CHAZAQ's Torah Talks #133 Rabbi Henoch Plotnik - Inspiring Our Children

when I took my children toel for the first time and we had a schedule someone had invited us for dinner so we went to the Kil and I told my children okay we're going to be here for x amount of time so when the time was up I went over to this 15-year-old child and I said to him okay it's time to go and I had been in ER many times I learned in ER Israel and my son turns to me with tears in his eyes and he says tati it's my first time I can't leave so we stayed I learned a lot from my teenage son and that feeling should never get stale we have to find a way to make sure to renew that freshness it's so so [Music] important and welcome to Tor talks kazak Tuesday night program with special guest we have with us all the way from Chicago rabik Rabbi welcome how are youash we're doing good a little cold but we're okay very very excited to have the rabbi on the program and we're going to be discussing inspiring our children and before we get to the exciting topic if you could please get a little bit background about the rabbi and the great work you're involved with sure I grew up in Boston Massachusetts I spent my formative Yeshiva years in Philadelphia Yeshiva after that I went to Pon I learned by the goor blazak after coming back from ponage I was in Lakewood for a short while until I moved to the Chicago Community kle which is a Lakewood branch kle here in Chicago I was there for 7 plus years then I began dual careers in and in rabones I am currently the ninth grade rebi in Yesa in Chicago and although I'm not an active Pulpit RV anymore but I still serve in that capacity on different levels and Community issues and whatnot so barash I have a full plate and I'm very happy to make some time to be part of your plate as well thank you very much Robert plotnik for making time to joining kazak we always appreciate it and yagar continue doing the amazing work that you're doing and uh the the question is you know how do we make it exciting Rabbi being that you do so much for our children to be excited and learning any suggestions well let me tell you an interesting thing I once asked my b how do you give Gish now the word gmak doesn't have a good translation in English but it means a tremendous amount of satisfaction enjoyment ecstasy for lack of a better word how do you give gmak so one boy raised his hand and he said you know how do you give gmak rebi by you being gmak that was a great answer and I told him that you were remind me of something that I had a question about when I was learning in pun Yesa by blaz back in the early 1980s R besides his daily Shear used to give a Shear CL used to give a Shear once a week he used to all withi every two weeks and you couldn't talk to Rak the entire day before he gave a Shear he was so focused and concentrated on what he was doing the world could be falling in you couldn't talk to him and it was hard to understand the shear sometimes his voice was raspy he was old even though we gave Shar on a microphone and very often after the shear was over I would look in his very safer Ai ezri and I would find the exact same Shear already printed inside the safer so it always bothered me why is he so uptight the day he gives the shear I could look up the shear in the avz and so could he and he'll certainly understand it better than I will why is he so nervous and uptight the day he gives a Shear but I didn't have the go to ask him this question years later one of my classes gave me a set of swarmm from and one of the Swarm was a collection of his last 20 that he gave in Yesa and in that safer it said that there was a younger man in the K who I happened to know who asked this question to he had a go to ask him why do you get so nervous before these sh they're all printed already anyway what's the big deal and R said do you think that the way to put into is just by reading it out of a safer even if it's your own you got to live it it's got to be a and I got to go relive the whole every single time and then give the she with that and that LE that sense of life that's the only way you're ever going to succeed in giving over to so this tal was right on the only way to give gmak is to give it over with gmak you have to feel that you have to feel that excitement and that unparalleled joy in learning if you do that you're already 90% of your way to giving things over to your T I spent the first 11 years of my teaching career teaching eighth grade I was offered the job that I have now for the last 20 years and I was very concerned if I could do the job Justice because it's a different kind of a learning eth grade as opposed to missa you're learning much deeper you have to be much more familiar with what we call the yes all the different from the Contemporary R and the the later commentaries and I was sort of out of the system for 11 years and I asked one of my rabim RIT Perman who's now retired he lives in Lakewood he was a phenomenal rebi and a very inspiring rebi for me I asked him is it possible to make this transition and he said to me your job as a rebi is to give the boys a gmack in learning you can do that no matter how long you were teaching Elementary School ah he said you're afraid you don't know all the yes you don't know all the little details of the su he said by now there are plenty of swarm out there that can help you with that it's not a problem you can cheat if you want that's fine no one's going to know the difference your job is to give them over a Gish so I took that as my mandate that you have to give them a Gish when you show the Gish you give them a Gish it was a very interesting story thaté boxed Z the rashash in Detroit related the great Bal the once had to go collect from a wealthy person who was known to be a terrible Miser and it was very hard to get a penny out of him and he went to his house and he got on his hands and knees and he started asking him for money so the B that had accompanied the alen Kellum to this person's house was appalled it's such a disgrace to the Torah that the reev has to get on his hands and knees so he asked him afterwards why did you do that he said