Inside ArtScroll Season 2 Episode 9: Interview with Bestselling Author Rabbi Yechiel Spero

[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 joined by Rabbi Yil Spiro, prolific author of many best-selling books including his latest on the capitol of Yosh Viser. First of all, thank you for joining us for this conversation. Long overdue and uh I'm happy I'm able to finally be It's great to have you here. I think since we started this program, you've put out at least two three books. You seem to be pumping out those books every few months and we'll get into how you do that. I don't know if you'll share all the secrets. Just enough just enough to keep us uh let the appetite. That's exactly but let's let's get to Yosha Baser. What possessed you to write a book or really a safer on a solitary capitol? Okay, so I got a call in January, maybe late December, January from Arv in Baltimore, who is a gamecher, completely transformed the Ranchley area, if you know Baltimore a little bit. And he's infused the entire community with excitement for Liatra and he reached out to me and he says to me that there's a Yid, a wonderful Jew, uh, who wants to do something for co His name is Dr. Misha Eisen. He's the one that dedicated the book. I and he's an exceptionally fine person. And he calls me up and he says, "Raby Spiro, I believe that the world needs to know that the cure to COVID is not the vaccine. The cure to COVID needs to be the he asked me, he said, Yosha is a capitol." And I, you know, if you do, you read the book a little bit and you do a little research, you'll discover that Yosha Baser's tack of the prayer of protection. And I thought to myself, this speaks to me very much because people are scared. Everybody's scared. And when we get past CO, fully past CO, the will send something else. We're always scared. We're scared to live our day-to-day lives. And imagine if you could have a prayer of protection to carry around with you. And the more I went into it, the more I researched it, more I learned about it, you know, there's a certain desay that when you write about something, Hashem sends you tidbits and nuggets of inspiration. I just took off from there. It's fascinating to read in your safer that and many people may not know this is and you could tell us about it how it's aila that was said as early as Mosherenu. Talk about that for a moment. Raenu said it when he was by the Mishkan. It was said it was said throughout the last uh two and a half thousand years. Theim said it in battle. And if you think about it, think about all the times we say. We say every shabas. We say we say when we go to sleep at night we the said a lot of people have the meaning to say by every we escort the mace wither protects it has protected I think it was and both encouraged strongly the recitation of biser during a maga when there was uh whatever mafa was back then kalera and other things and um as recent as 1948 said that the ofer should be sharp it should be fluent on the lips of every yid because kalis is under siege you have a feeler to protect you it's amazing it's amazing and when I have the opportunity to write about something like this and it and I've implemented a little bit into my It's a game changer. It's pen. It's pen and it's a gamecher. And I money back guarantee. Not in the book. Well, maybe on the book also, but money back guarantee that if you start to learn about baken and allow it to work its magic on your life, you'll be a different person. You'll enjoy life so much more. So you kind of answered what I was going to ask you and that is what's the difference between writing a book like this one and some of your many other books which are comprised of inspiring stories. What is the approach that you take to write something like this? And also if I may ask you where do you start as far as sarum are concerned? Do you just open up a safety and hope that ideas will start filling your head? Okay. So first of all full confession. And I'm a swarm holic and um at home I have I don't know 15 swarm shranks of swarm um and they're busting double and triple deep and shout out to beagleizen swarm store where my friends there supply me with all the necessary sarim. So first of all you got to invest in this in whatever you're writing. I'm writing on yosha whatever there is about gobble it up you know and hopefully mitem you're able to find the necessary and proper and inspiration um but I want to get back to something else he said he said where do you start with with writing a book or you know Kamanki once gave me a nice compliment and he said um you know your stories are a little different he said your stories don't have so much story but the point is very big. A lot of times you have a big story, long long story with chariots and horses and and magical carpet rides or whatever else happens. But you get to the point of the story, what do you take out of it? A lot of times it's hard to find the takeaway. So I look for the takeaway. I look for the takeaway. And and it doesn't have to be a big story, but if it's a small story with a powerful