Judaism On Fire - Episode 3- Reb Daniel Glatstein

In a world where everyone seems to have not just a microphone but a megaphone, the voices of our gdm or Rabanim and Russia yeshiva far too often seem to get lost in the noise. This podcast is here to change that. I'm your host Hillel Eisenberg. Join me as we sit down with our nation's leaders as they address the Ashkoffic challenges that matter most without the fluff and without the drama. With truth that doesn't flinch. Buckle up, cuz this isn't your typical podcast. This is Judaism without apologizing. Hello everyone, it's Hill Eisenberg back with another episode of Judaism without apologizing. This week I sat down with someone who probably doesn't need much of an introduction, Rabdanil Gladstein. Rabbina Glatin is one of the most successful communicators of Tyra in the world right now. His shiurim have been viewed and listened to tens of millions of times. He has toured the world giving lectures and leading historical Torah journeys and uncovering forgotten layers of Jewish heritage in places that most of us can't pronounce. And he's also the rub of a schul in the five towns and is widely known for his razor sharp insights and his meticulously research shurim and books and sarim. But here's what you may not know about Rabanel Glaststein and that is he has some bold and passionate opinions about many of the big issues facing the Jewish world today. And he's not afraid to share them at all. And lucky for us, he shares them with clarity and courage and conviction. So, buckle up and enjoy this powerful conversation. This is Judaism without apologizing. Rabbi Gladstein, it's an honor and privilege to have you on the Judaism without apologizing podcast. Thank you very much. >> I want to dive right in. You have been at the forefront of teaching probably more a variety of Tyra than anyone in the world and Tyra from all sources in Sarim. So, I think it's appropriate to ask you the following very underrated question, and that is, what would you say is the appropriate Torah diet for an adult Torah Jew in today's day and age? Because it's a little bit confusing. You have a lot of programs out there pushing you in different directions. Should I learn dy? There's a million things to go. What would you say is the baseline appropriate diet needed for every Torah Jew, Jewish male? Okay, that's a a very important question. I think that's one of the most important questions that uh a Torah Jew needs to ask themsself. Is our primary responsibility. We want to make sure we do it right when it comes to any other mitzvah. You know, we're very medic that the esro beamos without any imperfection. We're very medic in matzah that we eat the perfect in the exact requisite amount of time. And yet when it comes to tamatra we don't have necessarily the same zahirus you know are we doing this mitzah which is the most important mitz in our life are we doing it the right way there are a lot of factors that need to be evaluated in terms in to determine the proper fulfillment of the mitzvah of tama if you want to cut to the chase in my humble opinion the bal and and I I like the way you put it. I like this phrase, the balanced Torah diet because we know Torah is compared to bread. It's compared to water. It's compared to wine. It is nutrition. It's spiritual nutrition. The same way, you know, if a guy uh if a guy, you know, hey pal, what do you eat? I eat chocolate cake. I mean, he pro you could probably live for quite a while if you drink water and chocolate cake, you know, but you're going to be malnourished, undernourished. You're not going to feel good. You're not gonna you're not operating on all cylinders, and ultimately it's going to adversely affect your health. So the same way in uh tamatra if you're focused on one particular limud and your limud is not balanced then you're going to be spiritually undernourished. Yes all tyra is made the tora is going to give you spiritual nourishment but you want it to be a balanced diet. Let's sort of cut to the chase and then maybe discuss how we get there. And I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Actually last night we had a shaw dinner and I had to speak you know um it was very it was a casual dinner. It wasn't like a sit down formal dinner. It was more a barbecue and but I felt an important message to give over to the Tboras. I remember when I started out in the Rabanos say maybe 15 or so years ago I was once sitting next to another RV. It was uh let's say this rub was from not necessarily what we call the same mach but he asked me a very somewhat of a jarring question a very thoughtprovoking question. He's like oh you're a new rub. Yeah. What does your shul stand for? Uh uhhuh. What? What do you mean? What does our sh stand for? Because you know a lot of shuls today you know are like what we call homogeneous. It's a group of guys that come from very similar backgrounds and they have similar interests and it's more like a place where from people get together on chabas and during the week but what do you mean what does the sh stand for and it really got me thinking and I mean among other things one of the things that I formulated is what I want the sh to stand for is to give over to the tibbor a balanced Torah diet. So after thinking about this question for some time to boil it down to three things you know similar to you know like the nutritional pyramid like I don't actually I've never met anyone that actually follows that nutritional like I don't know anyone who eats 14 tomatoes a day you know and and has like lean chicken and whole wheat and has you know sweets you know once every three I don't you know I don't know if there actually people who do that but you the first step in doing anything correctly is knowing what the correct thing is. You know, I remember when I was a bakar, I used to uh very often go to Harava Vner Miller and I remember somebody asked me you you go to Miller, you do everything he says. I remember he asked a couple you do everything he says and somebody answered a very important answer and it's not necessarily about the first thing is you need to know what the right thing in life is and then you could start on your journey of trying to fulfill it. But if you don't even know what the right thing is, then you don't even know where you're headed. So, you know, so to speak, cutting to the chase, I think the the balanced Torah diet, if you would nail, if you would narrow it down to three things, it would be learning Gamarra, learning, and learning Mus. That's the basic balanced diet. Not to exclude anything. That doesn't mean you still have to learn need to know. You still need to know other things. But like the meat and potatoes, I'm talking 2025. I'm talking that in our generation is gar and just in a very simple to explain it very