Shevat - You Should Have Good News (Ep. 313)

Hi, this is David Alowski and welcome to the Rabbi Alowski show. Whether you're watching with our producers and friends over at Toron Time or whichever platform you watch and listen to your podcast, as always, we are excited to have you along for the experience. And uh we have a bunch of announcements this week. What can I tell? We got some business business to take care of. Taking care of business. Yeah. Uh, we have the uh bookcases back. We found uh at least one of the shorts. We were able to take it out. So, we have electricity in the house. So, we had to move them back, which was no easy task because uh these are u what they call in America paceboard. Uh here they call it CBIT. And uh they're like uh I don't know 30 35 years old. and they're basically um deteriorating and we have to like move them and they're collapsing underneath and you know it's a it's a whole major deal. So we're going to have to get new bookcases and this of course will be a major moment in the Revol [laughter] show as we finally redo the bookcases. I have had people come from around the world to stand in front of this bookcase and take their picture. Of course, today you could just uh green screen it, but uh okay, nothing like the you could also just do the Eiffel Tower as far as I'm concerned without actually being there. But uh it's something very special. So, we have that back. Uh I am happy to announce that the Rebel Alowski Pesak program in the Nokiner is half full. So, some people look at a Pesak hotel and say it's half full, some say it's half empty. I say it's half full. And uh like I say, it's uh still two and a half months to pesak and I'm sure there's a lot of people waiting to make their decisions. Let me please encourage you to make that decision if you're planning on coming because I would be so sorry. I keep hearing from people, yeah, yeah, we're thinking of coming. We're thinking of coming. Uh uh Castles who does the booking says we get a lot of uh phone calls and uh it is uh probably the least expensive pesock program you're going to find out there and it's the one that gives you the most value. It's really worth the most and costs the least. So what else could you ask for and beautiful Tavaria? Okay. Uh that's another announcement. Uh, I also want to give a shout out to my good friend Meno Berlin [clears throat] who uh has a uh um a para I can't call it para sheet. It's a para booklet. It's a it's a periodical by this point. It's mamisha a very very uh thing to be able to use. The fact that he sums up some of the things that I say in every issue. Well, does that add to it? Well, of course it does, [laughter] but it has so many other things. It's action-packed. It's a beautiful one. I'm gonna just uh read a little shout out here. Masleto to the transformational Torah Suites magazine. It's a magazine which just celebrated its 15th anniversary. Kinaur [snorts] Sweets publishes inspiring Torah content that thousands of readers benefit from. It's authored by my good friend Mendo Berlin, who as I've mentioned before was the only person who ever was able to do an accurate impersonation of me, which is not easy. I heard there was somebody they told me, "Oh yeah, he impersonates everybody. He does you." It didn't do me. [laughter] Meno Berlin didn't. And this is when I was younger, so I only had a little bit of white here. And Immish put white out in his beard to get the the the white properly, you I mean that's the commitment that R Mendel has [laughter] to everything he does and it contains some of my content. Elevate your shabas email Torah suites one word atgmail.com uh and subscribe for free. Very nice. Uh, one other thing I want to do here and give a shout out to Aron Zev Tuchinsky from Ramad B she who enjoys listening to the podcast after a long day of learning. Well, as always, we're excited to have you along and uh to acknowledge the people who watch the show, listen to the show, and enjoy the show. And I also want to give a shout out to his mother Reena from Recipes by Reena on Instagram. Besides posting great recipes, she also has a catering menu for Pesak. For those of you who wake up late and suddenly find out that the Alaski Pesak program at the Nokiner has been sold out and now you're going to have to stay behind and just think about how much fun we're having and inspiration. Well, you're lucky because you can at least have some fun with the food and make that a little bit more interesting for you. So, she'll be here in Israel. So, make sure and reach out to her for all of your catering needs. Recipes by Reena. Okay. I think uh oh, we have one more announcement here. My daughter who has been working on the website uh recently said that somebody said, "You know, I know Rabielski gives out recipes, but they're scattered around through six years of podcast. I have to search to be able to find one of them. Why isn't there a recipe section on the website? And so we are pleased to announce that the website now has a recipe page. They started it off, whoever made this suggestion, by sending in a list of recipes and which episodes they're from. And they asked if Rabiolski can share other recipes that he has not yet shared. So, you can go to rabiolski.com backre recipes. What's on already? Well, it's got my brisket recipe. It's got my pan fried hamburgers. Oh, those are delicious. They're bad for you. But it's got my karosas recipe. I don't know which salmon recipe it is, but there's a