Use It Or Lose It (Ep. 347)

Hi, this is David Alowski and welcome back the Reverend Alaski show. And whether you're watching with our friends and producers over at any time, wherever you watch or listen to your podcast, as always, we're very happy to have you along. And uh you uh have the option of calling in. We have a phone number 6053134799 or for my British friends at 33 313479. Yeah, that's how they do it. And you can leave uh voicemails on that line though I can't really answer you. We have a WhatsApp group tinyurl.com/rabolowski and of course we have the merch store. All kinds of interesting things. Sponsor Natalya and Mindal Maya Roitz. Maya or Maya Roitz. I'm not sure. I'm not sure how to pronounce these when it's has that, you know, it's those Eastern European names. If it's Hungarian, forget about it. They stick in like seven consonants and it's pronounced as like I don't know. Uriaz an avid listener to the Rabiowski show. thickest pis in the family and best dressed namasid in BMG and that's saying a lot. I told the story that the people from Charles Turing, which is an English shirt company, uh came to visit uh the store that is the largest seller of Charles Towit shirts in America to come and meet with them. And sure enough, they come out and it's a trailer in Lakewood. And he says, "You sell the most Charles Towit shirts?" He says, "Come with and he brings them to BMG up to the up to the balcony and says, "See that th that's all your shirts. [laughter] That's where they go." So, if you're the best dressed in BMG, boy, that says a lot. So, a Torah podcast. It's a it'sik we all get we all get strength and um you know sometimes a good kind word is all it takes you know in the biography of of who is the tells a story that he spent a lot of his time just listening and talking to people who are having sus having hard times sometimes just a nice conversation can give people even though it's not and you have to you have to know where that strength lies and how to use it. So, uh yeah, thank you for helping to make this possible. Uh okay, I'm one of six boys. I think we've established that at some point. And everybody got a choice of what they wanted to do with their bar mitzvah except for the oldest son and the youngest son. My oldest brother of Shalom was told, "I don't care what you want. I'm making a big bar mitzvah." My father was a florist. He spelled out Jason and 2,000 red roses. And it was one of those, you know, oldtime like, you know, really fancy catering hall events. Everybody was invited. It was a It was a real big deal. Yeah. And my youngest uh brother uh Bruce was told, "You're having your bar mitzvah in Israel because I always want to do a bar mitzvah in Israel." And everyone else could more or less choose. And me, not so much. I was supposed to choose, but my grandmother passed away um before by bar mitzvah. It was within scholos and uh so we had to have something, you know, a quiet event in the shaw itself. But uh you know people decide to spend their um bar mitzvah differently. My brother Gdalia who lives in my he was uh given the choice and he said I want to go to Israel. Now this is 1966. Uh has bobb wire going up the middle and bomb, you know, uh uh minefields. Uh he said that we couldn't go to the old city. We got up on the top of Helommo and we were able to look at the old city. That's as close as we could come. He said, I remember at one point I stuck my hand through the barb wire. The Jordanians could have shot it off. you know, that's how I I I got into, you know, the other part of us that was under their control. And it it was very unusual in 1966. I mean, my parents didn't go until after the six- day war. They went in January 1968, 6 months after the 6- day war, but um but back then in 1966 and he went on a Jewish teen tour uh to Israel. Uh apparently he always had a special affinity for it was something uh that he felt this strong connection to and that's how he wanted to spend his bar mitzvah. Anyway, on the teen tour was a kid by the name of Nate Woke. I assume now he's he's in his uh he's in his 70s, but at the time he was a teenager like my brother. And um I had no idea who he was obviously. Uh where would I know him from? I was you got to figure there's a six-year gap. So if my brother was the 13, I was seven. But uh his father, Herman Woke, was a very well-known uh author, not from anything that I would have ever normally read, right? City Boy, Marjorie, Morning Star, uh Kane Mutiny. I never really read any of these works obviously as as time went on. I tried to read a few of them but uh but not much. And at one point he came by the house uh chance to meet him and uh and my brother had a relation with him for a while and got to meet you know his father Herman Woke. Herman woke was a uh not only a best-selling author but he was also an Orthodox Jew and in fact he famously wrote a book this is my God which is his introduction to Judaism for somebody who doesn't know anything about Judaism. So a popular writer was writing about what Judaism is. Now uh people would argue it's not hushkuffically perfect but okay it doesn't have to be. Uh it it was a very effective work and in fact I remember hearing a story from Rabbi Granowski my good friend who heard the story from >> [clears throat] >> uh Rabbi Joe Kamki who was running to T to Misora that there was a a meeting of the gdole and uh they had decided to tell the day