OULive Episode 001

hey welcome to oh you live my name is rabbi David Pardo you are witnessing the very very first installment of oh you live my I'm the managing director of tarnish ative do you and I also the director of next door an emerging group for young professionals but tonight is a program that we really came up with just a couple of days ago could actually count the hours it's a wild time the world has flipped upside down I am live-streaming to you from what looks like a nice studio is my bunker in my basement or living out the apocalypse things have turned around amazingly quickly and people are requesting all sorts of things and people are looking for all sorts of things and we had this wild idea that we would create a nightly program where we provide inspiration and entertainment then we give you front row seats to our communities best or talking to row Bunim we're talking to inspiring leaders we're talking to child psychologists we're talking to people doing interesting things in the community at this time and something we could do and hopefully we could probably provide to you and here we are if you have questions comments suggestions a great dad joke for me please email it over to oh you live at O you org I also want you to know that if you are watching this from the website you could also watch this through Facebook or YouTube if you if you tuned in to if you head over to Facebook just check out the Orthodox Union's Facebook page give it a like and you'll get a reminder when we go live same thing for YouTube hit subscribe and hit the bell again any suggestions though you live it we got or we have an amazing lineup tonight bartosh I'm really excited in a bit we're gonna get to talk to slavi youngest wolf we're gonna get to talk to dr. Henning Abramson we're gonna hear from shulam Plummer right now it is my distinct pleasure to introduce rabbi dr. C Hirsch Weinreb by Weinreb is the executive vice president and meredith of the Orthodox Union after seven celebrated an accomplished years as the executive vice president and that is after thirteen years as the rub of congregation chill Maria muna in Baltimore he really combines the skills of a pulpit rabbi a scholar and a clinical psychologist you may know him from his writings the person in the parsha or you may know him from two decades of doing he knows worldwide on tsch above it is an unbelievable pleasure to introduce rabbi Weinreb okay thank you David am i coming through yeah you're looking great okay it's I can't say it's a pleasure to be here because it's I'm here for very serious reasons we're going through a very difficult time all of us the entire world and I was asked to try to give some words of physic some words of encouragement and support to the audience so I'd like to do that by quoting something I heard just a few hour ago from a roof a narrative style of Biederman who quoted a passage in the Talmud the Gemara Baba comment of summer which reads that Deverill ear can a straggler ha and when there's a plague in the town the thing to do is to withdraw to pull your feet back to retreat to do some social distancing as as we call it nowadays so that idea it goes all the way back to the times of the legume or of the Talmud but Rob Peterman shared with his audience a comment on that passage in a Talmud from the author of the Ben issue a great great Safari Rove of over a hundred years ago and he said in his study he found that whenever there's a plague and he experienced plagues cholera for example in his lifetime whenever there's a plague people are affected by their fears and their anxieties and their emotions to such an extent that there there's more difficulties and more disease caused by the fear then there is by the source of the plague itself I don't know how that bears out statistically but it certainly puts into focus the important for all of us to somehow cope with the range of emotions that we're going through at this moment I'm who are going through this range of emotions there's uncertainty we don't know what's gonna happen we don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow we don't know exactly what to do about and have to prevent this illness how to cure it we're afraid we're anxious we have financial worries we're worried about our friends our neighbors our spouses it's a time of great worry and get concern I would like to share with you a few ideas a few suggestions of the many that our tradition offers us as to how to cope with anxiety and worry and fear and panic I think that's possibly the most important thing we can do right now is to somehow get a handle on our feelings so I want to introduce you to a simple statement forward statement which was authored by the author of the safer happy no safer - OH the author of that safer wrote a list and a description of all the 613 mitzvot in the Torah and we have this book today and we study it in great depth and the parsha that deal was with the carbon thesa which is coming up it's three weeks from tonight believe it or not we'll be sitting down to the Seder hopefully all healthy and well that he writes as follows a her a hapless NIM sha him Hal evokes that our heart our feelings our emotions are impacted by our actions we can control our fears our hopes our dreams our worries our concerns our passions by our actions actions control the hearts put all those actions controlled of all those control the hearts to quote him he writes Cod Omni fowl caffee pulo so every person is impacted influenced by his activities by his behaviors Balibo waha marcia go soft on me atacama are so shallow sake but it's our thoughts and our feelings that are in acted by our actions this is not an original idea - safer - no safer I kind of lived in the 13th century but before that the great Rambam Maimonides has a very