Pesach Program 1: The Meaning of Cleaning

[Music] hi this is Deborah Lasky and welcome to a special series of the rubbery Olaf ski show this is the rabbi or a loved ski pace off program now let me explain through how clever that is because when you go away to a hotel they don't say you're going wait whoa tell they say going to a Pesach program and I was as I've mentioned invited to a number of Pesach programs and when I told them that I was going to bring my family along so there were two basic reactions the nicer people said well not that you're not worth it but you know our budget doesn't allow it and other people said are you out of your mind but the idea remains the same and that is I'm staying home for Pesach which is really ok for me now I'm not gonna do one of those rants about oh it's not right to go to a place of hotel and you should stay home your foot pays up because I could give you a list of rabbi's who've done this and then they went away to prison which reminds me of what Mark Twain the American humorist used to say keep your words soft and sweet it'll be easier when you have to eat them later so I have gone to pay some hotels I don't enjoy it as much as staying home I actually enjoy staying home I like being on my own schedule I was I was once in a hotel where we were the last Seder and like everybody it already cleared how did they clear up everything in the waiters were just sitting there waiting for us to finish which is so uncomfortable and yet so you feel like I have to move it along I don't have to move it along here everything's great we take our time and we'll we'll spend as much time as we want and do what we want and how we want it and it's a it's a special thing I think not to take away I am I'm not gonna say the times I went away to hotels that they weren't extremely enjoyable you know I give a wonderful experience for people so I'm not saying person shouldn't go away I'm not saying you know it's a problem personally I go through the ads just to see who has been invited and instead of me but I look at all the Pesach programs throughout the United States and Canada and Mexico and Europe and Hertz Chuck I don't know they fill up all these places to fill up it's absolutely amazing so um so that's fine I'm not talking about that but but when you go away to one of these places they say we're going to a Pesach program so this is the rabbi Orlovsky Pesach program only thing is a cop is that you see this show is a program so it's a program it's a Pesach program huh it's unbelievable uh what I the the amount of thought and preparation that goes into this show you can't even believe and of course my producer was able to come up with a beautiful matzah sign and letters this is my matzah tie which I took out special for these series of of shows because this is eyewitness at the Seder yeah and there's always somebody clever when I were at the show phase that night and they say oh I guess you got crumbs Olivia tire oh that's a knee-slapper let's leptin even though anyway but it's it's great I'm so happy that people have an opportunity to use the same exact line year after year you know if I go to Olam haba and it's a it's an iffy proposition but if I do go it'll definitely be for the times that I keep my mouth shut not for the times that I've talked I do a lot of talking and it's a story all right we'll talk about this in a different context but just it was one time I was speaking on tissue buff at least have a program and tissue Bob we would explain the chemist not all the speakers stuck to the program some of them gave it to Russia's but you know we would explain the chemists I I used to go to my chef Matt Soccio and here when we left do this before when I was in when I was in America fetish above I went to his show and Muncey he did it so I've seen I've seen this way you might explain you explain the kidney you speak so that when you say the kenna it's more meaningful so so I had you know gotten into trouble on occasion people weren't always happy with what I said if you can imagine such a thing it's amazing that you can sometimes say something that appears innocuous I did a podcast the two podcasts ago where I talked about how we live in a disposable society by the way it's not my finish a lot of people have said this and a person writes me and says you're encouraging hoarding I'm encouraging hoarding saying yeah yeah yeah on your podcast so I listened to it again and I said I wrote her back I said I don't know what you're talking about when I encouraged her says yeah the last three minutes so I listened to it again I said I don't see what I said I'm uncut you know maybe you could tell me the exact line says you said think twice before you throw something out I guess I should have said don't think at all throw everything out or maybe you should only think once but don't rethink it as soon as Oliver my chef tell you that you should throw it away throw away means I was Irish I was like that's that's what you took away from think twice before you throw something away so my point is just that I say things and sometimes people take it in the wrong context there was a Jewish publication I'm not gotten but they asked me to write for them anyone right for them so the person who was writing a particular column would call me up and ask me what I thought and then write it up and I answer certain questions and somebody wrote a letter to the editor complaining about what I said and completely misunderstood what