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#1: Behind the Bima
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Rabbis Efrem Goldberg, Philip Moskowitz, and Josh Broide, from Boca Raton Synagogue, shmooze about contemporary issues. Every week features an unscripted and lively discussion, special guests, and a behind-the-scenes look at leading a large and dynamic Jewish community. Rabbi Efrem Goldberg is the Senior Rabbi of the Boca Raton Synagogue (BRS), a rapidly-growing congregation of over 800 families and over 1,000 children in Boca Raton, Florida. BRS is the largest Orthodox Synagogue in the Southeast United States. Rabbi Goldberg's warm and welcoming personality has helped attract people of diverse backgrounds and ages to feel part of the BRS community, reinforcing the BRS credo of 'Valuing Diversity and Celebrating Unity. Rabbi Philip Moskowitz serves as Associate Rabbi at Boca Raton Synagogue (BRS), where he helps lead a rapidly growing congregation of over 850 families including over 1,000 children. His warm personality and dynamic, positive spirit make people of all backgrounds and ages feel a part of the BRS community. Rabbi Moskowitz officiates at life cycle events, provides pastoral counseling, and serves as halachic advisor and close confidante to hundreds of members. Beyond the engaging and relevant Shabbat morning sermons, delivered to multiple, diverse minyanim, and the numerous regular classes and shiurim in the Shul, Rabbi Moskowitz regularly teaches Torah in private homes, local day schools, and the community at large. Rabbi Josh Broide is the Director of the Deborah & Larry D. Silver Center for Jewish Engagement (CJE), a Division of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County. He is also the Founder and Director of the Boca Raton Jewish Experience (BRJE), a rapidly growing outreach and engagement program in Boca Raton, Florida. In addition he also works as the Outreach Rabbi at Boca Raton Synagogue (BRS), one of the largest Modern Orthodox Synagogues in North America.
Categories:Torah
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Transcript
Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
Live.
In three.
Two. One.
Wait. We are. You didn't broadcast your
Zoom yet. Wait, I know.
Could you Could you lean back? You're
making me nervous.
Why no one?
Okay.
Now how do I do it? We are live. Welcome
everybody.
Is there any Rabbi Brody, join us. I am
coming in. I'm just sharing this on my
Facebook right now. Okay, fantastic.
So everyone can see we are
live. We are live. Share now.
Okay. Welcome everyone to the first
installment of coffee talk with the BRS
boys, the BRS rabbis. I am Ephraim
Goldberg. I have the privilege of being
one of the rabbis of Boca Raton
Synagogue. Tonight we are joined by not
only my colleagues, but by my dear
friends. Brothers. Moskowitz in the blue
shirt. Rabbi Philip Moskowitz hails from
Boston, Massachusetts.
He is an avid runner, a great friend, a
wonderful friend. Rabbi Moskowitz,
thanks for being with us. Happy to be
here. Thanks for having me. We also have
tonight as part of coffee talk. We have
Rabbi Josh Brody who hails from
Elizabeth, New Jersey. Welcome Rabbi
Brody. Rabbi Brody is the average Rabbi
of Boca Raton Synagogue and also has the
distinction of being the poster child of
the Jewish Federation of South Palm
Beach County. Right. He is the president
of the Larry and Debbie Silver Center of
Jewish Engagement. Rabbi Brody, great to
have you. Thanks for being with us.
Who brought the coffee? Welcome.
Welcome.
Who brought the coffee to the coffee
talk? Is an excellent question. So,
Rabbi Brody,
we're
live, but I don't know if I'm Facebook
live. Does everyone see all of us or
just me? Cuz that was They see all of
us. Okay, poor them if they had to only
see me. So, I'm going to open up
tonight. I'm going to play the role of
host. We have a lot of conversation, a
lot of topics. First of all, let me give
you a background of why we decided to do
this. In in crisis, in this time where
we were only able to interact with
technology, BRS has had robust
programming as always. You know, there
are many other shuls and communities,
and many other organizations and
institutions who had to first discover
their wheel, had to come up with
programming. Thank God we got a lot of
programming on a regular basis, so we
didn't have to design new, we just had
to move it over to another platform. And
our new tagline is, BRS, our campus is
closed, but BRS is as open as ever. And
so, we've been able to interact for many
classes happening online, men, women,
children, beginner, intermediate,
advanced, but they're all been classes.
It's all been formal, frontal
conversation. And we thought, you know,
wouldn't it be fun just to get together
and schmooze? Because normally we get to
see our mem- What are you writing,
Brody? I have something to say back to
what you said. I don't want to forget
You know,
you take your notes. Okay, I'll just say
I I figure what you wanted to do is that
you wanted to just create an opportunity
for me to be involved. I can't teach.
I'm not teaching anything. So, this is a
chance for me to do something.
Take yourself buddy. So, we said, you
know, every Shabbos weekdays we see our
members, we give a hug, a high five, a
handshake. We ask how it's going. You
fill us in in your lives. You get to see
us in an informal role, not behind the
pulpit. And we really missed that. And
so, we thought we'd just get together
for some some coffee talk. So, first of
all, I want to wish everyone a chodesh
tov, a chodesh tonight. It's the
beginning of the month of Nissan, the
period of geulah, of redemption. So, I
begin with the hope and prayer that we
experience the collective redemption
from the people who are struggling and
suffering, that this turns around uh
quickly, that we recover quickly,
certainly those whose health is
compromised should have a refuah
shleimah. So, here's the first question
I want to pose to both of you tonight.
And by the way, none of the questions I
made a little just notes right now. I
wrote a few things down. None of the
questions have we shared.
So, Okay, I got mine also, don't worry.
I got mine. It's going to be fun and
spontaneous. Question number one, boys,
is why the beverage of choice? It may be
called coffee talk, but it's 9:04 at
night. Nobody's drinking coffee tonight.
So, why the beverage that you chose
tonight? We'll start with you,
Moskowitz. You've got two beverages
there. I got two. Actually, I I have a
little selection up here.
I have my my bottle of Dalwhinnie 15.
And I also have my bottle of Lagavulin,
which is an 8-year-old Lagavulin.
For those who know me know that I love
my
scotch as smoky. So, that's why I'm
starting with some Lagavulin. But this
is very near and dear to me. This was
given to me by our dear friend Matthew
Hockerman. Shout out to Matthew.
Matthew, is Matthew with us tonight? Is
Matthew tuned in? I don't know Matthew.
If he is, he should he should put a
comment in there. But on his last
first.
At his last day at BRS, Matthew gifted
me this bottle of scotch. And so I have
it here because he is very much a part
of us as well, even though he's no
longer at BRS.
Wow. I think Matthew gave me his pens
and pencils from his drawer. That he had
in the office.
So, Matthew, love you, brother, but
I didn't get my Lagavulin, so. All
right, interesting beverage of choice.
Brody, tell us why why you drinking what
you're drinking tonight. Okay, I got I
got two bottles here. First I have the
Laphroaig. The reason I got Laphroaig is
because
The only reason I brought it out was
because I knew whatever else I would
bring out, Moskowitz would make fun of
me. So, I had to bring something
I had to crack open a new bottle. But
I'll tell you that I started with a
bottle of Crown Royal, which I'm sure
most of you guys have never even heard
of.
But I really was going to start with a
beer. I brought out a Stella. Watch
this. A Trappist. A Trappist. A
Trappist.
Stella. Because I normally drink
Budweiser. And then again, you guys are
going to make fun of me. So, I just
figured
So, you I'm trying to avoid being made
fun of. So, that's why I brought out
what I brought out. You went for the big
boy drink. I'm proud of you. Okay. If I
keep looking at the comments,
I'm going to get to me. But if I keep
looking to the side, I'm not being rude.
I apologize, guys. I'm trying to follow
We're on We're on Zoom and Facebook
Live. And we've got comments with
questions. And we've also got anonymous
emails coming in. He's Robert Bader. I
like him already, by the way. I know.
Don't worry about it. It's Dr. Bader.
Big shout out to the person who sent me
a picture of them actually drinking
coffee at 9:00 tonight.
We hope you have a good night's sleep
tonight. So, I'm drinking a glass of
wine. Uh different beverages that speak
to different moments, and of course
don't drink unless you're of age. Don't
drink unless it's responsible. Don't
drink as a solution to your problems.
Just drink responsibly. It's good for
the heart, a glass of wine at night. I'm
having a delicious Shiloh. This is a
Shiloh privilege 2018, the winemaker's
blend. And uh nice, soothing,
comforting, nice uh it's a nice glass of
wine. It's the proper temperature. We've
opened it up a little bit, and I'm
really enjoying it. So, let's begin
everybody by saying l'chaim, to life.
L'chaim. The life should be filled, the
world should be filled only with life,
happiness, and good health. To the two
of you, to all those watching, we wish
everyone a l'chaim. L'chaim.
L'chaim. L'chaim.
By the way, you should let people know
that this is We do this every day. Not
with the drinks,
but this is our meeting.
Everyone's getting a little bit of a
eavesdropping in on something very
special.
We think it's special. Well,
Brody, actually we we work hard, you
know? Like uh
I look forward to these meetings.
this every day, but we're we're working
pretty hard during the day. There are
two types of staff meetings at BRS.
Those that include Brody, and those that
don't. Yeah. Yeah, and be honest, Rabbi
Mott, which ones are more fun?
Be honest.
Definitely with you. Definitely with
you. Okay. All right. So, we we've got
some questions that are coming in
already, and I got some questions for
everybody. I want to start a little bit
light. We started We talked about why
the drink that you chose tonight, but I
want to start light about asking you
during this crisis and during this time,
we're all cooped up in our homes. We're
trying to balance communal
responsibility, which are awesome. We
can come back to how we make these
decisions, and the pressure that we
feel, um with our family, homeschooling
our children. What are you guys doing to
relax? What are you doing to decompress?
