"Mishpacha" Interviews Rabbi YY Jacobson about Jewish Life Today

[Music] welcome back to mishbaka magazine's take two we are the names the figures the faces ideas familiar to you from the pages of the magazine come to life for deeper discussion rabbi y why jacobson certainly needs no introduction there isn't anybody watching the show now who hasn't seen a clip heard of devatara heard an idea seen if i had printed from rabbi jacobson over the last 10 15 years and said wow wow i need to hear more from this man so it's just a real stress and anybody who knows how difficult it was to actually get him to come into into the studio today knows how overwhelming it is to actually be sitting in crosstalk jacobson welcome thank you for coming in thank you for the honor it's uh you're a busy man thank you for the privilege this is quite defeat getting you to come in and we don't we don't take it for granted robert jacobson forgive me and forgive my blonde style for asking what is it that you do now you sound like one of my children [Laughter] for years have been asking me tati what do you do for a living you created a role let's go into lubavitch where things are actually here and there's a different geographical locations there's cyber space what what is your sliches what is your role what is that you do that you see yourself as zero great question by jews i think we respond to questions with stories so when i was a young child there was one show this afternoon and i was standing at a shabbos afternoon fabregan gathering of the lubavitcher of blessed memory there were maybe five or six thousand men in the room and he suddenly turned to me and he asked me a question in yiddish that i'll never forget he pointed his finger at me and he said from van andvesto a siddharvelt how do you know that the universe exists nobody ever asked me such a question how do i know the world exists besides i wasn't listening to his talk it was deep intricate circus and my maryam and explanations and shiurim i was doing some other things i was a little kid i didn't know what to say how do i know the world exists but now there's 6 000 eyes looking at me the reb is waiting for an answer 15 seconds that seemed like eternity and i wasn't answering all i was thinking is you know live and let live move on talk i'm not disturbing you don't disturb me but then with a big smile i guess he felt he had to answer for me so he said to this child answers in your dish he's an enfitter this boy this young man answers you know i know the world exists the beginning of the whole third is in the beginning hashem created heaven and earth and then he went on so from a pedagogical point of view there was a wise move because the next shabbos i was listening from beginning tense i didn't want to be again caught was that a big story was it a big thing to be single that's very unusual very unusual in 40 50 years it was very very real at the point that a child anybody and anybody he had his style you know he would talk talk for many hours so this was very rare as i got older i wondered you know what was this all about today i look back and i say perhaps it was some form of a mission statement to be able to help people from all backgrounds all persuasions all over the world to be able to see themselves in the universe from the perspective of viruses barrelicum assassinations it's really what i try to do to try to help empower people to see themselves as ambassadors of infinity as divine ambassadors of love light hope authenticity and healing it's quite the mission statement but on a very practical level a person has to get from point a to point b right you can't go tell your mother when you're 17. i'm going to be an ambassador of right infinite how does a person you went um from from you being a kaiser rabbi i think you were following let's say the traditional path for somebody who's serious about learning and serious about hasidis within lubavitch right you were learning you were writing your kaiser of the rabbis remember and and all of a sudden i wouldn't say you landed on the scene slowly i certainly was familiar with your father oliver schalmer with the algebraic with his work his literary work so you know and i was familiar with your name as well but one day it just became like your message was everywhere how did that happen how did it evolve what was it a plan just take us through the last 20 years yeah so i don't know the grave where you must be in a yeshiva were you teaching in the classroom how did you get from point a to where you are right so it's it's a good question and the truth is i sometimes ask myself the question even if that sounds a little uh cliche or dramatic i never planned on this this was not the trajectory that i was strategizing about um i never went to a life coach who said shoes this career and this is how it's going to happen five years 10 years 15 years when i was a bacha yeshiva had the privilege of being on the team of what they called khaisrim oral scribes of the lubavitcherab who were responsible to memorize and transcribes many hours of talks for publication over shabbos of course there were no recording devices so i did that and i did that dutifully for many many years it's quite a daunting task it was how do you force yourself to remember something it's not a trick you really have to know not a true not a trick at all and the rabbit didn't speak for five minutes that we could give sisters that were an hour two hours and of a bringing could go from three to eight hours and you would write it down and the wrapper would review it himself sometimes he would review it most of them he didn't review well he just asked that he should write that it's not reviewed it's called bilty booger he was not he did not edit it so people understand and did you ever get feedback from their ever yeah a lot of feedback positive mostly it was uh crit feedback of a real critic meaning critic of the highest caliber who demanded and saw the potential of writers to be able to try to deliver an impeccable product at least as far as humans are concerned extremely nuanced extremely focused on accuracy and authenticity and truth and structure and synthetics and stuff if you weren't doing a good job you would have known about it some of you and and if your reference to tysons was wrong there had to be footnotes you know if the reference to the rambam or tyson or even the mahram shift or the beer a girl was wrong it was very upsetting to them this must have been an impressive team you must have had yourself for the people who had well the chief kaiser is a jew today in his 90s ruby oil khan who was there from 1950 and every few years he would take in a few new bakrim who we felt were skilled to get involved in this i have an older brother simon who was involved in this and he brought me in so this was a team not of many people five six people it was extremely daunting i mean you're talking about fabrangans that could last between three and seven hours there could be an hour shear on a gemara in zwarchem and then there could be a sium on tamora or hadoon on shas and then an hour rashi sukha and rambam and then there's kabola and zoya exodus then there's jewish philosophy then there were contemporary issues with israel and education and leadership and outreach and and the flow was just endless