#46: Behind the Bima - Special Guests: The Bluefelds and Rick Smith Jr.

hi i'm robert goldberg here's my dear friends rapping muskrats and rabbit building we are here to take you behind the beamer guys what are you doing here what do you mean you guys are getting old we're playing for your retirement retirement we're just getting started guys it's bedtime wow from boca raton florida rabbi's ephraim goldberg philip moskowitz and josh brody are taking you behind the bema the brs rabbis schmooze about contemporary issues and talk to special guests who give a behind-the-scenes look at how they got to where they are and what keeps them going welcome to behind the bema it is wednesday night 9 p.m i'm your host robert from goldberg joined by my dear friends and colleagues rabbi phillip moscow it's in rabbi josh prudi and we are here we are here to take you behind the that was great how beamer were they academy award presentation that was a fun and a great opening by our proteges by our assistants by the next ones who are lining up to take over for us when we are as they said ready to retire that wasn't easy to coordinate it took several rehearsals and practices but that is the perm fund that behind the bema brings to you before we even get started on an action-packed purim episode that we promise we promise is going an hour maybe a little bit more but nowhere near the marathon session that you've been doing but we've got a recovery from last week what i mean last week's episode just ended a couple minutes ago in fact one of the guests that we have on tonight that we're so excited about we're going to celebrate their 80th wedding anniversary and when i post it online we're celebrating their 80th anniversary it was yesterday someone wrote 80 years that was the length of your last episode that was pretty funny but anyway we have amazing sponsors tonight not just one but two first of all we continue to thank our dear friend dr donath dailygiving.org dailygiving.org more of you have to sign up the ability to give a little a dollar a day adds up to millions that are given away every year to worthy causes dailygiving.org an amazing platform to enable giving stucco every single day but tonight is also sponsored by one of our community members a dear friend jeremy gelbart and his tremendous tremendous new company which is called beepermd.com b-e-e-p-e-r-m-d dot com which offers free at-home pcr testing and thirty dollar rapid testing it's uh established by one of our onshore members and as i said free add-on pcr test 30 rapid antigen tests and you can get your pcr results in less than 48 hours imagine your whole office the whole school the whole community could get tested once a week you could go into an event shabbos a meeting knowing that you're safer all you have to do is be in touch with [Music] beepermd.comermd.com we thank our two sponsors tonight gentlemen how has your week been thus far as i said i'm still recovering from last week last week was it was a matter it was a marathon i told disagreement a little disagreement when it ended right when this whole uh this whole uh fundraiser ended was it before shabbos which one of us would have won and then did it end after shabbos when the other one won so well let me give you a short time update let's give let's give everybody a real-time update not only a real-time update but let's give an enormous thank you we are not going to harp on the global campaign you see it's not in the overlay uh those watching on youtube first of all please subscribe if you're listening later on the podcast please rate and review but we had a goal for our global community of 100 000 and we are close to 106 000 right now and so we want to give an enormous thank you enormous to the close to 900 people around the world who want to be part of the global brs community the global brs movement the global brs nation want to learn with us want to read and if you're a member of that brs global community you're going to be joining a special email list you're going to get very special things maybe a little extra bonus coverage behind the bema bonus devray torah bonus writings for the brs members who are of course our primary focus but the brs global community as well so here's the update on the rabbi moskowitz rabbi brodie i was asked to announce this not by rabbi brody but in the rabbi moscow it's brody i would have brought it up anyway this week if you're listening to the marathon last week you heard and you saw the close close race between the two and uh there was neck and neck a dollar by a dollar and last minute rabbi brodie pulled ahead they concluded it rabbi brodie brought in nine thousand five hundred thirty nine rabbi moscow it's 8429 tell you the truth it doesn't really matter who brought in what what we met and we beat jewish people we are so grateful the jewish people are our winners and we're so grateful to our global community who want to be part of what we're doing we got a great perm episode for you tonight as we're getting ready for the jewish holiday of purim festive joy is fun all of us could use a little bit of that we'll reflect a little bit later on what it means to be coming up on a year since this all began the last normal thing most of us remember was the holiday of purim last year holiday parliament was a little modified i reread the sermon i gave the week before permanent last year and basically i said hey wash your hand a lot try not to sneeze if you got a cold stay home otherwise you know stay calm carry on you got nothing to fear and then in fact i said there's one guy we know in new york who's got corona and we should all die for him that's as far as it went that one fear that one concern and here we are a year later and boy has the world turned absolutely upside down absolutely i wasn't even looking i was even looking at the weekly because we had before we had closed down last year we'd already entered the weekly for that week and i was looking at that weekly which were our recommendations that by then we were already recommending that members over the age of i've not come to show that shabbos but we told everyone else was perfectly safe and that was printed on i believe it was thursday and then by by friday we were shut down and it was um it's uh it's pretty wild i think that we're a year later how much has changed i remember we were going to have amazing we had a big outreach purim suda planned where we have the magilla being red and every year there's someone that comes over and he called me around two o'clock saying he's not going to be able to make he doesn't feel that great he has a headache it's one of our friends so i said come on you have a headache just take take it take an aspirin he's like no it's a little bit more intense like it's like more like a cold or maybe a flu like i got i got a hundred people waiting here for you to read the mcgill come over read them again you can leave right he he said i'm not coming and we found someone else 100 people in your house we've got we've got an amazing lineup for you tonight we're going to spend time with a couple who are both 100 years old and yesterday celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary that is longevity in every which way but first we're really excited we've got a phenomenal guest rick smith jr uh some of many of you have heard of him an illusionist and a comedian a card thrower from cleveland ohio he is world famous his youtube videos have millions of hits his incredible illusion sleight of