salmon recipe. Lasagna. I I happen to make the best lasagna. Everybody agrees it's the best lasagna. My kids don't make it my way. I can't figure it out for the life of me. Everyone agrees that my lasagna is the best lasagna. Sometimes I go out and I order lasagna and I'm always disappointed because it's never as good as mine. I just thought I'd show that. And breaded chicken. That's really my wife's recipe. Okay. So, uh, go check that out. All right. Are we done with business? All right. And now the uh sponsorship for this episode is sponsored by Shiman Burnholtz and it's being dedicated Eloy Nishmas Ben the and he writes dear Rabowski thank you for the tremendous give me and my family they say those who understand teach [laughter] H that's nice. Usually what they say is those who do those who can do those who can't teach but those who understand teach is much nicer and you teach in a way that helps us understand not just the Torah but how to live it with sim. Uh full disclosure it's not that I'm such a great teacher. It's just I'm such a bad student and I cannot handle boring classes and so if I start getting boring I'll fall asleep in the middle so I keep it interesting just for myself although part of it is and I have pointed this out in the past that gave me a gift that people think I'm funny and and perception is is uh a lot of it there was a actor Leslie Nielsen who was a dramatic actor and then they cast him in a film called Airplane and he played completely serious but it was hysterical and after that they put him in the um Police Squad movies you know and he said once he said the difference is that in a dramatic film I would say this is a very serious situation we must get to work and in a comedy film I say this is a very serious situation we must get to work [laughter] so it's the same exact thing so I don't know why? But sometimes I can walk into a room and they introduce me and I go good evening and I get a laugh. I don't know why the words good evening are not inherently funny. But you know it's it's a gift to be able to uh present things in a way that people find entertaining. But part of it is also uh like I say because I have this gift. I'm constantly looking at the world and I see the absurdity to it. I see the humor in it. I'm often telling myself jokes just based on what I'm seeing and uh and observing and having a very good time. So I'm glad to be able to have that opportunity to share it with other people. The way you blend Torah aus mid and stories of gdoleum along with that contagious laughter. [laughter] It's pure gold. I got that from my mother. My mom would laugh and the whole room would just laugh. She had that power. And yes, I even use your jokes. Bash shame Omro though delivery is definitely better on your side of the microphone. Parenthetically uh feel free to use any of my material without giving me any credit. I'm not Makbid. If aes has given me any insights be them humorous observations or different Torah and you would like to take them for yourself that's fine. Really somebody said to me once you should have a joke. I said it's there. help yourself. Take whatever you want. You don't have to give me any credit. You don't have to mention me. I know there were times that I made up a joke and I heard it like a month later like seventh hand. It had gone through a whole little uh you know circle till it got back to me and what's what's the purpose of having material and not being able to share it? It's like painting a beautiful picture and not letting anybody look at it. So if there's anything that I say uh worthwhile or not worthwhile that you want to steal and borrow and give out, you have my rish 100%. I give it to you shim and it's true. No one will say it like I do anyway so it doesn't matter. Wishing you continued much and many more years of spreading Torah and joy around the world. Thank you. because it's only through people like yourselves that we're able to keep this going and uh I can't thank you enough and I can't uh everybody out there who sponsors episodes and para and five and questions and answers you're helping us to be mafar same something very close to Torah I don't know if it's actual Torah but very close to Torah and definitely people get a kick out of it and that's what's important all right we are in the month of Shivat in the merry merry month of Shivat and I have mentioned this in the past and I wanted to actually talk about it is a very important month to me my father was nifa on y zvat my mother was nerz on gimmelvat I was born on gimmelvat And I died on Gimlvat. I got better Barashem. But um I had a heart attack right in this room and my grandson Filam Zaha about 12 years ago and uh the Kesh came they had to carry me out and a stretcher and take me to the hospital and uh I've told this story in the past and when they did the angio the doctor looked at it and said I don't know why you're still alive you're not getting enough blood to the heart to keep you alive. someone up there must like you. And until then, I was just like, what am I doing here? Why am I hanging around, you know? In fact, it was during my grandson's bris. They wouldn't let me out. I remember I had the I had a heart attack on Shabas and um uh I was uh taken to the hospital on Shabas and on Sunday they uh they started to do some tests and and Monday they basically said we're going to have to schedule you for an angio and Tuesday morning was the angiogram and and I said this is ridiculous. I'm not I'm not