I said they took it completely out of context and wrote and that's when I stopped even answering questions I because I used to write a column in a madea on Okinawa and if ever they got a letter of complaint first they would send it to me that you have an opportunity to respond you just published a letter without the author having an opportunity to respond to it and especially in the situation like this with a person completely misunderstood what I said my wife says what do you care what do you get upset for I get upset I get upset I answer every one of your emails at least I tried to the longer ones that requires some thought takes me a little longer but you know I really try to respond and to take it and I take it seriously people just think what I say out of context so anyway so if I had had situations where people had not fully understood what I was thinking I got into trouble so so I decided to find the most innocuous thing to speak about and I took the kinah about the gamora's that had been burnt in Paris 24 cartload of Kumaris telleth and i use it as an opportunity to talk about covered basic necess and covered spa room and you know gosh how could you argue with me it's like coming out in favor of tooth decay you know I mean like I'm saying to be my hobby Jules my god but he's far away what do you want from her so there was a letter to the editor in the Jewish press this must have been 1995 if I recall correctly I had to litter I don't know if I still have it and I thought it was intriguing and it said 50 years ago what would a person have done to be able to sit and shaul 50 years ago what would a person have done to be able to answer Kaddish to be able to hear Korea cetera 50 years ago what would a person have been able to do to have a whole dissenter and now that we have all these things do we take it for granted do we appreciate it or do we talk through our darling or do we talk through the laning and we talk through a Kaddish and then he threw in this line maybe if we saw our tools turned into stables it's because we turned them into stables not between me you and the lamppost that's not a really novel concept there is a concert meeting can I get me there from that mistake and it's actually a Mishnah insight it's a mission and picking of us the concept of measure for measure is really pretty legitimate yeah anyways I'm reading this there's a fella sitting on the floor and says I must object this was not a group participation event you understand but taken aback he says you're saying that our shows knew she was returning dis tables cuz we did something wrong nobody can question the code ocean no one can say he did anything wrong I said the point I was trying to make is he says I lost 80 relatives in the Holocaust you saying it's because they did something wrong daughter doesn't read the crest of the conversion nobody and he started crying and I took a few seconds to more or less size up the situation and I said we should all have a nahama and I said that double eleska whose part of the famous speaker club came over to me afterwards and he says you know there were many famous speakers who were in the audience because everybody can't some people were speaking some people just came because it makes it for a much more meaningful teach but when you spend a little time explaining the chemos he says you know a lot of famous speakers there and I went over to one of them and said I thought of four excellent answers Orlovsky could have given and the other fellow said I thought of six and we both agreed that none of them was as good as yours which led me to conclude that I do my best speaking when I keep my mouth shut so so and people come over and they tell you the same joke but the matsutaro year after year and I smile politely so there's no question about it you know that's if I go to heaven it'll be for the times I keep my mouth shut yeah even though people have said things to me over the world over the over of my life and you know a person who keeps their mouth shut sailor huzzah so all the time are forgiven and everything well that felis I answered I was doubting everything I'm at once and I started screaming me at the end of time he was screaming and screaming yelling at me you know people were talking but he stops that minute okay you got yell at me I've been insulted by professionals is that guy attacked me once on the internet he wrote you're nothing but a third-rate seminary teacher I wrote back that's not an insult that's a job description so guys nothing anyone can say to raise as much as what my babies to say to be trust me but but this guy's screaming at me and okay and after you leaves that guy runs over and says listen you know I have a relatives it was very sick please say keep it that they owned him and this close to the fact that you keep your mouth shut it's so interesting nobody ever said that when I speak no one ever said when I was a great direction please dive in for zones enough but I keep my mouth shut that's when you do the best anyway so I got my matzah tie and I got the matzah sign and we're gonna talk about in your nape now the plan is yeah that we're going to do this series we're gonna try to have this come out every two days gonna try this is a tremendous tremendous amount of time and effort that's gonna go into this for my producer I of course just sit here and talk and if there's no camera I just sit in the same exactly right where I am and I just thought you know I hang up my swaram