93: Good Enough?

hi this is Deborah Orlowski and welcome to the rabbi Alaska show whether you're watching unter anytime or ever you watch or listen to your podcast it's certainly exciting to have you alone and let me start the beginning I had gotten a letter from a 12 year old in Muncie butter there but settled Grossman who says he's a big fan of the show and espera to give him a shout-out I also got a letter from a 17 year old Shira Lipschitz who did not ask for a shout-out fine she just wrote to say how much he enjoys the show and I felt like my I give her a shout-out and it's so nice so nice how many people really seem to to gain from the things that we do here almost every week right because yeah people have been noticing that the production has been off a little bit and I guess I should give a slight explanation before I go any further why that is I to write a column antenna for the Ahmadiyya it was it was years ago they asked me if I was ready to come on I know I said Who am I to write a comma okay they said you teach I said well that's certainly no proof that I know anything McKenna I can tell you many many stories so so they said well you have you have children so Yankers that makes you a chemical expert I said listen not everybody who has children are an expert no no so I I used to work in youth work I say there are certain areas that everybody is an expert in youth and education because everybody was young and everybody has kids well everybody went to school so everybody's an expert dumb that such an expert I said you can share your experiences I said Aggie you wanna shake experiences good man I'll be happy to share the experience yeah so I used to write this column originally it was one person writing a column and then me and eventually they added a third person into the rotation a little surprised and and I said why they said because you don't understand the concept of deadlines we tell you remember Alaska we have to have this column by Tuesday whatever it is and it's Thursday and we don't have your column and we're going to print we still have your column so the answer is that I mean is the correct answers probably venema but Limina and iceland those are probably the correct answers but I like to think there's another answer and that is that I'm an artiste there's an art to being able to write a column my wife always says to me watch you watch colonists they have a certain sailor that they go through when they write a column that follows a certain set formula I'm not like that I have a certain inspiration in fact I have a whole file of articles that I got halfway through and stopped writing because I felt they were trite I didn't I didn't feel like they were saying anything that was a finish I wasn't saying anything that was essentially relevant he's always a point more than anything to be relevant I speak around the world and I don't work in some places around the world well I used to speak in some places away and whenever I would asked a group what was wrong with your Jewish education they always said the same thing it was irrelevant it wasn't relevant to my life so whenever I speak I always try to make it relevant I want to know that I'm saying something that's meaningful to people and never gonna wish ever Bracco's and you get one of these guys who gets up there and it gives a whole Russia and he's just speaking to the one Russia Sheba and he said me no one knows what's going on I'm not sure that this was his idea of a fun evening either you know but but that's it nobody thought that he dresses Mazel Tov he sits down that's not as I hey speaking of chevrons its bigger brothers you have one Matata and that's to speak to the cousin Carla and diddly with Samia all the people to come and to show everybody how smart you are yeah sure if you love this supposed to be a message that's somewhat unique and focused also a chef brought us a guy it was partially precious and the fellow who was speaking made the whole thing about cutting and how come this week I was thinking it kinda Y killed his brother and yeah the whole thing was all done he says that and our cousins not like that you know if the best thing I am to say about the custom is that he's not guilty of fratricide a so it would take me a long time to write articles I would start to be halfway through an article and I feel like it was cigarette tea it was ordinaire yeah special about it and I would just stop in the middle and I'd have to start again yeah so I really I have to be here not to be inspired so there were two things that inspired me to start this podcast originally one was a very popular podcast through their own politics and I watched it and I watched the numbers grow and grow and grow and I realized how many people you can reach with with this medium and I was someone inspired to try my hand at it and then there's someone else who has a tour quiet care so yes when Beyond and how am i sharing names but suffice it to say I did not feel I was treated well and I said well if he can have a bug is that I guess I can't do so I went to my producer maja who you have met peripherally one day we're gonna have to have him actually on the show from behind the camera in front of the camera yeah McHale adopted me some years ago he said why don't you have a website