How are you getting through this with
all that pressure? It's possible someone
spotted you, Rabbi Moscowitz, a couple
hours ago going for a run in a in a hot
pink t-shirt and uh blowing off steam.
So, tell us about tell us about your
run. I know you were scheduled to be uh
competing in something big. It's a big
disappointment that it's been canceled.
Tell us about that that training, that
experience, and why you're not dropping
it all together during this time.
Yeah, so um many of you know, I was
training to run the Boston Marathon
April 20th, 2020. That is not going to
happen. But uh life is about moving on
from disappointments and uh making the
best out of any situation.
So, the worst thing to do as a runner is
just to stop cold. Um that's not good
for your muscles, it's not good for your
ligaments, it's not good for your for
your mindset.
don't stop.
That's where you don't stop. For me, and
you guys know this, running is never
about uh physical exercise. It's it's a
way that I clear my head. Um the ideal
sense, I'm running with no headphones.
It's just me and the world around me,
the noises, the sounds, the smells. Um
and it's really cathartic. It's really
therapeutic for me. So, despite the fact
that I'm no longer training for the
running for the Boston Marathon, um I
continue to run because it's my outlet,
it's my time alone, it's the way that I
It's the way that I clear my head. So,
for me it's uh it's critically
important. The other thing that I do
and that I'm in the middle of this
phenomenal book right now is I read.
Those are kind of my two outlets outside
of Judaism and outside of family.
What? Not while you're running. Not
while I'm running. No, no, no, no. But
that's You asked how we relax. So, I
relax by running and I relax by reading.
And for me, reading is a way to
transport myself out of this world into
the world of the author. And that's why
um those are kind of my two mechanisms
for how I make my
What are the What are the What's the top
book that you read in the last 3 years?
The book you recommend to people.
Everyone's cooped up at home right now.
Maybe you could download it on Kindle.
It's I don't know if it's safe to take
out a library book right now. You could
order on Amazon
Um so, I actually um when you and I were
in Israel last month, I I read a
phenomenal book which I was very
thought-provoking in many ways. It was
by Yossi Klein Halevi. It was called
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbors. And
the beauty really what what resonated
with me about the book was that there
were parts of the book that I loved, and
there were parts of the book that got me
very upset and angry. And any book that
is able to draw me in emotionally and
really play on to all different sides of
I agree, I disagree, but but to get me
thinking into about issues, um to me
that's a total success of a book. So,
that was a phenomenal
that I just finished reading. Um the
book that I'm reading right now actually
has nothing to do with Judaism, but it
was recommended to me by someone and
it's about JFK and the moonshot and
America's quest for to reach the moon in
the 1960s. And part of what I love about
that and what's resonating so profoundly
with me is it's about dreaming big. It's
about thinking. It's about having these
ambitious, audacious goals and saying we
know it makes no sense right now, but
we're going to go for it and we're going
to make it happen. And very So, what's
what's your what's your audacious goal,
Moskowitz? What's your big go bigger or
go home? I thought we're starting easy.
I thought we're starting easy. What's
the dream goal? No, we're going to come
to that. We're going to come to that.
I'm going to challenge you with that.
All right. But for me, you know, seeing
a time in America's history where
whether politicians or whether the the
you know, general people in America were
aspiring for something great. They were
aspiring to tap into something beyond
this world. So, I think we are doing
that very much now through Judaism. I
think you see people tapping into that
in Judaism now where they're kind of
stuck in this rut um and many people
want to aspire for something greater.
That's why your Emunah class I think has
taken off so much is because people want
to transcend the everyday trivial,
mundane issues of this world and again
to tap into something a little bit
bigger. Nice. All right, have a drink.
Say l'chaim. Loosen up a little bit.
We're going to move down to Brody. And
by that I mean both in height and in
Okay, everyone relax. And where his
picture appears on this
at least on my screen. So, Brody, first
of all, can I ask you to just stand up
for 1 second if you don't mind? Just
stand up.
No, I am not standing up right now.
This is a PG show. My first question for
you, Brody, is when is the last time you
put on a full-length pair of pants?
Dress pants? Have you worn a full-length
pair
want to challenge you guys also.
Have you guys I mean, I know you're
wearing, you know, some suits and and
shirts right now, but I'm saying for the
last
for the for the last uh couple days,
anyone been lounging? Same same pair of
shorts, same pair of t-shirts, maybe not
changing too much. I wore the same
t-shirt 5 days in a row now.
That's amazing. All right, let's
Okay, let's skip that for a second. I'm
sure Okay, no one else wants to answer.
I know that.
tell us tell our audience we've got a
nice crowd around Facebook Live and here
on Zoom and encourage people if you have
questions or reactions or thoughts, then
please feel free to share them. But,
Brody, what what are you doing to relax?
How are you coping? I know you're doing
an incredible project that we're going
to come to later. Um we'll come to that
later. And then through Boca Raton
Synagogue helping an enormous amount of
people, that's very stressful. It's a
lot of pressure. It's a lot of A lot of
pressure. What what are you
even tell you.
I really thought that this week would be
a week where you could kind of sit back,
relax. It's been anything but that. But,
when there are those moments,
I've actually decided I play guitar, I
play drums. I played drums since I was
12 years old. But, I've always wanted to
learn how to play piano and I found this
app. I've been looking at it for the
last few months.
It's not a lot of them. It's a couple
bucks, you know, you pay a month. And
I've actually spent the last 6 days
learning how to play piano. I can play
five chords right now and it takes you
through from playing one hand, one
finger to playing the right hand,
playing the left hand and I just started
playing with the left hand now as well
and I'm on my way to to playing piano.
So, so that's
up to Are you up to Twinkle Twinkle?
No, actually learn a great I'll tell you
I'll tell you another time what song I'm
playing right now. It's actually a very
cool song. But, yeah, I could play for
you afterwards if you guys want to hear
it. Play for you live. But, I'll tell
you something interesting. There's a lot
of basic facts that, you know, you and
I, proud Americans, we should be very
knowledgeable about I came to America
when I was in fifth grade. So, I never
learned some of the basic things like
the 50 states and their capitals. So, a
friend sent me, you know, a test. It
said, "How many capitals can you name
in 2 minutes?"
I'll tell you how many I named. I named
five. I named five. So, I'm just going
to give you, between the two of you
right now, go for it. Name as many
capitals as you can name
together. Go.
Go for it. Right now. Let's just try
this out.
Trenton Albany Albany. Darn it.
Um Albuquerque
Okay, we got three. Those are the three
I got so far, also. Those are the same
three I had.
Listen, our audience doesn't want to
hear this. Let's move on. Anyway, um
No, I'm serious. Anyone know the capital
of Alabama? There's a chat. I didn't
even know there was a chat going on
here. Yeah, there's a chat. Anyone want
to give it? What What about Arkansas?
How about California? Anyone want to
know? So, right now I could tell you I
know 15 states and their capitals.
That's what I spent time last 3 days.
That's kind of proud of you. And while
we're on it,
Sacramento why don't you mention for a
moment your love affair with the Daf
Yomi going on right now?
Got it right here.
Funny you should ask. Now, you might say
that says Brachot. That's cuz the
Shabbat is one. Let me just be clear
here.
I don't learn it. I don't learn it in I
don't I don't open the Gemara. I try
sometimes. Like on Shabbat, I'll do
that. But, what I do, as opposed to
Phil, and I saw there was a question
that came up with books we're reading. I
have a new new policy. I don't read
books. I do Audible.
So, I'm listening to the Daf Yomi.
I'm listening to books.
I haven't listened to a book, I'll be
honest, since last summer, but that's my
If I would listen If I would read a
book, I would listen. And I love the Daf
Yomi. Today was all about Erev Pesach,
which happens to be, you know, what
we're in right now. Amazing. I want you
to know we're so proud of you for doing
the Daf. It's really amazing.
So, I'm playing, if I'm playing, I'm
playing with Jonathan Harris. That's all
I'm saying. He knows a lot. Yeah.
It's a it's a good segue. First of all,
shout out to our coffee distributor in
our community who's pledged
to supply the coffee for next week, next
Wednesday night 9:00 p.m. Coffee Talk.
So, um I'll tell you Josh, for me the
daf yomi has been a lifesaver. I was
privileged to finish the last cycle, it
was my first cycle, and continuing into
this cycle. And um
you know, for me we're living in a world
that's that's rapidly changing. One hour
is not similar to the one before to the
one after it. The news is unfolding in
real time and
the policies, the decisions. And in a
world of so many so many variables and
so much fluidity, the daf yomi is one of
the few constants. And to know that
every day you just you got to get in
your daf before the end of the day. You
don't know what tomorrow will bring, but
I do know that it will include the daf
yomi. I find that to be
I'm so grateful to have this pattern of
doing it already now because um I found
it to be really something which is which
is strengthening me. So, big shout out I
am my Rebbe for the whole first cycle
still learning with him out in Bal
Harbour Shops.
And uh during these days that we've all
been quarantined, got uh Chef Gersh
joining us too. And and props to Chef
for taking on the daf, really proud of
him. So, the daf yomi has been a really
a really stabilizing factor. And we've
needed a stabilizing factor. I'll tell
you for me the other thing I've been
trying to do, which you know, I don't
know if the people watching appreciate.
Maybe they do and I'm not saying this
for for any um
you know, sympathy or appreciation, but
your rabbi, if you're not from Boca,
I'll speak about your rabbi. But right
now your rabbi on Shabbos is working
less hard than they've ever worked in
their life. I've never had as nice
Shabboses as I've had the last two
weeks. Don't get me wrong. Crime. I miss
planning and the seudah shelishit. I
miss all those things. I What's your
favorite part of Shabbos now, Rabbi?
Uh
my favorite part of Shabbos, I love
davening with my kids. I love the fact
that Friday night there's nothing to go
out to. I love being home seudah
shelishit. The seudah shelishit is the
right of the right of the
part of the week. The most sacred part
of the week.
for Shabbos?
