Rabbi Mike Rovinsky - A Mohel To The World (Ep. 199)

hi this is Debra olowski and welcome to the rabarielowski show and whether you're watching with our friends over at tour anytime whoever you watch or listen to your podcast as always we are so happy to have you along for the experience this is of course a special episode of the robertlowski show because we have with us a special guest who has come all the way from St Louis Missouri is it St Louis or St Louis St Louis St Louis but you can say St Louis Meet Me In St Louis the song um and uh it was obviously named for St Louis who was one of the Louis kings of France you know Louis the 14th birthday in fact on you know the famous story with the punavicharov where he went to the Arch of Titus and said Tito Titus yeah all right so we do that in St Louis my colleague gets down guy um every Tish above he goes to the to the Statue of Saint Louis and he says Saint Louis Saint Louis you burn the shots and anyway I mean they burnt it I know in front of Notre Dame and I forgot who said uh one of the reason I'm said that you're going to see Notre Dame is going to burn down because of that really yeah in a couple hours ago when Notre Dame burned down they said told you what goes around comes around so anyway uh so from Saint Louis Missouri I was in St Louis for my first time in 1968 Summer of 1968. my family went cross-country two weeks to go from New York to California two weeks to come back and we stopped over in St Louis and we saw the big arch they just built it and uh the Gateway to the West as it was called and it was one of the most hot humid miserable places I have ever been at in the summer it was a godsend compared to Houston Texas or Orlando yeah we had it was pretty bad I haven't been there in the summer to be fair but I go with your wife and kids to go Disneyland and you'll understand I was in I was in uh Houston for Nashville Convention when it was in Houston and you could not walk outside the front door we just had this heat wave here in our show and the air was like a physical barrier you could not walk through the air it was so hot and thick it was like I mean that's what it was like you stepped outside of the hotel in Houston and you thought you were gonna die and um but it's it's so much better in uh St Louis because you have the Mississippi River right there that helps to add to the humidity you know when it's not flooding you know so it's a lot of fun anyway but uh so that was the first time I was there and I was just by you for a Shabbos not that long ago and uh we got to go out to the kosher restaurant yeah that's that's being generous yeah you know no it was very nice it's a grocery store it also has a restaurant part too anyways yeah they just sold they just sold yeah to to some investors from New York oh yeah I was in Denver Colorado for a Shabbos many years ago and um I couldn't breathe City because it's all the way up in the air you can't breathe I I was I was gasping for breath the whole time I was there you know so um I don't know how people manage it and uh they get used to it yeah apparently you can get used to anything you know but uh I remember when my parents came to visit when they decided to go down for a couple of days of the Dead Sea and they got down and they wanted to go into the mud baths or something whatever it is first you have to be checked out by a doctor so he told my parents okay have something to drink and drive back to your July because you can't stay here you're going to die it's so low down that if you have high blood pressure difficult my parents had a very low level of Health I'm afraid but um uh so uh so I you know I couldn't breathe so there's also one kosher restaurant you know half of it's milking half of its Flagship you know and someone there said how come more New York Jews don't move here and I said why would they move here first of all you know you're in the middle of nowhere Denver's Mountain level nowhere it's on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere you know in the Rocky Mountains you know so they said what do you mean we've got skiing we've got fishing we've got boating we've got hiking we've got I said okay you obviously don't know anything about a New York Jew I said this we do we shop and we that's it so if you don't open up like another half a dozen you know restaurants and uh some like real classy shopping you know we're not coming here we're not hiking we're not you know Jackie Mason used to say a Jew goes away by the way he says where's the pool where's the pool okay let me goes to sit in the lobby just wanted to make sure it's there there's the pool good anyway but um uh besetter so uh so you're in St Louis Missouri now you originally you're a Texan born and raised in Dallas Texas Dallas Texas how did your family end up in Texas it's a long story but the short version is we came through Galveston not me but you know my grandparents right when they came from Europe my uh Galveston because I guess Ellis Island along was too long and the line was too long and Jews don't like waiting in lines I don't know that was one of the yeah and and what happened in those days then yeah they had um x amount of rubles in their pocket left or whatever and they'd get on a train and they'd go as far as it would take them I mean I remember taking talmudim to these little Long View Texas and these places that no one's ever heard of and you go to the old Jewish cemeteries and that was all their you know they're all gone so they went through Galveston to Hugo Oklahoma that's as far as they got and my great-grandfather said this is no place to raise children you think so so where did they go Fort Worth Texas yeah yeah so my father was raised in Fort Worth and they must we already choose there yeah there were Jews in Fort Worth and there were Jews in Dallas yeah my mom's side not in Oklahoma not in Oklahoma no My Father's Side came from prodichive and and harakov and my mom's side villain in kovna so we try and take the best of the litvision worlds Texas is Big Texas is Big everything's big there yeah it takes longer to go from one end of Texas to the other than from the tip of Texas up to Canada wow yeah and uh um there are a few yeah I mean I have a cousin who's a racehorse guy but there was this Jewish guy sitting with these you know three Texans one guys I gotta I got a ranch I got 50 000 Acres I call it the Ponderosa so a guy says really I got 75 000 Acres I call it the Big W the guy says yeah I have uh I have a hundred thousand acres and I call it the the Texas Roadhouse uh Ranch so the Jew is sitting there goes what about you he says I have 10 acres so they laugh so what do you call it downtown Dallas [Laughter] growing up was insane I mean we didn't have I wasn't from then but we didn't have a minion of shama Shabbos really there was no shawl um there was a conservative right that's yeah I'll get there in a second but we um there used to be an orthodox and it shut down and the money was put aside to start a new show and then when there were people when there were people and the money was used to start a day school which is where I went on the condition it had a minion so they had a minion and when I started getting more interested in yiddishkite I started walking there was two and a half miles from my house uphill both ways literally because they were like you know it's kind of like you wish line where you go up and down so they saved up their money to be able to build this basically day school and that's what it's called Dallas Dallas right or in those days it was an ear dalby Israel but uh it was a Marx Brothers line he goes uh did you uh pay your taxes so he says hey I got a knuckle in Texas he said no no dollars because yeah yeah Dallas Texas anyway so that's amazing yeah and the foresight people have no idea what America was back then right you know the uh the the hit Dem Amish build from the ground up everything there was nothing we're so used to having things uh ready for us that uh that people who would go out and start these things who were the personalities that built Dallas so there were for Torah remember was the first principle of geographic sent him to Dallas wow the big families at the initial stage where families like the gersons the rosenbergs uh the Schultz's the shepses there was and and my parents quickly came in um but uh it was it was really and even the davening I was into Saturday night wrestling you remember that you don't remember growing up I didn't watch it but I am familiar when I went to show Gorgeous George Fritz am I allowed to say I know these things on this podcast I don't know anything on this podcast so I used to that's right I always said if anyone wants to take me down it's not a problem there's enough stuff happens so Shabbos morning I used to walk and again I wasn't from my parents used to follow me in the car because you know a 13 year old kid 12 year old kid walking two and a half miles up the side of a highway I mean his so um only when I got later I was wondering should I really done that anyway but there were there were literally