Inside ArtScroll Episode 9: Rabbi Yaakov Bijou

[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 Yakov Biju, the author of Let's Talk Living Amuna. And we're also joined by three wonderful guests, sixth graders from Yeshiva Charra in Brooklyn. So boys, if you could introduce yourself, please. My name is Mickey Min. My name is Joelle. My name is Marz. Thank you to Mickey Judah and Mars for joining us. And Rabbi Bou, let's start with you. just give our viewers and listeners an overview of what Let's Talk Living Amuna is about and how you got involved in this project. Okay. Okay. Hashem, I've been sixth grade rebi now for for many years and we worked with many different uh programs on Amuna and the idea always was to try to get the boys involved, try to make it hands-on. So over the years we came up with this concept of not just reading a story as is. You know stories are unbelievable and we got inspired by Hashem but we thought of an idea of how to take the story and try to get the children the families the classroom involved in what's going on in the story the concepts and try to uh gain from that. So it uh it evolved into this unbelievable book mashem let's talk living ama where we'll take a story and many times you'll stop in the middle of the story right at the point where the person's in a position of a test a test of amuna and we'll ask the the shabas table or ask the classroom what would hashem want you to do in this situation now if anyone has tried it and I know many people that did if it's if it's if it's done In that in that setting, it's amazing how you see one boy says one thing, another boy reacts, another boy says a different answer. And that's why in the back of the book, we put possible answers. Why possible? Because there's really these types of questions are touching on many different uh facets of amuna and there's not one answer to to to to any of them. So, you know, that was the main focus that to get the people involved talking about. Now the book is based or at least formulated um together with the phenomenally successful living amuna series written by Rabbi David Asher and tell us how that series impacted on the formulation of this book. Well, we uh we know Rabbi Asher series has a amazing success and uh there's a wealth of of stories and different uh areas of amuna. So that was definitely the number one, you know, place to go to work off of that to take those stories that that have had the success that it had and to use those stories and try to take it to another level of this interactive uh of this interactive point. So before we do this interactive experience with the boys, uh if you could tell us what have you heard from people who have read the book, real life examples of people who have used it at the Jabas table or in other scenarios to spark discussion and really put into people's minds that amuna stories are not abstract. They really apply in a practical way to our day-to-day lives. Right? I'll tell you uh Mhammed this morning after Davening somebody ran over to me and said we tried it. We tried it for the first time. I threw out the question and the whole family got involved. One said this, one said that. Uh you know anyone that has tried it has has come has come back with this feedback that uh that you know it gets the conversation going. Myself I just tried it this uh recently uh last Shabas. There was a story about a boy that had a bombitzah. The Rebi came in to the bomb mitzvah and he's dancing with all the boys and uh one of the uh the boy the bits boy had a relative that was uh not from wasn't religious long hair and uh not keeping to raid and the rebi took him in the middle dancing with him and uh had a beautiful time. The next day, the Rebi came to the uh came back to the school to the yeshiva and he starts talking to the boys and he says, "Boys, last night we all met the Bitzu boy's cousin and I need your help. We have to bring him back to Torah." So the boys, it's a bunch of seventh grade boys. They looked at the Rebi and they said, "How could we how can we bring him back? Uh how can we help him? He's not even here. We're a bunch of seventh grade boys." So I threw it out to my table. In the book, we stop right there and we ask instead of just going on with the story, we ask, "What do you think? How could it be that a bunch of seventh grade boys could help this this boy that's not from that's not religious? How could they help him get more religious?" So, one of my children said, "Uh, maybe make a party for him, invite him over and try to make a car of him." And then, uh, my daughter said, "Daven for him. We could pray for him." So my fourth grade boy jumped up and he says, "What do you think? You can pray for anything you want. Hashem's going to answer anything you want." I said, "Yeah." I said, "You know, Hashem," and started a conversation all about working or not working. So it was very cute cuz he threw up his arms and he said, "What if I if I if I pray right now, if I d right now for remote control car, it's going to come down from Shamine." So, but the point was that it got a whole conversation going about Fela working not working on the table instead of what would have been read a story very nice and go on. So really the the feedback has been