America at 250 (Ep. 310)

Hi, this is David Elowski and welcome to the Rabbi Elowski show. And whether you're watching with our friends over at Tur anytime or our producers or wherever you watch and listen to this show, as always, we are excited to have you along. And you might notice that things are a little different this week. I'm not in my usual location. I am in the same room, but I've been moved over. Let me explain to you why. We had a torrential rains here in Rishlay. And of course, we always are happy for rain because we live here in the Middle East and when it rains, it's good for everybody except for those of us who get the rain inside of our house. That's not as good for us. But I certainly, you know, I'm not going to complain. uh we say a special should not listen to the uh people who are traveling and don't want it to rain. We have to give rain to everybody. But we had this torrential downpour and we lost electricity. So my son-in-law mayorbach is an electrical engineer. You should always have one in your family. and uh he came down and started checking bit by bit, point by point to try to figure out where the problem was. And we limited it down to my living room and dining room where I usually do the filming. And he said, uh, there must be a junction box somewhere. And, uh, we searched through every junction box we could find. And he says that wasn't the main one. And finally, it turns out that the two boxes he needs are behind my bookcases. So, I had to empty out all of my bookcases and move the bookcases away. Actually, it was one bookcase I moved and there was a junction there and somebody checked it for him and said, "No, that's not the box." So, then I moved it back in and put all the spurum back in. And can I know her? These things are heavy. A lot of them. and Barak Hashem, my friend Alan Rubin, who is of German extraction, he helped me put it back together and made sure that every safer was in the correct order and everything was all set up. It was it was really delightful. And then he came back and said, "No, no, I do need that box." So, I had to empty out the entire bookcase and move the bookcase again. And then there was another bookcase I had to move. And sure enough, the main junction one was right behind there. So my bookcases are are empty. So I normally use that as a background. Now there was a tufa when my producer Miky actually used a green screen and took a picture of the bookcase and just put it up. But now we use actual bookcases. We don't have a green screen here. So I could have filmed it in front of an empty bookcase. But goodness, wouldn't that be depressing? I didn't want to do that. So, I've moved to my dining room table and behind me is a completely blank wall. Why is there a blank wall? Why are there no pictures or paintings? Because we painted five years ago and we meant to put the pictures back up and we will at some point. The only problem is every time we do this, it's time to paint again. So, the paintings and the pictures never get back up on the wall. So, here I am in my location. uh not my regular location, but I am in the same room, just from a different perspective. And uh that's really going to be the theme today. We're going to look at things from a different perspective, and that's what we're shooting for. And by the way, somebody made a comment that I can only uh echo because it happens to be correct. They said, "You know, your Rabi Olowski sign's getting a little beaten up." It's true. My kids actually made it for my 60th birthday. And I remember when I turned 60, someone said to me, "60 is not old." And I said, "Well, there's a Mishna that disagrees with you." Shishimikna. Yeah. 60. You're old. Shima, 70. You're very old. We're surprised you're still here. 60 is definitely old. So, we made this for my 60th birthday party. You know the Rabbi show live kilo that was the thing and Gimlvat I'm turning 67 so this thing is seven years old and it's become a little beaten up over the years as I have too. We've all had some wear and tear on us you know over the past seven years and uh but we're still here. So yeah, we're going to have to talk about getting a new sign and uh coming up with something uh to replace that. But right now, what can I tell you? Our studio is a little low tech. And uh there will come a time, I guess, when I I have to tell you, I did a uh I don't know if I'm allowed to give this away, but um I did a video for Art Scroll. Uh I have a I have a book that I didn't write. You may have seen this book. It's uh it's called Everyone's Entitled to My Opinion. It's not it's not my book, you know. I didn't write it, but somebody took uh bunch of my recordings, transcribed them, and uh turned them into a book, and Art Scroll edited it, and they came up with the title. Everyone's entitled to my opinion. Everyone says, "Oh, that's such a Rabiolowski title. I didn't make it up." So, it's not really my book, but it's my material, you know. So, Arts Go interviewed me as part of their author series and I said, "Listen, do not ask me about the book. I didn't read the book. I don't know what's in the book." And if you ask me, "So, you wrote this book?" I'm going to say, "No, I didn't." So, so they interviewed me on a set where there was a little table and the book was on the table and he never once asked me about the book. It's a great interview, but I was in the uh art school studios which is uh in New Jersey and uh it's it's all green screen. The whole room is green screen and when you watch the interview, I'm sitting there in this beautiful library with