#75: Behind the Bima - YU Macs Coach Steinmetz & Ryan Turell

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 night, 9:00 p.m. I'm Rabbi Ephraim Goldberg, joined by my dear friends Rabbi Philip Moskowitz and Rabbi Josh Brody. And we're here to take you behind the Bima. Behind the Bima, not sure what that was about there, Rabbi Brody, but we are here to go behind the Bima. We got a super exciting episode tonight. Some very, very high-profile guests, very exciting on the eve of their biggest game of the year. We'll talk about why it's their biggest game of the year, but the coach of the YU Max Athletics team, and the star player, someone who people say is the best player in all Division III, could have played Division I, and that is Ryan Turell. Very excited to welcome them on shortly, but first, we always begin with an attitude of gratitude. A big thank you to our sponsors, sponsored this week by the law firm of Sachs Sachs Caplan, a very prominent, beautiful law firm in our community, and a law firm we're very closely connected with and very proud of. First of all, they do real estate closings, litigation, condo HOA law, and uh our own Dan Cascal, our first vice president, among Florida's few double board certified attorneys, is a prominent, lead member of Sachs Sachs Caplan, and their latest attorney to join them Wait, is this breaking news? This is breaking news. The latest attorney to join our sponsor Sachs Sachs Caplan, wish him a mazel tov tonight, is a voice our listeners should recognize because he is the opening voice of the podcast, the very one and only, my beloved brother-in-law, Binyamin Michel. Big mazel tov shout out to Binyamin on his joining that prestigious law firm, being recruited, and bringing his talents closer to home here in Boca to that great law firm. So, thanks Dan Castell. Thanks Binyamin. Thanks Saks Saks Caplan for sponsoring. I hope he's not too busy for the show now. A little worried, you know, being recruited, top guy in a law firm. That's what happens. You go from behind the bimah to becoming recruited. Right. So, that's exactly it. We hope he remembers the little guys. Gentlemen, Rabbis, how are you? How was your week? How are you feeling? I'm feeling great. First of all, we have to show hakaras hatov gratitude to another group of people as well. That is the Balabatim, a wonderful podcast Twitter handle, who are very excited about tonight's guests. Avid Avid Maccabees fans. And I was I didn't realize they had such crazy sports fans out there, but they're out there. And so, a big shout out to the Balabatim, and thank them for for all of their help in putting this interview together as well. Absolutely. Thank you, and thank you to Shonfeld, our dear friend who we're so proud made aliyah for that connection. Excited to welcome them on. We said this is their biggest game of the year, and it is. They have a 50-game winning streak. That's a big streak. It is the top college basketball streak, something noted by NBA, ESPN, and many others. And tomorrow night, Thursday night, 8:00 p.m., I don't know where you'll be, but if you're not in the base medrash, then you'll want to watch. They are facing I think their first Division III top 25 opponent, and that is the number four-ranked Illinois Wesleyan University, who will be coming to New York City for this showdown. Number four versus number one. Their toughest opponent yet in this 50-game win streak. Perhaps the biggest test that they will have so far. And on the eve of that big game, they're joining us here behind the bimah. I don't know, rumor has it they were excited about ESPN NBA. They'd been excited about all the national coverage, but they're most nervous, most excited about coming behind the Bema. That is amazing for good reason. For good reason. Listen, here's Here's the question. Here's the question I want to pose to both of you about the YU Macs team. You could say it about, you know, a big ice skater from New Jersey who's going to be competing in the Olympics. You could say it about uh getting recruited to baseball. You could say it about Israel had a singer who won Eurovision several years ago. When is something a Kiddush Hashem? And when is it Jewish pride? We use that term Kiddush Hashem fairly loosely, a sanctification of God's name. When a Jew is proudly Jewish and successful, often people will react and say, "What a Kiddush Hashem." I was in Israel several years ago when Israel's singer in this European singing competition, I think it's called Euro Eurovision. Israel won, and I'm not saying anything disparaging negative about the singer. I don't know anything about her, but I will just say from the little that I know about her, I don't know that it was a Kiddush Hashem. I ran into somebody in Israel, a prominent person in Israel, who said, "Can you believe it? What a Kiddush Hashem. Israel won Eurovision." And I said, "That's Jewish pride, maybe Israel national pride. Is it a Kiddush Hashem?" Given her life, her lifestyle, who she is, does breaking through in the public arena automatically equate to a Kiddush Hashem? That's something that's on my mind today with this interview and these individuals. And, you know, when is something defined as Jewish pride or Israel pride, and when is it defined as Kiddush Hashem? Thoughts? it's a great I think it's a great a point, and we conflate the two, right? You call everything a Kiddush Hashem, as you pointed out, but not everything has to be a Kiddush Hashem. Something cannot qualify or not be termed as a Kiddush Hashem and still be termed Jewish pride. We could have enormous Jewish pride that athletes are breaking through, that they're reaching the pinnacle of their sports, that we're competing on the world stage, that we're representing Israel, and representing Jews. All of that is Jewish pride, and it's an amazing thing. It's In fact, in many respects, unprecedented, and it's something we should be very proud of, especially when they represent Israel, when they represent Jewish pride, when they defend Judaism against anti-Semitism, like our guests tonight have done. But, that doesn't mean everything has to be Kiddush Hashem. And I think you minimize the word Kiddush Hashem when you overuse it. So, I agree with you, and I think we should be careful about using the term Kiddush Hashem, but we should be enormously proud of what they do in terms of representing the Jewish people, representing Israel on the world stage. I agree. And we just want We already have a correction. Our lawyer is not too busy to already be correcting. It's the ball habatim. You get it? Not the ball Ball habatim. Oh, okay. All right. The ball, as in basketball, football, baseball, or I just I just gave away my sense of humor right there. There you go. Rabbi Brody, thoughts? Kiddush Hashem versus Israel or Jewish pride? I love it. And you know me, I love everything that, you know, as soon as Jews or Israelis or someone makes the news, I get all excited, cuz unfortunately, sometimes we're making the news for things you're not so proud of. But, when it's something positive, why not? Just go all in. But, when you take whatever you're doing, you know, you might be doing it every day, you might be doing it for for a career, it might be for a season, and you do something where all of a sudden just elevates it. It just takes it to like a whole new level, and you say, "Wow!" They had the choice to maybe sit back and and stay quiet, but all of a sudden they took that platform that they're standing on to do something, like you said, to promote Judaism, to defend Israel, or do something like that, then all of a sudden that's like, "Okay, now you're Kiddush Hashem." That was aw- That was let me give you another example. Uh, let me just take it to the next level, because I read an article today that in Germany, they started a new program, which, again, we could debate whether it's an ultimately a good thing or not a good thing, but it's called Meet a Jew. And basically, they bring Jews into classrooms, public schools, and the whole idea is that it's very easy to dislike someone if you've never met them before. If you have never don't have a relationship with them anymore. So, if you bring the a Jew into a classroom and they can dialogue, they can get to know each other, they can realize that you're a teenager just like I'm a teenager, it changes the equation altogether. And And immediately when you ask that question about the benefits of Jewish pride, I think that's exactly it. I think the more that we show the normalcy of certainly modern Orthodoxy, the ability to both be maintain that loyalty to your religion and compete on a national level, I think that's that Meet a Jew phenomenon, right? In other words, it puts Jews out there in a positive light so that people living Montana, Indiana, or Germany who might never have met a Jew now have someone to look at and say, "Okay, they're normal. They're a human being just like I am. They might think differently or believe different things than I am, but there's a level of respect there that you can build upon." Well, put a little bit differently, and I think this is your point, there's there's enormous value to Jewish pride even if it doesn't rise to the level of Kiddush Hashem. Meaning, we shouldn't feel that if it's not a Kiddush Hashem, Jewish pride has no value. There's value to Jewish pride, to advancing the Jewish cause, the Jewish position, the Jewish presence, respect for the Jewish people. There's a lot of value to that, and we shouldn't dilute or distort or compromise the significance of the term Kiddush Hashem to apply to things that aren't. That doesn't mean it has no value or we shouldn't be proud of it. It just means it deserves a different name, not the same name. And I'm not talking right now about the Max and about the basketball team. For me, the jury's out, and I'm excited for this conversation and afterwards to share thoughts based on the conversation. Is it Kiddush Hashem or just Jewish pride? What is it? I'm just saying in general, when Jews succeed at something, doesn't automatically equate with Kiddush Hashem. It could be Jewish pride, which is a value in