Bringing Torah to Life, with TorahLive's Rabbi Dan Roth (Ep. 169)

Hi, this is David Olawski, and welcome to this special Chol HaMoed Pesach edition of the Rabbi Olawski Show. And whether you watching with our friends over at Torah Anytime, whoever you watch or listen to your podcast, as always, thank you for spending this time with us. And uh it's Chol HaMoed. My gosh, we finished all the preparations, we finished all the shopping, finished all the cooking. We uh finished the Seder. And now we ask the question, there are four questions they ask at the Seder. And now we ask the question, "What am I supposed to do with these kids FOR A WEEK?" NOW, um when I was growing up, my parents never really cared what I did during Chol HaMoed. But today, if you do not take your kids on trips or make activities for them, then in Israel, I know the social services can take your children away, cuz that's considered a form of abuse. So, one of the most popular things that two popular things to do. One is to pile everybody into the car and drive up north. This is if you're in Jerusalem. And spend the entire day in the car until you get up north. Um you know, try to find some place you can buy a Mahajan drink, get back in the car, and drive back, and basically sit in traffic all day, which is a lot of fun. A lot of fun. Uh of course, you need to program the time in the car, WHICH IS "BE QUIET! SIT DOWN THERE! We'll get there when we get there!" Which is fun, but after a while, it starts to uh wear away even at the most dedicated parents. You know, sometimes they can start to get a bit attitude. Anyway, so uh that's one thing. The other thing to do, which is very popular in our house, is you wait till everybody gets up, and then you make breakfast. I have to share this with you because there's uh um a Rabbi Olawski Show aficionado uh who is also Hasidisha, and he heard me say on one of the podcasts that, you know, how could how could a Kodesh Baruch have meant for us not to have gebrochts? What about matzah brei? He says, "We had matzah brei." And I said, "How's that possible?" He says, "They hold may peras is not a problem. So, you can mix it with the eggs, and you can cook it in the oil, as long as there's no water." So, I told this over to another Hasidisha I know, and he was not happy with it, but you know, if you do have that, that's wonderful. If not, then you do whatever it is you do, potato cookies and milk. I don't know what you do. But um uh uh you know, you sit down and you have breakfast, you know, and breakfast can go on for quite a long time. Those of us who who don't have gebrochts, you know, so you know, if you have matzah with butter, then matzah with cream cheese, then matzah with jelly, then matzah with butter and jelly, then matzah with cream cheese and jelly. Anyway, you can go through several boxes, you know. And then when we finish that, then we start discussing, "What are we going to do today?" And this being a Jewish uh organization, everything's done by committee. And you know what they say, they say a camel is a horse that was developed by a committee. So, uh you know, so people just argue back and forth, and by that point, it's time for um late lunch. And uh then maybe you can walk down the street if you have a local park for about an hour or two, come home for supper. And that is Chol HaMoed, day after day. But this year, it's a particular challenge. Those of us in Eretz Yisrael, we have uh as close to a full week of Chol HaMoed as you can have, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. If you're in Chutz La'aretz, so knock off Sunday, but you still have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. It's uh it's a great uh week if you want to do uh Chol HaMoed activities. The question is, what do you do? So, I've discussed this in the past. I had my son Yaakov on, and we talked about, you know, uh dangerous activities that young people can participate in, as long as, you know, they leave me alone. I really don't care. But we're here today to discuss um not just Chol HaMoed issues, but in general, what do kids do? Kids who want to um find creative ways to fill their days. And so, I am joined on this special podcast by our special guest, Rabbi Dan Roth, who is the uh creator and manager and runner and you must have I don't know all the titles they give you of Torah Live, which is an uh organization that produces videos to be able to teach Torah. I was going to say for children, but it's not really true, because a lot of these are um definitely appropriate for adults. And um it's providing hours hours of programming that kids can participate in, etc. It's a Seder. If you want to enter into the Seder, you have to have kavana. You have to concentrate. Enter the Seder? Why can't Hashem just tell me what's the right thing to do? Why are you alive? Do you ever have normal conversations? It's not my prayers. Somebody else wrote them. I don't even know what I'm saying. Is it just me? That's your great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandfather. Name is Avraham. Last name is Avinu. He's doing the same thing you're doing. He's trying to figure out why he's here. Everybody wants to be remembered as having lived a great life. Instead, they live the life that happens. What are you inspired to do now that you're a bar mitzvah? I'm supposed to say that I'm inspired to do the mitzvahs now, right? Most of us do mitzvahs without thinking. Maybe God needs people to serve him. God is infinite. God doesn't need anything. He's fine. But why do I need to choose? Maybe I'll make the wrong choice. Whenever you've got a problem, what is the one thing that always helps? Tefillah. Rabbi Roth, welcome to the show. THANK YOU. SUCH A PLEASURE TO BE HERE. I DON'T THINK YOUR viewers appreciate how much actually you have to do at Torah Live. It's not just the rabbi sitting there, you know. They certainly don't. Maybe you should tell them. Well, you I mean, I spend most of the time talking about myself anyway, so it's nice to have somebody else talk about me. So, first of to base. First of all, Rabbi Olawski is uh the unofficial CNO, right? You have a CEO and a CFO in the organization. So, you are the CNO. Chief Naming Officer, because Torah Live Hold on tight. Torah Live was named by the one and only Rabbi David Olawski. I'm good I'm good with coming up with names. When I used to give a shiur every other Motzei Shabbos, I would give titles to the shiurim, and people