Inside ArtScroll - Season 3 Episode 1: Rabbi Nachman Seltzer!

[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 Rabbakman Seltzer, author of a brand new fascinating biography about Ravitzuk Shiner, the Rashish Shiva of the Yeshiva in Shalim. Thank you, Rib, for being here. Well, thank you for talking to us from your home in Ramat. Correct. Correct. So, thank you for your time. This brand new biography about Rabbi Shiner is very unique. Uh, it's another feather in your cap. beautifully written inspiring about the life of an American kid who grew up to become one of the gelador which is you know kind of in the world of rrooknas it's a rags to riches story that's really incredibly inspirational uh and I'm sure that whoever reads it young and old will be inspired by how a kid went from going to public school and I believe it was Peabody public school Peabody high Peabody high peody high I don't know is it still in existence? I have no idea. Peody high. I have no idea. I don't know. But I don't know if Peody High knows what their you know, one of their alum one one of their alumni went on to become uh a Veltra Shashiva. Uh so let's start there. Talk about Rabbi Shiner's youth in Pittsburgh and at what point did it happen that he was turned on to Tyra where a kid going to public school was able to become a real bent tyra? So it's interesting Shiner himself didn't talk about this part of his life until his wife passed away. Only after the rabbit the granddaughter of the of Ra passed away did he start talking about it because he knew she didn't like it. She didn't wanted to talk about it to him she to to her he was the rashisha. But once the rabbitim was no longer here he spoke a lot of times to American audiences. He would speak about his experiences and he would tell the story of how he became who we became. And he said, you know, before a baby's born, there's a basal that goes out and the basal says that is going to marry the granddaughter of Barbar. And how's that possible? He he's in he's in Pittsburgh and she's in Vilma and he's uh comes from a family and did not at that point and she comes from a barbar's family. How is that possible? How is such a thing going to happen? It's like almost impossible and through a huge series of events. What happened? Now you he was his parents were tremendously his father was mish for shabas. He left Europe and he was mamesh he worked in a job that he he he had a bakery that he sold kalas so that he shouldn't have to work on shabas and his mother used to cry and he credits his he credits what he became with the fact that his mother used to cry buckets of tears when she when she bent Friday night ding to hashem that her that her son should stay strong in America. But what happened? He was close to the RV in Pittsburgh. And who was the RV in Pittsburgh? Maya Zilberg's grandfather. He was the RV in Pittsburgh. And he used to give to this kid. And later on when he was already a he would send letters to Maya Zilberg's grandfather of Zilberg in Pittsburgh. But he still didn't learn that much with him. And his parents never dreamed of sending into yeshiva because they didn't even know about yeshivas in America. There are no yeshivas in America. And then when one day Rabbi Bender's grandfather he was a fundraiser and he comes to Pittsburgh fundraising usually he went to Squirrel Hill. He didn't go to that neighborhood but that that trip he happened to go to that neighborhood. And where do you stay? He stay by family keeps kosher. Which family keeps kosher in that neighborhood? The Shiner family. And he comes to the to the house and he sees Isidor Shiner. And he says he talks to him a little bit. He realized this guy is this kid is very smart. He was very smart. He was going to be a professor of mathematics, Latin. He was a master at chess. He was very smart. And he really he says to the parents, "Why don't you send him to yeshiva?" And they're like, "What? There's yeshiva. There's yeshiva in America." He's like, "Yes, yes." And he ends up going first to Wu from Wu. He got sick that winter and needed to to recuperate. And he ends up going to Camp Msa. In cat msa, he's he has two friends. one who played baseball with him and one who told him this the Torah of Mahan and they convinced him that he will be able to stag tremendously in Tory of Vadas and he ends up falling in love with the Torah of Mah and he goes to Vadas and he becomes a muer of Schlam his rebi for the rest of his life I want to I want to present the question a little differently I'll tell you why because people are going to read this book are going to wonder as follows. Here we are whether initial or America. Kids are growing up with a a proverbial silver spoon in their mouth. They have everything they need. They have arts girl swarim. They have every item of rrook and gashmas that they would need to grow into something substantial. You have everything. And yet and yet not every kid grows into something substantial. And here you have a kid coming out of Peabody high school who grows up to be extraordinary. So the obvious question is what's the secret? What what what did you get out of writing this biography? What secret could you share with parents