How it All Started, with Michoel Samuels (3rd Anniversary) (Ep. 146)

Hi, this is Rabbi Alonaski, and welcome to the Rabbi Alonaski show. AND FROM THE SOUND OF THAT ROAR OF APPLAUSE, you can tell that we are back in the Rabbi Alonaski studios. I am not on Zoom. Look, you can see my arm no matter where I move it. There's no disappearing things. The background doesn't suddenly vanish and you see my bathrobe hanging up on the wall behind me. Which I've always found slightly awkward. Yeah. Particularly when I'm in it. But in any event, uh so uh I have to do the rest of my intro. Uh so whether you are um uh watching with our friends over at Torah Anytime or wherever you watch or listen to your podcast, as always we are happy to have you along for this special third anniversary show of the RABBI ALONASKI SHOW. THREE YEARS. I DON'T think I've done anything uh consistently for three years. I mean, okay, married 40 years this Sivan, but I didn't have to do very much, you know, I let my wife carry the bull. But uh you know, gosh, you know, uh 146 episodes. And I would used to think at the beginning, what am I going to talk about? And it turns out I've got no problem. I got lots to talk about. So we're starting now our fourth year, which is going to be very exciting. So who IS OUR SPONSORSHIP FOR this very very special anniversary show? This episode I'm reading is sponsored anonymously by David Bresler. I don't know. Anyway, as a thank you to Hashem for everything he has given me. There's an old There's an old uh Jewish joke. I collect all types of jokes. There's an old Jewish joke. I, Harry Rabinowitz of Rabinowitz ladies wear, on 232 Orchard Street, do hereby donate $100,000 anonymously. Anyway, obviously um David has a sense of humor, and that's what uh you need to come in on this podcast. If you don't You don't have a sense of humor, what are you going to do? You know, there is a condition that's been identified. It's called being humor impaired. You know, people don't get the joke. Dave Barry once wrote a whole article about this. Uh what what does it mean uh to be humor impaired, you know? So uh uh it's it's not that you don't think the joke is funny. You just don't even realize there was a joke. You know? So uh it's a uh uh baruch Hashem when you find somebody that has a sense of humor. So uh so that's it. This is our anniversary show. We have a lot of treats for you. And uh a lot of effort has gone into this program over the years. None of it by me. I just sit here and talk. That's all that I am qualified to do. Yeah? So those who do do, those who can't teach, right? Those who can't teach become famous speakers. Yeah, and that's what I do. I travel around and I talk. And very often an organization will bring me in, and they understand that I cannot be held responsible for myself, you know? So they pick me up and they drive me to the house where I'm staying, and they tell my host have him ready at this time, and they I get down, I get in the car, they drive me to the place, they stand me up, they say talk, then they put me back in the car, they bring me back to the next place, they put me on a train, you know? They they understand that I'm not really meant to do things on my own. So I thought this being an anniversary show, it's time for a retrospective. I'm going to be I'm married 40 years in uh in Sivan. Um June 14th we got married, Flag Day. Which uh you know, it's very special Yom Tov, and uh you know, that's why we didn't have to say Tachanun, have to fast or anything. But um uh it's also Chof Gimel Sivan, which is in the Megillah. Yeah. Very important date mentioned in the Megillah. So uh that's when we got married 40 years ago. And um uh I look exactly the same. I have not aged uh at all. I I got old early, and that way I never aged. My wife is similar. Uh she still doesn't age. In fact, I remember for our 25th wedding anniversary we went out, and we had one of the babies with us, whoever the baby was at the time, and this other couple says, "Oh, is that your first baby?" says to my wife. She says, "No, it's my 10th or 11th, whatever." She says, "Really, you look so young." And then she looked at me. And then she looks back at my wife and says, "You look so young." But I figure if one of us has to age, I'm glad it was me. You know what I mean? Because uh you know, it's it's uh okay if you remember George Bush and his wife Barbara, you know, so she looked like his mother, you know? It was like a little uncomfortable, so you know, if somebody has to age, it should always be the man. Cuz when men age, they become more distinguished. Thank you very much. Anyway, I I I know when I got a haircut recently, I said to the guy, "Why are you giving me a used uh you know, a sheet over here because it's filled with all this gray and white hair. Obviously some old man was here before me." Being an Israeli yet with no sense of humor, he of course said, "No, no, no, this is all from you." I said, "Thank you very much." In any event, we're back, and I have which was here in the studio, that's why I didn't have access to it during Corona, my official Rabbi Alonaski mug, which is going to have to change. Everything has to change in after three years. Cuz the times they are a-changing. Said the Jewish guy named Robert Zimmerman. Yeah. And uh we're going to be having a lot of changes. So I thought this would be a wonderful time for a retrospective and also for a look forward. Because uh you have to look back and you have to look forward. And you're in the present. I'm in the present. That means that there's there's who haya, who hava, who yeha. There's a past, there's a future, and there's a present. And uh you know, the past past is gone. The future is unknown. All you have is today, and I can tell you having almost died seven years ago, two major doctors told me I was supposed to die. Apparently they were wrong. Uh I mean, or I was supposed to die, and Kodesh Baruch Hu decided to leave me here. Yeah. Um I'm sure I told this story already that when my brother passed away, my mother was quite destroyed. She was in her 80s, and she lost a son in his 60s, and you know, how do you console a mother? And she would say to everybody, "Why? Why did God do this? Why Why didn't he take me? I said, 'God, take me. Take me.' Why did he take Why did he take Jason? He still had children to marry off. Why did he take Why did he take Jason? Why didn't he take me?" Nobody knew what to say. So I was after my operation, I couldn't fly, so I called up to make a shiva call, and she said it to me, "Why? Why did Jason die? Why not me?" I said, "Cuz God likes Jason. He wanted to have him close to him. You're just a cranky old lady. He'll get to you eventually. But uh you know, you're not that much fun, Mom, so he decided to take Jason." She said, "That's the first thing anybody said that makes any sense to me." So So it could be I'm still alive just cuz God didn't want me. But you wake up every day and you say, "Listen, you know, every day is a gift." People say to me, "How are you doing?" I said, "Baruch Hashem." They said, "No, no, how are you really doing?" I said, "No, no, no, when you wake up in the morning and you open your eyes, when you realize you're on borrowed time, that I'm not even supposed to be here." And that's why when we have problems, and we have problems in my family, everybody has problems, and things get bad, I said, "Listen, honey, I was supposed to die seven years ago. That would be much worse." You know, the worst thing is when you have one of those simchas and everyone has to go um I know Abba is up in Shamayim looking down, and everyone's like, "Oh, man, just killed the whole party, you know?" So instead they say, "Abba's over here. Uh he's totally out of it. He has no idea what's going on." But at least he's still here, so we don't have to make one of those maudlin speeches, you know what I mean? So uh so every day, you know, it's a gift. That's why it's called the present. I get it. Forget it. Okay. Anyway, um Shmuel Kunda had a tape years ago. And there was that one line he goes, "I would like to request your