Judaism Without Apologizing -Reb Zev Leff - Chanukah

This Torah class is brought to [music] you by tora anytime.com. [music] >> Rabbi, thank you very much for coming on to the Judaism without apologizing podcast. It's an honor to have you. >> It's my honor to be here. Can you give us the one minute version [music] of the RV story a little? >> Yeah, I was born in the Bronx [music] and I learned in Telugua and that's there and my Rashish Shiva of Gifter sent me back to Miami to be the RV in the young Israel there. >> What exactly is the spiritual goal we're trying to achieve on Kaneka? I think that the message of Kaneka is that there doesn't have to be a conflict between the physical material parts of this world [music] and the spiritual parts. Does the RV feel as though it became an explosion of Gashmi? It's a celebration essentially of food and parties [music] and presents where it really should be flocking and flooding the shores in B midrash. But I think that even though it's been taken perhaps to a distorted uh extreme with presence and the Gashmias, but there's a place for the Gashmi too. >> Jews nowadays sometimes can be celebrating Kaneka and at the same time have an utter fascination with Westernism and Americanism and politics and celebrities and news and sports. How are those two things mutually exclusive or are they as big of a contradiction as one can get? And they're pretty much a big contradiction and a lot of it by people who are not necessarily really shre to mitzvah is [music] the influence of the non-Jewish holidays that if the kashi mio would come back today he'd be very happy that he's been very successful uh from the way kanuka is uh is celebrated [music] because it's celebrated as the Greeks would celebrate it not as the Jews [music] celebrate it. Now, there's another element to Kaneka which I think a lot of people don't harp on because it's a little bit politically incorrect. Is there a modern-day misnim that should be addressed [music] and we aren't or we're not strong enough? We don't call them out enough. I know it's politically incorrect to call out Miss Yavnim, but isn't that the whole point that these people called out Miss Yavnim? Aren't we should we be doing a better job or that's not the fight we fight today? >> There's two ways of serving the rabbon even people in our room. Forget about the progressives and the left. There's one way of keeping it very external. It's a bunch of dos and don'ts, right? But their way of life and their their values and standards are [music] basically secular. Don't have 613 mitzvah. They have 613 problems. >> Should more people be making aliyah? Is it a mitzvah? Is it something that way more people should be doing or is pretty good the way it is? >> Like every mitzvah, it's a mitzvah to fast on Kipper, but if you're sick, it's a mitzvah not to fast on your kipper. The same thing goes with Israel and their parameters. >> Does the rub think that that did a does a good enough job in making it conducive for foreigners or English speakers [music] to build their own schools? um what you just described was 100% the way it was. Um uh you [music] go do it our way and we're not interested in accommodating uh anybody else's way, whatever. To what degree should Americans be invested emotionally [music] in what's happening in our straw? cuz it's often hard to navigate between what's [music] nice bo and being emotionally connected and then just consuming a a an avalanche of political circus and rabundan screaming and you're not sure what's going on but people some people ignore it completely and some people [music] consume it entirely and are obsessed with it. So what is the balance? They should know that because they don't live there, what they hear newswise [music] is probably distorted and and therefore not only is it useless [music] to get involved too much and obsessed with it, it's distorted. Does the rub feel feel that Ericson for a lot of people is slowly becoming [music] a from Disneyland where it's just about going and trying different restaurants and buying a souvenir here and a painting there and meeting your kids in [music] seminary here and the whole Kadusha aspect is essentially sucked out and even the Kaiso is just a tourist spot to get a picture. Is that a problem? But if you're going because it's another place to go, like you said, instead of going to Disneyland to go to this Disneyland, then it may be a problem. >> If we would take all all the taxi drivers, all the schwarma stands, [music] even all the and put it in the middle of Sudan. [music] People would love going there also. And it has nothing to do with. I would say that somebody [music] who goes to visit Eris Israel should at least portion of the time have uh some kind of tour of a place where [music] they'll the people who are giving them the tour will let them know there's something special about these places can do wise. >> There's a story with the Rob at a soccer match. Can you tell us a little bit about what happened? So we were in Scotland visiting and uh happened to be that the Israeli soccer team came to Scotland for a match between Scotland and Israel and the whole Kahila went with the RV identifying with something Jewish for these people was very very very important. So I saw that it was really bothering them. So I told him look we'll make it easier for you. I can learn here I can learn there to make a difference. So um I'll go with you and I'll learn there. I went I was really not interested in soccer. Had it been a baseball game, it may be a different and [music] I went and I was learning there and my son-in-law ran over to me. He said, "You were just on Scottish TV. What in the world am I doing at a soccer game?" So the message is right, [music] you have to sometimes do things that are not part of your comfort zone for the sake of your children and grandchildren. You've just experienced [music] another Torah class brought to you by tora anytime.com.