unbelievable and you know that's the main message we want to bring out that it's if a child reads it on its own it's beautiful fun a lot of good stories and so on but we want to bring out the point that the main objective of this of this book is to get the interaction the mother to read it on the couch with their children a bedtime shabas table the classroom uh that's what we're uh we're aiming for. Well, here at Arts Girl, we definitely got that feedback that it's an unparalleled resource for that type of conversation. So, let's get right into it with the boys and let's have a real life conversation about one of the stories here. Okay, we're going to read one of the story boys and we have Sukkot coming up. So, we're going to read story number four. It's called Suka of Peace. Okay, you ready Mars? Yeah. Okay. So, the story goes, Yseph Brawn wiped the sweat from his brow. He banged in one last nail and smiled with satisfaction. The suka was complete. His family had just moved to a new neighborhood and they were proud to put up a suka in their driveway for the very first time. Later that night, Yseph's neighbor came home. As soon as he noticed the suka, he confronted Ysef. You can't put your suka. He yelled, "This is exactly where I parked my car." So, let's talk about it, boys. Picture yourself in this situation. Think how would Hashem want me to react if you were that? If you were Ysef, he just put up the suka and now the neighbor comes. How would Hashem want you to react? Morris, Hashem would want you to react. Um, here's your first thing you should think is that it's a test from Hashem and that Hashem will you should listen and that Hashem will help you find a way to he'll find you a different spot and that you should give in and let him park his car. Beautiful. Beautiful. J, you have anything to say? I think he should not really get upset. Don't start a fight with an and you should whatever if he doesn't give in then you should try to you should move the suka and let because he's that's what he wanted and you should keep shalom keep the peace beautiful I think that if if you realize that's fromem and you realize that you you'll get something back from it and hashem always pays you back for it. Beautiful. You say you never lose you never lose from doing the right thing. Unbelievable. Beautiful. Mickey, you know what? I just want to see what we put in the back. In the back, we have possible answers. Let's I just want to peek. I forgot myself what we wrote over here. We go back. Story number four. Exact like we said, boys. Realize that the test from Hashem is one of the possible answer, but you guys added beautifully. So, let's see what happened. Ysef remained calm. He did good, right? I'm sorry. I didn't realize, he said. It's a very big driveway. There's plenty of room. Could you possibly put your car in a different spot for the next eight days? The neighbor was very stubborn. No, he replied. This is my spot. Move the suka. Ysef was upset. He had spent an entire day building the suka with his sons. He thought for a moment and decided, I'm not going to fight. I'm not going to fight with my new neighbor. Instead, I'm going to give in and rebuild the suka in a different area. The very next day, Yseph and his sons took apart all their hard work from the day before. They spent a lot of time and energy re rebuilding the suka a few feet over. On the first night of Sukkot, the brawn family ate in the suka. Truly a sukat shalom. All right. The suka of peace. Moving the suka had been a big job, but they were glad to have avoided mak. After the meal, Ysef and his son set up beds in the suka. Just as they fell asleep, there was a tremendous crash. They crept out to check what had happened, and they stared in disbelief. A large portion of the building next door had fallen loose. Their neighbors car was parked in its usual spot, but now was completely smashed. The bronze were very shaken. A few days ago, their suka had stood in that exact spot. They clearly witnessed with their own eyes how being mater had saved their lives. So boys, unbelievable. It's exactly like Mickey was saying that you never lose out right here. You see it clearly. So I want to ask you boys, what would you call the highlight the turning point of this story? Judah. I think that the turning point was that he never got mad and he knew realized it was a test from Hashem and that Hashem ended up showing him what he had in mind. Unbelievable. I mean that test that he had right there, who knows what would have happened if he failed that test. If he didn't stop and realize that this is a test from Hashem and then he was able to give in, right, Mickey? That's why he was able to come out. Uh, okay. Unbelievable. Beautiful. Beautiful. Excellent. Okay. You want to do a do another one now? Yeah, let's go to another story. Okay. Okay. We'll go straight to another story. No news is good news. Now, there's five sections in the book. I don't know if we mentioned that there's five different uh sections in the book. We have practice. We have thank you Hashem. We have to it's all for the best. We have connecting with Hashem which is and we have meaning all the wonders of Hashem and the book goes in order one five all these five sections with a story and