Inside ArtScroll - Season 5 Episode 3: Rav Moshe Tuvia Lieff – Vayimaen

[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 I am privileged to be joined by Rab Mosha Rabas is bas of Flatbush. Thank you Rabbi Lee for being here. It's a pleasure. Now, I mentioned the books you read, the people who write them. The RV has not yet written a book with Art School. Maybe sometime soon. Um, but today we're here to discuss a a very special book and really a very special project known as Vayumain, which has taken the world by storm in a relatively short period of time. And we'll get into the popularity of it. But I'm going to jump right in to the question that I think many people wonder and based on the RV's experience of being a RV in Minneapolis for 19 years now RV for so long in Flatbush and and being in the Rabinet and being a Marbet's Tyra and being a Mashpia and dealing with people and hearing the problems of the day so close up. What was the RV's reaction when he heard that there's a project focusing on and what the the backdrop of the question is growing up and I'm sure it was like that for the RV as well was something we we never spoke about it was the unspoken issue a person worked on it it was you know the proverbial elephant in the room so that's the elephant in the room how did the rub feel about a project like vay that is primarily focused lunch tonight. So, initially I can't say I was skeptical, but I was not interested. It didn't talk to me. You know, sometimes you meet a person, it doesn't talk to me until life becomes real. And I heard different people that were doing it. It sounded very nice. It's going to be inspirational. It's going to be wonderful to ignite, but I'm a more I try to be more meat and potatoes with then they got a kamki to do one who I'm very close with. He's a tremendous consider a close friend. I said doing this maybe it's something I should look into. And I did a few of them and it sounded incredible because that's how Claudius role tackles issues. It's step by step. My brother Schlita Rashid Muny told me many years ago he says the Kevh in front of the is different than the Kevh in front of the MSB because the Kevh the avoid of the misbehide up you slide down. When it comes to it's step after steplav after schlav you purchase you go v. And that's exactly what is it champions the moment. It's not about changing your life monumentally turning yourself into an instant static forever. It's realizing that one moment one moment of control is incredible. And all those that are doing it, they do it so eloquently, so passionately, and with a lot of humor, a lot of integrity. And I'll tell you honestly, the one it affects the most is me. The Moses say, "How do you know if you was effective? It affects you." And I know that whether when I give over a gadank an idea I was just telling my rebels shita was my seventh grade rebby I'm very close with him he couldn't believe this is done in two three minutes in two three minutes you can change the world and that's I think what vine is doing and the recognition is literally worldwide so to address this the elephant in the room that question what what kind of changed the ru's perspective on that that whereas you know maybe Kadush said I am used to be at least in the world maybe in the world there might be more of a dugish more of an emphasis on those areas and even speaking about it openly whereas I think in the typically you know this was a topic that was kind of under the radar and each person worked on it individually and over here we have a movement whose success is is unquestionable because we we see how much it's impacting people but there just this component and this this detail of the fact that it's being spoken obviously in a very ad gentle dignified way but that it's being spoken about publicly you know obviously it's very much like shim as a child I don't remember the programs of shim in New York or all over the world and now it's become a national movement where people realize there's a need for shirgo bris But I think the mila of it takes it to a level that everyone could be influenced by and it's not in our world when we grew up you had the call or you had that was somebody that wasn't did things but He didn't mush things. You couldn't see Rao Yashv eating a ripstake. It was beneath his dignity. And I think that's what Vim introduced that Ayid has to fly above the brambles and bushes not to get caught but beneath the radar. There's something it just doesn't fit with who I am. And Bay introduces that every single within every Yid at any level has something that's beneath his dignity and it sort of says I don't got to look I don't got to see I don't got to run I don't have to be enticed I can control myself I am to a certain degree the master of my destiny and that's the it's little in incriminal sort of minuscule steps where it's incremental where you just keep on growing. You don't even realize you're growing and you don't have this goal to grow. It's just to control that moment. It's just to take some control of your life and all of a sudden you feel like you're a you're a gamb. Yeah. And I think I think it's obvious to point out that the nionist in this area