Not So Sorry For Interrupting (Ep. 265)

Hi, this is Dov Elkins, and welcome back to the Dov Elkins show. Whether you're watching with our friends over at Torah Anytime or ever you watch or listen to your podcast, as always, it's wonderful to have you along. And don't forget to like, share, subscribe, and comment. Apparently, that helps with the algorithm, so more people can find out about the show, even if you make nasty comments, which is going to be part of what I'm going to be talking about today, just to get you ready. And we are sponsored anonymously as a source for you and your family. Thank you very much. Klal Yisrael needs you. I I hope that's true. And if so, I think it's a pretty sad commentary on the world, but uh there's no question that at this point, until Mashiach comes, I definitely serve a purpose. As somebody once pointed out, we're in the ikvisa d'Mashiacha. Somebody pointed out. A number of gedolim pointed out when the ikvisa d'Mashiacha, and Reb Moshe Shapiro pointed out that the akev is extremely insensate, the heel. All you can do is tickle it. So, anyone who knows how to tickle today is successful. So, I guess that's why I'm still around. But I appreciate it. On behalf of all the crazies, thank you. I I I love you all. I really do. Thanks for inspiring all of us and giving us something to look forward to every week. Um I uh on the this subject of of of my crazies, and and I I give you uh all the all the love I can. Shout out to you. Um I uh I missed a week during Hanukkah. I I started getting those comments like you're all right. Is everything okay? Everything Gosh, these real podcasts that actually charge money, they take off for the holiday weekend. You know what I mean? And then they stop broadcasting. And gosh, I missed one episode and everyone figures I dropped dead. Now, I understand why. Because uh, every morning I get up and I check to make sure I'm still alive, you know what I mean? So, uh, so when when I am, that's a good thing. But, um, uh, uh, yeah. So, so the fact that uh, that there are people out there. But, uh, the reason that I missed it was not because I was taking a vacation. Um, I came back to Eretz Yisrael just uh, Hanukkah because my daughter had an operation in America and me and my wife flew in. And it was brutal. I mean, it was 14° F, which is like, I don't know what it is in centigrade, but it ain't good, you know? And it was freezing cold and Shabbos it snowed and it was just, uh, so cold, so terrible. And you know, and so basically, you know, we were helping out and that was uh, that was the theme of the trip. But, every now and then I would go someplace and I would meet people and uh, they would all uh, share how much they enjoyed the show and it was um, so heartening because basically I'm sitting here by myself uh, and I'm talking. And I've pointed this out more than once. I'm always just sitting here talking. The the bookcase is always here, the chair is always here. It's just one one hour a week we film it. But, that's basically all I have, you know? I've lost all of my jobs through my wit and personality. So, uh, so this is all I really have going at this point. And the fact that there are so many people who uh, get a chizuk from it, that's uh, that means a lot to me. And uh, on that subject, I was at the 8:30 Shacharis in the white shul. Um, because my daughter lives in Far Rockaway. And, I give a Daf Yomi in the morning. About 7:15 till about 8:10. And, then I run over to to make I can't I can't daven earlier than that for mincha. And, um uh and I get to the 8:30. That's where I usually daven. It's my usual horn when I'm in America. And, um uh uh uh fellow came up to me. He said, "Rabbi Laski, I'm visiting from Los Angeles." His name was Rabbi Horowitz. He is the rabbi in Tarzana, California. Um, now, I used to live in North Hollywood. In 1978-79. Back then. And, North Hollywood was about the only Yeah, we was the only Orthodox community in in the Valley. It's called the San San Fernando Valley. And, there were a lot of Jews in West Valley in places like Encino and Tarzana. And, now, baruch Hashem, there are shuls there and the whole place has begun to grow. It's so exciting. So, the rabbi in Tarzana uh for those of you who are wondering what that name Tarzana is, that's because the fellow uh Burroughs, who wrote all the Tarzan stories, made a lot of money and had an enormous ranch. And, when he died, it was actually turned into a community and it was he had named the ranch Tarzana after Tarzan. And, uh he's the rav there. So, he tells me, "My 8-year-old son is a big fan." So, of course, when I hear an 8-year-old is a big fan, I assume that he's talking about Torah Live, where I am a character, Rabbi Sider. And, uh if any of you kids have ever seen the Rabbi Sitter animated um uh classes, and you'll recognize my voice. They say they also drew him to look like me. I don't think I'm that white. But, uh you know. In any event, um I think my nose is a little smaller. I'm not sure. But, anyhow, so um But, uh so he says, "No, no, no, the podcast." He listens to it before everybody else, and he says, you know, he says he says to us, "Oh, you have to listen to this part. This line is great, you know." Now, the truth is I do have a number of people in that age group who watch my podcast. I would even go so far as to say that's probably my target audience. And uh so he said, uh maybe, you know, uh so he just he just wanted to share that with me. So, I said, "So, give me his name. I'll give him a shout-out." And Yosef Shalom Horowitz in Tarzana, California, thank you for listening. And uh may you go may you go and continue to continue to listen well into your old age, assuming that Cuz for who keeps me around, if our sponsor is right now, and and uh and uh class so needs us then needs me then a class so will keep me around. Um uh Baba Dovin um somebody went to ask him to speak on a video on behalf of Yeshiva Torah Or, and he says, "No, I don't I don't make videos, you know." He's up in Nahariya. And uh and so he said, "But, Rabbi Scheinberg asked." He goes, "Oh, Rabbi Scheinberg asked? Then I have to then I have to do it. You can't say no to Rabbi Scheinberg." And he says, "Did you ever wonder why there are so many good old men who are living to 100 these days?" He says, "Cuz