presence you know, at my at my daughter's getting married. I'd like to request your presence." He says, "Oh, I'm sorry, I can't make it." He goes, "I don't want you. I want your presents." That's the gift. So uh you know, it's uh it's it's the fact that that you have have a day, it's wonderful. So we're going to look back, and we're going to look forward, and all of that comes down to one individual, and that is the mysterious producer, Michael. I've been talking about Michael since the first podcast, and no one really believes he exists. He thinks he's a character that I created in order to be able to uh you know, hide behind people and say, "Well, you have to talk to the producer." Or "My producer won't let me do it." Or "The producer did this." You know, and you know, and we used to have all those crazy things with the Rabbi Alonaski sign, you know? And I used to say, "Well, it's the producer." He goes, "Oh, come on, there is no producer." So now it's three years of the Rabbi Alonaski show, and we would like to introduce to you my producer, MICHAEL. ALL RIGHT. SO I'VE BEEN TELLING THE STORY about how this podcast started many times, but I assume that you have a different version. Well, a few, actually. Um so so how far back do you want me to go? All right. Well, I'll tell you where where it came in. Um I was in Yeshiva with your father. Which has nothing to do with anything. But uh You missed 5,000 years of history. When he was a used to uh okay. So first guy created the world. Um but uh when he was a used to come over our house for uh for a suda. It's like uh that's how far back we go, you know. But that had nothing to do with it because I didn't make the association originally. And uh I had a website and I had lots of recordings up there and different things on there. And the people who were running it decided that they didn't want to do it anymore. So rather than offering to me to take it over uh they just closed it down and I lost all of my material and recordings that I never got back and everything was erased and I lost everything. And that went on probably for a couple years. And then you called me out of the blue. I had no idea who you were. And you said, "How come you don't have a website?" And I said, "Because I had one they closed it down." He goes, "Do you want one?" I said, "Sure." Cuz you want me to make you one? I said, "Okay." So you want a Facebook page? I was like "Sure. I could link the two of them together." Now at that point you lost me completely. I know I had heard of Facebook. I never heard of linking things together. And I was like, "Sure." And that was the beginning. And uh uh that that's how I recall the introductory phase. Well, that's that's approximately right. What am I What am I missing? Well, for starters, I mean most people don't know this, but we go back 25 years. Okay. Well, apparently when my my parents first visited Israel in probably not probably probably 90 sometime like late late '96, apparently we came to your house. I was 6 months old. Oh, yeah, now I remember. BUT BUT YOU'RE TALLER NOW. I MEAN THEY SAY EVERYONE has childhood trauma. is the same. Uh that explains it. Anyway, so fast forward, I don't know it was hm So I mean the way at least the way the way the way it goes the the goes go I mean the way it goes I mean my father used to have like your your your CDs in his car and stuff. So I I had heard heard the heard the name the name all around. And you keep mentioning you what you always kept mentioning over the years was you this this this series. Right. And you and I couldn't find the recordings anywhere. Nope. So didn't exist. There was a little tough in Torah any time. There's a bunch of obscure websites lying around the web that have a bunch of shirim. Now there's been an explosion of these big Torah video sites, but they didn't really exist at the time. Right. And so there was the there's this thing called seminar. It's um I think there's this guy Hirsch runs it. And you know you you're a speaker there every year. So I was in I was in Yeshiva at the time. And I went one year and I really liked it. You you you were one of the speakers and I was like, "Great. Okay, that and that was fine." The second year, no maybe this was this was 2 years after that. I brought my younger brother. There was There he is. But The audience is split. He's he's off camera. Anyway, yeah. For the time being. There is no younger brother. THIS ISN'T EVEN ANYWAY, THAT WAS THAT. He's some guy we found to bring in and sit here and pretend. Anyway, yeah. Don't disclose my contract. Give me a second. Where's my lawyer? That's right. Either way, so um So there was actually so You went to the seminar. So you so you were the speaker one on shabbos and this was the night that my Shapiro was nifter. He was nifter on a shabbos, right? If I'm not mistaken. And it was this was the the shabbos. So you asked for and it really struck me. And afterwards there was a whole bunch of guys talking and I asked you about this about this shirim thing. And there was there was nothing available and you said maybe a website this that. So as I asked you about asked you about the website thing. And that we we ended up meeting a number of times. That's sort of where that came out of. Wow. And the funny thing is that so everyone wants to know where is the where is this series? And the answer is in a box in my closet. That's actually true. Cassettes. I have a whole bunch of cassettes. Loads of them. And you have to transfer them over. Now there's this thing called this high speed um converter. Uh which by the way the state of Israel is introducing now. A high speed converter. It's a little political joke there. Anyway, but uh the religious minister. Anyway, but um uh Can I tell you a joke about high speed converter? Absolutely. Yeah. I heard this from Horowitz who's now the person in in Harnoff. He says this non-Jew converts uh to Judaism uh just before Rosh Chodesh Sivan. So but the especially they have a big on every occasion including Rosh Chodesh. So Rosh Chodesh Sivan they have a suda. Tu B'Shvat they have a suda. Rosh Chodesh Adar Aleph they have a suda. Purim Katan they have a suda. Rosh Chodesh Adar Bet they have a suda. Uh Purim big suda. Yeah. Rosh Chodesh Nisan they have a suda. Uh Pesach a whole week of sudas. Rosh Chodesh Iyar they have a suda. Lag B'Omer they have a suda. Pesach Sheni they have a suda. Uh Rosh Chodesh Sivan they have a suda. Uh uh Shavuot they have a suda. So I meet a guy used to be one of his friends when he was not Jewish. He says, "How's it being Jewish?" He goes, "It's the most unbelievable thing. Every 2 weeks they have a big party." He said, "Really?" Ah food and drink and then then then then schnapps and it's unbelievable. So he goes to the and he says, "I want to convert." He says, "Okay, it's a long process." "No, no, no. I want it fast." I'll do whatever I have to do. I'll study whatever it is. I'll take any test. And he rushes it through and he converts right after Rosh Chodesh Tammuz. 