say, "I didn't I never was able to make it to the shiur, but I love looking at the titles, you know, and try to figure out what you were talking about." Yeah, I was I was in many of those shiurim. So, uh yeah. Back in the day, when I lived in Argyle Street, I remember still exactly where I was in my apartment at 32 Argyle Street, and I called you, and I started telling you about these different videos, what should we call them? And it was you who uh uh came up with that name. So, thank you, thank you. And and really goes back even before the name. You were the one who encouraged me to um You wrote a pirush on Pirkei Avos. Relevance, and you came up with that name as well. Yes, I did. Yeah. So, I named all the chapters. All the chapters. But it was your uh just selflessness in allowing me to come over Shabbos afternoon when most people are, you know, schloffing, and I would bug you with tons and tons of questions, and we'd talk about different Pirkei Avos topics. So, Baruch Hashem. Yeah. Anyhow, you really really gave me the uh confidence to break out from the mold, so to speak, and uh follow my heart's desires. I was learning in kollel at the time with Rabbi Shmuel Schelewsky, and uh you know, regularly shiurim on Seder and I had this love of Pirkei Avos, and I was doing it first Erev Shabbos and Motzei Shabbos, and it just felt a bit awkward, as you can imagine, leaving, you know, Maseches Kiddushin to learn Pirkei Avos. How many, you know, kollel guys uh kollel guys have done that. But you were the one who gave me your shlish ma'alach. Want to give that over? 100%. Uh yeah, shlish ma'alach. It's uh very interesting. Because the Mishna talks about all kinds of different things, ages. Uh 5 years is for Tanach, 10 years is for Mishna, 15 years is for Gemara. 18 is to get married, yeah? Right. 20 is leredof. To chase. So, what's that got to do with anything? What do you chase? All these things are talking about how to learn. Right? Shloshim ma'alach, 30 years strong. What are you going to do with that? 40 years uh bina chameisha u'mishim eitza. Yeah, okay, so now we're moving back into uh into that uh kind of thing of of how at every age, there's something for you to learn. But what's 20 and what's 30? So, my vort was, I never saw this anywhere, uh esrim leredof means that in your 20s, you have to pursue. You don't know where your strength lies. And and you have to try different things. Maybe I'm better in e'en, maybe I'm better in bikiyus, maybe I'm better in halacha, maybe I'm better in hashkafa, yeah. And once you get it clear, so strength comes from clarity of purpose and focus. And uh shloshim ma'alach is that then you have the strength. So, that was my little idea. Is that in the book? Uh yeah, and you told me the story about some girl who came over to your house, and she was a black belt in karate. I found out who that was, by the way, afterwards. Yeah, she was breaking boards in my house. It's too bad, cuz I needed them. But anyway uh yeah. I was much nicer to him class after that but uh Just good to know yeah. And yes how does that fit into strength? Go on what's the book? Your strength comes from focus so that's why after you figure out where you are and you can put all of your strength your all your into one direction you focus. That's how you break a brick you break a brick by putting all of your focus into that hand if you're not focused then you're you know and then breaking your fingers and your hand so when you have focus. So that gave me the boost that I needed to you know dedicate my life at that point when I was 30 to pick up others and spend 3 years learning it and that really helped me find myself and you know it's such a an important message I think for viewers today that that individuality you know we're all in the same you see we're in the same class in the same family and and and Hashem How did that book do by the way? Uh very well. Relevance. Little plug there relevance. Relevance is still print? Uh yeah. Relevance by Feldheim. Relevance as we go into the weeks of Pirkei Avot now. If you're looking for a relevant parish on Pirkei Avot and everyone knows the most important thing is relevance. As uh Chico Marx was on the uh witness stand and was being asked questions he said now I got a question for you. Uh what has a long nose and eats a peanut in the circus? You all know that's irrelevant. That's right irrelevant. Anyway relevance you're good. Anyway so you wrote this book relevance on Pirkei Avot as we go into the weeks of Pirkei Avot you might want to pick up a copy of relevance because Pirkei Avot should always be relevant to your life. And uh um and then you got this idea for Torah Live. It really wasn't my idea. It was it's a sea of my from A to Z. Really? Yeah I was teaching in Aish HaTorah in a program called Yesod and I was very excited about Pirkei Avot spent 3 years of my life learning it writing about it and I gave a first year on can you guess? Pirkei Avot and it was disaster kids are walking out of the room texting each other totally disinterested in a word I had to say nightmare Now to be fair for those of you who are not familiar this is not regular Aish HaTorah and it's not one of the this was a division specifically aimed towards kids who were more disinterested than your average students So kids who grew up in from homes but for one reason or another turned off like seriously turned off from Yiddishkeit they are you know social issues psychological issues and as I said disaster class and this is my first time teaching and I just wanted to you know give up had a lot of pressure go out do something of learning in till that time and you know five kids at home and do something get a job and I remember tossing and turning at night I was in a class like that once. Uh yeah. I mean usually I don't have that problem but I had it you know so I got a set of nunchucks. Anyway so I found that made an impression. Yeah. Anyway yeah sorry. So Uh by the way that is not advised. This is don't try this at Don't try this at home kids. I'm sorry I just have to interrupt viewers cuz it's tie is just perfect for Pesach on the way Pesach. You know you know by the way why we have holes in matzos right? No why? Cuz we are benei chorin. So uh I'm going to make a good bracha. Oh no I have to leave I'm sorry yeah. So you were teaching this terrible All right so Hashem dropped in my head the realization I'm talking the wrong language I'm talking how I was taught