Judaism Without Apologizing - Episode 3 - Rabbi Daniel Glatstein

If you want to cut to the chase, the overwhelming majority of people by the time they're 120 are not yay tatur. >> How could you have meaningful Judaism if you never learn shop? So whatever people don't like, they blame it on live fish. Has nothing to do with live fish. God asked 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. Why do we have to be inspired all day? Oh, inspired. Inspire. Cut the the inspiration. And we need education because you have no education. You're just what you're a marshmallow floating in the air and you could probably get a job dispensing. You might even be able to get get money for it. But what exactly was meaningful? The crowning achievement of Talra is to be malami. Some people say, "Rabbi, you know, you're being passive aggressive." No, I'm not being passive. I'm being aggressive. Hello everyone. It's Hilla 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 Glatstein. Rabbd Gladstein is one of the most successful communicators of Tyra in the world right now. His Shirim 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 rv 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 Rabbanel Gladstein 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. In a world where everyone seems to have not just a microphone but a megaphone, the voices of our gadm are raanim 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 Ashkafic 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. >> 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 Swarim. 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. We have a lot of programs out there pushing you in different directions. Should I learn dafi? There's a million things to go. What would you say is the baseline appropriate diet needed for every Torah Jew ma 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 themselves. Tamatur 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 esrog beamos without any imperfection. We're very medic in matzah that we eat the perfect kaz in the exact requisite amount of time. And yet when it comes to we don't have necessarily the same, 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 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 going to 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 tora is made in the Torah 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 Tibboras. 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 sh stand for? Uh uhhuh. What? 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 schul 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 Vagnner 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 Gam, learning, and learning Maser. 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 shakas again I don't mean to you know but how to walk into a schul how to conduct yourself in a basic how to davin what you know the siddther 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 lambdan may not know how to dam chakras how to get up in the morning how to make on food how to go to work they're obviously right this is the 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 Torah but I'm talking about now the protein the fruits and vegetables vegetables and the carbohydrates, you know, the three essential I'm talking about 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 Mos 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 mas 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 ruach all of the basis all of the foundation of 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 three, if we could say such a thing. So go let me just backtrack for a second. >> Yeah. >> To be the mitzvah of 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 the mitzvah of 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 are not yet the most important mitzvah in the same way Rabanim 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 rais 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 tamatara 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 saf? You learn. Do you know my oh you know my 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 one has to learn now what is The says at least Mishna Mosha writes in so there's an obligation to make your way through >> so according to one has to learn in order to be li >> one is required to learn shas yes 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 tamata there's a mitzvah of what we call learning biking wide ranging knowledge and there's also a mitzvah of delving deeply into the Tory. 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 and other 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 beas? You know in um some great yeshivas they'll spend an entire on a few blat and bikus will be an entire zan on two proenim. So you know they're eonheavy 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 hakama of the of the he said noon 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 tyra 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 shorter mitzvah when they ask themselves am I fulfilling that one of those three musk and so but there is definitely an objective of attempting making one's making a realistic attempt of learning does that mean does that mean sh and how realistically Am I going to be able to learn kalat? you know if I learn um hash you know if my if your sedar is hash then it's going to be very difficult to say yeah I tried to learn kala you know doesn't mean you have to learn have a sedar at dafa day ora or you know two and a half blad a week or even da shua 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 gonna come back because you know 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 talmud 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 hagara >> which according to I think I'm understanding you yeah >> the overwhelming majority of people by the time they're 120 are not yay tur 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 anifa tomorrow >> declaring rabbi is from from the guy who's running in kyo for 40 years and he's learning koulen 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 m unless you learn the whole thing >> again one thing we could definitely say that if you just learn 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 dafomi exciting passionate it pictures, graphics, you know, and they have very colorful dafes and they and and it's become a thing to because through dafi would be let's say a legitimate way of learning what is called provided that you actually understand the shakar and 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 you know, let's leave that aside for but let's say daf would be a legitimate avenue of learning. 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 it doesn't have the cache for me. I'm not going to do it. That that I'm not that's not exciting. I the duff 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 gamarra 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 you're not remembering it there would you would put into serious question the value of the learning as we No 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 stipler learns it from the air that the sedal is learning something four times so let's saya gives you the opportunity per I don't know how many times 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 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 shas. 