Episode 2: Light Unto the Nations?!

[Music] hi I'm Emily Deborah Orlowski welcome to the rabbi Orlovsky show a tradition since last Thursday that would make this episode two now if you didn't watch my first episode what a loser but anyway I I explained that this is my foray out into the world of podcast I don't really understand it too much but I saw on YouTube that well I mean I didn't see on YouTube but I know somebody in America who has a non Jewish neighbor who has the internet for business purposes and he checked and saw that there are 200 views so that's that's nice for a start you know we only have 98 hundred more to go to get to my goal for the first 10 episodes but after that I expect it to take off but I can honestly say at this point we are the fastest growing non-jewish podcast in the world because we went from 0 to 200 so that's really unbelievable and I'm not counting all the people who are out in podcast land who are listening to this wherever people listen to podcast but it's absolutely amazing and the nicest thing was so many comments that I received yeah so for example are you from Brooklyn suggested that instead of sticking myself into a corner of of my room over there that I give myself some farmers as a backdrop and and we have so I just showed you how receptive I am I should also point out since people have been sending in comments you know that our producer Michael Samuels doesn't like the title doesn't like the title the rebel ulanovsky show I thought it I thought it just really says it all but you know there's a certain I guess gift to being able to give certain creativity someone told me they were hiring grabbed my tats to do a Shabbos and they asked him could you send some titles and he sent a list of 20 titles and they said this these are great what are they about and he says nothing these are just titles I made up and I'm gonna try so you know so like I would I have a class on tequila that I give which is unbelievable it's called Fela and I don't know I really think that that says it all but people one creativity you know and the interesting thing is that people will often judge things based on the title yeah one of the best job ever gave was on pushes for arrow and it was about you know it's about Atias libo you know hardening Pyro's hard and all kinds of different things that I do with DOM and pace on it was trust me one of my best serum and almost one needs to sell tape is almost nobody bought it because the title was artillio sclerosis of the soul and evidently nobody knew what that was so they buy it on the other hand I gave a sharing part from a spud some years ago which was okay don't get me wrong it was good not one of my best of all time I called it partially the Harry Potter and partially me spot them wow that's so great everyone saw Harry Potter you know in fact I one time had somebody come over to me angrily at the end of a shear because of a title because I it was partially knee and I called the shear pottery mania mania not a Romania so the person assumed for reasons that are unclear to me that it was about Harry Potter and in fact it was about clay Ferris which is why I called it potter romanian and he's so upset at me to this day but he brought his wife and everything this was this was a major night out so so anyway those of you who are nice enough to write comments so if you have another suggestion for the show that would be nice and I've already had two offers of sponsorships for the podcast which is great because then you know I rented all these farm you know I mean you know I could maybe buy some of them and you know have them as personal I'm just kidding this is actually a poster behind me they're not even ice forever but it's just the green so so that's really nice it's really terrific and I what can I tell you there's been a certain warmth an outpouring from people about this idea and that's great I'm thrilled I'm thrilled to be able to have this opportunity to interact with people that I normally don't get since I spend most of my time you know either locked in my room or walking down the street pushing a baby carriage filled with garbage because that's where I am at this point in my life in any event so thank you so much everybody for watching tell your friends tell people you don't like I don't really care I just want to see those clicks and all of our subscribers we're gonna have special things for the subscribers I don't know what that is yet because I don't know what a subscriber is but but I thank those of you who've subscribed and always we say you just get subscribed and describing and it's a sham we'll go on okay so this is our second podcast and if you weren't here for the last one I can't understand why you're watching this one but we're taking an idea from the Perisher as opposed to a straight bar Torah and developing it a little bit now the truth is this is gonna cross the wine a little bit but it's something that I you don't really want to talk about because it's something that I consider to be important and fundamental and I introduced with a story story I was on a panel and in Cape Town South Africa with a Jewish teacher a non-jewish teacher I should say a Christian teacher a Muslim teacher secular Jewish teacher myself and we were answering questions on Judaism and some of these kids were giving the Christian teacher a hard time about Christianity and I was giving them the eye you know like you know and it didn't stop them but when they were done the next question came and said gee rabbi in Alaska surprised that you were upset when we're asking this question because didn't you tell us in a class that the Jewish people are the chosen people and there I am on the bad but the Christian and the looking at me so it's an interesting idea the idea and I said the following I said of course we believe we're the chosen people the Christians also believe they're the chosen people and the Christian teacher right away said yes of course and I said obviously you wouldn't be following the I remember I once had this reform student and Hebrew University was arguing with me in a class and he says so you think you have the absolute truth and I said I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think I had the absolute truth what do you think you think I'm doing this and I think it's wrong because I think it's true yeah and there's something a little bit upsetting about that yeah mati burger once said interesting thing yeah he says people don't like the Jewish people