2 weeks later Shavuot for Tammuz. And 2 weeks after that Rosh Chodesh Av. 9 days Tisha B'Av. So he says to his friend, he goes, "What What happened?" He goes, "It just hasn't been the same religion since you joined." Anyway, so it's all in the timing. It's all in the timing. So I I have to transfer these cassettes over. This is Now the truth of the matter is that there's an evolution to this concept of the shirim. So uh that's from my very first set of shirim that I gave in Harnoff 30 years ago. And which is actually how I started. I started giving a shirim shirim. And then people asked me for the cassettes. So I I I didn't know how to But that was before like your partial things and like Before everything. But so that's that's what started it all. What started it all was uh there was somebody in Harnoff who wanted to have speaker uh speaker shirim in their house. So they had a tryout. Uh Rabbi Heller, myself, you know, a few other people. And they after much discussion decided they wanted Rabbi Heller. She wasn't available. Second person wasn't available. So eventually they came to me. And uh I said, "I'll I'll do shirim." And after a couple shirim people asked me for copies of the tape. I didn't know how to make copies of tapes. So People don't know either. So you So the Mrs. Alprin used to make tapes. So I said, "How do you make tapes?" He goes, "There's this woman Mrs. Alprin." And you have to walk up all these stairs and she's got all of this equipment and she makes cassette tapes. Makes copies of cassette tapes. And I started making these cassette tapes and I started selling them. And um and somehow they caught on. And people started seeing them in in America. People started inviting me to speak about all kinds of things. It all came out of that original shirim that I had. Those were those tapes. So I still have copies of all those tapes, but I have to make them into digital files now. So at some point I sent them over to somebody in America who turned them into CDs. So I might be able to find the CDs. I don't even know if I can. But if I can get all the CDs, that's easier to copy over. But in the meantime I have cassettes. So you have to like transfer them over and that's like I said, that's really more technical than I than I can do, you know. So um uh so I I I started with these cassettes. So that's why I don't have I have a box of them at home, you know, so but uh they have to be made into digital files. So since then I've given the shirim in different places and different things and it's obviously evolved. So that original set of tapes I I I would like to think that, you know, my uh For a while I was giving one in I made tapes of those. And uh um those already I turned into CDs. And so um much longer, you know. I would say I come up with much more material to say. You pick up uh life experience. I give a shirim in Tel Stone in shirim. And it is probably the slowest shirim I give. What are you up to now? Um we're still in uh still in at the beginning. And we just came back after the break cuz you know, we break for for Heshvan. And um I had over a line that I did the last time. And I went into another explanation of it. So we basically reviewed three words. That's what we did. And the shirim which is supposed to be an hour went on for an hour and 20 minutes. So um You've been doing this one for 2 years now, I think. At least. At least. So um you know, there's different types. So I gave one in Tel Stone. three per year, right? It depends on the year. Right we're going it keeps slowing down. It keeps moving slower and slower. So we should finish shirim probably by 2042 2043 something like that, you know. I'll put it on the calendar. Uh in fact it was the first of my shirim to go back live in person after Corona. Oh, this one in Tel Stone? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow. And so a few people stayed on the Zoom, but uh Zoom can't compare. You know what I mean? You want to see the people, you know. Anyway, so um so that's So I've given different shirim. I don't know how valuable the first tapes are. Although I met a Rosh shiva who told me that he teaches Mesillas Yesharim from those cassettes. Oh, wow. So, there's one place not to go. In any event, so so yeah, so you wanted Mesillas Yesharim tapes and they were in a big box in my room. Yes, I mean I mean as as an aside, we're good at those. So, I actually, you know, over the course of Yeah, that that was that's that's actually our original, which we're actually you actually about to start phasing that out in order to with our whole whole rebrand with this new year. That's going to be rolling out over the next few months. We're phasing this out? What? Well, let's at least get the first new one printed first. You have to still have the old to drink. I'm just kidding. This was made for me special by a dear friend. And even if we change the logo, man, I'll just take this home and this will be That's for the museum. my ba Reb Alansky museum. It was indeed. There's all sorts of things in there. We got a persimmon, I think, from the persimmon I think I have it somewhere. Uh khanakia decorations. sign, I think. When you covered the bookcases in plastic and then in Pesach, you know, I was like You wanted the silver foil with that was a little kid and taped up was a problem. That's true. That's true. And also the reflections are like actually horrible. So, you asked about the Mesillas Yesharim and I said I don't have them cuz I don't have a website. Yeah. Right. As so aside, actually, I actually did get a hold of those. So, the the long and short version of that is they're actually just as anyone's interested in those, they're actually are many many different versions as you give them over the years. And over my time, you know, having having having access to pretty much all all we have over here, I've been helping myself. And I've actually listened to at least the first few program. And it's funny how you actually give them very different ways based on on where you are. Like I listened to one version that you gave, I think, at Rabbi Sender's Yeshiva at one point. And then I also listened to the same shiurim that you gave in Darkei Binah. The it's like the same content, but it's totally different. Like I forget what the context context was, but there was one where you had like a medrash that you it took you like three shiurim to properly explain it. So, one of them one of the places it took like it took like three shiurim to deal with that one medrash. And the other one it was like you had had the whole thing stuffed in like a corner and you were talking about something else entirely. And it sort of this shiur morphs depending on who you're talking about. And you actually have we actually have a number of online classes now that are also our are going through it. But I've actually never been through the complete set. So, also Rabbi Sender, who's much cooler than I am, he he would every now and then tell me that's not appropriate. And I didn't know. For example, it's no longer around anymore, but there used to be this magazine called Mad Magazine. I used to read it back in the '60s. You know, it My grandfather talks about it. Yeah, it it was a silly thing, you know. And they had this little cartoon called Spy vs. Spy. So, I I was talking about that once, you know. And he says to me, you can't quote Mad Magazine because it's now filled with inappropriate material. I didn't know. I mean, I haven't seen it since 1965, you know what I mean? So, uh you know, the so he would so the the shiurim that I gave at Rabbi Sender's would be dramatically different because, you know, he would uh make sure that everything was kosher and yosher for his boys. Didn't want to shock anybody. Darkei Binah was a little looser. Some other shiurim I I say whatever I want. Especially now I'm at the point where I just I have to be very careful though because in the podcast cuz we have all kinds of people who are listening. That's very true. We're also on Nachum radio. That's true. Which is only very very clean material. And they banned ME ONCE. I GOT A VERY STRANGE email from them. This is not so Nachum. It's a little shmutzedik. Because you know, you pick up you pick up certain things when you deal with all kinds of people, especially when you're working in kiruv and different kind of things, that not everybody's prepared to hear, you know? And you have to uh present it in a different way. You know? We live in uh much more sterilized environment. Uh um there was a story with Reb Yaakov where whatever the whole story was, but at the end he said if it was me, I would have thrown him down the steps. And uh Jonathan Rosenblum, I'll give him a little shout-out for those of you who may not be familiar with his tremendous body of work. He mentioned me in his column in in Mishpacha. Anyway, so um uh so when he wrote the biography, he changed it to I would have shown him to the door. Mhm. To which I added at the top of the steps. So, you know, not everything that was said once upon a time you can still say. So, yeah. So, I gave different kinds of Mesillas Yesharim. There's no question about it. Yeah, so those are all over the place. Either