interesting insight into the power of our actions he writes this in his commentary on the mission on pier que ellos para Kimmel where the Mishna says Accola fear of hamas everything depends on Roja masa and how many times you do something so Rambam understands this to me if I have a choice for example to write one check for $1000 to one knee be person or I can give $1000 bills to a thousand needy people which of the two should I do there are mom says how cold the fear of Amasa if you give once it's wonderful thing get a thousand dollars to a needy person koulikov oh but it doesn't make you into a generous person because you only do one action if I were ever you give one dollar bill to a thousand people you've done a thousand actions and that's gonna change how you feel it's gonna change your attitude if you're gonna change your self-concept it's gonna change what you think of yourself and therefore I bomb rights give the thousand dollar the bills as to a thousand different people so we can do this nowadays in so many different ways yes we're some of us in quarantine many of us are in self-isolation we're all watching carefully where we go and who we speak to but there are so many things we can do but doing things right now virtually as we speak there's so many things you can do a phone call to a needy person or for to help someone just checking in on another person there's so many things we can do the more we do those things the more we're active the less we feel the negative emotions that bring us down you're feeling afraid and anxious do something reach out to another person be creative and how you do that void take all the precautions you may have bertolt to take but use nowadays the wondrous blessing of the electronic world is we can do it by phone we can do it by video we can do it by Skype we can do it by emails we can reach out to other people in so many helpful ways number one one pool or one type of action that we can do to diminish and control our negative feelings is action and the actions can be acts of facet of compassion for other people number one there's something else we can do very different very different and that is we can sing we can sing songs we can sing the gunam that's an action - singing is in action we're gonna have later this evening on this program shulam laminer who will be singing for us but just singing itself whether you're a great singer in the class of Sholem Emmer or even much less of a singer singing itself can control your actions control your passions you're feeling nervous sing this is illustrated by a fascinating story of the Mudgett Cerreta the embrace show happened to have been my wife's grandfather sir from the lives loss he composed hundreds and hundreds of Magoon him on written hundreds of tunes and I asked him he had a troubled life he lived through the Holocaust he died young he had many many difficulties in his life hey it's them how can he how where does he write songs when he so upset and so full of emotions so he crowded the raashi in - especially as Yoshi emotion then most this sang Rashi says Allah Balibo shall share your Shira Shira which means he it occurred to him now it's a good time to sing but the phrasing is a law Balibo it came up in his heart to sing so that ever the mothers have ever said when the heart overflows with feelings that's the time to sink how did the negative feeling sing a song sing and even sing a holding there in the physician diggin if it's not vision again singing a into the words of tehilim singing again that turns you on and that singing itself can control your emotions so we have two ways to control emotions poulos actions of hesitant compassion number one and number two singing a third and final suggestion for tonight there are many suggestions but this one was something I was taught by a teacher long long ago already of mine who was in a situation somewhat similar to where we all are right now different but some way similar he was in Shanghai China during the Holocaust he was part of the group of yeshiva Bertram from Lithuania who fled and found refuge in China in Shanghai and they spent years in Shanghai with no communication to the outside world they were in quarantine the once told us you know how did we cope how do I cope with my feelings I didn't know what happened to my parents to my siblings to my friends I was all alone thousands of miles while the hanukkah Holocaust was occurring in Eastern Europe and I was in in West in West China and he told us a fascinating thing he said you know during that time I had a difficult time saying the words in creation MA for your after such a melech effort you should love your God how could I love my god I was hungry I was lonely I was destitute I didn't know what the future would bring I didn't know what was going on with my loved ones how can I love God and he said in Yiddish my heart was French thought my heart was closed off was sealed off you know what I did hermanric with the Rambam says that the way to achieve love of God is to realize God's nature to admire nature to look at the Sun and the skies stuck stars and sky and and see an ocean and see nature see the beauties of nature and this brings a person closer to God this is what the Rambam says it's actually based upon the puzzle can to heal them their own mom quoted where to open our Mello says key initial meta might say expose em when I see God your handiwork this inspires me and draws me closer to you so you know what I did said my Rebbe every morning I went to a place where I could see sunrise and every evening I went to that same when a hill opposite that where I could see the sunset and I watched the sunrise in the sunset and then I realized this is the majesty of God I feel so distant from him I'm so small I am puny and insignificant and my