schools that they should all give out this book to parents. So they get an exposure of what Judaism is. And he says at one of the meetings a canoi came you know and was like yelling at the how could you send this out? He said this. He said that. This is not right. That's not right. You know and who was very short this guy was very tall comes over and like pokes him in the stomach and says Herman W has more shayim than you do. Get out. [laughter] But uh that made an impression on me. Now, um I mention all of this because he wrote two books on World War II and within his discussion of World War II, he also told the story of the Holocaust, but it was in the context of World War II. And of course, it's a family. One person is in the Pacific. Uh one person was uh part of the delegation to Germany. uh you know different different kind of things you know before the before America got into the war and uh it takes you around to different places uh one of them is engaged this Jewish girl whose father is a professor and and they go through the Holocaust it basically tries to give you a perspective World War II but this fellow who's in Germany remember the war started September 1939 and America did not enter the war until December 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and then America declared war on Japan and Germany declared war on America because of their uh their pact with Japan and um and that but until then so he says he came back states side you know for meetings he had been in Germany the whole time well the war is raging between Germany and everybody else He says, "And I remember I had bought a magazine and it must have been around the holiday time, whatever it is, and there was not even a mention of the war that was going on in in Europe." Until we entered the war with Pearl Harbor, we we had nothing to do with this. A lot of Americans were not interested. You know, Woodro Wilson got reelected as president in 1916 on the um promise he kept us out of war and he didn't get us involved in the war. And then of course 1917 we got into the war and a lot of people were unhappy about that. So they certainly were not interested in another European adventure the way that it was being put. So um uh so a lot of people were not uh interested in hearing about this war and anything that had to do with it. Okay, you could understand that. So um but he says but there wasn't even a mention of it. Here I'm I'm in Germany. You see people are fighting for their life. The battle of Britain had gone on already. There were bombings going on. All kinds of things. And in America they weren't even git, you know. They didn't care. In the 1980s, there was a war between Iran and Iraq that went on for years. Nobody cared. You know, nobody cared. It was wasn't our wasn't our business weren't interested in it. You know, it's interesting how people take a perspective. Eventually, not long after that, of course, was Pearl Harbor. And then, uh, America suddenly moved into war footing and everything changed. You imagine you're there and you you're writing a column for a newspaper and uh you have no idea that Pearl Harbor is about to happen and you have to submit the columns in advance. This is one of the reasons I stopped writing for the hamia. I used to have a column but I was always late because I don't write that easily. I have to be inspired. I can sit in front of the computer for a very very long time and write nothing. Sometimes I can sit down and write chapters at a go and other times I I'm not inspired. In fact, I wrote a column in the I have a whole file of half finishedish articles. I start writing the article and then I say this is trit. I don't want to write this. you know, I I I I want something that uh that that has more um that says something. I don't want to bore myself, you know. In fact, one of the most clever things I ever wrote is I wrote a whole column on on on how kids aren't getting enough sleep. And I wrote it like someone talking who's half asleep. And I thought it was one of the most brilliant things I ever wrote. I don't know if it's up on the website. If not, you know, I'll have to put it up. But and my editor called me up and said, "That was absolutely brilliant. Don't ever do it again. [laughter] You have to assume that you're writing for people with a reading level in fifth grade. You know, you have to write it very simple. There's a problem today that kids are not getting enough sleep. We need to organize our children they get sleep." Some of the problems that can occur are the following. Here are some solution like that almost in amic pentameter. You know what I mean? D and um I can be very creative and so that's not good for deadlines. You have to have the comms in in advance. So um uh [clears throat] I when you're forced to get it in advance, it's a problem. So Onyum Kipper there was a major attack uh Syria and Egypt attacked Israel and it was an existentialistic threat. I mean it really was one of the darkest moments in Jewish history. Um Golden Mayer and her cabinet were carrying cyanide pills to commit suicide in case they got captured. That's how bad it was. It was really it it was beyond belief. We were out of weapons. It was just terrible. Everything was just just just terrible. And um and it was a surprise attack on New Yipper. We were not prepared, you know. And um uh what was interesting about it was that was Yam Kipra when the