Yeah, we've been Yeah. going outside and
singing for seudah shelishit for about
the last hour of shabbos. Unbelievable.
It's going to be
It's going to be hard to give that up.
I'll tell you it's it's amazing because,
you know, you feel shabbos slipping
away. You know that that phone is about
to come back on with its text and its
WhatsApps and its beeps and its alerts
and its news and its reality. And so you
feel shabbos slipping away, but you're
surrounded with family and, you know, I
found that I'm with you. It's like it's
been unbelievable. So, shabbos rabbis
are working not a fraction, 100% less
than we normally work. And during the
week we're working
500% more than we normally work. Maybe
not the campus being open, but the
responsibility, the decisions we're
making, the teaching, the counseling,
the questions, the emails. So, we
definitely need to find a way to
decompress. I do it
yell me, nice glass of wine, it's good
for the heart. And I've been trying to
exercise, which it's interesting because
having less time than ever, but I found
it's more important to try to carve this
time. So, my kids and I have been
challenging them to plank every night.
It started out as a minute and a half up
to 2 and 1/2 minutes, adding a little
time. Maybe that doesn't impress you if
you're a 65-year-old retired Navy SEAL
who did it for 8 hours, but 2 and 1/2
minutes, not bad. Getting there. So, I'm
doing that and
we have a stationary bike that we use.
That has been very helpful. So, I've
been enjoying that. So, it's a good
segue. I want to move over to something
that I think is on people's minds. And
um
I'm not sure I can
say just came back from shabbos for a
second? That's right.
Shabbos is interesting because
the difference is is is is that now from
the moment you wake up in the morning
till the moment you take shabbos
morning, you're with your kids, you're
with your family. So, I could say that
I've never spent more time on one
particular day. There's no school, so
there's no online classes, and it's just
it's davening, which, you know, the very
small piece of the morning, and then you
have it's just time together. There's
nowhere You know one's running anywhere.
Kids aren't leaving.
And literally is menachem avram because
you know the whole world with its
reality is on hold. It'll be there as
soon as shabbos ends. We don't have to
be watching graphs and charts and
trajectories and statistics and numbers
and and
so it's this like refuge. You go hide
there with your family and the kids our
families who are so connected to
technology today, you get to shut off
disconnect and really and really be
together which is amazing. Shabbos has
been fantastic.
Right. But I just want to say but that
thing that challenge is is that by the
time Shabbos is over and Shabbos is late
now. So let's say it's 8:00. You're
Yeah. By the time you
you were you you're with each other.
Phil, you feeling this a little bit? The
entire day? I think I think Phil's body
And I'm like
Rabbi Brody I know he's my anal maharba
but I'm telling you by the end of the
day I'm like we we we just need to all
be be out like let's just do something
else right now. We family time, we just
did it. The whole day. Rabbi Moskowitz
time has knocked him out. We lost him
for
he's going to come back. We're going to
get him back. So I want to segue over to
this topic. I think it's on people's
minds. Very serious topic. We went from
the you know light what are you
drinking? What do you do to relax? Tell
us about your biking to let's talk about
a heavy topic for a moment. First of
all, this just in from our coffee
drinker. Albuquerque is not a capital.
This just in. So that's 14 capitals you
know, Brody.
Not 15. Anyway,
um
One second. I didn't say Albuquerque.
Oh, someone said I think I said that one
but that was I was showing it as an
example of what's wrong. New Mexico just
for the record is Santa Fe. Santa Fe.
Okay, impressive. Let's move over now to
a state whose capital is Albany. Um but
a state which is very much on our mind
right now. We put out the Boca Raton
Synagogue released a letter earlier
today and shared it through social media
as well. Um talking about the
relationship between Florida and New
York. And for the most part um I've
received incredible incredibly positive
response from Floridians in particular
obviously are grateful for the level of
vigilance. Even New Yorkers whether it's
my colleagues, friends or family in New
York who not only understand what we
said but wondered out loud is there
really a New Yorker who would be going
to Florida right now? Nobody's leaving
their homes. Nobody's moving. Why would
anyone think to do that? I did get
plenty of hate, too. I'm a little bit
nervous to ever visit New York again.
I did get some people who were rather
strident in their objection. So, I want
to talk a little bit about the
background about how we come to these
decisions because we have this team and
and each day we convene our kind of mini
cabinet for our Boca Raton synagogue
community. We confer with our medical
experts in the hospitals and infectious
disease. We talked to our post-K that
we're very blessed to have great access
to and we try to come up with decisions
each and every moment that's in the best
interest of protecting ourselves, our
health, and the community to whom we
have this really awesome responsibility.
So, um basically the formula is this.
First of all, I want to just clarify
that I grew up in the New York area. I'm
a proud
grew up in in Teaneck, New Jersey, which
when I got married to my wife 23 or so
years ago, she told people she married
someone from out of town. In those days,
Teaneck when you're from Lawrence, Long
Island was out of town. But today, I
think Teaneck has made the Yeshiva
League. I think Teaneck is considered in
town even by Lawrence standards today.
So, I'm from the New York area. Brody's
from a little bit of a time warp in the
New York area, but also from the New
York area. Elizabeth, New Jersey, I
think qualifies, you know, right over
the right over the Lincoln Tunnel. And
uh Rabbi Moscowitz, well, he's from
Boston. He has been um thank God
repentant, lived in New York for a while
when he was in Yeshiva University,
married, was living in Queens, and
working at Yeshiva University. So, when
we make comments about New York, we're
not doing so as native Floridians who
have any kind of bitterness or anger
towards New York. We love New York. We
are New Yorkers. We live in New York.
We're from New York.
Uh two-thirds of us do. Two-thirds of us
do, but even Moscowitz on 9/11 felt a
little something. And so, we're all
It's not This is not from any kind of
animosity towards New York. We're simply
living the reality. The reality is that
half of the cases of coronavirus in the
United States of America today are in
New York. New York is the literally
ground zero. It is a hotbed. It is the
the core, the center. Not because of New
Yorkers. New Yorkers didn't do anything
wrong. We love New Yorkers. We're not
blaming New Yorkers. It's not anyone's
fault. It's just the reality. So, you
have a population
just saying some of them didn't some of
them didn't react as soon as they should
have. I'm just telling you, I know, I
read, I spoke to a lot of people in New
York. They think the order was a joke at
the beginning. And then, you know what?
Look what happens, you know, you got to
be careful. You could say that.
the bandwagon a little too late. You
could say I'm not saying that. You could
say that.
saying I'm saying that.
joshbrodyahyahu.com. I'm not saying
that. You can say that. I'm saying that
it's not anyone's fault. I This is not a
blame game. Certainly, we're not going
to help anything when we start to blame
people. Because, by the way, the more
there's a stigma to admit It's not even
an admission. The more there's a stigma
to acknowledge that you have a confirmed
case, then the more people will go
underground, the less we'll know, and
the less we'll react. And so, I think
it's really important to not make people
feel guilty or blame them, particularly
when they're not at fault. So, I'm not
blaming New York. Let's not debate that
right now for these purposes. But,
here's the reality. New York is ground
zero. It's the epicenter. And Florida is
the ground zero of the vulnerable
population. This is where we have an
aging octogenarian population who can't
afford to contract it. So, I didn't make
this up. Our governor declared, asked
New Yorkers not to come to Florida, and
said, "Create an executive order. If you
come to Florida and you don't quarantine
for 14 days, you will go to jail." The
president today declared Florida an
emergency disaster with whatever
resources that means comes our way.
Goldberg mask with some Brody who sat in
the back room and said, "How can we get
even with New York? Let's, you know,
highlight them." There's New York and
there is and there is Florida. And we
love New York. New Yorkers come down,
they help our economy. Thanks to the
taxes in New York, more of them are
moving here. And we're helping with our
our real estate values. We we love New
Yorkers. Our family and friends, we love
New York. But, even the people you love,
sometimes you have to love them from a
distance. And that's what our message
was, was that right now. So, you'll say
if you're in New York, "Why do you have
to say that? Why do you have to pick on
us? We're not coming anyway." So, here's
the last thing I want to say before I
turn it over to you guys for a reaction,
is it's not true. What precipitated the
communication today is that we're
hearing and seeing and finding out
first-hand testimony of people who are
saying, "I got a doctor in the ER who
tells me that they're treating confirmed
cases who in conversation mention, 'Oh,
yeah, I just came from New York.'" I got
people who just got back from New York
who now have confirmed cases cuz they
were there for some core visiting. We've
got a supermarkets, and we've got places
where people are We've got people who
see their neighbors come down from New
York, and all of a sudden they weren't
here a couple days ago last week, and
they're here now. We've got people
boasting proudly on social media
platforms about packing the car and
coming down from New York to Florida.
This is There's no room for error in
this. No room for error. There are
people on ventilators. There are limited
resources. Floridians need them for
those who are down here already.
Everyone needs to stay put. That's the
guideline, and that's all we were
asking. So, I called and conferred with
Reb Schechter today in order to find out
from Reb Schechter a psak because we do
have a halacha called mesirah. A Jew
doesn't turn in another Jew. Thank you.
So, we have a halacha called mesirah.
You don't report on another Jew.
However, if that Jew is endangering
Jews, that's not a violation of the
rules of mesirah. Reb Schechter
confirmed that. Reb Schechter, who I'll
say a l'chaim, how grateful we are
Why do you think that you received such
a negative backlash to the post that you
made today? Right, what do you attribute
it to? And the way you laid it out, it's
so obvious. New York has a high
concentration of it. Florida has older
people. Reb Schechter psak. Why did
people react in the really
vociferous way that they did? Well, I
just want to say Reb Schechter again,
the l'chaim is that we're so blessed,
and we thank the Almighty that we have
people whose shoulders are broad enough
to carry us like Reb Schechter who's
making decisions. Nobody knows how
little he slept and how awesome the
responsibility of the decisions he's
making, life and death. And I just want
to thank Rebbe Reb Schechter and and the
many other posts can who have been
putting themselves out and making
themselves available and taking upon
their own shoulders enormous questions.