fist fights in Shoal every Shabbos this one wanted the Aliyah this one wanted Mafia this one said he had yours I know you had your side last week no your family was killed and out it was a different day there were no Jews and and the few of them that get together have to fight with each other correct [Laughter] and uh he used he loved us kids loved us kids and you know he'd say Michael Kim do and he'd take me into the kitchen and we'd make the setup for for the kid-ish never wash the handle for the Herring and stick it in scoop it out and then just hang it back up and listen that's already good that's good I remember when I was in Yeshiva so we used to write letters the kids today don't know what letters are yeah but um and I wrote him I was at Hasina and I had Herring but it wasn't pringler's Herring guys because it didn't have the botulism from the from the from the ladle but uh yeah that's that's that's what got us coming and they'd make us Daven and um you know as as well this was the day school this was the day school the principal was considered the rav and he'd give the drush red kiddish so where'd these people come from there were no people you you had you had a literally a handful of Summer Shabbos they came from New York or you know most of them came from New York you had the red bam of the day school um they all in those days everyone pretty much went into hinook for two years just to do their their piece and then they'd go into business I mean my sixth grade Revy became a multi-millionaire went in the tow truck business um but uh and then they all that most of them went off into business or became Denial in other places but it was It was a you're never supposed to say the good old days because I'll say but those were you had to fight to be a yet right you know today it's it's on a Long Island I did at one point in an adult shop of town and we were talking about the problems with the kids in in the day schools in the yeshivas and and one of the parents said I wish I could send my kid to public school and have you pick him up in ncsy and I said the problem is we don't always get them so and public schools are vastly different today I'm in them every day it's yeah I remember uh I hope I don't get in trouble for saying this but I remember when I was learning in there Israel and KOLO and I was teaching starting my cleanup career you'd appreciate this the the Minneapolis calls me up and says Rabbi ravinsky I hear you want to go into I said yeah I'd like to go back to Dallas where I came from and he said and she says to me um okay it's Hanukkah I have an eighth grade class they've already gone through three teachers it's only Hanukkah how would you like to try your hand in that was my my introduction but I asked him I said I was Rebecca of weinberg's itself I I I said is it better to send your kids to public school or to a non-orthodox day school and in those days this is in the mid 80s he says public school no Shiloh and I was at a Hassan of one of my talmidos um probably 10 years ago eight years ago and so the new burgers were there and Roberto and you know the whole cover was in St Louis I shouldn't say clever about about these uh but um thank you and I went up and I said listen I'm in the public schools every day with ncsy JSU and what would the Russia Shiva say today because it was a battle people were sending to the non-orthodox day school in St Louis and they said we don't know the schools have gotten so bad with their indoctrination and you know it used to be they taught Reading Writing and arithmetic and you just had to deal with some things today it's it's in your face all the values of society and and if you don't buy into it then you know you suffer the consequences with two Russia Yeshiva he wouldn't say the names and uh at some point wine mentioned that he went to public school so one of the verses Shiva said I also went to public school another one says me too so when she says to the other one no you didn't he said sure I did he says Sing Silent Night and the tourism are singing everyone's like I don't believe this but when you read the Bible school yeah you know yeah yeah and you learn the pledge of all I mean it was it was a different world so today well it's it's it's so much harder to to Aid to do kirov but um I don't do kiriv to introduce kids to to Tara mitsu so so you started in this little day school start in the day school right how many years before you went did it start um I four years three years so mommy was just it was it was it was a baby fresh fish right and my Pioneer I was a Pioneer my parents stageco stage coaching right they were married a few years um my father has his business hadn't taken off he was an engineer and they couldn't afford tuition because I was writing my father's husband a year and a half ago and I turned to my mother and I said Mom when we finally had money you well we didn't have money but you know we bought this house that you built right across from this brand new public school I said but you never sent me there and she said I said why not she says it had to do with Dr Sussman I said Dr Sussman says yeah he met with my parents and he told them you can't send your kid to an injury school now he wasn't from he was what we would call conservative back in the day right it was a different General it was a different generation you can't understand your kids so my father went back and discussed it with my mother and they said okay some of the biggest Builders of Torah in America were in front but because they were very Jewish they were so Jewish they saw the Ms and they knew I may not be able to do anything today with the program or you're not with the program but there's no such a thing as like feeling that that sense of Yiddish kite that you used to say yeah because they don't even know you know the the adults that I started learning with the parents of kids and other adult uh learning groups in St Louis and they're starving they don't even know you know the famous story that pesos with um the uh the soldiers um on um in 67 right I cry because I don't understand why I'm supposed to cry they don't even know what they're missing right so um long story short my parents couldn't afford tuition but they're very proud and they're not taking something for nothing so the board said okay Irv you're a engineer you're going to help us with the air conditioning lighting and stuff when there's a problem that's going to be your job and my mother went every day with a small group of women who all made a big financially one day and they cooked the lunches they serve the lunches they cleaned up from the lunches but they developed charim with the rabaim and the rabbitsens and then they start to get it inviting for Shabbos so when I eventually got into ncsy and wanted to become from they they knew what it was about now where NC is Where I Come From ncsy they had been a southern region southern region correct but that was mostly Georgia Dallas Houston Dallas how could they have been in Dallas in the in the day school just opened right so there was a no no ncsy didn't start till the 70s in Dallas right and um there was a synagogue to ferret Israel that's where my parents eventually moved that's where I had my bar mitzvah because the conservative Rabbi had some can I say extracurricular activities you could say anything okay when the board didn't fire the rabbi they said really this isn't the right place for us so they moved to the more traditional place in fact um Stuart Weiss yeah Weiss from um ranana right so he was my ncsy advisor back in the way back in the day I remember so so when did when did ncsy come to Dallas I don't know I joined in 76. and that's how I met reviews Rosenberg who changed my life wow so now you're in Dallas you're in ncsy you're flying around the country right you want national board right I was on the national board as uh socialism they do it's the presidents from each region it's uh they don't even have National Convention I hope no one from the of you is listening but that was the greatest convention ever it was a different thing it was just so different we had leadership it was just it was it was insane we do have something called which is amazing yeah um but yeah I was Russian jury remember those days you know making making the posters and writing letters three four open up the iron door five six seven they let my people emigrate yeah so that was to go down to Glencove to the Russian uh Consulate in Long Island don't we in Dallas all I could do was organize letter writing campaigns because I wasn't you know able to go to the Russian Council it because well we did because they would have shot the Russians in Texas had they tried to come in because back then we didn't have to you know if we we cared about Russian jewelry but mostly we got to miss class so right you know that was even great we're talking about Freedom so I just get out of class my wife we've been married 9 hour 39 years and um she said okay we're going through your filing cabinets all right we're downsized we're not downsizing the house but we're getting rid of