Sukus edition of the Jewish press. Those of you who are not familiar in New York there's a paper called the Jewish press. Their banner used to be the largest Anglo Jewish newspaper in the world. I don't know if it still says that or not, but you know, and um it came out with a headline, Israel wins. Now, this was particularly ironic because the war went on for months. Thousands of soldiers were killed. We didn't win. So they wrote in the next edition they said well look the Sinai war took three days and the six day war obviously took six days. So we just assumed that the war would be over by then we had to go to print. So we had to write something you know so uh we assumed we assumed by then it would. So you understand this was a big black eye for this particular paper for many years. people to this day cite it as an example of uh of problems that people you know find with that paper that when you how could you write something like that when you don't know So, I say all this by way of introduction because uh um there was a time when uh I would just uh record a podcast and it would come out. But of course, we've upped production value from the good old days, you know. and Jakob Schlommo, who used to live right here in in Jerusalem, now he lives very far away. He has to drive hours to be able to get here and set up his equipment, you know. And Ahri, uh, the producer and the editor apparently has a real job. I don't know why. I don't know what he does exactly because he's on the phone with me, Yala. So, I don't think he does anything besides this show, but apparently every now and then he says, "I have a meeting or I have to do something." I don't know. Apparently, he has a job, too. So, he says, "Look, you have to record these things in advance." Now, full disclosure, right? I'm I'm I'm bringing you behind the curtain. Yeah. [snorts] I'm recording this post sukus episode before Yam Kipper. Why am I telling you that? Because you can imagine if last year I filmed the post sukus episode before Yam Kipper, not knowing what was going to take place on Shmini at Saras and then after that you have a sort of banal um you know ordinary uh um ordinary episode and you're thinking my gosh one of the greatest tragedies in Jewish history have taken place and he's not even mentioning it. That's because it would have been filmed in advance. So, I'm I'm saying this upfront because in case something dramatic happens, it doesn't have to be that. It could be good, it could be bad, you know, I I was talking to my uh my online dafom and I said, you know, I got to record a podcast for after sukas. What should I talk about? says, "Well, talk about how um this is going to be the last podcast because now that Mashiah's come, I'm going to be working in the B of Mikdash and everyone can come and see me there." So, I said, "Yeah, that would be really cool, but you know, if he doesn't come, you know, I'm going to feel like the Jewish press [laughter] arrives. Whoops. On the other hand, if a shift does come and I'm doing something, you know, ordinire, so that's uh that's going to be a little bit of problem. Okay. You know, when you when you plan in advance and that's why I'm trying to get my son to come on before the elections here in Israel because it is crazy. It's crazy what's going on. And I made a reference to it in my last podcast, but and my son is uh very wellconed and well up in everything that's going on in the politics and I want him to explain it, but he said to me, "It has to come out the same time I do it because a week later everything I say will be fulfill especially with elections. is happening. New parties are forming. People are switching parties. Things are going on. This poll comes out, that poll comes out. You know, uh I will tell you the following to be a little hesitant before putting too much uh [clears throat] uh faith in the polls because one of my finest episodes in my opinion was the one I did with the director of Shou, the Shou schools. And it was just fascin everything he said was absolutely fascinating. If you haven't watched it, you should go back and watch it. My good friend Freed him and the whole you know he came on he brought him here to to speak about it. I I was just fascinated by everything he had to say. And at one point he said, "We did a poll to see how many Israelis would be willing to go to a Shouvu type school if it was available not just for Russians but for you know regular Israelis." He says, "And I went to the to the you know the polling organization and they said to me, what do you want us to find?" He says, "Whatever the truth is." He goes, "Oh, I guess we could do that. >> [laughter] >> Because usually we make a PO poll and the people tell us I want you to find that they're supporting this or they're supporting that etc. And then we'll frame the question in such a way and we'll ask certain groups of people so we get the answer that you want and that was eye opening to me because uh you know polls are incredibly dishonest and uh and so to to you know figure it out accurately what's really going on but things happen so so rapidly. So, I'm making this podcast with the assumption that nothing very dramatic has happened to the Jewish people between then and now. You know, uh I feel a little bit like Moenu. Uh he goes up for 40 days and 40 nights to get the luos and when he comes down the people have built an ael and he smashes the laus and