message, that's what people walk away with. So when people share stories with you or you read them in Swarim and you decide to adapt them for your book, you're saying that's the ingredient you're looking for, a story with the takeaway more than an extravagant plot with all types of excitement. Okay. So, so you're asking me a little bit what's the secret? Yeah. So, first of all, I I want to I want to mention that when I I when I first uh started writing for art school, I think it's 18 19 years ago. And art school by the way changed my life and I'm incredibly grateful to everybody and to Raitz to Rab Sherman and now to Gdali and to everybody um it's amazing and Mendy and I I I it's an incredible team and I know I missed many people um but they know how grateful I am and I walked into the office and Rabbi Ladawitz is sitting there and he says Yoil you know what makes your book special and I'm getting all ready to like melt on a beautiful compliment and he says there's really nothing different between your stories and everybody else's but hashem blessed you with maz and even a needs mazul who decides if this should be read or that's it's mas hashem decided it so I don't attribute any of the success to myself it's all mazatay and hashem blessed me with incredible and I'm I'm overwhelmed with But if you're looking for one nuda that I look for in a story that I tell people all the time, the key to a good story is you need to be able to give the listener or the reader an underdog to identify with. They everybody wants to cheer for the underdog. And whatever it is that the underdog is suffering from, is challenged with, if you can connect the reader to the underdog, you got a great story. People get behind him and they're like excited and they're cheering for him. They're cheering for him. And while they're reading they're they're like hopefully reading that there's you know it's so anyone facing an assignion or a challenge in essence becomes that underdog and whatever the challenge is everybody's challenge is big to them you know when COVID broke out so there were people that were saying some pretty strong comparisons that this is our generation's holocaust and and many people dispelled that and said It's ridiculous. I mean, people in the Holocaust didn't have food. They were being hunted down. And we have plenty of food and we sleep in our own beds. And I think one nuda that people need to remember is we're weak and we're fragile and we're vulnerable. And for us, this is very big. And that challenge is tremendous for us. There's many many many people and especially kids who struggle through this and and are searching to find themselves and to find the answers struggling with amuna and hopefully you find a good uh source of inspiration. I I I think that if a kid would read a little bit of yosha bay so feel a little closer to Hashem connect a little more with him it's a it's a game changer. Speaking about finding yourself I know you you grew up in Cleveland. Who were the formative figures in your life during your formative years who impacted you and influenced you as you found what your calling in life was going to be? Okay, loaded question. Um, so many influences in my life that I'm so grateful for. Um, grew up in a just the the greatest upbringing anybody could have hoped for. My parents should be zontin. They were incredible and they sent me to the academy and the academy was wonderful under Rabbi Desc his leadership a great rebellion. My father once told me something he says not you're not going to love every rebi the same amount but every rebi has something to offer you and over the years every rebi I had offered me something unique and special. Um, I remember when I was in seventh grade, Rabbi Label Shang Bang used to invite us to his home. Cold Friday night, Cleveland, Cleveland Heights. It's snowing. It's quiet. We'd go I'd walk about 7/10 of a mile from my house to his house. Hot Shant from Ribble and Rabbitson. And he would dazzle us with stories, just a few of us, of the viter of spoke to me very much. I was in eighth grade. I was in Teloshiva. Then Ribbitzuk Schwarz who was still my Rebi. Um the greatest storyteller and rebi I I I I just wanted to be him in the classroom. Um and his stories I remember when Shadron came to Cleveland tells he would come. It was an event. He stayed by Monk's house and he and and and he would come for sometimes. I remember I once d came late to Shakas and I diamonded in the back of the m right next to he would he he would come like we had giants visiting us and um he was ding because it was he was ding n and it was a late uh but I remember my rebi followed around from the moment he got there till the moment he left and he had a little pad you know those old memo pads that that flipped over. Sure. And he wrote I think he said a hundred stories he jotted down just from that visit just from that those few days he followed him wherever he went. You know he spoke to Balabatam he spoke to he spoke to and um so that was very very made a big rush on me and I used to write down what my revi