The BEST Question You’ve Ever Heard? (No, Really.)

Hi, this is David Alamski with our question and answer shorts. Elio writes, "For a while now, I've noticed on Tyranny time that many shorim are posted with dramatic pictures, sometimes with very little to do with the actual content. It can feel a bit misleading and to me it cheapens the Torah a little. Recently, I noticed that some of your shiramm also started appearing with pictures. Honestly, your shiram are so good, so meaningful, and so schmuck on their own that they don't need anything extra. The Torah you share speaks for itself. If you scroll through Torah any time, there are so many amazing Rabman topics, it's just incredible. And I can't help wondering if these kinds of images don't end up cheapening things. Imagine seeing a shar from Shinberg Zatsowl with an AI style picture attached to it. It just wouldn't feel appropriate and not necessary. I really wanted to hear your perspective on this and see if I'm making a mist mistake. So I think it was Voltater who said the perfect is the enemy of the good. I'm very much a believer in a certain level of purity. Uh this has resulted in me being sidelined a lot. [laughter] So there are rabbis who look I started making shorts. This is one of the reasons I'm making shorts, right? because they're rabbis on Instagram or on YouTube shorts or places like this and they get million I don't know millions but they get thousands and thousands of views hundred tens of thousands of views because people want to see that. So do I think that's the best way to communicate? No. But I'll tell you the truth. Back in the old days when my shirm used to be sold on cassette tapes, one of my best selling sharim was called Harry Potter and Paras Mishbatim. It was not one of my best. One of my best sharim ever was called the many deaths of Nadavu. It was a brilliant sh. It was unbelievable. but it didn't you didn't get traction because the title didn't interest people. So, I have a few people like you out there, more than a few who if I get on uh my podcast and I read the phone book for 45 minutes, you'll listen. [laughter] But I have a lot of people who won't. They it's interesting when you have uh you know you can study the um statistics and one of the things they study is how long is a person engaged with the video and the majority of people who click on my video do not listen till the end. Majority I'm shocked. I'm as shocked as you are because uh especially when I save some of my best stuff for the end. But uh but the answer is because people are busy. There a lot of podcasts out there, a lot of different things. So the question is um Nor Weinberg once said, "We have the best product. We're just lacking marketing and packaging." And so if you can package the same shia with a different title, you know, um I have a share called uh why be why do mitzvah, you know, I have my why be Jewish and then I have a why do mitzvah? Yeah, it's also a great share. I had somebody who booked me and he titled the shir is there um bacon in heaven or something. I forget what it was. There was some country western song, you know, is there bacon in heaven or something. That's what he called the topic. More people came to see it because they like the topic. So even though to me and you I see Rabbi Olowski that's more than enough for me to listen. I listen to myself all the time very often. I'm the only one who does. But uh I understand and hashem I got people like you. But other people if they see something that draws their attention and doesn't even matter it's my best material. They like the title. They like the picture. It's something that grabs them and will end up having a lot more people watching it. So I understand why they're doing it. Anyway, Kooper and Mikah always kept things in the yeshiva, you know, in in Mikah, very Spartan. They had the saknut beds, you know, those little sponge beds. They had this everything was very simple. and other seminaries began to o open and we're offering all kinds of goshmas. And he says, "I'm not upset that they're attacking me. I don't care. They're attacking my seminary. But the fact that they forced me to have to change and add more gashmas upsets me because all the girls were happy before we started introducing all this gashmas and I don't think it leads for more of a Torah lifestyle." That's what he had said at the time. And uh I understand it, but Lameisa, you know, if you make a PES program and you say we're going to have five-star entertainment and table groaning kushim, then you more people come. Unless you have people like you, Rabioski crazies, who will come to this hotel because we're going to make the most awesome program ever. I noticed this change and I love them to pieces. So, please don't don't think this is a criticism. I understand it's just it's just what you're saying here. Gateways used to do it in the Hilton in Stamford, which is basically a business hotel. Doesn't have much facilities, doesn't have much grounds, the middle of the city of Stamford, right off the highway. And people came for the program and the ad was a long list of just pictures of rabbis, you know, who are going to giving Shirim. That was what they sold. Now they go down to Florida and they have pictures of the food and they have pictures of the entertainers and a list of the names of the rabbis because people don't want that anymore here. That's what we're that's all I'm going to be selling. But that's the reality. So uh the question is you could complain about it but as I spoke in one podcast you just turn turn back the clock you can't make things the way they used to be and uh you know we just have to uh deal with the reality and if this is what engages people today it's better that they should listen to a Torah because of the marketing and the packaging then not listen okay this is David Alowski Thanks for listening.