simple simply obviously you need to know how to live as a Jew. You know you need to know what you need to know how to get up in the morning. From the moment you get up, you need to know how to washer, how to get dressed, how to brush your teeth, how to walk to shakas, really how to walk to shak, you know, of how to walk to shakas. You know, you have there's a certain reverence how you walk to shakas. Part of that reverence is not carrying a 64 ounce beverage with a straw like tell us fill and like that's not how you walk the there are certain of how you walk the shas again I don't mean to you know but how to walk into a schul how to conduct yourself in a basic how to dabin what you know the siddra it's a big book what do I say what do I not say when do I say it and even somebody who could be a very big lambd may not know how to diamond chakras how to get up in the morning, how to make on food, how to go to work obviously, right? This is the muser. And when I say muser, I mean specifically I don't mean I don't mean not that one shouldn't learn that or one can't learn that or that there's anything. Um I think all of those things broaden your knowledge of Tory. But I'm talking about now the protein, the fruits and vegetables and the carbohydrates. you know the three essential I'm talking about limuser because the society we live in is so the ideals and are so antithetical to a Torah lifestyle that even someone who's steeped in learning unless you take have a regular dose of mosa I'm not saying five times a day once a day I'm saying a regular dose whatever that means let's let's for starters a regular dose of muser just to keep your heart and your mind and your emotions and your mood on track. And then gar is always needed because you need the so to speak the spirit you need the spirit of of the and the spirit of the mus. The garra is the backbone. All of the rationale all of the all of the ru all of the basis all of the foundation of kalatula is in the garra. So that's in my humble opinion, you know, the balanced Torah diet. Now there are many things that that a Jew needs to to learn. You know, I don't want to exclude other things. There are certain let's say things that a person needs to learn, let's say and hashkafically, but you know those I think are the that's like the the pyramid the the the threear if we could say such a thing. So go let me just backtrack for a second. >> Yeah. >> To be limit the mitzvah of limitra the most important mitzvah. >> Are there certain things that I have to learn in order to be mim and things that are not getting me to that goal? They're they're nice. I may get but I'm not at the end of 120 being mimz. And if there are such things which I know some swarm give examples of what what they are and what they aren't what falls under that category. If if learning things that don't fall into that category does not get me to that goal, should we not hear more of a talk from Rabanim and more like a scream that if you do not learn the following things after 120 were not say the most important mitzvah in the same way at the beginning of sukus will tell you this is how you make a suka and the before pes this is how you cash your kitchen. Shouldn't we constantly be saying, "Okay, Rabbi, this is what you need to learn by the time you're 120 years old or am I wrong? You don't need to learn. You can just learn any part of any part amount of garam is good." >> Phenomenal point. Phenomenal question, a crucial question. But let me let me try to lay out there's a certain dichotomy when it comes to tamata because on the one hand say that after 120 they're going to say, "Did you learn saf?" Oh yeah. Okay. But did you learn Safra? You learned Safra. Do you know my Oh, you know, you know, but how many how many wheels on the chariot? In other words, and and the brings this down that like that after 120 they're going to they're going to question, you know, did you learn everything? Which implies that there's an obligation to learn? There is an obl in order to fulfill the mitzvah of Torah, one has to learn. Now what is the says at least writes invas so there's an obligation to make your way through >> so according to writ one has to learn in order >> one is required to learn shas yes said one is required to learn >> shouldn't that be plastered >> okay okay on the other hand we all know that there are two dimensions of the mitzvah of tamatra. There's a mitzvah of what we call learning biking wide ranging knowledge and there's also a mitzvah of delving deeply into the Torah. So in the yeshivas the way the way that mitzvah has um is being fulfilled in reality and some yeshivas more emphasis on one aspect another yeshivas more emphasis on the other aspect is that there's some sadarm dedicated to what we call and some sadarm dedicated to what we call bikas. Now how do you define and you know in um some great yeshivas they'll spend an entire on a few blat and bikes on two proenim. So you know they're on heavy you know because they'll say that it's not learning unless you're completely immersed in you're learning on the highest level you know in the of the of the he said no means garashi you know so there there'll be different ways of categorizing and fulfilling the two aspects of tamatra but there is an aspect of learning the entirety of the Tyra and there's an aspect of delving into the so in what I in what I set up as the gammorra part of you know learning in other words I think every every Jew every male uh mitzvah when they ask themselves am I fulfilling that one of those three garra means and so but there is definitely an objective of attempting making one's uh making a realistic attempt of learning. Does that mean does that mean sh and how realistically am I going to be able to learn? you know if I learn um hash you know if my if your seder is hash then it's going to be very difficult to say yeah I tried to learn kalakula you know doesn't mean you have to learn have a sedar a daffa day ora or you know two and a half blad a week or even dafa shvua I'm a very big dafa shua guy because uh I think it's conducive to both in other words you learn a blood a week What we try to do is we try to kazer it many many times and we try to have like an eon shear on the dot. So by the time the week is over you have a you have a blot in your back pocket. you have a blot that you reviewed many many times and you've dug into it you know but it doesn't have to be that specific way but there is definitely I think we could identify there is a clear obligation to try to learn what is called what that means exactly you know there might be different approaches of is it shishna is it shas does it include I'm going to come back because you know kazal say you know they're going to ask you did you did you learn this did you learn that so that's in the realm of talm