way, that's that was that's what started started it all. And then we went went we went went went to the website. And as you sort of put that together, we had a lot of your shiurim and so on. We actually tried doing a blog for a while, but that sort of didn't really work out because, you know, Cuz I never gave you any material. It happened It happened once in a while. That was one of the reasons that people closed it down. They were upset at me cuz I didn't keep giving them content. And and I said "Nachum never does that. He just made up content." He would make up posts from every Reb Alansky shiur. He was freaking them from Hamodia's archives. You wrote those. Yeah, it's more or less the same, you know? If you if you listen to me enough, then you could basically, you know, anybody could make up my stuff, you know? So, it's like uh But you know, that has that distinctive Reb Alansky sound to it, you know? People say to me sometimes, you know, do you mind if I steal your jokes and stories? I said absolutely not because nobody will recognize them when I say them over. I spoke at Kiruv Tuni. You ever hear of Kiruv Tuni? It's a chassidisha chizuk organization. Anyway, I I show up. If you take a look, it was like 25 pictures, all of them with Streimelach and me. And and a and a psychologist. You know, that was it. They didn't Photoshop a Streimel on you? They did not Photoshop it. They kept me just as I was. It can be arranged for the right price. Almost all the speakers were Yiddish and I was speaking in English, me and the me and the and the psychologist. Anyway, so um uh but when I first come in there, a guy comes over to me and says "Listen, I'm just going to give you a heads-up. Don't say any of your usual material." I said "Why?" He says "Cuz I stole it all. I I said it over in my name and everyone will think you're stealing it from me." Well, how did it work out? So, I have enough material. It's not a problem, you know? I mean, I can uh you know, l'havdil, Reb Melech Shapiro gave a hezber on the Gemara of Arba Dichnas l'Pardes. All right? Four people go into the orchard and the whole thing is kabbalah, you know? Yeah, for sure. The pardes shat remez drash He gave a whole explanation. And 6 months later, he he says this is like the Gemara of Arba Dichnas l'Pardes, which I want to be mazbir now. I want to explain it. So, someone said "You explained it 6 months ago." And he looks at them and says "Don't worry. I won't repeat myself." So, there's enough there's enough material to say. So, uh in any event, yeah. So, we tried a blog You tried a blog. I didn't I never actually looked at the website. I don't even know what's there. I should check it out, actually. You never know these days. Yeah. Anyway, so we tried that. And then for a while it was just mostly shiurim and so on. We spoke about whether cuz I previously used to we used to buy all of them. Yeah. And now today I tell people it's hard enough to get them to listen to free shiurim. Which is true enough. You know, it's like you look at people cuz something that we found, for example, with the with the podcast is that people are people are basically interested in being entertained. And it's they're going to get whatever entertainment entertainment they want, which is why if you look at like our numbers, we have the most popular episodes. They're ones where we had an interesting guest on and also things cuz it's like some people just showing up and they want to listen listen to someone talk, you know? And some people just want to be entertained. And you know, if we're up against any you know, it's you know, the amount of entertainment material that's out there is so vast. My mystery to me is if you add up all the numbers, it's what? 2, 3,000 people that we know about? Less? It depends where. Okay. I'm saying from all the website I've never been able to come up with more than let's say 2,000, maybe 3,000, you know, from all the places. Probably our early times is pretty busy these days. But it used to be closer to three closer to three is 3 to 5,000 and so on. It moves around. Is that Is there It's all in the title. You know, that's that's the hardest part of the show for me. Is there a guy who makes late sunnis? The whole thing is just late sunnis. He's got like 30, 40,000 views. And it's a mystery to me. And my kids say to me "Abba, cuz people don't want any content." Any content. And uh you know? So, so the podcast. I'll tell you from my point of view what happened. Three things happened. One is I started watching Ben Shapiro. And I found it absolutely fascinating. He had a podcast. There's an enormous amount of people. He speaks about conservative politics. But he wears a yarmulke, you know? And every now and then he'll say divrei Torah. He'll say say something on the parsha or something on the haftorah, you know? I was fascinated by this medium. Yeah? And then somebody calls me up. He has a podcast, which evidently is somewhat popular. And he asked me to speak asked if he could interview me. And I was not happy with the interview for a lot of reasons that I don't want to go into now. You know, I'll say one thing because one thing is whenever I have guests, I feel it's my obligation to present this person in the best possible light that I can. And uh this person tried to show people in the worst possible light. And I didn't I didn't have to agree with that approach. I was kind of upset about that. And I thought this guy's got a podcast. And then I have uh uh talmid and dear friend, I'll mention his name, Meir Strobel. He's in Baltimore. And he called me up and to give me mussar. And he says "Why don't you have more material on TorahAnytime?" I said "Cuz I don't make videos. You know, I speak some place and they film it and they put it up on TorahAnytime if they want to. But I I don't make special." He says "Not fair. There are people who want to listen to you. People want to hear you. There's not enough material. You should You should do regular divrei Torah." And he mentioned another fellow who's on Torah anytime. Why would I I don't want to mention his name. I don't in case anyone interprets it that I'll be mashpia. He says, "He's got hundreds of videos." He gives a shiur every year. He talks between Mincha and Maariv. He films it, you know what I mean? He sits down to dinner with his family. He films it, you know what I mean? He drives to work. He films it. Well, whatever it is. There's a million videos from this guy, you know? He says, "You should have a work ethic." So, all those things came together and said, "Maybe I should make a podcast." And I called you up and I said, "I think I want to make a podcast." And you said, "Great." Now, I had no idea what that meant. I knew nothing whatsoever about it. That's how I remember the origin. Did I leave out anything? Well, that's approximately Well, I don't know what was going on on your side. I just know I was by I was by your house around versus Shana what? 3 years ago. I said, "You want to make a make a podcast?" And first thing, podcasts are mostly an audio thing. Like you would just be just people talking. Like Yeah, by the way, technically, this is called a vodcast. A vodcast? A vodcast. It's a video. Where's the vodka? Yeah, because we have to We have to do it for a special Russian dub it into Russian, you know? Are Are the Is it still being captioned for the hearing impaired? Well, they they do it automatically now. We actually at one point we had a bunch We actually There were hearing impaired people who who used to listen to the podcast. So, and the main problem is that So, YouTube automatically generates these captions. We can't pull them out and put them on Torah Anytime. I don't know if they even have closed captioning, but it did There is an automatic version. And we had all these hilarious like misspellings cuz you like you you you try to use like famous words like, you know, like "ship nachas" and it turns out like "a sack of nachos" and or whatnot. All All sorts of terrible All sorts of like Just very silly things. And we had someone who does every week I get an email with