there's no one to take their place." And cuz who is keeping them around. So, if you're right now cuz who needs me then I'll be here when um Yosef Shalom is already uh in in in his old age and I'll still be here cranking out. And I'll probably look exactly the same because I was very clever. I aged early. So, my wife is ridiculously young-looking. And when she gets together with my daughters very often they think she's one of the daughters, one of the one of the sisters. And um and I'm glad if one of us had to age it was me. But I I always say she must have signed a deal with the devil or something or the picture of Dorian Gray if you ever read that book. You know, but I I aged early and I definitely look my age. When my youngest son was born and I came to the hospital they said, "Ah, has a baby here." You know, so the grandfather's here. So, so yeah. So, me and Hashem will all be around to to enjoy it. Okay, so it was nice seeing everybody and I'm sorry that we had a little bit of a break and yeah. Just reminds me of the country western song, "How can I miss you if you won't go away?" So. So, every now and then we like to have a little break. I pulled out my Rabbi Alansky mug for the occasion. Anyway. Okay. So, uh I want to deal with a topic. And uh um I I It's It's a general topic and it goes into a uh to a specific issue, but um I had Tovia Singer on the show as a lot of people know. And it um it got a lot of attention. Not from my usual audience. I'm sure my usual audience watched it, but there were a lot of people who are not. For example, I I know that there are some non-Jews who watched the show, but I think I had a larger group of non-Jews watching that particular podcast than my other ones, you know? My Hanukkah podcast did not get as many views on uh on many of the sites that this one did, yeah? It's uh at this point my uh second most viewed um show on YouTube. Um I don't know totally time cuz I don't get the numbers. I don't know Spotify and uh Apple podcast and all the others, but in this one it uh it it got uh uh 15,000 views, I think. 16,000. A lot of people watch it. And so, it attracted a certain audience who does not normally watch the Rabbi Alansky show. So, most of what I'm going to say doesn't really uh speak to my regular audience because uh I'm sure the people who watched the podcast with Rabbi Singer don't watch me usually. And uh and I noticed there were a lot of negative comments. Now, there were a lot of positive comments, but I see no reason to read those because, you know, gosh, if you're watching the show by this point, you more or less know what you're in for um and who I am. But, there were uh a number of very unpleasant comments, which I would like to share with you. Um like I said, I don't know all of these emails how to read them exactly. This one looks like Meera M. Pernicone M.D. Yeah? Rabbi Alansky needs on to work on not in capitals interrupting Rabbi Tuvia's response capitals to his own questions, his nervous giggling is quite a distraction. Now, of course, the people watching my show know that my giggling is not nervous. I giggle because I actually find things interesting and amusing. And I found a lot of the things we were discussing All right, I'll talk about that when I get there, but I just want to read all the nasty comments. Milton Berg 5534, "Please, Rabbi Orlawsky, let the interviewer speak. You may be interrupting the train of thought too often." Okay, that wasn't so nasty. PDM1967, "Why is Rabbi Orlawsky laughing so much? Doesn't seem like a funny topic. Very distracting." John Doe-MG7HT Uh, this guy doesn't even have the decency to sign his name because it's such a nasty comment, but okay. "Rabbi Orlawsky, it would be helpful if you let Rabbi Singer speak as he is a million times more knowledgeable than worldly than you. Your constant silly laughing interruptions are disruptive and childish and truly distract from the knowledge Rabbi Singer is sharing. Rabbi Orlawsky's insularity and ignorance is truly shocking. Better to keep quiet and be thought a fool than to opens one's mouth and confirm it." Well, John Doe, I think you would have had the decency to actually sign your name if you're going to do this kind of character assassination, but all right. You're obviously a miserable person. Forgive my nervous laugh. What a miserable thing to write and hiding behind anonymity, you lowlife. But, that's okay. Uh Michael Grunsfeld 8221 Rabbi Alawsky, you interrupt and talk and laugh too much. I want to hear Rabbi Singer, not you. Okay. Um Arel Rachel Mashari 3833 if I read that correctly. Rabbi Alawsky, that was from to capitals. Please don't interrupt so much. Okay. Uh Temer Temi Pearlberg 6007. Please stop interrupting. Rock in band T56. This is the first time I've seen this rabbi. I only watched because Tuvia was being interviewed. Will be the last time. He talks over Tuvia, cuts in, and cackles like Kamala. I guess that means Kamala Harris. For nothing. He definitely needs to do lessons on how to interview. And the last one over there, Norman Barbaro 1026. Why do you laugh uselessly? Two question marks. Irritating. Okay. Now, I assume none of these people are regular watchers of my show because they know that I always laugh. And I If you've watched my other interviews, you know I always interrupt. And I do laugh quite a bit, actually. Um Now, there were some positive comments and there were some defenses, etc. Uh but uh I want to talk about uh my interviewing in general because even though I never get this amount of negative comments on my interview um uh uh style, I always get one. Almost every interview I've done, there's always one person who complains I interrupt, let the person talk, why we don't want to hear you, uh things like this, right? Um I don't think they're usually my people, and that's why when I did the podcast with Avi Yitzchaki talking about what he was uh doing on on Shemini Atzeret, so Dina MD, doctors don't like me so much. Okay, I'm done listening to this podcast. It's very unpleasant and disturbing to follow the story when Rav Yitzchaki, I assume that's how I know she doesn't listen on a regular basis cuz she just combined the two names, is capitals constantly interrupting. Now, that was the only comment I got on that, but when I interviewed Lenny Solomon a long