And Herschel's insistence, by the way,
was he said if you communicate that, you
have to do it as a warning. If the goal
is to deter New Yorkers from coming,
then tell them it's a warning that
Floridians, the is if someone comes and
they're violating the guidelines, that
you can call health services and report
them and there's nothing inappropriate
or incorrect with that. But Herschel
said don't do it as a threat, do it as a
warning out of love. We love you, don't
come, don't put us in a position that we
have to do that. So again, for the most
part it was a positive reaction, but the
people who were the most vociferous
to use your word,
I don't know why they took it. Maybe
they thought we were highlighting them,
targeting them, identifying them as New
Yorkers. Again, I said we're from New
York. It's nothing to do with what state
you're from, it's due to the reality of
the statistics and the data. I think
people are very heightened emotionally.
I think people I'm not sure, what do you
think?
Um
I'm not sure. I was actually surprised.
I was surprised that you received such a
backlash.
Um I was surprised that people were so
flippant about Herschel's that people
were so flippant about the dangers here.
I mean, you know, you and I have
obviously had hours and hours and hours
of conversations about communal policy
and how it interacts with and how it
interacts with the medical advice that
we're getting and that's obviously been
what you and I have been spending a lot
of time with. And I and I I to be
honest, I don't understand how people
can continue to be flippant to the
dangers, to the risk, to the threat that
are involved in this when you and I both
know very well people who are on
ventilators, people who are in ICUs,
when we hear reports from hospitals,
when we speak to
the head of the local who tells us that
they're you know, they're coming up to
crisis situation. So to me, it becomes a
no-brainer, right? It's all concentrated
in one area. Thank God we're we're
relatively okay still down here. Why why
why why shake it up? Why Why risk
anything? Why risk anyone's health?
Especially because we have high
concentration. I don't get it. I think
people don't like being told what to do.
Um especially by rabbis. And um
I'm not sure though. I'll tell I'll tell
you and Brody we'll come to you in a
moment, but I'll tell you you know, all
afternoon I I try to um and again we're
among friends here. I don't even know
how many are if anyone's watching. So,
maybe just the three of us, but
so so I'll admit this and and you know
this, you know, when when people are
critical, particularly when they're
strong, we all try to sit back and say,
you know, even if I don't like the
messenger or the messaging, is there
merit to the message? May Maybe they're
onto something. Maybe we could have said
it differently. So, looking back, maybe
the one thing I regret and and I don't
know that I regret it because I think it
needed to be stated and it needed to be
stated so much strongly to get attention
and to be listened to. But if there's
anything that maybe could be tweaked and
I'll tweak it now here publicly, is
maybe what we should have said is, "New
Yorkers, we love you and we're worried
for you and we care about you and we're
davening for you and we know that the
overwhelming majority of you have no
intent on coming down here and would
never risk us. But for the few, the
minority, who would take that risk,
there's a message for you." So, when I
look back, I say to myself, "Maybe
that's the one difference." Because I
think maybe what what and again, it was
a very small reaction, as strong as it
was, but I think maybe what triggered
them was the sense that they felt that
we were lumping everyone in one bucket.
So, if I could do that again and maybe
we update this communication going
forward, we should be clear. I should be
clear. I take responsibility for this
and I apologize if I offended anyone.
That we care about you, we love you,
we're davening for you. We know the
overwhelming majority of you are just as
vigilant and as being as careful as we
are. But for the few morons, imbeciles,
idiots, fools, who are risking your
health and ours, don't come here. Maybe
if I put it that way, it would have been
better. Brody, let's move over to you.
Talk to us for a moment about the
amazing work. You came to me a week ago.
You said we had an opportunity. We made
a conference call. We spoke to somebody
special. I don't know if you're allowed
to mention his name. And from that one
phone call we had, the three of us
raised some money and launched this
amazing project. Tell us what you're
working on. What's going on?
Yeah, I'm going to tell you about that,
but I just wanted to just get back to
what you just said a second ago. I think
it's the same people.
Like we've got a major issue in this
Jewish world today. It's called sinas
chinam. They're people that hate one
another. They don't get along. It's
their way or the highway. They don't
care about what other people have to
say. And when I said before that
unfortunately there are people that
didn't listen to the the warnings and
they wanted to do their own thing. Those
are the same people that are now saying
this rule, this next rule about coming
to Florida, about doing this, or about
doing that, that doesn't really apply.
And if we're ever going to build a
community, a Jewish community across the
United States or really across the
world, people got to learn just to
respect one another. That's it. Might
not be what you want to do, but if this
is the policy that we all agree on,
Right. then like you said, I mean I'm
I'm going to quote you, but you don't
have to agree on the quote, but your
people are fools. They're idiots.
Same as what people's life and death. I
remember the first day this happened,
you called up. You were in touch with
the heads of our local hospitals. They
told you, "Listen, Rabbi, the first
thing you've got to know, we've got
limited ventilators. That's the biggest
problem. We don't have more resources.
And people going to get sick. Not going
to be enough. It's not going to be
enough. So these people that are going
to come down the game and make more
people sick, it's a big problem. Okay,
just jumping ahead.
We This happened before.
This is not the first time this
happened.
Hurricane. Hurricane, right?
Hurricane.
We're going to call him Hurricane Jerry.
Member of our community lives up in
Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
know if he's watching, but we give him a
l'chaim. He's a hero.
him a l'chaim right now. We love Jerry.
He's a hero twice over.
down here right now helping the flood.
at home. Whatever's in your glass, raise
that glass to Hurricane Jerry.
Raise it. Raise it high. He This
happened during the hurricane for some
some crazy reason. It was like last
minute he got in touch with us and he
said we have three tractor trailers that
are going to be able
to support all of the local Jewish
communities that were hit by the
hurricane.
Palm Beach, or specifically South Palm
Beach, which was intended with a direct
hit. We were the only ones that didn't
get a hit. And because of that, we were
able to service the
as the as the distribution center for
communities south of us, all the way to
the Keys, all the way to the west coast
of Florida, and north of us as well. So,
as soon as this happened, Jerry, who
operates in one of those big kosher
hotels,
uh had to close down his operation, and
he could have done what many of the
other kosher hotels did, just redirected
the food. You know, just don't take
delivery, send it back to distributors.
They'll send it out to their local
retailers, and he would have taken a
loss in all the food he's already
prepared or taken taken uh
taken uh at his hotel. But, he says,
"Listen, I love Boca. I know what
they're doing there. There's no one else
doing what Boca Raton is doing in terms
of their in terms of their work with the
greater Jewish community."
So, he called us. He says, "Listen, I
can give you a great deal. We can
purchase the uh the
uh whatever that that the the food is."
Rabbi Goldberg just happened to have a a
local donor that already had to give him
a nice sum of money. So, that was the
lead gift. And then from there, we got
Jewish Family Services, Hands on
Tzedakah, Jewish Federation,
uh Deborah and Larry Silver, and a bunch
of other community I hope I didn't leave
anyone off there. Chabad as well. They
uh all got involved, and they said, "We
want to be part of this. We want to see
how we can make this happen." We
purchased all the food, and the first of
two major I'm talking about major, not
even normal how much food is coming
down. Two tractor trailers worth
Tell tell us how many eggs, how much
milk.
Well, let me let me let me give you an
example here. You're talking about 850
people that were going to be going to a
hotel three meals a day, 24 meals
times 850 people. You're talking about
thousands of meals. So, families right
now we got a letter uh yesterday from
one of the recipients. I I could read
you the letter right now, I would. I
just don't have it in front of me. But,
I'm telling you, everyone on this call
right now would be crying if they read
the letter. A mother who said she gets
$40 a week, she can't even go shopping
cuz she can't buy the basic necessities.
When she picked up what just yesterday
was the dry goods or 2 days ago with the
dry goods, she said these are things
that she would never in her wildest
dreams would have ever been able to
imagine she would be be able to put on
her table for Pesach. And now that's not
even that's that's only not even half.
It's not even it's a third of what's
coming because all the great meats and
everything for those that have no money
for food are going to come and I
remember but we're sitting there with
Rabbi Goldberg, just the three of us,
got a phone call and next thing you know
it's
but that's the beauty of this community
because everyone just jumped on it. 15
minutes later we had all the financing
in place, all the synagogues, every one
of our local synagogues.
Rabbi how much did they make?
How much money did it take to coordinate
this?
$60,000.
$60,000. How long did it take to
$60,000. The food the value of the food
was was in excess of $150,000.
That's unbelievable. And how long did it
take to raise it?
We raised it in 15 minutes. We
distributed food right now through 21
different synagogues and through our
Jewish Family Services kosher food
pantry. So
You're doing an amazing job.
the beginning. You're doing an amazing
job and a big hats off to both the
donors who came up with the money right
away. You know the money that I told you
I pledged right away
came from an anonymous donor without
being asked. And these are the people
that they pull on my heartstrings. They
really move me. They make me so proud to
be a Jew. Just just proud of our
community. Is somebody just sent me an
email. He said, "You know I sent in
$10,000 to your fund. I'm sure there are
people who are going to be hurting. I
want you to use it to help them. Please
don't mention anyone my name." And you
know we were able to put that to use
right away for you. I didn't even have
to solicit that. I don't get any credit.
That person gets all the credit. And and
you raised the rest of that money and we
can be very proud the community came
together and I think it's one of the
beautiful thing about the project is
that because you have this dual a as the
outreach rabbi of BRS and your
Federation hat. We were able to do this
in collaboration with former
conservative Orthodox because you know,
when it comes to people who are hungry,
nobody really cares what your
denomination, nobody cares what you wear
on your head, nobody cares what you
observe personally. People are hurting,
they're struggling, we don't know how
we're going to take care of Oh boy, the
background comes on.