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 daffy also if you review it. just it's it's tough to review a blood a day four times. You know what what would you say to a guy? >> Yeah. Who learns in regular yeshivas but he now he works 9 to5. He gets some 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 bach. He went to a good yeshiva he's learning in depth. He wants to learn gimmor. He wants to learn mus. He wants to learn and he wants to do it well. 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 or so said if you only have uh 10 minutes a day, you learn most then you'll have you'll see you 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 you know it's not said and so it's not you see I'm going to come to another point has a very important point you know why didn't kazal say when if you have 60 minutes you should spend 36 minutes learning gar 12 minutes learning muser 12 minutes learning 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 mishab 12 minutes and a and 12 minutes that's what I would say >> now you say well when is he going to be ma he has to be mraed 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 Raan, >> they have to have some basic. Now, 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 mishar H 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. Let's say you have somebody he just doesn't connect to the more classic muser 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 mash was written by an Italian was written by someone who was Spanish. The Shar 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 sphero and the various and don't say oh glad 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 mid dice. You cannot replace you cannot replace protein with vitamin B. Yeah, vitamin 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 davenin 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 Lima. >> 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 Tyra 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 thera and that's it. I just >> the other answer was sort of like a mixture of a gamatria and like a vart to 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 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 lulv and have like a a ver a vert that you heard come out 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 a para sheet because l is gamach 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 Shabashu seven to have when you're in any mitzvah. Anytime you do a mitzvah, the first thing is you can't just pick up. 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 I am being the we 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 mahuva before you do a mitzvah any mitzvah you give 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 think 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 hem I'm doing the mitzvah it's 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 Nisha 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 maybe my no that's 1% of the Jewish world. 90% of Jews, they don't know what Alulan is. They don't know what they don't know who Mashabenu is. They don't know who Abramino is, but they're still the Jewish people. And I'm doing a mitzvah to be mak the Jewish people to be mak 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'm dabbing shak with these seven thoughts. This is not this is not this is this is so think about it my my my I'm not even 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 amus what's more inspiring meaningful that's this is this is no and is wonderful I love and I love this is 101 anyway and then when I get to lul what's lul love you know our lives were just judged on the lul love happens to be and this is brought in I'm not talking about av I'm talking about uh the mate moa I'm talking about the lavush other lul 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 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 RV of a shaw. >> Yeah. >> And can you address some of the policies that you have inside of your sh 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 bases 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 fis people some you Say really I see them with a flip phone. That doesn't mean they don't also have another type. 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 a 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 and they raise themselves up to the level of they will never amass the same level as somebody who teaches a little to Ruain to Shima and to Levy and to Huda. Why the conglomerate merit of the uh all the zusim that that we would add up from the influence of this person who teaches Tyra will always surpass the merit of someone who's just focused on themselves. That was before technology in the world of technology it's it's incredible. I mean I heard from uh Adam one of the in in the world today said you could in today's world you could sit in your dollar am 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 the 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 dive in, 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 Rabbi, you know, you're being passive aggressive. No, I'm not being passive. I'm being aggressive. Not being passive aggressive. I'm just saying straight. You are not attempting to connect with Fela. 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 gonna 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 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 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 halleluah 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 Schul and you're like it's sort of like giving someone a fish but not teaching them how to fish. Well, one second perhaps the answer and the solution is let's have mandatory or highly suggested learning purish 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 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 m 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 hashem 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 merch what ideal we inculcate with b sham what are the five halucas actually the five halucas correspond to five epic periods in the history and destiny of the Jewish people. Each one building off the other is chained together like a chain. Each each paragraph is critical, is important, is focused on 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? 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 have you're I'm inspired to daven. You 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 thank 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 Mashiach. 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 fifuc 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 ash 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 would say three main uh three mainly mood 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 s what you know in other words there's a large gamut that fits the bill of there's large gamut I like to learn radiance of shabas, you know, so learn that. No problem. I 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 to rashi and sheni and next year you'll learn to shishi and next year you learn to ravi? Yeah, but you said 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 saw. 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. 