time ago, I got that comment. Um I I get the comment from time to time that I interrupt too much. So, I want to talk about my interview style and more than that, why do I do interviews? This is not an interview show. It's not a talk show. It is It's not a talk show. It is, as you probably guessed from the title, the Rabbi Orlofsky Show. Which means if you're not interested in hearing Rabbi Orlofsky, you should not be watching this show. Yeah. Now, I never uh I'm never doing breaking interviews. I have not received exclusive interviews with people. Trump will probably never be on my podcast, you know? Um nonetheless, when Trump was on the Joe Rogan show, which was seen by enormous amount of people, Joe Rogan said I had to keep interrupting him because he wasn't answering my questions. In other words, I didn't want to hear him give his usual speech. I don't want to hear him give his stump speech. I want to get into things about him as a person and have a conversation and not just have him have his regular speech. So, one of these comments I actually answered. Uh not that it helped, of course, cuz people like this there is no answering them. These are trolls. These are the lowest of the low. People who make anonymous comments on YouTube videos or things like that are just the most miserable people. I don't care because it helps the uh the uh um algorithm and more people find out about the show, that's fine. Insult me as much as you want. But, I'm just saying that that's really That's That's what you need to do That's what you need to do with your time is write anonymous nasty comments to people, but okay. You're You're just a sick person and you need help. But, um so one of them I wrote back and I said, "Then don't listen to my show. It's my show." Yeah, as as Rabbi Singer said, he has thousands of videos up on YouTube where these people obviously watch this. Go and listen to him uninterrupted speaking for thousands of hours. Why in the world would you choose to watch me? This is the only place to hear Tovia Singer? I was I was uh uh the breakout opportunity? You never have a chance to listen to him otherwise? So, I wrote one comment and said, "Then don't listen to my show." And they wrote back a really vicious response. I didn't even write it down cuz it was just so vicious. But, um uh but the but the point is if you want to hear this person, there is nobody I'm interviewing who has not been interviewed numerous times. Yeah? Avi Weider Kosky had speaks around. He has been recorded many times. You can go to the internet and find him being interviewed where he's being spoken he's speaking straight and nobody is interrupting him. I interviewed Nissan Black. Guess what? There were dozens of interviews with Nissan Black. Just look it up. You can listen to him with people who are not going to make any comments or interrupt him. Lonnie Solomon, 100% uh um Ari Goldwag, you know, he has his own podcast. You can listen to all these people. There's nobody I've had on the show who I'm breaking news with where they say, "Why can't you be quiet?" So, So, the question comes up then, if this is the Rabbi Yid Kosky show and it's not an interview show, why do I ever interview anybody? What's the point of that? So, I think when I get to the basic philosophy of why I have interviews, you'll maybe understand my interview style. Now, I will give a caveat. Um my parents wanted me to go to college. Uh like all the Jewish parents. Um and in fact uh my in-laws, one of the many reasons they didn't want me to marry their daughter, was cuz I didn't have a college degree and everybody knows that you cannot be educated without a college degree. Uh this was stated clearly in The Wizard of Oz where the wizard says to the Scarecrow, "Scarecrow, there are people with no more brains than you, but they have something you don't have, a college degree." He hands him a college degree and he goes, "A squared plus B squared equals C squared. I'm a genius." And my father, even though he insisted that I go to college, said, "If you're an idiot, you'll be an idiot with a college degree." And there's no question about it, you know? Um so, uh uh so, I I I don't uh I don't you know, uh to me it was not an absolute value. Education is a value. And that's why my mother-in-law couldn't figure out um if I didn't go to college, how I knew more about history, science, uh literature, um politics, uh um than these people who went to college, which forced her to add a caveat, which is you cannot be educated unless you go to college, unless you're David Olasky. So, I I was the exception, yeah? So, uh because I'm well-read. You know, I I I uh the bathroom is my university, and I go through books. Uh it takes me a very long time. I started War and Peace, and you can go through hundreds of piece pages of War and Peace and not even make a dent in it. I thought Dickens wrote long, but this is taking a very long time. But anyway, um so, that's my uh continuing uh adult education university. It's uh read a few pages at a time. But, um uh But, so I agreed. I went to uh Queens College, night college, when I was learning Chofetz Chaim. I took uh two courses. I took uh introduction to psychology and to introduction to sociology, thinking I was going to maybe go into psychology or something like that. I did not see myself going into law. I did not see myself becoming a doctor. I did not see myself becoming a nuclear physicist. I saw myself more as a people person, so I thought I was going to go into psychology. And I remember this was in the early 1970s. It was uh still in the time of the counterculture revolution. And it was one night, Friday night, so my father said, "So, did you sign up for college?" And I said, "Yeah." He said, "What did you take?" I said, uh "Psychology 101 and Sociology 101." He goes, "Psych and Soc?" Uh every hippie takes Psych and Soc. Why didn't you take a math class? So, I concluded from that that there was almost nothing that I was going to do that was going to make my parents happy. So, I didn't bother continuing my college career. Um but when I uh moved to Los Angeles to teach, which my parents referred to as running away from home, so uh at some point they made another push. So, I went to Valley College at night college. Um and uh I decided, "Well, they're not going