#68: Behind the Bima - Chief Rabbi Dovid Lau

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. Wednesday night 9:00 p.m. I'm Rabbi Ephraim Goldberg joined by my dear friends and colleagues Rabbi Philip Moskowitz and a special welcome back to our long-lost friend. There was a lot of speculation whether he'd be coming back, whether he'd be brought back. I'm coming back. Allowed back. A welcome back to our friend Rabbi Joshua Brody. Gentlemen, good evening to both of you. How are you? Welcome to Behind the Bima. I forgot to say it's Behind the Bima. Welcome to Behind the Bima. A good night to all. Welcome. Great to have you back with us. And thank you Thank you for writing those reviews. We have a second winner last week. We're going to do a raffle every week for those who take a moment, who listen to the podcast on Apple Podcast player, take a moment to rate and review. In your review, you're automatically entered. We've got phenomenal swag. We've got our our cups. We've got our car magnets. We've got fantastic hats. And we will send the winner who takes a moment to review. But let's begin as we always do our conversation with gratitude and attitude of gratitude. Tonight we're grateful to our generous sponsor. Thank you, Dr. Aviva Distenfeld, who sponsored in honor of her husband's recent success and the fact that he won a tournament and donated all the money to the shul. It's a beautiful thing to It's a lot of money and to do with the shul. So, thank you for including Behind the Bima, Boca Raton Synagogue, our efforts to inspire the Jewish world with that. So, thank you so much for that generosity and sponsorship and congratulations on that achievement. Gentlemen, how was your week? Busy week. I can tell you I really wanted to tune in and see if I could go live, but when I was camping out at Masada and forget the fact that there's no Wi-Fi. But I figured, you know what? So I'll use some cell network and I'll get on the I'll get on the show. But then all of a sudden I realized they shut all the lights. Like you wouldn't be able to see. It would just be a black screen. There's nothing there. But it was great. That wouldn't be the first time though that you've come to us from strange locations. Yeah, you should see some of the other places. Rabbi Brody, welcome back for the audience who maybe didn't listen last couple weeks where Rabbi Brody was not with us. He was traveling. He was in our holy land, Eretz Yisrael. During Corona, most people couldn't go to Israel once, but Rabbi Brody seemed to have been there every other month. Not sure how he Every other week. Tell us uh tell us about that trip. What brought you there? What are you working on? What did you experience? some great great projects and I happen to uh hook up with a group from uh from Momentum, which was really really amazing. And um we're going to be bringing a lot of guys next year. For those who don't know. Momentum is is if you've ever heard of uh Birthright, which I'm sure most people have heard of it. So, Momentum is essentially the moms Birthright and then they started as a as a uh second part, a dads Birthright. So, we brought 85 guys and God willing next year we are going to bring 800 is the uh goal for next year. So, 800 guys that have most have never been to Israel. It was a an amazing experience. This Momentum is a program that was founded by a previous guest of Behind the Bima, Lori Palatnik. And um she was on. And uh tell us a little bit more about Momentum. They're doing some great stuff. So, so our community has brought a number of buses with different partner organizations. And I think one of the great things that BRS is going to be doing now is trying to figure out what's next. And so, you know, the big criticism of Birthright is it's a great 10-day trip to Israel, but what do you do in in terms of follow-up? So, I think right now we're working on a very exciting follow-up plan for for people that have gone through our community, but also for members of our shul that have not been, but maybe want to interact in some meaningful ways, so Right. lot lot more to come. Nice. Rabbi Moskowitz, what's going on with you? Well, it's good to be back together as a as a group. And uh things are going great. It's getting busy here. You know, as the weather starting to change down here in South Florida, people are starting to come down. Programming is ramping up in the community, which for me is like a breath of fresh air. That was probably the hardest part of COVID was not being in person for programming, not being together, you know, for us specifically during the season, which really runs from like November until Pesach. Every single night just a bombarding of programs and classes and sheerum and social events. And it was really lacking over the last 2 years, and it's so nice that as we're looking ahead in the calendar, see the speakers that are coming down, the programming that are taking place. Um it's a it's really great, special. Nice. We had a very interesting lunch earlier this week at Boca Raton Synagogue, a little meeting. One of our listeners of Behind the Bima, who's a a fan and a listener, and and we're a fan as well of of them, um had a meeting to share some feedback, some thoughts. This is not a member of the Orthodox community, not secular. One of the things we learned is not to use the word secular. Just because somebody's not Orthodox, they don't define themselves as secular. In fact, could be offended and see the term secular as almost insulting. They're religious in their own way, in a different way. So, prefers the term non-observant, less observant or non-observant. So, a less observant member of our greater Boca community, with whom we have a relationship from other contexts, Federation work, and partnering on Peace of Mind and others, met with us to share some feedback. And I thought it was really it was really fantastic. It challenged us. It made us think about a lot. And one of the questions that was posed is, "Who's our audience? Who who are Who's our target audience? Is Behind the Bima designed exclusively for the Orthodox community, for the initiated, for people who when we use Hebrew terms know everything we're saying? Do we want those who are unaffiliated? Do we want to break and penetrate into the less observant community? Do we want" We were challenged. This individual asked, uh their child is on a college campus and is definitely swept up in some of the millennial, although I think college kids are younger than millennial, but that way of thinking and some of that culture, are we sensitive to that language and to those issues? And it was a very interesting question. So, what would the both of you say? Behind the Bima at this point, when we began Behind the Bima many moons ago, the beginning of Corona, if you remember the early days when it was called coffee talk at 9:00 at night, and we began Behind the Bima, um it was for our members of our shul. We were unable to see them. Everyone was locked down, distanced from one another. We were still giving classes over Zoom, but we didn't feel we were able to just talk, schmooze, share. So, we began it, but it has evolved into something very different. So, what would you say today, today, tonight's episode, November 3rd, the end of