#63: Behind the Bima - Rav Moshe Weinberger

From Boca Raton, Florida, Rabbis Ephraim Goldberg, Philip Moskowitz, and Josh Brody are taking you behind the Bima. 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 Bima. Good evening. It is Wednesday evening, 9:00 p.m. I am your host Rabbi Ephraim Goldberg, joined by my dear colleagues and friends Rabbi Philip Moskowitz and Rabbi Josh Brody. And we are here to take you behind the Bima. We are here to take you behind the Bima. We have yet another incredible guest tonight, somebody who has inspired countless around the world including the three of us who consider ourselves among his many students and disciples. But first, let's thank our sponsors for tonight. In fact, Rav Weinberger has so many fans as does Behind the Bima, we had to cut off the sponsorship at three. So first of all, a huge thank you to Mrs. Laptop Group, generously sponsoring on behalf of Mrs. Laptop Group as a thank you to the Rabbis and especially to Rabbi Weinberger for everything he does for their community. So thank you to the Mrs. Laptop Group, some inside joke we're not part of but we are part of appreciating the sponsorship. So thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Also, a big thank you Cynthia and Harry Katowitz who are both members of the Woodmere and Boca community, bridging the communities together again in honor of Rav Weinberger. So thank you for that. And lastly, our new dear friends the Saka family who sponsored our classes throughout this week at BRS in honor of the yahrzeit of Bahia bat Shmuel, may her neshama have an aliyah. Thank you to our generous sponsors. If you'd like to sponsor a future episode of Behind the Bima or any of our classes, talks, programs, or shiurim, you can conveniently and seamlessly, with no friction, right Moskowitz, go on brsonline.org/sponsor, and easily be able to sponsor any of our programs or classes. Gentlemen, rabbis, dear friends, colleagues, how was your week? What a week. What a week. We had a big road trip this week. Big road trip, spent a lot of time in the Ohel. I hope many of our listeners saw the video from the Ohel of Gad Elbaz, a phenomenal story. Hashgacha Protis story, Rabbi Goldberg telling a story about a guy coming over to doesn't say that was my grandfather. It was I was pretty wild, very special. Always nice to be able to daven for the needs of Klal Yisrael in the Ohel. Yeah, go on YouTube and you can find the little on the road version that we did of Behind the Bima from the Rebbe's Ohel. And yeah, told a um told a story and it was extraordinary that the person who says they're the grandson of the the main protagonist of the story says he was standing right there. It was really amazing. It was really very special to be there. Where else, Rabbi Brody? Why why else was this I was so excited the next day I went to 770. I'd never been there. My whole life, you know, you've always seen pictures of what it looks like, but I'd never been. And I go to meet this guy. I know his name is Mendel. I I I know him cuz we're we're taking a trip to Israel hopefully next week. Pretty good odds that if you so I said his name is Mendel. So he says you'll see me sitting on the steps. So I said I I yelled out Mendel. 15 guys turn But it was so great. It was so he was waiting there, nice big cup of coffee, and and he took me for a tour. One of the places that we went into was was like the broadcast room where they're showing similar to the Ohel where they have a video of the Rebbe. So I told him he says, "Why you here?" So he says he says he actually watched the video and he remembers he says, "You know, we're we're on a Hakaras Hatov tour." So he says, "You know what? The Rebbe always said, 'There are not enough people that come back to say Hakaras Hatov.'" We walk into the movie room and the Rebbe's saying, "It is so nice that there are a few people that come back to say Hakaras Hatov." At that moment Wow, just then At that moment, second a second Rabbi Ashkacha Protis story of the week. What are the odds? Tonight actually is a special night on the calendar. It is Chai Elul, the 18th of the month of Elul, which is very significant not only in Chabad Lubavitch, but for all Chassidim because Chai Elul, the 18th of Elul is the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov in 1698, and also 36 years later is when the Baal Shem Tov began to spread his teachings to overwhelm the wellsprings of Chassidus outward. And Chai Elul is also in 1745 the birthday of the Alter Rebbe, the first Lubavitcher Rebbe. So, on the Chassidic calendar, very appropriate that Rabbi Weinberger is our guest tonight. It is Chai Elul. We are far bringing here together. Now, what's interesting is the way we broadcast, and we spent some time over the summer thinking about this. I don't remember if we talked about it. Should we now broadcast behind the Bima sitting around a table together? Are we going to stay in this format, three separate screens all facing you, the audience, and engaging you? And for several reasons, we decided to keep it this way. Now, what's interesting is when you look at our three screens, you have no idea Rabbi Brody might be 6'7", and Rabbi Moskowitz might be 5'1". You have no idea. But, this little video we made at the O was the first time that we did a behind the Bima video standing there together. And let's just say those heights might be the opposite. So, one of my favorite gotten the most feedback out of anything, by the way. One of my one of my favorite all-time comments on behind the Bima was the person who wrote that, absolutely. I was lucky enough to actually make it into the shot. They had to figure out how to tilt the camera. That was that was funny. Another great For those who did not listen to last week, we had Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer of all time, world champion, Hall of Fame New York Yankee. But, really baseball, as he taught us, is just a game, and that was not the focus of that conversation at all. If you think that tonight is fire with Moshe Weinberger, of course, lahavdil, is going to talk all about a relationship with the shepherd, with the Almighty, with Hashem. Maybe sometimes from the most unexpected sources, we can find that light, that inspiration, that spark. Mariano Rivera did not stop talking about God. It was unbelievable. So, one of the commentators on a commentors on last week wrote the following comment. Mosha Kasoy, I don't know who he is. He says about 4 years ago a friend and I got a ride with Mariano in his Rolls-Royce to our Yeshiva in Miami. During the ride he wouldn't he wouldn't disclose his identity, but we quickly figured out who he was. The entire ride consisted of him saying how amazing God is and how all of his success in life is from above. He told me that cars, homes don't matter. All that matters is having a relationship with God. That was my second favorite about the ride. The first was pulling up to Yeshiva in a Rolls-Royce. Mariano, if you see this comment, feel free to validate this story. So, Mariano, if you see the comment, feel free to chime in and to to validate the story. So, a good friend Hanan has it right. Last week we had one of the greatest closer in the history of baseball. Tonight we have the greatest closer maybe in the history of fiery drashas, Reb Mosha Weinberg l'havdil. What a great close. We're excited to have I want to know, how did these Yeshiva boys end up in a in a Rolls-Royce on the way to a baseball game? Was Was it like Mariano doing this? Was on the way to the Yeshiva. On the way to the Yeshiva. How did he hitch a ride in a Rolls-Royce on the way to Yeshiva? That is a great Uber? That's a great question. Not sure how that happened. Not sure how that happened. So, we've gone two episodes without really mentioning COVID. We're not going to mention it again tonight. Just like last week we spent 20 minutes not mentioning it. Let us say that it's hard to believe we're back here once again struggling and scrambling to figure out how to keep people safe, have a meaningful Yom Tov, do things right, do things right for the people, right for Hashem, right for in every which way. So, daven for us. All shuls everywhere should have siyata d'shmaya. We should have divine assistance and providence in trying to figure out what the right thing is to do, making it all work out, keeping us all safe. I'll say that you know, I'm actually finding this year in a weird way even more difficult than last year. Last year there were no expectations. People were just happy to be able to come on the campus. So, whatever we were able to provide for them, they were thrilled. If you didn't have your regular seat, they got it. If you didn't have your regular minion room, they understood. So, it was enormously complicated, but the expectation were so low, if you just got everyone here, there was this sense of excitement and euphoria. This year, there's expectation. People have been coming, right? This whole Delta kind of hit us a little bit late, you know, recently, and people are adjusting their expectations, and it's a lot different to plan when people have higher expectations. It's a fair point. It's a fair point. Our fact checker shared with us earlier today, actually, that Delta Airlines Delta Airlines on their website is talking about over the past few weeks the fight has changed with the rise of the B.1.617.2 variant, a very aggressive form of the virus. And, you know, you can't laugh at any part of this, but you kind of have to laugh that Delta Airlines can't call it the Delta variant. So, they're the only ones on the planet using that combination of letters and numbers and decimal points to refer to it as the official name of the variant. Well, we were in Corona Queens we were in Corona, Queens this week. And I'm like, that's a rough address. That is a rough address. We did pass through Corona, Queens, and perhaps a bowling alley in that neighborhood. Should we talk about the results? No. Rabbi Brody's interesting bowling style? We'll leave that We'll leave that for another time for another time. Can I tell you the problem is that each of us have videos on each other doing funny things that we don't want anyone else to see. You know, you travel for a simcha, we did some holy things, and we also had some opportunity to bond and uh and to relax a little bit on the way to the beautiful beautiful simcha. Big mazel tov again to the Catskills, and that's also important. So, uh we're