to like what I do anyway, so I might as well take things I find interesting." And I took journalism and broadcasting. Those were the two uh topics that I took. After that, I said, "Anyone who can do this for 4 years deserves the greatest respect. I don't see how anyone can go through this." And that was the end of my college career. But one of my four courses was broadcasting. And uh the fellow who uh taught it was a producer. He wasn't Spielberg. Anybody who's teaching night college at Valley College is probably not Cecil B. DeMille, you know what I mean? He's not Otto Preminger. He's not one of the great producers. But he had produced something. I don't know what, you know? Anyway, so um the guy who taught uh journalism was a former editor of the LA Times, so uh I picked up a lot of useful information in that course, but anyway, so um uh So, he told the following story, which made a deep impression on me. Probably the greatest uh television newsman uh was considered Edward R. Murrow. Maybe after him was Walter Cronkite, I don't know, but Edward R. Murrow was in a class all of his own. And uh he was interviewing Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer, of course, who was considered the father of the atomic bomb. And he was interviewing him, and he asked him at one point, you know, "Now that we have nuclear arms, do you think uh that the world will ever destroy itself?" And Oppenheimer stopped and thought about that question for a full minute. And then he said, "No. No, I don't think they will." And he said, "The genius of Edward R. Murrow was that he did not interrupt him because that 1 minute of silence where he was considering mankind destroying itself was um was more powerful than anything he could have said." So, do I appreciate the idea of giving people a chance to answer? Yes, 100%. Having said that, which as Seinfeld points out is always where you're going to completely negate what you just said. Having said that, um a good interviewer knows how to ask questions to draw the person out. Um there were a number of interviews with Kamala Harris, who apparently I cackle like her she like she does. Um when she was running for president and uh I remember watching Bill O'Reilly uh comment on it and he said, "If I was interviewing her, and I've interviewed many presidents, um I wouldn't have let her get away with those answers. I would have said, 'I'm sorry, Madam Vice President, you didn't answer the question.' And they would ask a good question, 'How are you going to beat inflation?' And she would say, 'I grew up in a middle-class home.' And da da da. So, right, but that wasn't the question. The question is, 'How are you going to beat inflation?' So, if you're a good interviewer, you don't just ask the question, let the person pivot and get away with it. You have to say, uh I'm sorry, but you didn't answer my question. That's one point. The other point is, especially people who give a lot of interviews, yeah? So, it's not enough to just um let them give the same answers. You have to get inside of it. Now, I'm going to bring a couple of examples. When well, let me get to my philosophy first. So, why do I interview people? I interview people because I want to get out of them a chiddush. Something about them that everyone has not heard before. Now, when it comes to Tovia Singer, for example, in my last interview, I had two agendas. One is, there are a lot of people in the frum world who never heard of Tovia Singer before. I'm not going for the Tovia Singer crazies who would listen to his thousands of videos and don't know why I'm interrupting him. I'm interrupting forget why I'm interrupting him, but my agenda was to introduce him to an audience who never heard of Rabbi Singer. That's number one. Number two is my main agenda was not to have Rabbi Singer discuss his answers to basic theology explaining the difference between Christianity and Judaism. Like I said, he has thousands of videos. I wanted to get into Tovia Singer the person. Who is he? And that was the question I kept coming back to because I wasn't getting an answer to it. And that is how does a guy who grows up in Borough Park and goes to the mirror become Tovia Singer? That to me is the most interesting question. More than Luke, Mark, you know, and all the apostles put together. I you know, and and and the the Isaiah 52. I I wanted to hear who he is as a person and I wanted to draw that out. And I think I think I was more successful at that than anyone else has been because he doesn't like to talk about himself quite obviously. You know, and in fact one of the comments cuz like I say, the most of the comments there were 287 comments. Most of the comments were overwhelmingly positive. One of them said, "I'm really interested in hearing more about his life." Yes, me too. That's what I set out to do. That's what I was trying to accomplish. So, you can argue whether I did it the best way or not, but that's what I was trying to do. If you go back and listen to my interview with Nissan Black you'll hear he says a number of times, "I never told this story before. I never brought this out. You know, uh this is a point that I never mentioned." He says that a number of times. Why? Because I wasn't doing just an interview. You know, okay, Nissan, uh tell us about your background. Where did you come from and all that? And he'll give his regular stump speech. I feel that he is an incredibly interesting human being and I think he has a message that is unbelievable for Cloud Israel to hear. I think he's incredibly inspiring and I'm speaking to him as a rav and a machanech, not a um uh not a uh interview in a regular in a regular forum. All right? There are forums for this, right? There's uh some kind of a thing called uh Meaningful People. All right? Uh they've never called me. I'm I'm waiting to get called by the meaningless people and interviewers. So, I imagine he's going to call me. "Hi, we're doing meaningless people. Are you available?" But I was trying to bring out things. So, uh in my interview with Avi Yuchtman Yuchtansky, um who happens to be the brother of my producer, he told me that after the interview, he sent it around to the family and everyone agreed that they had never heard him tell the story as well and with as much detail. You know why? Cuz I