troubles are insignificant because there's a God master of the universe and the way to do that not for reading a philosophy book about God's omnipotence it's by seeing God's handiwork and what better way that it can it be then seeing the sunrise in the morning and the sunset in the evening so we have a third way of doing something in action watching the sunrise watching the sunset seeing the beauties of nature which we can observe even from the windows of a city on the city street look at the skies at night the moon etc etc there are three ways I'm trying to outline for you actions of Hesed actions of musical song and actions of beholding nature and these three activities can help us with the passions that we feel with the feelings that threatened to overwhelm us may it be Iran stone me be God's will that by actually positive action on all these fronts we will be able indeed to see the Sun Rise to see the sunset over our sorrows of the difficulties we face now and to see the Sun rise into a new era much better and a much improved and much closer to the ghoulish way Moe thank you amen Thank You Reverend Weinreb is very inspiring and very practical three important takeaways for us if you're just tuning in welcome to oh you live you are on with us and please let us know what your interested what you're looking for drop it in the comments down below or email us at oh you live at O you organ coming episodes we have inspiration from Charlie Murari we have an interview with the max and we have music from H on cats we're open to suggestion that I want to hear what you're looking for later on in this episode we have dr. Henry Abramson noted historian and musical sensation shulam la Mer right now it is my distinct pleasure to introduce Rebbetzin slobby youngest wolf welcome Thank You youngest huh it's great to have you here of course which was under better circumstances for those who don't know slavi youngest wolf is a noted teacher author relationships and parenting lecturer she is the leader of Heaney couples and the daughter of its founder rabbits in estrus Aliyah Shalom Slavia is the author of the parenting handbook raising a child with soul I think a lot of us are trying to figure out right now I can speak for myself I'm always wondering how to raise my children with soul right now I'm trying to figure out how to raise my children with soul and stay sane and keep my soul and haven't have nothing horrible to apologize for it's a been a tumultuous couple days switching to this lifestyle here in this bunker so I'm sure that's on your mind I'm sure people are asking you and what do you tell them under stress and you have a lot of people living under one roof normally there's a time that there's a break children go to school you go to work there's a lot of stress there's a lot of pressure the unknown is very worrisome there's a lot of anxiety and our children look to us if we are strong they are strong if we're okay there okay so we have to figure out how can we keep okay when we're very stressed out yeah or those who aren't okay how do we how do we are we supposed to pretend like what's that you know I was thinking about when when did we have something like this that we could learn from because if there's one thing that my mother taught me allows elem it was half full half of two kewlabah turn the pages turn the pages everything's in the Torah so when was this in the Torah and you know what when did you have a whole family under one roof and it was a possibility to have just an explosion it was really Noah on the table because Noah had his whole family he had animals I was even looking at the Midrash before can you imagine he did not sleep for 12 months because everyone was on a different schedule and there were some animals he didn't know what they might eat he never knew this before there was one little one on the side it says that he didn't even feed this animal and finally he said why didn't you tell me if the animal said because you were so busy with everybody else so it's like a home where everybody all the sudden you're discovering oh this kid needs this and this kid doesn't like this right in my mind I wish I wish my kid would say oh really I didn't want to bother you there was something I needed but I didn't scream at you while you were on the phone with your boss you know that you were afraid of overlooking and you have the one that takes over and then you have your relationship with your husband with your wife and then there's the worry so I'd like to think about three different lessons we can take from NOAA and the taper to make that into our reality because tour is truth and tour really tells us how to live the first is that the word Taiba itself means word Hashem said a sailor huh table when there's a big storm going on around you and there's a lot of tumult you have to make for yourself this sealed table but you have to figure out the words that are coming across in your environment meaning the way that you speak throughout this whole situation this home unsub is going to create the word devar and deeper our crew are related the way I speak to my child to my wife even to myself this is going to create something either love or a lot of tension so we have to remember when concentrate on the environment that I'm creating in this house of mine this situation is real it's here I don't have really much choice but I do have a choice how I'm going to speak and how I'm going to act there is another type of speaking in that's body language so if you have a child who's asking you to do something and you know you're going to do it anyway don't make a face because you're going to do it anyway so if they say mommy can you make you know I'm hungry daddy can you help me with this if you knew you're going to do that then don't say ah alright and