going to bring Rabbi Weinberger on in a moment, but tell us what Tell me what you're thinking about what you're working on. Rabbi Brody, let's start with you. You run on the Yom Kippur on the High Holidays, you run an explanatory beginner service. You've been doing it for many years. It's go over for your predecessor, did a great job introducing that to the community. So, tell us you know, how many people do you have Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? What are some of the themes in your mind? What are you thinking about that you're going to communicate to them this year? And are you worried that your demographic in particular, we know that some of the other denominations in Boca sent out emails. One conservative synagogue locally announced that they will only they will not be meeting in person on the high holidays. Others announced that they will be doing both or certain requirements. Are you worried that your not yet observant population for whom you're on your exploratory service may not come in person? Yeah, I can tell you right now because we you know, back in the day when there were no reservations and you could just show up, but we started taking reservations already a few years ago because we just ran out of seats. The numbers are down again. They're they're more than they were last year, but they're nowhere close to what they were two years ago. Right. People are scared. People people would rather not not come out. So, for those who will be there, what what theme what are you thinking about? It's hard. It's a it's it's a hard message. Um it's you know, I think it's if at least for me it's that message of of we thought this would be over by now. We did everything we were supposed to and the new year was supposed to finally be here and it's you know, I have a trip right now. We're we're scheduled to go with 150 guys to Israel. And we're hoping to go, but things are not looking great. Right. I don't want to go through another year of this. I I I I I'll be honest. I I was just in a in a meeting tonight where there was a board meeting of our federation. I'm listening to the reports of everyone that's doing all these things and I say to myself, you know, a lot of stuff that we used to do that we were so good at doing over the last you know, years before Corona began. I can't do it in this environment. I can't I can't do it on Zoom. I can't do it. It's it's it's not working. It's not working for me and it's not working for any of the programs that I like to out. People are burnt out. They're tired out and they're tired of Zoom. Yeah. Rabbi Moscowitz, as you're planning, as you're thinking, take us behind the bema. What goes into a rabbi's mind in these days, these weeks counting up to Rosh Hashanah. You know, many of our listeners think that they come to shul and they're rabbis, so at some point the rabbi found an hour, two hours, banged out a drasha, wrote out something, maybe they loved it, maybe they didn't, but like what's the big deal? They don't realize that in the back of the rabbi's mind, maybe from Tisha B'Av, a little bit later as you get closer, maybe you're not actively working, but there definitely is in the background there's a little bit of noise playing constantly that you have this little little I would I wouldn't call them a pit in your stomach because it's butterflies, maybe there's some excitement, but Rosh Hashanah's coming, we have responsibility to try to share a message, it's up to us to light that fire in ourselves and make it contagious to others. So, take us behind the Bima, what's going through a rabbi's mind this time of year? That's a great analogy. You know, sometimes you'll be in a room and there'll be like a humming of a light, and you know it's there, but it's kind of making you uncomfortable, it's just, you know, creating a little distortion, but it's not like fully in front of your mindset. That's kind of what the Rosh Hashanah is. Really since it takes Tisha B'Av is basically when it happens, where you know you're giving these big drashas, big because we place the responsibility on ourselves more than anything else. We want to inspire people, we want to, you know, do the best that we can. It's a it's a big opportunity for us. And it is, it's always lingering and it doesn't just come out. You got to really, um, let it evolve. So, you might have a Torah idea and you got to start figuring out, okay, how's it going to work into an opener? What kind of story am I going to tell? You might say I have this great message that I want to communicate and then again you got to go back and say, okay, what type of am I going to tell? What type You might have the story and say, okay, I got this great story, but, uh, but what am I going to do with that story? So, you know, there are a lot of different ways that that Yes, there are a lot and it doesn't just happen overnight. I mean, you'll you'll wake up on Sunday afternoon, maybe even Monday morning next week and, uh, pound out the drasha, but for the rest of us, it is a, uh, as you said, it's always lingering in the back of your head when you go to sleep, when you wake up in the morning, when you see things, when you talk to people. And now there's a real camaraderie amongst rabbis. Like I spoke to a couple of friends today in the in the rabbinate. It wasn't even about Rosh Hashanah, it was totally different topics. But you knew at the end of the conversation it was always going to be, "What are you thinking about for Rosh Hashanah?" Cuz everyone's trying to, you know, I'll tell him an idea, he'll share an idea back with me, maybe we'll sell. And by the way, there there are people, you know, there are again other denominations where they they have an audience only a couple days of the year. And you know, so they're maybe going to talk about Afghanistan, or they're going to talk about immigration, or they're going to talk about Corona, they're going to talk about healthcare policies, they're going to talk about So, but it yeah, it's difficult. You got to get it all together. It's got to be the complete package. You need the opener, you need the closing, you need the story, you need the Torah. Maybe you need the research and depending on different people come at it different ways. There is a lot. But one of the places that we can go to, not for content cuz nobody can copy him or imitate him, but to light that fire in us is Reb Moshe Weinberger. You know, I think I said last time and he is our official first time repeat guest that we've had, Reb Moshe Weinberger. So, our fact-checker, please make a note somewhere in the history books, Wikipedia, on Behind the Bima, our first repeat guest, Reb Moshe Weinberger, shlita, a rebbe. And I always say that there are people who speak to your head, intellectual, academic, brilliant, lumdes. They speak to the head. There are other people who speak to the heart. They can make you cry, they can tell you stories that move you. But there are very few people who speak right to the neshama. They penetrate, they go like right into the nerve, right into the neshama. Reb Moshe Weinberger is one of them and it's really an honor for us to be able to welcome him back on for the second time to Behind the Bima. So, without any further ado, Reb Moshe Weinberger. What a tremendous privilege, a great zchus, a great honor for us to welcome back the Reb of Ish Kodesh, a Reb for countless around the world, including all of us here behind the Bima. Rebbi, thank you so much for being back together with us. It's my greatest zchus and privilege, really. Rebbi, it's a big distinction because we had many, many episodes and we've had many high profile people and Rebbe is the first repeat guest. We thought to ourselves, who did we have an unfinished conversation with? Who do we need to have back? There's so much more who has an overflowing fountain to drink from. Rebbe was the top of that list. So, thank you for honoring us by Rebbe being the first repeat guest on on Behind the Bima. Okay, I'll try not to repeat what I said before. Okay, may it be God's will. May it be God's will. So, Rebbe, there's so much to talk about. There's endless things to talk about, but we're entering into we are in the the days of Elul and we're in the time of the year, the high intensity time that Jews meant to work on themselves and to look in the mirror. And for many Elul is synonymous with with sadness. Many of us heard schmoozing when we were younger that Elul should make us tremble and should make us shake, should make us cry. If we don't, there's something inadequate or wrong with us. Elul is the time of you should be sober and somber and look down and is that what Elul is for, Rebbe? What is Elul for, Rebbe? What What does Rebbe do in these days? What is the message to to Rebbe is the farthest thing from a simple Jew, but to us and to the simple Jew who's listening and watching, what's the message of the mentality of Elul? The message is to look carefully at the words that we just said this morning and we're going to say later on Look at my lady. I shall find I as I shall find I shall find I shall find That's all of Elul. I shall find I The swarm make a very, very big deal about the fact that according to the result, the cabana that we have in mind during this month is from the second Isaiah no saying by young Derek. It means the Israel explains in Azino that that means that the of Elul is not nitpicking and examining our faults, our mistakes, our shortcomings. We have to get to that. That's really the more the avodah of us as we do teshuvah on Yom Kippur. The avodah of Elul is to say to Hashem, "I, Ribono shel Olam, ta'isi k'se oved. I am so off track. I just uh I not I horaini Hashem darkecha is in the same paragraph as I. Horaini Hashem darkecha means that, Ribono shel Olam, something has happened to me over time. I take full responsibility, but I know that you want to have this deep and meaningful relationship with me, and I know that I'm not I have not shown myself. I haven't shown my face. And I know that you're looking for that. Like the Navi says, uh it says, "Vayifnu eilay oref v'lo panim." The Navi doesn't talk about the fact that at that time they were over out of it is on the machalshavos. The all kinds of stuff. They He sums up everything with one essential problem. And that is, "Vayifnu eilay oref v'lo panim." You're not looking at me in the eyes. All I think about during this time of Elul is not the details of the and the problems