he destroys the ael and sheet levy kills everybody who served it and he gives people to drink and anyone who who served it died you know and then he goes back up for another 40 days and 40 nights and he gets Hashem not to destroy them but he's not going to dwell among them anymore and when he comes back down he says Okay, you guys are safe, but Hashem is not going to be with you anymore. And they say, "No, we want it back the way it was." He says, "Okay, I'm going to try. I'm going to go up for another 40 days and 40 nights. Don't build anything till I come back." Okay? Don't do anything. Remember a fellow was a carpenter. He told me once, he says, "I always tell my workers, if you're not sure, do not cut the piece of wood. Sit down." um have a cigarette, drink a coffee, don't cut anything because once you cut it, I can't fix it. So, uh very important your sight that you have to know, uh where things are going. So, that's why I'm saying I hope everybody stays healthy and good and and everything is fine until then. And by the way, before I forget, um, I got a little video from Arammy Eisenbach, who is 9 years old. His mother claims that he is my biggest fan, which makes sense because that's more or less my target audience, uh, 9year-olds. So, uh, his mom asked if I'd give him a shout out. So, it brought me, if you're out there, you know, we love you out here on the Rabbi Alowski show. And, uh, you know, when you come there, it's fell. you have to come and sit in and uh enjoy the experience for yourself. Okay, that's all by way of introduction. Well, we're out of time. Thanks for coming, everyone. No, no, I'm just kidding. Um, what am I going to talk about that I that I had thought about? I'm of course I have to put myself into that mindset that here it is. Um, I I I went through Yumkipper. I went through Yim Kipper. We went through those exciting days of suka building and dal minus minimus dal minim shopping for our lul and our estri and all of our different things and setting everything up. Um and we had the constant excitement. You know this is a year it's all so you only have one one day yand at the beginning and that's it for shabas. No shabasmo then is also a shabas. That's it. Lots of mo. Um when I had younger children so I always used to complain that I build this beautiful suka and I never get to spend any time on it because you have to go on to your limb with your children during sukas. And uh apparently I I knew this one family where the father refused and and they took the children away from him and put him in foster care. So you have to go on to your limb. It's a requirement, you know. [laughter] No, it's everywhere. But here it is, you know. Um in America it was uh it was even worse, you know. I don't know about Suk Pesak. You had to go to Great Adventure. It always rained and it was about 40°, you know, and everyone's walking around in their winter coats, you know, and and they would have a a concert going on and you could buy kosher food in the park. You could get a Frankfurt for like $40 and a can of soda for $20, you know. It's very exciting. And um um so we uh go we used to go these two now. Everybody's gosh, I have children in their 40s, you know. Um, uh, so they go off, they do their own thing. I don't have to I don't have to, um, go. My wife likes to go cuz, you know, she's she's a a good Bobby. I'm I'm a cranky Zady, you know. [laughter] So, I remember when the kids were little, my wife was going out and the kids were like, "Who's going to babysit?" She says, "Aba's here." says he just goes in his room and shuts the door. [laughter] There's nobody watching. That's not true exactly. I didn't lock it. I just closed. Anyway, so um you go through all sukus etc. And then you're finally come and like I say sham you have a whole week a whole week to be maredra you know next year it's it's uh is not next year next year comes out on shabas again I think also the year after that and then and then we have a three-day y you know so when you have a three-day yand so especially in America when uh is on Friday you have a few hours to be marvra to get in all of voracious mikra and rashi you know it's much hard but now you have a whole week piece of cake yeah very very easy to do and um uh and you go into that first shabas shabas and uh that's a shabas that's um it's just shabas you know I I remember once there was a school and every week there was some sort sort of an adventure. It was a school, but they would have they had color war and then they would have some kind of a trip day and they would do all kinds of things, you know, and uh I remember I said to my rever I said, "Oh, I hear there's a special day tomorrow. It's called school." [laughter] He thought that was very funny, you know. I didn't always get a laugh out of him, but that he thought was funny. Just just just ordinary. It's just shabas. There's no there's there's nothing fancy anymore. It's you're going to concentrate on where we go. So, Resla commenting on the Maharal. The Maharal says that time is not a circle. A circle you keep going around and coming to the same place. It's a spiral. So, you keep coming around to the But you're always coming on a higher level. And uh and the GR says that's the reason when we counter we don't count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. We count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 19 21. You're going through the