everything you haven't touched in the last 10 15 years and I started going why isn't it when wives decide to organize they have to throw out all their husbands stuff so I did this has always been my question I did ask my wife that she probably won't even be listening to the podcast I could probably answer but she said because I regularly throw away my stuff so I have nothing left to throw away yeah it's your stuff that's taking up everything no but but she's good but I found there's no way videographs that we have been contacted by collectors uh they go back so long the Smithsonian want to look into them uh yeah so no ncsy ncsy really really changed my life it is unbelievable first of all it gave a good schmuck to Yiddish first of all taught us what Yiddish kite was Dallas had a high school by this point no she went that was cool I was I went to day school and then for ninth grade enough of the um more influential people were parents so we made a ninth grade for my class right and after that that was it so I wanted to go to Yeshiva right um my parents in fact I even went to habitreim to check it out with Jeff Greenberg was there I remember I didn't like the food so they said we'll make you peanut butter and jelly everything I guess that's how it desperate I mean it was New York they should be done desperate for tell me them I guess it would be good fundraising to have someone from Dallas Texas peanut butter and jelly would be an appealing uh way to uh recruit students it's a different door so my parents said no um they wouldn't let but they made a deal that if I would finish off in public school then I could um go to Eric Israel to learn for a year so I went to a special school um it was a it was called a magnet school and I studied heating air conditioning electrical and plumbing because I was going to eventually take over my father's business as a mechanical engineer I finished high school and so I went to Eric um Rabbi Rosenberg sent me there um and the deal was they weren't really getting a high school post Tyson no it was mostly all these brilliant people from all these fancy schools that you know with all these letters behind their names um so it was for one year that was the deal and then I had to come back and go to college uh my parents came for pesach that year it was the only year I ever found the officomen my sister would always find it I mean it was like okay you know it's like do I've been tried because here in Israel we have those archaeological digs right search for them so long story short for the Seder we were in the hotel I forget what it was called yeah and um I said okay we're gonna have ski on the show oh yeah oh wow wow and I had Jeremy stayman and a whole beautiful guys with excellent voices and clean cut and and I found the officomen that year at the Seder so my father says mike what do you want wow and I said dad I promised I wouldn't ask for what I really want so here just take the officomen so my mother gets these tears in her eyes and says Michael we know what you want and we're very impressed with the Yeshiva and your teachers and your friends so if you want to come back for another year so that's how I ended up for Shawna Beth although they didn't call it son of bad you know I was just you went to Yeshiva as long as as long as you could uh right I think we may have been the only ones paying tuition back then wow that was a great story with ravnata you remember not to show up so my parents gave me Israel bonds I don't think the people know today what Israel bonds was but it was huge back in the day so they gave me bonds to turn in to pay the tuition so I'm not going to give a bond so what do I do I go into mayor sharim and I cash the bond for Scotland and so I'm carrying this duffel bag with as probably 15 to 200 000 to 1500 to 2 000 in Scotland which in those days was a lot of scholar right and I said oh I passed this farm store oh no so then I walked in and I took it into ramnata's office I thought he'd be so happy that I'm paying tuition and he says what's this and I says it's my tuition for the year and he said why did you cash it into Scotland because in those days it wasn't linked so every minute it was becoming less and less valuable so I think that was probably my only interaction with ravnata in my entire two years and and since I was like during the Lebanon war during the hyperinflation it was yeah 80 right 80 to 82 right right right yeah no no good times you know my my experience has been when you walk into anybody's office with a large bag of cash that can't complain too much right all right then I came back I was to Rabbi rosenberg's son's Bar Mitzvah and I was on my way to Nary Israel and he went to college huh that's it well I was going to go to college at Hop at uh Hopkins or Towson whatever it was called Johns Hopkins and uh two different places but they're right near each other okay so um anyway but I had to get into Yeshiva and it was after pesach because I wanted to see my grandmother before she was niftera so I flew back right after Purim and so I was gonna go to tanarius throw and he introduced me to revlade tropper from Muncie right he had just started a Yeshiva called kolyakov and he said listen come to me I said I'm going daenery Israel he said ah there you throw it's College it's after pesach come with me if you come I'll learn with you morning seder three mornings a week and the other Russia Shiva will learn with you two mornings a week I said all right two years ago and a chance to learn with tremendous I'll give it a shot so I went to Muncie for two years and it was a great experience I fell in love with rev Abram Gersh and tress who was Russia Shiva revolade was awesome we learned chubas rabi Kiva Ager it's the only time I've ever actually sat down and learned was someone of his caliber with relabe and it was just an amazing experience and then riftress got sick it was nifter and so I went to I picked up and moved to nairy Israel um and then I went and got my oh so while I was in New York I had to go to college so the Republic he doesn't need my Husqvarna Rockland Community even better yeah there was a gentleman by the name of Bob's College driving Burger Joint so I I the stipler when I I wasn't going to say but the stipler answered me to go to college he didn't answer me I went to him I said I want to come back for a third year and he said you're going to America to go to college it's Usher it's amakan pizzas unless he's like yelling and screaming I didn't even say I was going back to America right I just said I'm going to see my parents but he was like that oh yeah he knew it a lot listen to what he said to me I said he said you can't go to college he says become an apprentice to an engineer and you will make sixty thousand dollars a month the stapler the stapler said this to me I'm like I remember I had only been from maybe seven or eight years so this whole heebie-jeebie stuff was uh this ruach it was still hebrew-gb so so I said I don't want to go into business I want to go into which I have to thank for Samir for because they used to have a rule that no matter how little you knew you had to learn with someone who knew less than you so for 30 minutes a day I was teaching new guys all of face because I didn't know much of anything else and I fell in love with teaching so the stipler said fine go into you'll be matsliac but don't go to college so I went came back to the Yeshiva I'm freaking out SV Saunders takes me to re Byron Feldman and rabaron says do a correspondence course for college that's the way online courses was when it first came out it's like a joke right so my parents won't let me deal do that he says then don't ask me about the stipler and he got up and he walked out of his office and I'm like shaking because here the godo Adora told me don't do it my parents are starting to become from if I don't keep my word then I'm a chakra and is this what Torah is all about so I was in business [Laughter] I was you should know that by now but this was that so uh anyway I'm still trying to become about you so anyway long story short there was a gentleman Dove Millions who started a program at Adelphi University for basico girls and Yeshiva guys space Madras guys so every Sunday we drove from Muncie to Long Island to not to Long Island they had an office in Manhattan which was great I was able to convince my dad I needed a car if you want me to go to college so which also helped with him because everyone would show up at these dilapidated and I had a nice new fancy Monte Carlo velor seats it was awesome my wife still says that's why she married me but um anyway so that's how I got my ba and a lot of shaduka were made in that in that program wow yeah so it was that's how I got my undergrad and all right so now you guys you're in near shell rights and I'm yeah I'm married I'm learning I gotta got married uh my first right after ELO's man that year my first year in naristro and I was in Shear who was the sheer aleph that was the deal Roberto made with me I had to go to Russia if I want to come to Yeshiva and then my second year