the month of Marcheshvan, what's our target audience? It's interesting. First of all, I don't think any audience is everyone. Why can't it be everyone? Now, there's I always viewed the speakers that we had at BRS as there's going to be something for everyone, but not everyone's going to relate to every speaker. So, there going to be some speakers that are going to speak about politics and about Israel and AIPAC, and that might not be my genre, but that won't be the weekend that I go hear that speaker. And there going to be some weekends when our Schechter is going to come, and that's going to be the type of speaker that I'm drawn to. And we always say there's something for everyone, and each week might not be particular for you, but we're kind of exposing you to the width and width and breadth of both within the Jewish community, outside the Jewish community, of things to inspire you. And to me, that's what Behind the Bima is. We're exposing people, I think, to the best of what's out there. Within the Jewish world, yesh chakma ba'goyim, all over the place. And there'll be some weeks, for example, last week Rabbi YY Jacobs in, used a lot of Hebrew terms. And I'm sure that for some of our listeners, it was very difficult to be able to listen to that. Other weeks, you're going to have Sheryl Sandberg on, you're going to have Mariano Rivera on, right? It's going to be a very different kind of conversation. To me, that's the beauty of it though. That's exactly what we're trying to accomplish, which is showing people that you can learn something from everyone. Well, this just This just in from my daughter, Gen Z. Not millennials, millennials are like Rabbi Moskowitz says, they're Gen Z. Are we Gen X? by the way. Yeah, but Brody, in your mind, who's the target audience? Well, first of all, I don't think we anticipated anyone tuning in when we first started. I think we were just doing it because we just wanted to do a show and it was just going to be a lot of fun. But at the same time, I I I happen to take a different view on this whole show and I I I love participating. But I think what I what what makes it so special is the interaction that we have with one another that people don't ordinarily get to see. I personally don't think people are tuning in for all the guests. I think they're tuning in to watch the action between the three of us. Now, not not to say there's anything special or or or you know, but I there is actually something special there. There's something very unique there. So, so I I I think that we can actually cross many different uh you know, borders and uh make it appealing to many different types of people. Mhm, interesting. Okay. What about you, should I go over? What do you think? I I tend to agree with you. I think the show is a reflection of our shul that we are drawing from the width and breadth of what the world has to offer that we think we can gain from. I think the common denominator that of the guests that we bring on are people that we can learn from, that we can be inspired by, we can go behind the bema with. When we talk about the guests that we want to recruit or the people who are at this point on a regular basis regular basis, knocking down our door to come on, we're looking for individuals, like you said, Jewish, non-Jewish, religious, non-observant who who, you know, exactly aligned with us in different and different ways. Some of our best episodes have been non-Jewish. Marvel, an African-American pro-Israel student leader, was on when when Black Lives Matter movement was was first starting and that was very much racial issues were in the news. Um as you said Mariana Rivera was amazingly inspired talking about God every sentence that he said. Um and and we've had on people who are not uh observant necessarily. We've had on fantastic scholars Dr. Jerome Groopman and we had on uh Dr. Leonard Schleifer the CEO of Regeneron. We've had fascinating individuals Sheryl Sandberg, people who don't describe as observant. Bob Kraft who quoted more Pirkei Avot perhaps. In fact, that individual that we had That was fascinating. said that after the Bob Kraft interview they went to go look up. They kept hearing Pirkei Avot Pirkei Avot what's Pirkei Avot. Had never been exposed to it looked it up and tried to learn it started to read it. Couldn't find much online or podcast wise to listen to with it. So pay attention Rabbi exactly coming out soon. Coming soon. Pirkei Avot series. Uh so I tend to agree with you. It is challenging though because I think that most shows there's some consistency to it. There's some predictability in terms of the style of the theme or who the guests might be. And in this case we're essentially saying that every week we're going to throw something up on the wall and uh you'll decide whether you want to listen or not. We have started on YouTube when all of our shows are on YouTube. I and I believe it's in the notes on the podcast players as well. We now say when the guest is on. At this minute the guest begins. At this minute the guest ends. So some people actually have no interest in hearing us but they want to hear the interview with the guest. So you could go right to the guest. And others if there's true or maybe there's a guest for example the person that we met with said that Rabbi YY Jacobson it was all Japanese. They didn't understand one word he was saying. He's brilliant but he's using a lot of Hebrew terminology. It was for the initiated. Um so this individual was able to listen to us before and after the interview. So you could use those that those marks to know uh either way which part that you want. But I guess it puts a burden on the listener to decide if they want to hear that person or not. But it is a it is an interesting question. And and that it goes to a deeper question which one of our colleagues and and friends we'll still call him a friend but shared or attacked us online and social media about because our guest tonight we're very excited to welcome the chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel, the Rav Harash Ely Israel. You don't have to agree with him or love him or love the rabbinate, but it's a very prominent, very prestigious position, a very powerful position. Chief rabbinate is deciding a lot of critical issues involved or influencing a lot of critical issues in Israel and by definition Israel the Jewish state beyond that as well. So someone had some some thoughts about our guest or what we might talk to him about and described us as not exactly hard-hitting to say the least. But while that might have been intended to be an insult, I actually take it as a compliment. I take it as a compliment. Our our goal some journalists their mission, their job to do it well is to sit opposite a guest and to make them uncomfortable. Right. To ask the hard-hitting questions, to challenge them in areas that might be controversial. That's not the mission of Behind the Bima. Behind the Bima is inspirational, biographical. What is a person's life experiences? What have been their challenges or failures? What have they learned? How have they broken through? What can we gain from their life? So we're not looking, we've never claimed, nobody we've never started it's Wednesday night 9:00 p.m. Welcome to the