when I was a boy in school but this generation have to get with the program you know taking in information a whole new way videos multimedia how about use the very tool the very you know medium that they used to taking information and we use that to teach them. And I started dabbling I taught myself all you know different programs and it was a miracle the same kids weren't interested You didn't have any background in computers. No I no just love computers and used to stay up till the wee hours of the morning teaching myself all these Premiere Pro After Effects Photoshop C4D and it was a miracle the same kids who weren't interested in It's so funny you're talking and I see many people in the studio nodding along You might as well you might as well be talking Chinese I have no idea what any of those words mean that you just said but So it was a miracle the same kids who weren't interested in traditional teaching methods were suddenly you know sitting at the edge of their seats glued can't wait for the next class and uh 14 years later now it's Torah Live with Hashem hundreds of videos 44 courses and we just put out Torah Live 2.0. What's meant? So what I put into it well till now kids basically were passive viewers watching Rabbi Sider and all the other wonderful videos but now it's a whole different ballgame they get to create their own content so we have Rabbi Sider giving these challenges so you just finished watching about honoring parents Rabbi Sider says to you okay now go out there and create your own little clip of honoring mom or dad when they come home upload it to Torah Live not just passive viewing but you get you the child get to send us your own creative submission we review it for creativity for quality for effort and kids get points and there's 32 levels yaled yalda tzadik tzadikah and kids are loving it and I'm You have to pick though if it's yaled or yalda. Yeah you have to enter if you're male or female. Right so it's going to be hard today now and except in Florida. Anyway So um So obviously Rabbi Wallerstein a couple of issues have to come up. Let's put them on the table. One is aren't you encouraging kids to use the internet? Now granted right there's there's a a lot of people who I remember in the old days in the old days I guess anyone who's watching this is you know you're for you it's not a problem but uh I remember in the old days yeah you wanted to get your kid into school you had to sign that you didn't have a television. So there would be these from people they would take the television out of the house and they would sign and then they'd bring it back in you know and things like this you know and uh to work around it so there were schools that had their classes on Zoom and all of a sudden it came out that evidently a lot of people now some schools gave the kids tablets with Zoom that they could only use for classes etc. but you know uh look I know for a fact that there are certain families who um never had their kids watching videos when when Corona came and everybody was locked down you know those of you who remember Corona wasn't that long ago but like they'd be like can we go on a trip? He says says no we can't cuz of Corona. He goes well can I go play outside? He says no we're saving that for chol hamoed. Chol hamoed we're going to go out to the mikvah that day. So you know so these kind of things so there were certain people I know who they said the way we got through was with Torah Live which essentially on my Mesillas Yesharim shiurim animated. So you should know a lot of people viewers I've spoken to are young mothers who say they remember being in sem in one of your classes in Mesillas Yesharim and they get such a like a schmuck such a you know a happy feeling when their kids their 10 year old is watching the same content but in the form of Rabbi Sider so they love it. Rabbi Sider gets questions all the time like how do you take these concepts and give them over to children and I say well you know being something of a child myself it's not that hard you know but it's basically the same information that I'm giving over in very advanced shiurim only it's animated and and said over in a way that you know uh the children can try to understand it. Sure people are loving it I've spoken to people in Chile and Gateshead and Sydney Australia I even have a somebody from the Benei Menashe tribe in India and he's a Anyway I want to thank you very much all of you there in India following along with our with the Torah Live videos. Um I remember when I was um speaking to the person who runs Torah Anytime he says he's got people in like 100 countries watching this thing I don't even know how that's possible. You know. So uh So that's why we we decided that the Rabbi Wallerstein show live we did the first one in in Florida next one will be in Mozambique cuz I thought that would be a nice you know change of pace. Yeah. Anyway so um uh so the kids sat and they started to watch this. So now once Corona is over you know people may now have been exposed to the internet who would not normally have been exposed to the internet. Or um I know every parent has this challenge of I don't want my kid just to sit in front of a computer all day let them go outside let them play let them get some fresh air let them read a book let them do something. Won't they find themselves addicted to sitting in front of computer even if it's a family that has the internet and just watching videos I mean these videos are very addictive I know my own grandchildren I sit down and they could just watch them over and over and over again. You know. So so are these problems that people need to address? Sure these are all great questions and uh couple of And woah look at the time. Well thank you for joining us today next week we'll be in Mozambique. So first of all it says in Pirkei Avot I even remember the title that you named this chapter thinking about a chicken being kosher uh and that says as I said before you know many tens of thousands of people are watching this Amcha Israel there's all different Jews from different strokes and walks of life and I don't believe there's one answer that will fit everybody and that's where we have where that family has to have their Rabbi, their person, their mentor that they're close to and for sure there should be guidance. You know, don't just don't just go to a Rav to ask him is the chicken kosher or you know, what height should my sukkah be? It's also