I will joined Ruby soccer's kabura for a couple years three years four years and then I was uh started learning for Smitha and then started teaching my last two years in collel they adjusted the teaching schedule have that eighth grade job go phenomenal really it was it was unbelievable you're the guy from the ninth I went in I went in I said let me meet the kids first so I went in and I was sitting in schmoozing you know doing what my ncsy advisors did with me so many years ago and I said all right I'll teach but I have one condition and sippy Shore says what I said I get to throw out the curriculum let me do whatever I want with them I'll make sure they learn but let me do what I want she said just get me through to the end of the year and and that's what we did and it was amazing so and I then she rehired me for the next year I was teaching I think fourth grade or fifth grade I don't remember um and it's just it became a passion and I I betafka liked teaching non-from kids now where did Mila come into this so Mila was interesting because I faint at the sight of blood yes and I cannot stand crying babies yes like I'm the guy that gets surrounded with all the crying babies on the airplanes because I'm always on a plane 100 so um well that's what you like to cut them up my babies my babies don't cry just ask the mamas um anyway with this new powder I just got from Michaela it's even it's even more amazing but long story short I was um in Baltimore I had a son and we had a daughter and then a boy and I was thinking I'm going back to Dallas eventually I want to be involved in kirov and all the was there a mile in Dallas there was some oil in Dallas yeah and the the issue was is all the non-from people generally after their Barabas Mitzvah they run away from yirushkite right and I don't blame them you know you got to go to Hebrew school three times a week all your friends are out playing you don't learn anything the teachers weren't practicing what they were preaching and it was a miserable experience so but I would I have to be Bar Mitzvah or bat mitzvah otherwise I'm not Jewish right and and then when they realize that you don't have to be barred by Mitzvah then they came up with this whole confirmation thing so which they stole from the Catholic church but that's another story so I said these people haven't had any Jewish connection since they're Barabas Mitzvah and for anyone in your audience who's ever been birthed a child mother or father and they're holding that child for the very first time in the hospital your whole world changes and you begin to think I want to give over my whole mahus my whole Essence to this child and whether we recognize it or not part of that is our religious identity our faith and then they realize they don't know anything about it right and they don't have a connection to their congregational rabbis because I haven't had one maybe they had one for their wedding and um they end up and they're on a pedestal so they have no connection to anybody so I said listen I don't have a Shoal so that means I don't have a dog in the race there's no ulterior motive here I can be a resource for these young couples who are looking for something Jewish in their lives to pass on to their children and I said Mila is the perfect entree so you went into Mila as a curious as a curve tool correct yikes yeah well there ain't too many from people now there are but there weren't back when I was planning back in 1990 I mean they just had their first show for a few years at that time Hazel Crone told me that the reason he never grow to grow a beard right is because there are people who will not use a mile if he has a beard correct they're afraid they're afraid and uh and uh you have to you know he puts on a whole white coat the man looks like a doctor and he you know so my rebbe told me he'd fire me if I ever put on a white coat really he says you're not a doctor no I'm not telling like on Pepe sucks like a brother to me we we're extremely close um and there are a lot of moilum who do wear white coats it depends on you know on the on the audience and who you're catering to I've never felt the need to do so I mean it's bad enough when I travel during the week and I'm only doing gaucha babies which is well I guess we'll get there so sometimes if I think it's better than putting on a Butch's apron because I think that would really be a little off-putting yeah he's the shark in the mail and I'm like I don't know but that that's the way you'll mix up the knives it used to be that's the way it used to be yeah in fact there's a hamoud Daniel that that brings down a more it shouldn't be a mile and vice versa why because was doing a bris and he said the wrong bracha he said yeah and nebuch the the baby bled out yeah listen I you know but you see them I said it's not that waylim and Samuel I can't the older I get the more sensitive I become I I can't even kill a bug I'm the guy who Scoops it up and and takes it outside I have had discuss of being a Sonic for some of my grandchildren and I can't even look I keep my eyes closed also terrified I do that when I drive in Israel because it's right it's because it's so scary right that's always I always tell the mothers you don't have to watch I keep my eyes closed salsa but uh so anyway so it and it's worked out beautifully because you know we invite families for Shabbos some come some don't but I mean I've got it's been gone so far as people invite me to do their funerals you know the grandparents because they like the way I did the brisk wow now rabbi did do funerals I've done some casanas it's um it's become a great tool and if you don't bring your knife to all of them no not to all of them not to all of them but uh that's another story I'm having to do listen but so you come back eventually make your way back to Dallas I yeah after Baltimore I went back to Dallas for three years I was the second there and you're doing me and I was doing Mila right when I'm using this to reach out to people right when I moved to Dallas 20 of the Jewish Community used to Moyle and when I left three years later it was 80 wow it grew so much but remember I grew up there so I had a connection to most of the reform and conservative rabbis my parents they were pillars of the community in the in the secular Jewish Community as well as the Orthodox community and you said they eventually they came from and I speak Texan right so uh I can't talk like that if you want me to but I don't know we were driving down to Orlando so once I passed the Mason-Dixon line so I told my son-in-law you saw a mayor who was originally from Atlanta Orbach or I said okay you drive now because you speak your language hey how's it going nice to see you all up a New York Jew just shoot him well maybe look looks like a good day for a hanging it made it easier for me to get my gun license when they when the cops found out I was from Texas you know just give him the license he knows what he's doing um but uh yeah so I went back to Dallas that's an amazing is that you increased Miller by 400 it was it was so simple and he said even by the conservatives they weren't doing Mila because they were using doctors wow you know for whatever reason you know they weren't comfortable using the local mall oh it's not relevant but you know you sit down and what do you need from me for you to be willing to use ASM oil right and we'd work out that you know you want you want you want to do the whole ceremony I don't care remember just to sneak into the hospital and cut the kid I could do that too yeah whatever you want yeah before nightfall and I have an amazing story if we have yeah later on I'll tell you this amazing for the audience you know it's an amazing story about that is not a problem but um and and they you know we developed this amazing relationship so they would tell their and uh a mile is so much better than a doctor in in both the action of the Mila because it the tools that someone told me that is faster yeah right no it's his Isla who I still remember when I was learning here in 75 you know um that when they would have a complicated case and Hadassah they would call him in right as opposed to the urologists and all the other people because he just had more experience and do it better right and I spent time with yasela after I got my Kabbalah from his main talmud Maisha Rappaport in Baltimore and then I did some extra training at Johns Hopkins Children's Hospital for reconstructive surgery and hyperspadius and all these other things so I get I so a my phone knowledgeable moyo is more capable than a doctor to do a meal than an average doctor yes yes 100 it's 15 seconds almost painless and the end result is so much nicer I can't tell you where's the doctor how many readers doctor is 20 to 30 minutes the baby's strapped to a board 30 minutes if they're good 15 minutes I can show you videos after the podcast wow and uh although you don't like blood but um yeah and so my wife is always worried because my phone I have thousands upon thousands of pictures that other Moylan have sent and doctors have sent what