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Meaningful Interviews 4 - Eliezer-Lee Slavutin - Power of Tanya - 3-22-22
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Dr. Eliezer Slavutin was born in Melbourne, Australia. He studied at the Mount Scopus Jewish school. He moved to New York, married and met Rabbi Dalfin in the 1990s. They learned Tanya together weekly for 10 years finishing the first section of 53 chapters. He became a Chabad Chasid and lives with Tanya in his successful insurance business.
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Transcript
Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
so welcome everyone to meaningful
interviews i'm here today with a very
good friend of mine
dr lee eliezer
originally from
australia eliezer and i know each other
for i think 20 years or close to that
many many years
and there's a lot to say but time is
short it doesn't allow us to
to speak uh all details but um
i met lyezer
in an interesting way
he had a bro he has a brother-in-law who
are you from california david schwartz
and um
i asked david uh i was moving to l.a to
to new york from l.a
and he told me about his brother-in-law
lisa putin
and um
i called i called uh lee
and i asked if
um
you know if he uh
wants to i think
go to the rebbe's oh
and uh
for a blessing and he said yeah i have
no idea who he is
no idea how he looked who he was nothing
i remember he took the f train from
manhattan where he lived to to borrow
park where i live
got into my car
and we went to the ohio and middle of
the ride
it happened to be tisch above
and i was treading uh
carefully
and we're talking and i mentioned
trillin that villain
and i'm driving on the belt parkway
and he says to me oh yeah today uh we
don't put on two in the morning
i said how do you know that
that was the last thing i would have
thought that lisa wooten who i don't
know who he is
and he's just david schwartz's
brother-in-law and david wasn't uh
particularly very religious
tells me that so he says oh i read it in
the back of the art scroll sitter
and today but i'm turning the afternoon
i said that's interesting yeah you're
right
anyway the next thing is we go into the
oil
and i stand kind of far
and
lee positioned himself i believe it was
next to the tomb the stone of the
previous river
because he's on the right and the rebels
on the left i think that's my
recollection anyway
and i noticed the way he's saying to him
that saying kill him and it was
it really
i was again very surprised he's saying
kill him so seriously it really was
was a very very uh
interesting
on the way back on his way out of the
car i asked him the question which
he's told me about years later that one
question in a way changed his life
would you like to learn some torah
and the answer was let me think about it
and as my great uncle ramon futterfast
would say
the americans when they say uh let me
think about it it means um
excuse me
expression go to hell
you know it's not your business
you know bug off
okay two weeks went by
i get a call
lee is on the phone rabbi you remember
you asked me a question
uh which would i'd like to learn with
you uh i actually would
and we started to learn once a week for
10 years
i would go an hour to manhattan an hour
we learned he's a was a businessman
in in in manhattan you know there's no
time for you got to learn you got to go
on
an hour travel and now we're learning
and an hour
back and it was this was the high point
of of my life i could tell you for 10
years really and i'm sure it was
of yours we went slow and we finished
all 53 chapters of tanya
not all questions were resolved there's
a lot to say about that but time is
short
but we developed a very strong
connection
and i uh
didn't pressure him
am i right
i did not pressure
here right in fact i remember that that
one time when when you told me
some of your friends at the reformed
temple said what are you doing learning
with khabad rabbi all he wants you to
put on a beard
put on chilling keep sharpest keep
kosher like how do you out of your mind
and you told them you told me that you
said if he if he would have done that
i would have stopped learning but he
never did that
and uh
and then
i asked them once to to go to sro to
come to israel with me and that was a
life-changing experience we met the
option of a rebbe and then it was
transformed the whole the whole uh time
the trip there to stroll
and then he told and then on another
trip that he went himself he told me
already that someone at the hotel put on
a yarmulke and he said i said and said
that don't not smiling for a serious
face don't you ever take kettles
and that garbage that you see on the
screen here
never gave off since that day as far as
i what ellie hasn't told me and i
believe it
and with his long beard you don't see
his own his entire beard he looks like
the altered hustle
so
why am i saying this i'm not saying this
to make him feel good or make myself
feel good this is for the viewers
i'm saying this
because we learned tanya
and we learned it slowly methodically
carefully we didn't rush we die a lot we
agree we disagree we laughed we cried
it went into the bones
and i know that because he's teaching