about hashkafa and where what could be more important than chinuch hayeladim and and and putting the right boundaries on these very very question very important questions, questions that we've never really had to deal with. I know I I I I struggle with these at home. My kids don't just watch freely, you know, can I watch TV? I'm no, you know. Enough of the silly charm. So, for sure there has to be there has to be guidelines and Put it down and play ball. Yep. When I when I spoke once at a convention to a Missouri convention to principals and I also have Yitzchak Berkowitz, my rebbe and the Nossie of Torah Live what I should mention and he said the first thing to say is that Torah Live isn't meant for people who aren't using the internet anyhow. Don't start watching the internet because of Rabbi Sider, because of Torah Live. This is meant for people who are anyhow doing shopping, banking, and everything else on the internet. So, now to say no when it comes to Torah, no it's treif and then that's you know, that's that's ridiculous. This is for people who the kids are on and they're hollering for something so at least let it be Torah and mitzvot. Torah Live from families where to be honest, the kids are watching Curious George or they're watching Paw Patrol or they're watching these other kind of things which I I haven't really seen them. They're they're I think pretty harmless. I think I don't really know. I know that the Berenstain Bears has helped to destroy the fabric of society because uh I I I didn't really know what it was but one of my kids one time said to me, you know, oh Abba, now you're being like a Berenstain Bear Abba. Cuz evidently the father is always the butt of all the jokes and the mother is like the smart one and so they're always making fun of the dad. So, so that's kind of destructive, you know. Um there was a TV show in the '50s, Father Knows Best, you know. Now it's Father Knows Least. So, so that's that's a destructive message, you know. And um and a lot of these things are destructive. I don't know why the man in the yellow hat isn't put into prison, you know? He's got a monkey. You ever see Curious George? Okay. He has a monkey. This is a wild animal. And he's like, "Okay, George, don't get into any trouble." He just leaves him there. And of course he gets into trouble cuz he's a wild animal running wild through the streets. Why isn't this man IN JAIL? EVERY TIME I LOOK AT THIS I I I I'm amazed all over again, you know? You know, "Oh, look what he did." Well, of course he's a monkey for crying out loud. WHY DID YOU LEAVE him running through the streets? Anyway, I've wondered about this. So, obviously there are a lot of kids who are watching this anyway. And if we can I've had a few people over the years who told me when back in the old days when they used to just be, you know, cassette recordings, you know. So, they say, "My kids listen to your Torah tapes. They don't listen to anything, you know, anything Jewish." He says, "But they said he's funnier than the comedy tapes I have." So that if you can be more entertaining than the entertainment I'll tell you a story. I was once in a Pesach hotel, a scholar residence, and um I was supposed to I was giving shiurim on Yom Tov and Shabbos. That's it, Chol HaMoed. I wasn't supposed to do anything. But there were some girls there who were from seminary and their jobs were to be babysitters and they said, "Look, we can't hear your shiurim. Would you, you know, give us a shiur during Chol HaMoed?" I said, "Yeah." So, after Maariv I gave them a shiur on Chol on Pirkei Avos as it happens, which we started learning then. And the adults said, "Oh, I didn't know there was a shiur." And they started coming. So, the director said, "One second, but we have, you know, big name entertainment in the in the theater." He says, "Well, it's kind of sad when the Rabbi is funnier than the comedians that you're paying." And as the week went on, more and more people started coming because they found it more entertaining. So, if you can if you can entertain kids with Torah, you know. But what about the fact that kids might get, you know, addicted to it like they can to anything and spend too much time in front of the screen? As I said, you have to put guidelines. Just take a step back conceptually, you know, my rebbe Yitzchak Berkowitz likes to quote the pasuk Bereishis Bereishis bara Elokim es hashamaim v'es ha'aretz. As Rashi, Bereishis was really shvil ha'Torah she Bereishis was shvil ha'Torah she Bereishis which means that everything that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created in the world is ultimately there to spread kavod ha'Torah, kavod Shamayim. So, if Hashem created 3D graphics and animation and all that creativity, it's there to spread Torah. So, let's harness that. That's what Torah Live believes. It's to take those very tools of distraction which are currently being used to take away our children from avas Hashem and yiras Shamayim and to flip them on their head and spread Torah like never before. I'd like to take a moment over here and ask you, Rabbi Sider, a few questions if you don't mind cuz there are so many people who just love to watch Rabbi Sider. How is it to be there, you know, in the studio and recording? You know, you just come up. It's such a it's such a pleasure to work with. I just show you the outline and you're just like off and running. It's just Well, so I'll tell you, you know, um one of the things that I find so amazing is when I look at Rabbi Sider, on some level you can see that you captured me. I don't look exactly like that cuz halavai I should be that small. I'm a little larger in real life, you know. And although the beard is getting wider and catching up with Rabbi Sider, you know. So, anyway, but uh the the the there's something about him where you can you can sense me in it, which I find absolutely fascinating because I talk and you take it and turn it into an animation. I I remember I told you this when I saw the one on patience. And as very often happens, I sit down in the in the little room and you say, "Okay, here's the topic, talk about it." There's no script, there's no outline, and I just talk. And then you manage to take that and turn it into an animation. The animation adds so much to the points that I'm trying to make that it's absolutely astounding to me to be able to do it. I mean, it just shows you how the expression is that a picture's worth a thousand