Inside ArtScroll - Season 3 Episode 4: The Wisdom and Wit of Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky

[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 a special guest from Erit Israel, Rabbi David Orlavski. Thank you Revit for being here. It's a real treat. I know you just got here two days ago. What a privilege to be in the Arts Scroll uh uh studios. This is very exciting. So, for the short period of time, I'm here with uh the great of the greats. I saw on the on the wall outside the people who've made this show already. So, uh you know, my gosh, I'm walking among giants. Well, thank you for that and thank you for gracing us here. So, in the limited amount of time that we have, I have That's a mustah skill in general for life. Yes, exactly. We want a kaparine. That's right. It's not every day that we get to sit with you in schmoo. So, let's start off, which I'm sure you've done many times, giving our viewers a little background about your background, where you come from, what shaped you, who shaped you, and then we'll get into some specific uh topics. So, uh I come from a little dut in Long Island called North Merik. Most people have never heard of it. Um people have heard of Merik. Merrick is an upper class uh um you know nice neighborhood very Jewish. North Merrick is a lower middle class neighborhood with almost no Jews and uh uh I uh we I grew up over there and uh I ended up we went to a conservative synagogue. My father worked shabas and uh and Ray Fendel started a day school in Long Island called the Zakaria Fendel his brother brother of Mayor Fendel. Okay. Zertak he started a day school called the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County and he convinced my father to send I'm one of six boys but the three younger boys we all went to Hank and uh you know I I came from a home where the the values weren't quite there that we were learning at school so I lived two lives and uh and then I had a rebby uh in eth grade Yakov Whale uh art school book um uh put out calls to eternity about his mother. Yeah. And he put out a famous Hagod with answers. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Right. And he uh he just was so aggressive because we were we were apathetic, you know, Long Island kids, you know, suburban kids. And he shook us up. And I always felt that I had a Midas MS. and I fought with him and he wiped the floor with me. Which I was not used to because I'm really very good at arguing. And uh and I remember I said to my friends, I said, "We have to fight with this guy." They said, "Just ignore him." I said, "But what if he's right?" They said, "Ignore him anyway." And I couldn't do that. And I had to change my life and I slowly became to mitzvah by the time my bar mitzvah rolled around. Um and uh I got with the program and so uh And what was it like doing that when your parents were behind you, not with them leading you? Oh, I I had to fight with them constantly. Constantly. Luckily, I wasn't home the night that my brother burned down the kitchen because they were sure I was behind it, but I wasn't home and because there were kash problems uh that I I was having issues with. And then they, you know, Muhammad Lee and Gummer, I mean, we burnt the whole place down. I said, you know, once we're rebuilding already, let's put in this. Let's change that. Let's do this. And they cooperated. Yeah. Yeah. In other words, you know, my father would argue and then he would give in. And he still felt that I was wrong, but he would give in anyway because my father grew up in an Orthodox home. He just had no Jewish education, so he didn't know. It was interesting. You know, if I had to label my parents, and labeling is such a difficult thing. I would say they were non-practising Orthodox Jews. hashkoffically they were orthodox but uh their their life didn't you know he was in the flower business and the flower business Saturday is the biggest day and you know like I said he had no Jewish education you know so but he remembered what he remembered so you know uh so shabas uh you know he had to work shabas but if you walked around the house in your socks he went crazy you know what do you want me to die we couldn't figure out what that was I was a kid he says to me you marry a shixa you're out of the will I didn't know what a will was I didn't know what a shika was but I okay dad you know it's like you know because they were very Jewish and they were very proud Jews you know and and and they felt these things are very kazak but uh but he didn't have that education when he finally became sharabas uh 67 years old it came to him very naturally he uh he he adopted that lifestyle so you know we had we had arguments about everything but um you know go explain you know secret you know what I mean like you know what difference it make every time you turn on you know the light in the refrigerator goes every time you turn on the forcet somewhere a pump is going on something's happening you know so I tried to explain these things the best I could in the end he he uh he would give in but uh you know it was uh it it prepared me for later in life because it when I started yeshiva gdola and I ended up going to you know I knew hashkovically so much more than any other person my age because I had to argue everything through. Wow. You know, and uh it gave me a tremendous background in hashkafa that most people don't get. But it's unbelievable that as a child you had that fortitude when today so many children who are being given ykat on a silver platter are struggling