the issue is though that Marcus Leman wrote the book in the 1850s or something like that. The Inquisition was officially closed in 1837 and all its records have since then I know people didn't know what it was about. They thought that maybe the Morirano kids what it sits as tucked in instead of out, but they didn't know they were Jewish till they were 19. It was too dangerous to tell them. But since then like I read I read doctinal dissertations on the Inquisition. I read Hen Harry Cayman Henry Cayman. I read uh Sisil Roth. I read I read uh um Benian Netanyao BBo you know I'm not a big fan of his but I'm a very big fan of his father. Beno was brilliant brilliant historian and he's the historian of moranos and wrote many books about them and you know I read I read them he has a book called the history of moranos according to the Hebrew sources and everything is taken from and on the bottom he has the the lion of the in Hebrew and so I know I did as much re lot of research that's on the historical side now on the writing side I'm sure there are many viewers wondering how someone like you who went through the yeshiva system. Never went to college. No. Where did you get your writing? I went to BMG. You went to BMG. So you went to a tamorical school so to speak. Yes. Yes. But where did you get your training if any to learn writing technique to learn vocabulary to learn just what we have here which is a classic set of the high really a very high level writing. I read a lot. I read very much you know especially in my teenage years I read like uh I read the classics I read in school I had to read some books you know like I was grapes of wrath or you know I could quote Shakespeare to you if you want you know you know I can quote McBth somequiz but we studied those then so you really when you say the classics you mean the classics well I I didn't read Shakespeare in my own time not a lot but I read I read um I read Uh, Kingdom of Pissant. I read I remember John Steinbeck from school. John Steinbeck. I read everything he wrote. Everything. I read Sinclair Lewis. I read everything. If I liked an author, I read everything. I read Stendal. I read Victor Yugo. I read Toltoy Dustfki. Someone like Victor Yugo. You read it in the original French. Or did you? No, my French is not that good. I learned French in the cyer by the way ninth grade I learned French one year and you know my class learned French and everybody was okay how are we going to get through this you know because but I said I want to know this I mean to know language is something it's like a rush it's it's something so I went out and I read I read kitasant I read some of his books so you have an appreciation for language that that's what it sounds like you're a linguist yeah Yeah, I learned a little Russian. I could speak I can manage in a few languages even in Yiddish. Yiddish is actually my first language because actually your Rebi Rahutner, I think, is quoted as saying that the average yeshiva boy is illiterate in three languages, right? But apparently you've mastered well several. Well, well, you know, English is not bad and Yiddish is also, you know, that's uh Hebrew. So in Hebrew, I can write for him. I can I know safer language, but to write literary Hebrew, I'm not capable. I could get through a Hebrew newspaper, but I couldn't write that type of Hebrew, right? But other languages like uh Spanish, I could do like I'm fairly fluent, but um you know, get by. I was in Spain. I lived Spanish and in France I work in French. We're Russian. Everyone says Russian, you speak Russian. Actually, my parents spoke Russian. That means when they wanted to speak, I shouldn't understand. They spoke Russian. They spoke Russian. Okay. But but um no, they say you could read Russian. Reading Russian, I knew I was 12 because it's just it's just an alphabet of 30 30 letters and half of them was the same as English. And it's the easiest thing. It's phonetic. It's the easiest thing to read Russian. think you read Russian. Chinese would be something maybe, but Russian is very easy. And uh yeah, listen, I have uh but now I should mention of the books that we have here. I I have a lot of about half of them are not of the Strawburg series. They're books that you've written over the years. Strawber now. No, but I'm talking about with Hearts Full of Love, Hearts of Faith, other books that you were commissioned to write. Yes. Talk about those where you've you've had the opportunity to write up. You wrote up Rib Schlmer Fryfelds. I wrote I wrote for Matsio, right? I wrote for Matsio. Matsio actually is uh a very good friend of mine. Yeah. I'm one of his only friends. He has either um Talmid followers or adversaries. I'm one of his friends. And you became friends with Ramatio when he became a in before? Not right away. when he came really not right away but then I started learning I started learning which I didn't you know my background those days didn't learn and I felt so I started learning with and actually wrote a kish right here and and I heard that it gives a vad on shabas so I went there to hear what he had to say and I liked him I like what he said and I liked So, uh, you know, I used to talk to him a little bit. I I don't think he knew who I was. And so, I said to him once, uh, I said, I'd like to make a sedu with you. So, I said, what? I said, maybe once a week for like 15, 20 minutes, I'll tell you my verish. So, he said, okay. So, we started like that. And then in 1999, we went to Russia together for the val. So I told that the um Jewish observer wanted me to go along and write an article. So I said I would do it. So I told Matio that I would do it if we would learn together on the on the trip. So we learnish together. So we did. You sit on the plane and learnish. And he said maybe we should learn every learn other things. And then he suggested we should learn every day. So we did learn every day. We learned we learned different things. And how did that lead to you writing up two volumes of the me so so they it was so I don't remember who asked me I think it was maybe art scroll or somebody maybe arts scroll asked me I should write it and I got paid for it and uh and to write a schmooen I had to you know he told me he didn't think that uh that I saw a different um schmusen that he gave that were printed he said he didn't think anybody could capture it it make it good. But you know I have an ear you know for for for dialogue for and I knew him well and and what I did was