its own right. So, let me ask you both this. What then is the definition of Kiddush Hashem? How would you differentiate between a Kiddush Hashem and Jewish pride? Rabbi Brody, take this one first. I'll go first. I mean, again, I think Kiddush Hashem is where you really do something which maybe wasn't expected, but then all of a sudden a lot of people, the people all around you, could be all around the world, all of a sudden understand that there's a great God up there that you just magnified and you just, you know, blew them out of the water and everyone's like, "Wow, that's something I want to be part of." I'm going to be counterintuitive right now. I don't think Kiddush Hashem is the way we define it. You know, we we associate Kiddush Hashem when you're getting off the bus to go to a museum in in elementary school and the teacher says, "Now, everyone remember you're wearing yarmulkes and skirts, so you have to make a Kiddush Hashem." I don't believe that's a definition. I think arguably the greatest demonstration of Kiddush Hashem happened at a time in history when no one saw it, and that was Avraham Avinu on Har Hamoriah when he went to sacrifice his son, and Hashem says, "You've now sanctified my name." So, I don't think Kiddush Hashem has to be in the public eye. I think that's a misnomer. I think you could be sitting alone in your house and withhold yourself from doing something or refrain from sinning or doing the right thing, and if there's no one looking, it could still be a Kiddush Hashem. Kiddush Hashem simply means, "I'm bringing God into this world. I've created an element of holiness in a vacuum where it currently wasn't." So, I think we are very quick to use Kiddush Hashem to limit it to a public sphere, but I don't think it has to be limited like that at all. I I agree, and I'll I'll raise one more question before we bring on our amazing guest and and get this conversation, which we have such a great audience here, started. First of all, let's shout out to Ethan Lasco, graduate of Yeshiva High School, who's on this great team. Just got a text from my buddy Sam Lasco. I hope he's well. Um, I'll I'll raise I'll raise one other point about this, which is someone texted me today in anticipation of the show and this conversation. And they said, "In our community, and I'm not going to use a label or a term or define our community, let's just call it our community, enormous attention is being given to this 50-game win streak, deservedly so. It's a tremendous accomplishment. Hard work, perseverance, it's a tremendous accomplishment. It's being done with modesty, humility. It's being done uh in in a really beautiful way. And again, we'll talk more about it in a moment. Does our community celebrate other accomplishments as much as we've highlighted or put this front and center? So, I'll give you an example and and a preview of a question and that we're going to ask Ryan, which is People don't necessarily know this. Ryan got into Division I school, but he chose to go to YU anyway, even though it's Division III, cuz he wanted to continue his Jewish education, his Torah studies, and continue to be in a total Jewish environment. That's a Kiddush Hashem. And arguably, that's bigger than a 50-game win streak. So, NBA and ESPN aren't going to pick up on that. But maybe we should be talking more about that. That you got a young man with a tremendous talent who got into Division I, could have played at a higher level, but chose Jewish education over the secular university that would have given him a higher rank school to play for. You could argue that's a bigger accomplishment, bigger Kiddush Hashem than winning 50 or more games in a row. But I don't know that we give that as much attention as the win streak or hanging from the rim with a reverse dunk, and so on and so forth. So, it's an interesting question about what we highlight, what we celebrate. Is there, you know, if if there's a kid in the YU Beit Midrash who finished Shas Yomi, would it get as much fanfare, attention, article, celebration as the as the win streak or a kid who mis- didn't miss a day of minyan? No, so first of all, I agree with you 100%. I don't think they have to be mutually exclusive, and I think there is a place for both of them. I think there's a place, obviously, to celebrate the kid who's making a siyum or the kid who doesn't miss minyan, but I do think there's also a obviously, we're having them on a significant place to celebrate these individuals for the following reason. First of all, not everyone relates to the guy who makes minyan or the guy who's making a siyum, and I do think that there's a population out there which is looking and hungry for Jewish pride. Maybe they're on college campuses where their Judaism is under threat. Maybe they're older and they didn't grow up with a strong Jewish background and they're constantly being tugged between two different worlds and they see these guys and they're enamored by them and they're drawn to them and they view them as heroes, rightfully so. So, I don't think they have to be mutually exclusive at all. I think we I know I I know I I know you agree and I I think we should celebrate it and I'll make one more point. Um I I think that there are children out there that are hungry for clean entertainment. That are hungry for role models that their parents will say, "That's the type of person you can put on the wall in your room." And you and I know that in this world there are few and far between. Many of the athletes, the prominent celebrities are not necessarily people we want our children looking towards and saying, "I want to be like that person." And I think it's really important to give our children role models that they can look up to, that we're comfortable with, not only comfortable with, but that we're celebrating alongside with them. Agreed. So, I but I don't think the worlds have to be divided. I think that we can admire a lot of a different array of accomplishments, including this one. Admire it, present it and and I think it represents for our kids something they could get excited about and rally around. But we should also not um at the expense of or while ignoring other accomplishments, independent or even accomplishments that are part of this. Meaning, if you could ask and and we could, we're about to bring them on, Elliot Steinmetz, that tomorrow night's big game, number one versus number four. If somebody has night seder in the base medrish, should they cancel or skip it to go to the game or go to night seder and watch the game later or find out about the score later? What what would he say what's important? So, I think that, you know, again, we could celebrate it, we can market, we should be unapologetic or not defensive, we should be excited and pumped and root and cheer and and there's definitely an element, we'll have this conversation and see, of kiddush Hashem, but we should also have have a context and some of the unintended messaging that maybe can come across to young people if we disproportionately celebrate it or exclusively celebrate it without celebrating other things as well. I think the the biggest problem I'm having is cuz whenever my son, you know, he watches football and he thinks that he could be the next big football player. I'm always like, "Just go study. You're not going to be a big football player. You're not going to be a big basketball player." And all of a sudden he's like, "Well, look at these guys. These guys are doing it." So, these guys are doing it. Well, we've waited long enough. Super excited to have our guest so without any further ado, we're so excited to welcome them on. What an exciting privilege it is to be joined by stars of the Wa Yishlach coach Elliot Steinmetz and star Ryan Turell. Thank you so much for going behind the Bima with us. Thanks for having us. Yeah, thank you for having us. Excited to do this. It is our pleasure. I know this is a super exciting for us and for our those who watch and listen to behind the Bima. I hope it's exciting for you. I know, you know, ESPN tweeted, the official NBA tweeted, but that's nothing compared to going behind the Bima. So, this is exciting for all of us and we're really we're pumped to have you. Congrats on 50 straight games. What an accomplishment. What an achievement. You got the eyes not only of the Jewish people, but the eyes of the nation on you and all while wearing your kippahs, your yarmulkes, standing up for strong Jewish values, Jewish pride. Um, really an incredible representation of our community and for that we are so much grateful for that and and so much more. So, I guess that's the the first question to both of you is, do you feel the weight of the Jewish world on your shoulders? That this is now more than basketball, so much more than just about a win streak and about basketball, but it's really about representing the Jewish community, the Torah community. So, and I'll take it first I guess, right? But, uh, you know, it's funny. We we we talk about it before every season and uh, and throughout. It's uh, you know, certainly something that's important. Um the word people always use is is is it a burden? Is it on your shoulders? And And the truth is, it's not. It's really it's a it's a privilege and maybe an obligation, but it's it's really a privilege and something that I think our guys not just live up to, but want to live up to. You know, I think they I think they enjoy that. I think they enjoy meeting, you know, younger kids at games who are looking up to them and and meeting, you know, people older than them who are in certain ways looking up to them and having an opportunity to set an example in a in a public way on the basketball court, obviously, and you know, certainly at this point with things they're doing off the court. So, you know, we don't we don't look at it so much as something that's, you know, that we're carrying in terms of a weight on our shoulders as as much as it's a, you know, privilege and a responsibility. Amazing. Ryan? Yeah, I mean you know, it's it's an honor, you know, that every time we step on the floor, it's not we're not just representing Yeshiva