one of the reasons they're given is because we say were the chosen people the Christians say they're the chosen people did you ever meet a Jew who was angry at a Christian for saying they're the chosen people know why they angry at us because they know we're right that's why it's there's a there's a underlying truth to it so this is the week where we start the story of the Jewish people and it's basically where we develop into the Jewish people where Adam avinu is approached by a courage borracho and told later economy ira melodica iris cover basically fell or it's a shocker leave your home leave your country leave everything behind and go to the land ownership and he begins this journey that concludes with bris mila and this is the journey of becoming the jewish people and if you will the chosen people Joseph and he says to her I'm right at the beginning I'm gonna give you health wealth and the time to enjoy yeah because I'm gonna give you children I'm gonna give you a way to give you wealth I'm gonna make you famous because travel travel takes those things away from you and so I'm gonna give you those things that's gonna be a blessing I'm gonna give you that sounds great that's what we expect from the chosen people we expect that you were going to shower your blessings upon us so he gets to Israel what's the first thing that happens famine he goes down to Egypt to kidnap his wife he gets his wife back he has a fight with his only remaining relative loped and they separate Lord gets captured and so Avram has to go to war against the four world powers now to be fair he's got Italy as it with no so it's a fair battle right and he manages to defeat them and get slowed back and then eventually ten years perishes have any children has to take another wife he takes another wife and then his two wives don't get along those of you who have two wives you know how incredibly awkward it can be and they have a fight needs to send away his wife you know and they come back and this goes on for 29 years and at the end of 29 years ago who says so how do you like my bris I got one more surprise for you circumcision I was saving that for last yeah this has chosen people this is chosen people it's an old Jewish joke yeah Goldberg turns to God and he says God is it true that we're the chosen people and he says yes Goldberg you're the chosen people he says could you do me a favor to somebody else once in a while yeah Jewish history has not shown us that this blessing of being the Jewish people has necessarily worked out to our advantage in every instance I don't know if you're aware of this but a quick reading of Jewish history we'll find as a lot of people out they who just don't like us and we've certainly made a lot of contributions to science to literature to philosophy you know we we've built economies and countries Casimir invited the Jews into Poland to help him build the economy you know when we got kicked out of Spain Sulaimon invited the Jews into Turkey because he knew that they would rebuild his economy well we've done a lot of good for the world overall and people just don't like us yeah so when you talk about shows and people this week's buyer she gives us a little insight into what it means yeah Chris Bravo comes over and says listen the God of the entire world open parenthesis this is an extremely important point yeah if you go to a Christian and say I want to join Christianity they're thrilled to have you you go to Islam and you tell them I want to join Islam they're thrilled to have you yeah in fact they will often give you offers to come like we won't burn you at the stake you know we won't kill you well we won't torch you to death that's by the way but even in Europe these two offer for money food it's one time this couple didn't know what to do they had no money couldn't feed their family you know so the husband says I'll convert goes out goes to the church they give him some money he comes back and and he comes in with the money and the wife says wow look at that we could buy food for the children maybe we could buy a pair of shoes for the little boy and he says huh look at this I could get some money and you Jews want to take it away from him already you know but they would you all kinds of ways they influence you so that you would convert which makes sense because according to Christianity and according to Islam if you do not follow their religion then you will be cast into the pit of hell and in fact I think it's st. Peter's Cathedral I think it is you know they have the big the giant mural of them casting the non-believers into the fires of hell yeah Dante Divine Comedy you know those people who don't believe heretics burnt at the stake and so of course they're gonna do anything they can to get you to join because they're the chosen people they have the truth and by the way you gotta make sure you have the right truth yeah because in the 14th century there were two popes and one in France and one in Italy and each one put the other one's followers you know into excommunication so whichever Pope you were following there was another Pope telling you that you're gonna you can't go to have it you know so you know it's a it's a problem it's a problem right to be able to follow it so they're gonna do whatever they can person comes to us and says I want to become a Jews is what do you want to do that for so I want to go to heaven there's no problem do the seven go to last week's bar do the Chevy mrs. Randolph there's an entire Noahide movement out there of non-jews who keep the seven basic moral laws and they have a place in the world to come we don't need you to join so what kind of chosen people are you so that's disturbing this week's barcia because vertical comes to hover movie no and he says I want you to be the chosen people what does that mean you're my representative in this world and I want you to see this world because it's filled with hunger and it's filled with crime and it's filled with family strife and marital strife yeah and war and all kinds of difficulties your job is to fix the world that's why I put the Jewish people in this world that's what I need to show some people for to give reward I want to I want to reward everybody I want the entire world but Yash emblem melech alcohol it's my um oh yeah Shane McCloud whose mother cried the entire world will acknowledge a Kurdish burro who that's the ultimate goal not that they should become Jews our job is to go out there and change the world change the world now