hard-hitting Behind the Bima or always the press. Right, we've never we've never aspired to be that. So you know, I don't know the intent in that in that comment, but I wasn't insulted. I was actually complimented by that. No, I agree and I think you know, we want our listeners to come out a little bit more inspired and I think to get there you want an attitude of positivity, you want an environment of positivity. Um and and to be fair to you though, we have had guests on that you've been a little hard-hitting on. You know, we had that conversation with Mishpacha magazine. Um you wouldn't let go and you just kept going and going and going and you you were not letting go of that conversation. We're like "Rabbi, give it up." But you you were going in and you know, so you know, when we felt it was appropriate in issues that obviously deeply matter to us, we were not afraid to go a little bit more hard-hitting, but I think in general our goal as he said is to be inspiring and to leave people with nuggets at the end that they can say, "Ah, that's what I'm going to improve. That's what I'm going to gain from. That's what I'm going to inspire myself with." Yeah, that's that's a fair point. And and even last week when we had Rabbi YY and and I had his permission beforehand cuz I wouldn't have wanted to put him on the spot without it. I guess that makes me not hard-hitting. But I asked him I challenged him about, you know, whether it was Rubashkin or or Trump issues. And we had great conversations. I would say that what when I or we ask those questions, it's because we don't want to have a guest on where it's obvious there's something to ask and to have not asked it. We don't want to get the email or the text that says, "How could you have had so-and-so and not ask them this?" On the other hand, the goal is not to make them uncomfortable, put them on the spot, challenge them, escalate it with tension and conflict. The goal is to be inspired and to and to go behind the bema. That's the name. The name is not hard-hitting. The name is behind the bema. Although I was thinking it could have been behind the beards. But then I was told by brother you don't really that was one of the ideas by the way. I think that was one of the ideas that we were that we were throwing around. Behind the beards? Yeah, but I think behind the bema worked out better. Behind the bema has worked out so far better. So we're we're excited to have our guest on and I think I think we should bring him. Rabbi David Lau is was the chief rabbi of Modi'in and then became the chief rabbi of the entire State of Israel. He's winding down towards the end of the 10-year chief rabbinate um term. And um I I think that, you know, my experience when when I was a member of uh leadership at the RCA, which I am no longer, and I graduated from it. I don't think I was uh fired. Um but my experience was that Rabbi Lau was really somebody who was filled with common sense, real care and concern, a listening ear, wants to make change not by shaking things up, and has done so in a meaningful way in meaningful areas. And like his father, who's very very beloved by enormously diverse segments of the Jewish people, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau should be well and healthy. Um Rabbi Lau similarly, so he's uh he's done a lot and it's a great honor to be able to welcome him to the program. Have Have either of you met him before or interacted with him? I met him in your office a couple of years ago. I remember he came in, he had a flag. He gave uh souvenirs, some gifts. And um who's taking over after him? Is there any any uh No, it's still a few years out. He's still a few years out, but he's towards the end of winding down, so Putting Putting your uh name in the hat there? That would definitely not be the case. Definitely not be the case. So, anyway, without any further ado, it is a great privilege to be able to welcome the Chief Rabbi of Israel. It's a tremendous zchut. It's a great privilege for us to welcome on the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi David Lau Shlita. Chief Rabbi not only of Israel, but of Israel as the Jewish state, and the Chief Rabbi for Jews across the world. Someone who represents us and fights for us, who inspires us and teaches us, and whom I've had the privilege to know for a very long time. He's close with my family in Israel when he was the Chief Rabbi of Modi'in, where my sister and her family live. Rabbi Lau, welcome. Thank you so much for joining us. My pleasure. So, Rabbi Lau, everybody knows your accomplishments, your achievements, in your time as the Chief Rabbi, as the Rav HaRashi. You've taken on many projects and you've brought a great sense of of common sense and of moderation, of trying to bring Jews together, and of trying to create a sense of achdut. You grew up in a rabbinic home, a very famous home of your father, Rabbi Lau Shlita, who we were privileged to have in our community as well. And we know that your father, in his memoir, in his book, talks about being uh 38 generations of rabbis, and the responsibility that he felt to continue that line of being a rav. Did you also know at a young age that you were going to continue, that you were going to go into the family business of being in the rabbinut, that you were going to be a rav yourself? Did you know at a young age you would one day aspire to be the Rav HaRashi? No. No, I didn't think like this. I can tell you that I remember myself that I have an elder brother Rabbi Moshe Chaim Lau and he his name is after the name of my father of my father and he was serious from our childhood and from this time we be sure we were sure that he will continue and because of that I can do what I prefer. And I remember myself I was a leader in my class classroom. I but after our wedding my wife and I we decided we took decision to decisions. The first was that we got married and the second that I don't want to be a rabbi and I I won't be a rabbi. I tried to keep myself and to make better that if I take decision I'll do it because it was only 40-50% that I did. And I remember the times that my father gave to his rabbinate. I remember my grandfather Rabbi Yitzchak Yedidya Frenkel was Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv and I saw how hard it to be a rabbi is a lot of responsible, a lot of time, a lot of hard that you need to bring and uh I felt that for me is better to learn and uh to edit all uh a books of uh Rishonim and I tried to do it. I started to do it after our wedding and this is you know the time the Kodesh Baruch Hu take you that someone ask you to give us you and another ask you give us you and someone ask you advice with Kashrut and uh other ask you uh maybe you can help with the Mikvaot and now I'm here. But I can tell you one point. I remember myself I was 10 years old in the the fifth grade in the elementary school in Tel Aviv. And I did uh what's the time the child can do when he was uh 10 years old in this class. I took a paper. I made it uh like a ball and I threw on the head of my friend. And I did two or three times the same. And the teacher saw and the teacher told me, "Yes, you can be very good basketball player but now come to the blackboard." I came to the blackboard. He gave me a