and the rebel wasn't a gesture meaning it's not like half of the speeches were jokes can i ask you a question curious just as an aside did the rebel quote things that were not the traditional chabad sources other than far more even often and if yes what were they what would have been the prime i don't mean rambam and russia i mean later were there any foreign heavily constantly i mean among the last generations the biggest was who he toughness one of his uh teachers and masters but i remember once agreeing he did a whole long conversation about a suggest that was in his vlog you ever quote again yeah very often but also all of a sudden kabbalah he had a tremendous piece in this farm of the vilnigan and kabbalah which is you know rear commodity today is uh what about the raptors so to speak didn't get along with dalto but those rappers who yeah he would quote them i mean listen the genre of is my mario more so so the themes were from the alternatives what about the rebels in the dynasty who are not the was there anything that you would say the rabbit didn't know listen you remind me now of an amazing story kevaldi the bellatanya was present and there was a bathroom he was a khabad khasid how do you do both in front of your rebel especially in the balatanya yeah so he said a little akayam should be a little purim dick so you know he would let loose and everyone is looking about tanya's sitting and this bathroom gets up and he says after long contemplation i decided there's no major difference between you and i everybody's shocked he says he's okay and i have to say it then i'll translate what you don't know i also don't know whatever i know you also know lmi so what's the difference there's a few things that you know that i don't know but now i want to ask you the gulf between what you know and what you don't know isn't it infinite cry when he said that so you know rabbi yosef alba writes tacle the ultimate ultimate knowledge is the knowledge that i don't know and a result is an expression the head the the on the top of everything you reach the unknown in eight skeim of thyrizo there's a portal called shar has vecus the portal of doubts i once heard from the rebbe said i asked my father how can you have in the writings of that reason al-shara fakers the greatest kabbalist in jewish history the portal of doubts doubts vegas so he said rebecca said my father who was on the cobra of olivier he said told me there are spaces that are inferior to knowledge and there are species that transcend knowledge it's a different type of doubt here very elegant answer okay so you're by the rabble and you're doing you're being by the rabbi and you get married and you're still in that position you know well i never passed away when i was 22. so i was still a yeshiva i was learning writing obviously it was a very painful period for a person like myself and friends and colleagues i continued learning in yeshiva for years i continued learning my father zakrena levraka started to lose his best yiddish writers he had people like dr hillel zeidman like bency goldberg like miss and gordon these were classic real decisions who who created yiddish journalism you know since the 1930s and they were they were dying and in desperation i guess he turns to me and he says he called me yes he says could you write me a yiddish column etc of the week dr zeidman passed away because you're right i'm like this is not my thing this is my fact but he asked of me and i started to write this weekly column in the newspaper and then somebody started asked me to give a sheer tanya in bar park and and a sheer gemara here was there somebody who identified you and said you you could do this and then one day i got a call from a rabbi in highland park chicago a very fine man and he said i read your column in the alga manor and i love how you write and what your message is could you come over and do a shabbaton i said you got the wrong guy i don't do some tones i don't travel you must have known that you could speak that you're that you had this gift of being eloquent i spoke in yeshiva you know i gave over the sikhs and the my maryam and the shirum of the rabbi but it was in that format okay you know what you would call mr lecturer or speaker so he says i'll pay your ticket come to chicago speak to my community i don't know what to say he says just say say say ideas and then i went he paid for the ticket whatever it was and i spoke to the community then it was economy stuff yes for many years it remained economy for many years yeah until i'll tell you how that changed if you want to know and i gave and i guess the oil am enjoyed because the next week a rabbi from great neck phoned me and said could you come for shabbos so you know things just started to develop and uh just one thing led to another thing led to another thing and what was your first formal posting rabbinic posting my first rabbinic posting was in a shul in crown heights called base small before that i was a magatshir you know yeshiva over there one of the yeshivas over there based mandarin would give a sheer ion and a sheer pakistan gemara for many years and then this school needed a part-time rant by base small so they asked me and we began you never considered going away you were too busy in canada i considered it a few different times but the workload was pretty intense and i was seeing godzloch in my own way and i love teaching did you always forgive the question and there's no there's no premise to the question if it sounds like it's an uneducated question it's a lack of education in my end did you find that you had a unique ability for bhava chakasa to be able to talk to non-laboratories and be able to walk into a lot of times people who belong to the casitas their whole life so to speak they don't really understand the language of other places you have this ability today you certainly have it that you could walk into virtually any community in clayoso and talk to them on their terms and they are no sick and they're lingo based on their farm was that something you always were able to do it's a great question not offensive at all i actually appreciate the question very much and the answer to that is i i always grew up with this uh spirit i would say of really appreciating diversity and understanding that claudius and really the world is a rainbow and uh arukha merits made the recovery the terror is infinite and there is a unique taste and flavor that you could find in each individual who is a unique reflection of the initial element certainly in each community and in each collective i grew up in a home that was extremely um sensitive to diversity my father was a very colorful figure in his own way he was a real journalist he was a news man he loved press conferences and he loved journalism and loved politics down to the to the trappings of a journalist the hats the hat and the cigar right and remember in those days before the internet before fax machines before computers those typewriters my father had typewriters everywhere in the house and he had around 300 ribbons people don't know what ribbons are today but if your ribbon would finish in the typewriter there was no ink anymore so he had ribbons everywhere so if there would be a war for 10 years he would be able to type even in the world of film journalism he