hand but he also carries several uh guinness world records for his card throwing and we are so so so excited to be able to welcome on tonight we had the great fortune of seeing him recently at a bar mitzvah here in boca and he's available to do bar mitzvahs for others but it is a great pleasure and a great joy to welcome rick smith jr rick how are you tonight i am good how are you guys we are doing great so rick i know that you've been on ripley's believe it or not i know that you are on the ellen show shark tank tonight show america's got talent you appeared twice on a fan favorite in my home dude perfect you got a popular youtube channel is it true that all those appearances pale in comparison to your appearance tonight on behind the bema i mean this has to be the biggest opportunity that i've ever heard i mean [Music] you guys allowing me to come and perform maybe a magic trick or something forever to help celebrate firm i'm glad we were able to work it out with your agent it was a big deal and this could really launch something very special i know that your first three videos on uh dude perfect got 150 million views after this appearance i would expect that to nothing but nothing but double but rick before we get to illusion card tricks and the holidays purim even its theme talk to us about these world records uh world record for farthest playing card thrown 216 feet 4 inches most accurate playing card throwing 50 out of 52 cards hit a 5 inch radius and highest playing card thrown at 70 feet 3 inches how did you know you had that talent and where did you practice so there was no practicing i'm a magician and i was also an ncaa pitcher in college so i played baseball and i found out that i had this crazy talent of being able to throw a ball 90 miles an hour plus and one day by accident i picked up a playing card through it and found out that i could throw playing cards farther harder and more accurate than anyone in the world and ended up breaking some guinness world records back in 2002 i broke my first world record for the distance throw 72 yards so 216 feet 4 inches and it basically was before social media so there's no youtube no instagram i i kind of went viral with associated press like the front page of the local newspaper but it went worldwide so it launched my career breaking world records i just broke another one um this year this was uh wow the most the cards thrown out of a deck of cards um that was 50 out of 52 cards into a target and um i'm planning on making some more world records coming up soon congratulations what is that conversation like what is that conversation like when you go to your parents and you're like mom dad i'm going to be a professional card thrower for life what is the reaction you get it's not much different than saying i'm going to be on behind the beam every week it was uh it was a no-brainer i was able to i was able to i went to college i got my degree in marketing and business and i was able to make enough money doing local magic shows barbot mitzvahs in the cleveland beechwood area i think some of your followers might even be familiar with that um i did that i still do i still do barbed metals i still do birthdays i do corporate events big huge illusion shows and um you know when i was able to buy a house at the age of 21 my parents said you guys you could do whatever you want better better than med school so here's my question for you is rick so we saw you at a bar mitzvah and you know people should just know this is not some everyday you know entertainer performer really really exceptional special and if you have the privilege of being able to bring rick in you're lucky and i'm sure you know we'll we'll give out some details how you could be in touch with him but the bar mitzvah and big muscle up to the landers again and thanks for help for tonight uh what a fun event what a great event and you did your card throwing where the bar mitzvah boy had a carrot in his mouth yeah jacob had a carrot in his mouth i can't believe his parents let me do that that was pretty extraordinary and you you threw the card it's such a trajectory such a velocity it sliced the carrot have you ever sliced have you ever injured one of your one of the celebrants for which you were performing well this is live so i really can't talk about that but no i've never heard anybody on purpose an accident on accident i should say i've never heard anybody on accident there you go it really it really is amazing and 90 miles an hour at that bar mitzvah they actually had set up for the kids by moscow and i are known to compete a little bit so they actually had a how fast can you throw things set up both of us in our suit and tie and mask with our wives ready to kill us uh couldn't tear ourselves away because we kept upping the record of where we got and it topped out i threw 58 miles an hour in bemas was 59 miles an hour neither of us could move our arm for a week and that is 25 miles an hour slower than the slowest curveball in the major leagues so how do you hit 90 miles an hour what is it it's all about torque what's it about yeah it all comes from i would say it comes from your legs honestly i was a swimmer in high school but i was also a baseball pitcher and you know i was always taught to just keep to strengthen your arm just throw long toss so you start at 20 yards 40 yards 50 yards and you keep on going and one thing that separated me from anyone else in my college baseball career is i was the only one to be able to throw a baseball goal post to goal post on the football field and being able to throw that long toss you know enabled me to build up this arm strength and body strength to be able to throw i mean it's it's mechanics and the way you move your body and how you how you move and how you spin um it works well then one thing for any of the kids watching card throwing can it can come with some risks i've had two surgeries right here i've had an ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction uh from throwing so hard wow be careful anyone that's why so i want to ask one of the questions then we're going to we're going to have you do some tricks on rabbi moscow but one of the questions so this holiday of program that we're celebrating the jewish holiday param the jews were threatened in what is today iran but persia back then had enemies who wanted to annihilate us and the whole story that we read from the bible doesn't have god's name in it and the whole goal of the whole theme of the holiday is to realize that so much of what we see is an illusion that what we see there's much more than meets the eye and what looks like coincidence or random or chance it's really god almighty he's pulling the strings he's choreographing curating life and the world is a matrix it's an illusion but behind it this meaning there's order this purpose there's god which brings us to you and and what you do um so how has how is being an illusionist and the ability through sleight of hand and the magic that you perform does that impact the view of the world has that impact your your view of relationships of people of experiences of things to realize that just like you're able to cause others to conclude things that are much more than they seem so too in life like we just don't know what's going on behind the scenes yeah i mean i i i use magic as an entertainment source to bring people together to bring a joy to people to bring people back from their their worries and things that they're having in life now and