I said well the person was running my website get upset at me and closed the dam so I don't website because you want me to make your website okay visit my website he gathers to get all of my material he puts it all on unbelievable so so I called him up at some point I say I want to make a podcast I don't know what that means he's this no problem right he went out he bought equipment these that setting everything up we raised everything you know and we used to film it in front of my house in my home and then we moved it to his studio and toast them and then with the coronavirus of course he expects me now to do it on my own there's a certain logic to that I mean I did give her much zoom every single day so zoom now I don't know if you can tell but I put a tremendous amount of effort and from these podcasts efforts Babs are on board would say enthusiasm energy I really try I really try it I put a lot into it and it's happened to me three or four times that I recorded a podcast and then I check and it wasn't on record I had to do the whole thing over again now in precious mashaallah it says that the Jews come to a lemn and there's 12 Springs and 70 fruit trees and they all sit then arrest and then militiamen picks them up and moves them back out into the desert and there's no water there's no food this it's hard to do it it's harder to do it again I remove you know courage Bravo consequences later comrades from the rehearse at Erica leave your home leave your family leave everything a good idea a terrible design and when he gets there yeah there's a famine so he can't stay so he goes down to Egypt so enough of the first I'm saying why is me go back home and one of the answer is that they give is he didn't know if he could pass the test a second time he didn't know if he could pass the test the second time very hard so here I make a whole podcast and suddenly I see it wasn't recording and I have to do it over and when you do it over it's so much harder because first of all you put so much of yourself into it and save all you have to remember what you said no I'm J hard for me because then I can't remember what I'm saying when I'm a little saying it imagine I have to try and recreate so these things contributed to a certain extent to the fact that we have fallen behind in our podcast that's really an explanation excuse of excusing it yeah I do I do try but but and for all of you who tend to write and say are you still alive I'm still alive I'm just you know I have to wait for the spirit to move me so that I can you know sit down and say something that I hope will be relevant and meaningful to everybody who's listening so that's my general introduction if you don't see the podcast come out when it's supposed to don't worry I'm fine I'm just waiting for the inspiration to hit me yeah and then mix it mix it like summit are you waiting for inspiration so I heard a story once with they've been Gorgon first Prime Minister of Israel I hope it's true this is a story I heard he was talking to somebody who was [Music] religious person and my guy looks at the window and he sees it's getting late and he says I'm sorry I have to dump man huh he goes in the corner and it happens what we in the vernacular referred to as a quickie mix yeah cheeseburger everyone's done with the milk like and then everybody but some of us have got milk was like that over the time when he comes back David ben-gurion was not religious system you call that a mikvah so he says no but because I do that three times a day every day sometimes I have a truly inspiring feeling he says if you can say that you've had a truly inspiring feeling once in your life it's worth doing that three times a day every single day so that's the so that's the idea sometimes you know you got to talk even when you don't have the inspiration and you hope a coach Barker they're gonna catch him right there are times when I used to give a multi-shot Bashir and I'd have to give the title the week before and the title was based on my question and I had no answer and I just was hoping that a coach brother who would give me an answer I'd have seen this fire that happened almost every time except one time I literally painted myself into a corner it was Shabbos Konica it was me Cates and and it says that yahoo a Guido sent down to south nos Barnea me Zimmer saw hurts and it lists different things that it shows song about and one of them is boat on in which Rashi says are pistachios and I wondered what's the significance of pistachios that arrow should be sung about it was so special no pistachios so I figured okay I would start with a little routine on Hanukkah gifts you know and I'm going to this you know it's any gifts in it so I called the share pistachios the perfect gift idea now a title like that doesn't leave you a lot of room to maneuver somebody told me they once asked rabbi dr. keen tends to come and speak so they made the arrangements and he says could you send us some titles so he sent him a list of like twenty titles and he's so somebody said book what do these things mean he says nothing I'm gonna talk about whatever I want so just pick whichever title sounds good that's very smart it's a smart thing to do yeah we have to be careful with titles sometimes the title gives everything away yeah my