was he was a he was a little bit of he was a makhadesh that means he was ideologically right yeah he was very unique because you have to understand the world of journalism he was progressive he couldn't say so to speak would be a right-wing politically and he was left leaning politically could we say that well in terms of israel israel questions of jewish identity and education he was a very staunch no i don't i mean in terms of giving back land and peace and things like that he was actually so he was quite a right-winger but the interesting thing about him which you don't see is that on the pages of his newspaper he had a bunch of left-wing writers and he would not censor them right he allowed even though for the most extreme yes his newspaper did the rapper appreciate that i think the member had a very deep appreciation for this do you know after every dog manner oh yeah that i know that i saw many times i saw that the rebel would sometimes come from his house with the alga maynaire and he would often give feedback to my father yeah criticism compliments but feedback i saw many times also when he met him it wasn't a lubavitcher party paper for said again but over the years when there was politics he became it became my father himself was he was uh i would say a disciple of the rebbe or at least a very strong admirer over there ever but the pages of the newspaper were filled with all types of views i mean there was there was some very radical leftists who wrote there and he would not censor them so there was a very vibrant debate going on and i also always admired i could see him sitting with ideological opponents and he would disagree with them but never become disagreeable never be offensive or denigrating or insulting it was always like there was an inner confidence that i don't have to delegitimize you in order to disagree with you that impacted you we could we could really remain friends and that was a great lesson great you must have had your own curiosity because it's for you it's not just that you don't get offended by other people you have a real knowledge and the hungarian oberland and the and the i've seen you in satmar kleisenberger crowds i've seen you in literature crowds i've seen you around orthodox crowds and you're you're you have seemed to have an appreciation yes the yerusha that each one of them have right so i i always had that inquisitiveness and that that openness and it's extremely from my perspective it's very enriching it's enriching when one can see the full spectrum of yiddish in all of its colors and all of its depth and do you think that other people don't do that but other see them are scared that their people their children will find out too much and like something better so they don't expose them to it is that are we cheating our kids in when we create a system which is this is our way so we're our miserable so we're not exposing you to others foreign ways of thinking within our skydiving right right well i think it could come from two approaches i think sometimes there can be an insecurity over there but sometimes i don't know if it's an insecurity it may just be that you know people are comfortable in a certain path and this is their comfort zone and this is what they know about but i feel that especially in today's generation people are really thirsty and hungry to be able to have uh unadulterated yiddish in all of its in all of its grander in all of its majesty and all of its depth and when they see that it's very refreshing for them you think they didn't see it before today before this generation you think 15 20 years why they didn't see it the same way i think i think there's much more cross-pollination now i think there is much more of people being exposed to other communities there's so much more traveling technology did you find things from other communities that you didn't know that refreshed you constantly like what who's somebody or a safer or a person or a discipline or a thought that you said wow the cartilage tragedy just happened there schwarz and i was inspired to open up a bass iron the next day i opened up a bass iron i i learned bass rm before but you know it was a incredible torah that's darling is the second is of aaron hagado the first of iron i got was a student of the market right but then there's the secondary right which really is the one you know the father of the one who put into a safer the citizens of karlin of stalin ah just an example just of recent weeks it happened after uh anything from the non-khasi this world and these forum approaches writings speeches that you said wow this impacted me this is something i never knew that constantly i mean throughout my youth i tried to get my hands on my father had a lot of books in the house a lot of sperm of different genres and not all were you know uh mama's the holiest of the holiest i would say so i had a chance to cruise through many different types of many different types of groups in cran heights doing your things speaking your nose and also and there's a demand for your message how did you get from the ottomans so i was there i was arrowed there for a few years and then i really felt that crown heights is an amazing community but it's one type of community it used to be you know the center of all the communities but then there was a mass migration so the sydney remained where most people left and i felt that my uh my mission or my schliches as you call it would be more effective in a community that was filled with jews of many diverse backgrounds which would mean but many others yeshiva people and literature people and modern orthodox people and jews of different stripes and different colors and muncie is such a type of community so that this that was one of the this is somebody came in no nobody came in no you just decided i did quite a few shabbatons in muncie in what's today known as shriner's shoulder or haim i did some trouble tones i was here for different yamaha just as i did in many other communities and i saw the energy i saw the vibe and you said people position them in china so when i came i had no formal position i just thought i could continue doing what i'm doing before and just live here not very you know it's part of new york a person has to pay tuition about default official service we have to pay tuition gas in the car yes so i was still traveling traveling and lecturing and that was a source of income can i ask you a question about that how does that work that means what is the industry of being a firm lecturer it used to be in the home to maggi the moon they finished they passed it on the hat i think according to legend then people put in they didn't put in or took out even how it based on i guess uh where it was and and the level of muggy that how inspired they were how does that mean it was was there ever a concept in the firm world of paid lecturers before and if a person is giving is there a price on if somebody needs quizzing you can say it's a great question it's really it's okay that it yeah okay wonderful yeah in principle we all know that not supposed to take a price for terry bunch looms i didn't charge you for a tita don't charge anybody for turn everybody knows the ram bombs per pinion and perishabes about rabbis taking salaries about people getting money for learning or for teaching