chalk. And he asked me, "Your father is very serious man. Very important man. Uh is it?" I said, "Yes." "So, write the number zero on the blackboard." I wrote. "Your grandfather the father of your father was our Moshe Chaim Lau, rabbi of Piotrkow, and the famous rabbis in Poland before the Holocaust. Write another zero. I wrote. And your grandfather, Rabbi Yitzchak Yedidya Frenkel, another important rabbi. So, you need to to write another. I wrote. Who can you tell me in your dynasty? I told him for example, Divrei Chaim of Sanz, the founder of the Hasidut of Sanz. Very famous, very important rabbi. Oh, Divrei Chaim of Sanz? So, write another zero. I wrote. Who can you continue? I spoke about Maharal of Prague, about Rashi, about So, after a 20 zeros, he stopped me. He took the chalk, and the chalk now was a small, because after 20 zeros, it was small. He wrote the number one under the line of 20 zeros. And he said, "If you'll be a serious man, if you know to what to do with your time and with your head, the number one will be in the the beginning of this line. So, one with 20 zeros is very big number. But if you'll be you continue to do things like you did, and maybe basketball, yes, but that's all. I'll take the number one and I write it in the end of the line. So, now say with me, what you can see on the blackboard? 00000000001. It's only one. So, why I need to that is a blackboard and to spend the chalk. Sit down. He said it. And I was 10 years old. And I remember and I understood that the dynasty can help you, can tell you that you have a genius. You can do it. But it depend of you if you use with this power or you throw it out. And this is the point that from those time I remember it. And I try I I can't tell you that I know how to use with all the 20 zeros or 30 zeros. But I use with this example when I'm speaking in the a lot of places in Israel and schools, high schools, even in not religious places. For example, Kibbutz Mizra or Kibbutz Hanassi. They're kibbutz that not religious people, not religious places, and I can't say why they grow they grow pigs or another things that not for the kosher meat. But they invited me. I try to come, to speak, to go to every place, every city, every school in Israel. I try to come and to tell them all of us has a lot of zeros. We are children for of Abraham and Sarah. We are children of Isaac and Rebecca. We are children of Jacob and Leah and Rachel. All of us has a lot of grand-grandparents, a lot of zeros, so we have a genius from them. Now, this is our time to strength our uh ring in the big trial that for an next and next generations. Thank you so much for sharing that. I you know, I I have a follow-up question. First of all, it's very inspiring and and the responsibility of all of us and and it's an interesting thing because growing up in such a prominent home with such a prominent father, accomplished father, a chief rabbi in his own right, a beloved chief rabbi, you know, it's this week's parsha also about uh tzadik ben tzadik versus tzadik ben rasha. Sometimes the tzadik ben tzadik is harder. It's harder to say I'm going to be great because you say I'll never be like I can never measure up. I'll just go into business. I'll do my own thing. But not only to measure up, but in your own right to be such an accomplished person and make such a difference is really a tremendous source of of inspiration. I wanted to follow up with another question. The Rav mentioned the education, the chinuch he received, and this particular teacher. One thing that's always I found fascinating about the Rav's family, the Rav's father, the Rav's upbringing, and I believe the way the Rav is bringing up his own children, is that the Rav had a chareidi chinuch. The Rav was brought up within the chareidi system, but the family still has a close connection to tzionut, to to Zionism. And and the Rav's father, Harav Lau, always was able to very much walk that fine line between the chareidim feeling he's one of them, tzionim feeling he's one of them. And I think you, our current Rav Harashi, similarly, are part of a chareidi world with the best that it offers, but also closely connected and also part of that tzioni world. How how can how does one do that? How can we be part of different worlds? How did how did the Reb's father raise you understanding that it's not either or, but that you can do both? And how do you raise your children? How does the Reb raise his children to also be able to accomplish that very difficult blend? First of all, our education was that we love every Jew and because of that, we say the rabbi must help to every Jew. And I see in my eyes a big ladder from the earth to the heaven. And a lot of lines in the steps in the ladder. And I I think that the rabbi must helps everyone in his step in his level. If he's close to heaven or you're close to the earth in his Judaism. The rabbi must help everyone in his place, in his level. How can I help you? First of all, help you because you are a person. Second, how can I help you because I want to help you in Judaism to go up in your level in Judaism. So, because of that it's not uh depend if you are Haredi or not. My father was a very famous rabbi when he was 28 years old and ask him to be a rabbi in Europe in Antwerp in a very famous and big communities in Europe. And I remember myself that my father said his answer was I left the Europe place. I I left Europe and often not to be to come back only for visit or to teach, not for for living. So we live we feel it that we have a lot of very big privilege that we are here in Israel and we live in Israel and this is a time of country of Israel state of Israel and because of that for us it's not depends if you are like this or like this. Everyone is a Jew that we try to help him and to be to and to love him. I can tell you that from time to time we need to walk to feel love for others, but this is our goal and yes, we need to do it. So So one can be raised within a certain Hashkafa, but as long as you love all Jews, then you can feel connected to all worlds. Of course. I could ask a question that that touches upon that a little bit, which is the Rav as the Rav Aura She has obviously a a very wide perspective on Israeli society and the Rav has visited American communities many times and has seen both the struggles and the successes of American Jewry. What can each community teach each other? What can American Jews learn from what's positively going on in Israel and what can Israeli Jews look towards America even though it's the diaspora and say this is something that American Jewry does well and we wish we could have more of it in Israel. see your communities when I see your places that you feel community and families I felt that I didn't know from you. We want to to do like this. We need to learn here in Israel how to be like your communities that everyone must come to shul every time you can feel people in the morning you can feel people in listen in the evening uh in of course in Shabbat this is the time and the community communities this is something that we must more feel it in Israel. We need it and you the people people who made aliyah and came from the diaspora to Israel they teach us in Israel how to do it better how to to feel that we are one