are clearly greater today than ever. It's it sounds like a cliche and it sounds trit, but it's true. With the advent of technology and the expansion of technology and how we're inundated with with so many things coming from different directions, you know, they say they say over from from the GD, whichever gul it was that, you know, one trip on the subway today, you'll see more than you saw in in in in a lifetime in the whoever that's attributed to. But there's no question that the nan today of what's thrown at us is is on a different level and different types of challenges need different responses. I was once asked to speak about technologies. I was talking to Maran and he told me the internet has removed boundaries. There used to be boundaries and that's been whited out. And exactly like you're saying, you know, I always talk about the fact I I I say that you find someone naming a daughter or a granddaughter after an elaba from Europe. And there was in Europe, believe it or not, that was called a zoga. And the zogaka would read sennena Friday night which is a synopsis of the parisha in Yiddish to a bunch of ladies who were illiterates. They couldn't read. They could not readit. They couldn't read kites. They couldn't down from a so why are you naming your brindy after the elaba brindy who couldn't read? Because the elab exactly like you said wasn't exposed during the course of her whole lifetime but our kids are exposed to one hour in the mall or one hour on the subway. So there's got to be a built-in safeguard you know zulu mazoo the same way we find when it comes to anything that's not kosher there's something else that can mirror that taste and that effect and that texture. If Hashem created internet, it's because we can deal with it. And there are things that we can do, the technology to harness it and not to filter it, but also to realize we're not so grounded by it or we're not so seduced by it or we're not so enslaved by it. Of course, that's the beauty of shambas. When you put it all away, it shows you you can be in control. That's what your mind does. I think it gives you the ability to see I'm bigger than that. It's always trying to dumb me down, right? You're garish. You're marisha. Forget about it. And no, there's no forget about it. It's a nice saying in Brooklyn, forget about it. I heard now they're taking down that sign. There's certain signs they want throughout the country taken down because they're not happy with the jargon. But forget about it is a Brooklyn terminology. You have to tell the forget about it. Sometimes I'm going to forget about you. Now this new book was written by our dear Spiro who did a amazing job. I've been going through the manuscript as it's being prepared for print. This conversation is taking place shortly before the book hits the press. And uh what I noticed about the manuscript besides that it's written so eloquently in Riil's classic style. He took whoever has done these videos and he's not only written them up in such a beautiful way but he's added to it and he's expanded to it and I noticed that more than half of the entries are actually not directly about they're about like the RV said being a master of your domain control being able to say no being able to say yes basically being a good in every situation having the power to do the right thing which kind of really the the Vimo movement may have started uh in you know with the slogan of setting your eyes on greatness but it's much broader than just sanim it's about really having the strength that a yid needs to live as a yid if you live life with control it's a flavor enhancer meaning as someone who's been on diets and you know tries to deal with gashmis and rrookmas I firmly believe gashm and are the exact opposites. It's so easy to gain gashmas and so hard to lose, so hard to gain risk at a donut. I gained five pounds. I mean, that's just the type of a person. But it's a flavor enhancer when you're on a diet and whatever you're eating has a flavor to it. It tastes like something. You could smell a celery from the other room. It's it's really insane. But a real balty should be curbing his appetite and eating certain amounts and certain foods and it's going to be flavorful. Same thing with life. The same thing with anything you think about the control is not just to fight the but it enhances your gash. It enhances your you feel like you've accomplished you're somebody you're something you're forced to be reckoned with. You know they say mentioned several times that he knew he was taking on the situ and that he would be taken down by it. And many in the no say that shortly after city field he became unwell as if the situ for him on it but he was willing to be my nephesh. Let me be honest with you. Mio came to an I convention we had a good Midwest I was very involved with it and there were many rabbon in the room and he started talking about the internet that we barely knew about. He started talking about a motor car. You wouldn't allow someone to drive a motor car without instructions. You wouldn't just hand them the keys to a child. Somebody said, "Who in this room, this goes back many years ago, has a gila where there isn't one TV in