didn't just sit there and let him talk. I drew out details. I was asking him, "How did you feel about this? How did this affect you?" I I was trying to get into the story and the person. Yes, I was interrupting. Yes, I was making comments. Because at the end of the day, this is the Rabbi Alansky show and I have a message that I want to get out to Cloud Israel from these people. If you want to hear them give their speeches, just Google them. And should Trump come on my show, trust me, I have questions for him that nobody has asked him before. And I think you'll have a great time. So, Mr. President-elect, if you're out there and you're listening, you know, you have an open invitation. We film on Mondays or Tuesdays. We might even change the time. We changed the time for trivia. So, we might even change the time for you, assuming that it works out. But, you know, we'll be happy to have you on the show. And uh Ben Shapiro, next time you come to Israel, you know, if you want to reach another audience perhaps that you're not reaching now, you know, which is the Rabbi Orlovsky crazies, this is a great opportunity for you to, you know, really make a name for yourself finally and break out from that little bubble you're in. Kamala Harris, I'll have you on, too. I got questions Trust me, I got questions for you. You know, and these people, but you don't need me. They're interviewed a gazillion times. If I'm going to interview them, it's going to be Rabbi Orlovsky's take on these people. That's why I have an interview show. Otherwise, there's no reason for me to do an interview. It's just me talking. That's what it is. Rub of the rub of the Rabbi Orlovsky show is Rabbi Orlovsky sitting here in a chair in front of his bookcase just talking with no preparation. I actually had to copy over all of these comments. That was about the most preparation I've done for a podcast in years, you know, so I could read all these comments. Usually, I don't do that much prep. But, Uh, but I I usually just sit there and say, "So, what should I talk about?" You know? And um uh I remember there was one time we had some you know, people are always invited to come and and join the the filming and be part of the studio audience. Um and uh we um I remember one time I I came in with my friend who was producer and I had no idea what I was to talk about. I was just out of ideas. Listen, I've been doing this for uh for over 60 years. I don't always have ideas. How many things have I got to talk about? I'm not doing a news podcast. I'm not learning a safer. It's just Rabbi Yilovsky doing free association, you know? So uh I said to my friend, "What should I talk about?" He goes, "I don't know." So uh I asked my wife before I left the house, "What should I talk about?" He goes, "I don't know." So I turned to the guy who was the audience. I said, "What should I talk about?" He said, "Well, why don't you talk about this?" I said, "Okay." And that was my podcast. So uh I really don't do a lot of prep, you know? So when I'm interviewing somebody, I'm doing it because I Okay, so what I got one comment when I did my show with Lenny Solomon, which by the way is excellent. You should definitely go back and watch it. And they said, "Well, it was also one person made a comment, you're interrupting too much." I said, "But that's because I'm not asking for the Lenny Solomon story. He's been interviewed many times. You can find many interviews with him." I'm I'm I'm talking to him as a friend. We We spent We We go back 50 years. Uh 50 years. Uh maybe 45 years. Yeah? And we were sharing and discussing and I want to bring out aspects of his story that not everybody knows. And that's what I want to hear. Like when Nissan Black says, "I never told this before." Or, "I've never given this detail before." That's what I want. I want to be able to present these people to my audience. And by extension, Kol Isha in a different way. So, if you want to hear Tuvia Singer, watch his videos. If you want to hear Ari Goldwag, watch his podcast. Listen to his podcast, you know, um uh uh uh uh watch his interviews. He's He's He's interviewed on all kinds of shows. So too Lenny Solomon. You know, um I guess Rabbi Groner and Rabbi Geisler don't get interviewed that much. You could argue that the that this might have been their only forum, you know. And there are certain people and there are a lot of people who asked to come on to come on to the show and to be interviewed. I don't interview everybody, you know. Um I want to get something where I believe my audience is going to get chizuk and a perspective in a unique way that they're not going to get um normally. And they're not going to get it by listening to their regular interview. So, if I can bring in somebody that nobody's heard of before to give a new perspective, givaldik. Right? What's the exception I make? Family members. I'll have on any of my family members who want to come on. My son Yaakov, I've been waiting to have him back on to discuss Israeli politics, but every time he says, you know, uh "It's only if you can edit it and put it out the same day because events in Israel happen so fast these days that it's stale news by the end of the If it comes out a week later, it's too stale." So, we keep waiting to find an opportunity to bring him in and do it real fast and get it out the same day, you know. But, um uh Moshe Huda, you know, came in and and the two Waterbury episodes were the two most watched episodes, at least on YouTube until um until this one with Tojjy Singer. He just uh knocked the the the second uh one down to the third most watched. He's now the second most watched. So, uh all you Waterbury fans better go and uh watch it again just to to push up the numbers. All you fan girls, I assume. But, when I interview somebody, it's because I think they have a message for Klal Yisrael that I want to get out. You know? Um uh when I uh when I in interviewed Dov Alekeska, I think that he had a unique position having worked on campuses and because of everything that was happening in campuses, I wanted to hear what he his take on current events because no one else is asking him. He he's not he's not being tapped. I thought that would be a kiddush for people. Um my friend Rabbi Rabbi Rivkin, who is a mohel uh who does milahs for I thought