Baruch Levine & Joey Newcomb at the Oorah Auction | Kumzitz & Stories pt. 2

[Music] what's new behind the iron wall in this letter i'll write to you of life as a freebie the day begins rather early sweet sounds of children learning [Music] your place my soul a jew truly exiled but yet a jew of courage whose faith shall never die soon the great walls will replace the iron curtain still i wish you could be here my poor and lonely brother i want to call up the ice of joey [Applause] mind your seat joey because i want to do the song joey needs his mic this was mine before you want us i'll switch with you right now that's good it's good [Music] joey want to sing the song about our zadies because so many of us we take for granted where we come from who our zadies were this song by moshe yes also from off the record we got two minutes let's do it joe we can do this in two minutes two minutes for my sadie [Music] my zadie lived with us in my parents home there we go he used to laugh he put me on his knees and he spoke about his life in poland he spoke but with a bitter memory he spoke about the soldiers who would beat him they laughed at him they tore his long black coat and he spoke about a synagogue that they burnt down and the crying that was heard beneath the smoke everyone [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh his eyes lit up when he will teach me torah he taught me every line so carefully and he spoke about our slavery [Music] and how god took us out to make us free but winter went by summer [Music] and when i came back home they said zadie's gone and all his books were packed and stored away oh and i don't know how or why it came to be happened slowly over many years we just stopped being jewish like mines eighty-one and no one cared enough to shed a tear come on everyone [Music] used to teach me a role from bright and many winters went by many summers came along and now my children sit in front of me i don't know who will be the zadie of our children who will be the zadies if not [Music] friday [Music] of our children [Music] thank you yaakov thank you joey thank you it was about 1am in the office and i got a message that rabbi bellazan is looking for his wife mrs bellazan our stamper mashbiya was m.i.a our stampers program is a new brainchild in camp where our zodiac campers get to work for part of the day as specialties helping to create the fun and the excitement for their fellow zodiac campers i couldn't imagine what she could be doing so late at night i mean the stampers program had ended many many hours before so i went to chase them down and see what they were doing and i knew as soon as i walk in it's a bunch of teenage staff members i'm gonna get those looks after 15 years in camping i expect them she doesn't get it why does she always ruin our fun and i walked in and i think this is the first time i've ever seen this site at 1am fully dressed stampers sitting in a circle learning with their mashbia and when i told them they had to stop learning they just couldn't understand why it's only 1am we just want to learn sarah was one of those stampers [Music] she loved to learn and was ready to do so no matter what no matter when no matter how long in fact she stood out in many ways our first shabbat in camp one of our guests pointed out sarah to me and said who's that girl i mean how do you get such professional staff she ran the zip line with such patience with such attention to safety so friendly it was an amazing activity and how you get such great staff she really was one of those people who you always remember long after camp ends in fact sarah had been in the camp for eight years she's been a zodiac and even longer than that in chill zone all those years she had tour mates and she loved learning with them she loved getting to know all the staff in camp and enjoying all the activities and during all that time she said many times girls would reference a story in the parsha something about the torah a jewish holiday a custom that she didn't know that she wasn't familiar with and when she would ask whether it was a fellow bunk bait a staff member a tour mate where did you hear that how did you know that the answer was really always the same i learned it in school my teacher told me but sarah didn't go to a jewish school sarah was homeschooled and she had a plan and the plan was to stay and then go to a performing arts high school and move on to college and she's a responsible girl she stuck with that plan and she had resigned herself on some level that that torah learning that's not something i get to have i'm not part of that i didn't looking at the window looking in at this world of torah learning that i get a piece of through my tourmates through camp but it's just not mine and then this summer things changed she was a stamper she was a staff member she got to look at cam from a whole new perspective gain an appreciation for what goes on behind the scenes and a relationship with all of our older staff and there were the du girls our discover you participants fresh off their year in israel who said sorry you gotta you gotta learn in israel you just gotta go to seminary and there was a whole group going to israel for the first time saying oh sorry you just gotta go we're so excited we can't wait to go to seminary and then mimi gornish our head wrangler for two years already looked her in the eye and said sarah you have to go to sem i just went i'm going back you have to go. and all of a sudden things changed together with her mush being she researched she looked she found and discovered that for a responsible girl seminary is a great option they gave college credits and just like that all her plans changed after so many years of learning with tormach and having the source of her inspiration be that weekly learning with someone who wants to spend time with you sarah had our college admission essay practically written and that's exactly what she did when she applied to college she wrote down in her admissions essay how big a role torre mates had played in her life in giving her that injection of learning that she only had for a half hour a week only now come fall sarah is joining that world she won't be looking in the window she's going to be right there spending her year learning in seminary in israel along with all of those girls with whom she learned all those years and i couldn't help but thinking when i was speaking with sarah late last night how happy i was for her to get to be part of that world but even more importantly i guess is i don't think they have a curfew on learning there i'm pretty sure at 1 am if you want to sit and learn nobody comes in and tells you to shut it down [Music] wow what an unbelievable story inspiring that's the only chord i could think of it strikes a chord let's welcome sarah come on up unbelievable you have a mic crazy so sarah you've been in camp in the zone yes and also part of the tour mates program yes i'm learning like a whole different vocabulary about being in camp there's zoniacs and stampers i was i was a camper i was a stamper i was a chiller now i'm a chiller staff so yeah i would i would recommend that uber create a dictionary there should be a dictionary and like a thesaurus wow the zodiac like the mazzalas zodiac isn't that the indian so where are you going to zodiac zone i'm an aries a zodiac zone so where are you going next year i am going to seminary i'm super pumped i already have my roommates i can't wait wow and unbelievable sitting there late at night in ural learning torah and torah mates is during the year as well correct yeah it is um it depends on like you and your relationship with your tour mate um for me when i was younger we called like three times a week now it's like more chill we just text face time whenever my current term mate is um in israel right now doing a second year of seminary because her first year got caught short so we text it's not as formal as it used to be but for me tour mates is like really more about like the relationship between tour mates than the physical learning as it was when i was um younger so well we want to wish you a lot of atlah and eric and in seminary and um i guess in honor of that amazing story and your big step ahead we're going to do a song joe you tell us about this song thank you very much sarah thank you yeah [Music] really the naked is how how the terror opens your eyes mama's in the deepest way [Music] as soon as you're connected suddenly your eyes open up in the deepest way i think that's what that's the story that we have over here right that's right the moment you were connected to this thing this infinite thing called torah suddenly your eyes are open you can see everything in the world you can see clearly everything is i'm hundred percent masculine then goes like this i wrote this song actually in swas holy city of old [Music] next [Music] is [Music] let me see the beauty [Music] open our eyes [Music] [Applause] [Music] a few years ago talking about torah talking about a safer tara i saw that a.b rottenberg wrote the lyrics a real old also on off the record the place where i belong i was made way back in 1842 by a humble man a real god jew who did his work with honesty with feeling and with pride he was known in [Music] his hands so sure and still formed me with some parchment ink and quilt each day he'd slowly add to me just a few more lines with words to last until the end of time the whole town came and filled the narrow stream oh and they sang and [Music] and as the rabbi held me close against his chest he spoke out loud he said no matter if you're very young or even if you're old live by the words you'll find inside [Music] from now we're all gonna dance with the torah together and we're gonna sing [Music] hey come on everyone [Music] foreign [Music] my [Music] he opened my eyes [Music] let [Applause] [Music] let me see the wonders one thing you have to remember [Music] and let us see the beauty what a segment thank you so much beautiful song joey beautiful [Music] you