said. I had my notebooks and I I still, you know, even until I got my phone and my my computers, but I used to I used to jot those down. And then my rebi muikanchelman was uh he you know I remember it was one tough uh one tough night for high school yeshiva and um I just wanted to talk to somebody and and Ranchel is just the easiest person in the world to talk to and he just had he just understood me. He got me and I remember walking back um late after my he kept me for like an hour and a half and we smoozed about everything. And I remember walking back I felt so good and I I remember right there I said I want to be able to do that for somebody else. I I I want to I want to be able to make somebody else feel good like that. Like that was like that. And um from then on I wanted to be a Rebi. I wanted to be a rebby. That was the clincher. Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to be a rebby. I always wanted to be a rebby. Did you know what what age boys you would want to teach? Did you know what capacity you wanted to? I you know my first job was in Torah school of greater Washington. Rabbi Charer who have tremendous hakar to taught me so much about teaching. I was teaching fifth and sixth grade boys and fourth grade girls. I was learning in Lakewood. It was my fifth year in Kyle. And I said to my wife one day, "We don't have any money. I need a job." And I went and I thought I was all that in a bag of chips. Everybody's going to grab me. Are you kidding? And I and I um and I started searching around and u placement and laser Goldstein, they helped me. And and I was getting offered these jobs like in the boondocks out of nowhere and and finally I got I got this, you know, possible, you know, job opportunity. And he told me it's going to be fifth and sixth grade boys and fourth grade girls. And I said, "I'm not teaching fourth grade girls." I hung up with the phone and I said to my wife, "I need a job." And I called him back. I said, "I'd like to take a brother." And I did. And and I I enjoyed it immensely. And I still have a connection with a lot of those students, both the boys and the girls. The girls married with like five, six kids or you know um and then I decided then I I went to TA where I've been for 23 years in Baltimore. In Baltimore, Tamur Academy in Baltimore and it's been my home. I live right across the street from yeshiva. Magnificent, sprawling, $25 million camp. It's gorgeous, gorgeous. And it's 1100 kids in the school. And I wanted to be a rebby of an age where I could make an impact and maintain a shas forever with the kids. Every Reb is great and every Reby's, you know, has their calling. I didn't think that I could do that in elementary school. um even though that's the purest age. And um eighth grade is an age when you can help direct them. They're young teenagers. They're growing up. They're maturing or hopefully. And I helped try to guide them to yeshiva and and hashem I've you know I've been eth grade for 23 years. So for 23 years about five years or so four years after you started teaching you put out your first book. Now at that point what prompted you to invest as much effort and time that as goes into putting out a book and you know as well as anyone having written dozens of books both biographies story books you've written on the the gamut of Tyra literature what possessed you at that point to do it okay so what I'm I'm in camp I'm I've been a camp guy you've written about camp um And by the way, let me just say that Yity has such a big role in my life. He's worked for the Yed and he's patient with me. I'm always late and he's always doing the kindest things for me. Um, we've been friends for a long time. I'm very grateful to him and of course under the leadership of Penny Lipchitz, also a close friend. Um, so I was in camp. I grew up in camp. I was in Camp Colar in Cleveland as a kid. I was in camp go to Toronto as a little kid. uh 7 8 and n or 9 10 11 people sent their kids away then you know and then I went to culture in Cleveland which was on the Telosa campus sure I was there one year and um and then I went to day camp and then I came back to cola I was there for three years I'm there today in cult we should mention that right sure so um so I remember in my early years in as a head staff member in camp I started to realize that the most powerful thing you can have in your arsenal is a story. Like what do you do? Um I remember one one time I I ended up going to Ray and I was in a Midwest and then Ryan um and then I was in Manavu for 20 years and I remember one night in you know it's there was a a Catskill rainstorm thunderstorm blackout. It's pitch black in the dining room. It's getting dark now. What? And Rabbi Aaron Bash who was the head counselor said, "Haley, you got a story." I said, "Yeah, I got a story." And with great siata, I started to tell a story. And I was doing it loud with a gunite. And the kids were quiet. And afterwards, every gave me a nice compliment. And um and my wife of course who I owe everything to but she doesn't like when I talk about her. She said to