family we are one community because that from families and communities we have a nation. So we need in Israel to learn from the diaspora this point. In the diaspora you must maybe to learn from us first of all that everyone in Israel feel with with knowing that we are Jews in our land in our home but it is responsible. It's not only privilege it is duty that we need to do something with it. We need to keep our land of course to to keep that to it will be a Jewish nation, Jewish land, not only land of Jews. And this is that point that we can teach each each other. There is a lot that's going on, a lot changing in Israel, an enormous amount of responsibility, I'm sure for the Rav Harashi. The Rav was the Rav of Modi'in, which is not a small city with enormous responsibility. How How What was the experience like to go from being the Chief Rabbi of a city to the Chief Rabbi of the country? Within each city, the Rabbi is also responsible for the kashrut and the bet din. And now as the Rav Harashi of the whole country, was it a big change? Was it doing things just on a bigger scale? How does the Rav find time to balance the responsibility of being the Chief Rabbi of the country with the Rav's beautiful family? Does the Rav have time to still learn on his own? To make the time to learn even while still teaching and doing? What was the transition like from the Chief Rabbi of a city to the Chief Rabbi of the country? In other words, it's a two worlds that to be Rabbi of city, it's not the same to be Chief Rabbi of state Jewish state, state of Israel. First of all, to be responsible of mikvaot and kashrut, you you Rabbi of city, but when you are Rabbi of state, you need to write uh rules how the Rabbis of cities can succeed to keep kashrut and to keep mikvaot and to keep eruvin. This is This is first of all. Second, a lot of arguments between the head of cities, the Rabbi and the head the mayor, they came here to speak about and to help them. Third, I have a responsible about the court. The I came from the Supreme High Court. This is day for that I learned I tried to help people there and uh and this is the responsible you can sit one day to help a young woman and the to be sure that she is a Jew and to give her a agreement that you can go tomorrow to your wedding and you see the her eyes how happy she was. And uh after that you try to help a couple that after a lot of years of a fight, now this is a time to feel themself everyone to bring to to build a new life, a new time. This is the a lot of goals that the rabbi of city can give advice. Now I need I must take decision and to do it not only to give advices. So it's a lot of things that but you agree you add one point that uh I maybe I want to emphasize this. Rabbi that uh doesn't learn every day can't be a rabbi. Rabbi must learn first of all for himself and second to teach. Rabbi, we are students of Moshe Rabbenu. And Moshe Rabbenu all the day, you can see that he teach and he sit in a court, a court, and he help it he helped people and he learned himself with himself. A rabbi must learn and because of that I have a time I have a few things in page of Torah in Halacha and Rambam and Mesilat Yesharim a lot of books that you need every day to learn. If you don't if you not did it if you don't need it you can't be a rabbi. You must be you must add yourself strengths to give others and rabbi is someone that must give a shiur in to listen to teach Judaism. Even you are going to Yeshiva today. I you I was in Yeshiva and I gave a shiur in the subjects that they they learned. They learned the Gemara Gemara and the Talmud and I gave a shiur in them and after that I went to the school of girls and another shiur for them. Rabbi must give a shiur. So you need to to do it for yourself. Because of that from time to time I look for pay attention to my family and yes I know I ask them and uh for example when the brother Ben Azai was 18 years old all the the rabbonim in his generation asked him to be a president instead of Rabban Gamaliel. Says the Gemara Chazal in Gemara in Berakhot and he asked them "Excuse me I must speak with my wife." And Rav Kook, Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, ask, "Your wife? If you are 18 years old, so your wife is 18? Maybe 19, maybe 16. But how much is clever she could be more than Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yohanan Yohanan, all the sages they came the all the righteous that came to ask you to be a president. What can she add to you?" Said Rav Rav Kook, "You Rav Eliezer ben Azariah didn't go to ask her and maybe she she clever than clever more than them." He she he asked her agreement. "Please allowed me to say yes, because if I'll be a rabbi, of course, it was instead of the time that I must be with you and our family. So, rabbi, yes, ask must ask his families that yes, you my children, I must do it and I'm sure that when you help to the children of Kodesh Borchu, the God the Kodesh Borchu help to your children." Baruch Hashem. There there is uh go ahead. No, no, please. Now, if I could just ask a follow-up to the previous answer that you had given me about what each community can learn from each other, and that is that you read a lot about in America now the divide between specifically younger American Jews and their relationship with the State of Israel. When I was growing up, it was a given, right? I grew up in a very Zionist house. I remember vividly during, you know, the the the Iraqi war, sitting there with my parents crying. I mean, there was a a very visceral love of Israel. And in America, in the news a lot, you hear about how there's an apathy, right? Um younger American Jews, by and large, are starting to not feel as connected. Um What can a What would your message be to young American Jews who might feel a little bit of disconnection to Israel? How can we in America motivate them more? And um and how can Israel help that along in the process, as well? In Israel, this is a place of the Jewish state. This is a place of not uh the state of Jew- Jews, this is a Jewish state. And because of that, we try to explain for Jewish a young uh in in US, that you can life, you can feel uh security and very good you with your life because you have a state in the of Israel. You need to remember ago, all the Jews in Europe uh felt excellent in their life in German, in Poland, and all the but uh today, when we have Jewish state of Israel, this is a strength of you in the diaspora to feel Jews and to feel that you have it a home, you can do it because of us. I'm sure and yes, we need to explain it because the you can hear a lot of sounds, a lot of from something from time to time these agreements and a lot of things that you maybe we maybe we mean a wrong things. But this is a Jewish state and this is a home of all the Jewish people in the world. This is very important for all of Jews in the world to know it and to know that we keep the place that every Jew Jews in the world pray for Jerusalem with great mercy to return. We build the place that you can come you and the next generations and our goal of the generations come. There's the current government of Israel, there's a lot of concern, there's a lot in the news that the current government with its coalition is very mixed has