would you do in this case so it's a good way for me to go to jail but uh this is unbelievable so okay so now from Dallas you go to so after three years in Dallas the situation was it was time to move on one of the main reasons I went back to Dallas was to learn Under My Mentor in clinic David leeptag who was my seventh grade rebby he eventually became the Manila of the day school they were there forever and then he ended up moving to St Louis so when I signed my contract to go to Dallas he says okay I'm glad you're coming but I'm moving to St Louis I said what I said I'm the whole you know yes my parents are there it was great but I wanted to learn from you you're my mentor you better call me when you have an opening so three years later he called me and said we have an opening to become the executive director I said I want to do I'm not interested in raising money I've never raised a penny in my life he says I'll let you teach don't worry so I went to St Louis um he convinced the board that I knew how to fundraise um and I became the executive director but I still taught a half a day for the first year and then the the school was growing did you ever figure out how to make money when I left this school we had a we had when I came we had I think a two and a half million dollar endowment and then it got bled down when I left it was up to three and a half million but and now with ncsy our budget is about a half a million a year and we're now in the middle of finishing off a million three campaign because I'm creating a whole so you can't raise money no and I'm not being from I hate people that are from I don't hate people you know what I mean people who I'll tell you my son is it I mean I can give you a thousand my sim this this just happened a few weeks ago I got a call to do a we're building this campus in St Louis it's a house it's going to be a homework clinic for kids key Roof Center teen minion our offices we haven't had offices since I've been doing this for instance like for 22 years so the OU rightfully so um said great times are tough we don't want you to start building until you have all the money in hand or guaranteed pledges and I'm like okay great that's going to take forever so we had 900 and some a thousand nine hundred fifty thousand dollars or 48 um committed or in the bank we were going to do it now in two phases because the 1.3 is going to take too long so I needed one million dollars to do phase one and I get a call for a bris in Austin Texas I'm going to keep it kind of vague because I don't want in case they hear about I don't want them to be embarrassed because I do everything um what you want to call it uh anonymously that we know that he's the he gives the most money in the world Mr Anonymous really yeah you didn't know that did you I know that he that he submits the most questions most questions right right yeah I'm wondering if they're related listen if all the money he gives he can do the questions I missed the Harry Rosenberg of Harry Rosenberg ladies we're on Orchard Street we have a special this week on uh you know sundresses through hereby pledge one million dollars anonymously so uh anyway so he calls me Thursday night and says I need you next Thursday not totally not from totally not from ferberus in Austin Texas I said I'm busy I'm going to be in Midland Texas because I I I have offices around the country doing non-jewish babies all of this is an introduction because this is the part that I wanted to get to okay one second you're the executive director of the days I gotta hear the rest of the story yeah right your executive director of a day school in St Louis and you're doing Mila now when you move to St Louis you also started reaching out tonight from people with Mila yeah 100 yeah I met with all the conservative reform rabbis they were all on board all on board Dallas didn't want me to leave the Federation said would you stay and become the communal Rabbi to deal with everybody that doesn't have affiliation and you'll do all the brissom and we'll pay you and I said no but I promise anytime someone from Dallas calls me I will come back as if it's humanly possible for me to make it back that was in 1993. you drive where you fly I fly I have averaged at least one trip to Dallas a week since 1993. I mean it's pretty bad when TSA says Ah it's the rabbi let him go Rabbi where you're going you know I got some other things but I can't say it online because then TSA will come after I know a lot of their secrets so you just show up and they say hey Rabbi is that your mailbag no it's meth I'm transporting it well I just picked up where oh it's over there I call it Jewish cocaine yeah it's a special brisk powder and it's white so and it's very expensive I don't know how much cocaine cost but uh so because people ask what's in the powder Rabbi I says it's Jewish cocaine from Jerusalem but um anyway so what ended up happening was so I I fly back St Louis I'm in St Louis I fly back every week for Britain right and you're starting to embrace them in St Louis right people right the mile there was was much older I met him at ahasana so he comes it was a short stocky guy and he says McKenzie he was a legend he says now I can retire and I said no rap because usually my limb generally don't get along it's it's sad in St Louis we're best of friends but um there's usually a little you know competition and stuff because everyone wants to be A Cut Above the Rest yes exactly that was actually one of my business cards in my earlier days so when I was in Dallas before I left an old friend called me and said my secretary just had a baby she doesn't want to use a doctor for the circumcision she wasn't Jewish would you do it and why isn't she want to use the doctor because it's it doesn't end up nice it's painful she was familiar with she was anyone who goes online and watches circumcision videos although they didn't have online back then you do your research it's barbaric it's barbaric that's why it's Usher to do it so interesting the doctor is considered Barbara compared to the Mile right but that's from our perspective I mean Lemay said it's Ms but if you if you you know it's sterile environment and how so now it has to do a Brisk for a strength for a first six right what is the holoca implication so as long as they pay you [Laughter] so stereotype right but I said when they when they uh do my uh biography uh for article it's gonna be called all for the bucks [Laughter] there are a lot of medical things that could be going on based on on the oral on the foreskin and so on and so forth so so there was such a concept absolutely I mean there are others who say one still shouldn't do it and so on but I I said no I said I don't want to get involved practicing medicine without a license I mean then I could really go to jail so I I spoke to a couple of attorneys who were in medical malpractice and so on and so forth and they said as long as they're coming to you because of a religious reason they want a rabbi they want the Jewish technique they want it because it says so in the Bible that uh yoshka was circumcised so they went their kids circumcised like yoshka you know whatever so then you would be you'd be protected that was the concept of December 25th and January 1st right even though he wasn't really born on the 20th right but that's why they did it well one of the reasons that he had a Brisk so it's kind of interesting because you think that if he was the son of God he would have been born moyal right right you would think so like you know anyway so um anyway so he reminded me of a favor he had done for me a number of years earlier and he said this is payback wow okay it's called My rebby you're allowed to do it so I did it what I didn't know is she was a client of a midwife neither Hospital Midwife so she told the Midwife anyone who's gonna use a midwife doesn't want to go and use a doctor so this Midwife then started telling her friends and have you been Mao well over twenty thousand twenty I make David on mellow soundsable how many years I'll be in Dallas next week uh for the guy in part since 1993. with the most coming I mean I I do all the babies in one of the hospitals so it's about 20 years it's about 20 years yeah and that's an average of how many a week it depends next week I'll be in Dallas with the help of Hashem and I have 31 or 32 lined up so far Muslims tons it's interesting because they do it at 13. no not anymore that's not a long time not a long time yeah they were all running away when they found out what the party was for so today with the help of Hashem I I uh I work for close to five six hundred midwives and doctors around the country and I have a route and are there any other molem who are servicing the Geisha Community not you know that volume so but the Milo of this or first of all it allows me to stay in NCS president he doesn't do claim no but he's he's flown down to Dallas to spend the day with me and he sent his son and his son-in-law when they were just to watch the game yeah and and also you know some of the techniques some of yusla's technique do you