University. We feel like we're we're representing the Jewish people as a whole. We're trying to make them proud. And, you know, if we're able to do that on the basketball court, it's just a it's a dream come true and a blessing, you know, to to to try to inspire the Jewish people. And, you know, and it's it's awesome that they're all all rooting for us. We definitely are all rooting for you. So, I want to follow up um really again back to both of you. But, coach, when you're when you're recruiting to the team and you're looking up at the makeup of the team and you're coaching the team, what makes it a Yeshiva University team? How are you coaching this team differently? What are some of the the rules, the protocols, the boundaries, the practices that differentiate a Yeshiva University team than if you were coaching some secular college? And Ryan, I'll ask you the same question. You had the opportunity to play at Division I West Point. You came to Yeshiva instead because of a commitment to Judaism. You say it's a major factor. So, how does that How does that impact your role on the court? Basketball's basketball, right? It's the same same basket, same height, same foul line, same three-point line. So, how does Judaism inform? So, really to both of you, coach, how does it impact the way you shape and coach the team? And Ryan, the way you play on the court? So, I think it makes it I think it makes my job a lot easier, honestly. I think the the values that our kids have that they grew up with, I mean, and let's and let's call it like it is. I I don't have experience anywhere else, right? So, my experience is in is in Jewish high school coaching, you know, a little bit of Maccabiah, and then obviously Yeshiva. So, I've been lucky enough to be around kids that are from, you know, the same kind of background, with the same kind of values. And and it show it shows on the court. It shows how they conduct themselves, and it also actually translates into the game. Uh you know, the style that we play relies very, very heavily on having guys who are selfless. You know, guys who are willing to kind of give up of of their own ego and give up of themselves for the better of the team. Um and it's it's a style that's worked for us, obviously, over the last few years. And it's a style that, you know, guys like Ryan who come in, who have, you know, extreme talent and are superstars, it's easy to get them to buy in and to play a certain way, and and, you know, to have the other guys in the team play that way. Um and I think that's something that exists, you know, in part because of where we are. Um you know, being at Yeshiva University with guys from that kind of background, who grew up with certain values, and and and, you know, are you know, just they're they're kind of living that way, and they're living that way on the court as well, which which is just a big positive for us. Amazing. Ryan, how does your Judaism Judaism impact your play? Um I mean, it it it's it's it's part of who I am, you know, I when I was recruited to all, you know, these D1 schools, I was seriously considering a few of them. Uh but when it came down to it, um you know, I knew Judaism was you know, is me. It's a part of me, and it it's it wasn't worth sacrificing my religion and who I am, you know, just to say I played Division I basketball. And you know, to be able to set the pathway for all the kids, you know, the Jewish kids, Orthodox kids looking out there, you know, oh, I want to play Division I basketball. Oh, I want to, you know, play at a higher level to set the pathway um that you could succeed coming to Yeshiva University, staying religious, you know, and uh staying an Orthodox Jew essentially. Uh and and and still succeed after college, you know, and and succeed after, you know, succeed after college and and, you know, succeed in life that it doesn't matter, you know, what you believe in, but, you know, that that that you could succeed. Amazing. Rabbi Max, That's great. Well, first of all, I got to thank both of you cuz you have made me cool. When uh when I told a member of my family that I was interviewing you guys, I officially became cool very quickly. So, thank you both, but a lot of kids see the success. They see the consecutive wins. They see all the articles. They see ESPN tweeting and the NBA tweeting about you guys, and it's it's all fun and, you know, glorious, um you know, from what uh little kids see. Take us behind the scenes of some of the challenges. Um what are some moments of adversity? What are some failures that have informed you along the way that the average person might not see or some of the difficulties that we might not be privy to on a day-to-day basis, but some of that adversity that you've had to overcome, that you've had to struggle with and battle with that's really enabled you to grow into the person that you you are. And again, I I direct that to both of you because I would imagine both as coach and as player, there have been challenges along the way. And uh if you could just take us a little bit behind the bima as to what some of those are and how they have helped you grow. I see what you did there. Ryan, you want to go first or you want me to? Uh um you know, growing up, you know, it was um you know, playing basketball with the yarmulke on, people just assume you can't play or, you know, they don't really respect you on the court. Um you know, so growing up, I I struggled with it. You know, in high school, I stru- I I would take my yarmulke off sometimes and uh uh in these gyms, but then when I realized the importance of putting it on and you know, beating them while wearing the yarmulke and getting the respect that you know, us Jews deserve, you know, on the court. Um you know, when I realized that importance, I realized how how much uh that means not just to me, but to be prideful as a Jewish community and we should be proud of who we are and we shouldn't try to hide it. Um you know, that was that that's definitely something that I struggled with and you know, uh to be able to do that and and you know, show kids that you can you can uh wear a yarmulke and and still play basketball at a high level, it's it's a dream come true. It's amazing. Elliot, what about you? I think for me and and you know, I'll talk on behalf of the guys a little bit, too. I I think it's a lot to do with the schedule. Um you know, and and maybe they're used to it. You know, we all went through Yeshiva High School and and day school where we had the dual curriculum, obviously, and and the rest of the world doesn't always understand that concept, but you know, our guys are getting up at like 5:30 every morning to practice at 6:15, 6:30. Um they're in the gym usually around 6:15 shooting around, getting warm up and you know, going from there first to, you know, prayer services and then shear and then classes and the dual curriculum and sometimes in class till 8:00, 8:30, some of them 9:00 at night. Um so, the schedule is is brutal. You know, they're probably getting less time on the court and in the weight room than most programs around the country um in part because of their schedule, in part because they have part-time coaches. Uh you know, I I work full-time. I'm not there all day and and available to these guys all day and they're kind of, you know, on their own in in a big way in terms of getting some, you know, getting some extra work in and getting in the gym on their own for extra workouts and getting in the weight room and all that kind of stuff. So, I I think, you know, from from that perspective, the the schedule that comes along with being, you know, part of a Yeshiva University or part of a, you know, of a Jewish background in general is is just very very different Um and something that I think a lot of people don't realize. You know, yes, there's a ton of talent here, but the amount of work and the amount of really self-motivation that these guys have to have in order to get to the level that they've gotten to in terms of competing is pretty special. Is that something you actively talk about as a team in terms of that discipline, in terms of how to balance priorities? Cuz there are a lot of adults that couldn't balance the schedule that you're asking these guys to be able to balance and to have that discipline that you're asking to have discipline. Is that something you actively talk about? Is that something you're constantly monitoring? And I guess what would be your advice to to younger people or even anybody listening who wants to accomplish the success, who wants to achieve that level of success? In in in it's hard sometimes to put in that effort. It's hard to stay as disciplined. What pep talk would you give to them? What halftime pep talk would you give to them that says, you can do it if these kids can do it, then you can do it also. I mean it's it's it's something we talk about I think more so in in the recruiting, you know, in the recruiting side of things. You know, it really has to be something that's that's for you if you're going to come here. Like you you have to be willing to, you know, obviously get up that early and be and be part of something special and and put in that work and know that you're going to put work in on your own. In terms of the you know, the lesson for people, my father's been saying it to me since I was since I was a little kid. If you want to find somebody to get something done, try to find the most busy person out there because they find ways to manage their time and to put things that are important into their schedule and get it done. And I think that's something that our guys and I think really most, you know, probably most students at our university and and and in general from Jewish background and Jewish schools leave school with. It's an ability to multitask, an ability to manage time, to handle a crazy schedule, and to kind of move on into their professional careers and and lives and and manage a family, manage a career, manage being part of charitable, you know, charitable organizations, uh and things like that. And I think that, you know, probably our student athletes, and certainly the guys on our on our basketball team, really leave with a big sense of that, you know, time management and ability to kind of juggle a lot of things at the same time. What What you just described makes the makes the team you all the more extraordinary. Right? Like you said, a lot of these even Division III, Division II, Division I sports teams, whole day revolves around practice, the gym, workout, scrimmage, and so on. And here there's this dual curriculum. Torah is a huge part of it. It's a big sacrifice to make. And still winning 50 games in a row. So, coach, tell us, when did you know you had a special team? When did you know you had a special player in Ryan? At what point At what point in the win streak or at what point when the team was gelling or coming together did you realize, "We've got something special here."