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 ytiff 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, 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 shabas shabas. Yeah. What what are you getting worked up? in Shabas Shabases Shabasesh. 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 kariine? Yeah. What pal? What exactly was so inspiring about the karine? 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? 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 Shabas 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 Tory is personal. And the way I connect to Tyra is going to be different than the way you connect to Tory. So even though you know on the one hand we want to look at Torah 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 Tory and that's the relationship I have with Tyra. And let's say somebody says you know I really connect with this safar. 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 forra and a connection to that has a lot of value because now the Torah becomes more personal to you to the extent the sher of ism 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 is an idea idea that every person has a unique mission in Tamatyra when they come down to this world and for one person it might be only a certain mak 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 if 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 Gamarra. It only came down to learn. 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. So, so are we going to let this guy do 70% on and 30%?" Yeah, we might let that might be legitimate. 80% I don't know. You know, I think that's where having a mar 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 Tama Tyra. >> Great. >> And as should give us all to uh >> Amen. Amen. >> Okay. Here's another question for you. Um, what is the ideal exactly? You have a lot of yeshivas producing a lot of bach who go on to learn in 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 Harbut'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 BVID? Therefore, a lot of people who they could be fantastic fifth grade reb and passionate about being a nth grade rebi or teaching into a girl school or being mish 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 tamatra and what what's life ambition should be look we say that tora consists of many components lameis learn teach and to do imagine guy says no I I just learn uh I just learn Lasso keeping Tory tora. No, no, no. I'm not into that. I'm only into the lomite. Is that even lomite? Is that even lomite? He's missing a component of Tory. Part of Tory is lasso. Well, part of Tory is which means let's say person I'm not going to teach. I'm going to sit in my dal because a 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 Abra and Yak 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 twob block radius and you could reach Jews who don't know Moshain from Abraham Lincoln. So is ach of the mitzvah of the says about a critical mash says you know gar talks about that said that if would ever be forgotten he would restore it how he would teach five boys a safer and each one would then teach the other so mash asks why didn't he just teach each one all five why did he teach one borious and other and then have them teach each other. The Marshall says because the highest madrega 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 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 Gar talks about learning something 101 times. You ever you ever wonder how is it how is a chak nobody learns anything 101 times. The stipler 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 rashiva. I'm not a mag. You have a shabas table. You prepare to say at the table. You learn something. You learn to ram. Say it over to your family. You have to be in the midst of you have it's the same way you have to bera part of is writes in many 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 out says in his thatu was called Abraham someone who hashem 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 2,000 years where you made toyo the next 2 years where you made. What do you mean? No. They sat and they learned. You want to learn? So, you could come. You could come. That's not tora is proactively went out and was people. That's Wow. So I did I remember um there was a particular rasha that I was discussing this with you know the value of theam I was you know famously says this in the so I mentioned it to 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 the the ideal has become to sit and learn. And I think you can make a very strong case. The ideal is how about 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 malam. The crowning achievement of tamra is to be malam. There are many many in the biography of the Rabis Salanter by Rabbit Petber says Rabis 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 and he was going to be 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 are other msuras, so be it. I'm not sure. I know that even uh even in yeshivas, I know there in his time would send people out would send people out. Um if there are other mess, so you know, as they say, at the least what I'm saying is on the 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 said wait a second he makes an announcement that it's come to my attention there's a a a village in the outlying areas the mikvah fell into disuse maybe one of the kadav there on yum kipper and then after you impress upon them the need the importance of making a mikvah so is finished he goes okay you 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 learned twice. You know what do we say in the haktoma of of the nephe the nepheshim says the children said he said our father always told us that just like in gashmas imagine you invite someone I invite you to come to my house for shabas yeah sure I heard your wife I heard you make a good ch yeah 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 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 the 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 going to learn indefinitely. You're going to learn it definitely. You know definitely you know some people say well don't think about while you're learning. It's not about is not about co. Realistically, if you want to teach Tyra, you need to think about it a little bit while you're in your years of learning. Cuz 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, maybe it never dawned on you and all of a sudden you have the pressures of pranasa. 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 Tyra 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 dire you could give an you could give a dafu say I'm not such a good speaker. So find somebody who's not on 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 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 lasso and they'll be able to the 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 and 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 RV or 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 Tyra 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 a 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 courarssing 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 moy 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 possible. >> Amen. Thank you very much Gladston for coming on. >> Thank you. [Music]