we all know their emblems position subsequent boys can argue with their name however that evolved in claudia cyril it's a great question could somebody go give a or forget about a speech am i allowed to go give a share on any topic or duff you let me share and get a hundred dollars for it get fi well it's a great question and it's a great halloween debate over the generations which is certainly a fascinating discussion but i think that principle has to be maintained even if you find a heter you have to remember that in principle you don't own the torah it's a head it's a hat there's a safer caller he tells the story there of a drew named mendel barrow remendelbarrer was what you call today a market preacher a pontificator he was a student of the bolshov and he was known as a kadasha in a helicoid but he had a blessed mouth and he brought some externalization used to say that he only give speeches in places where they pay him so you would think oh you know he wants the money but he wasn't that type of person so they asked him why he said porsche verb suzana zagat under the eden who am i where do i have the audacity to give musa or rebuke or chastise or even give a message to another jew who's a ben yahada of the rebel shall islam where do i come to have the authority to tell you how to live or to inspire you to give you a muslim he said element if the people are giving me money so this means the reborn shall islam wants that this should be my kaley my vessel for pragma so then i have a hetero to speak but then he says shalom the aim is the mother the cause the antecedent the children is the result he says maybe i came to the city because i'm going to have a parnasse and i'm going to get money but he says don't get caught up in that remember that essentially it can't be about that and i think in my life what i always you know i i tell myself i know that if i don't at least give as many speeches that people don't know about for free to people who need to situations where it's really not about money there's no big organization there's no big sponsors there's no big donors then something is off in other words if it ultimately becomes about making money then ultimately i'm failing the people i'm speaking to and i'm failing myself so money is a component an important component i would say but you always have to and i also have to have that perspective of you know what it's ultimately about so the the what there's there's a quite a lot of invitations that i get you know from people individuals situations where there's really no i know i i asked you personally over the years to speak to people and to make time for people that there was only lagos netflix involved and for sure you've been very accommodating i know that so the answer is that this is really that role is what you're saying of tradition it's traditional magidis in the sense that i'm funded by that but i give myself as much as i'm able to be the abundant shalom because of inspiring you then trying to sit with you then and listen to you then yes can i ask you a question somebody i was sitting once at a meeting with with serious people educators and they were saying that there's maybe a problem or an issue in the water from world where where mediocrity rises to the top so to speak they said people learn how to work within the confines of a mindset or an establishment or an organization they learn how to survive by not offending anybody and not being too creative and not being too original not being too innovative and this way they don't step on the wrong toes and everybody's comfortable and they go like this until they retire and they get a pen and pencil set and everyone says that's like a brilliant career they said um and we're cheating people because no one becomes great unless they walk off this i'm doing it my way and the example they gave was quite a rough they they said robert jacobson just went one day he said i'm doing this my way he landed a muncie and look he's like a meteor shooting across the whole world inspiring people doing it his way and there's no precedent that there's an organization behind you and you're not associated with any vote of anything you're just yourself doing your thing on your website and and on your terms and and like you say the invitations are there and somehow you've managed i think to cross the length and breadth of the world what would you say about the the premise of the question which is that maybe we have an issue in letting people just do it their way and be as as it pertains to yourself wow so there's the evan ezra the evanezer asks why maisha had to be raised in an egyptian palace shouldn't the first rebbe of kala israel know what looks like never saw herring he never saw sponge cake he never saw come on the first rib that's the evanezer's question so of course he says say the shamely ray of god knows but then he says i'll tell you two reasons reason number one if he would have grown up among jews they would have not respected him hey na vibhira every yachna would have said i remember your breasts i remember yo i used to babysit when did you become a navi oh when did you start hearing voices from god that would be the end of my shorabana the second reason heaven is okay and this is eleven hundreds this is not 2021. it says 12th century spain i mean from another one of the great rishonim and poets and and greatest commentators and philosophers in jewish history but then he says i want to say a second reason he says if maeshrabena would have grown up among slaves he would have developed a slave mentality and he could never stand up and revolutionize the landscape of planet earth he could never stand up to the superpower and make him make a revolution he grew up in an ambiance of malhos of royalty of aristocracy such a person can change the world i think that sometimes we feel many of us feel that if we keep the people down we as a community will be more successful and we don't let people flex their spiritual psychological physical and emotional muscles to be able to become their best and deepest self and change the world so we're not perfect in that reason and a few other things and sometimes there's a real concern we're afraid you know what are people going to do with that freedom with that expansiveness you know are they going to go beyond the pale are going to go outside of kumshabas and russia there was a coma there was a pale of settlement i don't want you to go to go out of that pail and we understand that because messiah for us is divinely precious right bullets it says in gemara somebody who says something not be pirate leaves we live thousands of years and a talmud arab and atama that thought so precious and yet you look at rabelizer he's constantly saying things not in the name of israel but he said lord almighty many places in shas yeah and the answer of course is that rebellion heard in his rebels words messages that other people didn't hear he understood that the ultimate calling of yiddish guide is to be fully anchored in fully anchored in var hashem not to be mobile but you're being really on the way we are it's not so bad that means we're a nation that doesn't change that's a big part of our dna is that we hold on and messiah is real it's not uh so at the same time it comes from a healthy place or a place that needs to be