? So, it's funny. We We don't really pay that much I I I know it's hard to say it because everyone's talking about it and it's all over Twitter and and everywhere else in the in social media world. We don't talk that much about the win streak. We really don't pay attention to it. It's It's funny. I think 2 years ago when when when it started, I'm not even sure we even realized that we were on such a big win streak. We were just kind of so focused, and I know it's cliché, but we were so focused on the one game in front of us. Um and the maturity of the guys that we had and and it was Ryan as a sophomore at the time and it was, you know, Gabe Leifer and at the time it was Simcha Halpert and Donny Katz as seniors, you know, Ofek Rizza as a as a freshman. And I can name a million guys. Ethan Halpert was a freshman at the time. There's so many guys that were just so mature beyond their years in terms of their focus on that kind of one game in front of us that we turned around at the end of the year and and it was, you know, we were 29 and one and none of us had realized that it was 29 games in a row. It just wasn't the focus. I think the only time it really came to our attention was probably last year during the shortened season where we played only seven games. And we knew there was no postseason and it was kind of just something that each game you could kind of focus on, "Hey, we're going to try to win this game and then you know, lengthen the streak a little bit. Uh Um, so I think it became interesting and then the once this season started where we kind of have bigger goals and we're focused, you know, first obviously on our conference and and then obviously on hopefully getting into the NCAA tournament and competing there, it became kind of one game at a time again. And while everybody's talking about it, we're really kind of just focused on Thursday night, you know, and and being prepared for that game and then, you know, once that game's over, we'll start preparing for the next one. But it's it's you know, it's as cliche as it sounds, it's really I think what has made us great over the last couple years and what's made us consistent is that we have, you know, mature guys and leaders like Ryan and like Gabe and like Ethan this year who are our captains who have really kept guys focused on what's ahead of us in the short term as opposed to kind of looking down the road too much. It's a great metaphor for life. One game at a time, one day at a time, one task at a time, being in the moment. Absolutely. Yeah, everyone everyone wants to get to the end goal, but they don't realize how much work you have to put in, you know, to get to that end goal and so that that one game at a time, you know, it is definitely great metaphor. Ryan, how do you how do you do it? How is it not a distraction when ESPN is tweeting your picture to 38 million people? How is it how is it not a distraction to just be checking Twitter, checking social media, to walk around campus and be a hero? How do you stay focused? First of all, how do you stay humble as a Torah Jew? And how do you stay focused on the one game at a time when it's so easy to be distracted? Um, so I'm a big believer of you stay humble or you get humbled. Um, if you know, the minute you start boasting, it God is will take it away from you. Um, but you know, the one game at a time thing started the lesson was learned my freshman year. We we started off one and five. Uh, we came into that season thinking, oh, you know, we we just won this Skyline championship. We added these new guys. We're going to have a great year and we don't really see anybody in our conference that I beat us and then we just we start out one and five, we start out horribly. Uh we go on a big 17-game winning streak, and we start thinking, oh, let's go we're going to win the Skyline championship, and then who are we going to play in the tournament, and how are we going to rank, and then we lose uh two of our last three games, and then we lose in the the the championship of that year um cuz we kind of got too excited of of of what can be next, and we we we forgot that, you know, we have an opponent opponent tonight that we have to beat. Um you know, and and it started also my sophomore year. We we went to LA, and we kind of looked past our opponent, and they beat us. And that's when we like really buckled down and said, "Hey, we we got to stop looking past guys like these these college teams are going to come out and give you their best shot and and try to beat you every night. They're they're great players. Um so, they they're capable of beating you every night. So, we that's when we started really focusing on, 'Hey, we got this team. We're going to we're going to focus on this team. Doesn't matter who we have next. We got to beat this team. We got to beat, you know, and then once that's over, we get to the next game.'" Step by step. All right, Brody. It's amazing. You know, I'm just wondering, every kid grows up with dreams, and your dreams are obviously of basketball. How old were you? When did it happen that you said to yourself, "You know what? This actually might happen. I think that I actually might be at some form of a professional basketball player." And how big does the dream get? Where are you thinking about going? And you're in uncharted territory right now. Do you speak to the Tim of your Goodmans of the world and the Yogi Berra Doogos and guys that came before you? Like, what what's the path? Listen, I when I was younger, I always wanted to play uh professional basketball in Israel. That was always a goal of mine. Um you know, the the higher levels uh just recently uh uh came to you know, came into reality, I guess. Um but my advice is, you know, half of success is just showing up. You know, if you have a if you have a practice, if you're on a team, you just have to show up to every practice. I was growing up, I showed up to every practice, every workout, anything, films film session. I had a we had a wedding yesterday that I had to be at and um you know, we had a film session after and I had to leave the wedding early to go to the uh film session of a you know, of a close uh family friend um to make that film session. So, half of success is just showing up and then the the other half is it's what you do when no one's watching. Um when when you know, when it's easy to you know, try to to shoot the ball and then put the ball in the hoop when you know, everybody's watching there and and work hard when everybody's in the gym and and love the game then. How much you love the game, how much you love your craft when um no one's in the gym, no one's watching, no one's there rebounding for you, no one's you know, um you know, by your side or or um so it all that work you do when when the lights are off will will translate and help you succeed um uh when the lights get turned on. Coach, everybody sees the success. You know, we talked about the the tweets, we talk about the streak, we talk about the fan base, we talk about the love. What do we not know in terms of some of the hate that you've confronted? I know online you've received some anti-Semitism the more attention Yeshiva's gotten and and Jewish uh players and coaches and yamakas. Um how have you confronted that online, offline and Ryan also, you know, with all the love that we're seeing, have you received a lot of hate and what do you do about it? Um I mean, it's thankfully I don't think it's as much as people think. Um on online is online and people people like to hide behind uh you know, different personalities online and and say things whether uh they think they're funny or whether they're just being hateful. Um you know, we we we um you know, it's funny when When we when we started out uh about 8 years ago, we used to talk for the season, "Hey, if we have you know if we hear something in the stands or if something happens in a game, just be the bigger man and you know let it go and don't let it bother you." And I think it was about four four years ago or five years ago where I just kind of had enough of that and you know maybe it was even less, maybe it was three or four years ago, but there were you know there were there were there were attacks happening around New York City at the time. Um there were various things happening all over the world and I kind of sat with our guys before the season and I said, "You know what? I changed my mind. I think I was wrong the last three four years. If you hear something in a game, if somebody says something to you whether it's a player or whether it's somebody in the stands, stop, call time out, come to the side and tell me we're stopping the game. And you know if we need to embarrass somebody publicly or we need to embarrass a school that doesn't want to handle a situation publicly, then we're going to do that. But it's you know it's it's it's time to kind of there's certain times to just stand up and to do something about it. You know there was there was a situation on social media. It was last week where where somebody made a comment. I mean there's a lot of comments. It happened to be the person who made a comment was a professional athlete overseas and you know we we called it out on on social media and you know ultimately led to a conversation with the young man and which went very well and you