Peretz Eichler interviews Rabbi Cohen of Business Kollel Network

hi everybody Paris bar Iker we are about to launch a revolution some of you know me as the reev and I tell people to join the revolution but this is a real Revolution one that deals with practical applications of Jewish law in the business place every single day through the business Cil Network a new network which has been launched by rabeler con a poster who lives in Lakewood and is a beloved maget shear and the Rob of deeris elzar in Lakewood now now many of us know that people study kin mishbah from a scholarly point of view but what about the average business person who spends 8 to 10 hours a day in their business in their office in their profession without being fully cognizant of the laws that may apply to him or her each and every single day like paying a worker on time or payroll or all the Myriad number of laws that every single day can occur well now it's being made available through a regimen and a program that is very very exciting that's going to make these laws in a very very palatable I won't say easy but a challenging way so that on a regular basis one will be able to learn and grasp the laws every bentur needs to know it and anybody who's in the marketplace needs to be aware of these laws and now this program which is very exciting being launched by the business c network is now going to be launched in L which is just a hop skip and a jump in a away people are already starting to learn about it and get involved in it I'd like to introduce R elz rone who's going to tell us a lot more about it and why you should want to participate in it by joining this exciting program it's actually a two-year program but don't be intimidated by that because we take it one step at a time every day with learning these daily laws Raben thanks for joining meum Shalom so describe for us what is exactly going on in terms of the concept of the um of the business colal Network why you decided it was so important and the reactions that you've been getting to it and what a person can hope to accomplish in it well you put it very nicely by saying that people um spend a bulk of their day in business and they don't even realize that there are many manyas that apply to every step of that day it's not just a couple ofas are actually questions that come up in learning and and I'm sorry in business that are Nea to what they that are very very commonly applied and um one example which is what you mentioned uh before was that a person does payroll for a company does he have to make sure that he pays on time or is that the responsibility owner of the company another very common example would be um if a person is a employee an employee uh does he have precedents in coming to be paid before the vendors or or any other um uh people that the company owes money to so these are very common da examples there are hundreds of other examples and uh you know today many people know AR very well well you know even if they don't know very well but they have a concept of how to put on fillan how to put on Talis you know is basic knowledge that people have in and unfortunately you don't have this so much when it comes to and people are under the impression applies only in a court of law and nothing could be further from the truth the the was written for every person and the people who have done this program right away feel an instant enjoyment with it because they feel that they can apply it and understand it right away there there are so many examples that I would like to share with you maybe we'll throughout the interview we'll talk about them but uh but the main under lineing concept is is like we said said quoted as having said that just like a needs to know the laws of so too a businessman needs to know the laws of business not the laws of necessarily right although it happens sometimes so the the uh um you you once yourself had mentioned to me interesting story where someone came down to uh give a a eulogy a hpit on a fellow and they went over to him and they told him you know um don't lay it on too thick so he said why was this guy a rush or was something wrong with him so well um you know he was like involved in business right so therefore it's a different set of rules right right so that's exactly what we're trying to um get people to understand and barem it's people who have done it I feel very uh big enjoyment from it they gravitate to it it's immediately applicable people are very excited about the program and in M will be that Revolution that you mentioned before and we have a lot of um curriculum things that we're offering and there's actually an app that was designed for it for the phone which is a definitely a technological breakthrough it has access to anything related to business you can actually access that and you have it in the palm of your hand so it's it's going to bring it to the the shes and uh let me just sum up the idea okay now this again it's called the business Network the business car and the actual program will be launched in an official way in L it's going to be launched it's going to start official launch in a couple of weeks in a couple of weeks and actually you've started waiting into it I mean you're giving Shear now in the morning we did a test run on it and it went very well people uh who started it love it they want to continue I have some people in other cities that spoke to me about it what are some of the other cities that you already trying to get on board well we have almost all the we have people that are interested in Los Angeles they have place in Minneapolis that's interested we have places in Deal New Jersey and FL Bush and Bar Park Muny we have people that are looking into it and actually requested the curriculum for from us and we're building it up little by little and the accounta basically to sum it up is that we go to a person who has an existing Sho or existing night program and he wants to energize it and we give in this curriculum that we back up that we provide in conjunction with all the foremost institutions in America that's actually going to bring it to everybody in a very simple format that can be understood by everybody and each person on