a lesson coming out on each one. So now we're going to we're going to go to thank you Hashem. We'll do a thank you Hashem story. Okay this is uh story number 33. No news is good news. You ready Judah? Okay. Shabbat shalom. Shabbat shalom. It was shabas morning and ding had just ended in a small Israeli shul. Men and boys greeted each other joyfully as they headed to the side room of the shul for the weekly kush. This week's kdesh was sponsored by mayor Weiss. I want to publicly thank Hashem for the refor he gave me announced mayor. I recently recovered from a serious illness and I am donating this kdish this morning to show my gratefulness to hashem. This news was greeted with wishes of and may his friends join him in celebrating this happy news. The next week the sh's congregants once again gathered after daming. The kiddes donor of the week was Jacob Kagan. Yakov stood up to speak and the crowd hushed. Some of you may have heard that I was in a terrible car accident this week. Yakov said my car was completely smashed and nothing of it remained. I was inspired to sponsor this week's kadush because I miraculously came out without a scratch. Yako's fellow sh members all crowded around to shake his hand. The words were on everyone's lips. The following week's kdish was donated by a family who had a fire in the house. Everyone got out safely and and he wanted a publicly express expressed thanks to Hashem. A week later, Nakam Cohen had complic had had a complicated surgery that was successful and he decided to dedicate a kush for that. This pattern continued with members of the shul taking the opportunity to sponsor a kush and share their personal thank you hashem stories. One week the kiddish donor was Elazar Newman. He got up to speak and everyone quietly listened to hear what was his kids. I've been wait I've been listening to all the different speeches week after week and I was very inspired said I don't have any miracles to tell you about I was not safe from any difficult sickness I was not safe from any car crash my house but did not go on fire but I wanted to make a kdish to thank Hashem that none of these things happen that I'm able to go on with my regular life without any disturbances. Unbelievable. We don't think boys about the regular things. Let's talk about it. Why do you think we tend to take we tend to take the problemfree the regular days, the regular gifts for granted? Why do you think people don't stop to do like this person to thank Hashem for the regular things? because we're already used to it and we don't really take any time to thank Hashem for it because we just think it's part of our life but we don't think that some people really don't have that feature that we are um that we have. Beautiful. Beautiful. He's saying what is he saying Judah? He's saying we get we get used to it because we have it every day. We don't stop to think. Mickey, what do you want to say? We always Most people take stuff for granted but they have so much. A lot of people have so much, but they all take it for granted, right? Because we're surrounded by it so much and we say everybody has it. So, we don't stop to look at it as a gift. All right. Jordan, what do you say? I think it was just that just like Mara said that basically everyone thinks that just because every day you go through tons of crazy things that no one no one ever take everyone takes for granted because it's just so used to us to happening and all the things that in our everyday life is so happens every single day. So no one everyone takes it for granted and just you could take a moment to think. Amazing. Amazing. You know, you know, boys, as we're here, I'm thinking this is one of the lessons that the rabbis tell us from this whole past corona situation, right? We always took for granted going to shul. We took for granted going to yeshiva and now we don't take it for granted anymore. But Hashem was so excited to to get the regular things back, right? At one point even to walk into a store, to walk outside, to play with my friends. All right. This is a time that we have to stop and thank Hashem for the regular things. Any any boys want to thank Hashem for something regular, something normal, something that we're used to, Mickey? Um, for my family. Beautiful. Beautiful. I want to thank Hashem that um I could talk cuz I have an uncle that can't and I know it's used and I know how it is. So, I thank Hashem that I can speak. Beautiful. Wow. Judah, I I I want to thank Hashem that a lot of people during Corona lost taste and smell. Thank God I haven't lost any of that. Unbelievable. I want to thank Hashem that I got to meet these wonderful boys. But I want to add I think it's an a test from Hashem that in the world we're surrounded very often by negativity. If you look at the headlines of newspapers, what's on the head? What's what's on the front of a newspaper? That everyone got to school safely. that day usually not. It's usually about tragedies, about things that are bad and somehow that seeps into our consciousness and we're constantly focusing on the negative and I think that's one of the nonote that the gives us that he surrounds us by negativity and we still have to fight through and keep appreciating the simple things like our