there has to be learning for the sake of yad and learning for the sake of or learning for the sake of amassing knowledge and learning for the sake of of uh delving deep into the subject that's liar >> but so according to I think I'm understanding you yeah the overwhelming majority of people by the time they're 120 are not y' And it's a scary thing to say, but it sounds like that's the reality. And if that's the reality, should we not make an AIA tomorrow? >> Yeah. >> Declaring Rabbi Sai from from the guy who's learning in Kyo for 40 years and he's learning for the 40th year in a row, which is great. Unbelievable to the guy who's learning I don't know his 20 minutes between during his lunch break, which is also great. We have to announce we rabbi said we have the mitzvah of and you're not makan unless you learn the whole thing. Again, one thing we could definitely say that if you just learned daf, let's say you just do daf, you're a da guy. And by the way, I think that the dafomi that they have available today are incredible. I like the fact that they've made dafi exciting, passionate pictures, graphics, you know, and they have very colorful dafes and they and and it's become a thing to because through dia dafomi would be let's say a legitimate way of learning what is called provided that you actually understand the shak of the garra and that at least at some point of time you've understood the back and forth of the garra whether a week later you actually remember it you know let's leave that aside for but let's say daf would be a legitimate avenue of learning shas now if you learned and you actually spend time doing the and then reviewing on chabas is that better you would think so yeah you would think so because you're learning it more thoroughly and you're reviewing it now but let's say person it doesn't have the cache for I'm not going to do it. That that I'm not that's not exciting. I the daft is exciting. I make I like to make it seem okay. That's that's fine. That's fine. You know, but if we had to rate what's a better way to do it. Obviously, the more thorough you do it and just just, you know, to say it straight, part of learning gam has to be review as well. In other words, here's another issue. just to do the dath. If you're not actively reviewing it, not only are you not remembering it, there would you would put into serious question the value of the learning. As we know, Stipler writes that until you review something four times, it's not considered learning. Not it's not considered reviewing, it's not considered learning. The stiper learns that from the Garn that the sedal is learning something four times. So let's saya gives you the opportunity per I don't know how many timesa reviews but they definitely review it on chabas but reviewing something a number of times is absolutely critical it's not a luxury it's critical so let's say in our kabur we have people that do it 10 times do the blat 10 times >> wow >> so we do a blat it's a it's it it will take 50 years to learn the shass but when it's all said and done could we report back we learned shas yes you know could we report back that we reviewed yes could we report back that we dug into every blot absolutely so I think that's that's a very legitimate approach now you could learn dafami also if you review it it's just it's it's tough to review a blot a day four times you know what what would you say to a guy yeah who learns in regular yeshivas but now he works 9 to5 he gets up he has to be with his kids he has an hour at night to learn and he joins some of these shim but he doesn't feel good about it. He was a good bak. He went to a good yeshiva. He was learning in depth. He wants to learn gimmor. He wants to learn. He wants to learn and he wants to do it. Well, so what would you how should he accomplish that in one hour? >> Okay. >> Or is that impossible? >> That's a good question. Could we let's come back to that question when we throw in some other factors. But realistically if you know everybody knows every soant said if you only have uh 10 minutes a day you learn mus then you'll have you'll see you really have two and a half hours to learn. So you know the first thing we tell the guy is you know realistically he has does he if he only has one hour you would think he he he should try to do let's say something like this something that's you know it's not said and so it's not you see I'm going to come to another point of kamski has a very important point you know why didn't kazal say when if you have 60 minutes you should spend 36 minutes learning gamarra 12 minutes learning muser 12 minutes learning learning hal that's what I would say by the way you know if you're asking me what do I think I would say to learn gamarra 36 minutes should have a say their mishabura 12 minutes and a and mus 12 minutes that's what I would say >> now you say well when is he going to be major he has to be medra I don't know he's going to have to do that also >> yeah he should yeah I'm going to come to I mean he has to a Jew also has to learn you know Raman >> they have to have some basic not yeah you let's throw another thing into the mix you know writes there are four things every Jew must know number one number two number three number four so now you know I guess let's try to explain that a little bit of I mean a Jew has no mish is it possible that somebody just learns or learns and he's learning the he's never been through once that's not how's that possible how's that possible so is one of the sashar is how could you be an inspired Jew. How could you have meaningful Judaism if you never learn? How's that possible? Is it you learn it once in your life >> or >> look sasharm says that the main objective of learning the safer is to constant review doesn't mean no to to to know to know otherwise you know you don't have your eye on the ball to to clarify to clarify so is you know like Yeah. Um, these are the foundational principles of understanding how Hashem guides history, deals with the world currently, Hashem's love for Israel, the history of the Jewish people, the destiny of the Jewish people. >> So, just going back to Moser for one second. >> Yeah. That's how you have somebody he just doesn't connect to the more classic Musarim, whatever you would call classic. >> Okay. >> And he rationalized himself. Hey, the whole point is for me to be inspired and to me to stay on track and inculcate myself. It's not working with the classic. So, I'll go with the newer of age, the less cold lit fish, for lack of better term. >> I'm gonna Okay. Is that good, bad, horrible, or amazing? This is open conversation, right? Yeah. Unapologetic. >> Get rid of the expression that people say. I don't mean I don't mean the esteemed rabbi Eisenberg. People say that when it comes to muser, muser is litfish. What