that are wrong with the picture of my life with Hashem. It's one thing, and that is Hashem is saying to me, "Bakshu panay." Es panaycha and I have to respond, "Es panaycha Hashem avakesh." I will try to look for you again and to and to make this connection with you. That's the inyan. The hanosein l'yom derech, horaini Hashem darkecha. You could have You could have a person that you There are certain people that they could say the al cheits and they'll circle certain al cheits. Or they'll the same way that they'll have a house and there's a a leak in this pipe or there's a crack in the ceiling. But the emes is is that the whole thing is off. The whole foundation is off. It's a It's horaini Hashem darkecha hanosein l'yom derech. means that during this time of year the virtual wants us to be simcha, to say, "I want to connect to you. Show me that. May help me to believe in your love for me, and to feel that that you're reaching out to me. You're trying to show me your face." Back shuv panai and as panacha Hashem Elokeinu. So, it's a search a search and find and and a simchasachaim. So, being sad in summer is not the motif or it's not the image. A Jew shouldn't walk around in Elul sit during necessarily. We'll get there, but there should be a smile, a happiness, a joy, a a simcha. The fish trembling in the in the in the ocean or in the river. You have to understand that there are certain modalities of Yiddishkeit, of what to emphasize, what to highlight in Yiddishkeit that worked in certain times and certain places. The tachlis of all of those were to bring a Jew to this relationship of panim el panim. In earlier times, there was such a mahalach that through the thought of the fish trembling in the ocean, that little Moishe is going to seek a connection to Hashem. In our days, the image of the fish trembling in the ocean is what's sending the chevreh completely in the other direction. They're running for the hills. They're not connecting to Hakadosh Baruchu. But, the Baal Hatanya da'as Rebbi Shmuel knows everybody knows that he gave the famous moshel of Melech Basadeh, of the king who was in the field, that at this time of the year Elul is a time of Hashem being nigaleh, the Yud Gimmel Middos HaRachamim. It's the greatest, deepest love that Hashem reveals during the month of Elul. The king leaves his palace, and he goes to the field to to to meet and to see that the island, the chevreh, the simple Jews, the Jews with all their problems. And it says in the in the Alter Rebbe's words, he's mekabel es kulam besever panim yafos. Umara panim socha'os the cool arm. Omarra put on me so hard cause the cool arm. I shall be showing a smiling face cool arm. The cool arm is cool arm. The savior put on me office. He's welcoming. He's greeting his cover. Who is cover? The last days at the end of time we still believe in him. We still trying to keep you misses. The cool arm is cool arm. The savior put on me office. He doesn't have any exceptions. Whoever is courageous enough to go out to the field who's not running away from hearing some kind of a smooze about the fish shaking in the ocean and he goes out to greet our son. It says I shall miss now in a way of I need a little bit of daily how are you ever so shy everybody talks about how I need a little bit of daily but your invitation is about I need a little bit of daily but the last words how are you ever so shy the very introduction the beginning of this article the shy shy the rose is a 13 petal rose. Well you get all these you get all these are all kind of means as the old rabbi explains that during this time of the year I shall miss my guy his plan of shy shy case is loving face to us and he's and he is says I want to embrace you with a 13 meters of a rock and that I compared to a shy shy a 13 petal rose and what's the requirement on our part to be to be able to feel I shall miss embrace to see him laughing with us in the field is one thing. The word shy shy comes to the word he shall not to change. If a person says I shall I know that I've been off the day off off the day off is not the main thing is not the kids on the street. I shall miss my guy knows who's off the day off. Off the day off I've been away from you I shall miss I've been off the day off I might be very observant of things but I've been totally off the day off my whole life and I'm asking you as we are watching them show me your face. I promise you I I will try my best to be shy shy not be shy shy not to be a shoshana, to be a rose that is soft and gentle and is ready to make changes in my life in order to be able to have that connection and to be able to face you once again, not to hide from you. That's all. I want I want I want my friend I want my friends to jump in, but I want to just ask one of the follow-up question first. And that is what would Rebbe say to the people, and maybe among us included, who say, "But I don't feel Hashem is showing me his face lately. I'm at the end of my rope. This has been the longest 2 years. I have decision fatigue, fear fatigue. I thought I was done with something, it's back now. Again, there's the the period of division, the machlokes. You hold this way, you hold that way. You live in fear, you're more confident. You look at these numbers, I look at that numbers. You daven at this minyan, I would never go to that minyan." And and for we as rabbonim who have to make decisions for shuls, steer a community, we're we're back to decision fatigue of of, you know, enormous proportion and consequence. Uh but even for the every person for the every person who says, "I'm just trying to get to the day. For 2 years I'm trying to put food on my table. For 2 years I'm trying to stay alive and not get this virus. For 2 years I'm trying to not judge friends based on what they're doing differently the same as me. For 2 years I made a simcha attendance, I couldn't go to the simcha, I missed my nephew's simcha. You know, I have a nephew's simcha in Eretz Yisrael 2 weeks from now and it will take a miracle for me to be able to be there. I don't know how I could be there." That's me personally. Everybody's feeling that. I don't You know, Rebbe British shared with me yesterday a a chaver who had sent him a text that says, "It feels like everybody's going crazy right now. Like we were just at the edge, we just tasted maybe some normalcy. We thought we could come back and now everybody, this was like the straw that broke the camel's back. The whole country is lit up red with this thing again. It's worse than last time and I'm just like I'm done. I'm done. People are nuts, they're acting out, they're crazy, they've had it, they have nothing left to hold onto." I I see that There is nothing autobiographical in that description. Yeah, no, I see that too and and and a shrickel I feel that too. So, what would Rebbe say to those hypothetical people? You have We have a word here in New York, maybe use it down there in Boca. It's called hack. Stop hacking. I come from a world I come as you know because you might have a I come from world of people went through worse suffering than than the pandemic. And not that God forbid the pandemic has caused a lot of suffering. I I understand that. I'm not making light of that Hashem leader people died. And I know people who died and there people who are who are suffering. I'm not to make light of it. I'm not talking about the suffering. I'm not talking about the sickness it's I'm talking about the hack that surrounds it. What I was taught by my father all of his own and what I have learned from swarms such as the age cardish and from other sadikim is that Dafka at a time when the Satan is coming to make such a a booboo here, such confusion that a Jew has to take the shife in his hand and to grab the shife in his hand and give out blues, give out a shry and to and not to allow the Satan to confuse us but to confuse the Satan. And the meaning of that is that we were created as the Ram Chal says at the very beginning of Sham, we were created to to have a nisyones. The our problem is we're very soft. We're very soft. We grew up here in America. I'm a chaya. Life is very very easy for us, you know? If the air conditioning is broken it's the end of the world. If if you didn't get your favorite flavor and ice cream store that ran out of chocolate or something you finish. So, life is supposed to be good. Life is supposed to be good. I remember when the when the World Trade Center all lane that was a big tragedy. And when that came down I called my father to see you if you heard what's going on. Daddy, what's up? So, I said Daddy, you hear? He says hear what? I said you heard what happened to the World Trade Center. He said, yeah. He said he said the whole thing fell down. I said, so yeah I So, my father said to me like this. He said, look my she said "Bit, bit, know, bit things happen in the world." "How's How's Maron and the kids?" That's like the next Like, bit things happen, you know? As I got feared the veldt. As I got feared the veldt. And the world is is is a hard world. It's a complicated world. Messiah's not here. Messiah's not here. And in an unfinished, incomplete world, there's going to be tsouris. But we grew up expecting that everything is supposed to go just like this. Just like this. I'm supposed to marry the right This girl, I'm supposed to have this this many kids. I'm supposed Life is supposed to be just pretty and nice. Everything is good in the world. And this thing, you know, the pandemic that happened was a huge viewer. There are people who I thought were normal turned out to be nuts. The other people I thought The other people I thought were were were were were not were not so strong turned out to be to to to turn out to be given. It's a viewer. Hashem is being revealed to us now. And our job is to confuse the sudden. And how do you confuse the sudden? You confuse the sudden by taking the shofar. And the shofar means a call of the mother, like it says in the song. You find that call when you're when that call, that voice, when you're challenged with difficulties in life. When you're challenged with something that's hard, instead of falling into the hack, the noise, the noise, and that's why I kept That noise is going to starting again. Instead of falling into that tumult, into that noise, other than that, it's the biggest opportunity in the world. And I tried to use for my island, for the heaven and soul, and myself, I tried to use the pandemic as the biggest biggest time