Plug to the background. So anyway, so
really that's some incredible work
that's going on. Rabbi Moscowitz, what's
been your experience with Are you
hearing from people who are who are
hurting? Are we worried that you know, a
a lot of focus obviously is on the the
health challenge and crisis and that is
the primary thing. If we don't have our
health, we have nothing. That is the
first thing that we're facing. But the
secondary thing that we're facing, we'll
get to the third thing in a moment which
I think is anti-Semitism down the road.
But the second thing that we're facing
is of course the economic and financial
collapse. It's reassuring the markets
come back the last two days a little
bit, certainly hasn't recovered nearly
anything or everything, but it's come
back a little bit. Maybe fundamentals
are strong and we're going to bounce
back. We're not economists, we're a
group of rabbis here. But are you
hearing from people who are nervous? How
is that playing out in terms of like
schools, tuition?
You all have a finance committee meeting
recently. Talk
Yeah, so
So I'll answer that in a few different
steps. First of all,
you and I both sit on the executive
committee of Hillel Day School. We had a
recent board meeting and I mean it
obviously it's an obvious statement that
people are very nervous about what the
future holds financially. You are
starting to see people getting laid off
from positions and really the
calculation that people are making is
that this is a three-month situation.
Most people have enough in savings that
they can that they're able to withstand
it. Beyond that, people are really going
to start getting nervous and
schools and the synagogues are making
plans for that. But you know, God
willing, hopefully this will pass as
soon as it came. The one thing that I'll
tell you
that our community should be enormously
proud of. Rabbi Brody just spoke about
this these anonymous donors and people
that literally threw money at us to be
able to
to do this enormous act of hesed is that
BRS could be very very proud that we
have a WhatsApp group of volunteers.
People aren't taking a penny.
Some are high school students. Some are
young adults. Some are people that have
four, five, six children at home, have
enormous amount of responsibilities. Um
but they have committed themselves that
in this time period where it's very
scary for elderly people to go out of
the house, to go to the stores, to go to
the Grove, to go to Aroma, to go to
Publix. Um these are individuals in our
community who have committed themselves
to basically adopt someone and to do
their shopping for them. And that that's
a big deal. Free Pesach to go to the
kosher supermarkets, to go to Publix, to
honestly put yourself a little bit of a
risk, to take your time away from your
family. I'm sorry. And when I say we've
helped dozens and dozens and dozens of
elderly people in our community, both
within BRS and I'm very proud to say the
majority of which are not in BRS.
They're in Century Village Boca. They're
in Century Village Deerfield.
And in your on the WhatsApp, Rabbi
Gober, I post a hesed opportunity and it
is grabbed up in a millisecond. In fact,
I get text messages from people
afterwards who say, "You know, Rabbi, I
always miss out when you post it. Do you
mind texting me privately first that
you're about to post something so that I
can be ready to grab that hesed
opportunity?" Amazing. So I want to give
kudos to Rabbi Moscow who's doing
incredible job in in coordinating this
hesed part and I agree. You know, what's
amazing about it is our members are are
so eager they signed up. They've been
chasing us. A big shout out to a
teenager Max who put together a whole
network of his friends and who text
relentlessly, incessantly and said,
"We've got this network. We're ready to
go. Tell us who needs help." So, you
know, here we were lecturing people and
telling them, "If you're over 70, stay
home. Don't go out. Distance socially."
So they said, "But who's going to take
care of our stuff?" We said, "No
problem. We got it covered." We can
never get it covered. This is not us.
We've got this network of volunteers and
they're really amazing. I just want to
you know, we're talking about the
economic fallout of this, which we don't
even begin to know yet what will be.
Will we bounce back quickly? Will it
just be the government absorbing the
majority of it by taking on a bigger
deficit and cutting the check for all of
us? Small business, big business,
airlines, you know, mortgages, who
knows? Will we bounce back? But I'll
tell you who's taking a big hit and
they're not going to bounce back from
it. And I want to take a moment to to
talk about them are the people the
Pesach vendors who run the Pesach
programs. You know, um I've had
conversations with I've had the the
opportunity to have conversations. And
um you know, for the most part people
who are signed up for Pesach programs,
different programs, some have given back
100% of the money, some have given back
part of the money, some have said we'll
roll it over into if you'll come sign up
for next year. But these Pesach vendors
are are losing their pants. I know from
our ORB our hashgacha work, it's not
like they're pocketing your money you
gave as a deposit. What they had to give
to the hotel and the food and all the
other things. So, you know, that makes
our our Hurricane Jerry even more
special. All these vendors, we should
have all a great sense of our rachmanus
for them because they're taking a huge
huge huge hit. And uh among others, you
know, we pray for them and and we hope
that they um they turn things around.
They, some of them will be making Pesach
for the first time.
Many people are making Pesach for the
very first time at home. You know, it's
interesting I mentioned in a class
earlier today and um
you know, if you have a health crisis
right now, that's a real problem. And if
you're concerned how you're going to pay
your mortgage or put food on your table,
that's a real problem. But almost
anything other than that is what we
would call a first world problem. The
fact that you have to make Pesach
in the in the context of Jewish history,
that's not a problem.
Right? The fact that your children are
being homeschooled for a period of time
in the context of persecution and
oppression and and crisis and plagues,
that's that's a first world problem.
Right? The bandwidth on your home
internet has to be expanded, that's a
first world problem. So, you know, I
think I think important for us who are
privileged to only have the first world
problems to
to recognize that and be appreciative of
that and realize that we're in a
position to be helping the other people
around us. So, having to make Pesach at
home is a challenge for people who've
never done it before, but it's also an
opportunity. It's where Pesach was meant
to be made. So, instead of looking at
each of these moments as a crisis, we
can embrace them as an opportunity and
try to and try to bring out the best in
it. I want to do that by the way. I am I
also I gave a class last night. I spoke
about this a little bit. Um I think one
of the great opportunities that we're
going to have this year is that because
generally our children come home with
and I know you've spoken about this
Rabbi Goldberg. They they come home with
Haggadahs that are about this big and
they come to the Seder table and we're
excited for all these conversations and
they're literally regurgitating like
robots exactly what their teacher or
their Rabbi gave them to read. And it's
hard to have a conversation. We always
get frustrated by it. This year, I'm
guaranteeing you people will say it's
going to be the best Seder ever because
their kids are not going to be
regurgitating divrei Torah. You're
actually going to be able to have a
conversation. What does freedom mean?
What does slavery mean? What's our
family narrative? Where does tradition
play into it? These are what the Seder's
really about and I think we're going to
come away from this actually much
happier with the type of Seder that
we're going to be able to conduct.
I I love that. That is such a great
point. Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetzky in his
Emes L'Yaakov in Shulchan Aruch points
out in a footnote, he says, you know,
that the the teachers, we have
outstanding teachers. We have incredible
educators. Maybe we'll come back to them
in a moment. They work tirelessly and
they're grossly underpaid even while
they're still paid during this time.
They're doing an amazing job preparing
our children, but to a degree, they rob
us parents of our mitzvah. Our mitzvah
is vihigadta l'vincha. We're supposed to
tell our children and they come home
having already told them the story. And
I think you that you're making a great
point. I hadn't thought of that. But
this year we get to do the mitzvah of
the chamusa. We'll really do the mitzvah
of telling the story to a group of
children who don't have projects and
arts and crafts, who haven't prepared
gematrias and divrei Torah and
highfalutin
ideas.
got a text cuz my wife just texted me
that I insulted all teachers and how
hard they work. I did not. I love
teachers. I admire them. I admire them
even more over this last
best friends Some of your best friends
teachers?
Some of my best friends are teachers.
I'd like to not lose them. But I do
think that this year in particular
affords us Did we lose Brody?
No, I just read the questions coming in.
I just try to figure out how to read
them. We're going to move over to that
one. My point was not to not to
disrespect teachers. It was simply to
present an opportunity that we won't be
having this year. Understood. Everybody
knows you love Everybody knows you love
the teachers. And let's take a moment to
give a shout-out to the teachers. It's
been a little
the teachers. little chatter between the
appreciation to teachers and then we
also want to acknowledge the
appreciation to the assistant teachers
right now who are called parents. Our
teachers are doing an amazing job.
They're trying to maintain their
virtual classroom at home while their
own children are being educated. Our
teachers are extraordinary. They deserve
our appreciation, our gratitude. We'll
use this format to say thank you to
them. But it's an unusual time. We're
also Right, originally the Torah said
that the parents are supposed to be the
teachers. And then we all got too busy,
had other responsibilities, didn't have
that skill set. And we came up a system
with a system where we outsource. And
now we've become true partners again.
We're sitting next to children. We're
doing projects with them. We're
supervising them. There's something
And we we we begin to see also I don't
know if you saw that one where the
teacher the you know, we're starting to
see that it's not the school and it's
not the teachers.
Our kids Our kids have their own issues.
I saw that one too. There's an amazing
amount amazing going on. So there's a
lot to be said about that. We should
continue to to pay our teachers. As
Scott Goldberg's been pointing out,
schools are not closed. They've just
moved over
to another virtual platform and teachers
are still working and need to be paid.
But we also need to acknowledge and give
a shout-out to the parents who are the
partners of the teachers during this
time. And parents are are doing a great
effort. I had an interesting
conversation with a few guys the other
day.
Simone, I had a few I had a conversation
with some guys the other day who were
describing They said, "You know, when I
work, I I have so much energy left at
the end of the day, even though I'm
working so hard. But right now, while
I'm home, this was a guy who right now
his office is closed, he can't be
working. So, he's really helping teach
his children. He says, "You know, by the
time dinner's over, I have nothing left
in me. So, I find it hard to even
concentrate on learning, doing anything
else." I said, "Yeah, welcome to your
wife's world. Maybe now you have a
little bit more of an appreciation." So,
there's a little bit of a reset going on
in the universe that's making all of us
appreciate one another a little bit
more. But let's move over to some of our
questions that have come in. Rabbi, can
I ask you a question? Can I Can I Can I
put the
I was waiting for that.