these bookcases. It's all green screen, you know. So, I guess I'll have to uh figure out how to do something like that. And it was a very fancy studio and beautiful. It's a great interview. I I have to tell you the truth. I They gave me a tour of the Art Scroll publishing area. Very impressive. I I'm thinking one time when I'm in America, I might just go down, you know, and and film it and show you it because they have special binding things, etc. And uh I don't know if you noticed this, like art scroll gumaras, they don't like fall apart like regular garas. And they said they have a special stronger binding that they used that this was one of the things that was important to them when they were doing it that these should be swarm that last. And that's very interesting. It's really interesting process. We'll have to talk about that at that point. But anyway, we're out of uh our our normal location. And the other thing that's going to be a little unusual is the sponsorship. Hold on to your seats. This is uh this is going to be a long one. You know how sometimes you get those sponsorships of like uh sponsored anonymously you know to give Kazik to Clayville that's not happening today. This was sponsored by someone who sponsored four episodes in honor of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States because the United States was founded in 1776. So 1876, 1976, and another 50 years, you come to 2026. So he sponsored four episodes in honor of America's 250th anniversary and he has certain individuals that he wants to highlight and he put together some ideas. I am just reading these ideas. This is not me. I am a bit of a history buff, but he chose two people and he's going to choose other founders and important people in in American history to speak about. And uh everybody's complicated. There's a lot of stuff, but there's certain aspects that he wants to stress. And that's what I'm going to read his explanation. I have my reading glasses because when I was in my 40s, I was diagnosed with diabetes. And at some point I noticed I was having trouble reading and I'm nervous because diabetes, which is a terrible disease. I remember when I first got it, I called my mom and I said, "Uh, the doctor says I have diabetes." She goes, "Oh, yeah, I have that. Most of my family died from it." I was like, "Thanks, mom." But it it can destroy your eyesight. Yeah. I have to go every year to an opthalmologist, twice a year to an opthalmologist, check my eyes. It can kill your kidneys. Most of the amputations that are done are because of diabetes. It's a really bad disease. And you know, sometimes your sugar is so high that you know when you're having a coffee, you could just cut yourself and put a little in. You know, you don't really anything else. So, uh when I had my uh my heart attack and my bypass, they said it was probably because of the diabetes. The diabetes fills up your arteries with plaque and h it's just terrible. It also destroys your your heart valves. My mom had a heart valve replacement. It's kind of rough. Anyway, um so shortly after that, I noticed I was having trouble reading. I said I got nervous. Oh no, that's it. I'm going blind, you know. So I went to uh Dr. Title B. We actually if you saw the video of the um special uh greetings for Rashashana, he was there uh on our greetings and he gives me you know the eye test and then he says to me you need reading glasses. I said is because of the diabetes. He says, "No, it's called being in your 40s." And he said, "Why?" It's interesting. He says, "Your eye is like a lens. And when you look far away and then you look closer and you look your your eye, the lens has to keep opening and closing. And after a while, it gets stretched out. It doesn't work so well." So I said, "I don't need reading glasses. I can read." I don't if you've ever seen this. There's a 6in1 Mishna Bura, right? All six are in it. It's pretty small print. And he says to me, "Can you read this?" And I said, "Yeah, sure." You know, and I managed to read it. He says, "Now put on these glasses." And I laughed out loud. It was like somebody turned the lights on and suddenly I was able to read so much better. He says, "Listen, you could carry 50 pounds on your back, but if you do it all day, you're going to get tired and it's going to be hard and your back's going to hurt. The glasses just help." So, as time has gone on, my uh my eyesight has apparently uh deteriorated more and more. So, uh Dave Barry, who was a humorist out of the Miami Herald, he wrote a book called Dave Barry turns 40. And then he wrote another book, Dave Barry turns 50. And he stopped at that point. But one of the things he mentioned was reading glasses. You know how um I can't see anything with my reading glasses. He says it makes it much easier because when I look at the newspaper I can only see the headline, you know, and he like shows you a thing with, you know, just a headline and tiny tiny little writing that's almost impossible to see the smallest font. He says, "That's what it looks like to somebody in their 50s." And I thought, gosh, isn't that the truth? You know, so he says, uh, the problem is that everybody keeps losing their reading glasses. He says, "So, I think somebody could make money if they offer a service where if you can't find your reading glasses, you call this number and they'll tell you where your reading glasses are." And I know you're thinking, "How do they know where my reading glasses are?" He says, "They don't, but they're counting on you losing the number, so you won't remember how to call them to be able to find your reading glasses." Anyway, it is interesting. So, I'm reading this sponsorship by Anonymous. 