a plans that could negatively affect kashrut, negatively affect your conversion. What's the role of the chief rabbinate and and why should the Torah community not worry? Why should the Torah community be comforted to know that the chief rabbi and the chief rabbinate in general is going to make sure to protect the kashrut and the conversions and and that we shouldn't be cynical. A lot of people feel the chief rabbinate, the rabbinate, the rabbinut of Israel, it's all politics, it's all power. There's a lot of people who are very cynical about the rabbinut. So, what would the rav's message be of why people should not be cynical but should believe, should recognize the importance and the central role of the rabbinut to protect the Torah way of life that we believe in. First of all, you know, I feel a lot of uh uh place uh this is very uh a long time that you can feel that uh I'm going in this in the Israel cities, kibbutz, village, places, it's not the same that you can hear from the Knesset and government. People in Israel, for them, it's very important what the Chief Rabbinate said. For them, what the rabbis said, what our tradition said, it's very important for them. And I know that you know you heard a lot that maybe politics in the Chief Rabbinate. You know, after 2 years of COVID-19, that all the people in Israel ask what the Chief Rabbinate said about the synagogue, about the vaccine, about all the things. So, the truth it's a Chief Rabbinate is very important place in Israel and the Jews people in Israel want to hear and to understand and to go according to the the way of Chief Rabbinate. Yes, I know a lot of coalition and political peoples said a lot of things, but you know, I have a patience and I have time and I know better because I live here and I know what people feel. Well, thank you that we appreciate the rov being honest and we appreciate so much of rov's time. We're not going to take a lot more of it, but what what would the rubs message be? You know, we live in Boca Raton outside of Israel. It has most close dense more Jews together. Our community Boca and Delray have have 130,000 Jewish people. 50% of the homes are Jewish, but more than 90% are not that T, are not Orthodox, are not Torah observant. And many of them feel that Israel doesn't recognize them. It doesn't respect them. It wouldn't accept their conversion. And it's obviously a very very complicated issue even for us here when we get along with our local reform conservative colleagues and we care about them and we want to stand up for Israel. Sometimes they bring up the issue, you know, we love Israel. Does Israel love us back? So what would the rubs message be to those who are not observant and to those who are concerned that they don't feel Israel's love about their type of Judaism. I can tell you like the first sentence that I said in the beginning. I love every Jew. I appreciate every Jew. And my goal is to help Jews everyone from his step how to keep his Judaism for the next generation. And because of that, I can tell you You know, if you are going from land to land, for example, you are doctor in medicine and you are going from US to Israel or from Israel to US. You need something. You need a place that recognize in your list to be sure that you are Yes, you are a doctor not only you are speaking about. If I want to come to Boca Raton, and maybe someone ask me to officiate his wedding. I maybe I need lesson from the I don't know from the majority there from the mayor of city. I don't know exactly how is the in Boca Raton. But yes, in Israel we need to be sure that we are doing according to one rule, one way because we want to be sure that when when someone is a Jew even you are in Boca Raton, even you are in Israel, even you are in south of Africa or north of Europe. This is all the Jews in the world can be sure that our sign say that yes, you are a Jew. So because of that, this is line, this is the way that keep all the Jewish nation. And I love every Jew, but the the papers can be must be the same. If I could just ask one last question on a little bit of a lighter note, which is if the Rav could tell everyone what the best part of being a chief rabbi is. What is one major amazing experience the Rav has had or an accomplishment that the Rav is particularly proud of? First of all, we bring we bring uh on the Judaism for all to all the corners of Israel. And with honor and respect. Second, we all the rules of the rabbinate maybe for kashrut, maybe conversion, maybe another things. We check them and it was and it is now you can see it is not something that we don't know exactly Yes, you can see paper, you can see the web and to know what to do, how to do and uh and third we see people and because of that we succeeded a lot of agunot in the in Israel. agunot and maybe from time to time agunim men that his wife refused to receive a get. And we help people we give solution for uh uh piles of 34 years 25 years, 20 20 years and we worked a lot and we succeeded and I'm very proud that I succeed to help to save people for themselves. Because from time to time you need to do it. Harav Harashil Yisrael Harav Lau, we want to thank you for spending time with us and more importantly we want to thank you for your mesirus nefesh for klal Yisrael, Am Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael. We thank you for all that you've done. Hashem should continue to give you bracha to be a leader and have nachas from your family, to be able to learn Torah, to continue to be a rav who inspires. Thank you for your friendship and we thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you so much. Thank you and you, too. And I hope to see you not only during the computer but face-to-face soon. B'ezrat Hashem, amen. Thank you. Rabbi Goldberg, you are muted, I believe. Powerful opportunity to speak to the Chief Rabbi of Israel, truly a privilege. Rabbi Brody, what's your takeaway? Which part of that interview that conversation Two things, two things. So, I actually was just watching it now for the first time. Unfortunately, I didn't get get to be part of it live. But, the first thing I I just want to note is Thank you for making it clear to our listening audience that it was not live. I appreciate that. Secret task. I was in Israel or something. I just got I'm sorry about that. But, they're probably wondering why am I not in the interview? They're probably wondering the Chief Rabbi awake in the middle of the night? Right, exactly. Listen, you can't get him on on on on our time. But, I love your accent that you put on when when speaking to someone from another country. My wife does it, too. That's number one. Hello, my name is Wow. Okay, but just When are you going back to Israel? No, but it was great. It was great. All the questions were great. I loved that, you know, the uh questions about what's like to to transition into the into the role of a Chief Rabbi from a city rabbi, but but but also I loved Rabbi Moscowitz's question about how he looks at American communities um and what we as uh an Israeli community can learn from America. And um I think it was honest. I think it was a great answer. I think there's a lot that that that's good that's going on in our communities in terms of families and how much we