me afterwards, "You got to write a book. Write a book." And I said, "I don't know how to type. I don't you know." And she says, "You record the stories in a little tape recorder and I will transcribe everything that you write." and I did 10 stories and she transcribed it down to the ums and well, you know, unedited completely. I thought it was great, but was and I sent it to um and I and and I I thought it was good. I I I thought the stories were good. I only had 10. And I sent it to a couple publishers and and and they didn't take it. And I sent it to Rabbi Sherman. First Charlotte Freedelland was the working at Arts School at the time. And she I guess showed it to Rabbi Sherman. And then Rab Sherman called me one day and he said, "Uh, Yil, you have a second." And I said, "Yeah." He says, "Are you ready for your life to change? We're going to take the book." And I said, "The book? I didn't write a book." He goes, "We believe in you. you will write a book. And I started to collect stories. And after the first book came out, first of all, they put on the first um on the first book they wrote um inspiring stories by a master teacher. Something like that. Storyteller. Storyteller. Master storyteller. And And it was called Touch Story. You should mention Did it say master storyteller? It might have said master teacher. Really? Master. It could be could be right. I don't know. I have to go check. Um, we're an art school. We should be able to to find a book. Yeah. Um, and and I I called up Aram Beerman who's the greatest editor and has also helped me get through the thick and thin here. And I said, "I'm not who said I'm a master." He said, "Well, if you weren't till now, you are now." And okay. And part of what art school did was they helped me believe in myself. I wasn't lacking confidence. But so there's a huge difference between speaking and writing. Speaking you get to feed off of the audience. You get to be spontaneous. Writing is is also an art form. I mean speaking is also as you as you know as well as anyone having addressed audiences all over the world but writing a book is a whole different avoid right. How did you approach that? Once Reper Sherman gave you the green light and you're collecting stories, now you have to kind of form the stories into something suitable. Okay, so this what what I'm about to tell you is not going to people that are teaching English are not going to be thrilled with this. Um, but I presented this to English teachers, a group of English teachers. Um, and and afterwards like they thanked me. I grew up and grammar was a big deal and a lot of kids don't like grammar. don't like the punctuation. I like I think the biggest challenge is to take what's in your heart and express it onto onto anything piece of paper. There are great editors out there. Now, I was blessed. Mrs. Susan Leapag was my first editor. She was incredible. She did the first book, by the way, that I did. She did it for free. Really? Yeah. I didn't I didn't have the money to pay her at upfront. I told her, "When I get my first check, I'll pay you for the editing." And she said, "I'm giving it to you as a gift." It was like unbelievable. Anyone who knows what's involved in editing Yeah. knows that that was quite a gift. And and then I I I used Mrs. Lee Tag for a number of books. And then I also added on Mrs. Tovas. And Mrs. Tovasal, anything that I've produced is because of her. She knows everything. She's gracious. She tries to stick to my flavor, but she's the one that puts everything into order. She's the one that gives it structure. And and I'll tell you the truth that I think when I started speaking and writing both of them, I think you start I started to collect stories and because of that I started to collect inspiration, you know, and you look for inspiration. You know, people that collect baseball cards, they they they have a nose for it. Collect stamps, bottle caps, whatever it is that you collect. I started to collect stories and I started to collect inspiration. And the whole thing again, I I I I really felt like Hashem was helping me every step of the way. It's from finding the right sarim to finding the right people. The many people that have trusted me with their books and with their you know and then people that have complimented me and I can't say that enough. You know people think I was once in a store in Shopsy Judeica great farm store like it's in Baltimore and it's a real it's a good hush of a New York store in Baltimore. We have that by the way for anybody who ranks on Baltimore. I just want to tell you Baltimore is fantastic. We got a thriving tired community with all the amenities and somebody comes over to me and with a little girl and she says, "Rabbi Spiro, do you have a second?" And he says, and he says to Zon, "Oh, please don't bother him. Don't mind." She goes, "I love your books." He says, "I'm so sorry." I said, "Sorry." What a genuine compliment to get from the seven-year-old girl. That also helps feed. It helps feed. And you know and then the speaking comes together with the writing and again how