hanging here. I've been here for three days already. You've done nothing. I'm going to my grandson's breast and the Russian doctor said, "No, you could die at any moment." [laughter] I said, "Okay, you got my attention." So, we got the head guy of the uh who does the of the AJ Graham department, you know, when he does the angagram. And when he's done, he looks at me and says, "I I don't know why you're still alive. You're not getting enough blood. You know, you should be dead." And that's when it hit me because when a guy who this is his field to know whether or not you should be dead or not [laughter] and I remember as they were carrying me out um I looked at my wife and I realized that that chabas was gimlvat it was my birthday and I said oh no you know I'm going to die on my birthday only can die on their birthday and I've worked my whole life not to be a sadic. [laughter] That's what I said. They carried me out. [clears throat] So, it turns out I was right. Bashem, I didn't die. [laughter] I've told this story before. I know everyone everyone's already making fun of the fact that I say I give this whole long boring introduction, but you [gasps] know, um my uh my brother died at 63. So uh as each one of us came up to 63 we all got nervous but okay we all passed item but uh had my he had uh he he died at 63 I was right after my heart surgery so I couldn't fly in to sit shiver with the family and my mother who was in her 80s was inconsolable and she would say to everybody uh why why did why did Jason die? I said to God, "Take me. I'm an old woman. I've lived my life. Why are you taking Jay? Jay has children to marry off. Jay has a family. Why are you taking Jay?" Now, what do you say to a woman in her 80s who's just lost her oldest son? How how do you how do you uh how do you comfort someone? So, I called to make a Shiva call from here where I was sitting Shiva. And my mother does it to me. Why? Why did Jason die? I said to God, take me. Why didn't he take me? I said, "Because God doesn't want you. You're a cranky old lady. Jay's a lot of fun. He wanted to take Jay because Jay, you're going to have him up there in Chimay and enjoy him." He says, "He'll get to you eventually, but in the meantime, who needs you?" And there was this pause and she said, "That's the first thing anyone said that makes any sense, [laughter] just so you know where I come from." [laughter] But uh so when they do the angagram and they tell you, you know, you're not going to make it. And that was Gimlash. I was born on Gimsh. And for all intents and purposes, I died. I was being kept alive by a miracle. And uh and that's what I said afterwards. I said the same thing I said to my mother about my brother Jay. God didn't want me. That's why I'm not afraid. I have to tell you, I'm not afraid. When they had all these stabbings at the old city, I went with my wife to go to the Kaisel. I wasn't afraid. When all the CO restrictions were put in, I didn't care. I didn't pay attention to any of them. You know, when uh when they uh when they had all the different missile attacks, I I didn't bother doing anything. I said, "Listen, God had his chance to take me. He doesn't want me. [laughter] He wants me to die. We'll die." You understand? But he had his chance. I was right there. I was had one foot out of this world. And he said, "You know what? Do me a favor. You stay here. I'll get to you eventually." [laughter] The actual line that I use is whenever these things happen, I say, "Olowskis don't die in terrorist attacks. We don't die in car crashes. We don't blind plane crashes, missile attacks. We die from heart disease and diabetes. That's how we've gone for hundreds of years. That's how I intend to go. just like my mother and father [laughter] and and my grandparents before them. Right. That's the that's the uh we're gonna go. But [clears throat] so they did the open heart surgery and the surgeon told my wife afterwards said uh his arteries had been dead for so long that they had gotten reabsorbed into the heart. We took the top guy, you know. So uh like Jackie Bason says every doctor every every Jew takes only the top doctor the head of the hospital. How many heads of the hospital can there be but this guy was the head of the heart surgery department in charic and um he said it's lucky you took me because a regular surgeon wouldn't know how to bypass the arteries because they were gone. They'd been absorbed into the heart but I knew from experience where they should be and I was able to extract them. otherwise he would have died. So two major doctors told me I was supposed to be dead and I wasn't. So I got out of the uh hospital on tubishvat and I make a suda sida on tubishvat which is appropriate because we always used to make a big tubishvat suda with as many types of fruits as we can get. So now I combined it with my sudas. It's uh it's a very we spoke about tubes in the past. So I was born in Shvat and I died in Shvat. I came back to life in Shvat. My both of my parents died in Shvat. It tells me that this month has some special significance for me. Now obviously there is the fact that uh my father always had a special um attachment to Tubishvat because my father had a florist and nursery and he loved flowers. I less so [laughter] I was not fond of the flower business. My father loved it. He had been a delivery boy for Spitz and Peek and uh he opened up his own uh his own florista nursery. And so he had a a kinship with flowers different than most people