with it and here you were in the opposite environment fighting for what's right. So that's one of the reasons that so many people don't appreciate it because they never had to fight for it. You know, if you have to fight for something, it's that much more valuable to you. And so that's why Torah is a it's a you have to fight for it. You have to, you know, the say that unless you learn something wrong, you'll never learn it right. You have to you have to struggle to find the MS. And you know I was a rebby for many years and this is the de facto position of the average kid in Shir today. Go ahead Reby tell me anything you think might interest me. Ry Fendel told me he used to go to a Shir by Rafutna Zatal and he says it was in a small room and it was crowd and it was hard to hear him and he said to one of the organizers why don't we move this to the auditorium give him a microphone and he said because Hudnner holds Bashita you have to struggle to hear to listen and to understand it's not this is not a this is not a entertainment Shapiro fought for many years before he agreed to to take a microphone in sheir you because he wanted you to you know to give a deare like they say mus you have to listen so uh I used to remember you know ripali and sh would say this all the time he goes to then listen you have to listen and that's a that's a a hard thing for a generation that's used to having everything given to them like you say on a silver platter and you have to struggle it's the struggle that makes it meaningful you No according to the efforts the reward. After you left, you went to right where you learned by Rhene. I I uh I was actually in a number of branches. I was in with Rever Caner. I was in uh I was in Farills with Rahan. I was in Rochester with RDavid Harris who now is the Russa. He was Rashiva in Rochester. So uh and eventually I made my way to Los Angeles where Shia Cohen was the rashiva and I did some teaching and I did some learning and and that's when I stumbled into NCSY and uh by really by accident and I was tricked into taking my first NCSY chapter and it turned out that I had a real hush for this particular line of work and uh I started being offered regions all over the country and I took Long Island um which had had five directors in two ers and it was dead than dead. And uh there was actually one member, one paid member of the region when I took over and uh I built that up and I found I had a real talent in uh in Kir and informal education and uh I was there for nine years and then I moved to sit and learn. My original plan was I would sit and learn and then go into Rabonus and uh instead I stayed in Aritzel and I found opportunities there. So you were teaching in Arit Israel. Yeah, I seminaries. I seminaries in Yeshiva. I was I was Mashk and yeshiva or um I taught in uh in Derak program in Orak. Uh I used to teach in in Asia Torah. Um and I also taught in seminaries and and uh you know I I really had a a very varied aspect where you know I used to I used to teach inola I was training raonim um you know and it went from there to you know shalim where I was teaching girls who who were just really newcomers to Judaism and basically everything in between. So uh it's uh I I found which was very interesting. I had a real um ability as a gamarra teacher and uh that's a very hard thing to do to keep kids interested in the garamarra. I had one kid who said to me he came back shabbed unconditioned that he didn't have to learn kumar and the rasha convinced him to come to my and he said if I had a like this I would have I would have learned kumar my whole life you know. So to make the gammora come alive, I once spoke for the uh for the kao and Elizabeth they have a yomi yun on national holiday. So I think I spoke there on Thanksgiving and uh so I said what do you want me to talk about? He says, "Talk about you know you say I was like okay I have never been asked to do that on the speaker circuit and uh and he called me up afterwards." He says, "I'm getting a lot of pressure." They said, "You don't bring Olafi in to give a Gumar share. So do uh you know uh do an hour of the Gammor do 45 minutes of Gamarra and 15 minutes of whatever your usual stick is." You know, so I did. He says, "I made a mistake. People enjoyed the Gammor so much. You could have gone on for that for for for the full hour. So uh so I enjoyed very much teaching teaching boys teaching Gamara. I do an online dafyomi uh uh today um through my uh through my website and uh you know to to make the daf come alive and be exciting and be interesting and be relevant and meaningful that's that's a challenge and I I take it very seriously. Yeah. So yeah, so I teach boys, I teach girls, I I give two online misu sham shir, you know, it's a it's a challenge. You have to you have to make tora alive for our kids. And that's that's the biggest challenge is that kids a kid says this. Everybody has heard this from a kid. Rebby, why are we learning this? I don't have an ax. I'm not planning on buying one. I don't run through the street with pictures, you know. Uh, if I if I marry a woman, it'll be with a a ring, not with a piece of silk of indeterminate value. If I divorce her, it'll be embedded and I won't throw the get from my roof into her where it catches on fire on the way down, you know, and that's the biggest challenge. Why am I learning relevance? People want to feel that this has meaning to my life. And I always say that that's you find this a few times in the garra. What is who cares? Mahavaha, right? Daf, they're