Inside ArtScroll - Season 3 Episode 5: Reb Shloimi Steinmetz – Turning Personal Tragedy Into Glob...

[Music] Hello everyone and welcome back to inside art scroll where the books you read and the people who write them come to life. Today I am privileged to be joined by Repliment of Montreal, the dedicator and sponsor of the new art scroll book on an Mammon. And Reple, it's a big to speak to you. It's the first time I'm getting to meet you since the Petira of your son David aira that really shook the whole world along with the petas of the other victims, Kadeshim of You've influenced and inspired literally tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people with your reaction, with your initiatives, and most prominently your undertaking of spreading and teaching Clal Israel to appreciate the fundamentals of an imam. And that's what I'd like to discuss with you. Tell us about some of the history behind why you decided that anime should be kind of the zer the legacy of Davidi. This is not something that I decided. This is something that I decided. It came the way it started. We got up from Shiva on the day of Shabas and speaks every shabas 5 minutes before miss and he said you know again the whole whole the whole community was shaken the whole world is shaken what can we do in so he had an idea from the sons was very big into an imam and say an imam every day takes 90 seconds and let's go like Anyway, so that he printed out the cards he gave whatever he had to print out before and he gave it to the sh about 100 balabat there much I thought to myself I wish to put a joke in my hand let me see if I can get a thousand people in the first week 10,000 by the next week and then we see what I send it wasn't uh we didn't know where we're going to go anyway we started working on it I mean I started calling all my friends and contacts and cousins and whatever I could And we already hit 10,000 people in the first week. I didn't again I didn't I didn't plan it. I didn't know where I'm going. I said we're going to try again. I'm going to do David Davi was a a boy who was full of that he he was a min was part of his daytoday life. That's who he was. So we you know when the roof gave this idea I thought you know what let's what can we do in I want to try to build from there. And again, I didn't know where we're going to go today. We had over 100,000 people already. We printed over 120,000 cards and the metro. We're going to keep going. And it was a tremendous tragedy that that that really shook people. Very often when people go through these types of their immediate reaction is to become inhibited. You know, they lock themselves away and they deal with their challenge in their own way. And far be it from anyone like me to understand what it means and how how difficult it is and seemingly you and your rebbitson went the other way and you kind of opened yourself up to Israel and not only did you share your with you shared your and it's it's just really it's mindboggling where did you get the inner fortitude and the strength not only not to lock yourself up and to you know just become immersed in depression but to almost like you being other people where do you get that strength from again we're trying it's it's not easy don't I mean it's nobody should ever get challenged with the challenge that we're getting but the end of the day we're coming from Babas and Zidas me and my wife we come again we came from Holocaust survivors which rebuilt Everybody got rebuilt after the war. You know, we learned from our grandparents. We learned from our parents. So when something of this magnitude happens, I you don't know where you're getting the from. And we don't know. We're just going one day at a time, one step at a time. I I can't wrap my head around it. I I don't understand what happened over here. This is what the wanted them. I tried to be mazik and I'm trying to be mazic myself and I want to build again. I started saying we want to build for the way it's progressing. Yes, we're building for Davi want to help everybody but it's giving for the also and Davi was a kind of boy that was always there for everybody. He he was such a loving giving boy. He was a smart boy. He he he he lived to have an from other people. So now you know we want to we reached the point again the I'm on a path. I I'm not controlling this. I'm just going and doing myas and trying to do the best I can. and and that's what we're trying to be. and the immediate reaction when you first learned of of David I know there's a probably very sensitive moments but what was that like when you first heard that you're gavi who so many people felt such love for that's what we heard what what was that like it's beyond comprehension I you I you're in shock. You're in the emotion that's going through we just you you can't physically understand it. You can't wrap your head around it. But I kept on trying to again trying to repeat myself again and again. And it's it's very hard and that's what we're trying to constantly be. I mean I'm very close and and he spoke to us right before we even sat and give us and he said you got to repeat and you try again like I said this is part of the thing that we want to get the doesn't happen overnight when you know you grow up with with grandparents and parents and and you see every person goes for challenges this is the biggest challenge we went for our life and we need the in order by By by believing the Ibish toa feed the veil that this is this is what's happening it helps you deal with it. Is it fix it? No. Can I understand what happened? No. But but but this is what I wanted. And I and I got to constantly be myself. People commented to me they never saw Shiva like Di Shiva. If you remember the video clips that went out of Dam singing people were crying and they broke out in song. It was it was almost a dichotomy where it was it was the most tragic of situations but within your home people were walking out. So again we we started singing just to give you a little background the way it started. I I'm just sitting there and again I was putting a lot of jokes in my head lately and I'm seeing the full room here of hundreds of people in the room. A lot of Davi's friends were there and I said what? Let's start singing one of Davy's favorite songs and we start singing an imam. This was nothing. We didn't pick the imam. It just came naturally. And when I was singing that, I remember telling my my my son was sitting next to me and we singing the imam and sitting there. I said, "Davi is with us now. He's singing with us." That's mama. And again, it's we were all we were singing with tears. We were singing but we wanted to get the we we we were getting the from the anim's been here for for I don't know how many when was an imam now? since the time the Rambam wrote to so so so that's it so it's not something that's happened I've been