bringing them back to that joy and magical feel that they had as a kid so i use magic as an entertainment you know i'm trying to bring smiles to people's faces and you know just interacting i get to meet people from around the world i got to meet some of you um i've i've got to travel to many different countries and perform for people that don't speak english or so i feel like the art of magic and this whole thing that i do is a universal way of watching something that brings joy to everybody so that's really why i like doing it i mean i do this not i mean i do it for my job but i mean originally i just did this for fun i would i would perform for free when i was younger um now now it's my career who's the coolest person you ever performed for who was the most exciting other than jake landau ah let's see um so i was a t i was on a tv show called shark tank and i ended up you know working kind of with mark cuban a little bit and i've had the opportunity to perform with him a few different times and i feel like he was probably one of the coolest celebrity people that i've had the chance to interact with amazing that's amazing what's your feeling when you do it when you do a magic trick i mean i was thinking of some of the one things you did at jake's bar mitzvah and you know when like you first came on we were like okay it's a magician it's an illusionist how good this can this be and by the end you had the place eating out of the palm of your hands and it was phenomenal and fantastic what does that feel like as performer when you go in there and you know you just gave people this incredible experience you brought smiles to their faces you took all the anxiety a code you let them you know relieve it a little bit what is that like as a performer when you know that you that you accomplished your goal there i mean it feels like i'm doing what i'm supposed to be doing i mean i'm i'm there to entertain and you know let people forget about all those worries like covet and everything else they're having so hopefully it took everything off their mind for the 45 minutes to an hour that i performed and you know brings me great joy and pleasure to be able to do this as a career i mean i mean not everyone gets to do card tricks for a living i mean i feel like it's a it's it's definitely a gift from above up above that's incredible i was wondering also as a magician a losingist do you watch other magicians and say you know that's really amazing or once you're kind of in this field you kind of get you know the tricks already yeah is it is there stuff that still impresses you absolutely there's there's magicians that perform that don't perform that just creates so um there's creators and the creators are the ones that are trying to fool us performers and once they fool us you know we spend the money to learn how to do a trick or you know take a lesson from that creator and that's just another way i mean we can create ourselves as well but there's some guys that are just pounding out magic tricks and coming up with the next best thing and it's just a way for us to learn it i tell i tell the young audience that wants to learn how to do magic because i teach on my youtube channel as well for people that are interested um if you search on you'll find it but i tell people like playing the piano you have to learn mary had a little lamb before you can go play mozart or beethoven you have to learn all those steps and and principles so i don't know just it's a journey for sure just imagine if we could do magic tricks like before at russia you get up in front of the whole synagogue and you're right you do one trick every week people think you're amazing like what you just did here's a sleight of hand i'm gonna make you all stay awake for the next 10 minutes some of our congregants some might want us to make disappear but we would never do that right so rick we know your time is limited tonight and we're so grateful that you're spending some of it with us uh anything that you want to show us any i do so being that we're in this age of cobit you know i have to do a lot of the stuff virtually and you know for the past six seven months my buddy and i we put together a show called virtually impossible where we can bring our show to you anywhere in the world through a computer screen and i'll show you one of the tricks right now so who who's going to participate with me very simple the top two rabbi moscowitz and rabbi brody all right rabbi mousekuitz you ready i'm gonna throw something through the screen you have to catch it here it comes catch it good this is good so what you just caught is a virtual deck of playing cards they're virtual okay so what i want you to do is i want you to look at those cards go ahead and look at them okay i'm sorry rabbi you have to take them out of the box otherwise this will not work get going rabbi okay here we go now i'm ready now you're looking at the cards you can see everything from the ace of spades on the one side all the way to the king of hearts or queen of queen of hearts or king of hearts on the opposite side if you were to choose one of those cards in the middle i want you to reach in grab that virtual card out you have to do it i know it sounds silly but grab that virtual card out i'm gonna look away i want you to show the other three look away i see it they see it they're crazier than i am card upside down put it back into your deck of cards and throw them to me perfect so now now that i have your virtual cards for the very first time tell everybody what was the card you picked nine of spades that's impressive because you could have picked any playing card now this deck if you look through the cards like this with me you'll notice that the one card that you did flip upside down um is in my deck now and you said the nine of spades no way this is crazy because you pick that's the part of the show where you explained to us what you did right yeah yeah that's incredible it's fun so i mean if any of your audience is watching and they looking for a virtual show they're looking to bring me to a barbed mitzvah everything is friendly everything is is perfect for the audience that i'm performing for i i have a perm event this friday here in cleveland or beechwood ohio um that i'll be performing for uh that i've been performing for for the past i don't know five six seven years and um do a lot of fun stuff so look me up ricksmithjunior.com my name look me up on youtube instagram wherever you guys want to find me and and i'm there i have to ask you one other question because my son is guinness book of records that's right my son loves him i'm not in that book because the records are different every year but i am in a few of the books i think i'm in the 04 book the 07 book and the 13. wait you could probably just he got me the spades wait hold on hold on you guys moved just hit you no it hit me but it's hitting me in waves it's crazy first of all i have to i have to thank you because since the bar mitzvah you gave my son a deck of cards and every night i'm sitting there at the dinner table and there are cards flying through me and he's like i got nine feet this time i got 11 feet this time so we got cards flying around our house rick doesn't pay he doesn't pay for the surgery that's on you that's on you if you took it up um dude perfect tell us about dude perfect what was that like they were their group great group of guys um had a great time working with them it's like basically working with they probably