doing humor now. It says it over there. It's a gammor. We're not learning history. If we're learning a pik or a rashi or a garra or a hal, it's because it has to have relevance to my life today. It has to have meaning for me today. Otherwise, we wouldn't be learning it. What is what is a one of the biggest differences that you've seen in the questions being posed to you in Kirkim versus Kirim? Uhim people want to know why. And um in Kirim they know why. They're saying it's not working for me. I'm not happy. I'm not enjoying this. Shabas doesn't make me happy. learning doesn't make me happy. Torah doesn't make me happy. You understand? I'm not enjoying this. One of the the greatest uh uh fulfillments I've gotten over the years is that when a parent tells me, he goes, "I have a kid not interested in anything, but he listens to your recordings. He listens to your Shir." He says, "It's just more entertaining than than the Goya comics." I was in scholar residence once in a in a pesa hotel and uh the seminary girls who took care of the day camp they said listen we miss all your shurum could you do something for us at night when when we finished I said sure so I I was giving a share and a bunch of the guests were coming so the director said listen this is not part of our agreement I said I'm not going to charge you for this I actually like teaching goes good then I'll put it in the bulletin and I was getting more people coming to my share than were going to the entertainment program the Oh, and one of them said, he says, "It's pretty sad when the rabbi is more entertaining, you know, giving a shir than the entertainer, you know, because you have to figure out how does Torah speak to me in make it enjoyable, you know, it has to be something that's sweet to our kids." And that's what it is. I heard say this once. He says, "I understand why a kid wants to go off. if you're going to take away the pleasures in my life, you better show me you got something better for me than what I've got. And uh and that's, you know, I have I have this podcast that I give and I talk about different things and I've gotten letters from guys who feel like they were not uh able to sit and learn. They didn't enjoy it. It wasn't meaningful. Goes, "The only Torah learning I have in my week is your podcast. I watch this because it's enjoyable. Because I I it makes me feel good. That's what Torah has to be. It has to be that shabas is something beautiful that that uh you know I heard one of my kids tell another one of my kids you know um says uh I love you know the pes you know shabas it's got to be something where a person says wow I'm enjoying this I like this it's fun and uh that's the challenge well people know the you are infuse humor into Yeah. Everything you do. That's right. And and that brings out the joy. And that brings out the joy. And perhaps that's why in the hotel program or wherever it is, people want to go to hear, Rabbi, because they know that they're going to smile. They know they're going to feel good. And they know that they're getting the substance at the same time. I had somebody once who who was relisting to some of my show, and they go, you know, you say a lot of deep things. I said, what are you trying to do? Kill my panosa? Just say he's funny. I know what I'm saying. You know, somebody said to me once, he goes, "You realize he's saying very stark musa. How does he get away with this?" He goes, "He's funny. If you're funny, you can say anything you want. But what what you were talking about before segus well to something I wanted to ask you and this goes back to a shear that I listened to from you about 20 years ago and you made a very very poignant observation that if you would take the average Jewish child and give them the opportunity to press a button and be born into a different family a non-Jewish family without all the obligations without all the the commandments and without all the many things that he may not understand. Many a Jewish child will choose to press that button and you analyzed it. Could you take a moment and apply it now 20 years after I first heard you mention it as to why that is and what could we be doing better to make sure that no Jewish child will ever want to push that button. So I just have to tell you a story that a rebi and a massifa you know very from mifa and I don't want to mention where or what but he says he says I tried this myself I asked my my boys in mifa and they all said yeah sure I'd push the button yeah yeah I would choose not to be Jewish you know it's it's uh it's an amazing thing it's an amazing thing and uh and I I Uh I've seen this myself over the years. Uh it's it's it's only if it's only become stronger. Um the reason is I think because unfortunately so much of comes down to um is angry and disappointed with you and uh and people internalize that meth message. So I've asked audiences over the years, do you think Hashem loves you? So at the beginning people couldn't answer, but now the Kira of movement has been around long enough. So we know the correct answer. Yes, Hashem loves me. Then I say, does Hashem like you? Very hard question for a firm Jew to answer. And then I say, is Hashem impressed with you? And almost no firm person can say yes because we've been taught Hashem is disappointed in you. Hashem will wait for you to the last day to see if you do chuva but if not then he will cast you into the pit of gehenn where you will you know burn for you know terrible painful experience because he loves you and wants you to have a ton you know so