words, you know? But you make a certain point and then you see it. You know, in a re'ah l'shmiah, you know, a person can actually see the idea that I'm trying to give across. It's it's it's tremendous. But me, I I obviously not you because you experienced it this, but you know, Torah Live is not just Rabbi Sider. For those of you only watch Rabbi Sider videos, Rabbi Roth is out in on mountains and on camels and in scuba diving, scuba diving, going all kinds of places himself. He's quite an adventurer. You know, where in the world is Dan Roth? So, um So so different than you. That's why I love that the comedy is a but it's a you know, but I have people who you know, I have them on the show and I ask them questions and they're like um yes. They're like, "So, why don't you tell us a little bit about, you know, what went into this?" Um it was a it was a lot of work. Not not as much because it's intimidating. It's an intimidating thing to do. So, but for me, for better or for worse, I could just talk. I always say, you know, there's only one thing I know how to do. So, I better do that well. Sometimes I speak so much they go, "Well, that was really good." I said, "Well, I only do one thing so it better be good." You know, if I'm a plumber and I can't unclog the toilet then I'm really in trouble, you know what I mean? Cuz that's all I can do, you know? So, um So different than me though. When I go on the shoot, everything's scripted to the to the comma to the period. I It's all learned off by heart and and you're just like Well, I tell you the truth. I have certain shiurim that I've given many times. And and after a while it becomes like a script. I may put in this piece, take out that piece, move it around, but I more or less have the timing down, you know. Um I always say, you know, my son uh he's much more talented than I am. He can do what I do in English but he can also do it in Hebrew. I can't do it in Hebrew cuz I don't have the words. But if you have the words then you can do amazing things. But without the words, you know. So, um to find to find the right words to say. So, when you do the same thing over and over again, you find certain words just work better. That's why sometimes you'll give me a script and I'll change it around cuz I just don't like the way it sounds. Doesn't sound like what I would say, you know? I'll cut out a line here, do something here. Like the time I gave you, you know, in recording when we do Rabbi Sider there's many pick up lines we call them we're missing an audio a line came out. So, when we did the challenges I asked Rabbi Aronovsky to record some pick up lines and the uncensored version, what did you say? I said, "So, so what are you doing after the video?" What was that story by the way in on Australia with the kid who was like looking at you in the audience? Oh, well, before Rabbi Sider I was a character called Professor Crumble. Professor Crumble and when I went to teach kashrus. It was the same exact thing, you know? Dan just gives me a list of topics. He says, "Okay, talk about bishul akum, talk about klishani, talk about eiruvin, and I would just get in and talk about it." And then he would animate it. So, I was giving a shiur in in Melbourne, Australia. Oh, it was in Australia, you know? So, I was giving a shiur and a hater and a bunch of these kids are just looking at me with that look, you know? At the end they come out and say, "Are you Professor Crumblecorn?" You know, before I was doing any videos, a lot of people knew my voice from from my cassettes, but no one had ever seen me. So, I was um waiting in line in Eichler's in Brooklyn many, many years ago. And I was talking to the person next to me, and you see people turning their heads. I've heard that voice before. I love I want to know who you laugh What's the secret of the laugh, Rabbi Lopian? I I got it as a hereditary from my mother. My mother's laugh was much better. She When she laughed, everybody in the room laughed. She had a koach. So, uh I have a little bit of that. In fact, I used to teach how to answer basic questions on Judaism, and I would show how to answer them. So, one of the guys one year he says, "I can give the answer, but I can't do that laugh you do at the end. That really closes the deal, you know." I said, "With that laugh, that was is it just says, I know I'm right." I know I'm right, and you know I'm right. And now the question is, let's see how long we keep this going, you know. But, uh be in the recording studio all by yourself and just cracking yourself up in the studio. You know. Jackie Mason was once in the middle of a show he told a joke and nobody was laughing, and he keeps going I just told myself a better joke than I told you. But, I'm constantly finding humorous things in life. It's that um my wife always sees me laughing, and she's like, "What is it?" "Nothing, nothing." I said, "No, it is." I said, I just I I see things and they make me laugh. Like I told you, you know, uh I was once on a panel with this guy who was tremendous baal gaavah. I get such a kick out of it, you know. There's certain people who who act in a certain way, and I just I just I find it funny. I mean, there's a lot of humor to be found in this world if you if you look for it. Um and there's a lot of sadness and misery if you look for that, and I choose not to. It all depends what you want to focus on, so. So, here we are on Pesach having a chag, simchas a chag. So, uh yeah, so where do we go from here? What's what's what's uh what's next coming down the What Where do you see this in 10 years? My dream is to be the Mitch Hedberg Mitch Hedberg was a comedian. He said, "I go in for an interview and they say, 'Where do you see yourself in 5 years?'" He goes, "Celebrating the 5-year anniversary of you asking me that question." So, where do you see I'll tell you this story. I started in Long Island NCSY. There was one kid in the region. There were no chapters, there were no kids, there were no events or anything like that. And I sat down and I wrote a 5-year plan. Mhm. And I submitted it to national office. They were laughing their heads off because by 4 months into the job, I was the third longest regional director in one place. You know, there was one guy who was there for 10 years, one guy who was there for 7 years, and then me 4 months, you know. If you lasted 2 years, that was already a long time. That 5-year plan. I said, "If you don't plan ahead, where you going to go?" As