like, "Here's another silly thing that was in your captions." "Here's another silly thing that was in your captions." So, we actually reached out and we we actually I think we It's still somewhere on the website. We said like, "Hey, if anyone wants to help us out with the captioning." And you know, a few people volunteered. Right. I mean, a few We had a few that actually were manually done, but it's so much work. You know, in 1 minute of speech, there are so many words. And some people I mean, it wasn't doing it from scratch. They were just going in and correcting it. But it seems like eventually people gave up. And I haven't heard from any any anyone else since. So, I guess it's good enough. Well, you you Well, see. Who knows? And one thing is for sure, those captions aren't in Russian. At least not yet. So, when we we move to Russian, we'll make it into a vodkacast. But uh Very good. But podcast I explained this in one of the earlier shows. Podcast is because people used to have an iPod. And they would download the recordings to their iPod and listen to it whenever they wanted. So, it was called a podcast. Um You know, broadcasting 101 was one of the four college courses that I took. Hm. I'm sure that came in handy. I I went to uh Queens College night college when I was in Yeshiva cuz my parents wanted me desperately to go to college. And I took psychology 101 and sociology 101. Not because I wanted to, but because I was thinking if I'm going to do anything Look, I'm not going I'm not going to become a scientist. I'm not going to become a doctor, you know? Go If anything, I'd get a degree in psychology or something like that, you know? And um And I remember this was in the early '70s. You know? And we were sitting at the Shabbos table. My father says to me, "So, you signed up for college?" So, I said, "Yeah." He said, "What'd you take?" I said, "Psychology 101 and sociology 101." "Psych and soc?" "Every hippy takes psych and soc. Why don't you take a math class?" I realized at that point that I wasn't going to make them happy anyway. But when I moved to LA, they made another big push that I should go. So, I went to Valley College. And I said, "Now, I'm going to take what I find interesting." I took journalism 101 and broadcasting 101. And um in broadcasting he started off by explaining what's the term broadcasting. He says, "When they would throw the seeds, they would cast the seeds in a broad way so that it would reach as far as it could." And that's what broadcasting is to be able to do it. How does that relate to radio? So, um the idea was that they would do a show in the studio and the radio would cast it in a broad way all over so that people could hear it. And that's where the term broadcasting came from. So, the problem was that get a radio station or a television station was quite prohibitive. And therefore, it was limiting the amount of access of people that people could see. So, when the internet came along and suddenly anybody could put up something. You know who spoke about this? Jordan Peterson. He was a professor in uh in Toronto. And he He said, "I put my classes up online." He says, "And then I see I have a million views." And I realized there's some sort of a new medium that you can reach people. And that's what podcast became. Anybody could produce their own show. Only instead of broadcasting it, they called it iPodcasting it. So, you could put it on to your iPod and listen to it whenever you wanted. But it means anybody can make a show. So, uh sometimes instead of just making it audio, they made it video. The actual name for that is a vodcast cuz a video podcast. And um and that's where it comes from, you know? So, uh uh So, I I said to myself, you know, how many people do I speak to? I'm in a big event. I I speak in Binyanei Hauma. 3,000 women, you know? Spoke in the Javits Center, 1,000 people. Every week there are thousands of people. And by the way, there are more people than we can possibly track cuz I know there are people who put it on their WhatsApp group and they send it around. And uh There are a lot of people who won't use the online version. So, they download it and then after And then they pass it around. At that point, it's totally off our radar. So, we have no idea. I met a guy I I told you this story. I met met a somebody from a young man who was in high school in Lakewood. And he says, "Nobody has access to the internet except my dad cuz he needs it for work. So, he would download it and copy it to my device and I'd bring it to school and copy it to you know, everybody in the school, about 200 kids or whatever it is. And they would all listen to it. Now, I have no way of tracking those kind of things, you know? There is a Yeshiva where the hanhala all comes together and listens to it cassette. So, I have no way of really tracking the numbers. But but the opportunity to be able to reach people. So, that was my concept. Well, I don't know how to make a podcast. I I don't I don't I really don't understand how any of this works, you know? And so then you come in one day with a camera. Well, it wasn't a camera. I mean, the way I wasn't really expecting an audio thing. So, I brought all my audio gear. And then he's like, "No, we want to do a video." I'm like, "A video? Well, I don't have a proper video camera." So, that first like hostage video we did So, the setup there actually was He's like there in his corner and you It's a video and you hear him talking and it's good. Parenthetically, uh one of our listeners uh put together a highlight reel of just the first season, which is a lot of fun. And you can see it starts with We'll roll that at the end or something. You know, yeah. So, maybe we'll we'll put that up for everybody who wants to see some of the highlights of the first season cuz you could see a lot of work went into this. And you know, we definitely appreciate it. No, cuz when we started, we really didn't know what we were doing. So, that first video, so I don't know if you remember, but the camera was like a computer webcam. Like the sort of thing that you use that you use on on Skype Plugged into my laptop. And I was using such cheap software that it actually was changing the color every 5 seconds. It was like I was like I was going through the shades of the rainbow very faintly. And it was like, "This is This is horrendous." But I only noticed afterwards. So, the color is is horrendous. And this camera, we didn't have a tripod. It was actually taped to the top of a suitcase. Like a like a I think it was a red roller board. And we opened the handle and we taped the camera to the top of the handle. And that was it. And I think we had like a normal We had like a normal microphone like set up there cuz I brought all my audio stuff. And you know, it was a while, you know? And eventually, you know, eventually people And then I think the second one then we had a got a ton of feedback. People loved it. But they were like, you know, this is you're in the corner of some obscure room. Like, "What's going on here?" And And "Please help us pay the rent." I remember somebody specifically said, "You should be sitting in a big chair in front of a bookcase." So, what are we doing the next episode? We put a big chair in front of a bookcase. Not just a bookcase. The bookcase. The bookcase. I have had people come from America to come and visit me and have their picture taken in front of the bookcase. So, there you have it, friends. True story. And since then, you know, we've I would throughout the time we've been doing, I've been accused many times of using a green screen for these episodes. Yes. And I can tell you that accusation is completely ridiculous. Indeed. Which fits in with the whole theme of the show. Indeed. Otherwise, I would be flying. You know, I would I would do some Avengers stuff, you know? But uh uh So, then what I mean, you know, we started having guests. It was unbelievable. The first guest was those uh the the Australian group. Right. Right. That was really really on. I messed up his name. You had to like correct it on screen. Fogel Fogelgarn, I