tanya
to others
for years
and
from time to time he sends me an email
or a call he tells me you can't imagine
how this chapter and tanya made it's
unbelievable and it made this change
it's
the
the the the that the tanya is is real
not
just in the spiritual world but in the
daily world and that's really what i
wanted to focus on but before that and
i'm finished with this
uh please just give us a little brief
background
where you came from a little about your
parents
melbourne
your background
your college days just just bring us up
to
to uh coming to to new york and we'll go
from there
thank you
um it's very exciting to be with you
rabbi dolphin because uh you know
sometimes people ask me they have an
expression i think i i know what's the
expression used by everybody expression
is who plugged you in
who plugged you in and you're the one
who plugged me in because it was really
that connection to the power of tanya
that made a huge difference to answer
your question
i grew up in melbourne australia
melbourne has a very nice jewish
community i mean i think it's about
today maybe 50 sixty thousand have
always been a very tight-knit jewish
community
and um i was very fortunate i went to a
school in melbourne called mouth skypers
college which is a jewish school
kind of like rama's it's modern orthodox
type of a school boys and girls together
and i learned there
uh
the basic things like i i could read
hebrew i could write hebrew i learned
huma we didn't learn gemara but i i
could i got some basic good jewish
education so that never left me so when
it came time later in life to learn it
was actually much easier to get into it
because of that training so after i went
to mount scopus i then went to medical
school in melbourne australia i finished
medical school and i came to new york
really
the intention was to do some
postgraduate medical training at the
hospital in new york lenoxel and then to
go back to australia after two years
that was my plan
but you know you have a plan it's not
always what's going to happen right
right you've been struck and got locked
so uh
so i had a plan but then i met my wife
in new york actually at a ski resort i
got married and we stayed in new york
and then a little bit down the road i i
said this is not the career i want to
pursue for the rest of my life and to
the great surprise of many people you
know being a doctor is like you know the
highest thing you could be right as a
jewish professional as a doctor so i
said no it's not for me so i left
medicine and then about almost 40 years
ago actually i went into the insurance
business and so that's what i've been
doing ever since thank god it worked out
very well
um
what about your parents were from russia
my mother's family is from lodge poland
my mother's grandfather
yes my great grandfather my mother's
grandfather was actually an alexander
hassett
i have a picture of him i have a picture
of him you have to say you have to send
that to me i'd like to see it ah okay
okay
um he was
he was shot by the nazis in on the
street just shot finished
my my father's family is from russia
my father's
father was from uh gomel in belarus
my father's mother was from ukraine
where all the problems occurring she
actually
is uh near the black sea she was born in
molitopol which is very close to the
black sea but they both both of my
father's parents left russia at the time
of the pogroms in 1905 they went to
china
and they lived in harbin there was a
jewish community in harabin in northern
china which is where they met they got
married
and they had their family my father was
born in china
right now your family name is
uh
you you believe that it's because you
guys came
from slavutta from slavita i don't i
don't know i i mean i i i would love to
think that's true because slovenia is
such a wonderful name in tanya uh but uh
all i know is my father's father is from
hommel and whether before that there was
a connection to ukraine i don't know no
and uh any uh do you have any idea if
they were hasidic uh your father's
relatives
my father my father's children i think
for a second my my grandmother my
father's mother's family were i think
very uh religious
my father told me about
his uh uh uncle a grandfather who was
very strict in it if a piece of silver
touched something he would go outside
and bury it in the ground
so
there was that side was i think very uh
religious
my mother's family in poland i i don't
know how religious they were they're
very traditional jewish family but i'm
not sure how strictly religious or not
they were right okay so now you're
growing up in melbourne now i i know
some of your friends um
they were on the orthodox side you
weren't um what were your feelings
growing up
how did you look at that uh did you did
you have any anger on any jewish issues
um you want to just for a moment talk
about that
yeah it's um
i mean i grew up as i said i went to
mount scopus
and uh
mount scopus is a jewish school we
basically 50 of the time is jewish
studies and 50 secular and i wasn't very
interested in the jewish studies i
really wasn't i was much more interested
in mathematics and science
and in the final year of high school i