what does what in the world does mus have to litfish? Masharm was written by an Italian. The was written by someone who was Spanish. The chuva the man lived in Spain. The KMA data KMA is a student of the Arizal. None of these people never heard of Lithuania. They have no Lithuanian blood. So whatever people don't like, they blame it on live fish. Has nothing to do with lifish. What it has to do with is do you have the courage to look at yourself or do you only want to think about what's going on in the you want to think about what God is doing in the upper worlds with the various spheres and the various and don't say oh glat you're not if there's anyone I'm into this stuff I love this stuff I eat it up but you have to have the courage to look at your own heart you have to have the the courage to look at your own soul and your own midi You cannot replace you cannot replace protein with vitamin B. Yeah, vitamin E is going to give you a boost and your heart's going to you know you're going to be energized but you're not healthy. Muser is the foundation a foundational ingredient in Tamil. The says that he has a tradition that the medicine for the Sahara is. Now, I'm I'm all for I love I love I love mysticism. I love that stuff. And I think yes, you see, let let's let's identify let's talk about a specific word called inspiration. Okay. You could get inspiration from let's say yes you could get inspiration. So inspiration you're going to get meaning you're going to get but accountability you're not going to get you're not going to get the same level accountability. So you might davin inspired but you will not have the same carefulness in the way you speak to somebody else and in your monetary interaction. So inspiration you'll get but what I call education here. Everybody's into inspiration, right? You want to sell a book, make sure you write it's an inspiring book. You want to be a popular speaker, make sure you market yourself as an inspiring speaker. But it's not always about inspiration. Sometimes it's about education and sometimes it's about focus. So I would say will give a person great meaning and great inspiration but it's not a replacement for >> so this leads me to my next question perfectly. >> I did a informal survey recently. Yeah. >> I asked 100 people stopped them and I asked them why does the require us to shake a lul of an estric? And I got two b roughly two answers. One was that's what the tyra says. I don't ask why I say the tray and that's it. I just the other answer was sort of like a mixture of a gamatria and like a vart something they heard their fifth grade rebi say. So being someone who's a big uh delver into Marsha Marsha, a writer of Cphra Mach, is Marsha a cherry on top for understanding mitzvah and hashem or or should it perhaps be brought more into the mainstream learning where to properly know what you're doing when you're doing it requires some rudimentary learning on on a real intellect. ual level of the meaning, the symbolisms, the understandings, even the the behind that particular mitzvah. >> Would you say that should be normalized or no dom or shake the lul and have like a a ver a vert that you heard a kamatra and that's fine. >> Okay. So I think if you were to ask I think if if I was giving a class and the name of the class says what should you answer if Rabbi Eisenberg stops you on the street and asks you why do you shake a little you should reply as follows. So this is what I would say in other words I don't I don't fully agree with either answer. I don't agree with oh I do it I just do it because Hashem said and it's not because of some like thing I read on the parish sheet because l is which it is 68 and somehow it's an expression of gratitude for our life neither are the correct answer the answer I think should be that I shake the commanded me to do the mitzvah now mitzvah in general without even getting into any specific mitzvah has many many benefits you know We had a shar here for Shabashuva. Seven to have when you're mim any mitzvah. Anytime you do a mitzvah, the first thing is you can't just pick a law of an you have to formally think I am fulfilling the mitzvah of taking a if you don't have that simple thought. By the way, even when you we learn to if you just sit down and open up a gar and you don't have the formal thought of we pass in that you don't get credit for the mitzvah. That's a it's a brings maybe you're because why else am I doing it for sure you're not but besides that you know before you do any mitzvah you should you want to do it in a state of purity so you want to be before you do a mitzvah any mitzvah you give sodaka you you put on your talis you put on your supposed to be before any mitzvah you want to do the mitzvah so you should I'm doing the mitzvah with love. So that automatically is elevating my mitzvah. I'm doing this mitzvah as an expression of love. Every single mitzvah I do is an expression of love. I'm doing the mitzvah with your so the mitzvah is an expression of reverence to Hashem. I'm doing the mitzvah of an expression of my joy to have the opportunity to serve Hashem. I'm having I'm doing the mitzvah to bring to Hashem. Hashem's our father. We're his son. We want to make Hashem happy. And I'm doing mitzvah because even though I learned in yeshiva my whole life and I think the world you know what the Jewish world is. It's the um it's mostly Lakewood a little bit Brooklyn a little bit less of 510 and also you may be my no that's 1% of the Jewish world. 90% of Jews they don't know what is they don't know what they don't know who Mashabenu is. They don't know who Abraabino is. But they're still the Jewish people. And I'm doing a mitzvah to be mazaka the Jewish people to be mazak my people. Imagine if we did mitzvah that way. So it's so it's this is what the litfish says you know this is that is that cold is that dry that is infused with so much meaning that means every I'ming shak with these seven thoughts this is not this is not this is this is so think about it my my my up to why I'm doing the mitzvah yet but my mitzvah is creating a passionate relationship between me and Hashem. It's giving me fear of Hashem. I'm doing with joy. I'm I'm trying to bring I'm trying to make Hashem happy and I'm connecting with the entire what's more inspiring meaningful. That's this is Muser. This is Muser. Noidos and is wonderful. I love and I love this is anyway. And then when I get to lul love, what's lul? You know, our lives were just judged on the lul love happens to be and this is brought in. I'm not talking about a I'm talking about the mo I'm talking about the other love is and the definition of life is gratitude and I'm taking the lul which represents my spine which is designated for myim and I'm I'm offering it I mean the muser has transformed my you don't need to create new