a person as one person put it to me I feel like I'm walking a greaset tightroppe over hell I'm always going to be hashem's always going to be angry with me we're always going to be disappointed with me you know I tell you you ever hear the traveling so I spoke once at a a project inspired convention and one of them came over and said you know we're your kid he goes you're the only person still teaching realus I said I said what you know because I'm I'm a real died in the wool litak you know he says no no no the idea of hashem loving you and the sim and this and that that was based on he says you don't find that today he says this is the message people have to hear hashem loves you hashem believes in you hashem is rooting for you hashem is impressed with you. He thinks, listen, after 2,000 years of all the suffering that we've gone through, the fact that a person is willing to stand up today and say, "I'm a from Jew and all the abuse you get today, you know, and and and how many people hate us and all the difficulty and stuff like and and and the pressure, you know, of of all the mitzvah that have to be done and the expectations. the fact that a person is willing to stand up and be counted. How invaluable that is in the eyes of a kesh, but we don't hear that. We don't tell that to our kids. But I think some nowadays may have taken the Hashem loves me mantra all the way to the other end where it's Hashem loves me and he's going to love me and I could do what I want to do or act the way I want to. And there's almost that lack of the balance. that there does have to be some kind of balance as a mishapro as someone who has heard so much from one of the greatest of our generation. Yeah, I really don't find that. In fact, if you find the kids who go off, they're sure Hashem hates them. Hashem hates me. My parents hate me. Society hates me. My Rebe hate me. Everybody's disappointed in me, you know. And and if you start talking to like, okay, fine. I'm a Russia. Okay, you're happy. Okay, I'm a Russia. You don't hear them saying like, you know, hey, everything's great. Everything's fine. I can do what I want. Hashem loves me. You know what I mean? They they really feel that they they're playing a game they can't win. So, why bother playing, you know? They just they've given up. Listen, when I was a when I was a kid, and I'm going back some years, um people went off to D. You know what they did? They went to college. They got a job. They they uh they got married. They had children. And they didn't keep shabas. Today when a kid goes off the derek, they dress like a laundry pile. They they can't get out of coherent sense. Yeah, you know my rabbi, you know, they smoke like a chimney or they do drugs or they just there's nothing. They become they become because I know what MS is and I can't do it. So I just give up. It's not that I don't believe. They believe very strongly. But I can't. I'm playing a game I can't win. Is one worse than the other where someone's more intellectually adversarial versus just, you know, doing whatever they want? Because when a kid goes off today and you see he just becomes nothing. Just becomes nothing. Yeah. It's because he believes that no one believes in him. He believes that Hashem is out to get him. He believes that he's going to burn and get him and there's no there's no hope and there's no choice. And and I hate to say it, this didn't come from a vacuum. They've heard this from people. You know, uh David Kaplan used to write a column of the Hamodilla called anecdu and anecdotes. And uh in the anecdotes, you hear these stories of of teachers who who you know, I guess in their mind they really meant well, but you know, they they hurt kids terribly. And and when a person feels that love and loves you and Hashem believes in you and you of course you're going to mess up. My wife who is much smarter than I am. She's the intellectual of the family. So uh she always says high schools only want kids who don't need high school. It used to be you understood that high school was you know a time where you're going to grow and you're going to this and you're going to you know mess up a little bit you know. And today, you know, everyone says we take only the best kids. Best kids. Yeah. Langim, who's a very, very smart person, you know, tremendous, you know, he said to me once, he goes, "What is the best eighth grader?" Like, "Isn't that your job?" He goes, "It doesn't say much about you as a m you can only educate the best kids. You know, don't you know how to take somebody and develop them and build them? You you're incapable of that? So we have to calm down a little bit, give people a little space, understand that kids are kids and you know we have to reassure them and we have to teach them to to to have selfrespect. In the old times, you know, Riv Hutner said this already back in the 60s. He says all the sch smoozen in Europe about ga that's not for America because they didn't have a fancy word like self-esteem. You know, he says he says they have to learn self-worth. They don't think they're worth anything. They don't think that what they do matters that it makes a difference. I had a girl second year in seminary. She said to me, "We get these lists of people who are sick to say to heal them for, you know, I d sometimes they get better, sometimes they die, but it has nothing to do with me. Does the average person really believe I say a fela and that person's going to get healthy, that person's going to going to have a child, that person's going to get a paranosa, that