did very well on the science and i
failed hebrew
and the principal of the school
mr feiglin you know the faglin family
very famous
family mr feiglin took upon himself
because we got a report card at the end
of the first term in senior year high
school he writes on my report guide
which my father has to see because he
has to sign it yeah mr feiglin writes
my hebrew result which i failed this is
an utter disgrace
my father has to see it and sign it so i
was in trouble
um so i had to i had to pass hebrew and
thank god i actually had a a wonderful
hebrew teacher dr rhonda blessed memory
who was a survivor of the camps and you
could see on his arm you saw the number
from the camps and he really helped me
and i thanks to his help i ended up by
past hebrew but i was not a great hebrew
student
uh-huh um
did when you became a you know older
teenager um did you ask yourself any
questions about god uh you know things
like that philosophical issues not
really
my mother and i'm very
grateful my mother raised me
and she i always remember she would say
to me as a young boy you have to know
two things in life one is honesty is the
best policy number two always have faith
in god she taught me from i don't know
where why but she said that again again
again so i grew up with faith in god
that was never
a problem or issue to have faith in god
um i wasn't observant you know
religiously observant uh but i always
had faith in god and you're asking me to
have questions yes i had i had questions
there's a lot of teenage kids what am i
doing here what's what what am i suppose
what's what is what is life about you
know philosophical issues and this is
one of the reasons today i love tanya so
much
because it answers these questions
these fundamental questions that altered
is addressing every day
absolutely absolutely
okay so um
you go into insurance you get married
you come
um you joined i believe a reformed
temple right i forgot the name now
um and
take it from there what
what happened oh
this was a big blessing for me what
happened it's something i think it's
something we everybody who's not
yet observant who has some kind of
inkling should pray for what the gift i
got from god
um i was in the reformed temple i was a
i was what you would call a high holiday
jew
i went with my wife rosh hashanah yom
kippur that was it that what three days
a year that was it so i'm there on yom
kippur
1994 i'll never forget it
and it's between mustaf and minaka the
break
people go outside for some fresh air i
wanted to stay inside the synagogue i
was by myself i don't know what prompted
me
i sat there i said this i said to myself
aloud this feels good
i from that moment it's as if the gates
of heaven opened up i i'm telling you
one thing after another so what happened
that was you know let's say september
october the jewish holidays about a
month later i go to australia to visit
my parents because my mother's having
surgery my friend george hallas who you
know gives me a book he says lee you're
going home now back to new york you have
a long flight read this book the book
was called encounters by rabbi arie
kaplan and the phenomenal teacher
and somewhere along the way in his
writings he says look if you're a jewish
man you should do one thing put on to
fill in say the shema it'll take 10
minutes that's all it takes
so i started i that 1994 that was the
year i went i was gonna bite to fill him
now here that's the first thing george
gives me the book
then i say to my wife i'm gonna bite to
philly she has a client
we're in business together her client is
a syrian jew orthodox he hears i'm
buying divorces no no no you're not
going to bite the film from a judaica
store i'm going to get you kosher to
fill him right
memory incredible man now he gets he
starts to get involved with me and he he
he is i'm putting on to fill him so
about two months later he says to my
wife what's your husband doing
he's saying the shema he says i want you
to give a message to your husband tell
him he has to say the amidah
one thing like this but i'm telling you
rabbi delphin one after the other you
mentioned in jerusalem with the yamaka
here's what happened i'm in jerusalem
this was around the time that you and i
went maybe it was after another trip i
went i'm standing on the street but
here's the story with the yarmulke i'm
standing on the street
outside a silver storm i just bought
some gifts from my wife
and friends and at that time i was not
wearing a yarmulker outside the house i
wore it inside the house but i was too
embarrassed to wear it outside but in
jerusalem everyone's wearing a yama guy
no problem so i'm wearing my yamaka in
jerusalem a stranger comes up to me puts
his arm around my shoulder i think oh
yeah he wants money
he says khadash
what what do you mean khadas he said
your yamaka looks so new you should wear
it more often
i said that's it
this is a message from the almighty god
i'm no no question and from that as you
said from that day i never took it off
so this happened again again and again
it's like i'm telling you god said
you're ready i'm going to give you what
you need
and i said at the beginning of this