when I write books dialogue so what I do is I create the characters in my mind and I allow them to speak to each other. I just step back and allow them speak. It's a little schizophrenic, no, but I love them speak to each other and they talk and I'm writing catching up with what they're saying. It's almost like you're eavesdropping on their conversation. And sometimes they surprise me by what they say. What what what do you mean by that? That your own character surprised me. They'll say something. I mean, it's coming from from that schizophrenic place in my brain. But, you know, like there's an envoy from Vienna. The the queen says to Alicia Engel, they're talking about expelling the Jews from from Vienna. So she turns to Lee Ring, you're from Poland. Is there room in Poland? So he says, "Oh, we just had a massacre. Half the people were killed. There's plenty of room in Poland. I didn't know you just said that." And then she says, "Why do all the little guys have such sharp tongues, you know, I didn't I didn't tell her to say that either. She just said it, you know. So, you know, but I create the and I let them speak. Does that make sense? Yeah, I guess. I guess. Okay. I mean the final product proved that it's a good technique. Okay. So usually you know you know I don't put words in the mouths of my characters. I don't do that. I let them talk. So really what I did was I created a non-fictional fictional character in my mind. His name was Romaticio and I let him speak and and I just wrote and the same with Fryfeld. Same same thing. I had I met only once but I listened to his uh CDs to his and same Rabbi Fran you know I listened to them and and right you wrote to two swarm from three swarm from Rabbi France so so uh one of me and said that I must be a tom of his because it sounds exactly like him you know but it's it's like I could hear it I hear what he's saying and I hear I hear I hear the language I hear the sound of his voice when I when I speak um Spanish, right? So the people tell me first of all they tell me I sound like a professor because I speak grammatical. I learned the grammar. I speak grammatical Spanish. Not that I'm I'm missing words, but I'm I'm missing words a lot. But when I speak Spanish, I don't speak like like gringo like a North American. Ablingo, but I don't speak like that. So they tell me I sound like I come from Argentina someplace else. When I was in Russia, they think you're you're a native speaker. They think I speak Spanish, but I'm from somewhere else. But I was in Russia. So in the hotel, I was speaking Russian. So she says, you know, that I speak like like like I'm from Russia, but not from here, from someplace else. And I don't know where. But, you know, it's it it has I guess it's a little bit like music or that I I can hear it. You have an ear sound. The reason why Americans speak Spanish like that because they don't hear the difference between what they're saying and what they're hearing, the new the nuances. Yeah. They don't hear the sound the sound of the language. They don't hear it. Now before before we conclude uh tell us a little about what you've heard from readers because I know you've gotten a lot of reaction over the years letters hundreds of emails literally hundreds of letters emails that people tell you what is the common denominator of the feedback specifically we know to get hundreds of letters of I get some but not hundreds but to the gold series is much smaller but that's my audience but you know you say these books were written Bengava Lagava your main writing are My main thing is writing swarim. When I write a book, I'll take off a few weeks or a couple of months and I'll write the book. But that's not what is the common denominator as far as the feedback. They they all love the stories, the excitement, the adventure, but they also love the values that are given them. They love like people say that they've used my books as guiding them through life, their relationship to to the relationship to mitzvah. I don't lecture about that but but it's there in all my books and there there's a lot a lot of in my later books I started putting in a data to from my safer a small one but okay I figured you know you could tolerate that but uh but there's a lot of values that come come from the bismish they come from the bismish and I don't know how many books that are now our literature come from from the bismish. I'm not simply not familiar. I'm not saying I'm the only one. There may be others, but it's certainly not as common as books that don't come from especially the books that are written by the uh who are who are wonderful the the our women are fabulous but they don't come from they don't have that type of background. So I feel that it's also important to have that that perspective added to the mix of what people read and it really has a very profound effect on them. People are like you know very excited. I also always respond to readers always. First of all I love getting letters from the readers. I love it. Okay that's good for people to know. Yes absolutely. my emails into forward, but but it's just simply a matter of respect that if somebody writes to me, I will respond. So sometimes it could take me a month or two till I get to it. But I always respond and with some of my readers, you know, it ends up being a correspondence. Sometimes just thank you very much. I appreciate it. Means a lot to me. And sometimes it's about uh about substance and you know we have discussions and it's it's a it's very important to me. It means a lot. Well your story is an amazing one and we want to wish you continued on the we hope that you'll write some more books also to the benefit of Israel. Thank you and we thank you for all these gifts that you've given us. Thank you. I appreciate it. We appreciate you coming in. And I want to tell you something. I came here today and there was a yard sight suda right we could mention that today is this conversation is taking place on the yard side of Rome's lot right and I told before I met with Rabbi Sherman and I told him and I really mean it that what they have done and Nenashia what they have done is historic it belongs in the history books that will be written 300 years from now it's amazing what they've done and I'm happy to be part of it. Well, thank you for being part of the arts family and again, thank you for making the effort to come down here and have this conversation. My pleasure. Thank you very much. Thank you. [Music]