we can't we need to keep things tight but at the same time there's a cost is there an answer i guess what i'm asking that there's there's a big cost this facebook [Music] the changes of every generation a message that worked in one generation may be completely irrelevant very effective about messiah but what this facebook was saying the badichiva writes it hasn't twice was younger than 80 years that taku is tishb eliot he's going to answer the question so the helicopters i don't understand the gemara says in yuma people just learned enough hey moishe of ironyman mushroom's going to be there if you have a question in a toy swiss do you go to yo you go has been around he's at every bris okay he's at be satan he understands the struggle of a generation give me the sources what's okay let me change the question a little bit okay there's people in cloud as well who work out of the establishment and some of them have gone beyond the pale and taking pot shots at the institutions the schools particularly people like yourself i know a lot of your time is given to listening to the pain of either children who have been rejected by the system or their parents or adults who ask children that's a big part of your message comes from the vague from the pain that you've heard and and your desire to make change you sit with a lot of victims of various kinds of abuse and you felt their pain at the same time you're very much associated with the the glory of the way we're doing things that it's working either the system's working or it's not working that's my first question is it working or is it working in basis where do you see yourself are you which side are you are you in opposition or are you in the coalition right now governing where are you are you with the team are you am i with bennett or netanyahu right that means where are you okay i want to tell you a little tighter i once heard from the dab but from the barbecue i just figured out your trick you just keep wearing people with the tigers and then they think listen to the trailer and you'll tell me if it's an adequate answer to your question and if i could have given a better answer you'll draw you'll be the judge of israel come even you interviewed many people the gemara says of testament he showed it to him moisture sat in the 18th row for you he didn't understand he felt horrible finally rebecca was in the middle of a side and the student in the front row said rabbi how many unlock what's the proof he said this comes from this video something is strange moshe is the greatest humble man maisha and of mine it says he always felt that if somebody else would have had his curses they would have done better finally here's your test ruby akiva is giving a shirt and you know what you don't understand what he's saying he has reached greater heights you should celebrate say wow amazing why how should i what's the question and then he's quoted thank god come on this is my you quoted me i'm good i don't understand the word but the main thing is what do they say write whatever you want about me but spell my name right yeah this yes something is off good it's a little tricky that was said as follows maisha knew that these side hyacidus of tyre is bitter to the rabbinicial surrender to truth ms marshall looked at rabbi akiva and he saw the dazzling brilliance the charisma the courage the creativity of everybody understood my she couldn't understand sorry i don't get this well was disturbed by something he knew that rabbi akiva is sharing but he didn't see that complete humility and loyalty and alignment with the assailants of toronto which is i'm here to serve god not me and this touched them and disturbed them deeply and then ruby akiva built some extraordinary magnificent foundation and somebody said rebbe what's the premise for that paradigm said now i have to quote he said to at the moment of truth of ms he says the sight of everything if you go deep down and for me it's what it's all about i think every person needs to soar spread your wings and change the world in your own way because every person has a contribution that nobody else can make and when we crush that creativity i don't think it's fair and i don't and i think it's also a betrayal of our slithers because if hashem gave a person talents this is your life that you have to share with the world it's not just we're not letting them be successful i think we're depriving the future from there lift the kite from their butt and this is a profound but we each and every one of us needs to know that when somebody comes to me and says what is this all about who's ultimately at the core of all of your teachings and all of your strategies if my answer could be excellent very good uh i'm curious about something how bob trump is your rubber you're grounded and you're basing yourself on what you heard from the rabbi and clearly you have a right you spent enough time immersed in his teachings to actually be able to claim that you know what they've beheld but the wrap is not here anymore and a person needs a moral compass they need someone to sit with a for inspiration you know you're giving inspiration holder you also need to go get inspiration and paul you also have questions so who who's your app how do you having that's uh that's a great question so there are people i constantly talk to or consult to previous rebbe's russia shiva's friends colleagues mentors people that i respect and the truth is different topics i have to speak to different people and get their advice get their feedback and this is very important you know a person who needs mentors and needs friends and so forth um but i do say that i still spend a lot of time learning the torah of the laboratory listening also to his shurim they remain from me a very very powerful reservoir of inspiration empowerment invigoration and perspective in in turbulent times um in terms of my own inspiration this is a this is a personal available that i have to work on every single day if you know hot sala hot sala van sala ambulance is taking somebody to the hospital as i once told the hot solar guy i told them you got to learn a little bit every day says i don't have no time i'm saving people's lives and i said you know there was a guy in outsole and he was taking somebody to the hospital and then the passenger said there's no gas he says we don't have time to fill up with gas we have to get to the hospital if i'm not filled up with gas i have nothing to give so this is so true about every teacher every communicator people feel it they sometimes you hear a speaker i was once in a speech and when the speaker spoke not only was everybody sleeping he himself it looked like that he himself fell asleep he was bored of his own teachings you know when you're not inspired when you're not stimulating yourself or not challenging yourself with new ideas and you get bored of yourself somebody once said i think i'm bored and it's with me so i think this is a critical component and it's true for everybody for every rebbe russia shiva parent rav robertson i don't know if you've you've made the decision or if you're the but you're associated let's say i don't know if a movement is the word but there's a certain uh shift that has crept into claudius roll over the last few years and a lot of the people who pass through some