this is a scary scary topic and I you know like I say I one of the reasons I'm doing this is because there are things that I don't feel like I can say him I realize she or him and they you know I want to get out there are we living up to that expectation are we being an or legume are people looking at the Jewish people and saying wow I want to be like him I wanna be like him I I told this story to Pesach on I said the face that Crone I said you told this unbelievable story the unbelievable story this guy's why his wife was in labor and he had to get to Beth Israel it's coming from Flatbush has to go through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel there are people still waiting from a month ago to get through the book and better eat I know he doesn't know what to do so he moves into the bus lane and he starts zooming in a cop stops him and he says my wife's in labor so he says why don't you tell me we would give you an escort and they take him down he goes there he has the baby and that night he's coming home and he's coming home and when he comes to the toll booth this is before EZ Pass he pulls out two tokens so the guy says what's this for he says I came through this morning with the police escort and the guy says oh congratulations what did your wife have I says how did you know he says we saw you were a religious Jew and so we said for sure he'll come back and pay the toll on his way back that's a pay sucks Crone story now tell you a double illowsky story this these people are sitting around the Bema and sure and they're discussing that they leased a car and the lease was up and he was 200 miles over the lease agreement and you have to pay a dollar for every mile over that's $200 and it hurt this firm you'd to have to pay the $200 that he was legally responsible to pay it hurt him so someone told him about a guy really in in New York who for $50 will turn back the odometer give albick he goes to this guy he starts turning back to domina and the odometer breaks what do you do now he says don't worry I work with a fellow who that's his job he will steal an odometer from another car of the same make and model I'll put it back in and bring it to the right mileage but can't call you and on Shabbos he's sitting around he's standing around the Beemer with his two friends and he says and it only cost me 50 bucks and they go watching this scene play out and I thought to myself you know we used to die for our religion Josephus says that the Romans used to capture Jews and torture them to death to get them to serve idols because they couldn't believe that anybody would be willing to give up their life for their beliefs and today you can buy a Jew for $150 now I was deeply moved by this story I happened to tell the story over to Momo wrote Moshe Rosenbaum he has a farm store up in the mountains and I have to see him the story and he looks at me he says a hundred and fifty dollars I can buy a Jew for less than that I said what do you mean I I went I run as farmers - so people come in by farm religious people they're buying smart and I have to charge some sales tax and they get very angry at me get angry at me charge themselves - so he says for Kent who's your basic the Satmar bob says you have to pay sales tax information fine Dean says you have to pay sales like it if there's a place because you don't have to tell me I'd be very happy to hear doesn't get really angry at me and then I say ah now I understand you don't believe in the a mister don't believe in the hipster my banks me he says you'd think if you don't steal this 8% sales tax you won't be able to feed your family khushboo who won't be able to provide for you I have no choice but to do something dishonest now I've worked in Jewish outreach for many years and I answer questions that's what I do and one of the questions that people ask is how do you explain these religious Jews you know who who are involved in all kinds of illegal you know activities now I have a standard answer that I used to give I'd say what are you talking about anybody's afraid you know to walk through a Jewish neighborhood afraid my accountants gonna attack them with Jackie Mason says who's afraid you know Jews don't kill they don't steal they don't you know they don't raid them are you talking about it's very safe I met this Italian guy Liz in the middle of Borough Park I said what are you doing here he says it's the healthiest place for my kids to grow up I don't have to worry about crime I don't have to worry about drugs great place and I've given this answer for years and then at one point somebody says I work in the DA's office and when it comes to violent crimes you're right but when it comes to white-collar crimes the from community is disproportionately represented to the point that somebody told me that he was in America and he says where's uncle and he says oh he's sitting there everyone nods no I'm from Arizona I never heard this term it's just sitting where you know sitting know what he meant and someone explained to me it means he's in jail mean sees in jail they have a term for it yeah and by the way it's not like once upon a time you can go to jail where they have mignon um three times a day and glyco shove food and the duffy hey Misha it's Marge give a leg what a spiritually elevating experience what do people think what do people think when they see us and this is something that every one of us are guilty on some level I you know I never put myself up on a pedestal and I I have to say you know I given a share for many years I'm Jose Chavez and I don't know if you know people say to me one of the reasons I like coming to yes share is because you're so ordinary and I feel like if you could do it anyone can and I appreciate that because I know where it's coming from I do I know there are certain people who make you put you up on a pedestal speaking to a group of teenage girls you know he's doing this for them and and he says all of us could be better you think I couldn't be better laughs he said you know it plays the guitar anything you think I couldn't be better cuz I don't say I sure you'd Sara with enough Kevon that's his problem you understand that's the only he was mommy's bit posh paid for my servant the only thing he could find is they doesn't say I should say with a knife qivana and I'm thinking to myself I know this guy has a business and it keeps two sets of books because she doesn't pay income tax how about that you know how about this fact that he embezzled money