to find that call, to find that voice underneath all of the noise, inside all of the noise. Who am I? What's the purpose of my life? Where am I in the world? And to ignore I told them, "Stop with the CNN. Stop with the CBN. Stop with all of this stuff." And now it's starting again. And every rabbi became a big doctor. And every doctor became a rabbi. The whole thing is a big deal. It's a a deal. And you follow your doctor. I follow my doctor. I don't I'm not interested in in all what the newspaper has to say. We now know this will shock you because we also we see now that the one who thought he's saving New York State is die resigned with catch up. The whole thing is still something of all of them. The equivalent for a person is to be a is to come to a place of lulay amanti betuva sham eretz chai. Not to talk about death, not to think about death, not to worry about death. But to what if if you have to take new precaution if there new precautions and the thing is crazy over there. And we have to start again to I hope not. I can't take the thought of wearing the thing again, but if it starts again, and that's what the says that we have to do because that's what seems to be the that's what seems to be the responsible thing to let's say. It seems to be the responsible thing to do, then we'll do it. And how we going to manage? How we going to survive? I don't know how we're going to survive. What do you mean how we're going to survive? How we're going to You stop thinking about the hack and stop thinking about what I was talking about before. As but people who never ever in their lives look for anything deeper than the newspaper and the television and and hearing what's the latest in shul, what's the what are the people saying about about the vaccination. So they have nothing to find in their lives. They don't know what to do. They'll do at a loss. They're at a loss. I think many people are looking forward God forbid to a to a resurgence. Not to the not to the sickness God forbid. Nobody wants to get sick. But to the hack. To the hack. What else is there to talk about? The What else is there to talk about? Trump is showing his do. Trump is not here. That was a big hack. They will Biden there's not somewhere you're going to where you're going to I mean he he doesn't do anything nothing to hack. I don't know how the actors are doing. I don't know how the masses are doing. But but the pandemic that was a hack. So the I don't know something to talk about. Other other they'll put up some more tents. They'll they'll they'll start avoiding shul again. Oh the people are still there's still people didn't come back from the tents. I'm I'm not talking about people who are older sick. I'm talking about healthy people who their whole lives have been trying to run away from Hashem. It all comes down to one thing. Are you prepared to face Hakadosh Baruch Hu or not? If you are a person that's looking for Hashem as well, you'll find him in the pandemic. If you're not looking for him, then it'll just be another hug. So, if I could uh follow up with a different type of person who which I thought Rabbi Goldberg is going with, but the type of person who says something else to himself or herself on Elul, which is Rabbi's description of relation to Hashem and look change. And then the person says themselves, this is the 50th year I'm doing this. This is the 60th year I'm going through this charade. Every year I come to Elul. Every year I put in my best effort. Every year I come to Yom Kippur. And then by by Sukkot already, by Hanukkah already, I've reverted back and I'm going through that every year. And you know what? I feel like almost a fraud on Elul because I feel like I'm putting on a a show. And even though I mean it, I know I'm not going to be able to sustain it. So, what chizuk can you give to that person? The person who every year with with complete sincerity tries to change, but gets frustrated because they don't see the the moving along the line. They don't see them progressing in the way they want. Their checklist looks the same every year of things to change. And uh how would you give that person chizuk? I to learn to learn first of all to learn Orot HaTshuva from Rav Kook. Yesterday was his yahrzeit. To learn Orot HaTshuva from Rav Kook from cover to cover. Because there's no other tzaddik who ever lived who addressed this question as directly as Rav Kook in Orot HaTshuva. Rebbe of Zushya of Anipoli alav hashalom, he said, you know, he used to call himself Zushya. He never said I. He didn't like the word ani. Ech, he didn't like the word I. So, he said, "Ribbono shel Olam." And he said, "Ribbono shel Olam, this year, Zushya is going to be better. This year, Zushya is going to be better, Ribbono shel Olam. You're going to see. This year, aleph hey yud hey, eh hey yeah, which is the word which is name of tshuva. Like Chazal say, "Anah Hashem hoshia na. Anah Hashem hatzlicha na." This year I'm going to be other for you day. I'm going to be this year Zushie's going to be better. I remember Zushie said the same thing last year, right? Zushie said the same thing last year. No, but this year the MSBM is Zushie's going to really really try to be better. That's all. Now, unless you're a person that's after the truth, unless you're playing games with the world, and you're insincere, if you're that type of person, that's that's a problem. But if you're a person like that has a little bit of a little bit of a a little bit of a Zushie, a little bit of Reb Zushie, that you really really want to be that person, then it says then you are in the parish, you're in the of true you're okay young you're holding on to the thought of it. And that thought of means it means it's I am making a claim of who I am and where I want to be. And any Jew that does that even you even if you think you can't sustain it, if you really mean it, I shall help you to find a way to sustain it. Because the same way the say the same way that if the summer that's trying to you're away on vacation and someone moves into your house or onto your farm, so you have to make a right, you have to protest. So so this person who is who is screaming I I want to be better. I said the same thing last year. But when I say that and I really really mean that I would like to be better, I just don't know how to do it, but I want to be better, that means that I'm reclaiming my stake in I am protesting that control that the other side has over my life. I'm protesting it. And the fact that I'm protesting it means that I'm the I'm still I still have over my life. I'm not lost. I'm not making believe like you show them you that a person that makes them believe like everything is fine, everything is great. No, I make I'm examining my life. I see that there are problems, there are things that are not good. I said last year I would fix them. I I I meant it. I wasn't last year. I'm going to try again. I Is this a charade? Is this a joke? Am I playing games with my neshama? I hope not. And and I'm davening to you that this is sincere. Help me to find a way. And help me to see that I should find the right person, that I should find the right shiur to talk to, daven to, do something different, to do something this Elul that wasn't the same as last Elul cuz last Elul didn't work. So, what can I try this Elul? That's a serious person. And even if it doesn't turn out and even if it If it comes by Chanukah and and he's the same person and it didn't change, then this is not the same person. He's He's living in the world of chuva. He's an oicheist b'rayan at chuva. And it's also a begin at chuva. And that person at some point in his life has someone help him change in ways that he never ever could have imagined. Unlike the person who's still playing a game, who's still acting like a uh I want to change, doesn't do anything, doesn't mean it. And that's that That's not what we're talking about. A serious Jew who b'emes it bothers him that he's doing these things. It bothers him. When he touches that computer in the wrong place, it hurts him. He He gives a crack to himself and says, "I don't want to die this way, but I don't know how to live without it. Help me, Ribono shel Olam." Even if he says it 50, 60 times, he means to he means it. I want to be better. It's not echta v'asai. He's in the parsha of chuva and he should sit and learn Orot HaTshuva. The entire sefer Rav Kook used to learn his sefer every Elul. And he would say, "There are new things that I see in this sefer I never ever saw before in this sefer." His own sefer. He has to learn Orot HaTshuva from cover to cover and he'll get tremendous chizuk. Everybody should know that Rebbe has a commentary on Orot HaTshuva, beautiful sefarim that have come out which make it uh accessible to some who certainly don't uh can't make their way through Rav Kook's Hebrew, but a beautiful translation, commentary, and really incredible. Rebbe Brody. Yeah. First of all, thank you so much for for being here. I think many people would agree that right now there is a lot of uh uh things that are dividing our our Jewish world, right? Politically, we're we're more divided, religiously, perhaps we're we're we're very very divided. We just went through a a Tisha B'Av where we were talking about Ahavas Yisrael and and and, you know, the reason Beit Hamikdash is still not rebuilt. Rabbi Goldberg gave a great story of how how how we're we're we're so we're we're we're we're we're smart people, but we can't seem to figure out the the simple the simple uh notion of unity and Ahavas Yisrael. And I'm just wondering what your perspective is. You know, where where where can we find those Jews that seem to be a little bit different than us and and and improve on these relationships and and and why why aren't we doing it? Everybody likes to talk about Ahavas Yisrael and Jewish unity. But if you learn Tanya perek lamed beis, then you realize that to come to that place where the emes where the emes you're one with another Jew uh that that that doesn't uh come easy. It's not just uh what people are waiting for is I'm I either there's some tragedy, God forbid, that unites all Jews. Look at that, isn't it nice? The guy from Lakewood and Lubavitch are sitting down together, you know, to help Reb Ashkenazi or something. Or that's so beautiful. The Satmar guy There's a Satmar, Lubavitch, a modern Orthodox, and a and a Lubavitch and a Yeshivish guy and they're all sitting down and they're worried about about uh