are like a family like they're all five brothers basically that they work together they go to the work every day i mean they have it's a real job eight to five pm every monday through friday and they develop trick shots they perform them they film them they edit them they have their own network facility um of editors and photographers and everybody gets along it's such a good group such a great environment and that's probably why they're the number one youtube channel in the world i mean are they number one i mean i think in the us they're number one mr beast is coming up on them but i think right now they still have the number one seed wow you know i will say as uh for behind the bema audience uh if you're looking for something wholesome clean fun appropriate these guys are really focused on on being that way to really be trans-centric child friendly and it's just entertaining it's great and if you find it and it's great that you are on there rick thank you so much for your time thanks for being appreciated thank you thank you for the illusion i'm going to do a little magic trick of my own right now make you disappear thank you [Laughter] wow that is so cool that was great to learn how to do that what a talent great what a talent i was actually nervous he wasn't going to get it and i'd feel bad for him on live air but he nailed it how did he you don't feel that way every bar about that's what we've been to they have a magician illusionist and you're like what if what if they don't get the right number what if it doesn't work what if it doesn't happen but they are who they are and they get what they get because they're good at it and he's good at it so people check him up and you'll be entertained you'll enjoy and share it with people you know he was a lot of fun and the purim spirit of illusion this world is an illusion and god is the greatest illusionist of all he is the greatest sleight of hand we think we know we understand we can see but really he's the one calling all the shots behind the scenes in a really really extraordinary way so that was that was a lot of fun um gentlemen yes the wi-fi rule did hold by the way absolutely more famous the person is the worse their wifi is yeah the wi-fi rule continues to hold there's no question in fact when you did the big reveal of the nine i wasn't really sure but i want to move over to someone who had a bad week this week namely nbc nbc had a rough week and nbc had a rough week because saturday night live had a potshot joke at the jewish people at israel which is the jewish state and the jewish people and you know there's some controversy some say like you know can you take a joke can't you laugh first of all among the most defensive parts of the joke was that it wasn't funny if you're gonna make it if you're gonna have an offensive joke at least let the punch line make you laugh and feel guilty about laughing it wasn't funny but it was so offensive and you know some point in the process between the writers the rehearsal and actually saying it on live tv you would have thought someone might say maybe this isn't really the way to go it might not really be the way to go so um you know a little disappointing first so i just want to add this in the banner for people to be able to check out uh just that goes for your other point also which is that the second story you're going to tell also wasn't wasn't needed it was gratuitous it was it wasn't funny and that and then and then they did it all over again nbc had uh uh what's the show called nurses i think nurses a show called nurses apparently very popular they had an episode that uh demonized jews in fact this one was so egregious and so heinous and uh and csy nbc has since pulled it nbc has pulled it because it was so offensive so i don't know like at no point along the way did anyone say in in this world of of of of sensitivity did no one like think that that would be horribly offensive to the jewish community yeah what was the scene i didn't see it i didn't hear about that one the scene was again i just watched the clip but uh this uh hasidic boy was in the hospital i think he needed like a leg transplant or something and uh the doctor comes in and says you need a leg transplant he says well it's going to be a goyish leg it's going to be an arab leg and one of the nurse happens to be an arab and she says yes like what's wrong with that the whole point was it was showcasing the the closed community of the hasidic community and stereotypical and how how uh you know prejudice they are against other people and it was just it was gratuitous it was so egregious it was unnecessary and it was downright offensive honestly i found it interesting the contrast between the show which nbc has actually taken down i don't even know what that means they take it down from like nbc on demand i don't know exactly what it means they took it down i think it was already aired so the the contrast between that show which they realize crossed the line uh but the saturday night live joke which nobody's even had a comment or made a statement about that they left up and that i think is something which is which is pretty fascinating so i'll tell you why i raise it and then we're gonna have a great privilege of welcoming the bluefields on an amazing amazing couple we should all merit to that longevity both in life and in marriage so you know i posted something um online basically saying about saturday night live episode this was before the other egregious uh insensitivity and offensive episode and i basically said why does canceled culture apply to everybody but the jew if you say a racist or you say some other offensive and sensitive comment then cancel culture kicks in person gets fired they get deplatformed they get unlisted they get whatever the whatever it is and yet when it comes to offending the jew or israel cancer code doesn't reply so ariel reiner on twitter asked me i think it's a very good question he wrote quote purely a clarification is the point that canceled culture is bad but one society does it we should too or is the point that some cancelling is good for deterrence and this is one of those cases and then how do you draw the line and i thought that was a great question what is our view of cancer culture is it so first of all my answer is that we didn't invent cancer culture we didn't start it we didn't welcome it it's here and once it's here apply it equally we can debate whether we should take it away we could debate whether it has merit to begin with but once it's here applied equally across the board and when you don't apply it equally to the jew or to israel that in itself is a form of of anti-semitism a term that malcolm honline here on behind the bema told us we should not use or take lightly so i don't know the two of you have an opinion is cancel culture good or bad in the big in the big picture does cancel culture um disincentivize or incentivize people not to be offensive because they're going to be canceled or are we too much empowering the wrong people to determine who to cancel and who not to cancel well i i don't i i agree with you in in your assessment of it which is that we didn't create cancer culture my big hang up is that the lo the rules should be applied equally to everyone and part of my fear and part of my frustration is that when it doesn't apply to everyone it makes you feel like the stomping ground right it reinforces age-old stereotypes of the jews who are going like sheep to the slaughter and the jews