does a busy rebi a busy makan who gives 110% in the classroom and preparing and we know what or we think we know what's involved in being a rebi in 5781. How do you find the time to fit in the writing and the writing of the books and the research and the editing and the agonizing? There's a lot of time and effort that goes into it. How do you balance the two and the speaking I should imagine as well which involves traveling and all that. Okay. So, first of all, my day and night job is being a Rebi. Just yesterday, I was talking to somebody and he says, "So, you're a Rebi part time?" I go, "No, no, no. I'm a Rebi full-time. I pride myself on being there every day. I cannot never ever miss. I try not to. Should continue to help me to do so." Um, that's my day and night job that anchors me. My talid give me life. They I love them. They they let me know when I'm doing well and when I'm not doing well. I can tell from the way they're behaving or not. Um, and I get a lot of from my fellow Raim and school's great. Yeshiva is great. That's where I that's my anchor. And after that, Hashem gives you the time. So, where do I find the time to do it? I'm not really super organized. I'm not, you know, I'm more uh I don't know if I should share this. Like people have said I'm ADHD. I'm jumpy. I jump from one thing to another. I don't even have an office at home. I sit on my couch. No. Yeah. Um and also try to use spare moments. I'm early for carpool. you have 15 minutes. Pull out my phone, I start writing. Yeah. Um standing in line at supermarket and and the truth is that when you're able when you have a great editor, somebody who's able to help me along and so I just send stuff, you know, it's not like I sit down, okay, I'm going to sit down with, you know, it doesn't work that way. And and also, you're always operating because you're always looking for the inspiration. You could always pick up material wherever you are, right? You're you're that type of person. You're always looking for that magic. You know, yesterday I was walking out of my house coming to Yeshiva and I look I looked back and I thought like I had dandelions and weeds on my in my front lawn. I looked and they were gone. And then when I came back few hours later, they were there. Inspiration struck me. That means in the morning there are no weeds. Of course, it's a metaphor, but you can find inspiration anywhere. The weeds come later in the day, right? Start off every morning, you're fresh. So there's inspiration to be had. Now the you've written, as I mentioned before, you've written short story books, which is a books comprised of dozens and dozens of stories, but you also undertook the the daunting task quite a few times already of writing biographies, which I and and correct me if I'm wrong. I think in the Rav gifta biography that you wrote, you write in your introduction how when people would call your house during the time that you were writing the book maybe inest either you or your family would answer gift or residence because you were so all enveloped in writing the book about this particular great person. What's the difference? And and how did you first have the guts to take on writing a biography which is a tremendous undertaking? Um the first the first biography I wrote was Rivgifter. Rabbi Mayor's Ladawitz and Rabbi Nasen Sherman both encouraged me to do so. They felt they owed a debt of a sativ to Rivgifter. That art scroll success was because Rivgifter stood up way back when and and said Art Scroll needs needs to be and um and they backed me and I don't know if it was great in the beginning. You know, you learn and then you have to be inspired by the person you're working on. It can't just be a book, you know, without sounding cheesy. It's a mission. You you you need to admire and fall in love with the subject. And I I I'd like to think that everybody I've written on I' I've I've become a talent of theirs, whether it's uh Rolleski I just wrote about um Gifter of Shinberg um or I wrote about by Sternhill, you wrote a biography by Sternhill um and I wrote about Goldberg, the great Balttoka or Gabit Stoker. Now I'm working on a book on on Burkowitz who was a manal pose. He was a close friend of mine. I loved him. Um everybody who ever met him loved him. I love the family and I'm in love with working on the book. I'm in love with it and and I'm so inspired by him. He was a man. Could you tell us maybe a story? Something anything comes I'll tell you one little tidbit. Just one little thing. And again I'm work every day. I'm I'm writing things and sending it to my editor. Um, one little thing because I think what's beautiful about Ribshmu, they call him Ribilu, I mean later on he was Ribshm and Rab Burkowitz, but he he he lived in Cleveland and then later on in Poseic and when he lived in Cleveland, he diamonded in a sh called Kalurim. Later he would become a raven pose and named his schul kim because of Cleveland and one person told me he was a young cen and he went to go do dan for the first time and when he came back he went to get his shoes on and he put