when you talk to a person you have to talk in his ears some people's ears are on the side of their head this person's ears are in his feet I knew that's the way to talk to him and he gave me a beautiful donation for what I was collecting for and I read this story and I said this is the key to every M's success you have to find the ears of your meet him you have to know how to talk to them you have to know what speaks to them you can't teach them like you taught 30 years ago 20 years ago 10 years ago and sometimes not the way you taught 10 days ago or 10 minutes ago you have to know who you're teaching how to talk to them how to excite them and most importantly how to engage them if you want to make your T levic again my best example was with Shak it was nothing short of a war zone the Riva would pose a question and he would let people fight and yell and scream and this is the way the shear caught on everybody was so excited to be part of it and this is what a great classroom looks like it's engaging you invol involve the students at every juncture that you possibly can make everything as relevant as you can especially when you're learning gamar and sometimes you're learning archaic principles about an ox Goring this and how do you put up an a whatever the concept is you got to make it as real and as relevant as you can and I would advise people to do something which I do almost every Arab shabas I pick out sections mostly from that he has arranged by the how the different Su in the come alive in a real live shil and you can show the look how the the sh he learned the same G we did he learned the same t as we did he learned the same rash we did and makes everything so relevant and so real and so important it gives it it gives it life one last thing which I would recommend which I try to utilize as much as I can call a talmud's parents and grandparents whenever you have a chance and just tell them you know your son is terrific he asked me a great Kasha today if you can even say over the Kasha and you have all these partners with you in giving this child that enjoyment and that satisfaction in learning the he calls up he says you know your reie called me up from Chicago and he told me you asked this terrific question I can't believe it one day you're going to be a World's class and then the Bubby calls in she says you know I heard you opened up the door for your Reby before he fell on his face and broke his glasses oh you're the one who tripped the Reby you didn't tell me that part whatever it is get them involved and the more people that he has to please and he has to satisfy will make his learning that much more meaningful and that much more enjoyable amazing Rabbi plotnik we feel the the energy the G like the RAB said through the streams and the question is how do we maximize their energies in learning in the classroom in specific okay so that's a great question the truth is that even secular Educators deal with this a lot about how to keep children awake how to keep them alert and this this is Nea this pertains to children all the way down from elementary school all the way through college everybody struggles with the same thing now the truth is we're not the first ones that had to deal with this the med tells us that was giving she and he saw that his children will being his they were falling asleep the great raka Anda wanted to wake them up so he told them a vort a cryptic vort he said why was Esther Z to be the queen over 127 provinces because since Esther was a descendant from who lived 127 years so it's fitting that Esther sh Mal over 12 provinces and the obvious question is what does one thing have to do with the other and why did this V wake them up so there's a beautiful V from the K the G the Kim says that it's pretty clear from this MIM kazal that s the big sadus every year that she put into her quality life enabled Esther to become Mala over one more province which was very significant to Esther to be in that position that means that she maximized her efforts in this world and it paid off down the road and the way he put it was one year of s im's great AEM created one country for Esther so can you imagine 127 years of that concentrated Avida created 127 provinces for ES so the said okay every year is one Province every month is a city every week is a neighborhood every day is a block every minute is maybe a backyard but every single moment that you're alert and awake is so precious you have no idea what you're creating down the road so he woke up his with that he said you know every minute is so precious every minute is so precious so please don't let yourselves fall asleep and of course the took the bait would take that bait I tried that for and she it didn't quite work the same but iidm down the road they'll be just likea if I can make myself raka but the truth is there are a lot of tricks that you can use one thing is to have shorter periods I don't think it's a good idea to have children locked up in a sheer room for too long at a time I guess it's age appropriate obviously but even ninth graders that I teach I find that an hour is pretty much maxing out and then you give a break you gain in the long run if you think keeping them for an hour and a half you're going to accomplish more you're making a big mistake you break it up and they're fresh when they come back you should get active immediately as soon as you walk into that room whether it's in the beginning of the day whether it's during the break you know once upon a time I don't know how old your listening audience is but there used to be something called Vaudeville acts they used to have you'll excuse me for mentioning the three stoes if anybody knows what that is but they used to have these comedy skits back in the 30s and the 40s the average Vaudeville Act was 12 minutes and it was done with Ain because they decided back in those days no one can pay attention for more than 12 minutes now I read in a recent study that they said nowadays it's 10 minutes I don't believe it I don't think it's 10 seconds you have to always be cognizant of the fact that people's attention stands are short that means you got to keep