wife saw sure once it's said shemitah and Shabbos is there a connection now do you think you guys gonna get up and say nope thank you you sort of telegraphing the punchline as we as we say you know so to would you say pistachios the gift idea you sort of bite yourself in and I could not find at least an oldest firm that I lived in any significant substantial I am was in and I kept saying a cush buck was not gonna do this to me and he's now you expect when you get in front of a whole group you know with ten months ago my work said what are you gonna do I said I'll get someone who plays the guitar and we'll Cinco bottom we'll call it zero stars I don't know what to do that's something else to talk about but you know I should really take a leaf out like that's his book yes try to give amorphous titles you know when I mister micelles used to have out on his mere peasant a tickler Lewis and it is to go all night and they got a tremendous amount of people and they used to put me in the last slot yeah and you know three three thirty twenty I don't know what I'm always you know they said there's nobody else we're gonna get to get people at that time in the morning so I'm overtired everybody's overtired you know when people are overtired how they start to sound open parentheses the best column I ever ripped when I was writing for Olivia was about how kids don't get a lot enough sleep but as I mentioned I have to be creative so I wrote the whole article a sounding heavy asleep it was somebody you know it was written almost like a hate ku you know I mean very you know it is sort of dreamy kind of way it was absolutely brilliant I have to say it was one of the best columns over my editor called me up and said don't ever do that again you're writing on a 5th grade level okay don't wanna lose you people right sleep is a big problem many children don't get enough sleep sometimes people rate these things in iambic pentameter but so is him asleep you know and and I remember what I was talking and his phrasing I said it's like a prism of reality I look around the room and everyone's nodding and I say what do you talk about that makes absolutely no sense what's a prism of reality and it reverses people not in anything at this point at night anyway next year when they put out the flyer they said remember Lansky speaking on the prism of reality here's a pretty good topic as you look very what you know means them but so you know generally you you try to approach things and you hope that you'll get that inspiration and like I say sometimes I do sometimes I don't bender so what I'm going to try to do really make a yeoman's effort now is to make sure the podcast comes out on time whether it's inspired or not whether it's relevant or not I may just read excerpts from my electric bill shocking I know but I owe you thinking when I read from your phone bill because that's better for communication answers gives my phone bills to the present anyway okay so so what are we gonna talk about so I've been thinking about this because once again through for planning you people in quick Lords decided to make sure it's on javis second day she was we had a regular screw was on Friday we went into Shabbos you decided to make a second date first the result of that is that we had parsha snow so you on Shabbos and you had truce so when we had my Lois car you were doing not so and so it will be like this staggered yeah so I thought can I come up with an idea that will tie together several of these buyer shows some regardless of when you happen to tune in it will make a little sense for you so I want to say over and I'll show you lined the idea immensely relevant let me let me take one step backwards it's always important to understand where we are in history my cats were the calendars for so we know Spears armor are the seven weeks that we traveled in the mid part until we got to her scene I Christina we got the Torah the next 40 days Maj Romero is up in Sharm ayan getting the Torah what are we doing waiting and as luck would have it we were off on the count unbeknownst to us we were counting down to building the Eagles of the golden calf I mean we didn't realize it at the time we thought we were waiting for motorboats bring down the snail ojos de bris yeah but in fact we were just counting down to the Eagle and it's every year at this time the day that could have been there is leaving of the a Saracen dubrow's written and made by the hand of God instead we get serviced with Thomas a day of destruction it's it's a sad sad reality so I may have mentioned this last year but the historical events that define the three weeks are in fact separated by a year service with Thomas was the a gal and dish above was the miraculin so there's the process over there as a year in between but obviously there's three weeks in between the dates of the two events but even leading up to Marat glim there is a progression and the progression in the Torah is from the Miss anonym the miss oven and the Moraga l'm the miss owner name are the complainers the miss of him are the desires desires and the miraculous of course are the scouts who came back with the report yeah what was the progression so the outlook says the progression was interesting because it goes from miss Onan Umrah the Oz may Hashem