the chacham said, "If you don't know where you're going, you're not going to get there." If you don't know where you're going, you're certainly not going to get there. I planned it out, and I achieved most of my goals, you know. So, where's Torah Live in 5 years? Where's Torah Live in 10 years? Good question. Assuming Mashiach doesn't come, right? So, you ever heard of Sal Sal Khan Khan Academy? No. He's mapped out Never heard of it. He's mapped out um chemistry, physics, biology, and math such that you can go from watching a video on 1 + 1 = 2 all the way up to university, and it's revolutionized education in that people are learning at their own pace, their own time, their own interest, and it's not because you have to learn it, because you want to learn it. And And there's a certain joy that comes from, you know, the pursuit of knowledge, which is such a an amazing thing when it's when it's self-motivated. So, I dream of being the Khan Academy of the Jewish world. In other words, mapping every halacha, every important hashkafa, every middah tovah, and having, you know, a Torah Live video about it. Aimed towards children, or aimed towards the greater public? At the moment You told me a story once about the yeshiva guys who said they watched your video on the dalet minim in order to be able to get an understanding of it. So, I mean, obviously, if you sit down and you teach dalet minim, right? And some of them have those little line drawings and so on and so forth. And you know, dalet minim, you when you go out into where the orchards are and you show them what the different things are, it's it's an amazing thing, right? Right. So, so is this going to be geared towards children, or do you hope to move out into adults? Um at the moment, we're focused on the 9 to 12-year-old bracket, but having said that, you know, parents are loving to watch with their kids. Avi Fröhlich from Boca told me how he has a Sunday night, you know, watching Torah Live sitting with popcorn. So, parents, uh adults, grandparents are loving to watch it. Um but um yeah, the idea of using multimedia to teach Torah Live really affects everybody, young and old, so. So, here we are, Pesach 2022. How many people are using Torah Live? How many people are watching Torah Live? About um hm Last count was over 2 million videos since COVID, over 168,000 I mean, 2 million video views. You don't have 2 million videos. Right. 2 million video views watched since COVID, over 168,000 Since COVID, so it's not counting before. Yeah. What we saw over COVID is a huge, huge growth. Um you know, and and the kinds of people that are watching it, you know, I've seen I'm saying this is our bread and butter of the viewers, but I've seen uh you know, Gerrer chassid sign up, and a Satmar chassid sign up, and many people who wouldn't have touched this stuff 3, 4, 5 years ago are suddenly, you know, open to using this medium to learning, so. Uh huge change in the last couple of years. And more and more home users used to be primarily, you know, educators and schools, and now families are loving to watch it. And especially with the new website, as I said, there's these challenges. There's also a thing called the RWI. Ask me what's that. What's RWI? Thank you for asking. So, RWI Really weird interesting thing. Real world impact. We figured, look, children don't have the time, the resources to affect the world. Wouldn't it be magical if we can empower them to not just learn about a mitzvah, but to enable other people to fulfill that mitzvah. So, the way it works on the new Torah Live 2.0 site is that kids earn this virtual coin called a dinar, and after any given course, they can choose how they wish to spend that coin. So, they just watched the kibbud av em, and they can now send a food package to some lonely elderly person in an old age home. They've learned about ribbis, they can actually, you know, enable other people to keep that mitzvah. They learned about shatnez, they can sponsor a voucher for a family to have all their clothes checked for shatnez for free. It's all done through partnerships to Torah Is there a button to send things to Rabbi Suder? Just wondering. Hm. 3.0 uh Cuz I think that should really be a priority. So, a kid wants to sign up for this. It's an annual fee, it's a one-time fee, how does it work? So, all the videos are free lifetime. No Without joining? Without signing up for free. But, in terms of the cost just to watch the videos, we're not putting up any paywall uh between Okay, so now, But, what about earning the dinars? Oh, the One second. So, if you want to earn the dinars, you want to get the points, the challenges, the quizzes, so that's all of $90 per year. Um and you can sign up if you are a teacher up to 36 students. If you have 36 kids, uh your own children, then you can sign all 36 up. We don't want to have any difference, dinar. Um it's funny, but we saw people who are really educated pretending to be home students. Oh, it's not a It's not a joke, because here, um they have what's called a Luna Park, you know, which it's called an amusement park, but really they have these like rides that were condemned back in the 1950s in circuses, and they bring them here. And 100 kids line up in like this empty lot, and they And it's like 20 shekels a ride, and the ride lasts 10 seconds, you know. And a person shows up with a big family, forget about it. You can go broke over there, you know. Right. So, we wanted to take away any barriers from people pretending they're, you know, home instead of educators or vice versa. So, we basically made it the same. So, it's Again, all the videos are there for free, and there's hundreds of videos and uh 44 courses, and this is just a drop in the ocean. We are raring to go after Pesach. We hope to come out with the laws of you know, haircuts and bishul akum and chessed and havas chessed, and um there's about 20 different productions that we have in this production. A family pays $90. If they want the extras, if they just want the videos. $90. They've got Let's say 9 or 8 kids. Right. They're all participating on this. They're all earning dinars. You have to go and pay people money now for the fact that they watch You have to pay people money because these kids watched videos. That's You It's going to be a loss. I mean, you could really lose a lot of money on this. This is This is the spot to thank. If you have really dedicated kids who are sitting there getting dinars, then you have to sit there and send food packages to poor people, and you know, and and stuff like that. So, this is the cue to thank all the wonderful, amazing, generous donors out there who've made Torah Live possible. What's your budget? 