who allow programs to happen and the jews tolerate anti-semitism and it reinforces those age-old stereotypes of jews who are powerless and things were supposed to be different coming to america religious freedom post holocaust the state of israel things were supposed to be different and now you come to a day in age where religious sensitivity applies to every population under the sun except for the jews and the reason why i get away with it is because all of those stereotypes that we don't want to believe in well maybe there's some truth to them maybe the jewish community isn't mobilizing in the way other communities are to stand up against it because you and i both know that if we mobilized the way the african-american community would have mobilized so the arab community would have mobilized right things would be different most jews shrug their shoulders they say it's anti-semitism it was a bad joke and they move on to the next news cycle oh yeah you know it's interesting i saw when the adl put out that that statement against saturday night live and they said here's a petition sign the petition so obviously you know it's one of my uh colleagues here in the community put it up so i signed it right away and then i was wondering because he's got a lot of friends like how many people shared this thing and there were very few people that originally shared it and then i'm thinking myself well maybe they're not i shouldn't be sharing it because no one else seems to be sharing it so maybe i'm i've got the wrong maybe i'm making the wrong assessment or the wrong judgment here no one shared it there was like no one talking about this the important question that it raises is one again that malcolm homeline on our show behind the bmw we had that discussion i thought it was really important malcolm homeline the the head of the conference of presidents who's dedicated his careers life it's worth going back and listening to that episode if you haven't you can find it on youtube or on your podcast player don't forget to rate and review or subscribe but he made the very important point that we cannot throw away throw around the term anti-semitism lightly when we accuse something of being anti-semitic when it's not then you know the term loses its significance its meaning and its power so you know there were people who kind of said we read an article by somebody who called it a blunder a misstep it's not funny shouldn't have said it but you know so that's the question is you know when you make a joke about israel that is vaccinated half the people the jewish half and you are perpetuating let's say you're right let's say you're right let's say it's not anti-semitism we do not agree that it's grossly sensitive and in this day and age where sensitivity is that is held to the highest esteem see how to be more sensitive you gotta be more sensitive to populations and the way jokes are going to deeply offend entire communities even if it's not anti-semitism it doesn't meet malcolm hollande's definition it's insensitive it's inappropriate but it's an interesting balance because if everything's anti-semitic then nothing is but if nothing's anti-semitic then there are no semitic people because they will wipe us out so in other words you like that that was that was nice i did like that that was nicely done that was that was honestly a little late at night to be doing that but yeah waxing poetic so no the point is that you know if if you if you if you scream fire for everything when it's not you know if you scream uh what's the thing you're not supposed to speaking poetic now i can't even find the words what's the example you're not allowed to yell or they're not going to come save you if you say too many times i know you're talking about it very it may be late at night maybe our sons are right and it's right time to retire maybe the boys are right and it's time to hand it over one second our fact checker is weighing in wolf crying wolf that's it thank you if you cry if you yeah of course you retire if you cry wolf too many times then uh you know you can't on the other hand you know if you're always saving to cry wolf and you never cry it then you won't even be around it'll be too late so where does it start where is it i'm just going to point out it's more than that and again there's there's a line are all the millions of people that are now posting cry wolf they'll also we got it the canary these are all good listeners we're grateful to you thank you exactly no but it's the canary which basically says oh canary in the coal mine here we go no because if you don't nip this in the bud if you allow it to ferment itself then it becomes cancerous and that's the that's another concern i think it's right right i agree with you you're right each one is is is might be insignificant in and of itself but when it creates a pattern that now makes it uh allowable and now makes it excusable so that's a problem for the jews because we've seen where that's gone in the past yeah so who are the judge and jury adl ajc which alphabet soup of the jewish organized community who are all amazing and wonderful and have done great work so is it for the individual for us do we individually decide what we feel is anti-semitic and oppose it online or do we defer to organizations who are specifically dedicated and have studied the issue but it is an important thing to consider each of the time these things happen i'm grateful in this wonderful week that there was some sense of a rally cry around it and at least with one of the two offensive things nbc walked it back and hopefully there's a lesson to be learned because the goal by the way is not to make further enemies the goals to educate and the goals for people to understand and to come back and to become as educated become great advocates for standing up for and defending the jewish people does the fact the fact that it's a joke make a difference let's say it was a funny joke right does that make it excusable because you and i have listened to comedians that i don't want to say names and get into trouble but even jewish comedians that will sometimes make off-color jokes and sometimes nowadays with our contemporary sensitivities we'll cringe a little bit does the fact that it's it's in the it's in it's it's humorous that it's a joke does that make certain jokes more excusable than if it was done outside the context of comedy right well one of the major experts in my life my mother has texted me and i agree with her the reason it's egregious is because israel is accused of being an apartheid state so what seems like a very benign or innocuous joke but it's feeding a narrative it's feeding a horrific narrative which is unjust unfair a lie and an anti-semitic lie make no mistake not just anti-israel anti-semitic to suggest that israel is apartheid or mistreats more arabs have been inoculated in israel than the countries around it or the opportunity has been there and they haven't been able to inspire them so it's it's not benign and just like it wouldn't be benign for others right the culture we're living and doesn't treat it as benign for others but it's heir of paramount we don't want to talk about the sad and the scary things although part of the lesson of purim i've said this via torah maybe as frequently or more than any other israel by salvation's insight that the miracle of purim is not that we survive the miracle of purim is that an anti-semite got up said what he wanted to do and we believed him and that is