person's going to find a shik." We don't believe that because we're we're not worth anything. Go find a to but me, I'm going to d for somebody. I'm going to change the world and change somebody's life. I believe it. I believe it. And for the record, I am not a godly Israel, but I am I believe that I can davin and say I'm going to change someone's life and I'm going to bring Mashiach. If it's not if it's if it's not us, who what percentage of is still left around, you know, to be able to to change the world? That means it's our dvening. So, you know why people don't din? Who cares what I say? It makes a difference what I say. That's why people speak lashar because you think it makes a difference what I say. Nobody cares. Nobody cares what they do, what they say, what they do. You know, everyone's walking scared. Everybody's afraid. You know, uh I I started Yeshiva. Okay, giveaway. I started Yeshiva 1964. And we got a message. You're a hero because you are keeping Torah alive. I mean, at that point, every shaw that was opening was a conservative synagogue. You know, Torah was dead. You know, Pesak Cron says this all the time. I I used to say it my own, but but he uh but he said it. I'd rather quote him. Yeah. He says the change took place in 1976 when the art scroll McGillis Esther came out because until then my generation we only had Sansino. You could read pages and I come across a Jew. Forget about forget about a Torah personality, you know. It was all Christian Bible scholars, you know. And suddenly art school came out and it was okay to be from. But when I started school 1964, if you were an Orthodox Jew, you were you were of an object of derision. And so we came in and we were it didn't matter if you were good or bad. They used to say, "We can't afford to throw a kid out. We don't have enough of them." Today, every kid gets a message. We don't need you here. I got two, three kids waiting to take your place. You don't like it? Get out. you know, and so a kid feels like I'm not needed. The school doesn't need me. My rebim don't need me. My, you know, everybody's running scared. Everyone's disappointed in me. Hashem is angry with me. You know, and then you wonder why there's a lack of of happiness. Whereas the says, why are we in this world? To get pleasure from the delight in Hashem. Is that message coming across to our kids? And I say that over it's it's it's the the the shir that you're quoting. It's from it's from a line from a shir called why be Jewish is always my go-to shir. The first thing that I hear from parents from parents is two things. One is if this is true why are you the only one saying it. I said it's not true and I show you shor from across the board people who say this. And the second question is why is no one teaching this to our children? And that's a harder question to answer. Why isn't that the message that kids get loves you? The greatest thing to do is to be close to you know if I walk in and I think that is angry at me and disappointed in me and and isn't happy with me. Do I want to dive in? Do I want to learn? Do I want to be part of a system where I know I'm failing before I even start? But if you say Hashem loves you, Hashem believes in you, Hashem is rooting for you and and Hashem created the whole world just because he wants to be close to you. That's that's a paradigm shift. There are many people out there who need to hear this message. A hundred,000 that you're giving. One way that they could get the message is actually in this book which came out two years ago. I should mention it's it's a transcription of many of your lectures. Uh that was very well done. Tell our viewers what other ways if someone wants to tap into the joy of Yiddish of Rabbi Olowski, where could they go? What could they do? How could they tap into it? So I have a podcast every week. It comes out on it's on tour anytime and there are other places you can listen to it if you know anything about technology which I don't but I know it is over there and uh and this is the I used I used to give a share every other um moti shabas in Harnof and I used to ask people who came a lot why do you come and answer I got was this is the only place I come where I walk out feeling good that I'm affirmed Jew now that that's sad not because the message I'm giving Yeah. Um my friend Summers who's a re in Los Angeles, he says that he told this once um to Sarn's son in in he says what do you mean this is this is basic Judaism. What I'm saying is basic Judaism. Of course it's of course it's everything. His father wrote a unim on on he says of course everybody everybody knows this but in the last door you didn't have to say this because everyone knew it. But when they came to America, people didn't have the background that they had. So we spent our time focusing on mitzvah observance, right? So I always give the example, right? We give out the color-coded charts for the matzah and everyone's careful to get the matzah and measure out the matzah and eat it. Remember with habra and all the things. And then I asked someone, why do we eat matzah? Because the Jews left Egypt so quickly their bread didn't have a chance to rise. I said, "So let it rise now." Right? If you make kala dough and it doesn't rise in 18 minutes, just wait. It might take 45 minutes, it will rise and then we could eat. I said, ' That's not even the part that bothers me. You know, I said I said, "Everybody's running around. We can't leave Egypt. The the mitzvah have been screaming at us since midnight. Get out. Get out." Right? We're collecting