only Hashem hurted by Ishmael share via telephony it was no public everybody was fetching to themselves [Music] everyone's complaining to themselves and a sham is absurd and after that people get by you schmuck Moshe SR owned by a fella mr. ho subs and he heard the people crying with their families now they didn't just cry to the fam to themselves now they were crying to their families and when it comes to Moraga l'm it changes please tell everybody that they're going to die but Tisa call her aid the vietnamese : v f gu ha um Ville I love everybody cries Oh buddy Christ it was a progression an individual sense of unhappiness and that spread to the family units our families have said and then eventually spread to all closer cuz bad attitude is contagious not a guy in our Smith he used to mean the Hells Angels and he made his way back there it's Joan - there were Samara but there was still a certain shall we say yeah and polishness to his his approach to life so he comes in when they and he says I'm in a bad mood and my philosophy is always to share that with others so I'm unhappy and then I make my family unhappy and then everybody gets unhappy bumper sticker the 80s it said are we having fun yet was anybody happy it spreads an attitude spread it's a big problem big problem but what are they complaining about the Masami they were complaining about the Turkish side era because girl who wanted to rush them into air travel very quickly so it's very interesting you know we have there's two upside-down own and it says to separate make paneer slip on yes what are the pony yes so just before those knownin it says I could borrow who was traveling together some terries jump and right after that's the masala game what are those two things have to do with each other Cisco's was time to go laughs as I'll say we ran away from her see night without even a backwards glance like children running out of school not even looking back when you go someplace II really enjoy you watched from the window as you pulling away cuz it was so nice and you enjoyed it so much and if there were people that you visited you waving goodbye [Music] they just ran away from my retainer so coach Bronco said must be this so anxious to go to its job why else would they run away from our c9 okay let's get there and so quickly the people started complaining whoa what's the rush why are we going so fast slow it down it's too much I can handle it those Loomis auditor what comes next of the massage I remember the meet they'll remember the fish remember the cucumbers I get such a fishy quick you come all the things we used to be able to hand can't get a good piece of Carl again [Music] miss Alvin emotional Brianna says there's no way you're going to be able to satisfy this because they didn't want something they just had a timer the difference between a diver and a Honda is Honda is I want something that is committed I want this this is desirous when I have a Tyva I just want no no what do you want to eat I don't know no one cereal no no past it no no no screaming no why because I don't want a thing I just want I just wanna and then of course come to Morocco and they say there's no where we can capture it fell it's too hard so I look at these three events and I say there's obviously a progression but what's the progression well for one thing they could go and speak to mushroom man but they felt the disconnect I'm gonna tell most sure better that I'm tired I can him already you know I was up on Mount Sinai frog reporting days I didn't sleep the whole time ok ok I'm gonna tell him I haven't ie but I ever hear the timer you know I didn't eat for according to your didn't ignite and finally come back and they say it's a his Giants fortified cities maybe Moser a banal can do it but we can't it's too hard for us although is a dumbbell approved above knee Olam haba this world is an entrance hall we're on a journey lay cliff on the odds are I'm glad to come the base are beautiful you're going on a journey you're going to get someplace and the first thing we do is complain about the journey it's too hard what I have to work so hard for all the time I'm okay good enough Charles Osgood you said this thing could be as good files on the BCBS radio I haven't had a copy this one particular poem he wrote that has been repeated many times there once was a pretty good student who said in a pretty good class and was taught by a pretty good teacher who always liked pretty good pass he wasn't terrific at reading he wasn't a whiz-bang at math but for him education was leading straight down a pretty good path he didn't find school too exciting but he wanted to do pretty well and he did have some trouble with writing and nobody had taught him to spell when doing arithmetic problem problems pretty good was regarded as fine five plus five didn't always add up to ten a pretty good answer was nine the pretty good class that he sat in was part of a pretty good school and the student was not an exception on the contrary he was the rule the pretty good school that he went to was there in a pretty good town and nobody there seemed to notice he couldn't tell a verb from a noun this pretty good student in fact was part of a pretty good mob and the first time he knew what he lacked was when he looked for a