interact with the shul as the shul as the hub of the community. And I think um you know, he is making an impact. More and more people are making aliyah. Interesting. Rabbi Moscowitz's takeaways? Thought it was a great interview. I thought um first of all, it was very powerful story at the beginning when he was saying how what was the turning point really in his childhood was when he acted out in class and the rebbe gave him a lesson about all the zeros on the blackboard are just that unless you put yourself at the front of it. I think that was a very powerful imagery, and whether you're Rabbi Lau, the son of Rabbi Lau, or whether you're John Doe on the street, I think there's a very powerful lesson in there. You know, for me, what I was thinking about actually just just now was really contrasting the conversation with two events that happened on Sunday, and I know you and I have been speaking about this a little bit, and that is in New York, the YU Haga Smicha took place, and also the Kinnus Shluchim took place of Chabad. And both of them surprisingly, although not surprisingly with Chabad, was focused on outreach, but the YU Haga Smicha, when Rabbi Penner, the Dean of RIETS, spoke, um the entire end of his speech was about outreach. Really? It was about the need for um YU rabbis, modern Orthodox rabbis, to come out of Smicha and not just go into their enclaves, but to really view themselves as ambassadors of outreach. And you know, I thought that that part really connected a little bit to his answer in terms of his commitment to focusing on Jews, the width and breadth of Israel. He mentioned that numerous times. He made a point to reference that he loves all Jews, that he considers himself the rabbi of all Jews, and that one of his points of pride was that he really feels wherever you were in Israel, he tried to access you and be of a service to you. And I think that that kind of theme threaded its way through all three of the speeches, and is a language that I think you're hearing more and more people speaking, which is a recognition that we can't just exist necessarily within our bubble, but that if we have a mission, and that if we have a Torah that we believe in, and that we believe as the answers to so much of life's challenges, so we want to spread it with as many people as possible. I was moved by his description of needing your family's permission when you go into the rabbinate or cloal work when you are going to be um devoting your time, and you won't be available, accessible at home. Um the idea and and that insight from Rav Cook that you need to get permission from your family. You're not the only one involved. When you take on that commitment, when you take on that responsibility, when you take on that role, they're going to have to sacrifice. I think the community probably underestimates that. Which is part of a bigger different conversation. One day we'll do an episode where our children come on. We had our wives. One day we'll do a rabbi's children's episode. We might have to record that one and edit that one too in advance. We'll see. But, um, you know, sometimes people in the community not as a criticism. When when we were younger and just members of the community, we too maybe didn't fully appreciate what a rebbetzin or the rabbi's children or for that matter could have a principal, uh, a a um, prominent female leader whose children um, don't have their parents at home or accessible or available. And really the whole the whole family is committed to that mission. And the so that image that we didn't we didn't ask our children permission. Right? Our children were born into this. All of our children were born into a family where that was the given. Right? They they they were not given the option of my dad could either go into finance or my dad's going to be a rabbi. They they were born into the situation that they currently find themselves in. Well, I don't know that the Gen C generation just texted me that there's no way we're doing a children's episode, so we might have to we might have to I'm just wondering, did did your spouses know that you were going to be going to the rabbinate? Like mine didn't. I don't I don't think when I would My for sure someone did not think this. What did she think you were going to be doing? Anything probably but this. But But I mean a drummer for a heavy metal band? What did she think? I'm saying that yeah, that was definitely an That's my mom was scared that that was going to happen, but but um, in high school My wife did. My wife I did this come up on our 17-hour rebbetzin episode? When my wife was dating, she was looking to marry a rabbi. She wanted she thought her co-host as a rebbetzin as a partner in that endeavor and journey through life. She specifically was dating people who were on the path towards either chinuch or Rabbonus, somebody who'd be working in a formal rabbinic capacity. Right. So, I was planning on going to Sci-Sims. You know, business school or law school. So, that clearly didn't happen. Did you know there's a lot of reading in law school, everybody? Yeah, that's probably why it didn't happen. Yeah, what about you, Rabbi Moscowitz? Did Did your rebbetzin know that you were on the path towards Did you know that you were on the path towards the rabbinate? No, I knew I was in the path of Avodas Hakodesh or Avodas Hakodesh. I didn't know if that would take me into education. I didn't know if that would take me into Jewish communal work, if that would take me into the pulpit, but I knew that I was going to be involved in the Jewish community in some capacity. At the time, I was doing multiple, right? I was I was both a rabbi in a shul and I was also working at YU at the time. So, she knew it was going to be one of those. Where exactly I fell, um that was up to debate and, you know, the fact that I even got down here was was a lot of siyata dishmaya, a lot of divine intervention. So, um I was just thinking, even We were just talking on a recent trip. I remember I was in the car and and I said to you that I even after getting smicha, I wasn't I didn't have a job as a rabbi. I was going to be working in I signed a contract with Baltimore County Public Schools. But, it is an important conversation. You know, I'll tell you my my wife would say that even within the rabbinate, there are important conversations. You're asked to serve in a certain position or you take on a certain project, you commit to give another shiur every week, or you're going to work on a certain aspiration that, you know, there should be a conversation that this is going to take x amount of time. Here's why I think it's important. Here's the difference I think it can make. Here's what's the trade-off, what's going to be given up, and and is there a consent in the generation of the age of consent? Are we all in agreement? So, you know, that's a big, powerful lesson to learn from the Gemara, from that Rav Cook, that Reb Elau shared about that. It's interesting. Do we do that? Maybe we don't cuz we're afraid what the answer would be, but um do we have that conversation? Do we navigate and negotiate Right. those dreams and those aspirations? It's not just a rabbinical question. It's true for all couples. Whatever position you are in life, you know, you