a misspel's house and nobody raised a hand." So the consensus was should we first work about TV then worry about the internet understood that the internet was a very intense lurking danger that can change colis said many years ago we were marching towards our destiny Msiah and then the sent to monkey wrenchin the internet but it's exactly as you're saying is to teach control to youngsters to older people rebell I think just mentioned this recently who said to them he's going to Tel a for a bris how could you go to Tel A for bris I'm going to be careful rebi he says he has one eye and he can barely see out of the other eye and he's terrified to go to Tel a Viv and you with flesh and two fleshly eyes, you have no problem cavalier to go to Tel Aiv the Baka didn't go. So my point is it's teaching us we don't need to go there to reach for that to say that once you learn to control yourself from where you're looking what you're saying how you understand and appreciate people says everybody's basically good people are good people they mean to be good so if you're looking for the good in people you'll find it all depends on what you're looking for yeah a yid is inherently good it's bringing it out and I think that that's really what this project the va project and the hi yidden who are behind it anonymously behind the scenes. We don't see them. And they're putting out these videos every day with a tremendous amount of I should mention expertise artistry, artistry, creativity. By the time they finish with what I said, I can't believe I said it's unbelievable. It's magnificent. It's really magnificent. And obviously a tremendous outlay of money, but it's being done Shamay. And whatever those videos have done on a on a creative level visually, this book does perhaps even more because the written word is is is as powerful as anything. And I think this book will be a handbook for people to navigate life's challenges in general, but not just challenges, giving people the wherewithal, the fortitude to get through a day. There's one meaning, right? It's a feel-good kind of mitzvah. You feel accomplished. It's out of order. So he get tells you give 20 people a newspaper to read the caution newspaper and they read it from cover to cover and you give them a quiz and they all fail. Why? Because each person is reading what they're sensitive calibrated to see. This one wants to know about politics. This one about the economy sports if there's sports in the paper. Where's your heart? Because the heart will cause you to see what you see and not see what you're not supposed to see. What the heart wants to see. That does if you're in the right place and your heart's in the right place, you're not going to see the wrong things. If you walked down lower east side with Marina Raosha Zats and there were different sites to see, you didn't see anything. You were with you held his hand. You saw the world through eyes. you're looking for a year to give comfort to. I had a rebi was unbelievable. that also came and spoke was his I said is it nothing but that's the if how does it help us we're Rabenu doesn't mean in the perspective of Misha. If you're holding Mosher Rabenu's hands, if you have a Rebi, a Raashiva Z and you walk through life holding his hand or the Mo's hand for a lady, it's the easiest thing in the world. So I said, if you hold on to and that's really the idea. The idea is it's a hand to hold on to. It's a way of conducting your life. And you know who was Muslim spoil? The kids. We had issues sometimes with sneers in Minneapolis with some ladies, very wonderful ladies. They just didn't get it. So they said, "When the curl is going to come, they're going to learn." It didn't happen. You know what happened? When the daughters came back from seminary and they said, "Ma, you can't wear that. Ma, you can't wear that." Ma stopped wearing it. So now when the kids see that the parents and the father who's out there and he's put together and he's worldly and he interacts with people is careful and cautious and makes decisions based on not being led into temptation. Boom. It's a gimme to the kids. They all want to be like their parents. And you know there was a misa many years ago where Bianca Zatal was nifa and there was a boy in Chicago going to the school that uh the mania of the school came in and the bombber says this kid's a little crazy. It was snowing outside and the kid wouldn't stay in the barber shop. He kept on going outside on the street and then every 10 minutes he'd come back as my turn yet five, six, seven times. He couldn't figure it out. The man figured out they had made a cabola. It goes back all those days that for a week anybody who's got a TV, nobody watches TV during the week of the sh of Rabbiank in Chicago. And this kid saw that the barber had his TV on. So he just walked out in the snow. Isn't that amazing story? But that's every single day. younger people, older people, people who are so used to looking around, casing out the joint, checking out the world and the we show the and ourselves that we're really great people. So I wanted to ask the RV, you know, you mentioned the story from years ago from many decades ago when the RV was a tal at