about Sholom Rubashkin. Either some something tragedy where all of the klipahs, all of the artificial separations in a second fall, they just fall. Like like during the War of Independence in Eretz Yisrael, there were old Satmar women in Mea Shearim, they were ripping the bottoms like it says in the biography of Rabbi Levin, they're ripping the bottoms of their dresses to bandage up soldiers that were getting shot. Right? At that moment, all of the stuff on the outside falls apart. Now, how do you make the stuff on the outside fall of the park without a tragedy? Well, that's the that's the question. Uh So, you have to talk about Paraglyding base in Tanya. And and then it's not enough. If you learn Paraglyding base in Tanya, then you have to take the definition of from his grandson from the time of study. And you learn the mitzvah of the love your neighbor as yourself. Because with this with those sadikim and it's all based upon the Zohar Kadish and the with those sadikim are telling us is that in the world of this world to me in the external world of the goof those differences between one Jew and another are insurmountable. They're insurmountable. A Hungarian is not going to get along with a Sefardi. It's just insurmountable. Uh two Jews, one's from Yemen and the other one's from Morocco. I they have certain similar It's not going to work out. Even two people from Persia, but this one's Shiraz and this one's from Mashhad. Your grandfather stole my my grandfather's horse. I can't I can't I can't talk to you. Cool. All of these differences are differences in the world of the goofs in the world of the of the of the body. So, the only way to come to a place of of unity and this goes back to what we began with. Is this from the Hashem location? And that's what the Tanya is talking about on base. The only way is when a person comes when a person is somebody who is studies or who tries to understand what is a Jew? What is a Jew? A Jew is not whether he eats a cholent with beans or without beans or he doesn't eat any cholent at all or whether he's even religious or not religious or whether he's an Ashkenazi or a Sefardi or whether he's a Hungarian or he's a he's a Hasidic or a Litvak. That's not what a Jew is. Those are all external external external. Those are all external. Those are external garments. What is a Jew? A Jew is a part of God literally from above. A part of God literally from above is a Jew. If you don't study what a Jew is and you don't and you don't know what the other Jew what the other Jew is, you're going to get stuck at some point along the way. Whether it's the child, whether it's the language, whether it's he's a Democrat, you're a Republican, whether he's whether he be he likes salad or he doesn't like salad, you're going to get stuck at some point and he might have seen him. So then this this this these this rabbi died and then his two sons and our and our milk farmer uh which one do you follow? You follow this rabbi, you follow the salad company, or do you follow the Russia with the How could that be such a thing? These are both from the same gaza and not only that, they're both from the world of the holy of holies and the whole world Rabbi Akiva had 24,000 students that they were making each other miserable and they were dragging out the business. They were making each other miserable. We know what happened to them. So it's not that it's it's not uh going to work if it's about if it's about um what they call in the world after this making peace and look how much we have in common, it's all devices. It's all devices. At the end of the day, I'm very different than you. I'm very different than you. But there is something that binds us together. But the only thing that binds us together like the elder rabbi says is of a holy clan and we have we have the same father. But not like those not like those sitting at the two rabbis now, they had one father. No. It's not the same thing. Father of Adam When a person comes to have a connection to that world of Adam a vacation When a person comes to that to think about it, to meditate upon it, to learn not just this, to learn deep to learn Tanya deep, to understand what is a Jew. To learn the good of to learn about Tesla. What is a Jew? What is a Jew? A Jew is not about the country he comes from, it's not about the it's not about even if he's religious or not religious. It's much deeper than that. You say love of Israel is the love of Israel. There were very There were very religious Jews. You remember I and I made a whole big thing about this. There was fighting going on. I hate What what what people hack. But but when it happened in Pittsburgh a few years ago, so there was a whole big thing. There was some There was some rabbis that were saying, "Yeah, but these people who is a conservative temple they're not religious. You know, so God whatever they got shot up, no?" So, I You hear such a thing. How could you hear such a thing? How could you How could you talk that way? Torah teaches you could call yourself a You could call yourself a capitalist and you have no inkling of what it means to love another Jew. Because if you really love who that Jew is, not because he looks like you or observes the way you observe Jewish kind or eats the same foods that you eat or davens in your or has your same but if you really love a Jew for who he is as a Jew, then all of these don't divide us. And I can disagree with you about your wearing a mask and not wearing a mask. I can disagree with you you're a Democrat or a Republican, whatever. I can disagree with you that you're a This is a guy. But if you but but if you're in that place of the what is, it doesn't diminish my love. It doesn't change my love for a second. And that's why when a tragedy happens or something that crazy happens, all of a sudden all of the external clip is full of it. And you in a second you're shown that this is a This is a What am I talking about? This is a Jew. And then it doesn't make a difference. From is not from is not from is not It doesn't make a difference. But if you on a regular day when life is good and nothing's going on except the hacking about the pandemic, so then you're not in that place. So, then all the speeches about dividing our community. Well, these talks dividing the community and divide and what's your aces the community together? What what are the what are the what's the rabbis aces? I don't mean you rabbis. You're a tzaddik. I love you. I'm talking about the rabbis the rabbis. What's their what's their aces for bringing Jews together? How are you going to make Jews come together? With what? What do they say? I don't know I don't I don't listen to their drashas. I I know they're all scrambling around to find something about salvation he said about the problem and then they can give a speech on shabbos shuva. What what what is it what is it that my rebbe of salvation said it's out of the question of war because that's what one of the few places that I had to reach into to get some speeches. So what is what exactly is their suggestion of how to bring Jews together? And how's it different than than when president Nixon spoke about peaceful coexistence and president Ford spoke about peaceful coexistence and and and in Russia they speak about peaceful coexistence. Tell me what what do the rabbis say that's different than than president Nixon about peaceful coexistence? Means I could be so civil of the fact that this guy is a democrat. I could be so civil of the fact that this guy is a chossid or he's a misnagid. I could be so civil of the fact that he's from Lakewood or I could be so civil that he's my non-orthodox. I could be so civil at best to be so civil. How do I love this guy? What exactly is it that binds me to this person if not the Ribbono shel Olam? But if you have no shaychus to the Ribbono shel Olam then what shaychus do you have to that to that Jew? You're nothing except social cultural like any in the street. You'll forgive me if you're talking my like any non-Jew. You I don't mean in a bad way by either but you don't have anything you have no only what you have in common what you have in common. So so then the rabbi gives a speech about we have so much in common that binds us together. It's all bubbe meises. It's all It's all superficial. I'm talking very fast and a lot because it's a short podcast. If I had half a week I would say it in a much more polite way so hopefully I'm not wasting your time. This is all bubbe meises about about how could that person be more like me and then I like him better. I can imagine him to be more like me. So the mad orthodox guy is not as mad as you think and the chassidish guy is he's not such a chossid like you think. He's more like you and this way, we can be fast together. So, when I see a citizen guy and he's wearing a regular shirt like me, cuz it's the summer and he's got a little alligator, so he looks a little bit more more like me. So, then oh, I love you, you're my brother. And when they And when a citizen guy sees you, and he sees you struggling, you look like you're diving in together with him in a great adventure or something. Oh, he's not so bad. So, then they then they can have something in common. How's that different than than than any non-Jew in the world? It's not different. That's what it means to love a Jew. To love a Jew means because of the coming out. If you never met a coming out, you've not strike it to the world so, how you supposed to love another Jew? The honest, how you supposed to love another Jew? Mhm. I want to I want to pivot for a second, Rebbe, if if it's okay, to go behind the beamer with Rav Weinberger again, if if Rebbe will allow us to, and I want to really try to combine two questions into one. Put Rebbe a little bit on the spot. Um you know, Rebbe obviously is is is not only accomplished in in his influence over many many tell me them, but really is uh the leader and inspiration of a of a movement of a movement of people speaking a new language, new vocabulary, uh a neo Hasidus uh whatever however one would define it. It's a very beautiful thing. But uh you know, anytime somebody displays leadership, and certainly if it's a pioneering dynamic leadership, it also attracts criticism and and detractors and people who are unhappy with it. And I know that Rebbe is not involved in the world of the internet. I know that because of what it took to get Rebbe to log into this podcast and get started. So, I know it's a it's