to you know to that they could instill or that they could apply in their life so that maybe their kid can't grow up to be a Ryuk Shiner but that they could grow up to some kind of see some kind of uh greatness on some level. First of all, like I said to you before, Rabi Shina credited the reason he became who he became because his mother shed buckets of tears when she benched lick Friday night. And every mother today could shed buckets of tears for their child. It doesn't matter that it's not 100 years ago. If you want your child to be cry, cry when you bet what you can't cry today, you could cry today also just like you cried 100 years ago. cry said that's why he credited that that was the reason that's number one and number two what happened he came to and he met the reb of and the reb he of and hisra touched him and the rebu and hisra touched him he became not only that what did he see of Shalis was turned on his button and it never turned off again and used to say we don't need a Musadas because we have mirrors. You understand? You want to know what happened? He got to and he met some of the greatest leaders of the last 100 years. They were all there and they all saw this boy and they took him under their wing and they adopted him and they gave him what they had and it worked and he he was thirsty and he was Mabel and he for the rest of his life was the reb was the rebu and he was very smart but it wasn't just the fact that he was very smart. You know, I've heard I've heard quite a few times that despite the fact that he grew into the common shashiva many times throughout his life, he didn't want to paskin on certain things because he would say my sat is not bashamus. It's not it doesn't have enough of a totality because I went to public school till age 16 or whatever it is. But that was his tremendous humility that we saw from him that despite all his godless and despite his and his guess he always kind of put himself down in that sense which is just uh also inspirational. But moving on I want to go to a specific inspirational story in the book where he gives up his bed to a bach and the baker ends up going on to hold a pretty prominent position and kind of it comes full circle. tell our viewers about that. So I'm in I'm in the yeshiva initiva the building ones and I'm sitting there in the rash's is his apartment in the in that building and in walks the mash of green and green so he's also from out of town from St. Lewis and he told me his story how he bec how he his struggle to become and I asked him you know tell me your connection how far back does it go with yes and he said his connection goes all the way back to his own father who was the tremendous but he almost didn't become a because when he got the toad he was like 10 11 years old a young kid and he got there somehow they forgot to assign him a bed that night so this 10-year-old kid is in yeshiva. And he's saying to himself, "I don't have a bed. There's no way in the world I'm staying here. No one cares about me. If this is the way they run the yeshiva, tomorrow I'm taking the train back to St. Louis." What happens? Abaka passes him in the hallway. And the Baka sees a 10-year-old kid crying and he says to him, "What's wrong?" And he says, "I don't have a bed." So the Baka says, "No, no, you do have a bed. It's my job. It was my job to make sure you have a bed. I'm very sorry I let you down. Let me take you to your bed now. And he takes this boy, this kid to the bed. And he puts him to bed. The next morning, this boy wakes up and he goes out to the hallway and he sees the shiner sleeping in the hallway and he realizes that he gave him his bed. There was no question after that of going back to St. Louis and his son became the Mashki of Kinets today. Another amazing anecdote in the book is the Switzerland soup story. Tell us about that. This is one of my favorite stories. Okay, I love this story. I've said it over in speeches even way before the book came out. This is a story that captured me. I was talking to this person named Oscar Vasing. Oscar Vasing. He was a Talmud of Raisk Sho when he became Shiva in Montro in Switzerland. What happened was his rabb son-in-law he wasn't well and he went to Switzerland to recuperate and then and they sent message to the family that that he needs to have his children with him to take care of him. So Shiner came with his wife and children and they lived in Macho for four years and there he became the rashisha of this yeshiva in Switzerland. Now one of the tamid as told me this story he said that he was a hol he was a holocaust survivor and in the yeshiva they the they didn't have bay manim like per se it was more that in the summer in the morning rais would come in they say today you have half a day off you have a whole day off and one day comes comes in he says today boys you have a day off so ask her what do most boys do they go swimming in the lakes the beautiful lakes of Switzerland really in the flare Everyone knows what went to Switzerland, but Asuka is not so much into the swimming. Asuka likes mountain climbing. So I said to him, what you have like like you're a professional, you're amateur? What do you He says, professional enough. I