on a sho couldn't couldn't put his shoe on something's in there and he took it off and he looked inside there was a little candy and every time he dened Rubilu would put a candy in his shoe, which is which is what his whole life was. Adults also need candies, right? Everybody needs candies. Everybody needs sweets and treats, encouragement. And he that's what he did. He made life sweet for other people. That's right. In fact, I I don't know if this will be the title, but like somebody told me, he held us in his heart. He held everybody he ever met in his heart. So, how can you not fall in love with that? Well, we look forward to reading it as soon as it's done. Going back to short stories for a moment because this is kind of something that I I deal with as someone who collects stories, writes stories. I love the short story cuz it gets to the point and and you kind of also fi try to find those anecdotes that are going to resonate and whether it's an underdog as you mentioned which always resonates or it's something that comes out of left field where you know kind of the unexpected. Have you found at all writing stories for 20 years that some stories are starting to sound the same where it's kind of the same plot just with different people and how do you keep it fresh? Well, if it does sound the same, then it's not a good story. If you can predict the ending of the story in the first two paragraphs, move on. It's not a good story. It, like you said, it needs to be unexpected. You need to get the curveball and you go, "Oh, wow. I didn't see that coming." Right. Um, so that's part of it. I think one of the things that continues to inspire me is the the greatness of Kaliso, the greatness of the Jewish people. And and again, I don't want to sound preachy. I hate preaching, but the the ability for even the most downtrodden Jews, the most distant Jews to rise up to the occasion to be great, and that doesn't get tired. It hasn't been tired for 2,000 years. And there's I I remember there was a couple years ago um so went to war and there was somebody was killed and and I told somebody, I want to watch part of that Levia. You will see amuna like we've never seen before. I remember a father got up. He did not look like me and you. No beard, no black yamaka sandal, short sleeve. And he got up and he sang sang it at his child's levia. That doesn't get old. That doesn't get old. No, I don't think stories get old. I sure hope don't go doesn't get old because then I'm out of business. But I'm saying I don't think it gets old. I And and again, I have a great lab, by the way. I have a lab. My classroom is my lab. If my if I tell a story and my class says, and by the way, they do say, "So, do you try stories out on them, so to speak?" Well, whenever I come in, I start the day with a story or something. Yeah. I never come in, open your guitars. That's not me. Works for Summer Babe. Doesn't work for me. I walk in, I have a story, whatever's whatever's happening, just a story. Start them off. And sometimes they'll go I'll go, "You didn't like the story. What do you mean you like the story?" And they go, "We like the story." I also the best lab is my kids because at a shabas table or whenever it is, I'll tell a story. And if they like it, they'll go, "Daddy, that's a good story." And if it's a good if they say it's a good story, then you know it's now even when they say, "No, terrible story." If I really believe in the story, I'll push it through anyway. Right. Mhm. It's a good audience. One of my favorite things that you do every year and I look forward to it is your annual jashes either like tishb day usually yum time you have a kayak when the moment is most poignant to make it even more poignant and bring out the emotion of the moment. How much time do you spend preparing those particular drasas which seem to be shave? people appreciate them. I'm sure you hear from others. I'm sure I'm not the only admirer. But uh how much time goes into preparing such a speech which it can't be generic. It has to be original. But you're also tapping into age-old messages and emotions that somehow have to be made fresh for today's generation. Okay. So, first I want to say something and I'm really 40 minutes too late for saying this. I don't like to do interviews even though I'm out there and people see my face. I don't like talking. Um, and don't worry, I I love cover as much as the next guy. I don't like saying that I do this and it work. I really I I'm not comfortable. Well, then we appreciate even more that you came. And that's why, by the way, I pushed off all these interviews until now. Thank you. But but I uh from the moment I know I'm speaking wherever it is, there's a there's a mental notebook and I have a file on my phone and I have files at home. any if I'm speaking six weeks from now on a subject and I know what I'm I asked them what am I speaking about I start writing down no I know I'm speaking about tish the year before there are certain moments during the year that are tishov today I had a tishab moment there's moments that are tishov and and um I try to write that down as it happens part I think of of why people are inspired I hope is because some of it's not prepared. Those moments that you're talking about are not prepared. You can't prepare those moments. I I I you know sometimes I don't even like to look at the audience at those moments. You like to close your eyes. I remember uh when I lived in Silver Spring, I had this of hearing from Rabar Lupansky. I dabbed in Kipper with him and it was a small little trailer we were dabbing in. I don't think there were more than 30 people in the trailer. 