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States in order to give our audience some understanding of what makes the USA and its leaders unique in world history, especially in its interactions with Jews. We are presenting some interesting facts. And he's highlighting two characters from American history. One is a president and one is not. But he is on the $10 bill and he did have a very successful Broadway musical. Alexander Hamilton. My name is Alexander Hamilton. Born January 11th, 1755 on the British controlled island of NeAs in the Caribbean. Died July 12th, 1804. He is considered one of the founding fathers of the USA. He attended King's College in NYC, now Columbia University. Served in the American Revolutionary War as an officer under George Washington, helped draft the Constitution of the USA, authored the majority of the Federalist Papers, founded the first political party, the Federalist Party. It's not around anymore. There was the Federalists and Jefferson started the Democratic Party. And then eventually there was the wig party whi um the only one in the wig party today is Jasmine Crockett. Anyway, and uh and uh then afterwards in 1856 they saw the Republican party. Yeah, the first Republican president was Abraham Lincoln. But anyway, he founded the uh Federalist Party. He founded the Bank of New York, opposed the Atlantic slave trade, and served in Washington's first cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury. As a young child, Hamilton attended a school on the island of NeAs, run by a Jewish woman, where he memorized the Ten Commandments in Hebrew. How many of our audience can do that? Why was he sent to a Jewish school? There's just two question marks here. He does not answer that question. anybody who wants to jump in either because you've studied the history or you saw the musical maybe it answers it. And the second one is President Richard Nixon. Born January 9th, 1913 in California, died April 12th, 1994 in New York City. President of the United States January 1969, August 1974. Now, he doesn't talk here about the impeachment and Watergate, but uh you know, that's how he's most remembered, but that's not what he's focusing on. He was a fierce opponent of communism. This is true. Yeah. Uh most of our liberal brethren were not fond of him and did not vote for him. Re Victor Miller Zatal of Brooklyn said President Nixon was a good man and that the reason Nixon made some disparaging remarks about Jews, this was uh in the tapes uh was because President Nixon opposed the LGBTQ plus agenda. I'm pretty sure he didn't because there was no BTQ plus back then. There was just LG. In other words, President Nixon's moral view was more in line with the Torah, unlike the progressive media, academia, and many Jews. In the UN partition plan in 1948, the Soviet Union voted in favor of Israel to get the British out of the Middle East. The communist government of the Soviet Union took steps to wipe out the Jewish religion since its inception. It murdered tens of millions of people to enforce its socialist atheistic view. At the time of Stalin's death, there were show trials for Jewish doctors and plans to ship all of its Jews to Siberia. When Israel did not become a communist country, the rulers of Russia took measures to destroy it. The Soviet Union armed and trained Arab armies for the 1956, 1967, and 1973 wars. It it is uh interesting that in the UN vote, the dramatic UN vote to uh um create a Jewish state in Palestine, um Russia got all of the communist countries at the time to vote for it because it was being run by the Labor Party, which was uh definitely communist sensitive and and attached for it. Uh in fact the Labor Party in Israel used to celebrate uh Mayday which is the uh day of you know communism and you know and the red flag and all those kind of things you know they commemorated Stalin's death you know it's like a you know made a memorial service. So, um, yeah. So, he had a good reason for thinking that Israel was going to become communist. When it didn't, of course, he turned on us. The Soviet Union spread anti-semitic propaganda like the protocols of the elders of Zion in Arabic and founded, trained, and armed terrorist groups like the PLO to murder Jews. Think about it. A world superpower with a population of 200 million people. One of the most powerful militaries in the world, massive heavy industry, thousands of nuclear tipped missiles. The world's largest country by land mass spanning 11 time zones is obsessed with 2 million Jews living in a country that is 11 miles wide at its center. at the time the distance between Natana and the Jordanian controlled city of Tularim before 1967. On October 6, 1973, the armies of Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack against Israel. The Soviet Union besides giving Arab armies large quantities of their most modern weapons, T72 tanks, SAM anti-aircraft missiles, Saga anti-tank missiles also trained their soldiers and designed the tactics used to uh attack Israel. The results of the initial attack for Israel was devastating. Um, I spoke to somebody who was in the Rabanoot whose job it is to collect the bodies of the dead. They said when one of these missiles hit a tank, there was nothing left to collect. There was only ashes and the um the planes being shot down was was just horrific. We were totally unprepared for this kind of armorament. They were not prepared to counter these weapons and suffered large