saying an imam for many years and my kids I never told my kids to say but they've been saying it also just because I guess cuz they see I'm saying it so they're saying it so that you know you want it to to to be part of you and the more you say it the more it gets part of natural I mean natural there's nothing natural when the tragedy happens but you want to be yourself if anything it's supernatural really both the the the the tragedy itself and the reaction to the tragedy to me are both supernatural. theum gave us a gift in you and your rabbits and your family as role models really in in the way you're responding to it in such an amazing way and this new book which is going to just expand your influence and Doy's influence even further to inspire people to learn an imam to understand an imam to internalize an imam and make it really part of their everyday um is just a continuation of this mission that you've taken talk about how this book evolved. I know it's based on shurim that Rabbi Golas in Montreal has given. Talk about how that idea evolved to make it into a a tangible book that people could benefit from. So after the roof gave that uh on Shabas was talking about an imam and said okay well let's do it. This is so says do people understand what an imam is all about? how much background is behind Alan Mama and the answer was no we didn't and he started giving shum twice a week starting uh you know from from pretty much from from when we got up from Shiva and to be honest I couldn't even go to the shum in the beginning it was it was just too hard for me but he was doing it to learn and and the oil was coming you know was was short sh every week but once we started understanding it more people got the people were getting from it and and then I you know I also started appreciating it. Again, I appreciate it from day one that he did it. It's very much appreciated. But the goal was just to to give a sh to to teach to teach the local and as we're getting more into it and we're seeing this so much more to the imam. He says why let's spread it. Let's get it out there. Let's not just give it for our immediate community. Why give it out to the world? Again, we want this is part of the Davi time. It's we gave it a name. We never had no name. Mhm. time is an imam initiative. It's part of you know and I said by shiva I didn't know where we're doing what we're doing. I said one thing I said and the whole world's going to know about time. It's and you've printed over a 100,000 anim cards. Correct. Apparently you're still it's still going right. It's still going. We got to hit the million. You're spreading the this message of amuna. Was there one particular anim imam or a component of an anim that resonated more with you now once after Rabbi started giving a shir and that you heard an insight or a piece of inspiration? Anything that spoke to you? No. No. All the imams it was as a general anim. People ask me which imam do you prefer? I tell I look I look at a different one is is is a lot closer to my heart at this point you know but but but on the whole on everyone it's people call me initially when I started getting the word out which anim should we say right said every single one we don't know we never looked into the depth of the anim well that's what we're trying to to I don't know myself it's amazing thing that it's such a fundamental part of yiddeshkite that you've to almost uh give a rebirth like a rejuvenation of something that's so so fundamental and basic that's really a phenomenal tryingish I just give and we're trying again we started doing it but when we do whatever we can and you know as part of this initiative to spread an imam I know that you established a website anim.net net what's on the website and what other creative initiatives are you working on? So actually the way the shirum started we didn't know where what we're going to do. We said if we're going to put a website and we're going to be upload we can spread it that way. Then actually the book came came along and we said let's do the book as well and we have shum which uploaded to the website. First of all, there's a little bit of a biography of Davi that people should understand who Davi was that the the the the the person he was the he was full of life, full of agit that it gives an idea. I said whoever's helping and and and being part of the imam, they're not just doing it for for me and they're doing it for Davi. Again, for me it's nothing. I'm just but they're going to get from it themselves. I get dozens and dozens of messages every week. people from all walks of life from all different whether it's literish American modern I have people which which are barely keeping Shabas they they they tell me they get inspired by it they don't even know the imam some of them can't read but they heard the anim imam is to to believe that there's it gives them so I have to keep going it's just uh now I started something and I'm getting back the response I don't have a choice and so we we open the website We I mean it's up and running on imamim.net and and people can hear people can hear all the sh on there that was initially recorded and there's from and there's another and we're going to keep we're just going to keep going. That's just we we've just got started. We don't even know where we're heading, right? I didn't know I'm going to be here. It's unbelievable what you've turned into in in in a course of a year. You've turned the the most unspeakable tragedy into a revolution, a campaign of and amuna of that people are taking in their own individualness. That's what I'm hearing. Whether it's whether it's uh whether it's you know whatever the whatever the challenge is and that's so you should continue to have the strength like you said the should continue to give you to keep fighting the good fight to keep spreading the messages the positive messages and we thank you again for a few minutes to give you a little story of an anime I wasing a and a guy came over to I don't know who he is. He doesn't know why. I mean, he knew who I was. Mr. Let's tell you, I've been going through a very hard time. I know about your I've been seeing it in sh for the past few months, but I had a personal very hard para. I took the imgain this is random strangers coming up to me and I get this every week. People call me, they feel inspired. It helps them. So again, as much as I appreciate people saying because people come over, I said imam I said it's okay. I'm not I'm not I'm not checking you guys. It's it's all good. But they it gives them and and and that's again I'm giving this is nothing to this is not me. I'm just the we all passengers on the train and we we're just going to keep going. and I met him like I say he tell me well you're a soldier of and you're carrying out this mission in very inspiring fashion so we thank you thank you for having me [Music]