books books, you know, to to really elevate the performance of mitzv you know if you feel yeah I get that from cif whatever okay that that might be the case but there's still a a certain level of accountability that you need >> so let's pivot to another thing >> many people might not know that you are an actual r of a schul >> and can you address some of the policies that you have inside of your schol and we'll we'll delve into them a little bit. >> I don't even think that these are unique just it happens to be in our humble uh bakessas. We uh we don't allow any talking and you can't bring a phone into the show and people are so grateful to me because any honest person recognizes that if you have a phone that's not a flip phone and there are people did you know that there are that have phones that are not flip phones even the people some you say really I see them with a flip phone that doesn't mean they don't also have another hype. Yeah. And the phones, they take over our life. And look, my shar on all kinds of technology as are yours. And anyone who anyone who disseminates Tyra on modern technology knows the power of technology. It's really it's tremendous gift. It's it's an unheard of gift. You know talks about and this is also a topic says you could have two people. One of them is focused on their own growth and development and they're sitting in their dal and the they raise themselves up to the level of ani they will never amass the same level as somebody who teaches a little to ruin to shim and toy and toudah why the conglomerate merit of the all the zusim that that we would add up from the influence of this person who teaches will always surpass the merit of someone was just focused on themselves. That was before technology in the world of technology. It's it's incredible. I mean, I heard from uh Mameish and Adam, one of the in in the world today said you could in today's world, you could sit in your and you could literally influence the entire world. So the technology has a great power, but because of power, it is a great attraction. How in the world where people walk down the street, every people drive in a car, they're looking at their phone the whole day. They're attached to the phone. So when you come into the house of Hashem and you're trying to davin, don't say your phone is on vibrate. If your phone is on vibrate, you are not making a legitimate attempt to connect to Hashem with you have a phone on you and it's on vibrate. You are not attempting. I mean, I don't have some people say, "Reb you know, you're being passive aggressive." No, I'm not being passive aggressive. I'm being aggressive, not being passive aggressive. I'm just saying straight. You are not attempting to connect with what's you must leave it outside to even make a claim that if God asks you one day, did you try to pray to me? If you have your phone on you, just you'll just have to say no. You're just going to have to say no. And I would maintain even if it's off, if you have it on you, you're tethered to it at any time, you're just going to have an itch to look at it. And it's liberating. You know, we have this uh cell phone now. It's liberating to take some time off the day and you're just I'm not obligated to my phone during this time. It's I think it's like basics of Judaism. Do you think that the stop talking initial revolution campaign? >> Yeah. >> Is it a little bit like the negative version of giving someone a fish instead of teaching them how to fish? And what I mean by that is part of the reason why people don't talk a lot during davining is because it's Chinese. It's hours and hours and hours of saying things that we don't really know and even if we know the English with our scroll interlinear but like I don't know the symbolism between what that means I don't know what the first halaluca is different than the second halleluah and the intricacies and what it really means and so the yeah the rabbi gets up and says stop talking and you see ads in in Hamodia and stop the talking in schol and you're like it's sort of like giving someone a fish but not teaching them how to fish where one second perhaps the answer and the solution is let's have mandatory or highly suggested learning purish shameos and the understanding of words and then it will be self-inspiring or maybe I'm off the mark on this you know it's it's worthy of it's worthy of consideration what's the best way to do it is the best way to do it no talking or is the best way to do it have on so we do both so we do do both we do do both we've been learning now after all of my kamar We do like 30 to 45 minutes a week of and I I love the example you gave of I don't understand if if you ask any ask somebody who's even yeshiva educated takes 10 to 15 minutes yeah do you have any clue what am I trying to do in that is different than that's different than that's different than ms then different than ash say I don't know I'm just praising praising. So you say so why can't I just say God praise be you like why do we have to do it for so the answer is we have no understanding of what msia is trying to accomplish like what ideal are we inculcating with ms mer what ideal we inculcate with bam what are the five halalucas actually the five halucas correspond to five epic periods in the history and destiny of the Jewish people each one building off the other suki desimra is chained together like a chain each each paragraph is critical is important is focused is an idea that without the previous idea you can't get to the next idea. So yes, without education, stop inspiring me. Why do we have to be inspired all day today? Oh, inspire, inspire. Cut the the inspiration and we need education. Education is the most enduring form of inspiration because you have no education. You're just what? You're a marshmallow floating in the air, but you you're I'm inspired to dive in. You're not inspired to die. You have no idea what Davening is. You need to be educated. This is the first halaluca. The first haluka is is thanking Hashem for the difficulties of life that even in our lowly mundane existence here in the gulus. There are many things that we have to think thank Hashem for. The next halaluca is thanking Hashem for the period leading up to the Mashiach. The second haluca is praising Hashem for the period of the coming of Msiah. The third haluca is thanking Hashem for the arrival of Mashiach. The fourth halaluca is thanking Hashem for what is called the world of and the fifth is if you don't know that then you have you haven't even begun. I mean begun is if you if you bring your phone in you you're not even attempting you leave the phone outside then you have a fighting shot. Okay. So now what am I doing here? So now you need to learn what the is. So I would say um I think you need both. I think you're doing people