think. Fogelgarn. Fogelgarn with an R. Yeah, I said Fogelman. Anyway, so uh but uh And it was during that episode that I hit one of the problems that has plagued me ever since we started the show. That is The worst problem. Naming them. Coming up with titles and The worst. I've had times where it's like because we like we have a show, you show up, you have no idea what you're going to talk about. I have no idea what you're going to talk about. There's like no plan. Some people do it in in the beginning they've got like a little blurb what they're going to talk about. We have no idea. And then we talk about six entirely random subjects and maybe a chicken recipe. My But I have to come up with a title for this thing. And I've had times where I tell you I've got I've got the file, you know, it's all edited, it's ready to go. And I'm sitting here for 3 days. What am I going to call this thing? I I have no idea. And then at the end of it, sometimes I just give up and I call it like the true way or something and you know something really vague, but it's like Yeah, that is that that's the hardest part, you know, and I can tell you because when I give Shiurim, I have to come up with a title. And Rabbi Teitz, someone told me he was speaking and they said, "Well, can you send me a title?" So, he sends them a list of 20 titles. So, he says, "Well, what what are the Shiurim?" He says, "I'm going to talk about whatever I want. Just pick whichever title you like." So, actually It has nothing to do with the you know I could probably use a list of those actually cuz half the time it's what I ended up doing. I'm like, "I have no idea what to do with this one." You know, I spoke on Parshas Tetzaveh once and I called it the Legacy of Al Flosso. Al Flosso was one of these old magicians who was very popular in his heyday and then, you know, he was running a magic shop and it was kind of run-down and everything and I met him shortly before he died and he taught me a this move and he said, "That's my move." He said, "That's my signature move. People do use it, but they don't understand I invented that move." Was it a good move? Uh it was a bare-handed uh feather flower production. Huh. The normal way to do it is to use a cloth and then produce the flowers. And he was able to do it without a cloth. That's what he came up with. And um that was his move and I thought to myself, the person passed away, Jewish guy, Al Flosso. And his legacy was this particular move to produce a feather flower bouquet bare-handed. That's how he wanted to be remembered. You know. Did it work? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did the trick, but it was like I mean, do people do people remember him? No, no, nobody's ever heard of Al Flosso. You say Al Flosso, nobody's ever heard of Should I do a coin trick? In fact, when I did that Shiur, it was actually written up by the Yuma columnist in the Jerusalem Post, you know. And I I remember when I said to him Al Flosso, he just wrote Al Flosso {question mark}. So, yeah, no, he's not he's not really a major historical character. But yeah, coming up with titles is is always a challenge, you know. And um so that's uh I always wait for it to come out so I can see what the title is myself. I'm always fascinated. Half the time I'm waiting for that. And it's become some even institution. I mean, I'm I'm really amazed by the people who do it. Now, I have no idea what goes into post-production and editing this in. I mean, uh people don't appreciate this that there was no band that wrote the that that performed the Rabbi Ilansky theme song. If you watch the video, you produced that completely on your own. Lenny just stood there playing at the at the keyboard, you know. And you got other people to play it then you spliced it all together and you put it up and you know, so I was thinking we should do some of those things like, you know, make some videos, action videos. They're all it's I mean, it's fun, but it's a ton of work and Yeah, I know. I feel bad for you. Well, actually It's not like I have to do anything. But then I complain to you about it. Yeah, no, not really. You know, you really don't complain, which is really amazing. You're one of the few people in my life who don't, you know, and everybody else does. The lawyers help with that. I mean, actually like about the whole the whole editing of the show, it's most of the time, I mean, seeing as you're you're used to speaking in public venues, there's not a lot to do other than the occasional cough or the occasional like plane flies by or like, you know, there's there's like the nuclear obliteration or something and there's only the occasional apocalypse, there's not much to edit out. It's like like people tell people have asked me, "Can you make like a We see you cut out things, can you make like a blooper reel?" I'm like, "You want a half hour of me coughing?" We also have I could just do that, by the way. You don't even have to make a blooper reel. I'll just cough forever. We can throw in some sneezes, you know. Yeah. Like once in a while you get like the you know that that van that goes by We can we can throw in some of those, but there's not We literally I don't think I've ever taken out like a sentence like where it was like, "Okay, When I used to film in the house, like, you know, people upstairs would start scraping chairs and things like that. of those. You know. And so on. For a while actually people just just randomly walking in on your house in the middle and I'm like Yes, that happens to you. We put a sign on the door. Did it help? No. So, that's the history of the Rabbi Ilansky Show the past 3 years, which I know everybody's been really wondering about. And now I understand you have some exciting plans moving forward. Yeah, we're not ready to really we're not ready to announce anything yet, but the first thing is that the show is going to go is going to Well, about the whole timing thing. So, the show is official officially a half hour. I don't think it's been a half hour for at least 2 years, practically speaking. But we're going to be extending it a little. We're going to be adding in some segments. At the beginning you saw our new logo at the beginning beginning of this video. We're going to you know, we have to play We have to replace remote, of course, and we've got we've got a lot of got got a lot of really interesting things in the pipe pipeline. For the museum, remember for the museum. There's a lot of really interesting things in the pipeline you should see see rolling out in the next few weeks. And you know, more than that, you know, it's like you got to be careful what you say publicly cuz then the lawyers come after you. I've got the lawyers it's the insurance. Other than that, you know, we'll see. And one thing that we're actually going to start doing next week is we're adding a new segment to the show. Oh, yeah. Yes. And that's we're going to we're adding like a to be doing from the latest collection of Jewish music hits. And I will be singing. Have you heard the latest Jewish music hits? All right, we're going to do some of the classic Jewish music hits and uh my wife, you know, I I usually manage when I give a public Shiur to sing at some point. And my wife says, "Really I wanted to be a singer, but nobody would listen to me, so I became a speaker so I could get people to sit there and listen to me sing." So, uh It's so funny you mentioned that actually because who is it? My Who was there was a famous Jewish comedian who passed away recently? Jackie Mason? Yeah, yeah, that's the one. So, he was my grandfather actually knew him growing up. He he lived lived just down down the block or something. Yaakov. he wasn't particularly he didn't he didn't really notice him much at the time, but apparently I didn't know this. Apparently he became a rabbi at one point. Yes, he got Smicha from Moshe Feinstein. Oh, really? Yeah. That's the story. So, the way the story the way I heard the story is he was a rabbi and he was giving all he was giving all of his he was giving all his his you know, his his sermons, you know, and he