that was such a fas- He's a fascinating person in general. I thought that was such a fascinating story and I wanted to bring that out to Klal Yisrael. So, most of my shows are not interview shows and if you want interview shows where um my presence is minimized, there won't be too many. I'll tell you what one of my favorite episodes was and it and it doesn't have a very large uh um uh viewership and I think it was unbelievable. And that was when I had the founder of the Shuvu schools. Um I only did an hour. I wanted to do two hours. I only did an hour because he was running to another event, you know? But, that to me was one of the most mind-blowing uh uh things I've ever heard. Hearing him talk about it, there was so many aspects to it. There was so many details. And did I react to it? Yes, I reacted to it because there were things that I found shocking. You know, and fascinating. And I'm not going to sit there and go, "Mhm. So, then what did you uh then then you know what I'm saying?" Yeah, I'm a real person and I'm reacting in real time and I like to think that I am your representative sitting in the room. If you were sitting with these people, what would you say? How would you react? And obviously, people find me annoying and that I laugh too much and that I giggle and that I interrupt, do not watch this show. There are plenty of interviews with all these people and you don't have to watch me. And but if you're going to watch me, it's going to be Rabbi Yakov Shansky's take on it. To be able to get into people. And like I say, there are a lot of people who want to be interviewed. I could do every show as an interview show and I don't. Because um I am blessed by the fact that I am surrounded by so many incredibly talented people that I get to know. Uh but I think the reason people watch this is because people find me interesting, too. And that's the reason that I have a podcast. I know a lot of people who tried starting podcasts, well-known people, and it never took off. Never took off. I used to give a shiur, I still do actually, every other Motzei Shabbos in Har Nof. And once upon a time, I used to get hundreds of people. I don't anymore, but I used to get hundreds of people. And sometimes when I was traveling, I would have other famous speakers fill in for me. They didn't get They didn't get my crowd. Cuz my crowd wanted to hear me. You know, it's a unique perspective. Which of course, begs the question that I always ask. And I'll give you an example. Um Project Inspire, who uh has used me many times. And I believe in their cause. And uh And it it was based on the principle that Reb Nachman Weinberg had of wake the sleeping giant, of trying to get the firm community to as a whole do kiruv and and change people's lives. But I find extremely effective as giving chizuk to firm people. It's probably the most effective event the the Project Inspire convention. So, they did a Shabbos in uh in uh Flatbush. And they had a lot of big name speakers. I'm not saying this to brag cuz you're These are my people, right? I don't think any of the people who watch my interview with Tuvia Singer and hate me will be watching this, right? So, it's most of my people. So, this shouldn't come as surprising to you that what a baal gaiva I am, you know. But I was con- I I had the largest crowds and all major names and uh and um and I got the strongest reaction. And I said to the person who organized the event, I said, "I feel like I'm effective." He goes, "You are." And I said, "So, how come people don't bring me in to speak?" And he said, "I don't know. I don't know why." He says, "It's a good question." But uh and I'll tell you another funny thing. The more effective I am, the less likely I am ever to be invited back. I'll give you an example. I spoke in Edmonton, Canada. They told me this was the largest turnout that they ever had. And everyone said it was unbelievably effective. They brought me back the second year. And it was a larger turnout. And they said to me it was even more effective. And that was 12 years ago. And I never heard from them again. I I in Chicago at the Shalom Bayis event. The person organizing it said they had to change the venue three times cuz it wasn't large enough. They had one venue and then it was so so many people they moved to another venue they had moved it a third time. They told me it was the biggest turnout they got, they raised the most money, it was unbelievably effective and I said, "Then you're a never going to invite me back." And they never did. In fact, I have never been back in Chicago since, you know? So, I don't know why. When I'm the the more effective I am, the less likely I am ever to be invited back. You know? The there are very few places that still invite me. Project Inspire is one of the few, you know? Where I where you know, so they say, "Look, we can't do it every It's like every other year they bring me in." But, you know? I mentioned this because I'm planning a trip in either February or March or so. Uh So, we'll uh Anybody who This is basically a a a commercial at this point. This is You can contact me at my website rabbialonsky.com. Uh and if anyone says, "Hey, that is a great question. Why don't we have Rabbi Alon Sky for a Shabbos?" You know? "Won't it uplift?" In fact, one time I put together quotes from all the places that I spoke and they're like, "Why? Everyone knows who you are. Everyone knows how effective you are." I said, "I know, but for some reason nobody brings me out to speak, you know?" And um I'm just mentioning that. Uh but uh I believe that I have something to That's why I do this podcast. It gives me an opportunity to give chizuk to people and I'm just always amazed of the emails that I get and maybe since I read so many negative ones, maybe uh in a future podcast I'll read some of the positive ones because they're just so inspiring, you know? When What can I tell you? I love cloudy self. And like I say, when I go uh to I go to a um some minion some yeshiva minion I figured nobody knows who I am. You know, and a bunch of guys come up to me afterwards and they all listen to the podcast, you know, and or I'm someplace and a bunch of Hasidim come over and they they all listen to the podcast, or children elementary school children like uh um Yossi Schalom Horwitz in