Inside ArtScroll Episode 15: The Power of Nishmas with Rabbi Yisroel Besser

[Music] Hello everyone and welcome back to Inside Art Scroll where the books you read and the people who write them come to life. We are joined today by Rabbi Israel Besser, author of the brand new Nishmas, Soul of Creation, a wonderful new book published by Art Scroll. And Rabbi Besser is known as a biographer par excalance. You have many best-selling books. This book seems on the surface anyway to be somewhat different from the books that you've authored till now. tell us how it is or isn't and why you decided to devote such time and effort to putting out a book on one solitary. All right, thank you so much. First of all, thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure to smoo with you and to be here. You're asking two different questions. So the the first question of how is it different the biographies that you write people read them about people sadikim regular people that they see and it lifts them up and it brings out a certain wakes up certain things in them. they respond a certain way. So it's kind of building from the bottom up. Uh a safer when you're working with a Torah work and a a timeless traditional like Nishmas that goes back to it's not a biography. You're not telling anybody's story, but you're essentially doing the same thing is that you're trying to take the real world of and make it alive and make it relevant to you and show you your connection to this and why this is really yours. So it's not that different at all because you're using the English language, the same the written word as a means of taking something holy and trying to make it uh something that could connect with you, digestible, palatable, something that comes alive to you. With Nishmas in particular, it wasn't as hard as one would think. And to answer your second question of why now, the credit really goes to the to the good people here with Das Law and his staff at Art School. He felt um they were very much attuned as you know to to the needs and to the thirst of the people and and there's so many works of of everybody's learning the daf and there's so many coming out entire and biographies of course but he was saying there's a thirst to connect to the sham to connect to hashem oneonone in a way that we haven't seen or he hasn't seen in years past and taking out one part of the sitter he thought would be a good example or a good way or a good means of being able to to communicate what people are feeling And what's feel better than nishas nishmas is a a national treasure it not only on shabas when when it's it's the high point who really d and I can't say that I experience nishmas moments every single shabas but when you're having a good shabas and you're actually on time and you have a little you said like a mech it comes to nishmas there's almost a pause in nishmas and lately nishmas has become a phenomenon it it's across the world people it's really I shouldn't say the word lately because it's really a schooler that goes to use this as a means people are going through a difficult circumstance and people are going through a difficult situation legal medical otherwise commit to saying nishmas either or with their spouse or with their children when they come out of it and they've seen wonders so it's a it's the right time for it now many people know of nishmas as being associated the recital of nishmas as a school or as a being associated with bachki and I was told that who were to get some kind of correspondence from Kanyevski with regard to the twila could you talk about that yeah so we had a very very special experience and opportunity this week uh there's a rebbiton there's a woman in great neck Mrs. Charlene Amanov who's uh she has a very big following and she calls it her Nishmat army. She has women who she of varying levels of observance and she has brought them the gift of neshmas and if you look at the words of nishmas and I hope this comes through through in the book in the safa it's a and a thanks at once it's everything every line over there is asking and thanking and asking again and thanking again it's really the essence the crux of what it means to have an active connection with the so she told me that she had been inspired by rabbit kaneski she was one and I remember myself being in in the house's and repi giving out these cards that she had printed to people and telling them to say nishma. So I wanted to learn more about where the schooler came from. So I sent him the questions to a friend of mine a friend of ours told him shy groucher who's been biased by house and I asked him what do you find out for me? And he says, "Find I'll ask the RV myself." See, could you write up the questions? I wrote them in Kadesh and he went over to with these questions very emotional and one by one he answered and he answered the questions. Well, they're all written in the introduction to the book. Where does the schooler come? He said, first of all, it's just unbelievable. Uh they asked, "Why does Nishmas work as a schooler? Where does that come from? Who says?" So he says, "It's a sarah means it's reason. It's logic." Now we know you you heard this in yeshiva I'm sure that people said that a of the rash the rash as my heart tells me is more than a to me that who whose mind is purified and refined by 90 years of intense Torah learning says it's a it's logical to me that saying nishmas should bring an abundance of shafa of blessing that's more powerful than 50 mas which we know he's capable of but then he said it's brought down from kadvas but he said it's something he received as a child from his the from the stifler that saying nishmas when a person commits to saying nishmas after undergoing a challenging time should work. We asked him if it's for men and women because you know I knew from Mrs. Ammongh that her army is is primarily a female army of people saying nishmas. He said very much it's for men and women as well. It's equally effective and it has the same potency. We asked when's the right time of day to say it. So he said after that was interesting to me. I thought that was a finish. after right day midday not midnight the second half of the day is the right time to say did he talk about saying it in with a minion without a minion but the the good Jews of Jerusalem who who live menhagim that's there's a minion every night by the tree you've seen it at night there's good who are there screaming at every night they go close to their a lot of them come with their spouses so that they could join together with them and say it and they they've been doing this for years so you embark on this project to write really a commentary. It's not you're not just translating nishmas or elucidating it. It's a commentary that brings out the beauty of the words through stories through insights. Where does one start? I know you said there are a lot of sparum on but where do you start and what was your goal ultimately? What was the underlying message that you want someone who reads this to walk away with? I I think the the goal was not to overwhelm them. It's not we're not here to say or to ask ask questions for you to say over. It's not it's not that kind of work. It's a work I