do. Yeah. Um I've told the story, I'm sure, of my father's suka. My father would build a wooden frame and then he would nail on trelluses and then he would wire on cedar greens inside and out. And he would use cedar greens as the so when you came in the whole thing was alive. He didn't allow any uh plastic decorations. You had he used Indian corn and autumn leaves and straw flowers and only natural things. He used to bring mum plants from the from the nursery and put it around on the outside of it. He he it was something that was a lot gourds. We hung gourds from the ceiling. It was uh it was something that was alive. It was really something very very special. My father used to feel like Tubishvat was a special time for him. So the association has been made that his uh that his yard site was 2 days after Tubishvat. for me all these different things of I remember that one of my kids had uh something showed up uh in his kidney and an X-ray that they were worried about. So they did an ultrasound and we went to a nephrologist and I remember the appointment was during shvat and we were very nervous and uh the fellow looks at the uh at the ultrasound and he says everything is fine and then he was a religious doctor he goes to there should be good news tidings And it's an interesting idea of besostovos. What is what does that mean? Besos to you should get good news. We say during benching, Hashem should send Ela Navi to bring us good news of the arrival of Mashiach. Just have Mashiach come. I I need the news that Mashiach is going to come. I need good tidings. Yeah, you should get good news. The good news is not the good thing. It's news of the good thing. So maybe we can understand it a little bit the idea of bisuros toos of good news but putting it into a context of an amazing story. Amazing story. I I've I've told this version of the story, but there is a different I I'll tell the original version. Right. This fellow took his money. He had it all saved up and he put it in a metal box and he buried it in the ground and his whole life he was secure because the money was there. But the money got stolen. Someone found it, dug it up, and stole it. And he didn't know. But in his mind, he was fine. Everything was great. There was nothing to worry about. When when you get the good news, it allows us to make the good news a part of our reality. And when we never get bad news, even if it hasn't happened yet, it's something that you start to worry about. I became Long Island Regional Director in 1979, the Long Island region, and I was just starting out and uh I remember I went down to Baltimore to Rabbi Lauren Brown Zatal who was running Seabard Reason region. Now you have to understand back then the the longest regional director had been there for 10 years I called him up and asked him I just became regional director. I didn't really know what I was doing. I asked him for help. He basically blew me off. Uh I called up. He'd been doing it for seven years, the second longest. Within four months, by the way, I was the third longest regional director in one place. So a lot of turnover back then. So it she had been there a long time and I said, "I'd like to meet with you." And he says, "Sure." We made up a time and I drove down to Baltimore and I was trying to find his house on Park Heights. You know, I wasn't sure where I was and I I called him up and he says, "Where are you?" I said, "I'm here in Baltimore. I I I'm not sure exactly where your house is, etc." And he seemed a little confused. and he he gave me the directions and I came and he was looking at me kind of strangely and I said, "Uh, what's the problem?" He goes, "I didn't believe you were really going to come." I said, "But I made an appointment." And he said, "I've been doing this job for 7 years. You're the first person who ever asked me what I'm doing here." And he gave me copies of all of his flyers. And he gave me copies of all of his programs. He gave me copies of all of his workbooks and all of his handbooks. And whatever he could give me, he gave me. And he did whatever he could for me. I I'm still mocker to this day. A very very special person. And um uh I don't know if he's appreciated enough to tell you the truth, but I know what he did for me. And I'm always amazed by this that people don't ask for help. You know, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Um when uh I was tricked into taking an NCSY chapter in Los Angeles, uh the guy who tricked me into taking it said, "Don't worry. I'll work with you. I'll help you through." And a week later, he quit. So now I would had an NCSY chapter. I didn't know what NCSY was. I didn't know anything about it. There was an OU director, Lee Samson over who uh who had founded the region and uh he was now running the OU and uh he said look I can't really help you but you know so I went down to office. They had a fancy office on Bullshshire Boulevard suite of offices you know and I didn't know any better. I read everything that had ever been put out in West Coast NCSY. After that, I was the second most knowledgeable person about West Coast NCY. First was Lee Samson, then me because it never occurred to anybody to find out what had been done beforehand and what people had done and where where things went. It was such a sad thing. It's sitting right there for you. It's available. And it allowed me to become successful. So that halfway through the year, my December time, I was being offered regions all around the country because I I