Tarzana, California, other kids that I meet all the time. It's just or teenagers, you know, or people who are who are off the derech, you know, or elderly people or people who are sick and they say they get chizuk from it, you know. It's an unbelievable thing. And so yeah, when I interview somebody, you're going to hear me and I'm going to interrupt and I'm going to ask questions. And I'm probably going to laugh because I am having such a wonderful time being with these people. I am not a dispassionate observer. I am a participant. I am part of the program. So, if you if you like my style, I hope you'll watch some more and if you don't, I don't have to say anything cuz you're not watching me now. And that's it. That's That's I wanted to I want to explain that I believe there's a method to my madness and what it is. And so when you see one of my interview shows, yes, you're going to see me involved and you're going to see me commenting and I'm going to be drawing the person out and the points that they want to make so that I help them to elucidate it better because very often people say things and they think that their audience is with them and they're not. That's why in every uh uh book or film, there's always one dumb character who's there to provide the commentary. You know, so in Jules Verne uh uh Journey to the Center of the Earth, there's this one guy who's like the uh you know, the servant and he's there to ask all the questions that uh other people, you know, want to ask and don't know. So, you need somebody there to ask the questions. That's who I am in these interviews. So, I can help the person make their message more understandable to people who normally listen to me, you know, and uh like to have things spelled out. As my friend Rabbi Groner used to tell me, um uh he said uh they they they ensure Friday night and they say, "Rabbi, it's pretty cold in here. Maybe the custodian, the non-Jewish custodian, could turn on the heat." So, he says, "Mark, turn on the heat." So, he says, "Rabbi, I thought you could only do it derech remez with a hint." He says, "By him, that's a hint." So, that's He always used to say, "You have to spell things out. Make sure that it's clear." And uh I I used to say my wife on those occasions when she would give shiurim, she would prepare for a month. And she would show me her outline. And I would say, uh "This is a 6-month semester that you just prepared, okay? Your audience is not up to you. They haven't been preparing it. They're not in the sugya. Give them a chance to catch up." And that's the difference when Rabbi Shapiro used to give his Thursday shiur to the hamon am, he spent a lot of time developing every point and explaining it. When he gave his other shiurim, he spoke more often b'chatzi dibur cuz he took it for granted that you understood what he was talking about. So, uh okay. I I I think I've uh I've beaten this dead horse. And this brings us to the question and answer portion of the program. We have a sponsor for our Q&A this week. Q&A sponsor, are inappropriate intimate internet sites destroying your life? They wrecked mine for years. Yikes. That That all changed when I joined Guard Your Eyes, which I can tell you is a very powerful website. I'm now free for a year. If you struggle, come and join us. We'll help you break free. [email protected]. That is the address. Yiddenhelpingyidden. It's up on your screen. And uh it's it's mamish a machla. A mamish a machla destroying class yourself. So, um everybody is encouraged to check it out. Okay. Our first question by Yehuda Zimberg. Is it racist to say the Jews are the chosen people? I once heard you explain this question during an Or Lagao last seminar. And I found it quite humorous and entertaining. Well, it's still humorous and entertaining. I think I did this on a podcast, but okay. Unless you're a real crazy who have not only listened to all of the podcasts, but have committed them to memory, you probably won't remember. You know. Um there is a rule that does not apply to the Rabbi Alansky Show, unfortunately. I heard this uh from Rabbi Left many years ago, and that is you can repeat uh joke once every 2 years. You can repeat a story once a year. And you can repeat a dvar Torah even in the same speech. I don't have that. People momish commit to memory everything I've ever said. And uh you know, I'm often uh um challenged to um uh to uh come up for new material for people. You know, now there are certain people who just enjoy it like gosh, as Frank Sinatra sang the same uh seven songs for the last 20 years of his career, you know what I mean? But they enjoyed it cuz uh that's what they wanted to hear, you know. I had a lady in Melbourne, Australia um when I was doing my Yiddish Jewish and uh she came to me at the end she says, "This is the 11th or 12th time, I forgot you know, time that I've heard this." I said, "I'm sorry, would have done something else." She says, "No, no, no, I come duff good to hear it again." You know. And especially live, it's a whole different dynamic when you hear it live. So uh so that's where they say in most of the no good here. So even if you heard this before and hear it again. Yeah? Um the kinds of the chosen people uh there people who find this very offensive, chosen people. Um I was on a panel in Cape Town, South Africa and um uh these uh kids were picking on It was It was me, it was a Catholic teacher, a Muslim teacher, and a uh and a secular Jewish teacher. And me. And they were asking different questions and there were these three girls who were like really hassling the Catholic teacher and I was giving them the stink eye like apparently not too subtly. Luckily, it wasn't being videoed. But um um but afterwards, the next question was to me and they said, "Rabbi Laski, you seem upset that we were you know, challenging Christianity, but didn't you say the Jews are the chosen people?" And I said, "Sure." And the Christians think they're the chosen people, don't you?" And she said, "Yes." I said, "Nobody would be doing this if they didn't think they were right. Of course, they think they're right. Everyone thinks they're right. You wouldn't be following a philosophy that you thought was wrong." Rabbi Weinberg once said, "In America, you're free to be a Jew, a Christian, and a Muslim as long as you don't