conversation if anybody has this kind of
an inkling they want to start to get
more involved ask god to help you he
will help you
[Music]
very well said
now
when did the beard come and could you
tell me a little bit about the beard oh
wow that was one of the biggest
challenges to be it
um as you could understand so the beard
came
um i
was reading a book
uh think jewish
by rabbi zalman poser of blessed memory
and i loved the book and i looked at the
inside cut the flap on the back of the
with a picture of rabbi posner and he
has a very kind face i looked at that
picture i said to myself this is a very
kind face i want to meet this man i
looked up i called nashville tennessee
where he lives operator do you have a
listing for a rabbi zalman posner i get
on the phone rabbi posner we never met
i'm reading your book i'd love to meet
you he said you want to come to
nashville tennessee to meet me what for
i said i would just like to meet you
your book is really great so i go to
nashville for two days
and at that time somewhere in my mind
because i really now this was already
like um
10 years into the process of being
observant going on that pathway my
father had passed away just that year i
was starting to say kurdish for my
father and i was thinking somewhere
about a beard but i never grew a beard
and rabbi posner every day we'd go to
shore and in the afternoon he would tell
me stories about the frida kahrabi and
he said he was sent
by the friday kahreby with another rabbi
rabbi baum gut they went to the dp camps
in europe and rabbi poster described
what happened he said we were two young
men rabbis wearing a hat with a beard
and a jacket and we approached the
jewish people in the camp the dp camp
this is after the war 1947 48 they
looked at us and they said whoa there
are religious jews in america
there are religious jews in america they
were so excited they said that's it i'm
growing a beard
because he made a point that he was
there as a young man with a beard i said
from that moment i'm going to grow a
beard this was
in
september just after tisha b'av
august and i came home and it was the
labor day weekend and everyone's not
shaving no big deal right you're not
shaving you're on vacation monday comes
my wife says okay you have to shave now
i'm not
so i'm telling you rabbi dolphin as you
can imagine it's like world war three
yeah
it's a big situation because many women
have a problem when their husband says i
want to grow a beard for whatever reason
right and i just said to myself i've got
to find a way to do this i've got to
find a way to do this and i i had a very
important message which you know about
this i met rabbi stein saltz
yeah we met him we met him together we
met him in yerushalayim then later on a
friend of mine uh
sponsored a trip where rabbi stein saltz
came to speak in america and my friend
very kind arranged for me to have a
private meeting with rabbi steinsaults
i had no idea how great this man was i
mean you know he's a very humble man
and i sit down with him i tell him about
my challenge with the beard and he said
did you ever read a book by franz kafka
called metamorphosis
i heard about it i mean steinsaltz knew
everything i mean
talmud philosophy science he knew
everything he said in this book
a man goes to sleep at night with his in
his with his wife he wakes up in the
morning and he wakes up as a cockroach
this is what it's like for your wife
it's shocking it's very difficult and
for the first time i understood how
difficult it was for her i mean i'm all
excited you know when you when you get
onto this pathway of going back to
yiddish you're like fired up you don't
have a clue what's going on
outside and i realize it's not easy for
my wife so i hate to just somehow
try to be as kind as possible but not
not give in i had this i wanted to grow
the beat i felt it was very important i
even read the torah portion where they
took you can't shave the corners i said
this is what god wants me to do i've got
to do it
why do you think
she accepted it
um
i think
that um
one of the key ingredients
is when a husband whatever starts to get
on the pathway and the wife is not
necessarily on the same pathway or the
same pace you've er and several people
told me you've just got to go as slowly
as you can so on the beat i couldn't
slow it down i didn't slow it down but
on the other things like you know i
wanted to have a kosher home but i did
not force her what she can or cannot eat
outside the house i can't i knew i could
not force that upon her and it turns out
i just let her be herself not try to
tell her what to do and then as time
goes on she was the one who arranged to
put in a dairy sink in our kitchen
beautiful so you have to give the person
space
would you would you would you also say
that
she
respected and respects you because of
your integrity and honesty
that
that she saw that you're genuine in your
desire
to have oh yeah she said that to me many
times since then um after
after we finally came to terms and we
could accept what was going on and that
she does accept and admire and she often
says that my faith in god is a source of
great comfort to her and to our kids
yes yes