the miracle of of purim and that should not be lost on us so uh we have to recognize and stand up to to anti-semitism in our time but we have the privilege now of speaking to two very special people whose adorable couple ever who've lived on this earth for a hundred years each and have been married 80 years 80 years we'll reflect on it after the conversation but now it is a great privilege to be able to welcome them on behind the bema and to be able to welcome lou and edith blufeld we are so grateful to be joined by an amazing couple right here in boca raton florida i saw this story a couple weeks ago online this was covered by several several newspapers and online websites and then i happen to notice the couple live in boca raton i said we have to have them on our show so it's a great joy and a great privilege to welcome lou and edith bluefeld thank you so much for coming on behind the bema with me rabbi goldberg joined with her by moskowitz and rabbi brody hey so let me tell our our audience that we are celebrating an extraordinary milestone truly extraordinary uh lou first of all happy birthday two weeks ago turned 100 years old and please god this coming august edith is gonna join you in that club at a hundred years old and i have to tell you both the good news the good news is that they say the first hundred years are the hardest so it should get easy from here the really the really extraordinary thing is that yesterday on february 23rd the two of you celebrated your 80th wedding anniversary yes that's really amazing yes lou what did you have to buy what what does one buy for their 80th wedding anniversary it's very easy i always ask edith what i should buy for her birthday and so what she said she said she has had all the gifts and now and now we're lucky we have the gift of god because we're in good health we're blessed and we thank god every day we really are blessed to be in good health at this age that is a blessing and it's extraordinary and extraordinary that both of you please god thank god i and hara should just continue in good health so you were both born in 1921 you married in 1941 and here we are in 2021 100 years after your birth 80 years after your marriage tell us about your upbringing where were you born and how did you meet and i know that you ran an amazing business and were able to cater for and meet some really special people so share with us a little bit about it well we met at at 16 years of age incidentally i do the talking but edith is really the boss i just wanted [Laughter] like us just like us exactly we met at 16. uh we we got engaged uh egypt was 19 and i was 20. we got married in 21 in 41 that was before pearl harbor incidentally and uh and and in 1943 uh i was called into service and so i was in the army three years yeah for three years i was i was in new guinea and i was in the philippines and we were blessed there because i saw no action and uh incidentally while i was overseas edith sent me a letter every single day every day because she saw what it was when we were in mississippi how people fellows would standing waiting for the mail and get no mail and it was so disappointing and she felt so sorry for them you're sad and and so when i went overseas she sent me a letter every day and in 1946 in april i came back i was discharged and uh our business was during the war year there was really no activity but in 1946 after the war it seemed that everybody wanted to have a party and so our business grew and my brother and myself my mother started the business in 1937 just to tell everybody it was it's a kosher catering business correct you're catering and uh and incidentally rabbi uh there were many caters all over the country as you know kosher my brother and i both insisted that if we have a kosher we wanted to be represented by a rabbi of not our choosing and so we we went to the rabbinical council in baltimore and asked them to pick a rabbi to represent us and so it was done it was done honest from the beginning and uh and with that we it was respect on both sides and we built a very healthy business it was done without signing contracts in baltimore it was a very lovely jewish community it was and still is a very good jewish community and we grew with the community and going back to my father when i was young the thing that he instilled on on the children is norman kept saying nolan and couldn't make us understand more than your reputation is everything right and and in our business our reputation was impeccable if we made a mistake and we certainly made our mistakes we owned up to our mistakes and and people appreciated the integrity and it didn't hurt our business it helped to build that business we respected the fact we knew that when somebody had a bar mitzvah it was very very important to them the kind of money that they were going to spend they're looking forward to it it's unique and to each person having an affair is the most important thing ever at that time right and we respected it that way and now lou you didn't only cater bar mitzvahs i understand that you catered in the white house and for presidents but let's come back to that in a moment could you tell us a little bit you were both born in america in 1921. so were your parents immigrants or grandparents immigrants where did they come from tell us a little bit about your families yes um my father came over in 1906. his parents sent them out because he they were from russia and uh they were having the programs and his father and mother sent them and said you go to the united states he was young and uh and said you'll have a life and if if you stay here there'll be no future for you and so at 18 years of age he had he had a girlfriend who was my mother and he said i promise that i'm going to go and i'm going to make some money and i'll come back and get you my mother said yes it's it's forget about it i know it won't happen anyhow my father landed in baltimore he became a painter he he lived on herring and bread saved everything he he made and went back the following year he saved up enough money to go back go listen uh in the bottom of the ship and he went back it was 25 dollar charge he picked up his bride and they came back to the united states and in 1907 is when they started their life uh in the united states and uh it it was it was difficult at first but but they mastered i come from a family of seven children uh and and my father uh went into a business and in the in 29 uh they were we were wiped out completely my mother who was very active in charity work in those days did cooking she would cook and the money that they would make would go to bring over other immigrants or help them in 1937 is when she started her little catering business and from there it grew now the unique part about our business is that even though we were a kosher operation and started with affairs that added up to 200 dollars a bar mitzvah for 250 dollars we grew into an organization in baltimore and washington right kosher but at the end of our career we had close to 50 percent of our total volume was non-jewish work even though it was kosher wow wow and the reasoning was that it so happened that the hotels didn't serve well the non-kosher craters did not appeal to nice people and so any one italian nice wedding greek nice wedding we catered them in in baltimore wow and we grew into the political field because our our work was a little little better than everyone else and it hadn't taken and so we did many many jobs and we did