schmita, but each time you're on a higher level. and says from desla it's got to be that way every week that every week you come back to shabas but it's on a higher level with a greater sense of appreciation and you know I've made this comment more than once they talk about a lawyer who has 10 years experience and a lawyer with one year experience 10 times right there are lawyers who learn how to fill out a particular form and they fill out that same form for 25 years and that's all they know they don't really know how to do anything else. They they specialized in this. You know, I have a good friend of mine who was in my NCSY chapter in Los Angeles in 1978, Joel Pet. And he specialized in an area of law of separation of church and state from a constitutional point of view. and he was the lawyer for curious yol in uh near my to defend their right to be able to do certain things that it's not a separation religion and state and after the case was decided he said you know I have a problem because I have a very specific skill set and how often do those kind of cases come up of a religious community fighting for the right to be able to maintain ain their religious values within the constitution. So uh whereas there are people who you know are always doing different things. I mentioned my brother Gdalia earlier um at one point he worked for a pressure sensitive label company selling labels. And uh he says one time the boss was looking for him. He's looking around and he's on the floor running the machines. The guy says, "What are you doing? You're a salesman." And he says, "I had my own business." And when you have your own business, you know, you have to know how to do everything. You have to know how to get something out of the computer. You have to know how your machines work. You have to know everything. And it's so interesting. One of the reasons Donald Trump is able to relate to workingclass people is because his father was in construction and he would send Donald out to work with the electricians and the carpenters and the and the plumbers and the, you know, sheetrock people, you know, and work with them to see what they were doing and get exposed to all kinds of different things. So, it's uh uh it's a good skill to be able to have to be able to master, but it's certainly true when it comes to your Yiddish kite. I I don't know if I've ever said this word. I might have I might have done it in a para in five to tell you the truth, but um I heard this idea from Pelovitz all over Shalom. How many years ago? It was in the 1980s. We had a summer regional. I I I more or less started this. You know, there there's a fall regional convention and there's a winter regional convention, there's a spring regional convention. That's how it usually goes. But I saw a lot of kids who are around during the summer. So I met a a summer regional and it was in the White Shaw. I don't know which para it was, maybe av. But it mentions that one of the nissim that took place in the midbar was that their clothing grew along with them. So if you came out of Egypt and you were 8 years old, your outfit grew along with you and the Anunnia cover would wash them and press them and have them ready by Tuesday. You know, it was able to to to do all of that for you and they grew along with you. And he brought a medish that said, "Not all of your clothes, only what you wore." So if you came out of Egypt with a suitcase of clothes, at the end of 40 years, when you opened them up, they were still children's clothes. It's only what you wear and keep with you that grew. What was the application? The application is and not everybody appreciates this today because it's changed now that there are phones and things but even though there are phones you see that people will make albums. They'll take some of their pictures and make albums. Now I'll give you an example. Yeah. Um, one one one of our kids made this from Pesak where the Alaski Pesak pictures of, you know, all different things that took place during Pesak and all the different things and they put into a book. So even though you have it on the phone, uh, Nor McDonald, he made an observation once that I thought was fascinating. He says, "Everybody has that one picture of their grandfather, that black and white picture, you know, where uh from the 1920s or 30s, you know, those old pictures." He says, "Imagine, you know, uh our children, they say, "Hey, do you have any pictures of grandpa?" He says, "Yes, how about 30 from every single day of his life?" Doom [laughter] look for all the pictures on the phone, you know. So, it's not always the same. But I remember in the good old days when you used to buy yourself a camera, you'd snap a picture, then you'd have to send the role away to be developed. They'd bring you back your pictures and then you would have a picture album and you would put them into the album and you would, you know, have that picture album and there are people who have many, many picture albums still left over. But people come to itself and they snap pictures, pictures with their friends, pictures of Purim, pictures of Tim, pictures of this, all kinds of pictures and they put it away in a book and it goes on the shelf. My year in Israel. Every now and then they take it out and they look at it, which is not as dramatic as girls. I taught in seminary from there many years and girls take a lot of notes, a lot of notes. They