poster sometimes when I'm traveling and I just get a chair and I sit here and I just talk even if there's no camera there's nobody there I was recently at a shepherd you know and they said you know you're supposed to start speaking it whatever it is 1:30 exactly yeah I coming one threes nobody the rubes get up thank you all for coming what a pleasure and I spoke for about five minutes after we're all excited to feel a little silly and I left you know and afterwards people said all there are people waiting I said well they weren't when I started huh all right back but anyway so we're gonna try to do this we're trying to do this because we know that you're cleaning for pacer or now book you're packing to go away for pace or whatever it is we want to be here for you to bring you this sense of pace on the sense of doing something special so that's our introduction to our series this is this is number one in the series of these special reverie Alaska show pesach program and I always had a chuka I'm afraid to do it because I'm always afraid to do things yeah oh we're so much so good I don't know March trying is the first step to failing there's a lot of wisdom there yeah it was actually in full disclosure you know somebody let me these books could the bathroom breeders yeah so they had juxtaposed quotes from Homer Simpson and Homer the Greek the Greek or third floor and it's amazing how often they would actually relate but trying is the first at the fun but I've always had this took a that I wanted to make and I it's a pace of program and find a relatively small nice hotel and and make a paste out basically I want the people to feel like they're coming to spend pace up with me and my family and I have Hashem a very talented family yeah I have I have a daughter who teaches in seminaries I have a doula teaches dance epidural teaches Zumba I have a son-in-law who who plays the plays the keyboard and I've got another one who sings and composes songs I I've got such a I'm leaving out peopIe but I've got such a varied and my son is a good dialer I I have such a varied say if I'd be able to put together such a fun program I'll be so great but it means that I have to actually sign a contract and make a commitment and then hope that people show up otherwise you know he's sitting there by myself thank you thank you very much sir thank you for cup anyway but but I that would be something would be really enjoyable but the point is to combine you know basically having everybody in my hands for pace actually having it in a hotel because I really you know there have enough room here for even the immediate family if everybody comes nevertheless all of you my extended family my online community anyway but okay so if you're packing or if you're cleaning or whatever you're doing so we're gonna talk I'm gonna talk about different pace up themes and here's the first thing we're gonna talk about I'm gonna talk about Pesach cleaning is that cleaning I it was a fellow who was gosh the story at least 20 years old maybe 25 years old he was trying to put together cable shows that he was trying to sell to different cable stations I'm Jewish topics and he wanted me to host one I would have my own TV show funny how that works out a and we filmed the pilot episode it was before Pesach different people we had to pay something to it and one was Rebbetzin and her what she was maintaining is that cleaning for Pesach is fun for the family now this depends in my opinion on a lot of different factors your house your family we have a very small house a really positive family then yes it could be a lot of fun if you have children like many people do where well the cleaning lady is cleaning up they were sitting on the couch play with your phone and you know she says listen could you could you maybe move your feet so that I could vacuum and she's like oh it's like I don't get a break around here it just never stops [Laughter] I don't know clean for pace I could be a little less exciting so let's I want to talk about it from two different points of view or one practical and one more philosophical we just come out of port what is the purpose of port the purpose of poem is in case you think there's any place in your house with this no crumbs forget about it we send you shots one us with little pretzels and little cookies and all kinds of little hummus thick of stuff and then we make you bring in all kinds of small children to run around your house and hide them all over the place you never know where it's hidden you never know where it's hidden and you have to go through everything trying to find it it's a lot of work work now those of you who have OCD it's definitely kedai to start early and get prozac that's what you should do go to a a registered psychologist psychiatrist and let them give you some pills so that you calm down because there's no limit there's no limit how crazy you can go and if you have a small house like they used to have basically one big room and it wasn't big deal you just basically Rick the dirt floor you know and rewire whitewash the walls change the fetch on the roof you know you're basically done it was like a no house there wasn't much to do things get houses get larger gets more complicated yeah so even those of us who live here naired so in relatively small apartments I lived in Far Rockaway I had a two family house and well the deck in a back yard in a basement I was gonna put in a skylight but the people upstairs objected well and someone's