have the equipment, I have the shoes, I have the pick, I have the I I'm good at it. So he's about to leave the yeshiva to go mountain climbing and a buck comes over to a friend says, "Could I go with you?" That happens to be if going mountain climbing is a very dangerous sport but if you don't know how to go mountain climbing it's suicidal and for whatever reason ask made a mistake and he said to this kid you could come with me and they leave the no one knows where they went and they start doing this climb and it went very slow especially this boy did not know how to climb ask to help him and they slipped and they fell and eventually it's already late it's already dark and they reach a where they can't continue the climb. They're stuck the mountain face. They can't go further. He said, "If it was just me, maybe somehow I would have managed to jump 5T, climb up, but this kid couldn't do it." So, we had to retrace our steps. It's already 10:30 at night, dark. We have to go down the mountain all the way to the bottom, slipping and sliding. The this the the the branches are cutting our faces. We're like a huge mess. By the time we get down to the bottom, it's 12 o'clock at night. And then it takes another half an hour to get back into the village. And we get to the village exhausted, destroyed, and the lights are on and the army's there. The police, they're all looking for these boys. And they realize they're looking for them. They said, "You're looking for us. This is who you, it's us. We're back." They can shut the lights. And the army leaves and a boy says to Oscar. He says, "Oscar, I'm very I'm not I'm I'm not mounting you. I'm not mounting you. the rashiv wants to see you. And as told me by that time of night, he was so so tired. It didn't even talk to him at all. The fact that she wanted to see him didn't mean anything. He was so exhausted. But the other boy said, "I don't want to come. I'm scared. You go by yourself." And Asuka says, "All right, I'm going in." He gets to the yeshiva. He gets to the yeshiva. He sees standing there. Now most people if you see the rash yes after you put him through what he went through that day thinking the boys fell down the mountain you could see that he he went through mashim his face was white you know most of us have been in camp we've been in yeshiva we've been in situations in school the principal yells at us the head celer yells at us we know what to expect they're going to send you home they're going to threaten you we know we know how it goes is so exhausted he doesn't care he doesn't say a word to him he takes him to office. He takes out a first aid kit. He bandages his wounds. He cleans off the blood. He puts on the band-aid. And then he says to him, "I'm taking you to my house." And they he gets into a taxi. He takes it to his house. On the table, there's a bowl of soup hot. I don't know how he told the rabbit, "The soup is waiting for me." But listen to this. And this is why I say this is a story from 500 years ago. Because knows that this kid is so exhausted, he can't even eat it himself. He feeds him the soup spoonful after spoonful until the bowl is empty. To me, this is it's mish a story from out of nowhere a thousand years ago. This is in its purest sense. When he finishes, he takes him back to yeshiva in a taxi. He brings him to his room. He helps him get into pajamas. He puts him into his bed. He covers him with a blanket. And he says to him, "I beg of you, please don't do it again. Wow. Unbelievable. After that, Asuka said that was it. If he would have yelled at me, I don't know what I would if he would have said can never do that. I don't know what I would have said. He didn't yell at me. He gave me soup. He fed me soup. For the next 60 years, he was my Rebi. Every time I came to Shallay, I put on a hat and jacket to go visit him. That was it. He was kind to me forever. Wow. And he was kind of hundreds if not thousands of talid with that tremendous love. Unbelievable. overflowing love and personal care. And those who learned by Shina remember his go his he was he had such people who went to him for they walked out transformed they felt like different people but for those who didn't learn by for those who didn't meet him many of them on American shores what they remember about him is his iconic dasha by the sashas the 12th cas of dafomia met life stadium who would have known that one of the highlights would be the drasha of Rabi Shriner. But what we learn in this book which is absolutely fascinating is that the drasha that we heard here at Metife Stadium from Rabi Shiner was not the drussa that he prepared to deliver. Talk about that and what exactly happened between the preparation and the delivery. It's an incredible story that was where Shiner became a god that all America wanted to to come to. They wanted to call him the family after that story had to change his number because the phone wouldn't stop ringing and he always answered the phone and eventually had to change the number. It was it was the amount of traffic after that was what happened. He wrote a speech. He they flew him in and he wrote he was supposed to give the keynote speech at the biggest stage in the world. that