their level we work with each each branch to you know to Custom Tailor a curriculum that they can work with with their constituents that mpal in what they understand how much time they have the time frame that they're working with some people can't do it every night some people can only do it on Sunday some people could do it every night they have a Kusa so they want to do they want to learn with the Kusa this for the next two years because it's an organized um curriculum based program where they walk away getting an overview of as applicable to business you walk away with a general picture of all the just like people have a general picture inab so they're going to have the same concept when it comes to P when it comes to the laws of Balin like you mentioned before and um therefore what we're going to just energize whatever program person is already doing by providing them the support and the unity of with everyone else who's doing it and also of course the media exposure which were going to be advertising the locations and any RAB that are interested in putting that location and saying the sh but you feel that in act in point of fact in actuality that even though a person has been through the aiva system has studied as you said oray he goes out into the business world you feel that there really is that much of a of a gap between what a person has acquired in the the course of you know their their years and years of study and what they actually have to apply in the business Place definitely there's definitely a major major Gap a major void there are very common day-to-day questions that people are unaware of um that would shock people to to to believe that to to hear that these things are even questions in ALA but could you give me an example and and also the type this these are the type of things which we would want to be able to educate people with because you don't want to wait till somebody gets to a based in or relegated M to a dying person says well you know when we get we get to that point exactly the point of the network to show that that there's very simple solution and very simple that are negate to everything for example if a person knows he's supposed to say y then he's not going to have the sh what do I do if I forgot it but if you never knew the called y or if he barely knew the called so he's definitely going to have a problem if he doesn't know what it is so a very common example I'll just give you a very common example that people have which actually a fellow from Minneapolis was mentioning to me that he he went into a class in high school and he told the girls that um uh if you if you're hired as a babysitter and you sat there let's say for three hours cost let's say for argument sake $12 you want so the fell says you know I only have $10 on me here's $10 and uh I'll take care $2 different time you didn't consented that you had no choice he he offered you the $10 right said If a person doesn't pay the full payment it doesn't it's not counted if it's not 100% paid it's as if it's not paid and you're over B person would be over in a of not paying on time even though he didn't pay the whole salary if she agreed to the weight and she specifically said okay it's fine you can pay me tomorrow that's a different story but if if she's stand there waiting to be paid and he says here take this I'll get I'll speak to your parents tomorrow it doesn't work like that even on a c even on a young person there is and many many people don't even realize that this is a sh this just can shock people to even hear that this is a sh another very common sh we just mentioned before of a person has to be paid before the other people in his company let's say for example if he's a person that was supposed to be paid today and you have other people that were already their payments were missed already from last payment period who gets precedence so the time rights of the person who's up for payment today gets precedence now even though we would think the opposite that someone who wasn't paid for a while should have precedent H the T Works tells differently you can't generate a new is Ban just because you have an old is Balan that's outstanding etc etc many many many examples now there's also very simple solutions to all these problems simple if you know the H exactly so the point is I'll give you a simplest solution for the whole issue of Alin if you hire someone Alin meaning delaying payment delaying payment to the next day which is going to be the topic the the the curriculum for this uh for this for all these branches we're going to basically studying together the the words of which is only a page and a half in but it has thousands of ramifications in day-to-day life this particular this particular topic right it's we're starting off with a concept that actually is only a page and a half in it has two chapters on it that explains very clearly and covers almost all the bases in the of Bin and brings it to the Forefront in a simple way will it be also the opportunity for industry specific questions there so if you look on the uh the app your anything any person who wants to host a share or wants to have any kind of industry specific question or she or whatever it is they can contact us and uh it's actually a I should really be very clear on this this is a joint project of all the institutions for Business Institute you have a famous Dian in America Rabbi Ari Ari marer business the author of the business Hal printed by Aro in 2008 which actually had a big uh big portion I should say a big uh a big look big yach in in in launching this whole thing was the inspiration that we got from using his book how he brings it down to simple Day to-day level and I've spoken to people all over the United States they use this book all the time and it's literally it lights a path for people's uh stud business activities so why don't why doesn't somebody just say well I'll just read his book well because the thing like this because when you when you learn it on a steady basis you incorporate it a lot more than if you just uh read a book one time it's very we know this from our day-to-day life if you sit and eat a shabas meal or you go to a shabas ding enough times