a beautiful bracha and it's I'm sure it's a it's a conscientious it's an intentional life that Rebbe is disconnected from the of of what people are saying on the internet. But it's hard. It's hard for This is a personal question for us as a rabbonim, but it's true for any individual who uh who knows that there are people who aren't fair, there are corrupt, but they didn't corrupt other leaders, corrupt people. There are people who shoot daggers and who offer unfair criticism. There's Zionists who embarrass and try to shame. And so, you know, somebody who lives with the moon and Vegas realizes it's all from Hashem. It couldn't come unless Hashem is okay with it. There's something for me to learn from it. So how how do even if we know that intellectually, cognitively, how do we um first of all emotionally stay strong and not allow it to affect us? But more than that, let's say let's say right now someone's going through something where someone's treating them unfairly in a very public way. So they say I know it's from the Ribono shel Olam, it couldn't happen if he wasn't okay with it, and I'm not going to focus on on the shliach of Hamakom who was doing it. I'm going to focus on what's the message. How could we how am I meant to know? What does Hashem want? What what How does he want me to react to this? Am I supposed to stand up and fight and and be an example? Am I supposed to totally ignore it? Men anavim ve'anvei anavim. Let me just ignore it entirely, keep my head down, focus on what I'm supposed to be doing. How do we know what the Ribono shel Olam wants from us in in even if we're focused that the message is coming from him? How do we know what he wants from us, and how do we emotionally How does How does How does How was Rebbe through the the many years? Today, uh you know, Rebbe's uh I don't know This is a compliment, but Rebbe's a rock star today. You know, the world knows the impact and the influence that Rebbe's had. But even now, or I'm sure in the past when Rebbe was trying to change the world with these ideas, there are people So So how do we even when we're successful in realizing it's not about the people and I shouldn't become emotionally invested with the Ribono shel Olam, how am I supposed to know what he wants from me? I remember from my I even that question that you also suffering. So So we're living in a amud hashikra. And and those who are those who are screaming Shema Yisrael in the amud hashikra, they're going to suffer from histagnus and from from all kinds of detractors. And And your question is a fantastic question. How do we know how to react? Because sometimes according to the Torah, one should not remain silent. One should not remain silent. There is There is a time to talk. Eis slachas sayis sladavir, there's a time to speak up. And and it's very hard to sort things out. When is it my ego that's being hurt or when is it kavod shamayim? Everybody's screaming about the Baal Shem Tov. I'm doing this because of kavod shamayim. I'm doing this because of kavod shamayim. It's a chillul Hashem. Everybody who does anything they say about you, that become a chillul Hashem. It's got Could be the guy's right. It was a chillul Hashem. It's kavod shamayim. So, it's very very very hard to be mevarer this thing. I'll tell you just I can only try to share with you one or two things that I I try to work with myself. I I don't know because this is very clear. Yes, there's a big big deep sugiyah in in in in daas atzmo, like in knowing yourself cuz the ego is The ego can be so so misleading over here because no one likes to get hurt. Person doesn't have a life even even though we read stories about tzaddikim. A person doesn't have a heart of stone and it's very hard to know when am I reacting when am I reacting and when is it that I'm really really responding? So, I know that for instance there were over the years there were some some horrible episodes in in in the community where there are people that came very strongly against against me and and I had to write something sort of a response. So, I have one of the chevreh in the shul that he's a he's a very very dear beloved friend of mine and and he's a very he's a fantastic writer and a very very smart person who I trust and I always send him the draft of what I want to say and then he always says, "Rebbi, it's a gevaldik but you know you know you can't say this, Rebbi." So, I I I I kept the stuff that I wanted to say just to just remind me of how I could have destroyed my life uh which in the name of Hashem of course, how I could have destroyed my life when it was coming when half of the letter was coming from my ego and wasn't coming from what should have been said. There were things that needed to be said. There needed to be a response cuz what was what was being said was against was against the Baal Shem Tov hakadosh. It was against other things and there needed to be a response because there were things that were untrue. But the whole letter that was that was dangerous. So, I have that person in my life. So, we need to have also my wife is unbelievable like that. You know, I'll share with her what I want to say and what I feel like saying and then she'll say, you know, my this is about you, that one's about you, but this is what this is what we should we talk about it. So, there was something that happened to me when I was in high school and I'll share it with you. And takes a minute. I in the Yeshiva that I was in, they divided there were two classrooms that were divided by a thin wall. It wasn't a real wall. It was like a wooden divider and you could hear stuff from both sides because they were trying to maximize, you know, the space whatever. So, it was recess and there were two guys that I I was standing next to in one room and I heard two guys talking about somebody two people whose voices I recognized as my as my friends. They were talking about somebody on the other side of the partition and then I saw I heard after a minute or two that they were talking about me. And it wasn't something that was nice. It was about me. I was very very heartbroken by that. I almost couldn't come to myself the whole day. And and I came home and later that night my father saw that I was on the blues and you know, I wasn't uh that I wasn't uh in a good place. So, my father asked me what's wrong. So, I told him what happened that I heard two friends I heard them talking about me on the other side of the machita. Behind the bema. I heard them talking about I heard them talking about me. So, this is what my father asked me. Listen to this heavy, you listening? He asked me, "Moshe, we'll talk about the how hurt you are, but I want to first ask you, what they were saying, was it true? What they said about you, was it true?" And I said, "Daddy, I'll tell you the truth. I hadn't even thought about that." I didn't think about it for a second, but it was true. So, my father said, "Well, think about that now. I'll come back in 15-20 minutes and you think about that." And he left the room. And he came back and he said, "No?" And I said, uh "There was definitely something true to what they were saying. Not entirely, but there was something upon which what they were saying was based." So, my father said to me, "Like this This is where you listen to me. But listen to me good. You think you worry about that. That's all you have to worry about. Not the other stuff. You just worry to make sure that if they say something that's good, that means that Hashem sent that to your way and you pick that up and you work with that. The other stuff The other stuff don't bother with. Don't bother with it. It's all an Irish guy. It's just an Irish guy. And I struggled with that. Again, I need help from my wife and from my friend, you know, I need help with it cuz it's cuz the ego gets lost and you have to check. Cuz the ego is is is crazy crazy clever and you have to be very careful. But but uh over time over time I I I I I began to get better at distilling it myself. I'm not there yet, but I I began to get better at it. I still refer to my wife and my friend when it's something that's just like, you know, heavy. But I I've gotten better at it. The stuff that's that's sheker and sinas chinam sheker, it's an Irish guy like my father said. And I and I ignore it. I try. I try. The stuff that's The stuff that might have some takhlis, some some takhlis and it's has some good There's a good point that's being made about Maybe I had Maybe I said the truth, but I said I said the truth in a way that was hurtful to people. Or I wrote like there was a whole back and forth in one of the frum magazines a couple years ago and I was I was pretty hard on the guy. I don't regret it I I I don't regret what I said, but I regret how I said I regret how I said some of the things. I could have said it in a nicer way. And why did I say it in such a strong way? Which I I called him up to apologize. Why did I say it in such a strong way? Um it was my ego. I I I I realized it afterwards and I didn't stop it in time. And uh I had to make this whole thing a machloma. And it didn't have to be a machloma. I could have made my point in a nicer way. So I I I finished the the the story uh confident in the truth that I that I that I believed in and that I was trying to represent. And I still feel that was totally right and I told him so. And he's still he's still upset with me and everything, but I told him so. But regretting and apologizing for the part of it that was that was not good, that was ego. And that's that's the way I I try to work with this stuff. That's all. I want to thank I want to thank Rebbe for sharing that because it's not always easy. Not everybody shares uh publicly, but I think it's a great inspiration to me personally, I'm sure to everybody listening, that Rebbe is is willing to be uh vulnerable to share that that conversation, that apology, and and that all of us need to constantly uh hold up the mirror, look in the mirror, have others hold up mirrors for us to figure that to figure that piece out. It's not It's not easy, no matter what position one is in in life. So I'm very grateful to Rebbe for a willingness to share that. Rebbe Moscowitz, do you have another question? Yeah, no. I was First of all, thank you so much, Rebbe. That was a very powerful. You had mentioned earlier the notion of finding yourself. One of the avodas, one of the obligations that we have during Elul is to find yourself. I find that finding yourself