losses of men and material which is uh they said afterwards that golden mayor and her cabinet were actually carrying cyanide tablets to commit suicide rather than to get captured because they were sure that the Israel was going to fall and they were going to be tortured. When Israel was running out of military material, the Soviet Union launched a massive sea lift to ship more weapons to Egypt and Syria. Israel asked the US for help. President Nixon immediately offered a massive airlift of military equipment to Israel. Only the US was willing and able to help. Europe, which supposedly regrets what happened in World War II, would not even allow US cargo planes to fly over their territory because the US resupplied Israel. The oil producing countries declared an oil bike boycott of the US, if you remember this, which caused the price of gas to jump three-fold, causing a major economic dislocation in the US and a lot of anti-semitism. I still I was I was a kid then, but I still remember you'd see bumper stickers that say, "We need oil, not Jews." Yeah. Someone told me they saw a bumper sticker, "If you're cold this winter, burn a Jew." When Israel started to throw back the Arab attackers, the Soviet Union threatened to attack Israel. Then President Nixon declared a nuclear alert, Defcon 3. At that point, the USSR stopped threatening. After the war, Golden Mayor's Israeli prime minister wrote a letter to her sister, Clara, who lived in the US. Look, Clara, you're an American. You do not like Nixon. I am an Israeli. I will never forget that if it had not been for Nixon, we would have been destroyed. She's speaking as prime minister. Compare President Nixon's actions to President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II. The Roosevelt administration knew about the Holocaust for a couple of years. Jewish organizations were pleading with Roosevelt to bomb the concentration camps or rail lines. The Allies were flying thousands of Saudis over Europe and Roosevelt could not spare one plane to bomb the gas chambers. Jews in America overwhelmingly voted for Roosevelt. Go figure that out. Okay. So, those are the first two American uh personalities that he wanted us to highlight. But uh since basically that took up half the podcast um I think it is appropriate to uh speak about the United States of America and in a keen sense of a satov America's record has not been perfect. The Eisenhower administration forced Israel to move out of Sinai when we captured it in 1956. Um, and uh there have been uh other instances but when America recognized Israel under the Truman administration because Truman had a partner who is Jewish. Yeah. and uh and influenced him. That was a very important uh moment. And there have been other moments. When you watch personalities today on the right, forget about the people on the left. People on the left hate Israel. The theory is because they look at the Arabs as an oppressed minority. How ironic that people who are liberal are supporting the most illiberal regimes in the world. Uh as Benjamin Netanyahu said in his address to Congress, he says there's a group called Gays for Palestine. That's like saying chickens for Colonel Sanders. I understand the sentiment. It means that um the the tolerance um that the Muslims have uh for Jews and Christians is non-existent. And uh so in the left you expect that we've seen we've seen the hatred from the left. But in the right the right has always been uh very supportive of Israel. And in fact, uh, William, uh, Buckley from, uh, National Review, he was very insistent that we drive anti-semitic voices out of the Republican party. And for many years, the Republicans were uh, much more pro-Israel and pro-Jewish for many years. Now we're starting to get voices on the right and I'm speaking of Tucker Coulson and Candace Owens and unfortunately JD Vance and certain other people who are sort of turning on Israel and turning on the Jews which is just frightening. It's absolutely frightening. Um, Candace Owens said, "If you want to understand Ben Shapiro, he's a Tamic Talmetic Jew, read this book about the Talmet, it was a book that was written by an anti-semite in Russia during the Balis trial accusing Jews of killing Christians for their blood." I mean, gosh, why didn't she pull out the protocols of the elders of Zion? It's just it's just amazing. and and that these people have audiences, but the majority of Republicans are not that way. And polls have showed that the majority of Republicans do not feel that way. And this is a fringe element. There's always been a fringe element. There's always been uh you know, those kind of people, but it's not mainstream. When you hear it from the vice president, I admit that it's it's scary. But as far as presidents go, I don't think we've ever had a more pro-Israel president than Donald Trump. I think he's the most pro-Israel president and I think he's also the most pro-Israel prime minister of Israel. I don't think we've ever had a prime minister who is as pro-Israel as Trump is. He's uh you know, Reagan was pretty good, don't get me wrong. I remember uh when Israel went into Lebanon, Reagan didn't know anything about it and they asked him about it. A reporter, you know, asked him and he said, "Well, my information is the Arabs started it." He had no such information. It wasn't true, but but that was his natural instinct. I heard this Julie Burman who was the head of the OU at the time. He was in involved in the JCRC and he says, you know, Reagan's natural instinct was to was to side with Israel and to protect the Jews. Um