you're going to learn how to do it on your own you don't need to but if as you can just read it out of a book and you're not going to know how to apply it you're not going to internalize it by constant review or speaking it with other businessmen who see it from their angle all that helps internalize it that's part part of the reason we're calling it a nights say the program even though it could be done as a sheer or it could be done just at once a week but the point is it should be as if you're learning it just like if you learn or if you learn anything you learn witha you learned in yes you know how to learn witha so you sit down at night and you study with your Kusa and you learn this which is basically but it's we just giving you the to look at and it actually helps you find whatever you need and that helps internalize it in an unbelievable way and it the people that do go to a Shear definitely will gain from it but but it's a lot more part of a person person's uh psyche and his his activities in day-to-day life that he actually immediately remembers it when it comes up well how will it actually take place in terms of it being a business colal Network most people would imagine at this point has some type of night Sader so this would be in this would be an addition to that no that's the the point that this what we're trying to say is we're just networking with anything that exists already okay and we're just tell we're providing a curriculum for them and telling them that you want do you want to energize your program so learn something that's applicable to that to the to daytoday life there's no question that anyone who tries to say we've tried it ourselves there is no question that they're immediately energized by the fact that they right away feel that this applies to them and throughout the day they're thinking about different things just imagine the the um the Merit and the enjoyment that a person has he's thinking did retire the whole day he applies it to his life he feels right away a connection to it it's an unbelievable thing you there's there's many many uh examples of this so many every time a person sells something every time a person makes a transaction every time a person makes a Kenyon every time a person wants to pay up a loan all these things have simple alas that can help a person know how to live his life in other words when a person is in business it's not that he's just going to business and he has his business life and his Tor life this will integrate really the the whole person which is what the Torah really wants us to do and it'll bring it forth in a way that is clear manifestly and a person will be able to do it as we say that every moment that they're in business they'll be on a much higher level of conscientiousness in terms of how they're conducting their business now are there obviously you must have ronam and Tor that you discussed this with and or are in favor keep as we mentioned before yeah there's the prim all the primary institutions of have banded together to do this and uh there the project was is endorsed by Solomon and who was very excited about hearing it and was just in America for a visit and we actually went to him and he was very much behind the project enthusiastic as well as the RAB we mentioned before r r marer the base of vad bzden the business Al Institute all these are organizations that have been promoting K Mish in a big way in all over America and uh this brings it down this curriculum is going to bring the down to the to the day-to-day life of most businessmen just like a person says time to learn the same exact thing you know we live in a time where people say instant gratic instant gratification isn't fast enough people are you know when you mention you have have an app people want an instant answer but obviously things require thought and research and I I would imagine that this is not just to give somebody a shot in the arm and it's you know D a shyon you dial a Business Solution like that you want something that's going to be able to give a person the ability to think it through be aware of the Lo so how do you think it applies in today's environment and um what what are some of the way how will people be able to contact you I think so that uh people that are interested and I would imagine many people would be as we've already seen would be able to know more about the about the business colal Network I asked you a lot in one question l so let me answer the first part um the the the question that you want that you like you wanted to know originally is um what obviously everything you know no one's going to take uh Mish on their own completely without discussing with the rub in fact we these these locations we're only contacting places that a person couldn't study on their own say oh this is how you hold the knife you check ex right you can't watch a video and start checking it's not going to work however the video will definitely help you know a lot more and be a lot more educated to know when you have a Shiloh that knowing when you have a Shiloh is really the whole idea of learning obviously if a person can get it really clear and answer would be even better but but just to be educated to know there something like we said before something called a a l and an estg the same way person has know there something called B and something called all these things have but but what but what's really important is that it's available in your hand right away when you want to see different shiles and different options of your situation you're going to find yourself thinking throughout the day uh does this is this actually what he had mentioned in the sh or is that or I learned M last night one second this might be a problem and you find that out now actually the point of this is not to create problems actually to create Simple Solutions and to show you how very many simple alas can help people avoid the same way if you know the of of saying time you won't have the issue of what to do if it's past the time same exact thing here if a person knows that there's certain how to do certain things he's not going to get into the sh for example example if a person will hire uh his workers through a