just like snort or make a face to make the child feel badly body language speaks a lot to children we have an opportunity here to speak to our children if you find that you're losing it that you're screaming remove yourself for a little bit you know take a drink of water you know say I need a few minutes it's okay it's okay there you go because alright children kids are sleeping our children are being created right now they were learning from us our words really create and you can create or you can just destroy with your words so that's number one pay attention even if you don't scream one time a day right or you don't lose it one time a day so instead of ten it's nine by the end of the week think how many less times you have that are negative with your child that's damage every single interaction you have makes a difference so let's try to be positive I always say when you wake up in the morning I say this in my parenting classes look in the mirror and ask yourself would you want to wake up to this face okay so just even if you come down with a smile right it makes a difference to a child it says to Chum I want to be with you I'm happy to see you so there we go number one is that we're able to speak to our child put a smile on your face try even once a day not to lose it it makes such a big difference that's the message of Taiba number two the message is that the table has three levels and the garbage was at the bottom don't bring the bun garbage upstairs I know it's really hard we wanted to keep our children busy so sometimes we let them watch or do all types of things we have to keep a schedule we have to keep routine don't just stay in pajamas the whole day even if you're going nowhere get dressed okay right away when you get dressed it makes a big difference because you'll find yourself in in sweatpants and in pajamas for you know for a week now and you have to keep clean and you have to keep fresh garbage downstairs make a routine make a schedule what time are we waking up in the morning you know it shouldn't just be a free-for-all because when you have a schedule you feel safe a routine means safety when you could just do whatever you want when you want it's like there's no breaks in a car you're out of control so create children trataban in the morning okay it shouldn't be eleven o'clock and no one doesn't yet and then you have to scramble to catch all these different classes I know it's a lot of pressure I'm not saying you have to make big arts and crafts projects you don't have to listen you know we did this and we did that and you know we're we're you know we're making a play we're making a show but routine routine is really really important the kitchen isn't that open the whole day you know there's breakfast the kitchen is closed there's lunch there's snack time as if he'd be in school but you don't have to lose it you don't have to get angry if you have a routine it means that everybody knows what is expected of them have music time put on a little bit of music have recess time have exercise time you know what you what works for your family but you have to be able to sometimes chill a little bit and you can't speak the whole day about Korona I would say that you have to create a certain time that there are no phones on and that should be the meal time finally we have meal times with our children okay that's back that's back in style okay even if you're working from home don't bring your phone and your laptop to the table there should be sacred spaces and when you're at the table with the kids it should be about Corona okay you have little children they might tell a joke let them tell the joke speak about other things there are other things in the world and we can't lose it because this is all we speak about you get more anxious then will you talk about it stop checking the news you can't do anything anyway let's talk about what we can do not what we cannot do so that's the second point that I would say that we have to keep routine we have to keep a little joy exercise don't bring your work to the table make a half dollar between work and play get dressed Dobbin okay which brings me to our third point and that is that when Noah who is on the table Hashem said and this is so beautiful this my mother taught me Hashem said that he should make for himself and so hard okay and what is it so hard so Rashi says it's either a window or it's a light if you take the letters of solar and you switch it around you have the word Sarah and this is our choice you can either say I'm in it Sarah now I can't breathe I can't do this and you just lose it you lose it and if you lose it your kids losing or you could say I'm going to take this Sarah and I'm going to turn it around and I'm going to make it into it so hard I'm going to make it into a window I'm going to make it into a precious light what can I do that will make this time be memorable in a positive way and not a negative way when I look back at this time I want to look at myself and know that I conquered this challenge and I can do this you can do this we can do this and I'm not saying it's easy but we definitely can do this we don't have schools now you don't know your Sheba's now we don't have mini on him now we don't have our but a mad Russian you know what we have we have our mikdash my odds that's what her punished Berg who's leaving for us but a suley mikdash v'shachanti be so hung our job now Hashem is being very clear is to take the thinner of our children and make a mikdash in our homes and Hashem says I will dwell with you but we have to be very careful about the environment the language via hava that we have for each other don't stop saying thank you to our husbands and wives with each others have your children see express gratitude express affection express admiration