say Mazel Tov at the end they say Mazel Tov they say but what what's fascinating most of them asked me to bless the baby do they have a Soother no no no but they come to my office and do they have a Sunday do they bring no usually the parents the baby's on a pillow on a table I don't do a whole uh it's you know 15. now what happens is many times I'll find out that they're Jewish you know I'm setting up and you know the mother's holding the baby and she'll say Rabbi thank you so much for your willingness to do this it's my pleasure I said you know but watch it this would have meant so much to my grandmother I said really why because my grandmother was Jewish I said your father's mother no my mother's mother because ashamed of yourself it's no joke and I write up a whole star and a Tudor because no one would ever believe it I mean if people read pesos Chrome books and you should because they're phenomenal a couple of my few my stories are in there Winchester Kentucky these you know stereo overalls and corn hats and it's coming out of the mouth it turned out I went there to do a geisha kid this kid was a yet it's unbelievable I mean it's a story that'll break people's hearts but um so where were we now I feel like you went off on a side tangent um that's what it was is I'm the only one in America that can actually give real shemash to people who want to become Muslim now they have to either fly to England because I can have you meet me in one of my many cities in the country we can do 30 40 50 babies in a day and it would take you right so it's no one does 30 40 Jewish babies no no but and even then what did you come to one place right they all come to one place yeah yeah line them up assembly line um but with you know Personal Touch it's because that's the truth is I'm sorry Milan you know but no one knows a good brisk from a bad person they really really don't especially in America because at the hospitals they leave so much extra skin that you could be a lousy Moyle and it looks normal if you're a good model they want to know why it looks so nice so the it's the bedside manner and and how you talk to them and make them feel and relieve their stress so we all have to do 50 person in a day sure you can and have a bedside manner sure you can absolutely this is not enough hours in the day sure there are you could do it at night though Fair go ahead right right so I'll I'll fly in the night before I'll start at 8 30 in the morning I'll go all the way till six seven o'clock at night and then I'll fly home wow yeah it's it's and again it's it's really physically just just that that's it's it's it's it's gonna take a toll it does 50 baby it does I mean I finally raised the table so I don't have to bend over so much I feel like those old European men yeah but I don't have the accent so um so so I end up training Tom medium and they can come to me four or five times and those things right it's Hands-On mess it up is when you're when you're able to do because no because compared to the hospital remember you have not yet right right right that's true that's right so you have nine so low you know yeah there are good I don't want to you know diss the doctors they're they're really good people but that's the way they were trained so you know the technique the instruments don't allow for a good brisk because the instruments come in sizes and they pick the closest size no the there there's it's called the gamco or a plastibel and they come in sizes so it's the closest size to the baby is what they use which usually means it's not a custom circumcision with the way we do it is hidden we can take off as much skin as necessary and angle the cut to match what the baby needs so I the in muscle I give is Suits come 38 40 42 44. what happens if you're a 41. so you can either walk a few pounds you put on a few pounds lose some weight or be you know so we can give a size 41 wrists now they make suit size 41 but but you get the point right um so anyway so and if you're learning by a I'll say a regular mile with yidden they don't let you touch the baby it's very hard you know you get 30 seconds two seconds maybe to do a hafrata or different parts and then they'll shove you out of the way because it's their reputation and the families are hiring maishala or you know the other milim and they don't they don't want to expect some new per kid doing it so here most of these families are Midwife families anyway or you know they've heard about me so they're they're more relaxed and so you can be a Moyle fly down with me to cancer cities that like yeah give you a huskama yeah yeah and especially the Amish you know what Amish are the Amish right I see them without mustaches yeah right so the Amish the Mennonites I do for all of them around the country um Pennsylvania no Pennsylvania they're Missouri um Arkansas they you fly down you don't have to be away from your family you meet me in the morning wherever I am Wichita Kansas or whatever the cities are um Dallas whatever and you fly home at night and in between you've done 30 40 babies so you can become a good model with a few hundred brissom under your belt by the time in four or five visits so then by the time you come around to a Jewish kid you're better than half the mile I'm out there wow so and you save a velta gelt and you don't have to leave your family for four six ten weeks so how is it that nobody else thought of this I didn't think of this yeah but now that you've got this is this is a market it is if it wasn't for this I couldn't there's no way I couldn't continue the way you can do as many goyamas so my Tommy them I helped set up the same mahalic in their various cities I have taught me them in New Jersey I have Atlanta Chicago I know a fellow who sells dollar minim to okay they were like evangelicals right yeah you want to do like biblical stuff you know I've had people bring people they're not as macbid you know so I know which ones he sells them yeah you never find me but they're willing to pay more because they're gonna have more mysterious damage but you don't see these Christians going like this you know is this yesterday so yes I know so my my tall medium have all set up practices and then I have kaverim also that I've met either you know in some of them yes if I if I refer if you get enough people right right so then you can bring in new people and you can watch go to one of those airport hotels and bring in a bunch of people and like my wife wants me to train doctors and set up clinics literally around the country but I I can't do it I don't want to give over what we do right for yidden I don't want to give that over to God I won't even use the same Caleb I have separate Caleb it's not I'm no reason you can't use regular Caleb right but uh it's just yeah it's a Michigan you know so anyway so that's that's how I end up uh getting the guy and that's how I'm able to stay in key roof um and uh okay so now what are you doing in St Louis right I left the day school in 2001 started a software company with a talmud of mine and we had raised the Venture Capital um that we needed and we were working on the software and you know how when you call for help to India it's hard to understand yes difficulty so we were having difficulty with the development of the software I don't know if it was for the accent or or just maybe we didn't understand so the balabatum said ravinsky you know kids you weren't ncsy we need someone for three months just get us to the end of the year to what happens to the software company my tablet still has it he runs at his sparklesh I'm very successful no no my options ran out what is with you I'm a lot smarter now so don't worry don't worry um and for three months I said okay I'll do it that way I could make a salary from them and I didn't have to bleed the company from the VC guilt and I never went back to the software company it was I had you know I was doing what I loved and I had my parnasa part of it from ncsy and the rest of it from my Mila practice and then about 10 years ago when Midwifery really took off I mean it's not wasn't pressured here because the lawsuits and fighting with the states and I remember I helped fights in Kansas the state of Kansas you know testifying but um oh you know a shootout yehudah Levy said right yeah all right so the am I I think I just killed myself in the public opinion the gun I carry yeah is Israeli it's a messiah slim right well you always you always have that knife Nash actually well the knife so yeah that's what I say on the terrorists because I I'm able I don't check my bags how do you bring it because I hide them I know how to pack my bag so I can't believe I just said this online oh my gosh huh it doesn't show up in the extra not the way I pack it no wow it's it's please anyone from TSA that may be watching or listening please don't say anything so now you have like you could also like morph this into like terrorism right should you decide if if there's a terrorist on the plane I can mole them my bag twice in my life I had a bris on 911 in Dallas and 9 11 happened and so I was the first couldn't