have an opportunity to um be elevated professionally. You have the entrepreneur, you're going to start a new company, a new business. You've been offered a better job. It's going to take travel. It's going to take more hours. So, I think that's such an important, powerful idea that it's not we don't live alone. We're not in a silo. That if you're part of a family and there are trade-offs for that family, you got to have that conversation. You know, and you have Yeah, you also you also have to factor in religion. I know someone very well who I'm obviously not going to say who it is now, but was offered a very significant promotion in a in a very large company, which would have offered him enormous financial incentives, really sent him on a a financial direction in life. And he and his wife sat down and they discussed what it would take to get that promotion, the hours that would have to be put in at work, the obligations that would be placed upon him, and what he would give up in terms of learning, in terms of being there for family. And he ultimately chose not to take that promotion. And I asked him about it. I said, "I don't understand. Like, that's the pinnacle of your career." He said, "Yeah, but if it's going to come at a cost of me being at night seder, of me being able to help my children with homework." He goes, "I don't want it." And so, he chose a direction which is going to keep him at more of a plateaued financial level because he had other priorities in his life. Right. I even heard I heard last week a story they were talking about, you know, a group of dads and they were saying how you know, we're all busy at work, whatever the job is. It could be rabbinic, it could be in business. They said, "But even when we get home, sometimes we're just so so exhausted." So, there was a story about this true story that happened with one of the one of the guys. They said, you know, he his his children were were asked one night, "Who who do you like better to put you to bed?" And they said, "Always Mommy." They said, "Well, why not why not Dad?" He says, "Cuz whenever Daddy puts us to bed, he's just on his phone the whole time." So, it's just it's like, you know, it's it's like even when when we have the time to be with our family, are we really present? Right. Big question. Important question. But coming back to Rabbi Lau, let me tell you a great story. His father, former chief rabbi, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Holocaust survivor, famously liberated from Buchenwald as a young child by Rabbi Schachter, zichrono livracha, um extraordinary hero. Rabbi Lau, if you haven't read his memoirs and his book, you must. It's fantastic. So, he's been to our community several times, and we had the great privilege of having him stay at our house one Shabbos. So, this is an amazing story, and I have a great picture to prove it. So, it's not a picture from the story, but it happened another time over that weekend. So, Shabbos morning, I wake up early, I come out. Want to make sure I'm all set for Rabbi Lau. Rabbi Lau was You know, he wears a long black coat, very rabbinic, very distinguished. Um he's like Jewish royalty, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau. He carries himself with such dignity. Woke up early, came out, make sure everything's set. When Rabbi Lau will come out, I'll be all ready for him, whatever he'll need, maybe a cup of coffee, we'll go to shul. Instead, I come out, and Rabbi Lau is sitting on the couch. One of my daughters was very young at the time, and he's sitting on the couch. She's in her pajamas, he's reading her a book. He's reading her book, Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yisrael Meir Lau. So, very cute, very adorable. I basically take Rabbi Lau out of that experience, and we and we head to shul. Later, I asked my daughter, little girl at the time, I said, "How How did it come to be that the Chief Rabbi read you a book?" She goes, "Well, I woke up early, Abba, and everybody was sleeping, and I was bored. I didn't want to wake you, so I went into his room, and I woke him up, and I asked him if he could come read me a book." She woke up She woke up Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau. And there is a picture of my daughter, little girl, running in her pajamas. This was not Shabbos morning ac- actually, but I guess we recreated it on uh Sunday morning. And uh Rabbi Lau read her book. When I told her of David Lau that story many years later, he said to me, "He hasn't been able to get his father to read his children a book ever." So, I said, "Secret. You got to wake him up early in the morning and have him come in the morning. Which daughter is that? I can't I couldn't see the picture. Tamar. That was my daughter, Tamar. Wow. Yeah. It was great. It was great. All right. What's on tap this week? Anything as we close out? What are we looking forward to? What's happening? Wow. Got a big event? You got a big event, Motzei? I know I There's so much going on. I'm trying to give Rabbi Brody a chance here. So much going on. We got a big event Motzei Shabbos here at BRS. Clocks change, getting an extra hour of sleep. Motzei Shabbos, everyone should wonder what they're going to use that extra hour for. Is it another hour of binging on Netflix, or is it another hour of learning, spending time with your family, getting up early and exercising? What are you going to do with your hour this Motzei Shabbos? I hear an article. No, actually I was thinking cuz I thought you wrote about that once and now you're like, "Why don't I use that this week?" I did. Exactly exactly what I was thinking. I should read that article. Exactly. That is a great question, the extra hour. Everybody loves falling back. Springing forward is miserable. But falling back is excellent. I don't know about you, it's miserable. I often wake up fairly early so it's often dark out, but the rest of my family is struggling. When you wake up but it feels like it's 3:00 in the morning, still pitch black out. Right. So hard. Rough. Now, this Sunday is the best cuz you wake up, you're early, you feel energized, and then by like 5:00 in the afternoon you're ready to pass out, but at least in the morning you feel great about it. You do. You do. Yeah, excited. We got some social events, learning events, programs of all kinds. MC Nester. Everybody how long are you stopping in town for before you head out again? It could be at least 2 weeks, but hopefully maybe longer. We'll see. We're we're excited. We're excited and honored and grateful that you stopped by. Want to again thank the Distant Yes. We thank you, the Distant Fellas family again for their sponsorship tonight. We appreciate it. We thank all of our incredible sponsors in the past. Please make sure to utilize their services. They they sponsor, they care, they support our learning. So go back, listen to those episodes and take advantage. Show them the value of their sponsorship. Remember, if you rate and review, you will automatically enter a raffle to be able to win some of the tremendous swag of Behind the Bima. We've got fantastic guests lined up and great conversations that we have yet to have. We thank you for now for joining us tonight and until next time, stay happy, stay healthy,