had a track record and it was understandable because I actually tried to figure out what it is. This is the way I do it. When I first started teaching in a and they would give me these lesson outlines, I would say, "Where did this come from? What's the mccurros?" And nobody knew. I had to chase people down until I was able to find all of the mccurros where these classes were based on and they were just, you know, people just would read the outline and give over the class. But you have to know your material well enough. Um, Ben Shapiro says all the time, he says before he interviews someone or debates somebody, he researches the person, their arguments, everything that they're going to say so that he knows what's going on beforehand. Um, I went to uh learn my first year in 1975. I got hepatitis around Tubish and uh I was locked up for a good month. Uh it was terrible. I I if I used all my powers of concentration, I could move my head from one side to the other. I was a wreck, you know. Um my SGOTs and SGTPS, which are supposed to be 50, were 2,000. I I was pretty sick. Yeah. So my parents said come home and uh and they basically said and you're not going back. So I remember I said to Mosha Chait who is Oshiva over there in in I said look I want to come back but my parents said no. So I said maybe you could speak to them. He says I'll call them but first tell me all of their arguments. And then he paused and he said because in every conversation someone's leading and someone's following and I like to be the one who's leading [laughter] and that's if you prepare and you have information it makes it makes life so much easier. Yeah. So um I I went and I asked him you know for all his material itchy and he was more than happy to give me everything that he had and to help me out. And I'm always surprised when people don't ask. People don't ask for help. People don't try to find out. Besaros do means that the news is there. So I gave you the example with the guy who buried the lock box. This is a a different story that I've uh I've told before. My brother sent out uh Shalakmonus and in it he put in a scratchoff lottery and somebody screwed the scratchoff lottery and he won a million dollars and this was unbelievable. This was life-changing. He called all of his children. They they started discussing what they were going to do with the money but this and etc. And finally they he remembers I have to really thank you know my brother and he calls him up and my brother goes um it's purim those are joke scratch off they they all say a million dollars they're just make believe. He was so upset because my brother stole a million dollars from him. You understand? [laughter] He had the million dollars. It was in his hands. It was already spent. When I go to America, if the Power Ball is over 500 million, less than that is not worth my time. But if the Power Ball is over 500 million, I always buy a ticket. Always buy a ticket. And someone says, "Do you really think you're going to win?" And I said if a could wants me to be rich because he thinks that I can help Clyus and he thinks that the money will be in good hands if he gives it to me then yeah I'll win. And if not for two days I'll have the fantasy that I have a half a billion dollars [laughter] that's worth two bucks. But but the news that you've won the lottery even before you get the money you make the when you hear the news just like when you hear somebody died that's when you make the ins right it's on the news when you hear the news it doesn't matter whether or not you've gotten it in the bank yet and you've invested it. Yeah. I have to tell you the truth. I'm always terrified when I buy that Powerball ticket if I win. [laughter] There's a part of me that is terrified because I know my life will be over. You know, uh there was a guy here in Shel who won the lottery. Now, a lot of people are in debt. You know, you'll win the lottery. You know, somebody asked him, he says, uh guy won the lottery. He says, "What are you going to He says, "I'll pay off uh I'll pay off the people that I owe money to." And they said, "And the rest?" Says, "The rest I'll have to wait. [laughter] There's not going to be anything left. I pay off some of the people." But there was a true story of a guy who was a Rebi and a won the local lottery, which was not a lot of money, I'm sure. And he eventually had to leave Israel. He had no life. People were knocking on his door. Yum. Leila day and night demanding money. It's it was uh it was an impossible situation and and you don't realize how it can uh impact you in such a powerful way. And I know cuz you win the money then everybody feels like they're entitled to it. His sons said if you don't give us the mice money we're throwing your kid out of school. This is the story I heard. I don't know if it's true or not. I'm not pes. I don't have to check out my stories. But this is the story that I heard. Eventually, he moved to America. I had to start over because uh it was impossible. Yeah. I know one guy who won won the lottery. And I said, "Wow, you won x millions of dollars in the lottery." He goes, "Wait a second. First there's taxes, then there's this, then there's that." I'm telling you, by the time the guy was done, he lost money on the deal. [laughter] That's right. That's what Jackie Mason says. He goes, "A Jew hasn't had a good year in 20 years." Never. How you doing? Oh, it was a tough year. It was rough. It was whatever it was. You know, it's uh uh you know, so