even get home I could no I couldn't get to Dallas I usually fly into the wrist and fly back so they stopped all the flights so I was on the first flight out of St Louis to Dallas and they made me check the bag because there was no carry-ons back then and I checked it they lost it my parents lived and lived in Dallas so I always had extra stuff there so I was able to do it and then they came up with this new Michigan about liquids three ounces so um anyway long story short there I show up at the airport you got to check your bag I said why and they told me and I said when did that happen midnight last night so I checked it they lost it Hashem I was going I was going to Dallas anyway so again I had backup equipment so ever since then I I don't check um everything yeah the gun yeah you know the gun I haven't done I have is I I keep one in Dallas the Bazooka the explosives I keep my father's in front of the Broncos his gun is in Dallas so if I need one if I'm there for more than a few hours I'll uh so this is you're doing the melee doing ncsy right and uh where do you see yourself going from here just just this project You're Building A Center yeah I so we have a job to do you know it's it's the the thirst for Torah is is unbelievable yeah and it's so easy you just dress like a mensch you talk like a mensch and you put yourself in environments with non-from people and it's you don't have to work you don't have to be a Tamil just be normal [Laughter] they're drawn to it I I learned with uh with as many different groups of people that are not from and the classes are supposed to be an hour it's like you know I bring up a topic and we wherever they want to take it and it you know the last two hours two and a half hours and it's like you know I'm thinking all right rebondershine wants me to stay my wife wants me to come home but if they're wanting to learn and and it's also the the big question for example in ncsy we have our this program called JSU we're going to the public schools with free pizza and and so we're back up to over 400 kids we see almost 5 000 times last year before covet it was 800 the kids are totally different today by the way after after code it's a different world but there's there's a debate you know one school of thought is how many kids became Shabbos how many kids went to Yeshiva and if it's not you know a certain amount then it was a waste of time in mind to me that to me is the definition of a cult okay that's a definition and was where you have to become firm according to my standard and right and the way that I say it and then there's another school of thought that says the mere fact that a non-fromed kid comes once to a club and learns around how you know I mean the difference between him deciding to send his kid to a Day School uh years later right or giving to a Jewish organ or marrying Jewish I have a talmud today if anyone wants for marriage Israel that wants a great guy for Shabbos meal he's learning in or Samaya he can reach out to me um he's learning in North America this is a kid that came to one or two clubs not in his school because he was the only Jew in his high school we didn't have a club there and I taught a course on on Earth Israel um on Zionism you know I'm I'm the greatest Zionist all of a sudden the expert and but it was a way to to reach kids we gave college credits so the kids came we had 40 kids some semesters it was insane so this guy shows up and we developed a cashier would you get pizza in St Louis oh so the fleship butcher shop made the pizza now we have now we have a real pizza guy out of his basement Rabbi elephant if you're listening awesome pizzas um it was I don't know it's the chips and elephants Pizza they raise money to open a pizza shop I opened a pizza shop because they said you can't be a Jewish Community without a pizza chef so so this campus we're building yeah this house and stuff so there was a different piece of property that I really wanted because on one side of the building we were going to open up like a burger hot dogs spaghetti place and the other side was going to be a pizza shop that was going to be owned by ncsy and it was going to generate Revenue right and it was going to service the community because there wasn't anything and I was going to bring elephants pizza into anyway so he came to this class and I I did everything I could to get him to go to Arts Israel everything wasn't matsliac he graduates College calls me up and says I'm ready and he's sitting and learning there was another boy in um who came to this Israel course never came to beforehand he didn't come to JSU afterwards he did and I always do an icebreaker and he you know he says my great-grandfather was a great great very great with however many greats was the katsuka rabbi and I said the kotsker he said yeah the katsker and I just like oh my gosh and I went over to him and I said don't freak out but can I kiss you it's anacle from the cutsker today he's married yeshivasha guy that's amazing when I was in ncsy which only works in high school you think that the story is a no Henry uh short story and then you realize it's not Dickens novel and it goes on for for a whole lifetime you never ever know and and and and and this goes you don't have to be in kirov to make an impact if you're a businessman or woman or you're you're shopping in the grocery store the the kid is uh shopsy Gartner started an organization called living Kiddush Hashem um and and that's all he's promoting just be a mensch you know we don't even have to work hard it used to be people at manners and Daryl Harris yeah so you had to like push push the a lot of years ago yeah push the the Torah today just be a mensch so good me those you know that that's enough to to win them over um I walked in the other day I was in um I went to tsvas I was trying to go to um anytime I'm here and I was in Dallas for a bris many many years ago and I walk in and the guy was it was this mansion and the guy says to me he says rabbi you ever hear of the auschik I said alshik yeah Rabbi you know that Rabbi who wrote on the Bible I said you mean the al-shek yeah that's him that's my great great great great grandpappy whenever you know whenever I in life when I have stuff and that's why I go to his cover whenever I can and it's fast I I said yeah you guys I took care of yours you need to take care of mine you have the right and I double checked this with him he was very involved in Camp Nagila which was we didn't even discuss that a cure of Camp I started together NCS that's yamosa yes all right now it's its own organization but he said you have the right to stand in front of the rabindra anytime and demand not ask demand whatever you need for your children what they need that you're taking care of his children he has Christ to take care of your children wow Robert rivinsky a privilege um and uh what can I tell you I'm glad we're able to get you here I don't know if you did any Arabs while you were here uh no you know walking around with him I tried I did bring my bag yeah I did bring my bag when Jews and Arabs walk around with knives it almost never ends in a Bismillah but uh anyway it has been a pleasure and a privilege and uh we can't wait to have you back before you sign out yes all right I I got to do two things if that's okay sure friends of Marty Levine WhatsApp group this is a shout out to all of you I'm not going to mention names because I'm gonna forget somebody but they're Avid fans of yours they were all your former NCS so uh so I didn't know what we were going to be doing this but I was young and and a legend you don't you don't realize the impact you've had on me now I'm almost 65 and I'm supposed to retire but I don't have a job so I don't know what to do I have to get a job so I can retire I know this is a funny can I can I be serious for a second sure you can and I'm going to turn to the audience you listen to Rabbi rolovsky every week when he's not on Hiatus uh it wasn't me I know it wasn't you but it's I was still sitting here everywhere it's just nobody was filming I'm gonna say this and and Israel you're not allowed to edit this out those who don't know rabbi arlovsky don't know who he really is I mean you hear his Torah he's amazing but Sam goldenfeld the the the impact he has had on thousands of kids in NCS I remember he introduced me to the first khasid I ever met the full Ebola rabbit but no for real he made Yiddish kite fun I mean he had us mesmerized and and he did it through simcha through Ava because that's the key to influencing and teaching and inspiring anybody you have to have the Abba people know little kids know adults know and and he's Rabbi warlowski is really the whole package he's he didn't know I was going to say this but it's my way of saying thank you for the impact you've had on my life and and my chevra and you really don't know um and is there time for a quick story or no do whatever you want nah you can always right he's going to edit this down to 15 minutes and because because you said it's a it's a long game so one of the first crazy brist stories I had I was in