um a Hiring Agency he's going to avoid almost all the sh that are related to Balin because he's not interacting directly with the employee and he didn't hire him so he didn't promise him the wage it's through an agency it's a whole different story now a person will say one second but what's the difference it's me it's the agency the difference is one is Bon one is not and all it's just this is a simple a person can sit down and learn with it's not roet signed makes it even more simple and safe anyone who goes through the curriculum this El man is not going to have most of the eies in Bon is not going to have a Shiloh about he's going to know basically what to deal with and when he has a real Shiloh he'll go to the road now this entire network so to speak which is really just providing a curriculum to these places and and providing media exposure to them and promoting their and their location to make it more vibrant which is also a monetary value even though we're not actually paying money to the people learning there but we're promoting them and advertising them but every location has a sh or a r who's already there now so we are speaking to them and we're telling we're offering this to them the r is going to learn it with them or if the r already learned it that's also definitely better and uh and we're going to provide all the resources this app has links to anything that related that you can hear sh on any topic you can review has the current liem mod right now the PDF that you can download that has all the marment describes exactly what we're doing and you can learn it in your location any place you are even if you lose the mar just print another one in no time you can get it if you want to contact us very simple business co@ gmail.com business Co Network or business Busco gmail.com business gmail.com very simple business col K col spelled k o l l l gmail.com how do you spell that sorry just and you uh and we'll send you whatever you the whole thing we'll even send a flyer for you will send you the maras and all this is is is going to be promoted in a big way in a couple of weeks and the people can get involved and learn all about it through that we we hope to be able to um to have the locations also advertise so every person in their area can find out where to go which right now we're putting together a bunch of locations however there is no limit to the amount of location we'll put on we can have 10 locations in the same city any person who has a program can put his program on and and learn this these this this these with his constituent or his night program whatever he has there whether he wants to do it as a Shear or wants to do it as AA program whatever it is and that will energize it and uh and and he'll see unbelievable results because people are going to eight hours of their day they're going to be thinking about the learning in in a in a in a minute by- minute kind of way besides the fact obviously that the of learning and thinking and learning is applicable to this too if a person thinks that do I have a Shila here that's right away thinking and learning and every minute of Torah thought is unbelievably reward besides the satisfaction that he has and the fact that he feels that his his study is real time and it's something you know that he can use it's something anyone can in fact said something that someone told me yesterday fell one of the Cities we're speaking with had said that when it comes to learning it's very good for a r to learn together with a businessman why because the businessman can can understand the day-to-day uh transaction and he and he's able to and the r with his knowledge of the together they can apply it to the different scenarios that they encounter throughout the day where this actually produces a a level of learning which cannot be acquired on on on their own this is someone told me yesterday from salant this this this idea which is true you see it you see it in Day Day way a person who does who's interacting who's in the business Market who's out there uh knows that there's a lot a lot of space for improvement and when he here's theas he's definitely going to be implying them and be energized by it and feel very very positive through about himself obviously this is going to affect his his own level of and all the that exist in today's life and there's no question that this is definitely going to bring things to a new level at least that's from the experience that I see and from my feeling that I had so it's certainly a revolution in that sense it reminds me of something that we we had talked about just I mentioned an anecdote about a corporate exec who was asked what his CIS success were and he said integrity and intelligence and they said what do you mean by Integrity he said you give your word make sure you keep it what do you mean by intelligence he said never give your word now we know that's an athema to way ventur would present himself if you give your word you have to keep it they're actually exactly exactly many people are not aware there you promis someone a present you have to give them the present you can't back out if it's a large present where he didn't take you seriously then you can change your word in certain cases but uh but everything has a t ramification you give your word you got to keep your word this is without even making a Kenyon or anything this is just giving a word so and these are very simple open which a person may actually think that they were don't don't worry about me I know how to handle my business exactly but in fact you may not and therefore a person who would want to be a a good kosher consumer would learn the laws of kosis person who would want to learn the laws of uh speaking properly would learn how to speak you hilas lush and hor so we we've seen this development of laws which we need to know H is that every person needs to know and you feel that this is something that in in Lakewood and cities around around the globe actually are going to be able people are going to be able to take advantage of and make a difference in people's lives and definitely it's not only me it's all people behind the movement in fact I do want to uh give proper thanks and actually