switching ideas you got to change up you walk around the room change the scenery whatever ever it is you are the scenery you walk around to this B to that b move around the room change the topic whatever it is another important thing which I learned from one of my re mendal Kaplan he used to give Shear in the middle of a circle the buck did not sit in rows they sat in a circle this way everybody was in front of the rebi everyone had clear eye to eye contact the rebi saw everybody you can't fall asleep in a circle like you can Behind the B in front of you it doesn't work and it's a there's a natural and I can tell you the honest truth the sheer room I have this year is a little bit smaller one of the other re needed my old sheer room which is big I cannot put my buck in a circle this year and I can tell the difference it's not the same because when they're in rows it's not the same yeah you can hide a little bit behind another I don't see everybody the same put your tum in a circle as much as possible if you teach in a school that doesn't have big rooms insist that they knock the school building down and build new rooms so so you can teach Inner Circle it's also okay to have water bottles it's a good thing not because they need to be hydrated which they do anyway but again it's a break it's a mental break for them you know I can take a breath for a second I'm taking a drink of water that's fine and even if they have to Doodle Noo-noo it's not the end of the world better to Doodle than to fall asleep I asked one B I gave out copies of a rambam one day I said do me a favor you're artistic doodle me on the back of your sheet while we're learning the ram if you're not going to be listening anyway at least do something constructive and make a picture of me I'm still waiting for a good one I haven't seen the practice ones but as long as they're engaged and they're active You're Gonna Keep Them alert amazing Rabbi platnik very very very good points uh especially now Rabbi and know rearing off from the topic a little bit but it's all connected uh and and in general how does one have uh his children build a deep rooted appreciation to Eric and ER this is one of my pet peeves that I believe this is not really stressed enough in the educational system I can't speak for every school I'm only exposed to so many of them but when I was growing up as a child ER Isel was very much on people's minds you have to realize when I was a young child this was before 1967 but I have this vivid memory of a m coming to our house after 1967 I believe he came by boat and he was staying in our house and I asked him did you see the K Mari in those days the K maravi was a painting on everybody's living room in fact I mentioned this once in a class and one woman said I'm sorry I can't afford a painting but she got me a little like 5x7 picture of a k Mari in a frame and she said at least you can put this in your living room and I have it in the wall in one of my hallways but it was such an excitement myi and I remember he told me back not only did I see the I even saw the too I couldn't believe it wow it was such a thrill now the truth is nowadays I hate to say it but to some people ER became a little bit of a tourist attraction the thrill ofes might have somehow changed a little bit because was so ril was so used to being able to go there maybe that wore off I remember NE was once in a souvenir shop in May there were two men talking about their itineraries for the day and one of them said yeah first we're going Jeeping and then we're going to do riron la and I looked around at this person I said you're gonna do Rabon L what is he the Statue of Liberty you're going to see G and kadim and er Isel but to him ER Isel seem like it's another vacation spot it's like realer we're gonna do Jeeping we're gonna do Bar La maybe we'll do rebon kvki too ER Isel when we grew up was a place where we had this tremendous passion to go to see we got it from our parents we got it from society it was something that was very to us I just read a beautiful story last night the previous bana rebba was once in Switzerland and he was on a train and the shamish that was traveling with him said you know you can get a beautiful view the Alps right now you want to see the Alps he said no I'm busy learning mishna it's okay they finally went back to ER Israel and in the taxi cabin the way back to ER his inim he was looking out the window the whole time so sham said I must ask the rebba why in the Alps didn't you feel compelled to look at the scenery and Isel you do see he said do I have to see the creations of Hashem I see them on my body every day I don't have to see the Alps but on it says in theem looks at Isel how do I not want to look at er Israel and you hear a m like this and it makes you feel so warm and so close about how great people felt that warmth that caring for ER Isel you know the gamar says that you're not even allowed to sit in a spot in ER Israel where you're going to complain about the heat you have to go into a cooler spot was a is he had an air conditioner and he had a little sign on it he wrote M RI and rasi the air conditioner of raami and rasi because they're the ones that said in the gamar that you shouldn't sit in a hot place in Israel so you shouldn't say is the Morin were accused of saying Isel because they didn't learn from Miriam who said m is a person not a person it's Sticks and Stones it's ground but the gar is telling us a tremendous lesson that we have to feel ER is like we feel a person all those k at the end of the of all those we're talking like we're talking to a person if you read those things slowly it's already the end of kis sometimes you go a little too fast by then but sit down and read them we relate to Isel like we relate we relate to people and that's the love we have to have for Israel and children especially shouldn't be confused when we tell them about all the wonderful great mil of is they have to realize about is that's the is we D for and the is we speak about in they shouldn't confuse the political reality of today's Med is when we're talking about Kad they're two separate things they happen to be in