Dallas and the Jewish Community Center had this amazing program some people probably wouldn't approve of it but every Rabbi RAV teacher taught a class on Thursday nights it was called the joys of Jewish learning and um I was asked to teach yeah from yeah we don't really have courage but you know we have yeshivish and all the way to the far left and so I was teaching a course on the joys of of uh the Jewish life cycle and the first week was Bruce Milan baby namings so there was a knock at the door this woman says my reform Rabbi didn't show up can I sit in on your class sure so I had about like 60 people there and I'm teaching about Mila namings so after the class people ask the questions they leave and I see her sitting in the back and she's just like crying this comes up to me and says can I ask you a question I said sure she says why is God punishing me I said punishing you she says yeah I've been married for five years I can't have a child I keep having miscarriages what did I do that God is punishing me so I said first of all how do you know God is punishing you you know I was much more soft than that but like you're a profit um so we started talking it's better than saying because you're evil right right right that has never worked that has never worked well I think it's pretty obvious so anyways so we started talking they threw us out of the building it's midnight we're on the parking lot and we're just talking about life and and so on and so forth and she says is there anything that Taurus says about being able to have children so I said yeah I said a few things do you like Shabbos candles no I said so maybe start lighting shabba's candles you find out when Sunset is I'll send you a a calendar and 18 minutes before Elijah's candles I'll send you the blessing okay what about uh Mikvah I already knew that was it she says what's a Mikvah that's right so I explained it to her and I said you may want to consider looking into it I can hook you up with a woman that can go into more details and and then I said but the real question is why should Hashem give you a child what are you gonna do with that child to make the Jewish people stronger to deepen the connection with Hashem and we spoke a little longer and that was the end she didn't come back to my class fast forward to the summer I was running ncso I was the assistant director of ncsy goes to Yeshiva which is now camp sport plug for ncsy summer programs unbelievable they have just guys and just girls also so um I get a call and this is and I can use her name because she's given me permission she says Rabbi ravinski yes this is before cell phones she said this is um this is Mrs Greenfield I don't know if you remember me I said sure I do my wife wanted to know where I was at one o'clock in the morning that night of Clan I said how are you she's I'm in the hospital I said what's wrong she said I'm holding my son this is 10 months later wow and I want you to digress wow so wow so I I said Jeff I gotta fly back to Dallas for the day so he said go I guess I wasn't very effective at Camp if he let me go but at the bris I always give the parents a chance to speak and again they're not from so I give the champ parents a chance to speak and she Begins by saying I want to thank Rabbi ravinsky who's responsible for this baby so I said whoa so when her husband and I now your wife knows anyway so with my her husband and I and her went into the back room to show how to take care of the baby I said listen you embarrassed me out there but that's that's all right but now can I ask you a question I said did you do any of the things we spoke about and she said I did them all and I started attending an orthodox synagogue we're not observant but we started going and started learning and attending classes fast forward another 20 years I'm at an ncsy shabbaton in Memphis Tennessee and they're dedicating usually for those who don't know it's a kid who's grown or accomplished despite adversity in their learning or or Kim amits us and they're dedicating and they're talking about this story and I said oh that sounds like a family I know from Dallas and they announced that it's you know I forget her first name Greenfield who's not from our region but from Southern and it's like it can't be so I went up to her and I said all right don't get creeped out you know because it's easy to an old guy this is you from Dallas yeah you have a brother yeah older brother yeah did your mother have difficulty having children before he was born she looks at me and says how do you know that I said get her on the phone now and now like this girl's like totally creeped out and so and all the advisors are standing around like this is like a real peso clone story in the development anyway so the whole family became from and uh this girl she was graduating she was an artist she was on her way to Arts Israel to go to Seminary wow and you just and that's the ultimate message we plant seeds we don't do care of anyone who thinks they make someone from is Anar it's it's ego it's stupidity there it's not true and we plant seeds we live our lives we try and do it with with Integrity with warmth and and you don't know what the season there's a guy on my on my block in St Louis and and there may be postgame listening to this he told me I did the wrong thing and maybe I did he hated Orthodox Jews and he pulls up alongside me one Shabbos and he says are you a rabbi I said yeah he says why do all you people walk in the middle of the street don't you know someone can get hurt hit by a car and I said sir you're a hundred percent right I'm sorry and he says oh that wasn't the reaction I was expecting I said what's your name and he's sitting in the car smoking a cigarette the windows rolled down and I'm talking to him through the window and it must have been Billy guzma 40 minutes conversation today we're best of friends one of his kids is a reformed Rabbi married to a reform Rabbi and but he has respect he doesn't agree but he has respect for our style he says he says you should have been a conservative rabbi [Laughter] the common thing also at prison yeah this Rabbi are you orthodox I said I'm Jewish yeah but what are you reformed conservative Orthodox if they can figure out from the Omega that I'm you know I said you know what let me finish the ceremony and then you'll tell me what you think I am and so afterwards I'll go up to them usually it's the grandparents or something okay what am I reform conservative orthodox you're definitely either conservative or reform I said why do you say that because you're funny you're warm you're engaging and I said I happen to be a right-wing ultra-orthodox Jew of Hasidic descent now inertia throw I might be called a guy I don't know but in America and this is not possible I says yes it is and I happen to be like most of the Orthodox Jews you just unfortunately haven't met the right ones right so that's that's the bottom line be a mansion whatever you do and you don't have to it's not a you have to be a professional person involved gevaldik I was like I never heard of this I said this is your big chance you might finally get out there you might hear about you once you've been on this that's it then you you know you've moved to a whole nother level you know this is this is not one of those small things you know people can you know if people want ideas yeah let them Reach Out yes all right so we'll have to put your contact information I'll be happy to happen for people and that's it for this episode if you want to find out more about the show you can go to my website rubberalowski.com you can send a email you can make a comment you can download the answer a podcast you can sponsor a podcast uh there's gonna be it's not up yet but is going to be a opportunity podcast sure I'm going to sponsor one in your honor for all you've done for Claudia Israel oh my gosh well just not this one because then that would look really self-serving like he's paid to be on the podcast no people have done that too that's right really yeah I should have done this years ago it works for me anyway so uh uh you can download the theme song you can sign up for one of our online shoe worm and Michelle shusharam or um or uh dafiomi or at Fila and uh you can we're gonna have soon uh opportunity to sponsor for the five minute Parsha message which we're going to be starting with parishes boracious so a few people have already reached out to me because they said I wanted to sponsor it and I didn't see the button yet on the website so we're installing the button now we're wiring it on and uh I don't know if it goes I'm like if you don't know if it works on everybody's but we're going to try anyway just push the button call me and I'll push the button and that's it for this episode I Am David olowski Mike ravinsky and uh this has been the raviolowski show it's the rabbi orlowsky show ready to go show not want you to wisdom will help you grow lots of fun in every episode and we don't have to rhyme it's the rabbi show show [Music] till next time [Music] it's the rabbi olowski show it's the rabbi Orlowski