30 40 people max. And he spoke right before Nila. From the moment he began speaking till the moment he finished, his eyes were closed. Talis eyes closed. He was really speaking just for people to hear. And I think you can, you know, you can feel differently when you do that. But uh again, it really is. It's not uh much of saying it. So you're always looking and you're always jotting down, making mental notes. I think so. Yeah. Now, going back to for a moment, you spend your day in the classroom, you've clearly seen differences in the way has evolved. Um I know that your messages, whether it's in the round table, which you're a panel of, or when I've heard you speak on, you have a message that resonates. I don't know if it's alder Rabbi Tran, but there's definitely a flavor of Rabbi Tran and what you do and and there's a reason why why youngsters you they find you endearing, but speak about for a moment and how it's changed and it I'm assuming it has over the last 23 years since you entered the classroom and what approach should people be taking today that maybe is different than what they did years before? Okay, loaded question. Um, how has changed? I think I think part of what's been consistent about is that it always changes. I don't know if is different um from a hundred years ago in that the Rebi had to relate to the times, whatever the times were. Then um you mentioned Rabbi Tran and when I think of Rabbi Trank, I think of Rabbi and Mrs. Trank. Sure. I call her for advice all the time and she is uh she's also very special. No question. Um you need a sprinkle of of let's call it tran magic. Um and that works but kids also need structure. Kids need structure. And I think that's one of the secrets. You can't let kids just do whatever they want. But to to think about what's if I had to think of one core idea in um without again just sounding cheesy because it's that you have to relate to the child in some other area than the subject matter you're learning. find a common ground whether it's music or a hobby of his or an interest he has whatever he's interested in something like sports as well sports sure sports I follow sports also not only because of it but you know and um I don't know if anybody's going to be pleased with that but that that's a point where I I have one kid in my class who is a he's in lives in Baltimore he's a Giants fan he's a Yankees man. So, the other day the Yankees I don't know if I should say on camera, but the other day the Yankees were beating up in the Cleveland Indians, my Cleveland Indians, and he's a quietish kid and he and he walks right up to my desk, closer than he's ever been. And and I said, "Are you trashtalking me about the New York Yankees?" He didn't say yes. He goes, "So, that's our starting point." And then, first of all, aren't they Orio fans in Baltimore? What? They are. He's a he's a yum and a claw. But yeah, if you followed the Orioles, you'd have a hard time after a while also. But um but find something where you connect to the child in some other area than the subject matter you're learning. Connect with them on that and relate to them and that that's always your safe area because even if he didn't have a good day in school or a good week in school, you always have that. So I think that's uh you know I think that's something that's very important today because kids got so much going on and so many challenges and struggles. Find something that he likes and like it and I assume that camp also gives you an opportunity. You're you're a big camp man where it gives you an opportunity to connect to kids out of the millu of the classroom. Classroom don't work for every kid but camp works for most kids. it it it it just brings out so much of their personality that maybe they don't get doesn't get to be manifest during the year. So, one of the things I told uh you know, one of the great places um that nobody sees is the Rabbium's room in a yeshiva and if you have a good rebain's room so bounce ideas off of each other, a lot of great ideas come from there and hopefully man will allow those ideas to come to fruition. But one of the things that we've been discussing lately is how do we get good kids who aren't good students to become good Jews. It's great that not everybody is going to be a not everybody loves learning. Not everybody loves Yiddish, but they'll grow into it. They're going to feel good about themselves. So many I mean we know this. So many of today's big supporters of yeshiva were people who in yeshiva didn't do