the same place of course and one day we're going to have a we're going to have a government that's run outra but they have to appreciate what it is if we speak about how special ER Israel is how special the fruits of is are they still taste different I remember once sitting in the house of sh the the secretary the and he took out a a thing of grapes and he said to me in yish taste some pis Isel and they were the most delicious grapes I ever had in my life I always wait to go back to Isel to eat some pis is we have to talk about this a lot the when he retired at the end of his life and lived in he was frail he was sick and somebody asked them why are you here you can't do anything here anyway and he said what do you mean I can breathe the air of yush what do you mean I can't do anything here and we have to inculcate these things in our children to make sure they understand and appreciate how special ER is I remember last time I was in ER I got a ride in a taxi and of course the taxi drivers there are all missionaries trying to make you move to Isel so this person says to me when are you making Al Isel and I said I hope to do it soon but you should know that my wife is a big so the man looks at me he says like you your wife is a and I said sure my wife cannot wait until we have a again and we're all going to live in we're all going to live in these are the kinds of things we have to relate and explain to them learn the gar at the end ofus and find out the miles of Isel but we have to talk about this a lot and make the situation of today that much more real and that much more painful how we're fighting that we hope will all be to be in amen I mean so I always tell people and I I take this to Heart a lot is that we all know that M 515 times in in order to be able to go into and today we have the sco we have the Merit to be able to go there how how important it is every opportunity I have you know I I I I get get go there all the time and it's nothing like it and uh and there's no question about it we all know that MOS D so many times what all those prayers they went was God forbid but no we all know that the the merits that we have being able to go to and and to win all those Wars that happen you know is because of the bank account that was put to the side by mosh with regards to the fruits family members friends they always go to what I always asked them bring me some fruits bring me some pistachi bring me some stuff because there's no question about like the rabbi said The Taste the a the the feeling of eres it's very very very very special I want to tell you two short things if I may one of his grandchildren went to with me he went to learn in andan told him don't go to the for two weeks I want you to build up the excitement to go to the K so by the time you get there you'll be bursting with excitement that's so important to feel that that Rush of kadha and just another short story when I took my children to for the first time so my youngest son was a young teenager probably 15 years old or so and we had a schedule someone had invited us for dinner and we were supposed to be there by a certain time so we went to the Kil and I told my children okay we're going to be here for x amount of time and then we're all going to meet again somewhere in the plaza so when the time was up I went over to this 15-year-old child and I said to him okay it's time to go and I had been in ER Isel many times I learned in ER Isel and my son turns to me with tears in his eyes and he says tati it's my first time I can't leave so we stayed I learned a lot from my teenage son who today's in his middle 30s in a re in Yeshiva someplace but I I learned a lot from him and that feeling should never get stale and it's very important that it should always feel fresh every time we go like you said with to go many times but every time we go we have to find a way to make sure to renew that freshness it's so so important 100% Rabbi we are enjoying every single moment importance of inspiring our children whether it's learning whether it's in the classroom or whether it's about we have we have a custom onak Torah talks a final message from uh for our broad audience from the rabbis my one final message is what Kutner used to tell people that the vehical and to come inside a person's is only through a person needs to have to bring all the R into their we're all starving right now for our brothers and sisters is how many of them have embraced a to Lifestyle they're putting on Fillin they're putting on misas on their homes everywhere Rabbi not just all with all the there's that feeling of sim and pride that we are eaten we have to live it we have to show it and if we do our children will have it and live it as well to everyone in your listening audience and if I can repeat the words of my wife we love so much the importance of serving with happiness and kazak's Tuesday night Torah talks 8:30 PM Eastern Standard Time kazak so many special guests that we've had and continue to have every single week uh suggest suggestions for future guests are always welcome info chq.org special thank you to our friends at Torah anytime for hosting this podcast along with all the other podcast players so many of them that it's all over the place please continue to share and to forward and to encourage family friends neighbors to log in and to be inspired by these amazing Talks by all these amazing rabim and rabbis uh reminder about kazak's holy mission of No Child Left Behind every single Jewish child deserv Jewish Education 1500 kids have already been transferred from public schools to the last few years alone thousands of more kids have been coming to after school program Sunday school programs te programs our new Youth Center has been booming amazing amazing uh happening uh over there it's a game changer a life changer for these youth being involved with the kazak revolution chq.org we're going to be having a very big updates and news very very very soon and daily giving a dollar day goes a very far away we want to check that out and once again thank you very much for having plotnik all the way from you're very welcome thank you for the privilege