maybe I'll tell one one quick story. Um I heard this from the fellow uh on July 4th, President Reagan was giving out some special awards to people who had done service. And there was this um kid in college who was working with the Jewish poor in the South Bronx and uh they were going to give him a presidential award on January four uh on July 4th. And uh it was on Chabas. So he said, "Thank you very much, but I can't attend." And then he gets a phone call. I forgot the guy's name, so you'll forgive you'll forgive me on this. He says, "Uh, hi. Is this Steve?" He says, "Yeah, who is this?" Ronald Reagan. He goes, "Mr. President, you know, what can I do for you?" He goes, "How come you're not coming?" He says, "Well, I'm Shar Shabas." He goes, "I understand. What if I get you a hotel room near the uh ceremony within walking distance? We arrange for kosher catering. Would you come?" He says, "The president of the United States wants me to come." You know, fine. I came. He gave me my award. It was very nice. A few weeks later, I get a call. How you doing? It's Ronnie. President Reagan would call him from time to time. So, uh, eventually I was graduating college and he says, "Well, what do you plan on doing?" He says, "I'm thinking of applying to law school." He says, "No problem. Would you write like me to write you a recommendation?" You know, when you apply for law school and you have a recommendation letter from the president of the United States, you know, it's it's it's such a it's such a beautiful, heartwarming thing when you when you hear this and you see this that uh that it reminds us that, you know, America has all and all, you know, I I'm reminded uh I believe it was Winston Churchill I believe who said democracy is the worst form of government except for all the other ones America I have to tell you the founding fathers when they founded America and they found the constitution they said I don't think it's going to last 50 years that's what they thought so Edward Casy who was an English historian wrote a uh a classic work called the 15 decisive battles battles of the world from Marathon to Waterloo. And one of those, and he explains beforehand why each one of these battles was the most important in history. And he says it might not have involved the most people. It might not have involved the most casualties, you know, it might not have been the most dramatic, but it was the most important because it changed the course of history. So the battle between Rome and the Germanic tribes when the Germans won that that basically stopped Germany from becoming part of the Roman Empire and made the Germanic people Germans instead of part of the western world. uh he lists uh when Alexander the Great uh destro you know defeated Darius and how that allowed Helenism to become you know the Greek culture to take over the world. had different ones, but one of them he talks about is the Battle of Saratoga. And he says, "If the Battle of Saratoga had not been won by America, America would not have existed." And he goes on for six pages, he's writing this in the 1850s. He says, "The force that America has become in the world, he's talking in the 1850s, is unbelievable. It's it's changed the course of everything, etc., etc. forget about uh their role in World War I, World War II, all the things they've done to help the world, the money they've given out. Empires don't usually give out money to other countries. You know, British Commonwealth collected money and and materials from their colonies. Um Rome collected money and tribute from the countries they captured. But for America just to give out and to give it out. The dollar has always been considered the most important currency in the world. And I forgot who said it. It was a God who said it's because they wrote in God we trust on their money. And that's a very important idea. And uh there are people trying to change that today. the fact that I don't know you hear people like JD Vance now saying that America is a Christian country. The founders didn't say that. They said we believe in God. They were deists. Deist means that you believe in God. And uh it was interesting. There was this uh these soldiers who were caught American soldiers during World War II. And of course, if they found out you were Jewish, you were set aside for special treatment. So this fellow says he got caught by the Germans and they said to him, "What's your religion?" He says, "I wasn't going to lie. I wasn't going to deny." So I said, "I'm a deist." That means I believe in the one God. He didn't say, "I'm Jewish." But Jews are by definition deists. That's the idea of monotheists. Yeah. So um uh they were deists but they did not want America to have an official religion. They were coming from England where there is a official religion right it's the Anglican church and it's part and parcel of the monarchy and you know the the head the king or queen of England is automatically the head of the Anglican church and in Europe there are many question countries that have official religion. America did not they did not want it to be a Christian country. They wanted it to have a to be a country where people believed in God and where people had uh uh respect. There was uh one of the suggestions when they were forming America was to make Hebrew the official language. And we heard how you know Alexander Hamilton learned the Ten Commandments in Hebrew. If you look at Yale University, you'll see that in their you know uh symbol over there. It's Hebrew writing. and uh they all had a keen sense of the scriptures and of