pretty good job it was then when he sought a position he discovered that life could be tough and he soon had a sneaky suspicion pretty good might not be good enough the pretty good town in our story was part of a pretty good state which had pretty good aspirations and prayed for a pretty good fate there once was a pretty good nation pretty proud of the greatness at had which learned much too late if you want to be great pretty good is in fact pretty bad so they run the roads too hard this is good enough stop here can't be rest we're taking a nap with the brush with the hurry were you going slow down you move to first gotta make the morning last yeah what were you going and once you decide that the journey to a meaningful location it's too hard and you start to focus on all the stuff that you don't have I mean already fish all right cucumbers right garlic okay missing well things they don't hang out I want stuff but enjoy life and finally after you get through all of that you reach the destination and you say wait wait wait wait wait check it out first what send out more a golem to see what this place is like and then we're a go and go out they come back and say [Music] not for you it's too hard just give up and they lost dog crying because I had my eyes set on a goal now people do this all the time they decide that they really want to have truly meaningful life and let me find out that truly meaningless life is a lot easier people start off and really wanna and down and beautifully have a wonderful marriage I spend a lot of time with the kids well whatever their motivations are whatever their goals are and then they realize it's hard so to give up I give up along the road so journey was too hard and I'd rather eat an onion when I finally get there I say that's not for me good enough good enough okay I said this many ways because rabbi what do you want from me you know I'm a good guy pretty good it's good enough I said you and should know her Marcus I said I have a girl free just tell me better who's okay none special good enough for you no I want to marry somebody exceptional no you don't you want to marry somebody pretty good because you're pretty good I have pretty good night Harwich some pretty good kids when you died I read on your tombstone it was pretty good that's enough and we're content we start this tram for March I just by the way Scott and Ted show and then we have the Missoni name and then we have the Mossad men and then we have meringue Lim my cuz roses you know what just forget though yeah you're right it still I feel we'll try again with you kids maybe they'll manage maybe they'll manage we go from surest to shahboz of Athamas you know lying because we were afraid we thought Moshe was dead we thought we weren't able to speak Turkish Bernal directly we were afraid we wouldn't get the tire it was too hard so quick why don't we bring in a yell cuz there goes a baby no beep you are in Chaves when it talks about the echo because of the IDI why because murder is usually represented by a goat but the eagle wasn't a goat it was a little kid the baby goat my baby can you go to hunt with me no problem stay here in the mid bar but the clouds around your drink's my bear eat the mine and die here sometime let me a total have a little more confidence be willing to go and face their destiny history can always go two ways sure most of Atomos could be the day when we receive the Blue Hose could be the day when we built the eagle and watch the loons get destroyed there's a famous story we used to tell it and then csy all the time at the end of it comes it's there was a wise man and he could guess anything that you hid in your hand and a person would come to was a wise man what do I have in my hand and he says it's a key and they say a key to what this is a key to your front door and sure enough it was and he says wise man what do I have in my hand and he says it's a cookies is what kind of cookies chocolate chip missus this is one person that started he would fooled the wise man and he came with a little butterfly and I'll say wise man what do I have in my hands and he'll say a butterfly and I'll say is it alive or dead and if he says it's dead I will open up my hands and it will fly away and if he says that it's alive I'll gently crush it and show him that it's dead so he comes to the wise man and he says wise man what do I have in my hands and he says a butterfly and he says is it alive or dead and the wise man said the answer to that question is in your hands how we're going to play out these 40 days from Schuster she must be Thomas that's in our hands and that's it for this week you want to find out more about the podcasts make any comments sponsor an episode you go to reverie Alaska calm and that's it for this week looking forward to seeing you again my name is Deborah Orlowski and this is the very last show it's the rabbi Orlovsky show Turin Simpson ready to go the rabbi Orlovsky show knowledge of wisdom will help you raise lots of fun in every episode of we don't have to ride no it's the rabbi Orlovsky show a rabbi or laughs keep calm no rush anytime you too bored it's rabbi Orlovsky show Torrance laughs ski show till it's time so we meet again grab my Olaf ski shop it's the rabbi Olaf ski show it's the rabbi Orlovsky [Music]