when you feel like you're losing it instead of losing it just take it take a little bit of a break and then come back because our homes are our Lord his classrooms and when Yosef was a mitzrayim do you know what kept him together do you Kenosha lovin it was about to do the most terrible terrible sin but he had the image of his father and his mother in his head the do you canö that image right now is what you are forming this is the time that your child will remember for the rest of his life and the rest of her life what do you want your child to remember what is the image he wants strength he won't come he went simcha and most of all he wants emunah we have so many avenues today to work on our Emunah we have so many virtual classes going on it's Fela so important have you children all of us together at night we should say to Hill them as a family even if it's one capital and darling for the world Dominum Nostrum pick a person to to happen for this is thinner this is really what henna is all about this is what a moon is all about this is our opportunity I'd like to say that my parents survived the Holocaust which was such a terrible terrible tragedy for cogliostro but you know what for us growing up we were so proud of who we were that our parents gave us stories about how they held onto their emunah their identity and who they were it formed us right now this is life forming so Hashem has given us the pin back into our hands and what we do with it is our choice it's up to us to create a big - from once again in our home stop it for Khloe's from make your brushes out loud because that stops a megaphone double her milk told us that say Brussels and Romain out loud that's something that even a 2 or 3 year old can do it's beautiful to do that hums and those are some very powerful takeaways I want to admit how much of it applies to me in my own life and I'm gonna have some apologies to hand up to the revit upstairs I have a question just before you go people who want to learn more or find out more about you where can they find you online you could find me on YouTube I've been on Sinai and up in South Africa and H calm amazing I was in thank you so much for making the time thanks for sharing with us and thanks for being here tonight and we will get through this we will we will rebuild thank you thank you for those of you just tuning in right now you are on oh you live please share with us let us know what you think of the program and what you're looking for in the program and what kind of speakers we should have what kind of information you want to know more about what kinds of access leaders you want all of the above please drop it in the comments below or email us at oh you live at OU you org of an exciting program another half hour laughs stay tuned in about 15 minutes for musical sensation shulam la Mer in the meantime it's my distinct pleasure to introduce say a friend dr. Henry Abramson dr. good to have you I'm so thrilled to be here I feel wow so privileged what an amazing thing that you're doing for Claudia Israel thank you very much for having me on I thank thanks for being here and I'm thinking about our last conversation about the Gutenberg Project maybe we'll uh shifts and how this program maybe plays into part of it and but beforehand I'd like to just embarrass you a bit for those of for like the three people tuning in who don't yet know who you are dr. Henry Abramson hello Abramson is the Dean of Lantern College of Arts and Sciences he is an accomplished historian does a feat you can only appreciate if you know that he earned his PhD and Ukrainian Jewish history and now lectures on Second Temple history the Spanish expulsion the Holocaust s-- and all sorts of other things and also nearest in my hearts he is a featured lecturer on the AL DAF project he every day gives a little tidbit about the historical context of the Daath in Adame if you haven't downloaded all daf you're the last one so make sure to fix that and without further ado dr. you must be looking at this these unusual times I you know there's so many pieces of this shield being cancelled school being cancelled the social distancing the way people are talking about Pesach now all the face off programs are canceled some people for the first time in their lives and their entire lives are gonna have to make Pesach at home and start thinking about what they're gonna say it a seder but they're gonna lead for the first time and just you know I'm curious it's not the first time a plague has racked the globe but I am I'm not super embarrassed as I had absolutely no idea what the Jewish context of life in those times was sure so I think that there's so many amazing things going on now most of which are very you know first of all everyone should be well and that no one should be negatively affected and hopefully to all the people who have contracted coronavirus can just survive this easily particularly those who are very vulnerable populations I mean and I'd also like to make a plug for for everyone watching to be to take the social distancing very seriously if you're not sick and you're already quarantined you should still be social distancing it's the only strong effective way to really keep the keep the numbers down and get us through this absolutely because we can't overwhelm our well medical systems yeah but looking at it from a historical perspective we are definitely living in very unprecedented times part of the reason for this is not as you know we haven't had massive plagues before we have of course but we were living in a period of great communication where we can become aware of the onset of a plague much earlier we are also know believing a period of great travel and hence the greater communicability of the plague so this is the kind of situation it's really quite