the entire engine of this project I just had the idea in a certain sense but I went with the idea to The Learning Network which is known as the perosa network and they immediately brought it to whole new level by bringing it out all over the place and uh they do a lot they really get all the credit for this they bring it all over the place they're announcing it and they're going to start a real media campaign soon and they're going to be the ones promoting all these locations and putting it you know just like they do their advertisement for the panasa network it's going to be all over the place but this will be a distinct identity and people should be aware of it this is a separate kind of program that's this is the business Co Network Which business call Network exactly but the but the engine I should say uh of that's going to move it around America is going to be the pros Network that's going to promote it the learning is and the obviously organizations behind the Business Institute the all the other that are in and Rabon and and Branch leaders or whatever it is are are the life of it but but the energy the promotion to bring it out the people to to promote the awareness we need people that are good at at PR that know how to advertise and The Business and the pron network is very very good at that and they get a tremendous amount of credit for it and they saw the importance of it and they right away with that a second thought they took it on as a project and they they feel it's it's the need and it's it's a I just wanted to say something you mentioned before which reminded me used to say that people say that business is business but my personal life is my personal life he he used to hate that line and he used to say that that's the biggest contradiction to the way of a to say that business is business is as if saying that the doesn't apply to business and in my personal life it does this is this is nothing can be further from the truth in fact he he compared that to the and carel where he said either you go to or you go to the you can't be in the middle you can't dance by two at the same time at the same time so the abent has to know that that what Hashem wants and we and we all know this deep down is that there's for everything and it's not complicated there's a lot of Simple Solutions to many things like we just said before if you hire through an Hiring Agency you avoid the whole discussion about t obviously there's certain exceptions but I'm just saying trying to give an example so knowledge is the best prevention and if a person is going to know that there simple he's not going to get into the whole problem that and where he feels about himself that he's not behaving the proper way and the way he's interacting with with other people so that's why the the penos network felt that this is very important and he formed the entire Branch known as the business Co Network which is promoting sort of as its own entity I must say and uh and it's You Know M sh they're out there and we have a lot of partners that are getting involved and there that feel that this is talking to their people you know many many times they try to learn a program it's very hard you know if you're a rub and you're saying a sheer uh on on on on almost any subject that's not related to day-to-day life you you know that it's a struggle every day this is immediate results the the results are almost immediate the person right away you know that the heads go up at the year they say what about this what about that and and people are involved and they're excited and they want to they want to try it out and there there's really no no words to explain something that a person will immediately feel there's no point in going on and on and explaining something that's obvious try it out give it it try it through L every person wants anyone who wants to try it out contact contact us at business KY at gmail.com that's business Co k l gmail.com or or um through the phone phone numbers you can contact us as well do you want to give them or not yet it's going to get too complicated you'll send the email there you'll have all the information you get the curriculum you get the app you get everything you want you'll have full access to on your on your at your fingertips and uh hopefully will bring a whole new level of of of people's life bring up you know the level of Ty in America in general especially by working by Tyra that feel that they that void and that connection to Tyra actually I just want to mention that I thought that uh we we should the network the the learn Network had suggested which is a very good idea is to base the two-year program which provides a general overview of sh based it on the say the way it look Works in Yesa for example everyone knows in Yesa there's three parts of the year there's the L's man the Winter's man and the summers's man so a person who's working even though he you know his schedule is all year there's no vacation but it breaks it down into three parts and we call it the L's man the Winter's man and the summers's man where he feels he's as if he's in Yesa which which adds a lot to his Ras and obviously you know to his protection against thear that exists in the world and and all the things which we don't have to go into but we we realize that there's a void and necessity to be filled that we're trying to make it in that kind of way where people feel that connection that extra connection to ISA as well so if a person would like to get involve let him contact us as business business call gmail.com and he'll have everything in no time full all the tools that he needs to be able to run his business in the Torah and his life in Torah way amen I want to thank you RAB that's the business.com business.com or rather business atgmailcom busc atgmailcom make sure to make it your business to find out more about it because it'll certainly make a difference in your life as it has made and so many people that have undertaken to begin the program every beginning is difficult but we hope that we're past the beginning and you can be part of it making a difference in your life thanks for joining us parents barer with Rabbi El thank you very much appreciate it me