parents, our friends, our great rabbis that we had who are teaching us things, great books to inspire us an institution like arts scroll where we're sitting that provides us with volumes to educate us and help us learn and things like that. So there is really so much and the to be grateful for and the boys brought it out so beautifully. Should we do one more? Yes, that was one more story. Okay, we'll go to uh right story 62. This story a lot of boys know We'll go to another story now. Story 62. This is in the section of hashka piskit. It's called fully stocked. You ready? Yeah. Okay. This story about somebody called Mr. Azar. Mr. Azar was tight on time. He had flown out of Memphis, Tennessee on a business trip and now it was too close to Shabas to fly back to New York. He was far away from home with no plan. No, no plans for meals. He rushed into the nearest hotel and asked for a room. We're pretty empty today, the clerk said. You could have any room you want. It's pretty good in a big hotel. I'm in quite a rush, Mr. Az replied. I'll take anything as long as I could get in quickly. It was a large hotel. The clerk gave him the keys to a room, room 358. Okay. He opened the closet to put away his clothing and could not believe what he saw. It was fully stocked with Shabas food. Fresh delicious Shabas food. There was kala wine and packed meat. He even found pickles and a was clearly left there by a Jew. So let's stop for a minute, boys. Let's talk about it. If you were in that situation, what are some ways that you would thank Hashem for such a surprise? I just had nothing to eat last minute. I see such a thing making um I I was extra on my beautiful extra covenant and in you'd probably thank Hashem for what happened, right? Beautiful. Anybody else? I would thank Hashem that he gave me food because I could clearly see that he wants me to do the mitzvah of keeping Shabbat and I would try to do I would try to keep Shabbat much better and I try to improve every single. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Judah, I think like that I should try to say with all my gonna eat with like extra slowly, not like rushing it and then embrace the unbelievable say also when we eat we could have a mind that we're eating in order to have the strength to serve Hashem to learn Torah better to do to have the strength for being nice to our friends. So you know as we always say we could turn every simple mundane act into something holy into an avoda and that's really what you could do as well. So that's great answers. Beautiful. Beautiful. Let's see what Mr. Aar did. He thanked Hashem and enjoyed the pleasant surprise. Upon his return home, he heard that a man from his community had been in Memphis shortly before him. He had stayed in the very same hotel as Mr. Azar. That man planned to spend Shabas there but changed his mind last minute. In his haste, he left the food behind. Mr. Aaron marveled at the beautiful hashka and thanked Hashem for allowing him to spend Shabas in comfort. So think a little deeper. This story has many multiple instances of hashkah. How many can you find? How many points could you see Hashem involved in the story? Think through the story for a minute and let me see what you guys could come up with. How many points you see? Oh, Hashem must have did that. Hashem must have did that. Judah, I think one of them is that Hashem made the same hotel that a person in the same room that a person stayed in and left. So he's saying beautiful the same hotel. That's number one, right? And the same room. Don't forget and said that the the room the hotel was empty and they said he could have any any room you want. Could have put them anywhere. could have went anywhere. He said, "You pick exactly the same room." Amazing. Mickey, what do you want to say? Like you just have the same room, same exact room. He could pick anyone with that room. Right. Beautiful. Beautiful. Mars, any any other points? You seek um is that he end also he ended up finding out that um there was a guy that left food there and if he would have stayed there he wouldn't have had food. Beautiful. You said a beautiful thing that Hashem let him find out who the person was. The story could have ended that he found kosher food and he thanked Hashem. But Hashem got more involved. Hashem got so involved that Hashem said, "I'm going to let you see that the person that stayed before you was from your community and you're going to know who it was and you're going to be able to put it all together." That's that's an unbelievable thing. Why? Because sometimes you don't get to see the end of the story. But when Hashem shows you all the details, Hashem Hashem shows you I'm with you, right? And I'm going to show you exactly how it happened. You have to know also the the timing that it was the same week, right? And if he would have been early, Mr. A he probably would have picked uh you know he would have check checked a few rooms picked the nicest room that he wanted. There's many many different points of of now I don't know if any of you boys have one but we'll point out a lot of times in the book we put it happened to me. Can you think of a time you found a solution to your problem? Sorry that the solution to your problem was there before. share your