new in human history and we're all going to be learning lessons from this you know our grandchildren will be asking us about what was it like to live through the spring of 2020 the dreaded spring that everyone talks about but it's certainly not new thing there have been some massive plagues in human history and Jews have been affected by it by them in in very negative ways we actually have a very early association with plagues all the way back to the Egyptian priests Manito who is appropriate for the Pesach season he was very unhappy that the Egyptians got such a bad telling in the exodus narrative that he says no no no that's not the way it was we kicked the Jews out because they were carriers of the plague that's really what happened and those signs and wonders it was just the Jews and they're playing week we kicked them out a story didn't carry much weight back then or now but nevertheless that's our first real big association with it on negatively most of the times that we've been in areas affected by plagues we have suffered not only in the plague itself but in tremendous persecution that usually follows the plague I wrote a short piece on this in JTA a little while ago when I looked at the the the aftermath of the the Black Death of thirteen forty seven through thirteen 52 which was a horrific plague bubonic plague with mortality rates in Europe and that there roughly calculated between 25 and as much as 50 percent depending on what part of Europe it affected and the most egregious impact on Jewish life was after the plague because people were casting about trying to find reasons for the plate why did it happen and this bizarre conspiracy theory began to circulate that the Jews had made a pact with the devil and lepers to take the you know the the the dead and discarded limbs of lepers and then mix them up with secret potions that involved all kinds of other might had we I'd be going with the lepers what was the upside for us well cuz lepers are also at why why do we go in with lepers I think say like what was there's got to be a deal no well lepers were were considered like you know outcasts in society and us the gypsies no and they were like you know yeah right at the hood see the who what is the tutu's and the hood sees I think season I'm gonna say it wrong an embarassment song this isn't life right this is recorded this is just the two of us I wouldn't do that to you thought was that they were taking these lepers fingers and things like that and essentially putting them in in secret aquifers that would poison all the waters of Europe and then they were like massive burnings of Jews and things like that really terrible terrible things sorry I forget you know I'm a professor so like if you start me talking I can just go on going I still fascinated thank you well let me know if you want to break at some point to talk about which zombie movies you've launched and how you rack them up current situation my wife said I shouldn't really say that stuff but that was next those of you who know me know that I'm about true uh that I wasn't raised with the benefit of a strong traditional education and so you know Hashem has his ways and obviously I'm well prepared for the current crisis because in my misspent youth I spent hundreds of hours watching zombie apocalypse movies and so now I know exactly what to do I know what happens next and so on yeah I'm I'm in my bunker right now this looks like a nice studio room it's really not it's it's a steel line cement room I I'm curious is there oh they treated us horribly during the Black Plague and they blamed us and blamed on us and I think part of that was associate with the fact that we weren't as affected by it the death toll in the Jews was lesser is there something to extrapolate from that time you know unfortunately it's like a really heartwarming thought to think that the Jews were somehow less affected by the bubonic plague the only problem is there's like not a shred of historical data to sellout argument people would offer there's all kinds of unusual sort of arguments let's say that you know Jews were cleaner and it is true that you know we would have mikvah and we would have natee less iodine about soap but you know that's not exactly a high standard of Hygiene that is really going to prevent you from any contagions there's also one of my favorites is the theory that well historically Jews tended not to own dogs there's actually a couple of goomar's about not owning dangerous dog things like that so instead they must have owned cats cats would have chased away the rats that were carrying the flea that had the black death on it and therefore Jews were somehow more exempt from it but the the reality is it's actually the opposite in truth news were very urban because they have to live within walking distance of a synagogue a Chinese restaurant things like that and the only way and then there's something called the urban health penalty where if you're living in close quarters with a lack of social distancing because we're very gregarious people we like to be around one another it's likely that they suffered to a higher degree than the peasantry living spread apart in farmland I just want to note I've been afraid of dogs like my entire life and when I learned that gamar I felt I felt really affirmed about it you know you just have to put up with the rats I had to deal with it so you know I'm watching I just you know from my armchair all sorts of wild innovation the the quick the accelerated pace of people doing she were and live and we by the way were this close to finishing a website that God willing is going to support everybody who's trying to do that in a really unprecedented way I'm watching that I'm watching people bounce around ideas like virtual minion outsourcing I've cottage