take it seriously. Once you take it seriously, then you're a religious fanatic, you know? So, you can't really believe it. So, we believe it. But, um uh yeah, of course. Of course, we believe we're the chosen people, but what does that mean? Yeah? So, the story of the Jewish people start with Avraham Avinu and Lech Lecha, and God comes to Avraham and says, "Um I'm going to make you the chosen people, setting you on a journey. And you're going to get uh children, wealth, fame, all good things." So, Avraham starts out on his journey. As soon as he gets there, it's a drought, it's a famine. Can't stay. Has to leave. Goes down to Egypt, they kidnap his wife. Pharaoh gets hit with plagues, which is what Pharaohs do best. He gets his wife back. Um comes back to Israel, has a fight with his one remaining little relative, Lot. They separate, and Lot goes to Sodom. And then, he gets captured in a war by the four world armies. So, now Avraham has to go to war against the four world armies. Luckily, he has his trusty man servant, Eliezer, yeah? So, it's an even fight. He defeats them and saves Lot. Then, he comes back, and after 10 years, he still has no children. And that was one of the promises. So, if you've been in there still for 10 years and no children, you have to uh you know, take another wife. He marries Hagar. And those of you who have two wives, you know that this very often happens that the two wives don't always get together. And they start having fights. They start arguing. And uh and he has to send his wife away. And uh eventually she comes back. And um and this goes on. This goes on for for 10 years. At the end, the Kadosh Baruch Hu says, "So, how do you like my bris? How do you like my covenant so far? Wait, I have one last surprise for you, bris milah. I was saving that for last. Yeah? So, this doesn't sound like what I would think of the chosen people. So, Hashem says, "What do you think it means to be the chosen people? To sit around and get reward? I'm the God of all people. We want all people to get reward. We want all people to relate to God. We want the entire world. We want God to be God of the entire world. I don't I'm not choosing you over everybody else. Yes, in Christianity, if you don't uh become a Christian, then you'll be cast into the pit of hell and burn for eternity. All right? And and by the way, you better get it right cuz if you're Catholic, uh the Protestants are going to burn in hell, too. And if you're Protestant, the Catholics will burn in hell. You know, and if you're Protestant, you better make sure you get the right sect. And if you're a Catholic, you better make sure you find the right Pope because in the 1300s, they had a uh an Italian Pope and a French Pope. And each one put the others' followers into excommunication, which means you don't get to go to heaven. So, you know, whereas we say, you know, that's why Catholics, Christians, uh Muslims will do anything they can to get you to convert, including torture. Cuz it's very important that they save your soul. When you come to a rabbi and you say you want to convert, you say, "Why? What do you want to do that for? You know?" And we tell him, "It's so hard. Don't do that." Cuz I want to go to heaven. He says, "No problem. Do the seven, go to heaven. Follow the seven Noahide laws, and you go to heaven. You don't have to be a Jew to be that." He says, "What kind of religion are you? You're You're saying you don't have to be part of religion to go to heaven?" He goes, "That's right. God loves all people. You don't have to be a Jew to go to heaven. So, what does it mean we're the chosen people? It means we're chosen to inspire the world. Am mamleches kohanim. Just like the kohanim are there to serve the Jewish people, the Jewish people are there to serve the world. Yeah? We're there to be an inspiration. Or lagoyim, a light to the nations. And if we don't inspire them by our wonderful behavior, then we will inspire them by our terrible sufferings. And people will say, "Wow, look what God does to the Jews cuz they don't listen to him. Obviously, it's real important to listen to God." Hence the old Jewish joke where Goldberg says to God, "God, is it true that we are the chosen people?" And he says, "Yes, Goldberg, you are." He says, "Do me a favor. Choose somebody else once in a while. So, the Jewish people have never looked at their status as unbelievable. Even though these other religions believe that they're so right that the Jews are going to burn in hell, we don't hate them. You ever see a Jew who hates a Christian cuz he thinks they're the chosen people? No, you know why? Cuz we know they're wrong. You know why Christians hate Jews when they think they're the chosen people? Cuz they know we're right. So, that's what the role of chosen people means. Okay, well, that's it for this time together. If you want to find out more about the show, feel free to go to my website, rabbiorlovsky.com. You can write an email, you can leave a comment on the episode. You can sign up for one of our online shiurim. Our Mesillas Yesharim, we still have people who are joining. It's a ladies Mesillas Yesharim on Mondays. We have our Daf Yomi every day. We still have gentlemen joining. Our Tefillah Shiur on Sundays, we still have people joining that one. And as I mentioned, somebody asked me about this, you mentioned some time ago about the Pirkei Avos Shiur online, is that going to happen? Well, since I have not received a tremendous amount of reaction, right now that's not happening. If I If I get a nice amount of people who say that they're interested, then then it would be fun to start. And And that's it for now. You can Oh, I almost forgot, you can sponsor an episode. We need sponsors. You can sponsor a Q&A. You can sponsor a Parsha in Five. And all of that is coming up. So, that's it for this episode. Until next time, I am David Orlovsky, and this has been the Rabbi Orlovsky Show. It's the Rabbi Orlofsky Show. Torah and Simcha ready to go. It's the Rabbi Orlofsky 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 Orlofsky Show. Orlofsky.com Torah anytime, YouTube and more. It's the Rabbi Orlofsky Show. Torah and Simcha ready to go. It's the Rabbi Orlofsky Show. Till next time, till we meet again. It's the Rabbi Orlofsky Show. It's the Rabbi Orlofsky Show.