Yeah. No, no, this is a serious
question. Here we go.
I I happen to believe that great leaders
are defined by how they respond to
crisis. Um in in in that regard, I I put
you at the top of the list because I
think you're phenomenal. Um whether it's
a hurricane, whether it's this
situation, I think you have um just a
good sense, good chush, a good feel on
the pulse of the people, what needs to
be said, how strongly you can say it,
and how delicately you need to say it.
Can you walk us through as a leader of a
very significant community, um and as
someone who has significant following
online, what are some of the
calculations that go in when you make
communal policy? I see Rick Dorfman just
posted in terms of halakha. But it it's
really more than halakha, right? It's
halakha when it comes to our Kayla
mikvah, it's halakha when it comes to
the women's mikvah. There are a lot of
details in there, but it's much more
than halakha, and how do you How do you
go about making decisions? Do you ever
second-guess yourself? Um What What
drives you in in that process? Cuz I
think people would be very interested to
know that.
I appreciate you. You know, I did not
set that
What do you mean? He just He just asked
me what to do. I did not set that up,
and I did not see that coming. But let
me I'm going to answer you in 1 second,
but I see from some of our our Facebook
comments, and I want to give a shout
out. We were talking about some of the
people who are who are hurting and that
we can help. So, um a shout out also to
our kosher restaurants, vendors,
caterers. If you can order from them,
and you can do a double mitzvah by
buying a card or a meal and having it
delivered from someone who's hurting,
definitely help them. Really important.
Our Our friend and hero is on here, Jay
Feinberg, the founder of Gift of Life.
Jay, you're a an hero and a role model
to us all. Jay's remind
I'm from Itzva.
What happened?
He was at my Bar Mitzvah. He got Glila
at my Bar Mitzvah. That's amazing. So,
Jay is reminding us to donate blood and
marrow. It's safe. It saves lives. We
need it. We need those resources. So,
these are other ways. And also, the
people were asking about how they can
get involved in the network of chesed
that's delivering. So, maybe at the end
we'll talk about how you can sign up for
that WhatsApp group and get involved.
But, you're asking a great question and
and I'll tell you the truth. We get
doctors and nurses also, by the way, to
appreciate doctors and nurses. Yes,
medical professionals are on the front
lines. They're risking themselves and
we're so eternally grateful to you and
that's amazing. Also, um thank you to
our wives
I'm being reminded to mention
Really and also really everyone that
works in the medical office, by the way.
Everyone in the medical office, rabbis,
rebbetzins, everybody who is
Anyone else who might be insulted that
we left them out.
Everyone who is alive and breathing on
this earth, we thank you. You're doing
an amazing job. So, And back to the
question. So, back to
My mom, don't forget to thank my mom.
Special thank you, Shmuel.
And my mom, okay. So, and Jay Feinberg
had said what a great Bar Mitzvah it
was. First responders, absolutely
everybody is putting themselves out
there. It's amazing. Our custodian is
still showing up. Our security guard
who's there. It's a we're we're deeply,
deeply appreciative. So,
um you're asking a great question, Rabbi
Moskowitz, and I'll tell you the truth,
you know,
I I it's one of those things that might
be an instinct and an intuition. There's
a lot of things I'm bad at and I'm sure
in the comments people would be more
than happy to fill in what they think I
could improve on. You can text me and
call me afterwards.
Yeah. Some people sometimes, you know,
you have challenges and struggles and
deficiencies and you have certain things
that you feel just very, very blessed.
So, I don't know. I get an adrenaline
rush in these moments of crisis, be it a
a hurricane,
um and the caregivers, I'm getting a
reminder, caregivers and aids who are
showing up the homes of elderly people
who, you know, are risking themselves as
well to be able to do that. Caregivers,
aids, thank you so much. Um
so there there is a I get this
adrenaline release which
I think is is reflective of the fact
that I get an incredible sense of
satisfaction and fulfillment from trying
to help people.
It's It's the most amazing part of what
we do. I love teaching. I love speaking.
Um I love the interpersonal
relationships, but there's nothing more
gratifying. There's nothing that makes
you come feel more alive or or touch
eternity more than feeling you've made a
difference for someone. So there are
opportunities in the rabbinate and maybe
in future episodes of Coffee Talk we'll
talk about why we all went into the
rabbinate and the highs and lows of the
rabbinate and hopefully we can continue
Coffee Talk even when the world gets
back to normal. And um but this is still
a great format. Um the rabbinate on a
regular basis enables you to be involved
with people in their moments often of
crisis and to feel that and to tap into
that sense of fulfillment. But when it
happens more collectively and communally
and globally, it does so even on a
bigger scale. So um
I'll tell you a few things. You know,
the the rabbis tell us in the in the
mission of Rabbi Smarba Itza, Marba
T'chuna, the more advice you seek, the
more wisdom you have. So I don't I don't
take credit for it. I think you got to
surround yourself with a cabinet. And we
have lay leaders at BRS who are
brilliant and smart and insightful and
humble and modest, who know how to push
but not too much and know how to strike
balance, know how to keep us in check
and know how to think things through
with us. And we're so grateful to them.
We have access to In this particular
crisis, we have doctors. You and I, the
three of us, others have been on the
phone with infectious disease
specialists in New York locally. We have
relationships with the heads of the
hospital. You know, I'll tell you in in
the world of APAC and Israel advocacy,
this is just an aside, which I guess
this whole conversation is just a group
of asides. Um in the world of APAC, I'll
tell you the whole methodology of APAC
is you develop these relationships cuz
you never know when you're going to need
them and you can't wait till when you
need them to have them. And I would say
the same is true here, right? If if
you're going to need access to doctors
and experts and hospital personnel and
administration, you can't wait for a
crisis to look up the number and make a
cold call. But if you know them, if
you've worked with them, if you support
them, if you partner with them, then
when you need them, you have their cell
phone numbers, they're accessible to
you, they want to partner with you, and
you're really trying to tackle it
together. So, I think number one is
Marba eats a Marba tuna, you got to have
a good cabinet. I feel blessed to have
the two of you, all of our staff. We
have Rabbi David Shapiro, who's an MD, a
medical doctor, who knows how to
interpret literature and what's going
on, and brings a really level-headed,
balanced sense of self. So, having
access to all of that um
all of that wisdom is really is really
how you do it. Um the other part is the
execution. We have a great team that we
put out our daily email,
which, you know, we've gotten wonderful
feedback on. It's a group effort, nobody
deserves the credit. It really takes a
whole group to put that out. And that we
So, what goes into our thinking, and you
could talk about this also. Every day we
try to say, "What would be of help to
people?" I think the most important
thing is often leadership or rabbis
they're like living in another universe,
they're on a pedestal.
Brody, or they're in an Ivy League
they're in an Ivy Tower. So, we say,
"Well, let's pretend we're the consumer.
We're the congregant, we're the member.
What would we be wanting? What resources
do we need? What information do we need?
What would be helpful to us?" And then
we leap into action. So, whether it's a
list of the restaurants, we're you're
helping the restaurants by promoting for
free the discounts they're giving, and
people who can know who could deliver.
Oh, the elderly, they probably need a
network of people who could drop things
off. Oh, um whatever it is that we're
talking about. Lion Country Safari, you
can ride through in your car for $15 for
your family. It's an activity, it's
safe, you're out of the house. Let's
share that. Everything we come across.
Tomorrow's email, give a little preview.
Tomorrow's email is going to have the
resources the government that's given
out money to know both federally and in
Florida how you can access some of the
emergency funds that are there. Support
groups, right? You had this great idea,
one of our therapists reached out to us
and said, "Would it be helpful if I did
a support group?" Boom, now we've got
it. So, I can't take the credit. I think
it's a matter of convening the right
people, asking the right questions, not
being afraid to react and to get into
action. And the last thing I'll say is I
think what's really important is just to
stay calm.
Stay calm, keep it cool, collected, know
what you got to do and do it. You can't
be a leader if you panic, if you're
afraid, if you're anxious, if you
project a sense of of fear, you just got
to be calm and know what you got to do.
Stay calm, do it, and be confident
everything's going to work out from
there. But we've got That was a great
question, thank you. We've got a few
other questions, and we're already 55
minutes into this. I could go all night,
but um I'm not sure how long our
audience, if we have an audience, will
stay with us. So um
Let me ask the next question. One of you
can tackle this.
Um
Zoom. Rabbi Moscowitz, Rabbi Brodi,
Rabbi Moscowitz, either one of you. So
we know last night, boom, it hit the
Jewish news streams that a group of
Sephardic rabbis in Israel came out with
the fact that you can you can you can
broadcast your seder over Zoom.
So
we believe in that, we buy into that.
Yes, no, why yes, why not? Very
sensitively, carefully, how do we how do
we deal with that? What's our reaction
to that? I've always wanted to join your
seder. Now I can do it.
Rabbi Moscowitz, go ahead.
All right, I'll I mean obviously,
listen, I'm not a posek. Um I believe in
deferring to poskim, much bigger
shoulders. You and I share that
commonality, whether it's a Rav Asher
Weiss, whether it's a Shachter, whether
it's my personal rabbi, Rabbi Yaakov
Neuburger. Um so these are the types of
shailos that I don't think individual
rabbis should be poskening. These are
shailos that rabbis should be discussing
with people who are far more
knowledgeable um than they are. I will
say this.
Um one of the things that I think the
Zoom shaila has shown
is how nuance often times gets lost in
psak halacha.