of the places you're associated with will say it like that um are part of this change it's what maybe in the achievements they call sort of a crimson culture that means we can't talk a lot about average we can't talk a lot about about kahanam that way didn't work too many people are broken so many people are scared we're going to focus a lot on how much roboticsham loves every year than what it means when he put on filling and we're going to make it easy for you and also there's going to be shakuri boards on the side and a hookah and a guy playing guitar people had a very hard time with it a lot of people certainly felt very inspired by it and people who weren't going to things before it certainly went so i know that's a much bigger question ma'am curious how you view the phenomenon and and your goal within it right you i could really ask you anything you really don't flinch you're ready for anything i don't think listen i think when we're anchored and toyota we can address every topic somebody once asked me is there anything that we're not gonna talk about and i told them look there's a gemara in holland cofflamates if there's something in the world is taco bell there's a does it make sense culture do you know what i'm talking referring to i i think i know what you're talking about and i think we have to address two two dynamics here and both very authentic the the side highest side is the end of kahalas voice of smart keys the ultimate question i have to ask myself is do i want to bring eden yiddish closer to the reborn of shalom closer to ava satire ava that's the question the name ali malek of legends who was not part of the kumsits culture although maybe the whole hasidic movement was seen as it comes its culture relative to the lithuanian world that's possible but he writes in partial he says something incredible he says there's a mishna of him at a few that if i find him at sea i find a diamond and i fall on it and then somebody else comes the hexagon he hops it the second person acquires it so the gomorrah says why am i not cutting it with dalaramis i go into the six feet range of the diamond it's mine so mars says because he fell on it gullideiter the filler nicholas but with almost like nicoleta this person shows i'm not interested in the dalai rama's formula i want to fall on it and that's why he's not doesn't acquire it halal quickly and if you grab it you take it so the name ali malik says and i quote you can look it up okay and i think this is the most accurate and authentic and deep response to your question he says sometimes you find in a shama it's a matsia it's a beautiful nishama but he says like matsias you find them in unexpected places says the magician is doing sometimes there's neshamas he says they go through a lot of challenges there's a beautiful meshamah there and then he says comes a person and now allah a person falls on this nashamah he abuses the nisham it denigrates the neshama slept in a shama further into the abyss then a second person comes with hexagon he says he's he lifts up the neshama he lifts up the neshama he shows how great it is he says the second person you'll never imagine the source of the second person who is muchas frag the gemara come on that's not the way the way is dalaramis what's dalaramas the gemara says mace mitzvah name acclaimed daladamus is the size of a grave six feet that's the size of a grain says the elf you want to be kind of somebody yes tell them about gehenna don't tell him god loves you and tell him how beautiful he is and which potential he is don't start helping him identify his traumas and show him his deep psychological potential tell them this this grenadine this is gonna hand them this right this is wrong and if you don't come back to derek you're gonna burn in purgatory dalit that's how you kind of since this person is in a state of nephilim you should know that your dollar amis speech will never be him kinah and in his words you tell him that he's going to die one day misa he doesn't care about death he has friends who overdosed he has friends who committed suicide he doesn't care about death you're telling him be a mensch be a man make something of yourself you're killing yourself with your drugs i don't care death doesn't mean anything to you it means something to me it means something to these kids it means nothing the cemeteries are filled with their friends jesus was like you're not going to get him he is so filled with pain and so filled with trauma for him death is relief don't you get it drugs is the way he escapes his pain i don't have that traumas i don't understand it i don't relate to it i'm like just be a normal person wake up in the morning be a mens get a job you don't have to be the god ladder but just be a mensch finish yeshiva says there's no way the dalai lamas are going to be kind of him because look at him he's such he's so much nifila look at his lifestyle the only way you could be kind of him is hectic boy you have to give him so much physique and you have to hold on to him and you have to remain attached to him and that's what i feel this is i feel dvar hashem people who cultivate this approach save hundreds and thousands of souls from depression from addiction from the abyss and sometimes from suicide now are there people who utilized who for whom dalat almost would have worked as a kenyan but because of this wholesale approach of they're losing it on the optimal opinion for them so i don't see this as a wholesale approach i just have to say this too i don't see it as also an approach and those who may use it as a wholesale approach right i think they themselves often need that physique and mentorship and guidance i know a lot of these people that we're addressing call it the comsite style and there's usually so much frustration and so much disillusionment and people say oh just tell them the truth tell them to wake up and smell the coffee and grow up tell them to grow up here's the problem we live in a generation where we like it or not we can all deny it but the trauma of two thousand years has emerged to the fore of consciousness now you'll say we had zadis and bubbas they weren't traumatized stalin was not a source of trauma hitler was not a source of trauma the russians ours were not a source of trauma khmelinetsky and turkmedia and vespasian were not a source of trauma suddenly in 2021 with the prosperity that's unheard of in generations with toyama's and charlotte odd infinitive with basic resorts suddenly everybody is traumatized no come on right good great question excellent so i could sit on a throne of judgment and sit in my cocoon and talk about the super superficiality and the post guide of today's generation and wax eloquently about the good old days in gardner and the good old nays and the altamir the mirror i'm talking about in lithuania and talk about baranovich wait wait that's not fair let's at least bring it over to russia too there was also okay there was a lot of and minsk and pinsk and rostov and rostov and the engine and lyadi yeah well you just did a beautiful article in the book the magazine was in my hand off topic david zaffir wrote the article for us one of our best he wrote this the feedback it was so empowering to know that people don't just care about trump or whatever they want to hear about they want