Judaism and what it meant. So um uh it always had a a special connection and relationship. So um so yeah um said that the villagian who was alive in 1776 when America was founded he says the villagian said this is going to be the final gullis this is where the Jews are going to find you know a respit and the fact is that it has never been free of anti-semitism nobody has seen You know, people were very upset when you have people like uh Megan Kelly and like I said, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson and people like this um saying anti-semitic things and anti-Jewish things. And uh and my wife said, "You have to remember at the end of the day that you know As of Son is Yakov, right? As of hates Yakov." And so when you find an exceptional person like a Douglas Murray, when you find an exceptional person like a Victor Davis Hansen, when you see these people who will defend Israel no matter what, and they defend the Jewish people, I'm not saying that they agree with every policy that it does, but but they don't have this anti-Jewish, anti-Israel bias. when you see that it's something that that stands out because of its exceptionalism and uh sometimes it's it's a shittita sometimes it's because of something that Jews did that made an impression right they made uh Kund made a children's tape out of the longest pesak. And uh I will maybe just give a a quick mention over here. When the English Hamodia first started, it started here in Israel. And uh I was writing a column every other week. And uh I I have I still have the column someplace but uh I remember that um uh I have a whole file of unfinished um articles. I would start to write an article and then I would say to myself, "Ah, this is trit. I'm gonna put this out, you know." But uh I wrote one about children's tapes and how I didn't feel that all children's tapes that were coming out really captured Jewish values. And I gave a little bit of critique. I didn't mention any names because my wife wouldn't let me. But then I mentioned Kunda and I said, you know, how um my family kids of all ages can listen to the Zadia's young, you know, series and everything that goes with that, etc. and how much they enjoy it and and and it's funny and it's and it's it's got a message and very positive. Now the circulation of the hamodia in English at that time was very small and I was nobody. I was a kid and I get a call from Kunda and he says I can't thank you enough. He says, "I I I took the article and I sent it to my I mailed it to my mother that she should have some nas." I was like, "What?" He says, "All the years I'm doing this, you're the first person who ever publicly acknowledged what I do." I was so shocked by that. I was sure that somebody like Schmol Gunda, he was an institution. Everybody must know of him. And yeah, but uh apparently not. Yeah. Anyway, I just mentioned that story, but uh he wrote a thing about the longest pesak and it's a story how the Maharal saw this little kid who was crying and he said, "What are you crying about?" He says, "My father died. My mother remarried the baker and he's a very mean man." And he sends me out every day, doesn't matter if it's raining, doesn't matter if it's cold, to go out and sell uh rolls. And uh I bring back the money. And if I didn't sell all of the rolls, I would get a beating. And today I sold all the rolls, but I lost the money. I know what to do. There's a little non-Jewish kid. He's crying. And the Marel said, "How much money did you make?" He tells him. He gives him the money. He says, "I don't want you to get beat. I give you the money." years later, you know, the Jews after Pesak would go over and buy uh the bread from the baker, the non-Jewish baker, because they wanted to have comets after Pesak. And he knew this. And so he poisoned the bread. And this kid ran over to the Maharal. He was now, you know, more of of an older teenager. And he said, "Listen, don't buy the bread because it's it's going to kill the Jews. He says, "But you can't let anyone know that I told you." So he thinks, "Oh my gosh, what am I going to do?" So he gets up in and he says, "I just checked the calendar. I was learning up the of and it turns out we made a mistake. It was a mistake in the calendar and really today is Pes and it turns out that there's an extra day of Pes. Well, nobody went to buy anything. So, the non-Jewish baker is waiting anxiously for the Jews to come and buy the bread and all die. And they're all walking past. So, uh he says, "What's going on? Why aren't you coming to buy bread?" He says, "The Marel said that there's an extra day of Pesak. We can't buy bread. It's still it's still Passover." Well, he was furious and he had the police arrest Maharal and bring him to court to uh to charge him with causing him a financial loss. And the Maharal said, "No problem, your honor. I'll pay all of his loss. I just want him to eat one piece of the bread. So the judge said, "Okay." And the baker says, "No, no, I don't have to eat the bread. That's not the point." So the judge says, "Why is there anything wrong with it?" He says, "No, no, I just I don't want to eat the bread." So the Marel said, "Bring in a dog." And they gave him a piece of bread and the dog died. and they understood that he poisoned the bread and he was saved because he did kindness to this one little non-Jewish boy. So apparently I heard this story from Rebine that uh the deep Detroit free press always uh gave very positive coverage to Israel and the Jews even when it was not fashionable to do so. And he happened to be once in Detroit and he