has become increasingly more complicated in a world of externality. Whether it's social media where we have a dual personality, there's the part of me I showcase to the world, and then there's the part of me that I experience at home. There's so many layers upon layers upon layers that are put upon us with the self so many aspects that that becoming harder and harder to find who we truly are. So, if you could just unpackage a little bit what it means to find yourself in in a world that's so chaotic and it's to rapid pace and with so much focus on externality, how could people do a better job this Elul, this Rosh Hashanah so that when they come before Hashem, they're coming before Hashem as they really are and not cloaked in the clothes of externality? All right. His voted this. You know? I don't see any other I don't see any other way because you could you could say shacharit with kavana and you could still be playing that game. But when you're when you're a Jew that engages in the in the avodah of his voted this, you you can't play that game. That's why there was something that was so wonderful about the misery of the pandemic was that Jews would daven by themselves. So, I asked this guy that always comes late to shul and leaves early. I said, "Like, how did you pull that off when you were by yourself?" How do you do that? Like, how do you how do you fight How do you do that like that malacha when you're when you're by yourself? So, he laughed and he said he said, "You know what, Rabbi? It's the first time in my life I ever davened was during the pandemic." So, now baruch Hashem, the pandemic is over. It's finished. I don't care what they're saying like this like that. For now, right here where I am in this minute, it's not here. And it shouldn't become that any of us, God forbid. And and when you are alone with Hashem, when you're alone with Hashem, then you begin to you begin to uh undertake this journey that's called self-discovery. And unfortunately, when we're in shul or when we're in the siddur, we we have a hard time doing that. We still are able one can do that, but it's very very big madrega to to be able to do that. But when you're by yourself and you have set aside this time, this 15 minutes, this half hour to go in a place where no one will ever know, no one will ever hear me, and hasn't been defiled or polluted by the noise of the world. And I go to that place and I say "Ribbono shel Olam, eich canani ba'olam? Where am I? Ribbono shel Olam, do you still recognize me? Do I recognize myself? Ribbono shel Olam, open my eyes to see who I really am. I don't I don't know any other way. I know there are all kinds of things I've seen in different places and read about them in Jewish sources and even non-Jewish sources. I I I I I don't know. I don't know. I I I I shared this by my father's shiva that many years ago when we lived in Far Rockaway, we had Erev Pesach like an hour before the Seder, these two college students showed up at our door. And somebody sent them to us for a Seder. So, it was nice. They're two boys I remember from Brandeis University. They're very not religious, very wonderful guys, and they and they joined us for the Seder. But I was nervous cuz my parents were with us for the Seder, and I didn't know how like how I was going to like pull that off, this uh cultural divide. I I don't know how I was going to work this out cuz these guys had like a thousand questions, you know, and my mother's with the food, and my father's saying the Haggadah, and I I I don't know. And the kids making noise and pulling things. It was So, at some point, so they were asking a lot of questions. So, there are two basic questions that that these guys like made the mistake of asking. This is after a lot of other questions. The first was um The first was how do you know that God truly exists? At this point, my father stopped and said the Haggadah, and he said, "What do you mean, how do you know that God exists? It says in It says in the Torah portion of Haggadah, 'Vayigash Hashem Mitzrayim l'hachazik b'Yisrael.' It says the Ribbono shel Olam took us out from Mitzrayim. So, then we know that It says in the Haggadah that the Ribbono shel Olam took us out from Mitzrayim. That means that he exists cuz it says he took his hat from his son. So he asked him how do you know that God exists? That was the first question. And my father is a very smart person. He knew exactly what he was saying. Then the second thing is not their question but my father's question. They were talking about one of them in particular was talking about how he had gone to the Himalayas and you know it was that time when they searching for the So he was in the Himalayas, he was in Europe, he went here, went everywhere, all over the world. My father and the guy was not he left college and all of this and this bothered my father like how can this guy is not working and going to school? Like what's he taking trips on his father's cash? My father asked him, "Who's paying for all your trips?" So he says, "Well, me too I can't afford it. My parents." So my father said, "Oh, your parents are paying for these trips?" And my father said, "Tell me something, and why are you going to the Himalayas? Why are you going to India?" So the guy said, And when he said it I I went, "Oh, no." He said, "I I'm I I'm going there to find myself." As he said, "I'm going there to find myself." So my father my father looks at me and he says, "There's the master." And he I guess he went to the Himalayas. He's going to the Himalayas to find himself. He says, "I know where you are. You're right here in Rockaway. Why don't you look over here? Why are you going to the Himalayas to find yourself? You're right here in Far Rockaway." And the guy smiled and he said, "Oh, you know." He's like a European person. He's like different. My father is totally right. People are going all over looking for themselves. The place to find yourself is when you buy yourself. That's the place to find yourself. It's doctor that which nobody wanted during the pandemic which everybody is going crazy. What am I going to do? I can't die without a minion. Why you can't die without a minion since it's out of the all the Isis is so careful with all of a sudden it comes you can't die without a minion. How can they take me away from the minion? No. You you you you can't be alone with God. Period. You don't know what it means to be alone with God cuz you don't know what it means to be alone with yourself. And all the noise from the technology, all of that is just so you shouldn't be by yourself. Just so you shouldn't be by yourself. This whole business of searching for oneself if the tech if all technology would be shut down for a week or two and then we'd all be in a room by ourselves, not with our wives, not with our kids everybody should be healthy and well, not with anything else, just you and the by a sham. You'd find him and you'd find yourself. That's all. So, in the meantime, what could we do? Try to find ways of doing that without without the world falling apart. You don't have to have a pandemic to to to say a few words to God. You don't have to have uh some kind of a tragedy to come to to the question of what's the task of my life. Doesn't have to be the God forbid your wife drops dead or your child is being buried and you're saying God this is you come to say why what's the task of my life. Ask yourself in that this is the way of the of our office that every single day they live with this question. What's the purpose of my life? Why did you create me? Why am I here in this world? Unless you ask yourself these big questions regularly and sincerely and it's not part of a Yom Iyun in the in shul and it's not to impress people and to write a book about or to put yourself on a website, but it's you by yourself and the you're not going to find yourself, you're not going to find him there's going to be nothing from nothing. Just go to the Himalayas, maybe you'll find something there. Rebbi Rebbi's been incredibly generous with time. We appreciate it. We know it's late. I want to ask one last question to close us out. I was going to I mean there's so many things to talk about. We're going to have to have Rebbi back the first time first person back for a third time. Talk about parents choosing names for their babies. I know Rebbi has a lot of opinions about baby names and there's so many more things to talk about. We'll end with this. If I had to guess I think I could predict fairly well what some of Rebbi's biggest concerns for our generation, but I want to ask not what Rebbi's worried about our generation, but what Rebbi is is proud, is excited, is happy. What does Rebbi think is our generation's greatest strength? What what gives Rebbe comfort and confidence about our generation? What what reflects well upon us? What does Rebbe think is is going right right now? Everything I just said that's wrong is is also right. What I mean is the following. I believe that that that there's never been as honest a generation as the one we're living in. And that's what when you see a lot of the kids that they're going off the derech and now before 50 minutes before I got onto this, I was talking to I was talking to um a guy who who's just got a divorce and his wife left Yiddishkeit completely and last week on when I was in the Palisades, there was a wife telling me that her husband checked out of Yiddishkeit. It's it's unbelievable what's going on. But when I talk to these people, when I tried to ask them, what is it? What is it? I have found I have found them to be brutally honest. In other words, someone says to me, I I have been I was forced into Yeshiva. You know, that's how I was raised. I was brought up that way. Um I never really got answers to the questions I had and certainly not and certainly not to the questions that I didn't ask. And I can't live a lie any longer. I can't I can't be dishonest. I can't live a lie. I I have found that that there's an unbelievable honesty. That if you can get a person by himself or by herself and have a conversation, I have found to I have found people to be refreshingly open and honest. And and that gives me a tremendous tremendous amount of hope. It causes a lot of pain along the way. It causes a lot of um distractions and destruction along the way. But ultimately, like Rav Kook writes in his memoir Hadar, which was written over 100 years ago, the generation, Rav Kook said that on the outside, there's