kept throwing in these jokes and people loved it. So, eventually he realized he could just drop the rabbi thing and just become a comedian. So, this is sort of the reverse. That's one that's one story. He tells a few different stories, you know. Um It's like I L'havdil, you know. Apparently they made a movie of the Joker's origin, you know, Batman's villain. Everyone knows established that you're actually Batman. Everyone knows the Joker doesn't have an origin story. He changes his story all the time. Because the whole point is he's just a force of chaos and he's the counter to to Batman. And he has no backstory. You you you can't create one for him. That's that's the nature of him, you know. So, L'havdil, Jackie Mason has like three or four different versions. Ah. There's only one that makes sense to me that he that he told everyone once. He says he was in the middle of giving a sermon and he was talking about, you know, you know, controlling your taivas and you know, and and weakness of the flesh and all this. He goes, "And this blonde walks into the room and he says, 'And I just dropped my notes, you know.' And everyone started laughing and I realized I'm in the wrong job." He was about taiva. And I I I have I I'll tell you this, one thing that I respect very much. By the way, I heard from somebody who was close to him that he did shuv at the end. That's what I heard. Oh, wow. from a family member. But um um but he never made fun of Yiddishkeit. Never made fun of Torah, never made fun of Yiddishkeit. He would poke fun at Jews, you know, but he never made fun of Torah, never made fun of Yiddishkeit ever. In fact, it was one show he ended it he was just singing chazanus. You know, he really liked it, but he was knew he was about taiva, you know. So, he just couldn't control himself, so he left to go into entertainment. Al Jolson. Al Jolson's father was an Orthodox chazan and he just wanted to perform. to first remind everyone who Al Jolson is. It's a waste of time. You know, I I realized, you know, the next my next position is going to be a rabbi in a retirement community because most of the people who understand my jokes are dead already. So, like yeah, I have to be very careful. So, I have to shoot for a certain audience, you know. It's like Usually I tell a joke and there's like two people laughing and you know, or everybody else laughs too cuz they understand that it's a joke. I just didn't understand it, but it's not it's not it's a concern to me, you know. The joke I'm sure is funny. I just don't get it, you know. So, yeah, so yeah, so I I would tell you a story when I was offered to go to Hollywood. No, I haven't heard it actually. You can't I can't believe it. Is I can't believe you don't know the story. I don't know if I ever told it on the podcast. I guess not cuz you you would have heard it. No. Um I was teaching in LA and one of the kids' parents was a Hollywood agent. And he heard me speak. I was young. And he says to me, "Kid, you you got what it takes." Now, you have to remember this was during the era when stand-up comics were all getting their own TV shows, you know. Um the late '70s. So, he said, um "We'll put together an act. We'll start working the clubs and within a few years I see you having your own TV show, you know, and and I even think we can make the move into movies." So, I said, "Let me think about it." I came home and I thought it through. I said, "Let's say he's right." What I told my yetzer hara is, "Everybody and his brother thinks he's going to be a star, you know." I said, "Well, let's say he's right." So, at the end of my life, I get up to Shamayim and Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, "I gave you all this koachus and what did you use it for? For fame and fortune? To spend it on yourself? You could use it to teach Torah." Wow. So, I came back and I said, "Cut off my arms and legs." Oh, no, that was the wrong story. But anyway, so because I delayed 3 days. But anyway, but uh I turned that down. But uh you know, I uh I have often wondered there was a tekufah when I would speak and when I had goosebumps in LA there would be directors or producers or, you know, actors, etc. And uh and they come up to me and say, "That was great." I said, "You think I could make it?" And they would hand me their agent's card. I have a stack of them at home. It says, "If if you're interested, give me a call. I'll put you in touch with my agent." Yeah. Yeah, I could have had instead of Seinfeld, it could have been Orlowsky. I know it doesn't have the same ring to it, I guess. But anyway, but uh yeah, I I said it would have been campaign. I think uh you know, Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave me the uh gave me the koachus to to try to What I What I try and that's why I always when I had that, you'll see it in in in the highlight reel. When I talked about this is a show and that a shiur. You know, there are plenty of shiurim on on TorahAnytime. Yeah, hundreds of them. You know, I think there Last I checked, and that was before we even started this show, it was like for it was like 48,000. They're probably double that now. a line of people waiting. Hundreds of rabbis are waiting to get on, you know. Probably by 100,000 now. And I Yeah, I could do another shiur where I I go "Let's talk about Avraham Avinu and parshas Lech Lecha." Because there is a fascinating It's a you know, okay, there there are There is a lot. thousands of those. You know, right? Um and I said I wanted to provide um a Torah content that was entertaining. And I've gotten emails from people who say, "Listen, I don't watch any shiurim. I just I can't I can't handle them, but I watch your podcast." And uh I do manage to slip in some content here and there, you know. It It takes me a while to get through the editing process. Sometimes I miss it, too. Sometimes I have to be dubbed in, you know, what I mean? Like, you know. And uh and that's really I have to say, and I might be wrong in it, but I think this is a unique uh show. I don't think there's anything like this out there that I can think of that I've come across. If there is, I'd like to know. But uh you know, where they tried to provide Torah in an entertaining way that uh people could enjoy. That's what we're trying for. So, you said there's a new segment coming up. Yeah, so we're we're something we're going to start doing starting next week is we're actually going to have like a very very A lot of people ask me about this, like having like sort of like being out having sort of a Q&A thing. The problem is you can really make whole shows out of it and you've had entire series of shiurim dedicated to various people's questions and answers. So, we're we're going to have we're going to have this new thing. It's it's all it's it's It's up on the website now where we're at rabbialowsky.com/qa. You can submit a short question and we're going to have like the last 10 minutes of the shiur is, you know, Rabbi Orlowsky is going to address your particular question. It can literally be anything. Like, you know, like everything from, you know, "What is your favorite color?" You know, to like, you know, "Can you explain That's a deep cut. that to like, to get me thrown off of Nachum Segal Radio again. Anyway, I think we're actually I mean, I actually I actually I'm actually actually haven't verified this, but when they put us back on, the guy told me that they actually have a separate section The Rabbi Orlowsky section. I don't know what else is in there, but like we're not in the standard list anymore. We're there, but yeah, you have to dig around a little. So, uh So, anything from random things like that, like, "Can you explain why there's these three stones in the choshen and they line up with the right spheres?" And you know, what Whatever you send in, I don't know if we can answer it, but we'll definitely, you know, have to give it a shot. The uh I mean, you also mentioned the idea that uh eventually we're going to do like uh a live Q&A where people can actually, you know, put in uh you know, submit questions and comments as we're