could you imagine you get that amount of money? When I was in school, we read certain plays in school and I committed to my roles. I uh I took I took theater seriously. It was a I was a true thesbian. Anyway, um so uh when I would have a role, I would actually dress up in the costume and memorize my part. [laughter] Everybody else is reading it out from the book and I'm acting. [laughter] In fact, when we did Pig Me and I had a friend of mine, they cast him as Henry Higgins and me as Alfred Doolittle and uh and we both memorized our parts and we both acted it out, you know, while everybody else was reading their parts for [laughter] the little book, you know, but uh I did the same thing in summer school. That was such an experience. I I went to Hank and they finish after 11th grade, but you still have an English credit you have to finish. So I went to public school, summer school, and wow, I had never gone to public school. And summer school, you get a particular group of people. [laughter] Very few of them are there because they're finishing up their uh English requirement. Let's just put it that way. You know, [laughter] like one of these kids said, "Fourth grade, three of the worst years of my life." But anyway, uh so I'm in school guys in motorcycles and it's like pretty rough. I'm got my bicycle [laughter] and um I needed four three-week units to finish the English credit. So, one was a six-week drama course and then there were two three-week half courses and okay, none of this was terribly challenging, but I remember we did Thor and Wilder's Our Town and the biggest part is the uh stage director which I received and of course I memorized my part. I came in a costume. >> [laughter] >> with these, you know, future high school dropouts, you know what I mean? Like they're struggling to get into community college [laughter] and and there I am, you know, [snorts] just towering over all of these people. But um uh so this character Alfred Doolittle so if you're not familiar with the play Pyon they made it into a musical My Fair Lady in Piggy basically Henry Higgins who is a expert in speech um bets his friend Colonel Pickering that he can take this simple flower girl and teach her pass her off as a refined lady. And so they bring her in and they get her all new clothes and they teach her how to uh you know speak properly. That's what the whole story is until the end when uh she's able to stand on her own two feet. Yeah. And basically doesn't need Henry Higgins anymore and he doesn't know how to deal with it. That's the thing. But I played Eliza's father Alfred Dulle who is described as an amoral character. not immoral, amoral. Tom Lura, who was a professor of mathematics in Harvard University, who's best known for writing funny songs, wrote a song about Vera von Bronn, who was the Nazi scientist who uh who developed, you know, the V2 rockets that were bombing England. And they took him after the war and used him to develop the the Saturn rocket to go to the moon. Yeah. And uh he sings a song honoring Veron Braun. And I remember one line there goes don't say that he's hypocritical. Say rather that he's apolitical. Once the goes up who cares ver comes down that's not my department says van. Yeah. So he's defined as an amoral character. He's not a good person. He's not a bad person. He's just a nothing. That was the role. So he finds out that these two gentlemen took his daughter and uh he suspects that they took her for uh insincere purposes. Um a shout out to the person who wrote me and said, "Who is this podcast for?" Because you know there are a lot of kids who listen to it and sometimes you use adult subject matter. So my target audience is from adult Jews. Having said that, I know for a fact there are non-religious people who listen. I know for a fact there are non-Jewish people who listen. I know for a fact there are children who listen. And so I try not to go out of my way to be offensive. If I am offensive on occasion, I apologize for that. But it's simply because I'm an offensive kind of a person. That's all. [laughter] But I certainly try not to be offensive, right? And I try to be appropriate so that if I do discuss a adult theme, I try to use words like any other elementary school teacher when they have to explain in parasim certain halas over there with animals or the story of Yehuda and Tama or Asia Potifa or any of these other stories that pop up. you try to say it in um you know in as oblique a way as you can. Okay. So I hope that uh that uh qualified as oblique. So he goes in not because he's upset that they may have insincere intentions towards his daughter. He just wants to make a few dollars on the deal. [laughter] So he goes and says, "Listen, after all the time I spent raising, you know, my daughter so that she'd be of interest to two gentlemen like yourself, I think I'm entitled for£5 for myself." [laughter] And they're shocked. And he's like, "What?" He says, "That's all you care about, your daughter? That's all that?" He goes, "Listen," he says, "I'm not here to get involved in anybody's life. I I just want to get a few dollars out of this, you know." [laughter] Anyway, after they start talking to him, they they suddenly see that he has this fascinating amoral, not immoral, amoral approach to life. And uh it's just it's just amazing. So he says, "Let's give him 20 pounds." And he says, "No, Governor, I can't take it." He says, "If you give me that much money, people are going to come and hit me up for