know turned into obviously an apology and more of an understanding of the kind of the background of the comment he made and and you know hopefully an understanding going forward of you know how those comments whether meant in jokingly or not can really breed further hate. Um you know and it's the same idea when we deal with it on the court, it's something that we're you know not really going to let go anymore. Thankfully, I don't think we really deal with it that much from players and coaches. Um certainly not over the eight years that I've been there. It's maybe you know maybe it's less than a handful of times that that's happened. Um you know it's more so from the stands occasionally in certain places where you know people yell something out or you know say something and most of the time I don't find out about it till afterwards, but you know it's something that now we're uh you know now now we will be addressing uh much more seriously than we used to in the past. Ryan, what about you on the playground growing up, on the off-season now when you're playing, you're out there, people know who you are, you stand for Yeshiva, you got the yarmulke. Have you had to Have you had to confront it? Um you know, good in high school it it happened a little bit where, you know, anti-Semitic uh comments were were yelled at um when we went into gyms and when we played and you know, the I I felt like the best response to that was just beating them on the court. Um you know, and embarrassing them in front of their their fans and you know, they they may be calling us names but you know, we're we're we're leaving there with the victory and that's that's cool with me. It's great. I would ask you both about that we've already mentioned it, we've glossed over it, but that is uh the other famous Jewish basketball player, that is Tamir Goodman, who is obviously still involved in teaching basketball in Israel. And uh coach there are rumors that after you recruit a high school student that if they go to Israel for the gap year, they've been known to uh to train with Tamir over there. Is that accurate? And what's that relationship like? And then uh to Ryan, I guess as a follow-up question, who would win? Who would win in a game, 18-year-old Tamir Goodman or Ryan Turell? Jewish Turell. Uh It's pretty funny. So, I mean, Tamir Tamir is a friend, he's been a friend for a long time. Um we do have a lot of guys, it's more coincidence than anything else. We do have a lot of guys who after they commit to us that end up going to take a gap year that do go and train with him. Um it's not like any kind of official uh setup, it just is more of a I guess uh a coincidence and something that works out. You know, certainly I would I would absolutely always uh you know, suggest guys go there or you know, Yoav does a great job obviously also in Israel, so there's there's a lot of different places that guys can kind of train and stay in shape. Um you know, but we've been we've been lucky that a few guys have gone to Tamir who who's done a really good job, you know, developing skills. Um and he's been, you know, good friend to me and a good friend to our program in general. You may not believe this, coach, but Yoav's first high school basketball coach Right here. She Yeshiva High School. I was I was Yeah, Jerry Jerry Tarkanian called me. He was trying to recruit Yoav at the time, UNLV, and uh we got we got Yoav started. So, we're proud here from uh from Boca Raton. That's great. Ryan, so if you need an assistant coach You never There you go. I'm available to fly on Thursday night for the game. Ryan, who's the goat? Young Young uh Tamir Goodman versus you? Uh I'm a I'm a not answer this question. Smart man. Smart man. Good to be humble. answer this question. You are You are a smart man. Tell me um so so Yeshiva University, Torah observant Jew, where does Hashem fit into the picture? You talk to him a lot off the court? You talk to him on the court? Coming to that free throw line or uh hanging from the hanging from the rim? connection with Hashem. You know, I pray every day. I You know, wrap to fill in and and you know, if I if there's a big free throw late down in the game, uh I always I always say a couple words to Hashem, you know, please help me hit this or you know, talk to you know, um And yeah, no, I just have a very uh spiritual connection with uh with Hashem. I always have. Um And yeah, it's a it's amazing. Coach, what about on the sidelines? During the game, you talking to him? Yeah, but it's probably more like, "Oh God, no." or You know, help us, God. Or Yeah, something like that. But uh no, I mean I I I I I I think I try to like separate. It's It's more so I think afterwards uh you know, after the game or you know, I I First of all, I I don't I don't dive in for victories. I you know, I'm I'm a little older than the players, obviously, and a little more experienced in life where there are bigger things in life to uh to to pray for. Um you know, but I do certainly recognize his hand in everything we do, and you know, I I it's you know something I think about and talk about a lot you know after game you know or or you know over the course of a conversation where you know it's at the end of the day everything's in his hands and you know we are where we are because that's where he wants us to be um and wherever we end up will be because that's where he wants us to be and you know we I think we kind of know that and understand it and you know we're just trying to you know do our job and and and you know live it out as best we can. That's powerful. That's that's you know that's the the money quote here in this conversation and the young kids should hear that is with all the credit people take and all the hard work they put in in the end you know it's up to him. Thank God he's been a big Max fan. We hope he continues to be a big Max fan as well. Ryan I know it's not only Hashem who's on the on the sidelines rooting for you. One of my kids who remembers you back in the Saracheck tournament remembers your mom going up and down the sidelines also being very enthusiastic for you. One of my own kids. So what does that mean to have your family at the games and you feel their presence? I mean she's she's been doing that since before I can dribble a basketball. She's been on the court yelling and you know to have that background you know that that support really helped me help drive me to where I am today. And and the fact that that my parents were there the whole way through and my family's there the whole way through to support me is just unbelievable. Coach your family involved in this win streak and and what you do you have like you said you have a full-time job you're family man you got community life and and this is one part of who you are. Uh yeah it is and you know that they're they come to the games they watch the games they're very supportive. My kids love going actually all three of my kids came to practice and film session with me last night and they wanted to be around but uh you know they've kind of grown up around it between the high school coaching and the college coaching so they've they've always kind of been around that you know around that world and they're into sports obviously themselves and uh it's uh it's you know always awesome having them all around. You spoke about some of the challenges of being a religious Jew and playing basketball. If you could take us behind the beam a little bit, give us a story of a particularly challenging situation either where you had to do Shabbos as a team, finding minyan on a road, learning. What are some examples that you can give people where it's been a challenge to obviously been a Yeshiva but also a basketball team and how you as a team came together to overcome that and to to make the most out of whatever situation you found yourselves in. So, I mean I'll give you two quick things. First of all, you mentioned you know, learning. It's something that about 4-5 years ago one of our assistant coaches started a little I would say minute to two minute kind of physics here before every game in the locker room which I think is kind of cool little touch. You know, it's optional. The guys don't have to go. Pretty much all of them do. That's something that's continued and now we have you know, a player who who runs that before every game. You know, after we meet in the locker room, the guys stay around for you know, no more than a minute, minute and a half, little quick divar Torah and kind of remember you know, why we're there, why we're different and then you know, head out to the game. In terms of a challenge, you know, the first time we were in the NCAA tournament is actually the year before I and joined us. We had to go out to York, Pennsylvania for a weekend for the tournament. And I believe the Thursday that we traveled out there was Purim. You know, so we were not just dealing with Shabbos, we were dealing with making a Purim seudah out there and you know, obviously it was very very important that the guys had to come up with a song you know, at the at the table to make fun of coaches head and and lack of hair and um the you know, and I think it was just in general the the kind of logistics of throwing together a Purim seudah on the road you know, with the team and then obviously going into a Shabbos. You know, it's a great experience, obviously great bonding experience and a ton of fun and real opportunity for Kiddush Hashem but just also a lot of fun and definitely different and and not not not as easy to deal with as they probably thought it was. That's great. Ryan, any stories stick out? Yeah, absolutely. My first experience in the NCAA tournament, we beat WPI early on a Friday and we were expecting, you know, to play Johns Hopkins um the after we beat them, they had a game against Penn State Harrisburg on Friday night. So, all of Chavis, we didn't know who we were playing um you know, before that that game and we had a scout printed out of Johns Hopkins who was the number five team in the country, just beat the number one team Swarthmore. We were ready to go. We all read scout on Hopkins and on Chavis, you