okay um you also uh met a few other uh
interesting people
um since we met uh my
just briefly who were they that you met
you know um
one another person i wanted to meet for
many years and i was very fortunate was
rabbi shaheed right rabbi emmanuel
yes yes and he uh when i met him he was
already not doing so well health-wise he
was quite ill
but i was very fortunate i went i was in
toronto
on a business trip
and you actually helped me because you
called
his house yes
before i came there and i had a chance
to meet him i always admired him so much
because he was such a wonderful writer
and such a scholar and i remember coming
to him
and i had a few questions and one of my
questions was
um
you know i i was anxious for my children
to get more observant
and i i had to realize you know you
can't force it and he said i said to him
you know i would love my daughter to be
more observant and he looked at me and
he said
the most important thing you can do with
your children is you can give them
unconditional love
this is the most important thing
everything else is secondary and that
that really went right in
it's a very powerful message
and uh i also believe you met was it
been cn raiders some uh someone in in
england yeah yeah yeah we had um
we had chavous uh maybe 10 12 years ago
we were my wife and i were in london and
uh we stayed
with ben ceon raider's
daughter
uh they have a house at that time i
don't know where they are living now but
that i think it was in goldman's green
and we stayed with them for chevous
bencion raider was also was a
businessman
and uh
he uh he knew the uh the lubavitch rebbe
very well one thing he actually shared
with me which i remember and god willing
i'mma put into practice
he said he was writing a book called
challenge and the rebbe said to him it's
very important when you're writing this
book to have a lot of pictures
and photos and so god willing i i plan
to write a book relating to these
experiences and i'm i'm my goal is to
make sure i have a lot of photos and
pictures in the book but ben zion raider
was a very special person and he gave me
a dollar that he got from the rebbe
which i still have today
yo didn't you tell me that it was here i
think i told you about making aliyaka's
at certain point i remember you you had
a thought of making aliyah many
and and he said to you that uh the
rebels said no was that him or i'm
mistaken
i don't remember if we had that
discussion
um i don't remember about the i mean i
uh no i don't remember if we have ever
had that discussion
um okay so so
let's talk for a moment about um
the igaris akadesh
the fourth section of tanya the 11th
letter
numerous times you've asked me about
this we learned it together um could you
share with our audience
your feelings about about this
um
this is uh actually when i when i
learned this i always remember because
this there's a there's many stories
about particularly mental foot of fuss
right
metal foot of us mental foot of us i i
never had the privilege to meet in
person
but uh he's uh if you look at him if you
see pictures of him you you can see what
kind of a man he is uh actually we had
the the uh special privilege to meet his
son
uh beryl for the fuss at his home right
now
yeah
foot of us was had terrible hardships in
russia he was in prison i don't think he
was in siberia but he was really beaten
up by the russians and he said
if it wasn't for this letter of the
altar rebuild hillary he wouldn't have
made it through those experiences and la
silabina
the alta rebbe is teaching us that
no matter what happens in life we have
to see that there's something good
inside it and actually
it goes back
it also goes back to a very it's very
there's nothing by accident when i went
on that trip to israel with you that
first trip we did in 2003 i don't know
if you remember this you picked me up at
the airport
we got into a taxi we were driving from
the airport to go to the family in spot
for the first shabbos yeah rose and dr
rosen yeah yeah on the way you had
prepared a whole stack of sheets of
different gemara this that
and either the second or third sheet
we learnt
is page 21 of tarnitz
and to this day he is one of the most
favorite of all the people in the whole
the atonement is nothing so who no
matter what would happen the story is
amazing but the message is no matter
what happens he always said gam zulutova
and they're times in my life you know we
all have challenges whether it's uh
business or family and i say to myself
thanks to those lessons and thanks to
this letter in the gyaradak
i say there's got to be something good
in this
and the other thing that we learn in
tanya is god is with us all the time
god is not in heaven god is everywhere
everywhere and the alta rebbe has a
whole book on that subject the second
book of tanya entirely devoted to god is
everywhere so by the time you finish
that book you start to realize god is
not just in one place it's impossible so
if god is everywhere god is with me
right now
he's giving me this experience for a
reason has to be a good reason
yeah i i think you met uh gil gill locks
right oh yeah
yes yes
the hgb
remember
he his whole uh he wrote a book there is
one