would call it um I I would hope it's poetic and emotional and engaging enough that you feel alive and you realize that this is a life after when you're saying the words. So that was a little tricky. We had to figure out or when you're saying those words, we're just going we're just going to try to take you into the depth of those words and let you feel what you're saying. There's not a lot of what you'd call lot a lot of back and forth. There is a lot of stories and insights into the choice of words by the we read a little bit in in the the origins of nishmas are unclear who wrote it. There are different and we brought that in different in the introduction of course but it was written by by Malim and whoever wrote those words there's some of it is in the other places and whoever put it together was doing so with some sort of so we tried our best to let you feel what they what they were trying to convey. Is there one part of Nishmas that maybe prior to working on this you had a kind of a superficial understanding and then you came across a vert or a story that brought it to a whole new level. Yeah. Actually that's something that that every week since you know I don't say it every day yet I say it shabas it goes on. So there's a whether words we have no king other than you right um the words and then another thing is there are those who say I think the says this um that when things are really difficult that's when you most sense that so it's specifically part of the trait is those are the words that are framing the next When things are really difficult, that's when we have a new understanding. And I know and anybody and everybody has been through difficult times in their life. Protect us knows the sense of feeling completely alone. And there's really nobody you could turn to if it's medical, if it's legal, if it's educational, if it's financial, and all the people who you thought could help you aren't there. And for the first time, you feel like I only have you. So that was an epiphany to me. Now, we're still basking in the glow. I think you would be proud to say we're still basking in the glow of the Rabbi Tran book which was your beautiful creation. Uh but on the way in here to this conversation, you commented that this new book changed you. Now we know that the Rabbi Tran book also changed you, changed me, changed a lot of us. How did this change you differently? Um, I think that you you say nishmas with a little bit of cavana and you realize the the precision and the complexity of every single detail of you you don't look at a sunset the same or I left Montreal this morning go snowing. You don't look at a snowflake the same. You you realize you start to see things a little deeper. the blinders are off a little bit and and you you're able to to perceive what's really going on in creation and your role in creation because the branch who made all that put you in this world and he made you with the same precision. His artistry is not, you know, only reserved for Niagara Falls. It's it's also you and you start to see a little bit from these words. If you take the a moment to contemplate what they mean and what they're saying, you start to see things a little deeper, a little more and and things don't bother you as much because it's it's a little bit of practice. this a little bit of a muna and it's an overriding sense of thanks, of gratitude, of of knowing that he's in the driver's seat. Now, it's quite prevalent now this thank you Hashem movement. We see bumper stickers songs. Many people would scoff at it on a certain level as being superficial. It's, you know, it's a bumper sticker. Would you say that because that's what Nishmas really is. It's thank you Hashem for everything on every level. Would you say that this kind of brings depth to that movement? And I'm not knocking it. I'm just for sure. Look, there's definitely an overlap and they they definitely segue one into the other. Um I I want to tell you a story if it's okay. He once told me, you're a very musical person. Maybe you know he made up a song and the words of the songs. I don't know if it ever achieved internationally or if it ever became but it's a very beautiful song. David sang it, other sang it. I think it was on his son Avi produced an album and I think MBD sings it on the I think so. I think so if I'm not mist was very sick. She was in the hospital in Manhattan and he went to spend hours with her in the hospital. She was doning I think at Park Synagogue I don't remember which one of the shs close to the hospital in Manhattan and it it was a very challenging time in his life. His wife wasn't well. She was a young woman and their prognosis was not good. And he said he was saying, he was dabbing. And he got to the words and he started to sing himself and he was and he was saying it and he couldn't get past it because everything came down to and you could do anything and there's only you and those two thoughts were carrying him. And he said the words again and again and again. He said he said it so many times the niggan came out and he was singing it to himself under his talis. He sang it for so long that when they called him up for an aliyah, he was still in the middle of nishmasma laning. He's a guy. He's a ply. He's not a person who's just prone to emotion. It's not that type. He's a cerebral person. But he connected with the words in such a powerful way. And he told me that at that moment everything was all right. His wife was sick. Ultimately she passed away but everything was good. Going back to to thank you Hashem that that story that that's nishmas to me. It's the whole nishmas really. It's all a song. Thank you. Hashem, is saying that it's a affirmation maybe is the word for it that you're in control of everything and empowers a lot of people. A lot of people are only able to get through the day by having that bumper sticker or hashtag or mug or whatever it is. Of course, it's not cheap. Of course, it's real because it comes from the the very core of a year's awareness that maybe you had a fender bender and maybe you're going to be late for your next appointment because of it because you have to and maybe there's traffic and maybe the weather's not good and your flight was canceled. There's a lot of things that go wrong in everybody's day if you're able to live with thank you. You're always going to be happy. So the jumping up and down thank you Hashem is really saying sometimes things are better, sometimes things are worse, but there is this acknowledgement at the core that it's all from you and we're okay. We're very excited to welcome this new volume. I believe that this will be a springboard for people to appreciate the entirety of Davening. Sometimes people are overwhelmed. You look at the halalucas, they're all songs and they're all ods and expressions of thanks. But we get overwhelmed when you look at at the gift for me to be able to take few months and just focus on this. And I can imagine that anybody who does this with any will find the same. We appreciate the gift that you've given us opening our eyes to the beauty of thank for giving me the opportunity to do it. We look forward to many other such volumes enhancing our speak. Thank you. Thank you. [Music]