know, we had our pamphlets um uh printed out and uh mode Chavis, we come to find out that Penn State Harrisburg won that game and so we we had a quick uh 20-minute film session right after Chavis after Abdallah obviously and then we headed to the headed to the gym, you know, right after not expecting to play this game. So, you know, that was definitely a challenge, but at the end of the day the we got the jump down that night. I love this. Nickels without saying and I'm going to turn over to Robbie Brody. I should I want to be explicit about it that when so many Jews are running away from their Judaism and are embarrassed of it and ashamed of it and hiding it I just as I'm hearing you tell the stories and everything you represent, I just want to be explicit about it how amazing it is and how I hope more and more children learn from your example of embracing your Judaism, being proud of it and viewing that as an asset rather than as a liability. So, Robbie Brody, Thank you. That's amazing. You know, and as one of the greatest of all time, maybe the greatest of all time, I'm just wondering, was it always easy? You know, was did there did you always succeed ever at at every juncture? Were there times where Ryan you you you you hoped to achieve something, but it just didn't work out the way you had Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I had to. I'm just kidding. Um Yeah, many times. I mean, I've I've faced many adversities and and and lost many big games and missed many big shots. Um and I think that's you know, what helped me become, you know, the player that that I have become today. Um you know, growing up I wasn't always the best player. I was actually a shorter player, which is why I became a a guard. I had a great crazy growth spurt my freshman year where I went from like 5'7" to 6'3". Wow. Um Still waiting for that, by the way. Yeah. Um you know, but you know, I was I was cut from my uh from my uh AAU team, that the number one team. I was cut from that team cuz, you know, everybody else on the team was from a really good high school and whatnot and I was from Valley Torah, a division five. No one really I was a skinny Jewish kid. They didn't really believe in me. Um at that stage, so um I I just try to use those situations as motivation, you know, to to to get better and try to to prove the naysayers wrong. Um you know, and and to be able to do that it would be amazing. Well, you you've been doing it and at now 6'7", so that growth spurt really uh It helped. It helped. You got You got that reverse dunk. Not a lot of Jews can dunk. Uh you got that three-point shot. You pass, you rebound. You're an all-around player. What's the part of the game? I don't want to do scouting right now for the Thursday night opponent, but if there's a part of the game that when you're in the gym extra hours, you're still working on, what part of the game would you say that is? Footwork. Um I I would say footwork. I mean, obviously I get uh I try to get some as many shots as I can get up, but you know, after I get those shots up, I'm you know, really fundamental about trying to to make sure my feet are 100% correct. Um, my trainer back in LA, he's a he's a perfectionist. If you if you do if you do the move and make the shot, but you your feet aren't perfect the way he wants it, he'll make you do it again. Um, I've done hour um training sessions with this guy with uh where we just legit worked on one move until I got my feet down correctly. Um, and and you know, so I I would say footwork would be the thing I work on most. The reason that's such a fascinating answer is because certainly for the you know, the amateur spectator of basketball, you know, they they look at the the form of your shooting, they look at you know, impressive rebounder and assistant assist, but people aren't thinking about or working on or the average person in their pickup game is not talking about or thinking about footwork. So, all the little things that go on in order to be able to break through and find success are things that the spectator doesn't even appreciate there's effort going into. It's it's it's not flashy. It's it's not flashy, but it it gets the job done. Coach, where do you look to for motivation or inspiration? Are there books? Are there people? What are some things that have helped you along the way as you kind of grown into this international spotlight in position? What what has guided you along the way and are there people currently who when you go through a tough day, when you need advice that you turn to that are able to support you during those times? I mean, in terms of motivation, it's you walk into the gym and you see these guys and and the you know, the level of commitment that they have to the goals that we're trying to put in front of them and their willingness to kind of buy into what eight years ago people probably thought was crazy when we came in and started talking about winning our conference, going to the NCAA tournament, competing for national championship, all those things. You know, being ranked nationally, things that literally people laughed and when I when I interviewed for the job and I talked about these things, they laughed at me in the interview. So, it's you know, walking into the gym and seeing guys that we've recruited that are you know, what we consider winning players and guys who have you know, kind of bought into this dream and bought into these goals. Um, that's really all the motivation you need to try to work your hardest as a coach to prepare for these games and get them prepared. Um, cuz you see how much they want it and how much they're willing to prepare on their own and what they're willing to give up to chase it. Um, it makes the uh the lack of sleep very very worth it. Um, so yeah, it's exciting. I mean, I I say it all the time, but uh you know, and whoever's keeping their bingo bingo board uh you know, uh can can knock this one off, but uh I don't need my alarm to wake me up for practice in the morning. Um, you know, I get up cuz I'm excited to go. Tell tell us a little bit about you know, obviously not the details, but you got an upcoming game. So, the prep that goes into it aside from the normal practice to make sure that that you know, the players are fresh and and know the plays. How much is going into you say watching the film? Are you executing a different strategy on offense and defense based on the opponent? Um, are you studying the other team to know their star players, you know, how to how to try to contain them? What what's the kind of work that's going in? Yeah, well, we have you know, we have a few coaches that that help us with breaking down film. Um, in particular, Ali Cats is one of our coaches who spends a lot of time on film. He's generally two to three games ahead of us. So, when we're playing, he's already kind of on the next you know, one to two games ahead making sure that we're turning around and prepared as soon as that game ends. Um, but we got a real good breakdown of uh you know, of the team we're playing generally. Um, we'll spend numerous hours watching game film uh breaking down tendencies of the players that we're seeing, uh trying to get like um you know, trying to get a good rapport to our guys before each game with what they can expect when they're guarding a certain player in terms of tendencies and habits that uh that they can rely on, you know, when they when they want to you know, make a certain move defensively or or treat some you know, or guard somebody a certain way. Um, you know, I don't I don't think we change much in terms of our overall strategies in terms of the way we play as a team. Um, you know, that's something that we kind of do regardless. It's you know, we we might we you know, we might show them a certain reads they'll see in a game uh based on how a team defends uh versus how another team defends. Uh but for the most part we're really relying on our players out there that you know, we think make better decisions on the court than we're going to make sitting on the sidelines in the course of the game. Um, and if we give them the right tools and the right information and the right principles to use in that game, we trust their talent, we trust their you know, we trust their basketball minds to kind of make the right play and that's you know, really paid off for us over the years. That's also a life lesson, right? Unconditionally you can't achieve things without preparation and again, the person on the sideline watching real says, "Oh, that was a great steal." But they don't know that there was hours of film that went into anticipating that move and knowing he'd likely do that so you got that steal. So, it takes a lot of a lot of work. Ryan, what's been on this on this streak, this 50-game streak? Something stand out that's been the coolest? Was it the ESPN tweet, the NBA tweet? Has anyone reached out to you that you could share with us professional or or non-professional that's been really cool that they've been in touch with you? What's been the greatest part of this? Being on Behind the Bema. Yeah, being on Behind the Bema. Um, No, I just think that the the greatest part of this is is all the support we've we've gotten from the Jewish community as a whole and that they that they're appreciative and they they they've been showing us support of what we've been doing and it's just an unbelievable and humbling experience that we can affect uh a lot of people's lives and so many people's lives just through um basketball. And uh it's amazing and uh it's just it's just awesome. Are you going to share with us what's next? Uh you're eligible to stay, right? Because of COVID and you're You're to stay a little longer? I can come back next year. We'll we'll see. Uh you're you're being trained well. Nice. Nice. I like that. Bill Belichick school of interviews. Their media train their media training is kicking in. There it is. Wink once if Yeah. Walk us through game day. Do you get Do you get nervous at all? Do you get the jitters? What do you do to calm yourself before a game? And I guess that applies to both of you. Do you get nervous? What are