Tarvadasa Flapush and then in Telss and then and then in Minneapolis as a Mardaser and now in Flapush. such a perspective on life having lived through so many monumental moments and and such important uh junctures in in in our recent Jewish history and how has evolved has the the has grown what have you seen as the biggest change in terms of the challenges for a from and and not just the internet I'm talking about in in raising mishb and being children you know the children who sometimes have str have a struggle connecting with our heritage and it takes a lot of effort boys and girls to bring them to bring them over. What what's what's the biggest difference? Excellent. Excellent question. I will say bottom line like the old song we are an incredible door because of these. Now I do think that the basic difference between when I grew up and kids are growing up today. My father's als nine years in Israel. He also taught for the board of ed physically handicapped emotionally disturbed like your father's angu also was a man who also was able to interact in that world. My mother was a college math professor with a PhD from Colombia. So they made panosa. You know what kind of steak we had once a week? We had a very thin shoulder steak. Have you ever eaten shoulder steak? Most people don't have shoulder estate. We had a simple house, two family house. We didn't have wall-to-wall company. We didn't have chandeliers. We had secondhand furniture. Why? Was that insane? I mean, we easily could have had my father never bought a new car. He bought Rabar Shak's used car. I mean, what's the shot? They sent money to Jol. They supported Yeshivas. They supported Stuckus. Life was much simpler. Today, I think it just become much more complicated, much faster. the exposure to the world is greater. They have the global village where any atrocity or whatever happens everybody knows everything about we're too busy with the news and the Kashmir you can't get away Pragamansski zatal was an incredible and the rebi of my rebi ragstein he said I think it was after world war ii in France he told him I'm very worried about the next door about the success us about their gashmas. Will they be able to to deal with it? Will they give the money the way they're supposed to give it? Will they live lives that takes them away from Yiddish? So to us, I think honestly, I mean, right now, I'm not going to mention the city. It's a fantastic city. It's very near to my heart. Theat is emptied out. Everybody went on winter vacation to Arizona, to Florida. Who goes to winter vacation? Who went anywhere? When I was a kid, my brother and I the other ones that flew out of town because we went to my grandparents in Cincinnati and grandparents in in Montreal every other year. We flew on a plane who flew on a plane and now kids go on their own junkets all over the world steakous and again I love Gashmir just like the next guy but it's become such excess right so you know I was talking to David had to speak about technology says he says is there's no competition and it's takar there's no competition but how are they going to get their teeth sunk in with so much gashm so a little bit we got to dumb down even though rake sats had a monumental discussion argument about this rake said that there's too much gashmas the varant and that was 35 years ago really ostentatious and so we got to knock it down and says if we for lack a better word dumb down the gashmas we'll dumb down theiras and stucker and he had the day so that's the duality you know to be able to give tremendous amounts of stucker but not be so fat in the gashmas where we're telling hashem we don't think mashia's coming to have a $5 million house or kids elementary school kids going to steakous I'll tell you a story okay it's a silly story I was in Miami Beach very close to gross And you could still stern runs the kit over there. And I came to give Sherman a kit and also to speak for the so took me to a restaurant, very nice, nice restaurant. I could not believe what I heard. A fella asks the matraee, the waiter. This says 40 ounce steak. You hear what I'm saying? 40 oz. Come, you know, 16 ounces is a pound, 32 is two. 40 oz steak. Is that before they cook it or after they cook it? He wanted to know if it's 40 ounces or really 37. I mean, I enjoy a steak. How much could you eat? But I could never push it. And I'm not saying the excess of everything in life, but Laya that definitely is very different than the way I grew up. And we did things and enjoyed life and went places. But that's definitely a problem. So a little bit the inconsistencies you know like you know you can't be like Socrates you know do what I say and not do what I do you got to live it but there are many people that live a very close of his so I used to go every year to before before you know for many is what should I tell the what should I tell every year was something else once talk about the talk about the yeah talk about this talk about that and one time he told me I said yeah I said no at least two three hours a day you know good in most if you don't learn two three hours a day she's my friend's a loser like who even looks at you so he thinks and he thinks and