a favor and you know um you know let's say now we're not talking about we're not talking about yeshiva now we're talking about people who go to a you're doing them a favor by setting up the parameters. These are the house rules. This these are the house rules. Once these are the house rules now you have now you have people you could talk to. Now you have people who okay I'm coming. I want to do the right thing. Now let's be educated in how and how to do it. So again we established let's say three main uh three mainly mim that people have to be occupied. I'm not you know I'm if somebody says well um I only do five days a week or I only do mus four days a week. I'm not here to legislate exactly how many minutes and how much time but there has to be meaningful gam both let's say there has to be meaningful learning of and meaningful learning of somebody says I this saves time I want to learn it's great learn I I I want to learn you know okay learn that what you know in other words there's a large gamut that fits the bill of there's a large gamut I like to learn radiance of shabas you know so learn that no problem I I like to learn so learn but you have to learn some I mean if you just learn you're not going to know how to live as a Jew so those are the three but like we said you also have to you have to know the para you have to learn the para I can't learn all the rashis in one year okay so could you learn tulsheni you're a balabas could you spend 12 minutes this week of learning um rashi and tulshen and next year you learn to shishi and next year you learn to ravi yeah but you said I have to learn with the ramban okay so let's identify like the three to five main rambans on the para that really articulate like you think you try to learn one a year on the para what we're trying to bring out is I think it's worthwhile to broaden the diet of learning in order to have a more uh meaningful connection to tamatra and a more meaningful uh Jewish experience I like educated based inspiration, not inspiration. Oh, I heard a story. The story never happened. I'm not into stories. We live in a world with a lot of sensationalists out there who give out a lot of inspiring stories and sound bites which are all good and needed and it makes Judaism fresh and hip and relevant and there's a lot of bumper stickers and there's a lot of slogans and sto and songs and music videos and stories lots and lots of stories. What's your take on that? Do you think that it is necessary to keep Yiddish fresh and relevant or it runs the risk in dumbing down yudishk to a lot of people? So I think that the word inspiration is an abused word. I think um using quick fixes to inspire whether it's a story, a misa, a technique, inspiration is very fleeting. You know um I believe in educationbased inspiration. In other words, we want people to dive in with passion. We want people to have a meaningful connection to Torah, to Shabas, to Yamiff, but it has to be based on education. It's not based on education. It's fleeting and it's not deeply meaningful. So yes, you know, like we discussed earlier, makaba is very important. If a person's connection to shabas is based on, you know, learning real sources about the kash of shabas, the power of shabas, the the braha of shabas, and because of that, their shabas sudas are different. In other words, if somebody just comes to a shabas, shabasuda, shabas, shuda, shabas. Yeah. What what are you getting worked up? Okay, that's very nice. So it's like you know we call you have the pint not of amuna of shabas but to appreciate you know there are three of shabas it saves you from from each suda corresponds to one each suda corresponds to one of the understanding why the suda how the suda corresponds to understanding how the miro of each suda are connected to that suda identifying the theme of this mirror. In other words, okay. Yeah. Wasn't Wasn't that an inspiring karine? Yeah. What pal, what exactly was so inspiring about the karib? It's nice you closed your eyes and you rolled your the white of the eye. So, we just saw the white of your eye and you could probably get a job dispensing uh you might even be able to get get money for it. But what exactly was meaningful to you? That was the tune. Do do you understand the theme of karibine is we're declaring Hashem's creation of the world and that's designated for Friday night because Friday night corresponds to Shabasius as opposed to Shabas morning which is shabas mat tora. So yes you know like music is a tool but imagine if you actually understood the significance of the suda and the words of the tune and the sources that it's based on. So then the music is strengthening those ideals in your mind. Music music is a tool you know all these a story is a tool but so if you have the idea and the knowledge and the concept so all these tools will strengthen it in your essence if you don't have the education it's just I want to just come back to one more ingredient in Torah which is a very important ingredient say you know is not just a book. It's not just information. Torah is our wife. You know, when we when we're every Jew is engaged to the Tyra, we're engaged to the Tyra. When we learn Tyra, we consummate the relationship. But that means we have a relationship with the Tyra. That means the Torah is personal. And the way I connect to Tory is going to be different than the way you connect to Tyra. So even though you know on the one hand we want to look at Tory as like a balanced diet. Do I have my 36 minutes of garam and my 12 minutes of mus you know that but there's another element of Torah and that's the relationship I have with Tyra. And let's say somebody says you know I really connect with this safer. What which safer is that? It's it's a safer. Yeah, but you know I really connect with it and that's how I develop an for and a connection to that has a lot of value because now the Torah becomes more personal to you to the extent the mus of Ismir he writes that even though we start with this say you know after 120 they're going to say did you learn this and you say yes then they're going to ask did you learn that did you learn everything says it's not as black and white as that he says there There is an idea that every person has a unique mission in tamatra when they come down to this world and for one person it might be only a certain maka and for another person it might be the saf and how do you know what your mission andra is the way to identify it is what you have a passion to learn that's how he says and they said did you learn the if you didn't come down here to learn the you'll be able to say I didn't but I was here to learn and I did that and that will be a valid answer. So what I'm saying is we need to throw in the loop the idea of we need to give people the liberty to learn what they want to