so well. So how can we get them to feel good about the yiddish kite, feel good about themselves even if they're not doing mullen or kish or whatever it is. Um and what answer did you come up with? What is the answer? Something the answer is connect to them. That's the answer. The answer is connect to them where you always maintain a shas. First day of school, I walk up to the white board and I write my cell phone number on the board and my email address. I say if you ever need me ever for whatever it is, call me, text me, email me. And do do the boys call? Oh, not really. I once had a boy. I was his one phone call. No, I'm not even I was his one phone call. He got into trouble. It was 15 years later. He said, "You said I could call you anytime." I once had a kid call me. Um he was in a fight with his parents and he called me from a closet. I And and I by the way, I'm not unusual. Tons of are doing this. Tons of relate. And tons of people have meet them like this. And I teach a great class. The kids get older. life gets complicated and they need to know that there's somebody there and if they if they know you're there for them they'll never let go because you're not criticizing them. You're not finding their faults. You don't know all theness or maybe they told you their but you're not pointing it out to them constantly. So they need that. What's something that if you were able to get up on a soap box and address Israel that you would be able to share with the masses about what a rebi is, what a mechanic is. If there's one message that you wish people would know, cuz we don't really know, people don't work in the trenches. We don't really know. We think we know. We imagine what the struggle is, how hard it is to be a rebi. What would you say? I hope this is broadcast to the whole world. I really do. I've said this by some rebim gatherings. If I've had an opportunity to speak to groups of rebim to be mazik large groups of rebim I hope every board member in the world every manal in the world hears what I'm about to say because it's it's it's a very important question need guilt they need help financially they're sacrificing their lives these are talented people if they worked in a law firm they'd be making $3 $400,000 a year if they worked as accountants they'd be well taken care If they were, they're bright. They could be aggressive businessmen. They could be super successful. What do they decide to do? They're going to sacrifice their entire lives and the lives of their families for your child. And it's been literally, you know, it's been beaten to death. Mhm. And a few years ago, Raeri got up courageously. But I'll go to convention. Convention and he demanded, we got to do something. 40 out of 804 schools acted on it. That means a lot of schools didn't act on it. You owe it to the find the money. Don't make them beg. Don't make them become bal because if they are they can't teach your children. So if there's one thing that people need to know about is it's a struggle and we need and we need to be each other and don't think that everything's okay always. It's not. We put on a good face sometimes and we walk into the classroom and we give it our all but it would be so much easier. And if you mamish cannot help, you can always write a note and tell that rebi what difference they've made in your child's life. Tell that basakov teacher and bacles are struggling. They need teachers. They need teachers. We want the you know the girls to be able to help support their husbands. They can't do it on We need teachers. We need rebanim. If there's one thing I have to say need your need your guilt. And I don't mean to demean. I know everybody's trying their best, but let's stop pushing it aside. Well, on that note, thank you for being candid about that. Thank you. Was that too? No, not at all. You said what had to be said, and I'm sure many Raim Manalum will concur with what you said, and we can't say it enough. The Rabim, we we owe them a debt of gratitude that can never be paid. And you're maybe, you know, maybe loyal Mahaba. So, we thank you on behalf of what you do for Rabon. We thank you for the positive messages that you share in your beautiful books. You should be to write many other many in peace and prosperity in everything you do. Can I can I end off with also you should be in and everything you do because you and you have such a role in you've enhanced my life personally but so many people's lives. I want to wish a special to Gdalya because Gdalia took over for his father and and really you know he was he was a son in his father's shoes. His father was larger than life and Gdalia has just taken art scroll to to levels that I don't think anybody thought possible. He'll tell you I thought it. I don't know if he thought it but it's amazing. He does it with with warmth and encouragement and it's it's a galiz to all of us and art schools. art schools changed the world. They've changed my life. I owe them so so much. They should continue to help bring us closer to Msiah. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. [Music]