he thinks and he thinks the whole gamut of male that's what he told me but today there is a lot of me learning but you know commenure with that you know it's got to be so we have all these ters that jumped up and and luxuries end up becoming necessities 100% that's 100% true and it's it's it's really sad because then it's not really a luxury right I mean everybody wants It's a luxury, not a a luxury is an extra, not Exactly. Exactly. It's like, I need this. No, no, you want that. You don't need that. Okay. Listen, I grew up, my kids grew up in Minneapolis, a wonderful place to grow up, but was not a life of excess. People had money. People were comfortable, but they didn't go much sugar. The flow out of town is out of town is very out of town. Is it's a great place to raise children. Yeah. More toned down. Very toned down. And they're more real. Like, you know, I said people in the sh people would say when he's ding, he's talking to Hashem. He's talking to God. like you could see it. That was one thing about this. They'd come visit because they did business with Best Buy or with um Target corporate headquarters were in Minneapolis and like when these fellas Din's telling them not to talk during like they really believe it. You know why? Because when they believe it and says something they do it. There's like a it's ingrained and said that he says why do you find that when ashkan's people talk to apologize if this is the case if that's the case when rabbi talks he hits him over the head he says because their mess was not dull but skola didn't have that's what he said so there's this amunas that they have and a real connection to rebu You walk into some of the shores they're saying kill him with such such fervor with such real erkite and again we have saying we also I'm not minimizing what we are but if you're asking me what I think the difference is between 30 40 years ago and today are these the excess in life and the fact that you know we have to be more consistent with our message to our children in every area and especially and because that's what the kids want to be. They want to be like their parents. I I find that that actually dovetales very well with this particular discussion of because many of the speakers speak about this issue of being able to turn away not just from the inappropriate but from excesses from luxuries. Just because Yenim has it doesn't mean you have to have it. You'll be perfectly fine. But because we're human and because the the the created us with the mida of kina and because we want what other people have. So it's it's an avoid and we need direction. We need and that's really also part of this under the rubric of is this ability to be able to be satisfied with what we have. And that's how I think it's it's it's so interesting that of all things that the RV chose was this which is really part of this whole campaign. You talk about when I was a man and tells Yeshiva we had a vad musad and he together with other people were my mus and you could see right then and there that he was something very special. He came from a wonderful family comes wonderful family wonderful brothers and sister and blal's parents are incredible but he's a real Ben that gets the flavor of the suga and and Riitzi I don't mean to to for and to praise you but it's a thrill to be sitting here with my rebi who was not even my rebi who was my English teacher in high school that taught us hashkus and about kashras when we were in science class also have a way of connecting to people and explaining things properly. So it's adornitsuan we have very talented people so many different people that can write properly and give over the flavor and that's what our dor needs it needs flavor it needs alfa need it's a gishmakite you know that that's what we need you know sitting on the mis is a and a is you sometimes see how people are dvening and they're not really connected and you want to grab out and take that kid and pull them in and be like and whisper some words in his ear and you see it happening right before your eyes. And then of course those parents that they're into the det from Lakewood are into ding and you look at them it's just you know we live in a world where you have 18 periodicals of all these different things this you name it we got it. So the real conscientious misbaling starts takes three, four, five, six, seven. So he's very busy. Hopefully not during the but certainly during missing the boat close for him in middle of my father's Beners very simple people. No such thing as David without a jacket. everybody those zip-up jackets and a cap. I never ever remember my father telling the people not to talk during you just didn't talk during these were not go some might not even been shabas but you knew in shul you don't talk during and uh you know we have to bring it back the old time religion and I think we're doing it and I think the medium of art school is and the concept of nayak and all these wonderful projects that people really care about where do you find it more than this terrible yak many of us because ringing around the flag the the now and the hash and and sitsus it's this fella had his two babies he was talking at the EU in