learn. In other words, which means I don't think a person could say no I my soul didn't come down to this world to learn gamar it only came down to learn makaba. No tal you have no idea why your soul came down. You're still gonna have to do the balanced diet. You know, you're gonna have to take a healthy portion of garam, a healthy portion of But what if somebody says, you know, I I think I'm going to cut down on one of those to learn something else that I really have a passion to learn. Is that legitimate? It's legitimate. So, it's very hard to legislate exactly precisely the a onesizefits-all. So I think I think it's reasonable to say there's certain essential ingredients that every Jew has to have a healthy portion of and those are the three things we mentioned. You also have to learn you know like we said the para but besides that exactly how much time on everything I think there is a very strong basis that plays a very important role. In other words, let's say a person says, "Okay, I know I have to do, but I just I just, you know, sink my teeth into." Yeah. So, so are we going to let this guy do 70% and 30%? Yeah, we might let that might be legitimate. 80% I don't know. You know, I think that's where having a comes in. you know, you want to be person has to balance so to speak the ideal with their personal uh tastes. I think that's that's an important ingredient. So hopefully some of these ideas will expand our horizons and give us an aspiration to try to experience a very balanced approach to Tyra. >> Great. >> And as should give us all to uh >> Amen. >> Okay. Here's another question for you. Um, what is the ideal exactly? You have a lot of yeshivas producing a lot of uh who go on to learning ky for significant amount of time. You have kayim nowadays that are fuller and larger than perhaps they've ever been in world history. Is the ideal to sit and learn as long as you can financially or emotionally make it? Or is learning Tyra and Harbutz's Tyra equal or maybe even more important than actually sitting and learning? And do you think if that is in fact true, the risk of presenting the ideal as just sitting and learning forever until a thousand until you're a thousand years old? Does that run the risk in everything else being labeled as bid and therefore a lot of people who they could be fantastic fifth grade reb and passionate about being a ninth grade rebi or teaching into a girl school or being mamish marb but if it's once it's labeled anyway I'll just go out to work like do we have a danger of mislabeling what and is in our roles in life in our journeys in life >> okay excellent question and again everyone should ask their uh and their uh and their manhig in uh my humble view uh I think that there is developed I think a misconception regarding what the ideal should be in terms of the mitzvah of Torah and what what's life ambition should be look we say that tora consists of many components limoid lameis learn teach and to do imagine Guy said, "No, I I just learned uh I just learned ragar twice lasso keeping Tory." No, no, no. I'm not into that. I'm only into the lomite. Is that even lomite? Is that even? He's missing a component of Tory. Part of Tory is lasso. Well, part of is which means let's say person I'm not going to teach. I'm gonna sit in my dalas because a who who am I supposed to teach? For every job opening, there are a thousand applicants. Time out. Time out. First of all, a it's not true. The majority of the Jewish people don't know Alf. They don't know Abrau from George Washington. You know that the vast majority of Ben don't know the difference between they don't know from Abraham Lincoln they don't know they may be able to say over a sentence from Shakespeare they don't know the so whose job is it to teach them no not my job I'm only going to live within the twob block radius of where I studied how could you say that and even if you want to there ways of reaching them today there are there's technology that you could stay within the two blockb radius and you could reach Jews who don't know from Abraham Lincoln so is of the mitzvah of the says a critical ma says you know talks about that said that would be forgotten he would restore it how he would teach five boys uh a safer and each one would then teach the other. So Masha asks why didn't he just teach each one all five why did he teach one various and other and then have them teach each other. The Marshall says because the highest majga of learning is teaching. Meaning if a guy says I'm just going to spend my life learning and he's he's forget he's in the learning. It's in the learning. That's how do we now now all of a sudden we have to get into the >> No, no, no. Meaning is it it brings out your own learning practically. >> Okay. The stipler says you know you know the talks about learning something 101 times. You ever you ever wonder how is it how is a chai? Nobody learns anything 101 times. The stifler says if you if you prepare a shir and you give a shir I have to remember exactly that's commensurate. I don't remember if he says that's commensurate with learning it 20 or 50 times I don't remember which one he says could be he says 50 wow because you know you're learning you're learning you're learning but like you know we used to have a rebi could you explain it to your younger brother I understand it but I can't explain it so would say if it's felt in the hb it's felt in the havana yeah I think he said something like that so for your own learning you know I have it all the time we say I try many times. Yeah. But when I have we have official on Shabas that is is worth much more than any many times just saying something over. So you say but I'm not a rasha. I'm not a mag. You have a shabas table. You prepare to say at the table. You learn something. You learn to say it over to your family. You have to be the you have it's the same way you have to be part of is writes in many many many many many places that God has enough angels in heaven. What do you what you're going to sit and just learn for yourself? God has a lot of angels. He has millions of angels. But the problem is the people down here, they're not doing what Hashem wants. And if a person gives up of their to teach other people writes they will not lose outer says in his that was called Abraham someone who loved no one else was called because gave up of his to share it with other people. That is the ideal of Mosha Feinstein writes you know says the first 200 years where you made the next 2 years where you made you made what do you mean yeshiva yes they sat and they learned you want to learn so you could come you could come that's not tora isu proactively went out and was mishabing people that's wow so I did I remember um there was a particular that I was discussing this with you know the value of the I was