story with us. If any time that you can think of that you were looking for something or you or you needed something and happened to be the solution to your problem was right there like Mr. a he didn't have food. He didn't know what to do. The solution with Hashem says, "I have it for you. It's there already." So, that's a little bit of a harder thing to think of, but there something for you guys to look out for as Hashem. You know, not always does amuna work so perfectly. Here's a story where it's a neat package and it ended neatly and we see the whole picture. But I think by working on amuna in situations where it does fit like a puzzle, it will allow us to have the amuna. Even when we don't see the end story, right? I think that's a lifetime's work. We work on it. Even as adults, we're still working on our amuna to understand that everything is orchestrated by Hashem. Yes. Once you're on the topic of of of working on it, maybe we could we could introduce the uh the amuna journal. Okay. So this was really uh built off of Rabbi David's son Schlita put this out years ago as a companion to the uh living series and Rabbi Asha. Um it's basically hashka this journal where a person will carry it with them and they'll as they go through their day especially if we're looking for it right he'll realize Hashem was involved with this Hashem was involved with that. It could be as simple as finding a parking spot. It could be finding the your keys. It could be any little things that you saw Hashem was involved with you and take out a pen and write it down. After a while, a person could look back and they could see page after page after page. And one of the biggest mileers is that once a person sees on paper, wow, 10 pages, 20 stories, 20 days, Hashem was with it builds up a relationship between us and Hashem, right? When you look back and you see Hashem did this for me, Hashem did that for me. Hashem did this for me. Wow, Hashem is with me. So writing it down the gdole tell us is very, very important. So we wanted to adapt it to the family and to the children. We wanted adapted. We called it my amuna journal. And you see we have the same cover as the uh as the book because we wanted as a companion to the let's talk living amuna. In here we put a little raffle. uh you could send it to the email your stories to my story only.com and we have the letter from the and basically we have here a beautiful uh a beautiful uh story about how he uh instructed his daughter to do exactly this to write down anytime you see Hashem involved in your life and basically it's a bunch of pages like this that uh you have blanks here boys if you want to look at All right. You have a bunch of pages like this. We put a little puk. We put a little living with Hashem to remember Hashem in your life. And you write down any little thing. All right. I was uh about to miss the bus and I was 2 minutes late and finally I got there and the bus driver apologized that he was late because there was traffic up the block. Hashem arranged it, right? You write that down. Hashem made there be traffic so that I could catch my bus even though I was two minutes late. So this is gonna be given out and maybe boys could you could you you want to try it now. Think of anything that Hashem did for you uh recently. Maybe boys want to want to give it a try. Should have a story. But you boys are the first ones getting it right. Yeah. Any any time that you felt that Hashem was involved in your life? I want to add to what Rabbi B was saying as the boys are trying to think of something to write. I see Mars is already he's going strong. The more we do that, our brains start training ourselves to see things we we never saw before. We start appreciating things whether it's our bodily functions, our kidneys are working, our heart is working every second of the day, our eyes are working like one of the boys alluded to, our ears, our mouth. You spoke about taste and smell. Whoever even took a moment to appreciate being able to eat and taste food normally. So there's no question this last period of time has given us a renewed appreciation of all the gifts we have. And this journal is a great gift as well in addition to the book to help us keep developing our faith and our trust in Hashem, our reliance on Hashem. And as the boys are writing, we're going to end the program. I want to thank Mickey, Judah, and Mars for coming out here to Art Scroll. Very special to have you. All of you three should keep bringing a lot of nas to your parents and to your rabbis and to all of Kai Israel, as you already are doing. And thank you, Rabbi Biju, for the tremendous amount of work that went into this volume and how beautifully it's presented, how wonderfully it's written. Uh, I think you would agree that it was formulated in a way that any age group, even adults, could pick it up and connect to it. And surely children of all ages and I hope it will become the go-to handbook or manual to take what was accomplished with living amuna and bring it down to a very practical level continued in your sat and your instilling in children the proper values and I look forward to doing this again because this is wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen. Thank you again, boys. [Music]