made a meeting with the owner to thank him And the owner said to him, "I will always defend the Jewish people." And he said, "Why is that?" And he says, "I'll tell you a story." He says, "There was a young girl who was uh came from a poor family and she worked as a maid for a Jewish family. And the Jewish family was away the week of December 25th. and she suddenly realized, "Oh my goodness, they don't have any decorations." And she borrowed money and she bought a tree and she decorated it and she put a wreath on the door and she put up lights. It took her a lot of effort. December 23rd, they come home. They drove past their house three times until they finally figured out this was their house. And they come in and she says, "Surprise. I realized you were away for the holiday and you wouldn't have a chance to decorate, so I went out and I got your decorations." And the family said, "That is so nice of you, but we're Jewish. We don't celebrate Christmas." She goes, "You don't?" She says, "No, but here's what I want you to do. Please pack up the tree and the wreath and all of the lights and bring it to your mother and decorate your house and I'm going to pay you extra for all of the time and effort that you put in for all the decorations. And so she was able to bring it home to her mother who could not afford all these decorations and put up the decorations and made her feel good instead of making her feel bad. And the owner of the Detroit Free Press looks at Ry Wine and said that was my mother. So sometimes we do something and it has a positive impact just like the reason Harry Truman recognized the state of Israel was because he had a Jewish partner. And that made a difference. And you meet people and you see people and somehow you know we have an opportunity to make a kdish hashem. And the reverse is also true. I've told this story with this little you know he manages to save up his money and go to Raden. They couldn't wait to get a to see the and get a and the looks him and says you you all of our problems are because of you. He's like, "Me?" He says, "Yeah, you used to smack labeler. He was in your your class and you kept smacking him. You hit him until he finally ran away and he gave up Yiddishkite." He says, "I've I've had many many children. Who is this?" Label Trosky and Leotrosky, the head of the Red Army, who made it possible for communist Russia to succeed. It all became about because this one guy used to smack him. We all have opportunities to make a keshm. We all have opportunities to let people see what the Jewish people are. And when we show them who we can be in America, Barak Hashem has for the most part, yes, there's always been anti-semitism. No question about it. I remember Mary Bulitzky, who was the RV of the answer of Nor Park. I asked him once, I said, 'You know, during World War II, why weren't the Jews demonstrating in the streets? Why weren't they, you know, yelling and screaming? He says to me, "Baka, you don't know what you're talking about. Did you ever go into a neighborhood where there was a sign, no Jews or dogs allowed?" You know, now there's religious protection. The old days, somebody would work when he on Friday when he said he wasn't coming in, they fired him on the spot. suddenly he'd look for a new job. This is one of the most popular radio shows in America was Father Conglin coming out of Detroit who was spewing anti-semitism every night. We were afraid Jews weren't allowed in clubs, country clubs, places like that. That was the famous story with Groucho Marx, who isn't was not religious in any way. He wanted to get into whatever country club and he says we don't allow Jews. So other places came in and said, "Gratcher, yeah, you could join us." And he goes, "Me? I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member." That was his joke. But it was a famous thing. The New York Athletic Club was one of the most favorite famous places. They wouldn't allow in Jews. Universities wouldn't allow Jews. Corporations wouldn't hire Jews. It it was uh there was a movie the gentleman's agreement you know keep out Jews this was this was understood I'm not saying there was no anti-semitism but uh but on the whole the uh the Jewish experience in America was if anything too good and Jews had the opportunity to assimilate become anybody that they wanted and do anything that they could and we didn't always use that to the uh to the best extent. My father's generation used to hear people say that's for the Jews don't do that. Today Jews do everything. So, uh yeah. Yeah. We're going to have a few other dedications honoring uh people who founded the United States. And uh overall in world history there's no question that America has been a country of and it's been a country uh that has um helped the Jewish people and uh Israel again not a spotless record by any means but compared to most of the countries in the world is truly exceptional. So, uh, the producer always sends me some, uh, appreciation comments. I hope you'll indulge me. I'll read two of them now. I just wanted to give out Caris to let you know how much I enjoy listening to your weekly podcast para and five. And now the question and answer series on the Torah Anytime phone line. This is very interesting because there are people who do not have the internet but Torah any time has an option that you could call up. I've met a number of people who listen to the podcast on the phone without any internet. For the past two years while driving I have enjoyed your rare combination of teaching, entertaining, positivity and honesty coming