never been a generation that's as ugly and as impure. But on the inside, he says, "I've never seen a generation like ours." A generation of people that are that that when they finally when they when they see the truth and they and they and they and they grab the truth, a hastevila come to go with it and they'll be moist and efforts to live a life that's true. I've never seen such honesty, such sincerity, such honesty like I've seen in our generation. I've never seen. The Satmar Rebbe used to say used to say that you know, he was from Hungary. He said when he came to America, he says he he says the Americans have a meter of cleanness. You know, like you get you like get get some player, some farmer, some peasant, the guy that lives you know, he has a farm someplace in Alabama and you talk to him. It's not you like you'll hear stuff that you don't want to hear. You going to have to go to the mikveh after to us. But as a He says the He says what's on his mind. But to this one, but among each other, you ask somebody and he starts to joke. All kinds of dancing circles. You can't get a straight answer from the guy from the farmer, he'll tell you in one second. But from one of us, oh, it's a whole drasha. It's a whole drasha. So, I believe in the honesty of our generation and that's why the moment like the Rebbe said that he said that the moment that this that this whole onion is this disguise is going to fall, that this covering is going to that this veil is going to be ripped apart and it's going to be out there as it does, then in one second, the every Jew is going to scream "Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Elokeinu." There's not going to be any need to philosophize. There's not going to We're not going to have any seminars about it. It's going to be everybody running back to Hashem. It's an honest and sincere and and um and very heartfelt generation. And a lot of the fighting and screaming and yelling has to do with all of these meters. But the the pnimeus is very very honest. That's what gives me hope. Baruch Hashem, I want to thank Rabbi so much for the time, for giving us hope, for giving us chizuk, as always, for giving us inspiration, for giving us honesty. And uh there's so much more to talk about. So, with Rabbi's permission, we'll we'll we'll schedule at some point a part three. Next time to get next time together in Yerushalayim, business. Amen. We wish Rabbi a k'siva v'chasima tova. We thank Rabbi for all the inspiration today and always. And uh thank you so much for for spending time with us. Thank you. It's good to see you. I wish you a k'siva v'chasima tova. Woo. Fire. Always fire. Fire. Fire. Rabbi Weinberger always brings the fire. Sometimes a lot of fire. Hope nobody gets burned by the fire. Um chevre, the hour's already late. We went a little over. Nobody wanted to cut that conversation short. Takeaways, moments. Rabbi Brody. Rabbi Brody, we can't hear you. We cannot hear you. You are muted. Still muted, but uh just the idea of being alone by yourself, it's definitely something we don't do it do enough of and you know, I think we're afraid to do it. Yeah. Yeah, for me, definitely being alone by yourself. I also, you know, I accepted the mussar about the hak. And I myself may have fallen prey to that at various points throughout the year where you get involved in conversations about uh COVID and policies and masks and you know, sometimes you allow those conversations to become uh lively. And uh I'm going to do a little bit of better job of avoiding hak and focusing on what's truly important. Mm. I I was uh Rabbi Brody, I predicted that you would have said that it was his description of what unity really looks like, not a simple unity. Yeah. Well, it's too predictable for you? Is that why? No, it's just you know what? He lays a very honest look at what I think a lot of people are feeling that it just it's it's it's it's it's hard. It's very very hard. I don't think it's impossible. I don't think he was saying it's impossible, but it's it's something which we really If we really care enough, it's going to take a lot of work. No, but I thought, you know, his point was that we have a lot We excel at superficial unity. We've had this a little bit locally where Boca Raton community has won the unity prize. We know that, and there is extraordinary unity beyond most in our community. We're very grateful for that. You know, but we can get along when there's a crisis and you need to have an emergency davening or rally for Israel or anti-Semitism's going on. And sometimes when the rubber meets the road and and a deep real unity, the the hill of coming more mamesh to see the the the deep spark of a Jew in another, that's a little bit harder. So, that that I found that very piercing, very penetrating, very very very real about taking on the harder subjects and showing the real unity. The other part that and and I mentioned it during the conversation itself, the fact that he was honest with us and talked about how he called up that other prominent rav to apologize Wow. and realized he was willing to admit to our our large behind the Bima audience. He said his ego got in the way. Halila, you know, God forbid, I'm not the one saying he said it, that he stays true to his principles. He feels strongly about the position that he had taken, but he was able to acknowledge that his ego got in the way, even if his messaging was tainted and compromised by his ego getting in the way. And he was transparent. He shared with us that he called that rabbi to apologize. Wow. Not for what he said, but for how he said it. And I really, really appreciated that honesty and admitting that to us. This is the season of apologizing. It's the season of confessing and admitting. It's the time that we are real and honest that we can look in the mirror, and I think we all just saw a great example of it. It's hard to do. one other thing that I found refreshing was, you know, at the beginning when he was speaking about as Pnei Hashem Elokecha, that's really the goal of what we're trying to accomplish. You know, sometimes you get confused. There's so many ideas out there. You hear so many shmoozes, so many sermons, so many articles about what Elul is, what Rosh Hashanah should be. And he just like drilled right down and said, "If you got to summarize it in one idea, it's searching for God." And I found that so refreshing and and really motivating of what our avoda what our obligation should be over the coming weeks. Yeah, I mean he's really brought a vocabulary to a segment of the community that didn't use it to talk about Hashem relationship in in that way and I think we're very indebted to him. I know that it's influenced my own learning and my own avoda and my personal growth and it's also influenced my my teaching and the vocabulary that I use and there's not a better person we could have had on as our first repeat guest. So although a junior fact-checker, I believe while we were doing that interview, weighed in. Rabbi Moscowitz, do you have an update on that? I do have an update. In fact, the junior fact-checker was disappointed in the senior fact-checker for not catching this, but I believe Mosha Moscowitz is the only other repeat visitor on Behind the Bima guest on Behind the Bima and he was disappointed that the senior fact-checker did not catch that, but he was a repeat guest before Mosha Weinberger. That is a good That's good company to be in with Mosha Weinberger and Mosha Moscowitz. That is a good company to be in so far our repeat guest. I want to thank our generous sponsors again for tonight's episode, Mrs. Laptop Group, the Mrs. Laptop Group. Thank you to the Saka family. Thank you to the Kattawitzes Boca and Woodmere. Another inspiring night with a lot to think about. If you've enjoyed this conversation, if you were stimulated to think, to grow and to be caught on fire, lit on fire, help share the message. Take a moment if you're listening on a podcast player to rate and review. Not for us. It's not about us and our banter. It's not important if that doesn't get out, but if Mosha Weinberger's message is and the deep love deal faith of Mariano Rivera and the incredible Yossi Mendelovich, his story of triumph, of resiliency in Russian Siberian prisons, so help us get those messages out. Take a moment, rate and review. Take a moment and share. If you're watching on YouTube, subscribe to find out every time we go live. Thank you for being part of our Wednesday night. What What you want to say Rabbi Moscowitz? I was going on? we didn't talk about that, but apparently a little birdie told us that our Moshe Weinberger quoted the real estate Mendelovich episode of Behind the Bima in his drasha in shul on Shabbos. Mhm. The Meer laptop We're being corrected here. Not the Mrs. The Meer The Meer laptop group. Did we get that wrong several times? The Meer laptop group? I thought that was the name of a laptop, like a computer company or something. Meer The Meer Okay, let's apologize. We're going to have to apologize. And again, we let's Didn't someone send us an email saying it's Mrs.? did. I'm very confused because we got several emails, a lot of different directions. So, the Meer laptop group and the Mrs. laptop group, the Mr. laptop group, Dr. laptop group, Rabbi laptop group, whatever laptop group, we thank you for your generosity and for your sponsorship. We're deeply appreciative. And in this season of apologies, please accept ours if we got that wrong. We are sorry. It was uh confusing or misrepresented to us. So, on that note, everyone, thank you for joining us. Take a moment to rate and review. Share the messages that we've had. Yes, we're saying, let's end with this. Apparently last Shabbos, Reb Weinberger said he was being driven back by the mountains. He was falling asleep, very tired. The rebbetzin was putting on different podcasts. None of them interest him. Then he heard the conversation with Yossi Mendelovich, and he was mesmerized, and he quoted one of Yossi Mendelovich's stories that he told on Behind the Bima. Told the extraordinary stories of the of the um fasts of his uh What is it called? Strike? Hunger strike. Hunger strike. The hunger strike that he took, and the other amazing, amazing stories. You can listen to that and catch up on old episodes. Until next time. Thank you again to the Meer Mrs. Mr. laptop group, Saka family, and Katowitzes. Until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, and stay holy.