have notebooks full of notes from all their classes and many girls will never look at those notes again. They go into a little box, you know, at least the the picture album goes into the bookcase, you know, but they just have a lot a lot of notes and um and it doesn't uh they never look at it again. They put it away in a box and it doesn't grow with them. It It's got to be the things that you keep. So once a year we go through this really intense time. We go through L and Rashana and Assur Shuva and Yum Kipper and Sukus and Shminyatas. And then we go back to regular life. I've mentioned this in the past says a beautiful idea says for seven days of sukis somebody takes out the safetra and stands by the bema and we walk around with our dalim and we say hosis and we walk around the safet and when we're all done we go back to our seats we put it back in But on Tyra, we take the Tyra and we dance with it and we do hakus and we go around but we take the Torah with us says because that's the whole purpose of the entire season. We're supposed to go through this entire process and then take it and bring it back into our lives. He says a similar idea. Uh I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before. It says the cog goes into the koteshakadoshim and when he comes out he makes a party for his friends and family to celebrate that he came out of the koshim intact. Now, the way this was always explained to me when I was younger was, you know, that if you mess up in the koshim, you drop dead. It's a very serious thing to do. And um in fact, they would tie a rope to the cog so that in case he would go slack, they would drag his body in and send in the next one. Yeah. So, you want to make sure you do it right. [snorts] So he says, "I can't believe that that's his entire kavana on kipa going into the kosher." He's going in with his pan of hot coals and a spoon of incense and he's going, "Please don't kill me. Please don't kill me." Okay, please don't kill me. Okay, I'm pouring the incense out. Okay. Okay, I'm backing out. I didn't touch anything. Please don't kill me. I made it. Oh no. I got to go back in and take it out. Okay. Please don't kill me. Please, please, please, please don't kill me. Please don't kill me. I made it. You know, [laughter and gasps] I'll make a party. I'm still alive. I'm alive. I'm still alive. [laughter] Says that can't be the kabana. He says the purpose of this party is the following. And maybe I'll illustrate it with a story I heard once from Reb. Rabbi Fran was uh going to speak in square and part of it was that he was going to have a private meeting with the square reba and he basically could ask for the rebba for whatever he wanted. Yeah. So he uh he thought about it. What should I ask the reb for? So I called up my kids. What should I ask the rebba for? Yeah. goes, "I'm going in see the the Reb." And he ends the story. He goes, "And then I realize I'm going to I'm talking straight to why don't I spend as much time thinking about that?" Which I thought was quite profound. But um you go into the Koshikosha which God would see an old man there which he understood that that was a kesh. Yeah. That that was the level of of kaduca and God consciousness that you reached. It was something that lifted you out of this world. And now I have to sit down with my loved ones and say, "What do I do with this experience? How am I supposed to use this to develop myself and my life?" Which I think is a such an important idea. Such an important idea. Uh there was a story in the news here in Israel that this from guy won the lottery and he wasn't going down to collect the money and they interviewed him and they said I don't understand every day that you're not going you're losing money because you could put it in the bank you can make money on etc. He says, "I'm not going to take that money until I sit and discuss with my, you know, my siblings, my parents what they think is fair for me to do with the money visa v everybody else." Cuz it's not just my money. It's uh it's we're a family. We we share. And I don't want to collect the money until we have it clear, a clear consensus what to do with the money. So you've had this unbelievable experience. Now what do you do with it? Where do I go from here? And uh this is such an important thing for every one of us to do in our lives. We all have opportunities. Um we look at them. We each have moments in our lives that shows God's providence. Mostly we just shrug it off as mere coincidence. That's of course uh Avery Rottenberg wrote that for Journeys. Uh Avery Rottenberg is so incredibly talented. He wrote a country western song. Forget about the music as western but the lyrics, you know. Um, there's so many like words there that are just like, you know, Midwest words that you wouldn't expect. Providence, you know, like [laughter] pristine. They're pristine. Yeah. Such a country word, you know, if we keep ourselves pristine. Yeah. So, we all have moments where we get this insight or we get a gift or we get an opportunity and something comes our way and we think oh wow what should I do with this with this opportunity or with this gift that I've gotten or um the situation has developed what should I do here how should I handle it I heard the story from the fellow he worked with the Jewish poor in uh the South Bronx in the 1980s. A lot of elderly poor Jews who had left behind when the neighborhood changed