In other words, if you really read read
carefully
um that psak halacha, which by the way
was walked back by the majority of the
poskim that signed on to it, where if
you read what Rav Shachter put out
today, um which I think you posted
online, um is very evident. I know I had
a conversation with a prominent rabbi in
Israel about it today,
um, offline. I think one of the things
that gets lost in P'sak Halacha in an in
an age of soundbites, in an age of
Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, is
nuance. In a P'sak Halacha like this,
there's an enormous amount of nuance
that's involved. So, when these poskim
wrote that teshuvah,
it was not meant for the majority of
people. It was meant for a very specific
subset of who they were very nervous
about when it came to this year's Pesach
Seder. And in the context where they
were writing the P'sak Halacha, I
completely understand it. It's going to
be a three-day Yom Tov, people are going
to be alone, it's enormously challenging
if you have mental health issues to
begin with. I told I empathize, my heart
bleeds for for people in that situation.
Um, what worries me is that when a P'sak
Halacha now goes viral on Facebook, and
that nuance is lost, so you have people
who that P'sak Halacha doesn't apply to,
who are taking and saying, "Ah, see,
it's muttar. If it's muttar enough for
that person, it's muttar enough for me.
And therefore, my daughter is in New
York and me who's in Florida, we're
going to have Seder tonight on Zoom."
So, I think that's where there needs to
be an enormous amount of nuance in P'sak
Halacha. And I think that's also where
we have this concept called "Asei l'cha
rav." You mentioned a mishna in Pirkei
Avot, so I'll mention another one.
Right? You're supposed to make yourself
a rav.
and I'll raise you a mishna, yeah.
Okay. No, but you're right, you make
yourself a rabbi, which means that just
because a few rabbis in Northern Africa
issued a P'sak Halacha, doesn't mean
that necessarily that's something that
you can rely upon. That's where you
contact your local rabbi or your local
posek and you say, "Does this apply to
me? Here's my situation, here my
circumstances, is this something that I
should be applying to myself or not?"
And your rabbi, who knows you and who
knows your situation, can decide in a
way the heavy issues of Kedushas Yom
Tov, of mental health challenges, etc.
I I that's a very important point, the
the nuance of it and the fact that you
could debate the the merits of the
Pesach itself, but the way that it was
celebrated and and I think it brings us
to another point which we'll get to in a
second, which is when this is all over,
what are the things that are going to be
hard to undo and go backwards on. But,
you know, maybe speak to us a little bit
about the Sinai, what you do over at
Sinai and talk about that vulnerable
population who could be alone right now
who need a seder. What are you doing
about What do you regularly do for them
and what are you doing for them during
this difficult time?
Yeah. So, first of all, I think also
with the with the uh
with the Zoom seders, it's it's it sort
of makes you realize that there really
is a big population out there that this
actually does,
you know, apply to. Not that they should
rely on this. I'm just saying that like
my mother, just say my mother doesn't
know where she's going to be for the
seder.
She's like, I should be at home. I don't
know if I'm going I'm going to, you
know, my in-laws. Maybe she's there and
she's not going to be there because they
going to do their own thing, which
they're going to be alone. She lives
right down the block, but there's a
concern of coming and hanging out with
the children.
we're being asked that right now on
Facebook is what are we doing for the
singles or people who are alone right
now.
think I think even if this we're not
going to have a solution for the Zoom
thing, the question is what are we going
to do? Like that's like it's a big
problem. It's a For you and I it's not a
problem cuz we're going to be with our
kids, but but there are people that are
going to be alone in our community. Um
So, let's Yeah, let's
tell us about Sinai first and then we'll
move over.
What's Sinai? I mean, again, at the end
of the day it's it's Sinai I remember
the first thing that the first thing
that changed for me during this whole
coronavirus uh
uh situation was going into Sinai. I go
there every day almost. And
What is Sinai? What is Sinai?
Sinai is a local CCRC, continuing care
retirement community. It's got an
independent living, assisted living,
memory care, everything you would need.
Um and it's state-of-the-art. It's one
of the
five stars. It's one of the best in the
in the entire country. What's so great
about it is that it goes to assist many
people in our community and the the
the uh
income that's produced will
help our own
community campaign. So, it's it's it's
something which benefits everyone.
Benefits our local
needs and as well as those that are able
to afford that that type of program.
But, I remember when I walked in there
and all of a sudden, this is before like
anyone raised the alerts. It was a week
before. And they had a
you had to walk, you know, you couldn't
just walk through the regular entries.
You had to walk through and start
washing your hands and the Purell and
everything. I was like, what is going on
here? And all of a sudden, you start to
see something something very different.
What's interesting is they just
installed a system which is an
like an internal cable TV system where
they can now broadcast programming, live
programming. So, for example, there's
going to be something I'm going to be
doing with them live or recorded before
Pesach.
And it's going to be broadcast in all
the homes,
all the residents' homes about the
Seder. So, so we are working to do
things like that. And maybe we can do
stuff like that even on the circle. If
we just
we come up with something. You know,
that speaks that speaks to one of the
challenges we have. We know, we're doing
this right now on Zoom and Facebook
Live. But, what about the demographic of
our community who have no idea how to
turn the computer on, let alone access
these platforms. So, they feel very
alone. We know, we try to share always
the telephone number to be able to dial
in also to classes and programs like
this. But, we got to do better to figure
out a partner system or a mentor system
to help some of the older people have
access to these things. So, let's catch
up on some of the the questions that are
coming in, including the one about what
we're doing for singles. So, one of the
questions Rick Dorfman wants to know
about making a siyum for the firstborn
on Pesach on Zoom. And Rav Schechter and
Postkin and Rav Moshe Weiss have all
said that we can do that. Both because
of the fact that the origin of that fast
is in itself doesn't appear in the
Gemara and therefore it's really
basically essentially a custom. We can
be a little bit more lenient and you can
consider yourself to be participating in
the siyum for this year over Zoom. And
we're going to schedule many, many Zoom
siyumim so people from around the world
will have options of to be able to tap
into to be able to do that. Um the
question was also asked to me that
what's the difference on Hanukkah? I was
in Israel and I mentioned that I watched
my family light candles and answered
amen when they made the bracha over
FaceTime. How is that really different
than Zoom davening? Why aren't we doing
the Zoom davening or a Zoom seder? So,
um without getting into the whole
halacha right now, but um the Talmud
tells the story in Alexandria, Egypt,
there was a huge shul and the people in
the back couldn't even hear the chazzan
in the front. So, they had someone stand
in the middle, he'd wave a white flag,
and the people in the back knew to
answer amen because the bracha
concluded. So, we learn from here that
anytime, even if you don't hear the
bracha directly, but you know that
you're times for when it ended, you can
answer amen. So, answering anything over
real-time stream, Zoom, Facebook Live, a
telephone call, you can answer, but to
fulfill a mitzvah or to combine to be a
minyan, that you can't do online. That
is something which is not which is not
permissible. Um I'll move over for a
minute, I want to come back to the
question of what we're doing for
singles. It's a critically, critically
important question, but I want to move
over for a moment to talk about
a concern that I have that I don't be I
don't see being spoken about or
considered a lot, maybe because we're in
the heat of the crisis, but how we
unwind some of the things that are
happening. You'll see a lot of
communities and I'm not sitting in
judgment of any. I love all communities,
I love all rabbis, I love all people, I
love everybody. I'm just I just love
everybody. I'm an ohev Yisrael. However,
you see some communities who are hosting
Zoom davenings. You see communities who
are streaming, Orthodox communities
streaming Kabbalat Shabbat, welcoming
Shabbat. And I have a very significant
concern about this, which is not living
in the here and now. You see, you know,
yes, Rabbi Moscowitz earlier about
leadership and how you make decisions.
And I think part of the way we have to
make decisions is with an awareness of
the past and acute understanding of the
present, but also an eye to the future.
What happens when this is over and how
do we unwind or unravel some of this?
And I'm curious what's going to be next
year. Are people ever going to come sell
chametz in person again or now that
we've taught them you could do it
online? Are people ever going to attend
minyan or class? Are they going to be
like, "Rabbi, just stream your parsha
class. I loved watching in my gotkes
from home. Why do I have to come in
person and fight for parking?" Are
people ever going to So, you know, here
we've taught everybody that Kabbalat
Shabbat left for Shabbat, accept
Shabbat, receive Shabbat. This is real
Shabbat. And the next thing you know,
we're streaming and using technology.
Why not call it an era of Shabbat
kumzits? By calling it Kabbalat Shabbat,
what are we saying for the future about
what Shabbat really is or when it
starts? And uh if you can have a minyan
over Zoom, what are we saying about
whether you really have to come to shul?
Can't you just have a stream from shul
and now conveniently daven from home?
So, I'm not criticizing or saying who's
right or wrong. All I'm saying is I
think it's really important as we're
innovating and as we're embracing the
opportunities to both do that, but at
the same time have an eye to the future
to figure out where do we go from here
and what does it look like afterwards?
How are we going to unwind some of these
things that we're doing right now? We
sent out today, and we're going to get
to this, too. I'm not going to go much
longer, but I want to get to some of
these questions. We sent out some new
mikvah protocols. So, how do you unwind
that? Normally, we tell women there's a
halakha when you come home from the
mikvah, you're not supposed to shower
right away. Now, we tell everyone shower
right away. Normally, we say do your
preparations here. Now, we're saying do
them there. All of these new things, are
we doing an adequate job saying these
are unusual circumstances? These are
extreme times and that's why you can do
these things, but as soon as we revert
back to the privileged times that we
were used to living in, then we're going
to do away with these leniencies and
will the world follow us and come back
to that? I don't know what you guys
think about that. To me, it's it's one
in the same as the Zoom shaila. Right? I
mean, it really comes down to how do you
apply psak halakha in uh in difficult
challenging situations and how do you
make it clear that these are for very
specific times and very specific
situations, but when we come back to
normal times, it's not going to apply.