you know famously says this in the so I mentioned it to a particular he says you know for many many people feel that they can't get jobs nowadays and somehow this is in a way forgotten where it's become that it's not that the ideal has become to sit and learn and I think you can make a very strong case the ideal is how to pal wrote about his rebi said the highest level of learning is to be a lambd but the crowning achievement of the lambd is to be malami The crowning achievement of talra is to be malame. There are many many in the biography of the salant by he says rais in the pinnacle of his wisdom. He tried to he tried to understand what does hashem want from him. Somebody with so so much talent and ability. He first he went into a local shul and he was gonna be a and just dedicate his life to and he realized it's not what what it's not what the almighty wants. It's not what the almighty wants. >> Wow. Unbelievable. >> So you know I'm not sh if you know if there other msuras so be it. I'm not sure. I know that even uh even in yeshivas I know the rabbin in his time would send people out would send people out um if there are other mess. So you know as I say at the least what I'm saying is you want to hear a story from it's it's a it's a frightening story came to I think it was on and came to and he wanted to talk to say, "Wait a second." He makes an announcement that it's come to my attention. There's a a a village in the outlying areas of the mikvah fell into disuse. Maybe one of the kadav there on yipper and then after you impress upon them the need the importance of making a mikvah. So the sab is finished. He goes to okay you what's said did you hear what I said? Well, you know, I don't want to give up and the yeshiva. It's not the same turned around. He said with your why do we learn to you know what do we say in the of the says children said he said our father always told us that just like in gashmas imagine you invite someone I invite you want to come to my house for shabas. Yeah sure sure I heard your wife I heard you make a good choice. Yeah. So, okay. So, the children comes out. Imagine I took the whole ch I put it on my plate. And you're like thinking and what did I give you to eat? I gave you a chicken nugget. Say, I'm selfish. You invited me to your house and you're taking all the children. So, so the children of said our father told us in that Hashem created us to help other people. But if you keep all the choices to yourself that's also selfish. Okay, there are different ways of um different maybe understanding how much time. Okay, so for that a person needs but but let's just talk for a minute on a practical level. Is it realistic to expect every person and say, you know, you're gonna learn indefinitely. You're gonna learn it definitely. You're gonna learn definitely. You know, some people say, well, don't think about aellar while you're learning. It's not about is not about covet. Realistically, if you want to teach Tyra, you need to think about it a little bit while you're in your years of learning. Because if you're going to wake up when you finish learning, let's say you're 34 years old and you have seven kids and you never it never dawned on you that maybe one day you're going to have to give a shir maybe to balabatim maybe to beginners maybe to elementary school. It never dawned on you and all of a sudden you have the pressures of paranasa there's no you're going to go to work. So your whole life you're talking about learning forever learning learning learning learning learning and what happened to it? It didn't work out. But you know if if a person's in say they're they're in learning their whole life they're not they're not in the same seat in the base medish but it's a different form of learning they're preparing shimm they're giving over it's it's an insurance policy so to speak to be able to stay in learning one's whole life and even if somebody is out in the working world there are many opportunities to be malamade also you know there many you could give a dir you could give an you could give a dafu a share say, "Nah, I'm not such a good speaker." So, find somebody who's not in the same level of learning as you and teach them and teach them or find a bakar or or call somebody on the phone. There are endless opportunities. The same way when you learn about you figured out a store, did you buy a this year? I think you found a right. You didn't just say, "I learned about it, but it's not so easy to buy it these days." You right? you actually were the mitzvah. If a person looks and has their eyes open, they will be able to the and they'll be able to the and both of them are integral parts of tal. >> Can you give one final closing remarks to the many thousands of people who are watching this who want to stay on fire in their and live in a world that's confusing and scary and crazy and fast-paced. Can you give a a bit of wisdom to ensure that that fire remains roaring? First of all, it is okay if your fire is not burning every single day. Not you know if let's say one day you wake up, you say, you know what, I'm really not on fire. We're going to go to shakas and we're going to learn and we're not on fire because that's life, you know. uh we try to we we try to continually stoke the flames and don't get down on yourself if the flame is not burning at a particular time. You know there ups and downs in life. There are though some techniques to ensure a certain uh meaningful connection to Tyra. A make sure you have a rub or a revi that you're connected with because we're not computers. So when if you're just going to sit in front of a safer then you're just taking in information but we're human beings and human beings are affected by relationships and affected by emotions. If you have someone who you could connect with, whoever it is, your RV, your rashiva, someone who you could say, I'm learning Tory from them, that that will give you a connection to on a not just a deeper level, on a human level. And now when you're the Torah will be coursing through your veins, not just information in your head. So having a connection to whoever you connect with is a very important uh and teaching things is also a very important because if you prepared something and you g gave it over and you said it over it's like we said it's like you reviewed it like 50 times that's also it's a way to get it coursing through your veins or when you write something down you write something down it has a different level impact on you. We want to try to make sure that our connection to Torah is not just information but it's also not only in our but in our as well. So all of these things Hashem should give us all of the to uh to connect with the Torah in in the deepest way poss. >> Amen. Thank you very much Gladston for coming on. >> Thank you. [Music]