money. I just want enough to get myself a few drinks and to enjoy myself and you know and I don't want to put myself in a position where I risk becoming respectable. [laughter] So it's such a fascinating thing. So could you imagine you win $500 million? You know what what that would do? [sighs] So, there are some states you can accept it anonymously, but New York is not one of them. So, really should go someplace else and buy the ticket. But, uh, there's a way to do it through a trust and have the trust pick it. I don't know. But, listen, when I have the half a billion, then I'll figure out what to do with it. But, could you imagine? Now I'm going to go, you know, there's an old story, you know, this this Yid he says, "If I had Rothschild's money, I'd have more money than Rothschild because I'd have all of Rothschild's money and I could still give bar mitzvah lessons." [laughter] So gosh, what happens to your life when you suddenly become rich, you know? So I'm pretty sure that's why Kuresh Bar has protected me from wealth all these years, you know, and uh and get by. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining, but you understand that you suddenly hear you won the lottery. That's a life-changing event to what's so interesting about what is tishvat. We talked about this in the past. Tubishvat is the is the cutting off point for buds that have begun to form on the tree when you take off the micers from the year before or after the it's uh everything else that goes when it grows. If you plant uh vegetables or grain, it goes from rashashana to rash shana. That's how normally these things work. Uh except for trees by trees it goes by the if the bud formed before tubishvat it gets miced from the last year after tubishvat the next year. But what happens on tubishvat? There's no fruit. We spoke about this in the past. When I was growing up, we would have uh the mine, of course, on and tourists, you'd eat dried fruit. You'd have raisins. They would have dried dates or figs if you could get them when you were allowed to eat them before the, you know, the bug people took over. You know, apricots, uh, you know, ba, what an exciting thing. dried carob. You would you would bite into it and you'd knock out two of your baby teeth, which was worth a quarter each at the time. I think a dime actually when I was a kid, you know, it's a dime, 20 cents. That wasn't bad. But um uh why? Because there were no fresh fruit back then. Certainly not in Eastern Europe. Here in it's a different story. But in Eastern Europe, there wasn't there wasn't any fresh [clears throat] fruit on the trees. It's just starting. You're looking at dead trunks of trees. You can go out and look. Dead trunks of trees. No leaves, no fruit. It's starting to bud. It's not the fruit. It's the bisuros toos of the fruit. We're going to have fruit. It's the good news. Mosha Shapiro says, it's a famous story, but he says, I met the person who was there when the got a letter from and it said in the shook of there were 11 different types of fruits and vegetables. Moshe editorialized probably half of them were different types of onions, but okay. He says the got up and started dancing because the garra says you'll know the gula is coming when it starts to give its fruit again. This this place was a swamp barren. uh read the [clears throat] stories of uh of uh communities where they were battling malaria and um and what they had to do to be able to to clean up. Here in Jerusaleim, what today is Sanhedria where the uh the mirror was was a big swamp. It was malaria, mosquitoes. It it was it was a terrible thing. When the Jewish farmers from Petikvah came down to Petikvah, they bought some land. The Arabs said, "What are you going to do here?" They said, "We're going to make a farm." And they said, "We have a tradition from our fathers that nothing grows here." And they said, "We have a tradition from our fathers that it will grow for us." And who managed to grow here? These weren't these weren't agricultural experts. Yeah, these were these were regular people. Was made from settlers from who were able to to build this and make something here. That's an unbelievable thing. And so when you look at it and you see it producing the fruit today, Israel is a major exporter. Today, Israeli wines win awards. Some of the finest wines in the world are coming from Eritzville from this barren desert. When the British made the demarcation line after the war of independence, he only had a green marker. So, he made the line down with a green marker. That's why it was called the green line. But people always said it's called the green line because if you look on the Israeli side it's green and you look on the Jordanian side it's not. And this was true for many many years because uh whereas the Arabs in Gaza could have been using the billions of dollars that they got to turn their uh area into a paradise. They used it to build tunnels and missiles and to and to destroy and and and kill. That's all they wanted to do. And we we wanted to be farmers. We wanted to grow fruits and vegetables and wines. And on Tubishvat, you don't have the fruit. You have the Buros Tobos. We know it's going to come. Aurora is at the winter solstice. It's at the darkest time of the year and slowly it gets lighter. But to tell you the truth, you go to a surve and go to tovat kishma has not changed that much. Susman has not changed that much. Has not changed that much. But from Tubishvat till