when he saw me at the culture i was
walking with you and he saw me as dalvin
thousand yeah
because he was referring back to a
tanya's year that i gave in los angeles
in 82 and he was there with 30 people
there
and i'm teaching i'm a single guy a
buckler and i got a crowd
and i said
that the the nephilim is being sold out
to rebecca's chapter two the second
nothing the nephesh of a jew is killing
him i was a part of god he jumps up and
he says there are no parts
[Laughter]
and everyone's looking
there are no parts
so when he when he when he saw me with
you at the castle you know he said yes
your god
now
tell tell us a little bit about
what are your feelings you never you
never
met the rabbit
that's from heaven
but yet i think i feel like
it's like you did meet the rabbit could
you talk a little bit about that
the uh it's i think it's very important
to say this because some people have a
misunderstanding
you know because we uh i i do have a
very close relationship with the rebbe
the rebbe is very much a part of my life
very very much a part of my life
and people have a misunderstanding uh
some people outside khabad can be
critical of
but actually this is a fundamental
teaching of the zohar
that the etsodic exotic a righteous
person
is more present in the world this is a
this is not
this is zohar right and i'm not and this
is word for word this is mamish what it
says it says that sonic has a presence
in the world more than when he was
physically here
more
correct so the rebbe is with us it's not
something that
made up it's going back to fundamental
kabbalah so the rebbe is with us the
rebbe is very important to me because
it's you know
we believe in god but we can't see god
so sometimes we have challenges with our
faith and our trust in god but the rebbe
i can see
and the rebbe for over 40 years was the
leader of the jewish world
and it says in one of the books it says
the light was shining on him people were
looking for him to make a mistake he
never made a mistake he never went off
the path he was always a hundred percent
devoted to the jewish people he was like
the moshe rabino
and i look at the rebbe i watch the
videos i listen to what he says there
are times rabbi dolphin i go to the ahel
to visit the rebbe's grave and i
actually i pray i say before i go you
know there's a room you go into in the
building before you go to the kevin
where there's a tv and the rebbe is on
video and i pray god i want a message
from the rebbe when i walk into the room
and on my 70th birthday i prayed and the
rebbe is talking about
how
the carob tree
only gives fruit after 70 years wow
the rebbe is part of my life
and i i look at the rebbe and i learn
from him i study his teachings because
he is a hundred percent righteous pure
holy he is our connection to god he is
what allows us to get close to god as a
physical human being and you know
there's i don't know yeah there's a
story someone one day it was in the show
when the rebbe was here with us
physically and watching the every move
of the rebbe and he turns around says
i'm flesh and blood don't look at me
like that i'm flesh and blood
yeah right but he's holy flesh and blood
absolutely
very important connection is to have
that connection with the rebbe
how um
how do you see the whole covet uh
experience
in god's plan
um
it i'll never forget uh
maybe two or three weeks into covert
i watched a
video of manus friedman
and he said something very profound
which really opened my eyes he said
people before covert every night
going out for dinner going to the
theater going to a baseball game
can't do any of it now
can't do any of those things what are
you left with you're at home with your
family
so it's it's stripped away
god actually stripped all the mesh
stripped it stripped it stripped it away
all you have now is your family your
home you pray to god you learn
you can do business from home you can do
it remotely but all the other stuff is
gone all distractions removed it was a
bless that was a blessing covert was a
terrible thing people died but that
aspect of covert was a blessing
yes
what do you see as uh the future the
future for the jewish people
have you ever thought about this
question
the um
we're learning it in tanya now chapter
what are we doing here
what is the purpose of our life here so
that's why i love tanya because it
addresses these fundamental questions so
i don't look upon that question as a
global question i look upon it as a
personal question what am i supposed to
do each day of my life to make my part
of the world a bit lighter the the rebbe
the lavatory said something very
beautiful
he said if in your corner of the world
you see a little bit of darkness that's
great you have a chance to make light to
turn that you know if someone is saying
something to another person they're
being cruel whatever you have a chance
to do something in a positive way then
the the obama trophy said something also
very important he said if you see the
whole world
as dark you need to work on yourself
right
so we have a job we have a job the
previous rebbe called us lamplighters
our job is to light a lamp to bring
light in every moment whether we're in
business whether we're at home whether