front of all these and he's describing what his babies are like and how they're with and then he stands up and screams he could kill that's what we're doing Now screaming and it's only compliments each other. If we want to be we have and we have it now all the organizations they tell me that I'm all knock on the door and now they're begging take my kid. It's an explosion explosion explosion and it's real from people. Exactly. And it's real and it's for all the good things. It's for it's for it's so we're living really in an extraordinary time. It's a dangerous time. Mhm. But the has I'll just say something I said on he has says That's the moment. This vart was told to me by the rash of on the flight I flew with my rebi to do the on him. I flew from Minneapolis and I was masked with him. He says, "You don't know this from my father. I didn't know I heard about on the way." So he said like this now it's such a controversial vert that raisin zatsal who was the editor of the Jewish observer by the way I was to write an article in the Jewish observer about my rebi he called me and asked me it was so good it closed the magazine meaning the last issue of the Jewish observer was my issue was one I wrote yes that's exactly that's true last issue and he called me up to ask me if did he say this did he really say this because he said sound very controversial ord like this says I got to go see my son before I die run and see you'll be able to see the you'll be allowed in his envirance but would have is you'll never be able to see the said the whom was calling up to comeify my said certainly he was the but he faced such a terrible as that according to the medish it was more difficult than all the of au all combined according to another medish I found she came down to him every single day for two years I'm your ticket out of here I'll call him said yank I better go see him before I die because now I could see him but when they understand the of he's at sadic he didn't give That's said that's why he understood the door of the door. So I'm saying I think this is the door with the greatest nanis since the history of the world. It's worse than the Roman orgies and all the mishagas that we had in the past. It's instant gratification instant every is in the world and no one has to know about it. between you and God and lot of sadikim a lot of sadikim under the radar a lot of sadikim that are doing great things and that's is uncovering and revealing that sadic and every single man woman and child you can be at sadic you can not look control not eat not taste not grab not take and you'll be at sadic that sadic to the extent maybe los the grace of sadik we're not going to be able to get too close to you that's wow that's that's on that note I I I have to thank the RV of course for being here which is a tremendous coveret for us but uh thank you in general for the for the thousands of hours of and ashkaf and inspiration that you've given to me personally and to go ka people on na from durim now that they're disseminated on all different types of platforms it's not limited just to the beautiful Shoulan Avenue L. So many people are are benefiting from DV's hashbah. So here's an opportunity to thank you for for all those years of dedication and devotion and uh my humble braha continued being mash on so many yidden and giving over that flavor the way I see it. the beauty of Yiddish and the sim of Yiddish which the RV embodies to be able to give that over day in and day out with such aite and it's it's such a and we're so so grateful for it. So thank you again should continue being and it is to be here in art scroll I'm not pandering to my sh but just there's a concept called kadusha like we spoke about and I mentioned this before of and I think to yourself as well that the tells us encounters he saw what nobody else saw he read the road signs which is important in life. Bum couldn't read the road signs. His donkeyy's talking to him and he's arguing with the donkey. When was the last time a donkey talked to you? He couldn't read the road signs did said it was a pool of his meaning people saw and only he saw. And says don't go any closer. It's intense. Take off your shoes. The question is back up 20 paces 20. And if not why take off your shoes and Hashem said there's the moes of don't draw any closer says there are two places of kadusha there's kadesh and a mid of kadusha kesh haram yeshiva then is a mid of kadusha where a person vumagate vumish state wherever you stand create kadusha if you didn't go and tour Italy under the right opices and with good people they're shopping a muck kadesh wherever they go. Imagine we taught our children wherever you go it's a mal kadesh. This is raw I think the is called to think that art scroll has created a mdish in rawe and I'm sure one day raw is going to be like a glac but a lot of yen living here and that's what you're doing yity and that's what is doing and that's what art schools teaching yenesh and the main you got to act that way right and you have to act like an ishadesh or a has kadusha bas it's a and is going to help us out. Amen. Thank you again. Thank you so much. 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