together as one. May you continue with your wonderful work with good health and happiness for many years to come. Yours sincerely a kabadnik from London. So uh nothing personal. I was talking about America here. I hope you don't get upset. You know, you know, uh, I mentioned Sir Edward Creasy and and he says had had England been a little smarter in dealing with the colonists, we would still have America as part and all of that power and energy and we lost it because we we handled it poorly. But when we look at what America became, so it's a little bittersweet. on the one here was so happy to see this powerful force in the world but they could have been part of us. So nothing personal. I had these two friends of mine from the south. One was from Virginia and one was from Georgia and uh if I would make a passing reference the civil war they would look at each other and go war. What war? You know anything about any war? No I don't. I think he means the disagreement between the states. All right. And here's the other one. Hi, I'm a 15year-old girl in bass yakov. And ever since you started six years ago, that would make her nine. When my father would play your podcast every Mosy Shabas, I've been an avid fan and listener. I cannot thank you enough. I finally decided to not hold back anymore and show my appreciation for all the light and you brought into my life and for showing me a new facet to Yiddish kite and Torah I've never experienced with a light, joyful and humorous atmosphere. Thank you. My family already jokes that whenever they see me walk around their house with earpods and suddenly start laughing, they know I'm listening to the one and only Rabbi show. So thank you so much for real asking me continue to have much and bring to everyone and anyone who listens to your show Kaneka. PS I hope this counteracts every single nasty comment that was incessantly posted about Rabbi Olowski and his show. I have to tell you when I get a comment like this it really makes it all worthwhile. It really is. And uh I sit here before the show, always with a certain level of angst, thinking, "What am I going to talk about?" And when I hear from people like you that say, "We've really gained from this show. We've really enjoyed what you're doing here, and it's added to our lives." I can't tell you how much it gives me. And as I used to say about my mom who had heart failure for 25 years, she had diabetes. She had so many different things wrong with her. And when people would ask me, she made it to 89. People would ask me, "How's your mom doing?" I said, "Cling to life with a tenacity that defies reason." That was my line. So now I'm there and uh I have defied the odds and when I hear from wonderful people like the these people who wrote in and tell me how I'm adding to their life, I just you know this is this is what I bring to and say you might as well keep me around because a few people still have some use for me. So uh we will continue for many years to come. My solace is the words of Meltza when he said has nothing to do with gaze he was sick. We did tuberculosis. He says you'll live a long sick life. So that's it for this week. If you want to find out more about the show, you can go to my website railowski.com and right at the beginning there you'll see the PES program. I got to tell you, I am so excited about this PES program. I've been waiting for years. If you have not signed up, please, please consider coming. We would love to have you. Just imagine if you will. A whole hotel filled of us. and I've been planning special events and and trips and activities and my my whole family is very talented. You've met some of them on the show already and uh there's so much that everybody here has to offer and uh it's really I I can having been at many PESA programs I can tell you that this will be the best PES experience you've ever had. you'll have fun and it'll be nice and there's wonderful uh facilities and all that, but besides that, it's going to be just the greatest thing ever. So, really really if you're if you're still thinking about it, please, you know, uh go to my website. There's a link right there. You can get more information. Write me if there's anything you want to know. But uh I have to tell you it's I I can already see how it's shaping up and it's going to be something unbelievable. We really I I'm looking forward to being there and I know I'm going to have a very busy PES because like I said as far as I'm concerned you're my guest in my house. That's why I'm doing it. I just don't have enough room for everybody. So that's why we got a hotel here and uh it's very reasonably priced. So even with the ticket to America it's Kadai. We're going to have a second uh second day yand program, a second seder, you know, all kinds of wonderful things. So really really please consider coming. I'm looking forward to welcoming you. In the meantime, you can sign up for one of my online shurim. You can post a comment, ask a question, sponsor an episode, sponsor a par five, sponsor a question answer. And that's it for now. Until next time, I am David Alowski and this has been the show. It's the Rabbi Orlovski Show. Torah and Sima, ready to go. The Rabbi Orlovski Show. Knowledge and wisdom will help you grow. Lots of fun in every episode. And we don't have to rhyme, don't we? It's the Rabbi Orloski Show on Rabbi.com. Torah anytime, YouTube, and more. It's the Rabbi Olavski show. Torah and sim ready to go. It's the Rabbi orski show. Till next time till we meet again. It's the Rabbi show. It's the Rabbi show. It's the Rabbi orski show.