1.2 million dollars a year. Godzooks. A lot or a little? It sounds like a lot of money to me. I yeah, it was 20 Let's put it this way, I'm not getting most of that. I can tell you that. Yeah. So, 25 people uh you know, They can sign up for the food packages. BUT, ANYWAY, ALL RIGHT. SO, IF any uh kids out there who are already using the internet, and we're looking for something to do on one of those days when the kids are saying, "Mom, I'm bored." And uh you know, maybe the weather is not conducive to going outside for whatever reason, or you know, whatever's happening, and you want your kids to watch videos of Torah Live to be able to learn Torah content, what do they do? Head over to torahlive.com, sign up, and send us pictures. We love to see, you know, different audiences and get some feedback cuz we are ready to go and burst into scenes of new material that we'd love to make, and uh So, does Rabbi Sitler get like a lot of fan mail? Uh yeah, so he's the most popular character. Is he indeed? In fact, I've taken all the scripts that originally went for myself to go over and I've just given them over to him. I mean, he's already recorded on individuality, on music, on Taharas Hamishpacha, and patience. The patience is already up. Uh what else do we have? Asher Yatzar you've done on um so many. It's uh it's really I actually got a complaint on somebody who said, you know, I started showing my kids the the videos. They love them. Yeah. But there's just not enough programming. Right. It it it's, you know, Now, I don't have that problem because um Malcolm Gladwell, in one of his books, makes the observation that people miss the point of children's programming. They think you have to keep coming up with new stuff. Kids love watching the same thing over and over and over again. And that's why anyone who knows, if a kid has a book, you know, as soon as you finish, they go, "Read it again. Read it again." They like it. So, he says So, sometimes programming is much better if they just keep watching the same thing over and over again. So, especially these, which are so chock-full of content, you know? But uh this is this is the need, I think, is for more more Torah Live videos. And uh would make us happier at Torah Live than making those videos, so So, the only thing that's holding you back now is more funding, eh? Yeah, sure. All right. Intense. All right. So, uh and he does need money to send those gifts to Rabbi Sitler. Well, Dan, thanks for coming here. It was a pleasure. I'm going to do uh the final segment of the show, if you don't mind. Well, I have to answer some of the listeners' questions. Leah, age 16, asks, "Why isn't there a button to send things to Rabbi Sitler on Torah Live?" No, I'm just kidding. That's not her question. That's my question. Her question is, "Why are Conservative and Reform, and sometimes less from Jews, so into the idea of Tikkun Olam? Where does it come from?" I think it comes from the following, and that is I I'm going to tell you idea. I've said this over in the past, but it's such an important idea. It was the only time I heard Rabbi Moshe Shapiro say, "I'm going to tell you something, and it's hard to hear." He said a lot of things that were hard to hear. But he said this about this. He said, "I'm going to tell you something, and it's hard to hear." He says, uh "If you serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu with all your heart, with all your soul, then you'll get all of this bracha." He said, "If you turn away from me, then all these terrible things will happen." If you turn away and you bow down to idols. He says, "Isn't there anything in between? Serving God with all your heart and soul and your soul, or bowing down to idols?" And he said a second time. He said, "I'm going to tell you something, and it's hard to hear. Either Hakadosh Baruch Hu is God 100% or he's not God at all." There are I once heard this Orthodox and Reform and Conservative Rabbi. Uh they were on a radio program discussing Torah MiSinai. And the Reform Rabbi said, "Of course, the Torah could not have been written by God. God would not have said this, or God would not have said that." That is the definition of idolatry. Idolatry means creating God in our image. And that's what many people do. We want God to fit into our picture of what God should say, as opposed to us fitting into the picture of what God wants. And therefore, if you say, "Okay, um I'm going to try to follow what God says. I'm going to keep Shabbos. I'm going to keep kosher. I'm going to try to do this. I'm going to try to do that. I don't want to do those things." So, instead, turn Judaism into this amorphous secular humanism. Let's go out and be nice to everybody, you know, uh random acts of kindness, uh be nice to people, and stuff like that. You know, without uh without having any religion in it, per se. And so, God just becomes this, you know, big smiley face in the sky who wants you just to go out and be nice to people. But where you yourself fulfill the purpose of following God's will, people are uncomfortable with that. So, it's much easier to adopt a philosophy of let's go out and be nice to people, as opposed to sitting down and trying to figure out what does God want? I think that's the the source of it. Ra- Ora Cohen asks, "Why did we take the Christian numbering system of the Bible and use it to split up the Torah into parshios, prakim, and pesukim? Since when do we take things from the non-Jews and apply it to our Torah?" Okay, so clarification. The pesukim are Torah MiSinai. The parshios are Torah MiSinai. That's why when it comes to Vayechi, we have a tradition that a parsha begins at parshas Vayechi, even though there's no space in between the two words. But the parshios and the pesukim are all Torah MiSinai. Only the prakim were uh did we take from the Christians. Why? Because the Christians would attack Jews with all kinds of arguments from uh the scriptures. And they would say, "Well, it says in, you know, in Jeremiah 6:22. It says in Isaiah 53. It says in And we're like, "What? What? What are you talking about? I never heard of this in my life." Yeah. So, we ended up taking their system just to be able to respond to them. But the prakim are often