some rituals that you have before a game to get you ready? Um me personally I I I like to to think that you know I we we've put in enough work off the court to where where game days we're ready to go. We don't really get nervous. Um you know I I like getting a pregame nap in. Uh that that's that's sacred to me. Right after mincha hit the bed get a get a nice schlaf and get ready for the game. That's great. It's amazing you can fall asleep. Should do that before my drash on Shabbos. Take a little nap. Coach what what are the rituals? I I'm generally at work all day. I'm a lawyer full-time so I'm spending my day in in real estate deals. So I don't really have time to be nervous during the day. I I usually I am a nervous person. I do get nervous before games but you know really only leads up till kind of right when the game is about to start. Uh you look out on the court and you see some of the guys that we have out there it makes you a lot more comfortable. It's amazing. The fans have noticed it's not a coincidence that on the court an opponent gets knocked over you know you watch professional sports often they'll turn their back and walk away. You're not going to help the opponent. You're going to make a statement but not the Max. You know the the Yeshiva team will will bend down and help an opponent get up. That can't be a coincidence. Is there a lot of emphasis on on middos on character on behavior on the impression you're leaving on the court not just the basketball? Yep. We know we know what we represent and we know how important it is and uh we know what it's you know the importance of just being a human being and and treating everybody around you with respect, whether it's your opponents, whether it's your teammates, whether it's referees. Um it doesn't matter. That's just That's a big part of life in a sense. Just a really important thing and, you know, I I I say it all the time, you know, certainly on social media. Uh we we are different and our and our guys are different and that's one of the things that makes them different in a really, really positive way. They'll They'll knock you down, you know, over the course of the game, uh but they'll pick you right back up afterwards. Um and and I think it's an important distinction, you know, to understand that you can you can be extremely competitive um and you can you can kind of fight with all your heart in the course of the game, but you can also at the same time, you know, be a human being and uh and and be a mensch. And I think that uh you know, we're lucky enough that we have, you know, 16 guys like that. It's amazing. You know, I'm just wondering, any of the rabbis, any of the rosh yeshivas ever come in and and and cheer you on or or give you a little bit of a pep talk and say You want You want to hear a great story, really quick? Playing in the Skyline Championship game 2 years ago, right before the pandemic started at at home. Were we down, Ryan, 13 to 2 to start that game? Uh 13 2, yeah. Something like that. We're down 13 2 and I I I don't know why I noticed it, but I noticed it during the game and then again when I was watching the film of the game afterwards, Rabbi Willig walked into the gym. And he goes and he and he sits down uh across from the across from our bench on the other side of the court. And the next thing I know, it's like 28 to 14. We're winning. Um and uh he knows I think it was like he was sitting there with his arms up and every time he, you know, put his arms up, we scored and every time he put his arms back down, then No, he he we do have, thankfully, you know, obviously, Rabbi Berman comes to some games, the president of the university, and uh you know, Rabbi Willig's been to some, and there's been other rabbaim throughout the course of the year that have shown support. Obviously, uh from a lot of different shuirim. Rabbi Sement has been at a ton of games. He's great. And there's just, you know, it's it's it's uh yeah, there's been a lot of support. It's been great. That's great. This These some of these rabbis not only know a lot of Torah, they're bowlers themselves. When I grew up Marsha Koller by Willig was on the courts on Fridays. So, I'm sure he's not only cheering, but he yeah, he Kolb with with his hook shot, his famous hook shot in Camp Mesorah. I remember those days. That's right. So, obviously, you know, ESPN tweeting out, NBA tweeting out, there's a lot of fanfare, a lot of buzz about what's going on. Do you ever think about or discuss ways that you can leverage all of the PR that you're getting? Is there a way that you can ramp up a lot of your efforts in the community in terms of engaging kids in basketball in terms of just general talk about Jewish pride? Do you ever talk about that? Do you ever think about that? How you can use all of the success to to leverage even greater things in terms of the Jewish community and Jewish pride? So, I think I got that right. You got this. I think it's something that we actually did very very well over the course of of COVID, especially at the beginning, you know, we went right from this kind of bizarre ending where we were on this great run and we're in the Sweet 16 and we're at kind of the pinnacle of excitement in terms of competitive sports and then it just kind of gets grabbed away. And And I think our guys' responses were great. Like instead of just kind of wallowing in it and being depressed about it, which they had every right to be, they recognized what was going on in the world. They recognized people were sick, you know, at the time was you know, people were passing away. Like people losing their jobs, people were dying. I mean, it was just a horrible horrible situation back in whatever it was, March, April, May, you know, a couple years ago and and our guys kind of jumped right into, you know, different opportunities to talk to kids on Zoom, to talk to different schools, to to be involved in the community, and and talk about the experience and and just kind of give some, you know, give people kind of some sort of uplifting, you know, content and and something to kind of latch onto while the world was kind of just going in a weird direction. Um and you know, I think that's kind of continued over the over the course of the last few years and you know, I see how our guys are with you know, kids who come to games and and giving them the time of day and taking pictures and just got kind of going out of their way to you know, make sure they wait around the extra few minutes cuz there's you know, a kid there who who might look up to them and might you know, dream about doing what they're doing in in a in a few years and then I think that's kind of a cool thing that our guys have really you know, become role models in the Jewish community. It's great. Ryan, what would you add? Uh yeah, I mean just uh you know, anytime you know, you get you get the chance to you know, uh a kid comes up to you wants to take a picture or uh any of those moments I it's it's truly humbling and it's an amazing feeling for me um that that we can affect the the lives of of kids and and the young Jewish community. It it it's awesome and we we try to do that every time uh we can. We want to really thank you giving us a lot of time. I'm sure you got a lot of prep, a lot of work and a lot you're balancing as we talked about several times. It's not a full-time job for either of you. Got a dual curriculum, Torah learning, law practice. So the fact that you spend so much time with us on the eve for close to a big game really means a lot to us and uh here in Boca Raton and around the world, people are pulling for you, rooting for you and we'll be watching the game live Thursday night. Excited if you want to you know, from the free throw line or after hanging from the rim, give some kind of sign to behind the beam of fans. We'll we'll know you're talking to us Ryan, but we know we really we really it's it's um it's not an exaggeration to say that what you're doing is a kiddush Hashem. You know, we are three rabbis and we've dedicated our lives to try to inspire and lift people with Torah values, Torah ideas and we reach an audience and we reach them in a certain way, but what the two of you are doing, what the team is doing, what you're representing with those uh yarmulkes and talking about Hashem and talking about Shabbos not you know checking who won and all these stories are a huge kiddush Hashem and and Hashem you know God's given you talents but it's up to you to use them and and you're using them like R' Moshe said really to to create a platform that's making a difference and for that we know we speak on behalf of the whole Jewish community and thanking you for your hard work your success thanking you for being who you are and what you stand for and wishing you only a lot of success a lot of bracha a lot of success in the future we're we're rooting for you and we can't wait to see this uh streak continue please God. Amen amen. Thank you appreciate it. All right guys thank you so much have a great night. We are back. So jury was out said we'd we'd decide from the interview. We'd decide from the interview and I already gave my opinion at the end when we thanked them. Uh to me I think it's a kiddush Hashem I don't think it's just Jewish pride. I think that part of the definition of kiddush Hashem is you attract attention people are watching spotlights on you're associated with Hashem with God with Torah and you do it in a way that elevates. And I think that when you have good middos and you're helping an opponent up off the court and when you're modest and humble and you say that stay humble or get humbled and when you daven every day and you put on tefillin and you talk to Hashem from the free throw line I I think you're making a kiddush Hashem when you pass up division one to go division three cuz you want to stay connected to Judaism and Torah when you do it all and win 50 games in a row while balancing a dual curriculum because it's not enough you're getting a secular education liberal arts education you're also still getting a Torah education I I think you got to call that a kiddush Hashem. I would agree and