in I mean that that's been a thing for a long time but it's in a new way and my kids are all in in school on their tablets just in the in the face of the week the whole world is turned around what does this mean for the Jewish future what do you what's your take well that's I'm so glad you asked that because I you know be without diminishing the seriousness of the threat that we face right now with the particular virus I want to say I feel hugely optimistic for the accelerant value that this crisis has placed a on the emerging technologies that are going to draw Jews closer together and one of the amazing things about the Internet is that people who are living physically disparate are able to amazingly connect and form online communities some online communities are like tremendously real very real and very meaningful and a valuable part of their day from Twitter the Jewish action just did a great article on Twitter you know I get a lot of visit from from Twitter III as soon as I see rejected feldheim titles I've got to read it gotta know what is the reject brilliant no it's amazing stuff you don't put him in a cache all times that possible I don't know it's a mystery man he has though indicated he is definitely not rabbi dovid Bishop Caen a burner Twitter account but the point right now what Jews are being asked to do around the world is to diaspora in place like a shelter-in-place so this is diaspora in place and I do not think class Bashan this is anyway going to replace our need to be physically proximate with one another to form minyan to form a real live face-to-face community but it is giving us new tools to actually enhance that community to expand that community to expand our network of connections in a very profound way to allow us to express our individuality as Jews because we all have different interests and different fascinations and yet come together as a physical in place community at the same time so I actually feel that this is you know I read a great article by a reformed rabbi in forward today Jeffrey Kaye Salkin and he had a there's a rather ambitious title how the chronovisor virus epidemic is transforming Judaism I don't think is transforming Judaism at all I don't think we're gonna migrate on to Facebook and we'll live there however I really appreciated his idea that this is like a Yavne moment right like when the Jews were about to be destroyed they encounter with with best Bayesian and rabbi yohanan ben zakai says you know give me jana and it's ages Tenley Yavne haha maja you know like an Vespasian's point of view saying what do you you know that's what you want you want this little like you know suburban region it's not even especially close to the Mediterranean that's what you want and a few what scholars that's going to make it happen and nevertheless that was in fact the nucleus that allowed the survival of Jewish people and I think right now we're in one of those yajna moments where all of these new skills and these new possibilities are being expanded to such a wide population base that that we're going to be amazed with what we do with this ten years from now I I hope from your fund on moil after the chef's retiring as we say in Ladino what's one thing you you want everyone to kind of walk away with this well I think probably the the best walk away moment is and I think a lot about the history of Technology I'm very fascinated with the the impact of the internet on bird identity and so on I think that if you think about the way a books developed about ten years ago you know when ebooks first came on the stage maybe fifteen years ago people are like amazed and they're saying oh my gosh that's it for the printed word nobody's gonna buy a book anymore you know and in fact for the first few years ebooks sales just you know ratcheted it up and regular bricks and mortar bookstores suffered significantly however we reached a certain tipping point where we saw you know what ebooks aren't great yes we can read e-books anywhere we want almost all of my library research now is done electronically and I love it but we now appreciate the aesthetic the value of physically holding an objet a piece of actual printed text in our hands and that's never gonna go away but we have learned to appreciate it in a much more positive way so with this crisis we're suddenly being forced to leave our physical jewels and go into our virtual shoes so to speak and we're seeing the new possibilities with it but it's also absence makes the heart grow fonder we're gonna realize I'm going to return God willing as soon as possible once this blows over we'll return with renewed strength and renewed vigor to really you know invest ourselves in our human relationships in our synagogues with even greater strength incredible bouncing the future in the past and and and all of it together doc one last question if people want to learn more from you or about you where do they find you well right now they find me in the corner of my bedroom here where I've set up a temporary studio sheltering a place but in general on the internet I've got a website Henry Abramson calm and I'm on Twitter and YouTube and places like that amazing incredible doc thank you so much for joining us notice cruciate being on firing words okay be well be safe take care if you're just joining us you are on oh you live you can catch us on Facebook you can catch us on YouTube and I want to know more from you what you're interested in from us so drop is a message at oh you live at OU org or drop it in the comments below if you enjoyed our our lineup so far I just wanting to know that Rebbetzin young grass wolf is actually doing a webinar with the Lu on Sunday so you could check that out on line and it's really my absolute humble overjoyed pleasure to introduce um la Mer remember