living downstairs so that goes my basement you know I have a little Hut's are outside and it's nice because then the neighbors children throw things at us we go outside but yeah it's you know I know what it is a nice house a but even here okay so we have a relatively small apartment but still you have to you know what a clean me it goes into it my cleaning lady Raji I'm Sri Lanka has been so nervous about Pesach already for since to be shot and I'm - this is a leap year so it's like you know a long time she had some all the windows she closed orbit risen so that they shouldn't get dirty from the rain living in darkness I guess we make the brother face up make our location I open the dresser well I didn't but you know people get very very nervous so so what do you do so first of all you have to accept your limitations no maybe do everything and not everything is essential to do for paisa so this is an ongoing discussion in my family because even though this is just my the poster of my sperm I do have you know a whole bunch of book cabinets filled with sperm and I like to clean it out before Pesach and this is a terrible job my daughter Yaffa we just had a baby boy Mazel Tov I was in America she was the only one who wouldn't who would come and help me with the bookcase no parent you would go back if she actually once worked for Neela Elif in their library so she has a keen affinity for farm but so people said there's no harm it's there no comments you know you worried you were too safe it to the table so don't bring it to the table yeah nobody's gonna open up a safe in front a couple of crumbs ago mmm don't worry about it but to me you know if you can you clean the bookshelves right but let's say you can't I heard on the radio once this rub you know this woman colder up the night Oh buddy cos climates and says do I have to clean out the refrigerator he's like yeah that's like it's like basic 101 cusps I have no coeliac left I have no car left I'm exhausted yeah this is why I was in the children's room I was changing over the clothes that's wiping out the shelves i rewatch him folding everything and it's that's not the in fact there's a counterintuitive suggestion I saw once an idea that I think is and I've actually try this which is absolutely brilliant they say do the kitchen first counterintuitive because our gonna keep using it right now I can't speak for everybody but by the side of the oven if you've built enough in this doesn't apply so much but the side of the oven it tends to get really yucky from the stuff that splash over that takes a long time to clean off so you clean all of that and you clean the refrigerator and you clean the freezer good you're still using stuff put down some paper and keep using it you'll have to clean it again Ivo ain't no Duma to doing it the second time than doing it the first time it's a much easier job if you've done it already so so to be able to be able to get things going but so okay so you gotta be realistic yet us then but there's a process here absurd because that was the story of going out of Egypt that is hideous miss Ryan that is the excess I heard this from reverie Fishman mosquito from tourists Moshe because we had a mitzvah on the 10th of Nisan to take a sheep and tie it to our bedpost now that was so that we could watch it to make sure it didn't ever month we say in the Haggadah are you dead the now is the pressure that they had living in Egypt why because a woman had six tuplets she had six children at a time so now imagine you're a small family you know I have three kids that's 18 kids and your little house in Egypt now what do you think the reaction of the children are when you bring a sheep into their house and toy through a bed this one wants to write it this one's poking it with a yeah with that with a stick this one visit and if it gets a mom that's it we're done we're not getting out of here so that meant that there was this proposing there was this bahala there was this everybody had to concentrate focus if you wanted to be able to to watch your compass on the way we recreate that is when we clean for Pesach and these little crumbs all over the place I remember the waiver of your fishman put it as they says why don't we just say you can't have Flay cheeks for a week cuz how far does the person walk with with a book in his hand you know how many people have walking around with a piece of steak but Congress gets everywhere so that examination and searching is what takes so much time so so that's why now those of us who are cleaning for pace on preparing for Pesach and getting ready for their he please the excitement and the action the whole focus of it is for us to be able to have that sense that we go out favors from Abdus there's a is a slavery is working that we have to go through in order to then be able to have that you shew it to be able to have that freedom so that's our introduction to our Pesach program so we'll have another one I hope in two days if you want to find out more about the show please go to every Alaska DICOM slaves podcast if you wanna make a comment on this particular show it's fabulous Keep Calm slash podcast slash 26 we know about our coming events or relapsing that come slash events if you would like to contact me we allow skis.com slash contact and if you would like to sponsor an episode so if we ask you that come slash podcast and click on the sponsor an episode button I'm Ryo Lansky and this is the rabbi Orlovsky Pesach program you