the CMAS is the biggest stage in the Jewish world. Shar is giving the keynote speech. He spent a lot of time writing the speech. Reban Beerman was the one who drove him to Metife and he told me he said the Rashiva gave me the speech in the car. He he said I should go over it. He gave my wife the speech. Go over the speech. Do you like the speech? Is it a good speech? We gave our schma to the speech. Great speech. Okay. Now I'm sitting in the audience. He tells me and Raisin isn't they announcer. He gets up to speak. Now again greatest stage in the world. Keynote speaker. Everyone wants to hear what you have to say. He first starts off a speech quoting Rab Aaron Lee. For five minutes he speaks he he reads a letter from Aaron Lee. Okay. After that he says he takes his speech out of his pocket. He says I wrote a speech but then he folds it up and he gives it back to his mash. I don't want it and and on if you watch a video you can watch the video of of the mash and you see his his mishamish saying to him rashisha rashisha take the speech and he says no I don't want the speech and nobody knows what's going on. He says, "I have to tell you, I never heard Rabbi Sak Fran speak in my life. What a speaker that Rabbi Fran, unbelievable." And what does he do? He takes his keynote address. They flew him in from Erit Israel to speak and he talks about Rabbi Fran's speech. He doesn't talk about his speech. He puts his speech away. He talks about Fran speech. And he says, "Rabbi Fran, what a speech." And Rab Fran said this, "We have to do this. And let me give you two ideas how to implement Rabbi Fran speech. Everyone understood that this person has no he has no eye. He has no ego. He's completely ka Shay. After that everyone in America wanted to come to his house. They wanted to meet him. They wanted to speak to him because they understood this is a real god. He doesn't care. It doesn't mean anything to him. Covered means nothing. Doesn't mean anything. He'll put his own speech away. was talking about my friend. Unbelievable. I could tell you that at being one of the 100,000 people who were in attendance at that mash, we were standing there in awe, just blown away. We couldn't believe what we were seeing. And the reaction at the time, I remember people described what was Shan's dasha like. It was like our zi was speaking to us. We felt every single person felt we had a loving father, a zeda, one of the speaking to us like a zeda to children. It was in an incredible experience and you describe it so beautifully in this book. And this book is full of inspiring stories that parents, children, grandparents, anyone of any age are going to be inspired by what you did here. And Rabman, I need one promise from you that at a different stage in time, we need to discuss exactly how you do this. How do you put out book after book and each one seems to be better than the next. So we thank you for your latest contribution to the world of Tyra literature, to the world of Tyra inspiration, this biography about Rabatuk Shiner. Any final comment before we wrap up our conversation? Raisit always used to say he would say I'm just an American boy and I and he when he when he when Raasi was nif was in LA and they asked him to speak to the yeshiva and he said the only difference between me and Raasi was that he was a Cubs fan and I was a Pirates fan and he said that line. The point was he would he would why did he say that line? He said that line because he knew that he would connect to American boys who love sports and he wanted them to understand that every single person no matter if they spent years on a certain thing they could still become a borra and he he says look at me I did it there was no way in the world that aid should have happened between granddaughter and a kid from Peabody high but the basal said and it had to happened. But you know what? Every American kid and this was something he told them. He said it over many times. Every single one can do it. That's the idea I think to take from this book. I mean, I believe this book is tremendous in the sense that it's a a it's a manual. You'll read the stories about him in the com and in the yeshiva. It's tremendous. Mishi was a gun. He was a psychologist. He was a brilliant therapist. He was all of the above. But when he spoke to American boys, he always would give them over the message. It's okay if you were into it. It's fine. And the moment you understand what the in life is, you're going to be able to become a huge and a sadic and who knows the sky is the limit. And that's the message which he gave over and he changed so many lives with this approach. the acceptance, the love, countless lives. You read the book of the shs he had with so many American boys, Israeli boys, European boys, the lives he changed in the most unassuming way just because he cared so much about every Talmet and he viewed himself as that was his life. He was there to educate and he did his his hisem from beginning to end. But that was the message he always gave. You can also do what I did. You could do what Amnasi did. You could become a gul just like I did. I was a boy from Peabody High. You could also. Thank you so much. Thank you. [Music]