Listen, you and I both know I already
got a few texts about it from from some
friends who found uh this uh this
halakha psak, but it's brought down in
certain sources that there was a time in
history when uh kidnyos was um we're
more lenient kidnyos because of the
difficult challenges. There was a plague
ravaging through uh
through the area and it was decided that
to make it a little bit easier on people
they would make a long kiddush. And so
that
it's a very similar situation where
you're you're lenient for a very
specific time in a very specific
situation, but that lingers. That sakala
lingers and and how do you employ it and
how do you not? And and I think that's
where the nuance and that's where the
asal harab really comes in. Is um and I
speak even for myself that that's where
I rely on people far bigger than me,
whether it's you, whether it's uh other
poskim that I have, but uh but to guide
through that process and to be able to
walk us back a little bit and say,
"Okay, that was for when coronavirus
was, but we should understand we relied
on minority opinions, we relied on a
concept called shas at cha. We relied on
on leniencies that we otherwise wouldn't
employ, but to understand that requires
a knowledge of of of the evolution of
sakala and how sakala is employed."
Absolutely. Can I say one thing quickly?
I just want to say I I I think the world
has changed forever. I don't think I I
think there obviously halachic issues
that we're going to have challenges
with, but we'll step we'll we'll figure
it out, we'll come back to where it
should be. I think this technology piece
where there's always been online
education, but I think schools now and
students
have started using it in a way they've
never never never done before. It's
certainly our membership, people, older
people, adults in the community are
using it now. I think we're about to see
a whole new world of online education
that we've never seen before. I wouldn't
be surprised if around the United States
you're going to start seeing new online
Jewish schools or some form of like a
hybrid between our local schools now
starting to use this technology because
they start to see that it actually can
work in some some form. That's an
amazing point.
That's an amazing point. Maybe we'll
we'll explore that more in next week. Um
what do we hope lasts after this? What
do we hope doesn't last? And what are we
afraid won't last? I'll give you an
example. Everyone right now is pining
to come back to shul, longing. I can't
believe I can't daven in shul. I hope
that will last. I hope that desire and
longing will last to be in shul
collectively as a community. So, that's
a question and some homework for you for
next week is what do we think will
change forever? What do we think we hope
will not change forever? And what do we
wish would change forever but we're
afraid it won't? Those three questions
are I love that. I love that question.
That's an important one for next week.
Um, I just want to address to one other
thing and then end on a light note
again. Um, first of all, we're being
asked, "Oh, don't forget our
secretaries." Yeah, the shul personnel
who've been who've been showing up and
getting their job done, we're so deeply
appreciative. Thank you so much. We love
you and thank you for all of your We
your help, we really appreciate it. Um,
we're asked here about the mikvah. So,
just comment about the mikvah. The
singles we said we'd come back to and
then we'll end with a light note. So,
um, the mikvah, you know, I definitely
we sent out our correspondence today
about the mikvah and I think the most
important part of the communication we
sent was the fact that we said that a
woman who's afraid to go to the mikvah
who's afraid, her own symptoms, other
people's symptoms, the mikvah and its
ability. A woman who's afraid absolutely
must not be pressured to go. Not
pressured by her husband, not pressured
by the community, not pressured by
mikvah or rabbinic leadership. A woman
who says, "I'm afraid, I'm simply not
comfortable going." Now, what's the
consequence of that? So, you'll say,
"Well, I had a few women who reached out
and said, 'Can I go in my swimming pool?
Can I stand in the shower the length of
tisha kabin a certain measure of
water?'" And the answer is no.
The halachic definition of a mikvah is
not met by the pool. It's not met by the
shower. For men who don't really have a
obligation, a biblical obligation to go,
it could be met by tisha kabin but for
women, it cannot. So, the consequence of
a woman who's fearful from going to the
mikvah, not going to the mikvah means
she's going to remain a nida. And that's
a very serious issue. We're not
minimizing that in the least. However,
um, there are circumstances where a
woman remains an a nida for prolonged
periods of time. After she's given
birth, she's a nida often for 6 weeks
and longer. Um, a woman who has spotting
from an IUD will often be a nida for
extended periods of time. Woman who God
forbid is going through treatment or
illness is going to be a need there for
an extended period of time. So, this
might be one of those trying
circumstances for which we have great
sympathy, but there are no alternatives
to it. A swimming pool doesn't work,
neither does the shower. We're doing the
best that we can. So, we are using all
the precautions we can, making sure that
the mikvah is open and available. Our
mikvah attendants are among our hero
list. We have a long list of heroes who
are going every night and being
extremely careful to preserve a pristine
and sterile environment as best as they
can, and we're seeking the cooperation
of women in order to do things a little
bit differently to ensure things are
safe. Um but that's not one of the areas
where we have flexibility. The
flexibility that we have, so to say, is
to ensure that husbands and no one else
pressure any women who are concerned.
And if it means they wait until they're
comfortable and confident to go, then
that's what it will take. And as hard as
that is, husbands have to accept that,
and so does everybody else. Let's talk
about singles for a moment. Rabbi, I
just got a text. Do you want to address
oceans?
Oceans, yeah. Oceans are viable mikvahs,
and I've actually sent a few people, but
we've got a problem. The beaches are
closed right now. Legally, you're not
allowed to go. So, we can't promote
going or violating the law to attend a
place that you're not supposed to be.
First of all, if a policeman comes to
the beach and finds you in the beach, in
the ocean, in that compromised position,
that will not be a fun story to tell.
So, we'll bail you out, but that's not
going to be a fun story to tell. So, the
beaches are closed. Unfortunately, it's
not a viable option. If the beaches were
open,
if the beaches were open, and you have
access to a legally accessible beach,
then an ocean would be a viable mikvah,
but you would need your husband to watch
to make sure all the hair goes under
water and to serve essentially as the
mikvah lady in that circumstance, and
the more details of it are are not for
now. But yeah, that's why we didn't
include that as a viable option because
the the beaches are closed um right now.
The last thing was was the singles
question, and it deserves a lot more
than the the few moments we're going to
give it now, but it's an enormous
question, and nobody takes it lightly.
Um
we feel for anybody who's alone or could
be lonely and Pesach is communication.
It's question and answer. It's
camaraderie. It's kind. It's
companionship. So,
the Agudah, RCA, OU, Young Israel, Vaad
of Lakewood, and a whole group of
organizations have cooperated. This is
in itself very refreshing and Messiah
might be coming just from that. But,
they've cooperated on a couple of
statements lately.
And one of them included the following.
They said that if a single quarantines
themself for 14 days, has no symptoms,
and wants to join a family that has no
symptoms and hasn't been around anyone
with symptoms, and they're going to be
the only one spending time on Pesach for
meals. So, that the single's not going
to have one meal here, one meal there,
one meal the other place. And the
family's not going to host the single,
but also host other people. So,
essentially you're going to pair a
family who are healthy and haven't been
around anyone unhealthy with a single
who's been healthy and hasn't been
around anyone healthy, and they're going
to have the meals for Pesach together,
whether they stay there or stay at home,
but just join for the meals. They
recommended that that's something which
can be done, and we're going to explore
creating that. That's actually on a on
tap for tomorrow. So, it's a little
preview to our meeting and our email
that's going to go out tomorrow. So,
we're going to be working on that. I
want to end on a light note.
We began on a light note. I want to end
on a light note. Again, Rosh Chodesh. If
you didn't daven Maariv yet, don't
forget to daven Maariv. It's one of the
hardest part of no minyanim. Don't
forget to daven Maariv. A chodesh tov.
Chodesh mevorach to everybody. But, I
want to end on a light note.
Um a light note for us, maybe not for
the people who are themselves in this.
There've been some Zoom horror stories
that are going around. Have you guys
heard of any of the Zoom horror stories
and what what should we do about it?
Talk about it.
Brody, take this one.
I didn't expect that.
Let me tell you something. Okay, I'm
going to tell you what I what I think is
that people need to be aware of what's
going on. Let me just tell you
something. You might not be aware
on. Hold on. I think we were just joined
by Matthew Hackerman.
Matthew Hackerman, I gave him a shout
out at the beginning. Shout out to Matt
for the Lagavulin.
No, for the Dalwhinnie.
Can we Can we bring Matt on the uh on
the on the on the on the video? I don't
know. Can you call Can someone call in?
Maybe for next Maybe we'll have some
sponsors.
That must mean Rabbi Gibbers' fire chat
fireside chat is done.
Can we Can we merge both programs, us
and Rabbi Gibbers' program?
Listen, the truth is I don't want to
embarrass anyone with the Zoom stories,
but there's been some Zoom horrific
aware. Cover your camera.
What do you recommend, Brody? Give us
some Zoom rules of
I'll give you some recommendations,
okay? First of all, you've got cameras
on the front and the back of your camera
on your phone, okay?
You never know which one is operating.
Trust me, you never know. So, what you
want to do is you want to cover those
cameras.
And also, you want to be aware that if
you're paying it if you're watching a
shiur, don't do it in the bedroom.
And this You're going to say this goes
without saying, but I got to say it.
Don't do it in the bathroom.
You're going to say, "What are you
talking? Who on earth would bring a
camera to a bed?" Just trust me. It's
happened on many many occasions. The
advice to mention
the person giving the class doesn't
always see it, but you see all the
reactions of the people watching. All of
a sudden, you Oh, what's so funny? What
What's everyone laughing about? You You
know what?
Take a look at the instant replay.
Be careful. We're going to do away with
the Zoom horror stories collectively.
We're going to bring etiquette back
again and make it great again. I want to
thank our uh special guests tonight,
Rabbi Moskowitz and Rabbi Brody, our
first ever. To be honest, I'm feeling a
little verklempt. Coffee Talk Moskowitz
and Rabbi Brody, I hope this was
entertaining and informative for you. It
was for us. Wishing everyone a chodesh
tov, which should be a zman geulah, time
of great redemption. And please God, we
should gather only to be able to drink
l'chaim to one another, to good news,
besoros tovos. Brody, apparently, we
lost
you, Menachem. I don't know where he
went, but thank you so much for joining
us and wishing everyone a fantastic
night. Thank you so much.