Nissan, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Until we reach the equinox, 5050, half day, half day. It goes from having uh 10 hours of light and 14 hours of darkness to 12 and 12. We go very quickly. Tovos. So me uh I was born in Shvat. I think that was good news. Um remember when I was getting married, somebody said to me, "How many kids are you going to have?" I said, "As many as the good Lord gives me." He goes, "No, you can't do that. You have to pick a number." I said, "How many?" I said, "Um uh four. That's the right number." I said, 'Well, probably my older brothers would agree with you, but seeing as how I'm number five in my family, I feel very strongly about uh five being a better number. And my brother, uh Bruce, who's number six, feels even stronger about it than I do. [laughter] It's like Douglas Adams when he wrote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. So, when the third book came out in the series, it was called The Hitchhiker Trilogy. When the fourth one came out, it was called uh the fourth in the inappropriately named Hitchhiker trilogy. When the fifth came out, it was the fifth in the increasingly inappropriately named Hitchhiker trilogy. [laughter] [gasps] So, you have uh as many as the good Lord gives you, that's that's my attitude. And um it is definitely harder, but I happen to think it's somewhat fulfilling when someone says to me, "Oh, it's too many kids." And I say, "Which one should I kill?" He says, "No, you can't kill them once you have them." I said, "But you understand from their point of view, if I kill them after a year or they never get a chance to be born, it works out the same." So you want people to have a chance have a chance at life, you know. But so is to good news. I was born. I think that's good news. And I died. That was good news for some people. [laughter] Reminds me of the story of the synagogue rabbi who's in the hospital and the president says the v board voted to wish you a raffl by a vote of 7 to2. [laughter] I know there are some people who would have probably rejoiced at my death. I'm thinking of certain specific people but it's not important and then I came back to life mish that was good news I can't tell you that year afterwards I traveled all around the country and this is the beauty of social media I was meeting people all over the world and they said to me weavened for you I said well it worked because I'm still here [laughter] and then I lost both of my parents and And I have to say losing a parent is something melancholy. It's different than just being sad. When my father died, so that shabas I it was just me and my mother. Everybody else went home. And my mother sits me down in my father's seat with my father's kala board my father's kdish cup I want you to understand you never sat in my father's seat you know how my kids will sometimes say aba can I sit in your seat etc my father it was always a no not even a question you don't sit in my seat you know sits me down in my seat my mother says make kdish and suddenly I remembered that line from the magama duo and who will be the zades of our children. Who will be our zades if not we? Suddenly you realize you're the abbot. When you lose a parent, it's it's a transition. Now you become the parent. I lost both my parents less than a week apart. 20 years and and less than a week apart. But you know it it changes. It changes and it means that now you you have to step up. You don't have a parent to tell you stop acting like an idiot. You don't have a parent uh to call before a yontiff. It uh it puts you in a different position. Okay. I didn't mean to get so morbid, but I wanted to share those thoughts. And now uh some appreciation comments. Thank you very much. Hi, my name is David Rhodess. I'm 14. Hey Dave and I'm a Rabbi crazy. God bless you. We need more of us. [laughter] By the way, those of you who have not decided about your peso plans yet, what would be better than going to a hotel just packed with us? All of us doing it together. You're the best speaker I've ever listened to because you can mix humor and difficult topics. No other speaker can entertain me like you can. I love your podcast. I love you, David. Okay. And then this is uh a uh a correction appreciation. The rabbi in the longest pesak was a Yehuda, not the Maharal of Prague, who was also a Rav in Prague. I only remember because we are descendants of the NB Yehuda and the biggest K fans. Our family never cleaned for Pesak without a small K tape on in the background. Just like I don't make Shabas without the Raviolski show. Thank you. H that's beautiful. Thank you so much everybody. And that's [music] it for this episode. If you want to find out more about the show, you can go to my website revoly.com. You can sponsor a episode. You can sponsor a paran. You can sponsor a question and answer. You can submit a question, make a comment, you can uh read articles that I have online. You can go to the recipe section. Uh you can [music] um sign up for one of my online chirum. And that's it. Until next time, I am David Olowski and this has been the Rabbi Olowski show. >> It's the Rabbi Orvski Show. Torah and Simra, ready to go. The Rabbi Olowski 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 Orlovski show on rabbi.com. Torah [music] anytime you two and more it's Rabbi Olavski [music] show and ready to go. It's the Rabbi orski show. Till next time till we meet again. The Rabbi Olowski show. It's the Rabbi Olowski show. It's the [music] Rabbi Olowski show.