I think there were so many amazing stories takeaways from that interview. I loved the story at the end with Rabbi Willig what a great imagery joke but I loved it anyways. I thought when um diamond discussed prayer and putting things into perspective and recognizing the bigger picture. I thought that was fantastic and I think you for a second I actually disagree with him. I agree with him in some ways and I think it's a powerful message he gives to his players to his son who's a budding athlete that there are things bigger than a game when we had on Mariano Rivera greatest closer of all time the first first ballot unanimous Hall of Famer and Mariano said baseball's just a game. It's not life. So on the one hand he's right but on the other hand just theological or philosophical when teaching about prayer. We always say there's nothing too small to ask God for when you ask God even for what seem to be the small things. That's the greatest evidence you really believe he's in charge. He's in control. So on the one hand I agree with him just in terms of perspective. There are things much bigger than a game on the other if you dive into a sham for what really matters to you. You show him you believe that he's in charge. But anyway, go back. Sorry. Keep going. I agree. I agree with that and I don't think they're mutually exclusive either necessarily but I agree with you. I think it's a kid in the sham. I think their decisions. I think the way that they speak. I think the way that they view this not as a burden but as an opportunity. I loved what coach diamond said at the end where when their season got cut short and many people would have rightfully wallowed and been disappointed and be devastated. These guys channeled it into doing good for the community and I love that and I think it's a great role models. I wish them enormous success tomorrow night and I hope they can continue. It's amazing. I'll tell you you know, there's there's there's one thing I kept thinking of as I'm listening to this this interview and it really brings you back to high school like Yeshiva teams. These are I wasn't on the team. I didn't know how to play basketball but I remember back when we were in 11th grade and JEC which is not known to be one of the great teams at least not that back then they actually beat Hillel in double overtime. Kiva Resnick listen to this. You want to Kiva Resnick? Listen listen what happened here. We were not We were not favored. We were in the in the semi-finals, first round of the playoffs. We beat Hillel in double overtime. So, you can imagine the whole school's like on fire. JEC's like, are we going to actually go to Madison Square Garden? Is this going to happen? We finally play MTA in the semi-finals. The winner is going to play what ends up being Flatbush in Madison Square Garden. We're winning the game. It's 53-53. Ari Witkes, Kevin Sclar, Kiva Davi, Ari Eckman. You got you got the whole team. Max Bachman, right? What happens? 53-53. assistant for this show? Listen to this. No, this is a big story. This is I'm setting the record straight because no one no one called it out when this happened. 53-53. Moshe Collat? Was Moshe Collat there? He was not I don't think he was on a team. But, listen to this. 53-53. He's one of the he's one of the ball habatim. Finally, listen to what happens. You Moshe he'll he'll tell you this this is true, but it was never documented anywhere. 53-53. We're going to go to the Garden. We're going to we're going to beat these guys. All of the sudden, they they they're holding the ball for almost 4 minutes. There's no shot clock, right? They just say, you know, we're going to we're going to hold on to the ball. 15 seconds left, they go up for a layup. Dov Forman steals the ball. Goes up for a layup. 6 seconds left, he's about to score this layup. It's going to be an easy win. We're going to the Garden. JEC is going to the Garden. And I'm not going to say who it was, but one of the guys in MTA hits his hand and no foul was called. Nothing. Nothing. They go back. They push a Kiva Resnick. No, this should have been what they call that? A blocking foul? They hit the first shot and we they win by one point, but no foul no I don't think I've ever seen Rabbi Brody this I was No, but I'm just telling you you should have been at the Madison Square Garden. And we didn't go because no one called a foul when a foul was supposed to be called in MTA. This is behind the Beamer episode, I think 70-something. And we have not seen Rabbi Brody come alive in 70-something episodes. We proficiency in sports. Wait till you see next them come alive. Wait till you see this final game with these guys, you know, in NYU. We're going to come alive live from the game. Are we having a watch party tomorrow night, Thursday night? If you're feeling up to it. Who's barbecuing? Who's not? Totally. I actually texted Meyers Leonard. I invited him to come to the watch party. That'd be great, by the way. We'll see what he says. It'd be some fun rooting for those Macs, but this is their biggest test that they've faced. Uh but they've they've gotten in stride, you know, we've spoken to Coach Steinmetz offline, and as much as he is trying and he obviously wants to win, but he really has this game in perspective of life. And and the kid these students, I should say kids, 6'7, these students are so lucky to have a coach who's got context, perspective, priorities. He understands Maturity. Yeah, maturity. He understands that it's a game and so on, so they're very lucky and uh I'll tell you, I'm I'm I'm proud proud YU alum. I'm proud of my Yeshiva, proud of my alma mater, and I'm proud of this team, proud of the attention that they're getting, and most proud of of their middos, of their character, of who they are, and how they're using the spotlight. A lot of talents, a lot of gifts you're given, a lot you work hard to achieve. Basketball is a game, but you know, the articles that are being written and the profiles that are being done that talk about the yarmulkes, the dual curriculum, the total learning, the putting on tefillin, the Shabbos and not scouting on Shabbos, that part, that's immortality. That right there, that's Kiddush Hashem. They're using the stage and the platform well, and I think that's the biggest kudos, more than being able to dunk, more than 50-game win streak, but using it to advance Torah and Hashem and Kiddush Hashem. To me, I'm I'm a fan. I'm sold. I did get a a text from a friend who said, "I think Tyrell dominates Tamir. Tyrell is 6'7, Tamir is 6'3." So, would love to see people's comments. Put it in the chat. You're welcome to contact us offline. Maybe we can get the game together. Maybe for a fundraiser. Some organization is going to get that together and it's going to be heavily watched and they're going to raise a lot of money. Let me actually one one correction before we wrap up. First of all, the I was the co-coach of Yeshiva High School's original basketball team together with my friend Rabbi Avi Schneider. And Jerry Tarkanian called he's famous for coaching UNLV UNLV and chewing on his towel. By the time he called us, he was already onto the next school recruiting. Yogev was and is a great ball player, even better human being. We love Yogev who grew up in our community and is still inspiring people both skills and life skills. So, uh just a little correction there about Jerry Tarkanian. Yeah, and if you notice no one's calling in right now to correct me on that MTA that they should have called the the the Falcons. I'm just telling you we got we got a text. JEC would have been in the Madison Square Garden. We got a we got a text about having a certain guy that we should have a certain guy from MTA on Behind the Bima. I want you to know I don't I don't know what you guys are talking about. I grew up out of town in Boston. We played real teams. None of this Jewish league stuff. We had to play We had to play guys that were like 19 years old. Remember a little taller. Yeah, rumor has it at Maimonides you guys deflated the basketball a little bit. Wow. Yeah. Stole the signs. Stole the signs from the Yeshiva League. I want you to know our viewership is primarily from Boston at this point and you just heard a lot of our fans. I'm okay with that. I'm perfectly okay with that. Gentlemen, another great episode. What a great conversation. Everyone should root for the Max Thursday night. If you have night seder, don't cancel it. You'll find out later who won the game. Um but if you can tune in and cheer for the Max. We're looking forward to celebrating another W number 51 in a row. Thank you to our sponsors Sachs Sachs Caplan. And uh so appreciative to our first vice president Dan Caskey and Binyamin Michel, two people who give their heart and soul to the shul community. They do it humbly, behind the scenes. I guess we're shining a little spotlight. They don't ask for it, they don't want it, but both of them are always there. Dan Kaskel and Binyamin Michel always answer the call, step up whenever asked, often step in without being asked. We love them. Dan Kaskel's fast asleep right now, so How's Dan doing? Dan also better brush up on his sports trivia if he's going to hire Binyamin Michel. Keep up with the conversation. Sacks, Sacks, Kaplan, and Michel. He He hired Binyamin Michel to to run the the fantasy Can I tell you a great story? I don't know if he still is. I'm going to get in trouble right now. Binyamin and I have another brother-in-law who's a you know, thank God, bright, successful in an accounting firm. And in that firm, they had a fantasy football league. But he grew up more, call it yeshivish, and doesn't really know sports or fantasy football. So, let's just say he called upon and employed the services of Binyamin to help coach him on how he could sound smart at work on the fantasy football. I think I'm getting that story right, but anyway. So, big thank you to Sacks, Sacks, Kaplan, Dan Kaskel, Binyamin Michel, and uh Go Max. Until next time. We got great guests lined up. Wait till you see who we're having on next week. You won't believe it. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay holy.