from one of the places he was working to pay his gambling debts up come on so I you know but every one of us at some point we have to understand when we walk down the street how we drive what we talk you know I don't know every place some places I go to religious people don't have the best reputation when it comes to driving yeah there's this English comic I don't know his name I saw him a clip of him once but I'm sorry I'm sure someone will leave it in the comments for me but you know he became from and he says I learned certain things now that I'm part of the religious community these pictures of signs you know this is no parking it says this means park here he's a crosswalk this means park here it's like what this means park here it's and people see it and they wonder they pee people smoking well you know to smoke and people wonder because they see this is a religious Jew you know and I and I think of that Pesach Road story I'm Saguna or like I am a chosen people we have an obligation that when people see us it's supposed to bring them to a critical why did the Jews go into goalless because this way people could be exposed to Judaism and see it and be inspired and find their way back to a Kurdish Morocco that's our mission that's why we're in this world and I can tell you I've seen people do exceptionally wonderful things and I've seen people do terrible things you know I was I was driving and I came to a crosswalk and there was this blind person waiting to cross the street okay come on this one's gonna go into my high school boy I stopped the car I got out I walked the guy across the street so another driver says this driver says go kavod and I said madam and if I waited for him it would have taken me forever I was just worried about myself and he says okay that made more sense to him [Laughter] you see you see people do things that are that are good or nice I an unbelievable story every wine tells this story the Detroit Free Press again this is an old story I don't know if it still applies today or not but it was very pro-israel and he had a dinner with the editor of the Detroit Free Press and he want to thank him for being so pro-israel he says tell you why I'm so pro Israel he says he says there was this Jewish couple here in Detroit and they heard this this young girl had no family you know to uh to be their maid to be their living me anyway they went away you know and the maid realized it's almost December 25th they don't have a tree they don't have any lights they don't have you know there are anything that's wrong we didn't have too much money she was living but if she hadn't an elderly mother that's all she had so she goes out with whatever money she has and she buys a tree she buys a wreath and she strings up lights anyway they come home they drove past their house three times I realized it was their house they go in and the this young girl was so thrilled that she was able to do this for them and they said to her you know this is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for us but we're Jewish we don't we don't keep we don't celebrate Xmas she says really this is but this is what I want you to do first of all I'm gonna pay you for all the decorations second of all I'm gonna give you a bonus third of all please I'm gonna call a cab bring all of this home to your mother and decorate her house that she should enjoy it as beautifully as us the editor of the Detroit Free Press looks at revery wine and says that was my mother everyone knows the story with the Mahalo about how he helped out this one kid you know his father was the baker he was gonna poison the hoedown you know and there he was able to save everybody because he was nice this one kid you know people are watching us all the time and people want to know are you living up to your expectations are you gonna make the world a better place people are gonna look at you and say I heard this story again I never checked it out now whenever there was an ecumenical debate in the town of Rodman Poland and I don't know if that was between the Jews and the Greek Orthodox or the Jews and the Catholics but whoever was between says the Jews had this trump card that they would always play they would say show me a religion that has ever produced the hobbits claim and that was the end of it but even the non-jews knew there was nothing to talk about you know they knew they had nobody to compete with that level of holiness and if people look at us and they say wow well that's what I want to be that's what I can become that's the world that I want to live in and we're living up to expectations and if we don't here's the sad truth how Curtis Borough Hall will use us to teach the world one way or the other and this is these of sukham I'm not writing this yeah and when bad things happen people look at the Jews and say well look at how they've suffered because they didn't live up to their expectations I'd much rather inspire the world through my beautiful smile and warm words and good wishes yeah when they were sitting Shiva through Yaakov kamenetsky so this nun came in yeah and they were a little surprised okay she was dressed in black and white she fit in but there's still you know you don't expect to see a nun so they say can I help you she says I came to pay my respects to Rabbi kamenetsky says what was your connection she said you know it's not easy being a nun in Muncie so when I would walk down the street people would cross the road like I had leprosy you know it was only one person ever coming asking whenever he would see me he would say good morning and give me a big smile and that made such an impression and we don't know where this stuff goes every time you do something good and you say something nice and you live up to those expectations we don't know how it's going to change the world I remember who told this to me years and years ago so be very careful before you alienate anybody because very few people can help you but anybody can hurt you and the best thing to do is to try to turn somebody into a friend turn somebody into somebody who's going to appreciate you and appreciate what you're trying to do in the world and if we live up to that then the journey of our Vivino and says the morrow why is the first Jew introduced with the words like wah ha because we're all on a journey we're all going someplace and a midsize sham all of us will take that journey together and bring the world to where it's supposed to go everyone should have a great job you [Music]