to go through his map to america in 1938 and they want to revisit memphis with them it was it was a humbling reminder to me that you don't have to talk down to people yeah you could talk up to people sorry yeah and rebuke honor once said [Laughter] in his yard which was in the article that we're all carbonis and we should make sure that there's no moom in us there's no blemishes it shouldn't be piggle those were his legs brothers in america say yes why doesn't it say teach your students that's what it means anyway it means teach your students not only your biological children and he says you would have missed the point what the terrorist is trying to tell you is the only way you can teach your students is if you see each child each student as a child as a banyan my children so i don't i don't see i when we when i am trying to bring out the goodness of somebody i don't see it as a wholesale approach because we're living in a time when the fact is anybody who's dealing with this as they call it this sugar of otd of kids in pain of addiction of kids not fitting into the system knows the truth you are dealing with so much brokenness and i could sit back and say ridiculous the hack's not shining nobody is broken they're manipulating all of us all the therapists and all the coaches and all the rabbis in order to get accums it's judaism and i say i wish you were right but the fact is after 2000 years i think it's par i think my opinion maybe i'm wrong it's part of the semanam of gula we were now given a mission to spit out from our system all of the untold layers of trauma that has been paralyzing us for a very long time in epigenetics today they know that trauma is bequeathed through the genes which means you can have a 13 year old a six year old who's struggling not because their father is dysfunctional or their mother has borderline personality that too or because they were molested or abused that too but it could be they're carrying something that comes from the altizada from the altitude and they are forced to confront it you are highly sensitive people meaning a lot let me ask it in the group you have a 55-year-old accountant in muncie who learned entire vidas he's a very successful functional person he walks in every year and the cousin says on the first night his heart trembles and he reaches for zabaru yaya because he really wants to do two of her and now somebody said well you know why don't you come rabbi jacobson's doing a musical series it's definitely because i should come there go to my show okay and they couldn't find parking by a show and somehow we ended up you have more parking by you whatever it is he walks in and there's 19 guitars over there and the vibe of the room is wow it's like the best perm suit in his life didn't come to this he's never going back to him simon again and we we relinquished we forfeited that tremble in his soul for something maybe great question and you talk about the musical slices i think it's good to actually give you an example that's a classic example of this and i've gotten a lot of feedback over the years and i just want to share that with you because i think it's important to see how things evolve um in my community in muncie i've seen with sorry somebody once came over to me and said you know prepare us for slickers make a fabrian before which was dominic by many hasidim actually they'd be forced for a few hours till one they used to have a fabrian where they would have devries iris and i actually myself just personally i'm not judging anybody the musical slickest is not something that speaks to me i like to have a slickest which reminds me and there's a replica of the slickers that i grew up with as a child which happens to be by the laboratory where there was no musical slickest at the end they sang on which is a beautiful beautiful heart-stirring old tradition again that was actually composed by the rebbe's grandfather the rabbi of nicolaive in ukraine so we had this beautiful vibranium for a few hours at the end i announced everybody now i'm finishing 15 minutes early according to one go to your minion and go back to your minion and i went to my minion to my minion which was a very what you would call traditional conservative bin might say however i saw that there were hundreds of people who told me they came over to me and they said the only reason we're coming to slushes is because of because of you can we do a musical slushes i said listen you want to do gesundheit and therefore every year i announce everybody go your slickest i do the fabregan pre but there are people who feel this is how they connect best to their souls and to the ribbing shall islam now if it's something that's outside of halacha obviously it should never be allowed if it's something within halacha you know does it become an obligation for clients but i think just to delegitimize a person who may feel a much deeper connection in their own way i don't see the value of it and let me just say one more thing that 55 year old graduate of tyra vedas have an intimate conversation with him and ask him if for the last 55 years he ever felt a real love to god and to yiddish with a lot of serenity and tranquility a lot of these 55 year old people may tell you my relationship with god is one of dread rosh hashanah yom kippur and elo are the worst days for me all i wish is that they're over because i know god is building a bigger henna just for me and my sins so i just want to say that for some people that dread and that fear turns into a torment and it's really a yiddish guy that is very very restricting now aylave there is a shita and there's a mahalik and claudia that focuses very much on that carving for some people it's awesome and amazing but just realize there's a lot of people who are suffering from a yiddish guy that they feel is very very toxic i hear this is my final question on this topic okay um what about the spillover message to the rest of the people i'm not this is not associated with you but over the last few years there's been a lot of purveyors of the idea of key levels really don't matter and it's really not not real because you could always if you would know what truva if you know much hashem loves you and if you know you fall down question get back up it's okay it doesn't really make a difference anyhow so kaiden somebody is overcome by taiwa it's a lot easier to succumb when you know that could just really there's an easy pass i i can go to uman and say think ali i can give money to x y z there's anybody ready to take your money for truva and if worth comes to worst i could really do trooper great not that hard truth is the easiest thing in the world like one here attribute one moment etc we gave this excellent question i would just say two points number one every message even the most glorifying and beautiful and most sacred message can sometimes be misused but the essential message here is not one that was nashadish in the 21st century anyone who really studies all of the teachings of the valshamtiv and all of his students knows that this message is repeated hundreds and thousands and thousands of times and it's one of the fundamental usaidis of satire and further offended truth is you won't only find it in sephiroth you'll find it by the resharing you'll find it in ghazal you'll find it in you'll