totally deceptive. And that's why you'll find that like just before a parsha ends, it'll start a new perek. It's totally deceptive. It's not the way uh that we use it. So, the prakim you can ignore. And sometimes you can find uh chumashim that actually are set up just by the parshios in the Torah, and they number it according to the parshios. It's it's unusual, but you can find it like that. And of course, when I say a parsha, what do I mean? That means that anytime you see in your little chumash a samach or a pei, that signifies that either there is a space inside of the line, or the line ends, and those are two ways of delineating what we call a parsha. So, when we say parshas tzitzis, obviously it's not a parsha uh like when we talk about the parshas of shavua. Yeah, that's uh that's part of Bamidbar. But we call it parshas tzitzis cuz it's a self-contained parsha. You know, the parshios of Krias Shema, these sort of things. Each one is a self-contained entity. But otherwise, uh they're not supposed to be there. All right, we have time for one more. Anonymous asks, "What do you think about large tzedakah organizations that have no transparency or public financial accountability for the money? Should one donate to such organizations, or is it a waste? What tzedakah do you recommend donating to?" So, those are two separate questions. What do I think about organizations that have no sense of accountability? I'm not happy. I'm not happy with it. It makes me very nervous. Why? Because I can tell you stories of at least three major yeshivas where people gave money to build a building, build a campus, build this, and there was nobody in charge. And at some point, they just sold it and kept the money. Now, nobody gave them money for them to keep the money for themselves. They gave it to build a Torah institution. So, how in the world is that is that legit? And they owe that money back to the tzibur. I don't understand how it suddenly belonged to them. No one gave the money to you. Especially there were times where the people who were running it were niftar, and they didn't have anybody in charge, and the crazy thing is, the executive director took it over and kept all the money of it. How does such a thing work? So, that makes me very nervous. Yeah? Obviously, if you um have a have a rebbe, or you have, you know, somebody that you are personally trusting, and you're saying, "Listen, I'm giving this money to you. Use it as you will, you know, however you think it should best be spent." That's between you and them. But if it's an organization, I tell a story about these two yeshiva boys who decide to open up a kollel. So, they go to America, and they raise all the money, you know, and they come back. And they said, "So, how many people do you want to take into the kollel?" So, the one guy says, "What? We should share our hard-earned money with those people? We raised it for us, you know? We'll we'll we'll learn. We'll learn and keep the money." Yeah, okay. So, uh that's fine as long as everybody knows it up front. I know people who go around and collect for themselves because they just don't have the money to make ends meet. Okay, that to me is legit as long as people know up front. Second question is, "What tzedakah do you recommend donating to?" So, I'll tell you a story I heard years ago. I don't know if it's true. I'm not pesak halacha, right? Um but I heard this story years ago. There was a guy who was raising money for Ponevezh. And he was working on this one, you know, gvir. And eventually, the guy says to him, after a long time of investment, he says, "Well, I want to give some charity money. Where should I give it to?" So, the correct answer was of course Bonovich, you understand? But he wasn't going to do that. He says, "You know what? There's a great rabbi in Israel. His name is Resha. Let's go and ask him." So, he buys two first-class tickets and they fly there and there's a car waiting for them and drives them to Bnei Brakh and brings them to Resha. He tells him, you know, "Waiting for a second. I'll tell the rabbi you're here." He says, "Listen, you know, Resh Yeshiva, I've been working with this guy for a long time and he wants to know where he gave his stuck it to. He's coming in to ask you, okay?" That's the story. The guy comes in and he says, "Rabbi, I'm wondering where I should give my charity." And he says, "Any place you want." Now, to the executive director, that was the wrong answer. But, uh the answer is there are so many worthy causes out there. I don't know what's going to speak to you. There are certain people who stress Torah Mishpacha. There are certain people interested in Kiyor Hakem. There are people who are interested in in Torah Lishmah. There are people who are interested in, uh you know, building institutions. There are people, uh you know, uh interested in, uh helping poor people just have money to make their bills. There are people interested in people with medical problems or all kinds of things. Which is the most important stuff? I can't tell you. But, you have to see where your heart goes. There are certain things and we all know this. There are certain causes that speak to us in a way that other causes don't and that's how Hashem I think made us. Okay, that's it for the special Chol HaMoed edition of the Rabbi Orlowsky Show. If you want to find out more about the show, you can go to my website rabbiorlowsky.com. If you want to find out more about Torah Live, you can go to torahlive.com. Uh on rabbiorlowsky.com, you can leave a comment. You can sponsor an episode. You can still sign up for the Tefillah series that I hope will be starting after Pesach. Uh you can, um uh get information about the upcoming Rabbi Orlowsky Live that's going to be taking place in Mozambique. Uh you can, uh I'll be in America, as I mentioned, Lag BaOmer. If anybody wants to book an event around that time. And uh that's about it for this week. I'm Rabbi Orlowsky. Dan Roth and this has been the Rabbi Orlowsky Show. It's the Rabbi Orlowsky Show. Torah and Simcha, ready to go. The Rabbi Orlowsky Show. Knowledge and wisdom will help you grow. Lots of fun in every episode. And we don't have to rhyme. No, we don't. It's the Rabbi Orlowsky Show. On rabbiorlowsky.com. Torah, anytime, YouTube, and more. It's the Rabbi Orlowsky Show. Torah and Simcha, ready to go. It's the Rabbi Orlowsky Show. Till next time till we meet again. Rabbi Orlowsky Show. It's the Rabbi Orlowsky Show.