and he was working with them and helping them. Anyway, he was going to receive a presidential award on the 4th of July. Okay. So, he sent his apologies. It's not going to come. It was on Chabas and he gets a call. Hi, is this Mike? you know, goes, "Yeah." He goes, "This is Ronnie. Ronnie Reagan, you know, Mr. President, [laughter] how come you're not coming? I want to give you an award for what you're doing." So, uh, so he says, "Uh, well, you know, it's on Chabas." He goes, "Look, if I can find you a place that's walking distance to the ceremony, I'll make sure you have kosher food. Would you come?" So he says, "The president is calling me up and asking me to come. I I I feel bad saying no." Said, "Fine." I went, I got the award. And every few months he would call me up to see how I was doing. [laughter] Amazing. They call you up and see how you're doing. He said, "Uh, you you're graduating college. What are you going to do?" He says, "I'm thinking going to law school." He says, "Do you want me to write you a letter of recommendation?" It's like, "Uh, yeah." [laughter] You got a letter of recommendation from the president of the United States. That that I'm sure that that carries some sway. You know what I mean? You know, with with the uh law school people [laughter] United States wrote me a letter. You have you have this access. What are you going to do with it? I have a relative Um she's from a more modern uh direction but her friend said we're going to go to Benra to get this braha from this rebbitson. Now she didn't know which rebbitson it was but there some rebbitson. Anyway somehow they get separated. So she figures all right I I'll I'll see where the revson is. So I asked everybody where's the rebbitson? So they assumed it was represent kanyki. That wasn't who it was. >> [laughter] >> some other re so she goes and she knocks in the door reverend Kanye came and she says I came for bra she says it's arush it's Thursday I don't I don't give out braas but I I do my my cooking I'm going to make kalas you want to come in and help me she was like sure [laughter] and she said so they're smoozing and making she says look why don't you come every Thursday we'll cook and we'll talk [laughter] at the end of the year. So she the reverb and says, "So what are you going to do?" Says, "I'm not sure if I should go to college or if I should go to Mikah, you know, here for another year." She goes, "Definitely go to Mikah." He goes, "I don't know if I can get in." The Reverend says, "I'll write you a letter of recommendation." I don't think ever got a letter of recommendation from Reverend Kani besides this. [laughter] But you understand you have this access, you know somebody. One of the reasons that America recognized the state of Israel is because the State Department was telling Truman, "Don't do it. It's not good for you. It's not good for the country. Just let it go." and Kim Whitesman who was a very important person on the international stage kept calling and calling and he and he wouldn't take his calls and finally they remembered that when he was in Missouri he had a partner who was a Jew and the partner calls up and says Harry I want to come and talk to you couldn't say no to him and he comes and says Harry you got to do me a favor You got to recognize the Jewish state. And Harry used some of his colorful language for which he was very well known. Yeah. And he says, "I can't say no to you. Here's a guy who's got a connection with the president of the United States." And he uses it to get the state of Israel recognized. you know, we we we don't realize things come our way for a reason and and you never know what that reason's going to be and and how Akbar was working it out. There was a a Scotsman and there was this nobleman's son who fell into a bog and he risked his life this Scotsman to save the kid and he brings it back to his father and the nobleman says oh you know please let me give you a reward he says you won't insult me by giving me a reward I did it because it's God's will and I was able to do an act of kindness is he says, "Then let me uh do an act of kindness too because I want your son to get a quality education like my son that you life you just saved." The little boy who got saved was Winston Churchill. And the Scotsman sends his son off and uh and he goes into medicine and he goes into research. And this fellow whose last name was Fleming eventually invents penicellin. And years later when they're both adults, obviously Winston Churchill gets sick and he would have died if it wasn't for the penicellin that this guy invented because his father made sure he got an education in return for saving his life. So opportunities come our way and we never we don't even realize them with his desay. What do you want to do with it? So we're coming out of a time ofaship and where we're lifted up. We have to pull together our loved ones and say what do I do with this? I was in the kosha kadoshim. I came out. How do I take this opportunity and go forward to use it in the best possible way? Wow. My third my third Gdalia story this year. This episode, I'm sorry. Yeah. Oh, it's also this year. Yeah. Um, he bought himself a house in my uh in Forch. It's a nice nice house. and he put in a little sound system and this and next thing and he said the reason I wanted a large living room dining room is because there are always people who need to make a sim not a