another inaugural one of the inaugurals for nixon wow just goes to show you what a good name and a lot of integrity can take you the ultimate was that i think it was 1977 when carter arranged for the the uh the peace plan for sadat and uh and began anyhow uh it was the first kosher affair served in the white house it was 200 people wow and we catered for them in the blair house all week wow and that was the pinnacle we heard the reason the deal went through was because of that great food [Laughter] well anyhow we sold the business in 1984 and uh we came down to the boca west in 1985 full-time and we've been very fortunate it was the right place for us and we have been very very fortunate that a lot of ballroom people my friends who are 15 years younger i did their bar mitzvahs i did their wedding and something and it sounds like i should be 120 years old but but that's been a summary of our of our career so here's the here's the question on everyone's mind here's the question on my mind for both you and edith what do you attribute what do you credit your longevity tell a bunch of young guys i don't look so young but i'm a young guy tell our young listening audience what are the lifestyle choices what's important in life both of you again kanai nahara a hundred years old 80 years of marriage what do you credit your longevity a long life to what's important for people to know and lou don't forget yesterday was actually my wedding anniversary as well we shared february 23rd except i was only i'm the one who how many years are brody 24 so we've got about another 60 to go to catch up no but we really want to know no i want you to know that one thing is that we had arguments like any any normal couple but we never never ever went to bed angry at each other number one that's that's that's one of the things i i feel strong about uh edith is very easy um she did everything if i would pick out my clothes in the morning i would check with edith is this shirt all right she was the one that really did everything as far as making a house making up the family i i was i was working but it worked but the biggest thing is that what i see today unfortunately is that somebody has an argument it becomes no talking angry it's awful we don't get involved in those things in later years whatever edith said if i thought it was wrong it was no big deal if it was important enough and i said no that was the end of it you just knew that other than that the small things that people bicker over it's sad because it's so unnecessary it means nothing it's usually about something that's un unimportant so number one the older i got the more i i realized that the little things you leave it alone he just has an expression that um that today is bad tomorrow will be better and and her father and mother believed in that and she always repeated over and over and said well it's a bad day that it'll be better tomorrow but the lit but the little things uh we just don't make a big deal out of things and we were blessed and uh ironically it's not that we watched what we ate or go to the gym i didn't have the time of the luxury of going to the gym but when we were but when we got here in uh he said we're going to a nutritionist and so we went to a nutritionist and she said we're going to get in shape and on our way out the nutrition said where do you live we said local western apartment where told her what floor was the fourth floor says you know what try walking up and down the steps once a day that was 35 years ago you know it's a lot of steps we rarely use the elevator if we if we went out with our neighbors they knew they went to the elevator we went to the steps the doctors over the years have said you don't realize what doing that did for your your your your muscles your balance it's an amazing thing costs nothing right but how important walking activities are please don't sit don't sit you have to be mobile i want to know that today i walked up and down those steps twice today we just don't use the elevator at night we'll use it now uh he just uses it a little more but it's been a godsend and as the doctor said lou you have no idea that that is better than all the medicines and things that you could have done so two don't sweat the small stuff don't don't focus on the small stuff and it's all small stuff and don't take the elevator when you could take the stairs it's really um it's an it's an amazing amazing story so we're celebrating the holiday of purim this week we're celebrating the miracle of the jewish survival against enemies in your combined 200 years 80 years that you've experienced together you've seen a lot of miracles from god the founding of the state of israel and the six day war and other miracles do you have any reflections on that reflections about god about judaism about the miracles that you've lived through well the one the one miracle that i keep talking to everybody about is that it's hard to believe i think i think i'm correct i think that there are about 15 million jews in the world i think there's about seven and a half million in israel we have about six million here in the united in the united states the rest of the world maybe there's another million or a little over for 15 million and maybe i'm off a million but for 15 million people who is nothing it's nothing the kind of results that we have given to the world is just it's i i cover i fell every day uh what israel has achieved and is achieving is unbelievable i mean for for a group of people from the 1940s to accomplish what's been a con it's just unheard of uh i remember in 70 i think it was 72 or 76 we were in israel and i was on a bus and asked the driver uh where where's the israel line and uh proudly he said where it's green it's israel and where it's nothing but dirt that that's the palestinian land so that it it's that that's the wonder of wonders i i constantly we discuss it if we sit at lunch i mean we discuss it with the fellas because it's remarkable what we've achieved and are achieving for the world all good it's a remarkable thing i don't have to tell you where we came from and where we were pushed out of and what it's remarkable now i may be off but i think the 15 16 million total in the world is in line and it it's unbelievable i think so that's amazing so all these articles written about you guys you've been on the news now you're around behind the bema are you taking your newfound stardom in stride what are you doing with all this attention about you two of you now well i found out that i'm a ham [Laughter] and god bless edith i'm a sheep and she goes she goes along with me and i just want you know so that you can remember when you get to be 100 milk it for all it's worth i get on the phone and i get on the phone the first thing i say please help me i'm a hundred years old and then i'm gonna ask that's great well we want to thank the two of you lou and edith first of all a very very happy birthday 100 years old each of you and a happy anniversary 80 years in today's day and age it's hard to get some of the young couples to be willing to compromise and stick together for eight minutes or eight hours or eight months or eight years let alone 80 years hashem god should give you many many more good health and happiness with your family and only the best of everything so we'll leave you with one more thought cementite very very happy purim thank you for joining us on behind the bhima and we look forward to welcoming you back for your 90th anniversary thank you