is a international music star he is in in our veldt and he's also the first born from whole life jus to be signed with a on a major major label with Universal with an imprint of Universal and he's gonna hopefully give us something to sing about jewel on you there I am here could you hear me now I can hear you I can hear you and I can see you okay great I wasn't sure setting it up earlier wasn't set up yeah no no you're coming in just fine okay perfect thank you so much for that beautiful introduction it was very kind of you and it's really really amazing and humbling to follow you know reverence and speech and where it's so thank you so much for having me thank you so much for being here I've there's so many words to say the truth is pulling from from the CBS article the Haaretz article and obviously many many many articles you know from the Bahamas and then the specialized you know the range of people who are writing articles and are interested in your career is staggering and it's just really very impressive already speeches and stuff like that I think it's a good way to to you know lift our spirits a little bit is through music and through that's you know music is powerful it's the the power of the soul it's it's it's so many words has been said about music power music it's we had weird stuff we need to continue to music that's all especially with such times where we need to be though so we need Rackham and we need to connect with ourselves a little bit more I think music is it's very powerful that incredible what do you have what do you have in mind um I'm not sure exactly I was gonna you know try to heal you all we have in mind you know obviously I would think something that sets feet off first so we can get everyone into a certain mode of Fela and [Music] an inspiration then songs a little bit of you know entertainment and then something more you know come to see something that it open sing along so yeah maybe like a new and we can all take home that we uh I didn't know before oh maybe ok think your let's think about one cook one I mean there's always a song that some people know and some people don't sure some of the song that actually first I think I first released the song is a beat'em up a note from that you say you know there'll be no changes a lot of people are saying it now I knock you started saying Earth's ourselves I think [Music] so that's a beautiful feeling and we can ask for everything especially but it includes not in a song but the Mahna Mahna so it's very powerful I think well it's not without me no okay no as it's feed on for now and then we'll take it from there awesome all right cool I hope you can hear me hope it comes out clear enough and this is foster great economy was a keyboard player thanks for joining us [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Wow incredible yes and I'm hearing a great anyway and thanks thanks to our listeners cuz they're you know we're we're figuring this out as we go along and first thing then I gotta willing yes it's usually you know you don't the crowd and it's it's for recently energy that you know you have to connect with yourself and really get into it in order to feel it crowd and so yeah it's it's a great experience right you have to imagine you have to I mean I'm telling you that there are a lot of people watching it's imagine during the right there with you thank you so much so I want to bring back in the English song because I know most of the people say English here and it's a little bit of an oldie it's a beautiful message one of my favorite songs it's Zadie from Boise is Coachella and it talks about really of what we what we are as a tradition we are one generation to the other we give up to give over our condition and I'm sorry I'm a coder and especially in this guide one where everyone is thinking we have silica the theme now and the crime there was a I put back then stored away now I don't know how or why it came to be it happened my CEO my CD used to teach me wrong [Music] how many windows went by and when he saw us feel alone and now my children sit from I mean so it was very beautiful suelen probably a silly question for you but people who are listening and inspired and fired up where do they find you online we're looking forward to the next time that we can actually go to a concert see you live Messer Shem okay in any time thank you so yeah please just I want everyone to sing along with me to get into the zone you know we're busy periods and trying to cope with everything and sometimes we're giving who their children I'm going to teach her today and you know we're all so busy with everything else and suppose we can't get the music but I wanted to join experience music with me until Allah heal and that I've Shem take us out of this fellows which is very we're all feeling it it's partner Tallulah so if anyone to volatile viewer is watching your sing-along stand up meet however you want to get inspired and let's do this feel it together so we can't dominant togethers minion but Hashem made this technology that virtually we can do this together we'll do it all together but I promise I'm [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Wow amazing amazing on behalf of all of us who were singing along with you thank you so much for the that inspiring again better Shannon we'll do this again with the stand together good reasons sounds good talk soon amazing everyone tuning in we are back here tomorrow at 8 p.m. Eastern with an all-star lineup like the Orthodox Union on Facebook subscribe on YouTube make sure to hit the bell to make sure that you get notified and your other homework assignments please do me a favor call someone who lives alone that you haven't spoken to in a while just let them know you're thinking about them in the meantime I am rabid