big fancy wedding but maybe it's a bar mitzvah maybe it's a vort maybe it's a chev they don't have a place they can't really afford a shul so I want to make my home as a gamak available for people to be able to come and make a sim byite me. So, uh that's that's such a beautiful thing. I had neighbors I have I have neighbors in my building the Yarmishes and at one point they had a very large house and very often I don't want to [clears throat] say every week cuz I'm not sure but very often they would be hosting some sort of a and there they also made weddings. They made actual weddings and the bar mitzvah and my daughter's uh shabraas were up there. They they they they had their house open. When I used to work in Derek, we would have a shabatone there. We'd have a suda there. It was they looked at it as as an opportunity. My friend Ry Flam, my friend, my employer. I worked for him in in order. So, uh, he was notorious that he would stop as he was driving and pick up people until the car was full. And he used to say there's nothing as embarrassing, and again, this was back in the old days. It wasn't so common to have a car. There's nothing more embarrassing than driving with an empty car. Every time you would pass somebody, he would pick them up. Where you going? Where can I take you? His wife told me once, you know, says, "I was on the way to the hospital. I have a baby." I said, "Don't pick up anybody." [laughter] So, Hashem gave me a car. It's an opportunity. Everything that we get, people that we meet, you never realize. I always say that, you know, life is not an oh Henry short story. It's a Dickens novel. It goes on for 800 pages and there's a million characters and characters appear and disappear and reappear and every time you think that okay that part of the story is gone, it suddenly opens up again and the person reappears and it's a whole different way that you didn't see coming. So when something happens to us, we can't just say okay, I have to come out of this time of year and say this has to propel me forward for the rest of the year. The Pan says from the beginning to the year to the end of the year which means from the beginning of the year everything goes after the beginning it has to carry us through and we will start off this year with a tremendous and a tremendous awakening that will bring us closer to and to a more meaningful and uh I'll mention a few comments. Uh thank you for the interview with Rabbi Meisman. It was a little difficult to understand Ra Meisman sometimes but nevertheless it was extremely enlightening. Growing up Rab Salvetic was always called JB in my house. I was told that JB was offered the choice to be a mag in BMG or to be a mager in YU and he chose Wu. Apparently, I grew up with a lot of misconceptions about Reverend Salivetic and I have found newfound respect for him. That was my only agenda. That was the first thing I said is that I know I have a lot of uh more yesish people who listen to my podcast and I wanted to help them get a different insight and also I I wanted to try to clarify who Ros Salvich was because you know you took the three people you get three different pictures and I couldn't think of anyone more qualified than Miselman who his nephew who learned with him for many years who was Mashamish him for many years, you know, and uh it it was such a that he came on my podcast. Now, I've gotten some negative reactions, which I'll talk about in a later podcast cuz, you know, every now and then, uh I need to vent, but we'll talk about that. But this is this is, you know, this is on spot. My oldest son loves listening to your podcast. He's constantly quoting you and really enjoys learning from you. Thank you. I've been encouraging him to submit a sponsorship. He also told me that if it's someone's bar mitzvah, you'll give him a shout out. My son will be asem become a bar mitzvah on Zion tish. Thank you. Oh wow. So mazlev maztov welcome to adulthood. Welcome to the tribe. You know, when a friend of mine, his son got bar mitzvah, I said, "We, you know, don't don't look at it as if, you know, you're losing a child. Look at it as if we have somebody else to come and make the minion." [laughter] I have a little sh here. So, uh, it's, uh, so nice and so wonderful to be able to have that. That's it for this week. If you want to find out more about the show, you can go to my website.com. You can read articles, you can leave a comment, you can ask a question, you can sponsor an episode, you can sponsor a part five, you can sponsor a question and answer. And uh it lists over there different sponsorship opportunities and how things work, etc. Uh you can buy me a cup of coffee. We didn't mention that one. Oh, it was here. I didn't read it. Uh at buy me a coffee.com/robiolski. Uh you can um listen to the theme song, sign up for one of my online shor and that's it for now. Until next time, I am David Olowski and this has been the Rabbi Olowski show. >> It's the Rabbi Orlovski show. Torah and Sima ready to go. The Rabbi Orlovski show. Knowledge and wisdom will help you grow. Lots of fun in every episode. And we don't have [music] to rhyme, no. It's the Rabbi Orlovski show on rabbi orski.com to anytime you and more. It's Rabbi orski show and ready to go. It's the Rabbi orski show. Till next time till we meet again. It's the Rabbi Orski show. It's the Rabbi orski show. 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