going. Which uh again, there's always a a trick with the time zones and everything, but uh Yes. If there was one thing that COVID COVID has taught us, it's Zoom and time zones. Like I told you, we're trying to set up a shiur and trying to coordinate, you know, between, you know, very large amounts of people and like who, what, and when, and where, it's a nightmare. It's like we still have we still have all sorts of weird things. When we have our Mitzvah Shiur, I think there's still there's a whole bunch of quizzes. I don't think I ever turned them off like people try to figure out what times, what days, you know, it's nuts. And the funny thing, you know what the funny thing with the with the Zoom Shiur? Like people think we started that because of because of Corona. No, they go way back. We actually started a few months. It was I think it was January of last year. So, that's January 2020. You know, there was the new Daf Yomi cycle. And and you know, now you've been giving a Daf Yomi shiur for a number of years now. I'm in my third cycle. Oh, so decades then. Yeah. So, So, there was uh I've had people over the years who said, "Gee, I'd like to come to your Daf Yomi shiur, you know, could we do it?" So, we started one online. And uh you know, we have a small cadre of very dedicated people come uh every day. rabbialowsky.com/live And then we started a Mitzvah Shiur and because of the timing, we have two different uh of those that are also online. And uh you know, it's also a very fast your in-person ones, which you're also doing Zoom now, I think there's four now. Uh well, there's one in Arnault, but we're finishing up where in the the last perek over there. And then I've got the one And then it's Tel Stone is uh is is live. And uh I have two online that are left. So, Yeah, and the Daf Yomi every day. So, Yeah, so I was just amazed by how the timing turned out because I just I just randomly because of this Daf Yomi thing, I showed up. I set up a green ski green screen. We set up all the software. You know, I I looked at the video software, Zoom was the best one. We had everything set up. Well, 3 months later Corona hits, you know, we weren't expecting. Now, I haven't seen you this Today is the first day I've seen you since March of 2020. So, then in the middle, you know, that was episode aged. Well, I have. But that was episode 83. And it was all And so, suddenly Corona hits and we're stuck. I don't know what we're going to do. And then I realized 3 months ago, we set up a whole studio in your room. Yeah. And everything was Or my arm would disappear every now and then, you know. there are there are side effects, you know. You know, being strapped in our houses had some effects on people and disappearing organs is not unusual. Especially if you're in Colombia. So, and so so, it sort of it sort of just really rolled from there. And so, we've got a lot of exciting things rolling out the next few the next few months. But definitely, if you want to submit a question for next week's shiur or for any of the further ones or if you want to find out what Rabbi Orlowsky's favorite color is, go over to rabbialowsky.com/qa and there should be a link somewhere here. And you know, that's a new exciting segment. We've got a few more things we're going to add in, but we're going to be starting with that coming next week. So, we're starting our fourth year and I wanted everyone to know that the all of the Torah that has been learned and all of the inspiration that has been gotten is on the zechus of Michoel. He did the whole thing and uh I just sit and talk. But before Michoel came along, I would just sit in my room and talk and there was no camera or anything and I just sit and talk to myself and you know, and every now and then my wife would say, "Could you be quiet?" And I would just keep talking. And now I talk and thousands of people listening and that's on your zechus. So, Yes. Well, you know, something that, you know, a lot So, one of the weird things we have with this show, and I guess we should probably wrap up with this, is, you know, you do get like you get a lot of positive feedback, but sometimes you get a lot of weird things that come in. Like I recall we had one guy he he sent this thing in and cuz you know, if if the comment is too strange, then the system is flagged it and they they get sent to me for review to see like, "What is this?" We had one guy who said, you know, "Yoshke's coming and here's his address." Like somewhere in Georgia somewhere. Like I'm like, "Oh, well, that's good to know." It's like, "There he is." I You know, also other weird things come in. You know, we had one person who said, "There's no way this producer exists." NO SUCH THING. I TOLD YOU I HEARD THIS FROM OTHER PEOPLE SAY I actually got got I got a message that said that and I said, "Wow, this is amazing level." Cuz you know, the chazal says, you know, you know, he's you know, he's merciful, you should be merciful. He's kind, you should be kind. I said, "I've got a new I've got a new level here. Everyone says he doesn't exist. They don't say I exist." People think that I you know, I I just I study I suffer from uh you know, uh that's schizophrenia. The other one uh psychosis. And I'm trying to think of which the term is. Like the voices are telling me. Where right, where you imagine things, you know, and you hear voices and it's imaginary people. So, it's like, you know, "Oh, the producer. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, he's right over here." I just Yes, the producer. All right, Michoel. Con- congratulations. 3 years we managed to do this. And uh and that's it for this show. Next week, with Mitzvah Shiur, we'll still be in the Rabbi Orlowsky studio, please God. And uh it'll be good. So, uh to find out more about the show, you can visit I have the official paper now cuz I used to just wing this. Yeah, to find out more about the show, visit rabbialowsky.com live online shiurim {exclamation mark}. Learn more at rabbialowsky.com/live Daf Yomi Mitzvah Shiur. For sponsorships, visit rabbialowsky.com/sponsor. And of course, as Michoel mentioned, new rabbialowsky.com/qa. There's also rabbialowsky.com/music. If you want to see the music video or download it or get the words. Yeah, and the special uh shout-out to all of my guests over the years and of course, Lenny Solomon. Muah. I have a I have this whole fancy uh theme song now, you know what I mean? Uh every now and then when, you know, my wife picked up this expression, you know, from from her mother, you know. She'd say she'd say, "Oh, that's good." And I start to say and it oh that's going to be your new theme song and I said no I already have a theme song. How many people have a theme song? You know, it's my own theme song, you know. I used to talk in a radio show here. I used to do it with I told her Eric Shavez and so I made him use uh um what's his name? Glazer's uh Shabbos uh Sam Glazer. You know it? bum bum bum da da da da da da da when you're in da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da cuz it's Shabbos Shabbos Shabbos Shabbos Shabbos Shabbos good Shabbos Shabbos bum bum anyway So Reuven Subar had a had a show and eventually he stopped using it because he just thought it was too annoying. Anyway, well I love that song. Uh and uh Rabbi if you want to submit a question rabbiolovsky.com/qa and uh that's it for this week. I am DAVID ORLOVSKY. AND MICHAEL THE PRODUCER. AND UH THIS HAS been the anniversary third anniversary Rabbi Orlovsky show. It's the Rabbi Orlovsky show. Torah and simcha ready to go. The Rabbi Orlovsky show. Knowledge and wisdom will help you grow. Lots of fun in every episode. And we don't have to rhyme though we don't. It's the Rabbi Orlovsky show. on rabbiolovsky.com Torah anytime YouTube and more. It's Rabbi Orlovsky show. Torah and simcha ready to go. It's the Rabbi Orlovsky show. Till next time till we meet again. It's the Rabbi Orlovsky show. It's the Rabbi Orlovsky show. All right, it's a wrap. What's the line? What's what's the Looney Tunes line? Th-th-th-th-th-th-that's all, folks. That's all, folks. Porky Pig.