in the synagogue every place we are
there's always a chance to bring more
light somehow
tell me a little about your teaching i
know you teach doroth and you've taught
tanya at i think either the karl boxall
or or just a little bit about your
teaching in the last 10 years or so
there's an organization called the right
in in new york city which is uh a not
not-for-profit organization dedicated to
actually help elderly people mostly
focused on elderly people who are
homebound you know bringing them a a
gift on purim or bringing the maths or
whatever but they also have this
wonderful program called university
without walls which is excuse me
getting on a phone a conference call and
they hook me up with say 10 or 12 people
and i give a class so today i gave a
class at one o'clock on living with the
torah named after the phrase that the
elder ruby said you have to live with
the torah so to take a torah portion so
i i spoke about vayikra and about what
does value crop mean calling out god
connecting to us and there are maybe
eight or ten mostly elderly people um
and and god willing they're going to get
a message from the torah that will will
inspire them will elevate them will
change the way that they see that day
and um you also taught tanya didn't you
uh i actually on to today was the torah
on thursday i have a class called uh
applied jewish mysticism so i teach from
the tanya also sometimes from the zohar
sometimes from a mystical teaching the
torah portion
about a lot of tanya yeah oh
to the same dorot
group the same as not necessarily the
same people but the rot yes right but
also didn't you tell me once you were
doing that
yes i i was um
before covert right um i think we used
to do it uh
either after the kiddish or before or
after minha i would do in the show the
carboxyl i would do a class on tanya and
i went through basically from chapter
one summarizing key points of each
chapter
and teaching tanya right
i also know that uh you have a very
nice strong relationship with rabbi
baumgarten in the um
in the eyes
uh what's the first name again label
label label background of course
um and you've enjoyed that relationship
both you and your wife have gone there
many many times correctly yeah yeah yeah
yeah we then we go to the we're going to
actually be in east hampton for pesach
so we'll be with the baumgarten family
for the first nights in the last nights
of pesach it's a wonderful community
beautiful community so really it's such
a great testimony to what the rebbe is
doing for the whole world because
wherever i go i mean i've been to italy
to venice i don't know if you've ever
been to gum gum that restaurant in
venice you go there in venice italy of
all places in the world right you go to
venice and there's a restaurant there
called gum gum on shabbos it's open to
anyone you can come in and have a meal
there you can dove in there
one of the greatest experience i had was
in florida
i was going to florida with my wife for
a a wedding in the family it was in
coral springs or somewhere like that and
the nearest i i wanted to observe
shabbos so the nearest khabar was about
a mile away so i walked to khabar
on friday night i go to the rabbi's
house rabbi is probably 26.
his wife is about the same i knock on
the door they're holding a little baby
in their arms and they have me there i
mean i don't know if they had five
dollars to their name rabbi dolphin i
don't know what they had but they
welcomed me to their home i had a
shabbos meal with them this is what the
rebbe has created all over the world
yes yes
any uh final words you'd like to leave
uh with our listeners and viewers
i'll leave um
a message from the tanya
uh to hopefully inspire people to start
learning tanya beautiful the very first
chapter of tanya you know you read a
book a book normally has an introduction
and no this and is that a preamble not
the alta rebbe the aldo rebbe starts
chapter one first verse he says we
learnt at the end of chapter three in
the talmud of nida that when a baby is
born from the talmud when a baby is born
an oath is administered to the baby
before it leaves the mother's womb
this blew my mind the first time i saw
it because now the altar rebbe is
addressing the whole idea of a child
being given a mission and a purpose by
god from day one they can't even leave
the womb now you might say what are you
talking about how can that how can a
baby get an oath
it's not through languages we see it but
god can communicate to a soul we don't
know exactly how but there's a way that
soul is born into the world already on a
pathway on a mission that's how the
tanya begins
yes yes
unbelievable unbelievable yes sir claire
thank you very much
really appreciate it um
may hashem help that you your wife your
children and your mother should be well
everyone should be well gazumped
and panosa and only
and we should see mashiach we didn't
really speak about mashiach but
everything he said is about mashiach
because uh we believe believe that
bashir is around the corner and we need
to just uh do a little more to
to see him and be all together
have a great day the culture of freyja
thank you same to you thank you