gold and silver. We're running around. We're we're cutting down trees. We're we're doing everything. And suddenly comes noon time, Gans Clasur decides, "What a great time to bake bread." And then we got rushed out of Egypt because who could have seen that coming and everyone says to me, "Yeah." I said, 'You spend so much time on the performance of the mitzvah that you don't know why. You don't stop to think why. And and that's unfortunately the thing is that we, you know, it's the opposite. You know, I I I was asked once to speak in a basako, you know, about questions, you know, how to how to answer basic questions. I used to teach this to Raban in in Oligalah and uh and someone in the school said we don't want the kids to ask questions. Uh it'll just it'll lessen their amuna. So don't ask any questions. Yeah. Uh somebody said to me, "This boy has hashkaf problems. He he doesn't know if he believes in Hashem. He doesn't know he believes in har." I said I said that's not hushkaf problems. I said he has other problems, right? He gets up late. He he's not successful in his learning, you know. So he asked questions, you know. I said, "Tell me the guy is is dominating, he's learning, and you find him in the base major three o'clock in the morning reading spinosa. That's that's a hushkuffer problem. This is not a hushkuffle problem." He says, "We know that, you know, all you have to do is say, I don't believe in this." And goes, you know, but it's not real. It's not coming from a real place. And and and if you if you if you confront the issues, the issues are not really the issues. The issues are how come I'm not happy? How come I'm not feeling a sim in in my and and that's that's an art form for us to be able to give our kids a shab. People ask me how do you make your kids sit at the shabas table? I said I don't. My goal is to make the shabas table such a warm welcoming place that people want to sit there you know and our shabas meals go on for a very long time. Yeah. Well part part of the problem is that we eat too much but uh but also because you want to make it interesting and entertaining enough. And I look at it from a kid's point of view. So I had a tufa when my kids were teenagers and they they weren't such happy campers, you know. And so I would ask questions, thought questions. Yeah. I I would tie it into something in the parisher. And then I would say, "Do you think you should bring your kids up in an only neighborhood without exposed to anything or in a mixed neighborhood where they'll meet different types of people?" And they would argue because teenagers love to give their opinions. They would argue. And whenever I would do this, people would say to me afterwards, "And what did you tell them?" I said, "Nothing. That's the point. I want them to be able to sit there and talk. Just talk and talk and talk and talk." And they'll sit at the shabas table and give their opinions. Gabaldic, you know, I have to say, "And here's the right answer." That's the whole problem. You know, teachers say, "What do you think?" Okay, we don't really care what you think. Here's the right answer. Let people think. Let people talk. Kids love it. So they would sit at the shabas table and give their opinions, you know, gavaldic. The older I get, as you say, everyone's entitled to my entitled to let people talk and and that's why the older I get, I have mastered the skill of keeping my mouth shut. I haven't mastered it, but I gotten a lot better at it, letting people talk. You know, people love to hear themselves talk, and uh I encourage it. Well, thank you for the messages of positivity. Are we out of time? I think so. I think they're they're signaling to us. I can see that we have to wrap this up. I thought we were just getting started. We were just getting started, but apparently time is short and you have to go, but we really appreciate I want to thank and there there there's there's there's in in there's no question about it. It's a daunting task nowadays. And you've infused all of us parents with hope. hope that we could infuse that joy that being aid and not being scared of questions and and like you just said, not always do you have to give the answers. No, very often the answers will come out by themselves. We go to the seder and we do things to get people to ask questions. We want them to ask questions. If they if they ask questions, they care. The the the bane of Jewish education is is apathy. Yeah. where they feel this is not relevant to my life or they're asking questions it's galdic we encourage that well thank you for that thank you for the encouragement to continue to infuse that in both where you live in and when we're us still here in to have you in our presence thank you so much continue my pleasure and uh listen it's it's like I said I I'm quoting Pak saying it but I was saying it beforehand you know you have changed the the face of of Torah in America. Thank you. And with the art school, I mean, initial too, you know, it's like it's just it's just it's just impossible, you know. Well, that that's credit to our incredible team here from Rabbi Laditz, Rabbi Sherman, Rabbi Brand. I was in a uh I was in a uh you know dafomi kabura you know before I started giving the share you know and they had they had the art school um you shall uh skullim and it would be like you're turning and you're turning and you're turning and you're turning and you're turning bay and they're turning and they're turn so it's a herculean task and one that I definitely appreciate. Thank you so much. [Music]