thank you good health amen good health to you and be careful thank you [Laughter] i love it i just want to say that in that in that couple edith plays the role of rabbi brody on behind the bema he's trying to get a word in so what great advice what great advice take the stairs don't go to bed angry and when you get to 100 milk it for all it's worth imagine how many stairs you walk think about that over the course of a lifetime it is great advice yeah and it's an easy thing to do you got to do one of them anyway you might as well do the stairs instead of the uh instead of the elevator i'll tell you who gave me muscle about that who gave me uh feedback about once i was in the belfor hall and youtube university and i was about to take the elevator and rabbi mayor of goldwyck came in the came in the building and he pulls me by the arm he goes no no come with me and we went up to the 11th floor never forget i was gassed he was like running up like it was nothing i was gassed and from then on i always took the stairs in belfor hall that was my exercise similar to my friend lou you you please god will live till 100 years old and if arielle will put up with you you'll be married for 80 years but it's good uh i remember once visiting i was once visiting la there's a coffee bean on the corner there in l.a near where there's the hotel that a lot of people stay in beverly hills and across the street a little bit up the hill below the wiesenthal center below up the hill there is like a two level outdoor mall and there was a gym on the second floor there was an outdoor i believe escalator next to a staircase and i was watching all the people on their way up to the gym take the escalator and stuff yeah so it is funny the way we work you know there are people who will like they'll park as close to they can at the gym or they'll they'll insist on driving to the gym even if it's like a block away because when they exercise they exercise and when they're when they're not exercising they're not exercising you know it's possible that we have an avid listener and former multi-time sponsor who when he plays golf he goes in the cart and even if the other people are walking he says when i work out i work out when i play golf i want to be in the cart i'm not working i'm not walking imagine if he would walk imagine yeah totally disagree i know we're talking about totally disagree with him that's really funny he's walking it's beautiful out there he's wrong i love him but he's wrong right he's wrong he is wrong well we promised an hour tonight we're going to break the marathon we promised an hour but before we go it's possible that our opener did not play for some people and we promised that we're going to play it again so we're going to actually end the way we open we'll come back on momentarily but this was the way we opened tonight in case you missed it hi i'm robin goldberg here's my dear friends robert muskwoods and rabbi building we are here to take you behind the beamer guys what are you doing here what do you mean you guys are getting old we're playing for your retirement retirement we're just getting started guys it's bedtime that was the way that that was the way we watched that over and over and over again yeah it's the nicest thing you know it's not just it doesn't have to be rabbis it could be anybody it could be people who work together just friends but you know when you're blessed with children which we don't take for granted i hope people attend the summit last week of i was supposed to be a mother i forgot the website's name but the important summit on this subject if you're blessed to have kids so when you're like the closest to friends then you've got kids and they're friends and you could see the next generation what a blessing never take it for granted we hope and pray for those people who want to experience it but seeing those three boys at the microphones how cute was adorable adorable the best part was how excited they were for it right they were so all day all day they were talking about it was really adorable by the way the daughters want to get on one now i heard that and we're gonna make it happen of course behind the bema is uh very open that way rabbi moscow if moshe came to you and he wanted to be a rabbi would you steer him away from it would you be proud not for a second i would be enormously proud what greater contribution can make to the world and bettering the jewish people than being there for people in their time of need then i would it would be my greatest source of pride but if he doesn't want to be that's fine too i will support him in anything that he wants to do as long as he strives to become the best version of himself wow nice and rabbi brody eitan comes to you says i'm going to be a rabbi what do you say uh i'm joining your shule give me get me a c that's great i feel the same way with the with the challenges and opportunities we talked about last week in a three and a half hour five rabbinic couple marathon um which is now being it's being shown in yeshiva university uh smeaco program right i heard that i heard smithfield programs all over the world it's global it's global i do want to have a shout out because the the global movement ended we talked about the final numbers but they were not final at all because a dear dear friend of mine shy stern has given a very nice gift and shy from the bottom of my heart talk about dear friends for life we uh i think we were in diapers together and uh shy thank you for that generosity and support it means the world could have given it to team moscow they would have blown past me listen it's not too late now that you raise it the campaign is not over and rabbi moskowitz is about eleven hundred and eleven hundred and ten dollars one thousand one hundred and ten i'm just saying the person who puts you over the top with also a very nice donation you know it's going to be a little awkward the next time he sees me here in boca listen one thing he loved jerry one thousand one hundred and eleven dollars puts rabbi moscowitz over the top okay we promised an hour this week we were grateful rick smith jr check them out google them online amazing illusionism card thrower world records that was a crazy trick come on you're not curious how he did that i'm sad i haven't i'm not going to sleep tonight that's how amazing i don't understand i'm going to try it in my perspective join this week there's going to be some magic there'll be some magic i'm working on a trick right now listen considering shabbos morning you know it's the day after perham i think there's going to be a larger attendance at the later year brody's or a magic trick let's go thank you to rick smith jr thank you to lou and eda the blue feld for staying up late in case it wasn't obvious that we recorded that right before the early bird special this evening but thank you to lou and edith bluefield they get a pass we record you when you when you're when your combined age is 200 and you've been married for 80 years we'll record you whenever whenever you're feeling up to it whenever you're feeling good our combined age isn't even 200. no we're actually never not even close so amazing night thank you all thank you it's not too late brsonline.org global you can still if you enjoy the show if you enjoyed behind the bema please subscribe on youtube please written review on podcast players and please join the global movement the global nation brsonline.org global until next time stay happy stay healthy and stay