find the form of in this it became a very powerful and accentuated idea but it's not a hidden siddhas can people sometimes misuse holy sacred ideas of course but the fundamental idea is not that our various don't matter the fundamental idea is that your relationship with ribena shalom is absolute it's non-negotiable that at your core that relationship is untarnished so to the contrary a various is really an aberration from who you really are and never think that just because you stumbled and failed it really compromised or mitigates that essential purity of its subject now i want to ask you a question okay what what do you think would create a better and healthier relationship between you and your father and your mother or your grandparents if you knew that your father and mother told you listen rebi sorel or listen to behind cool cooler listen to vaira these are the laws in the house you follow them you have a relationship with me you don't follow them you're done unless you come back and you repent but till you repent our relationship is gone there's no love there there's no connection there or you know that your father's love to you and relationship to you is absolute and unconditional even if you do the stupidest things and one last question when you have a person who displays to you that unconditional love do you think a healthy person says wow you're going to love me anyway i have an idea i'm going to take a dagger and drive it into your chest because you're going to love me anyway and if a person does say that don't you think they need serious help when i give a message to people that your connection with hashem is absolute and non-negotiable even when you make a mistake and he's always waiting for that ultimate alignment and terror mitzvahs is not what makes you a child of god it's because you're a child of god that he gave you terror amidst do you think a healthy person would say okay let me just sin against this god he loves me anyway i think a person says wow if you are such a friend to me i want to be close to you i don't want to stab you in the back and if a person doesn't say that then they really need yeshua that they really need a completely different type of treatment and help i also want to tell you a word from the holy si detroit verbs of zida who was known as the tsar base azaya he answers the question of the gemara says in rosh hashanah the 13 attributes must begin hashem hashem why twice says why do you need me before you sinned i understand compassion after your sin why compassion before you sinned so the rash says hashem knows you're going to send so he needs compassion even before this is the chief of assassins it's a real exodus of art i have to die but before you sin you need a different type of compassion compassion for your arrogance for the feeling of holier than thou me he says before i sin you need a different type of that allows you to be human and vulnerable the raku that allows you to open your heart to people who are broken whereby uh yeah can i could i respectfully disagree or ask a question it's not my place i'm a father of children but also i think have a nice relationship with my children i would hope that they would want to listen to me there's a big difference of how i would warn them not to go out of bed after bedtime you can have another drink to how i would want them not to play with matches there's a very big difference for the first one but not going out of bed i would say please don't go to bed and if they came out of their shelf please go i asked you so many times you're really great you're the greatest kid in the world because it doesn't really make a difference to me that much how much they violated it's just a question of my own convenience if they were playing with matches or if i was the sort of person who kept guns in the house or anything that has the potential to really harm them and change their forever castle shalom i would probably not say schaefer please don't play with matches i love you anyhow i wouldn't do that we're dealing with a with dealing with hate maybe severing maybe have increases maybe things that can really impact the person's forever who says that this that just because i like my father better that's the right way you play with fire right but what if it's exactly the opposite what if my only hope that to have this child this youngster sees from the chaotic criticism mrs bresden is when they feel wholeness because there's so much brokenness in them for whatever reason i want to tell you a story a boy came over to me after a lecture i gave a share about shabbos the last 20 minutes i spoke about the beauty of shabbos he came over to me afterwards and he says i wish one day i'll be able to keep shabbos i wish i wish one day i'll be able to relate to your words i said you didn't relate to my words he looked at me he looked if anybody was watching it was private and he says how could i when my molester chose friday night in shul after everybody left he knew that friday night nobody stays and schools everybody goes to have a shabbos meal and that was the opportune time to utilize my body to be able to satisfy his demonic impulses and instincts for three years every friday night he says i cannot keep shabbas anymore because for me the word shabbos triggers the deepest pain i listen to this story i watch this boy i could tell him do you know that in the time of president if you would be mahalo shambhas and there was adam and asura and i could describe to him the mishna massata sanhedrin everything that they would do to him i can do that what do you think is going to happen you think i'm going to get him to keep sharp as the next champions where he's going to look at another rabbi who's protecting the perpetrators and the abusers and doesn't even understand the depth of his trauma you know what i did i just held on to him i held on to him i literally embraced him he put his head on my shoulder and he started to cry he started to cry and cry and he said one day i'll get there one day i'll be able to keep shabbos yes when we are talking about a very wholesome situation where my children feel connected to me where they have the four s's they feel safe secure seen and soothed where there's deep attachment and deep connection where their identity is solid and powerful saddam mensch there's a person a person who feels their own value yes you are a thousand percent right you're not disagreeing with me because i agree with you a thousand percent but when i am facing a person for whatever reason is subragan of sticker their heart is torn in a thousand pieces there's no person there there's no cell value that's why they're numbing themselves they're escaping their pain they'll say i'll do anything but just get me out of my body get me out of my consciousness my brain is too scary and they'll do anything to numb themselves when i'm talking to that child i speak about christus and mrs best great i wish skill astray for harry kanek which is the fastest misa take me to the gallows that's what his that's what his own best friend that that's what he saw another girl do robert jacobs i'm grateful for your time i'm grateful for your passion i'm grateful for your eloquence the bunch hope shall give you kais it's an honor and a pleasure thank you for coming again thank you [Music] you