Rabbi Shea Brander, partner at Artscroll/ Mesorah, speaks to Kollel Ohr Mevakshei on their visit.

wasn't asked to speak I wasn't supposed to speak sh was supposed to speak and that would have been really something special but the Shan is so he looked around there was nobody willing to do it so he asked me to speak so I'll speak to you I understand this is a morning CLE yeah what time do you learn 6:30 6:30 w30 a. a.m. wow so this very close to my heart I give a share every morning at 5:30 at 5:30 we're sitting at the table we learned till about a qu after 6 and we learned twice on shabas for a full hour um yeah we used to learn we had I did close to three my father's used to and when he got sick before he passed away this is about it's 26 years now 27 years learn that chair and uh yeah so to get up early in the morning there's nothing like it so you probably W know little about art scoll right some of you might be using under the table right used he was proud of it it was always the Hebrew he didn't read English um so you probably want to know a little bit about art and what is here um don't know where to start to me um somebody asked me more than one person actually asked me after R all of you heard of R's L was right besides that we work together we were very friends and uh together him and myself Sherman was to be involved here in the way that we were and people asked they after he passed away wanted to come close and came over to me and said wow you guys must have had such and I said what said wow such said it's not true I said we had absolutely no none at all they asked what are you talking about you and I said would imply that we didn't we did and they to helped us this was all they possibly we helped possibly you know you think a project like this the world was ready for it you talk about the goras and you started with M but sh people Lear people who had really no Shas they walked out of Yesa and at a certain point she that they kept this so they stopped really learning they told the wies at night to she hung out a little bit came home and they really weren't learning and as you don't learn it becomes harder and harder and a lot of yite yite I'm not talking about people Grand but you light war and when they did try to come back you know was something that was really people the wives would tell them why don't you go join the and they really found it very very hard very hard you know they come they fall asleep the she was over went back home was great and they weren't really learning and the Word was ready for the world was ready for that they to move that the world was ready and he prepared know we we learn about the and the Cale and Bala right so who Bala was a 13-year-old kid who knew nothing about anything nothing and D why did they take a 13-year-old kid because you know there were Crafts People there were people crafts people in Egypt mostly women did crafts but there were crafts people that were engineers it works for the government right and uh if the would have told them to build and give them specifications know you know I went engineering school so everybody would put in a which really would not have been correct so he took a kid who knew nothing about anything and put him in charge and whatever he knew was the from the right so we see when the wants something to get something done he he gets it done we we had here and he say that I don't talk about myself much but I do know whatever I have whatever I know whatever I do whatever talents I have is all given by the I can't be to myself at all for anything that I do but taught me taught me he gave me he gave me which I basically did not use used very little of that till we started producing theur that required tremendous craft and knowledge and feeling and Artistry and and and uh Graphics which I didn't learn but I was taught they was Tau me that and you see more than that so I was the RAB Sherman who was the top I mean the top writer editor in the yish world a selfmade man he never went to college I don't think he ever went to college he he told himself he was given a tremendous talent rea's talent is out of this world he had a drive he had Talent artistic talent he he he he [Music] knew he he understood what needs to be done and he had the personality and the drive to get things done so who would have dreamed that all of these people all everything that's necessary to make this happen is going to be in one room one building working together on some Mish stuff all of a sudden this became very and we all grew tremendously as we needed to we hire people hire specific wrers H who knew how to write who knew language who were able to present were able to teach and they weren't teachers they were C light and how were that smart able to put them into our lap they just came in we were blessed to make the acquaintance of the pish goldor and then he started working for us working with us and he T us a m in learning in teaching he was he was he was a teacher he taught us how to learn rash how you can't learn a sh without rash how to think straight and and and all the that we were working with who worked with us work for us with us and the tablets were sent to us didn't have Head Hunters going out and and and hiring people for us there weren't yeah sometimes we looked for additional help and that was a process through that process filtered through sometimes we had great people great catches most of the people held by the wayside they weren't up to it but Theus were just just just put everything into the room so how can anybody be no no nobody did anything there was no that's one point that I want to share with you and if we realize how this all happened and the truth I'm sharing the truth with you of how this all happened then we realize that it's the Y and this is what they wants and because this is what he wants he made it happen and there's a tremendous if you have that out C there's a tremendous that you give to it you give to learning you give to learn what the what the ODS Lear there one point I want to share with you there's another point which is also very personal and I think everybody could apply it to their own lives and their own learning and their own there's a saying by the way there was a saying May used to say people say somebody said don't judge a book by his by its cover right so may used to say the person who said that never sold a book in his life easy to say of course you judge a book by it that's why that's how people by see a nice covered bu the book there's another say which is very prevalent you know now is a is a time of right so many whether it's it's and and whatever else and then there's moers who are involved in learning and then there's moers that are involved in ch right in K tremendous moers and everybody is very necessary every one of them is very necessary and doing the great job and that's part of you know it's you know that's now everything has to start falling into place so all these happen all these things happen now as they say in real time it's all happening so there was somebody probably more than one probably who said it's not right you've heard that right very important belong total blown now of course if somebody is trying to do and he works with people works with people and he doesn't succeed so of course you're going to tell him you did yours don't worry what you did will have effect in do later okay so him you have to tell but in the world where we're trying to do things we have to O you know tell somebody as he goes into it he's going to foret about he's lost he'll never accomplish anything cuz he's happy he just makes a phone call doesn't follow up either his and and because that's our job that's our job so yes if things don't work out so there's a consolation PR and that's L listen we worked we tried but and what does it mean at what point do you say throw up your arms I'm something that point when do you give up trying let you say let me move on to the next thing so I just want to share with you this really really important I mean that gets to the guts of our history of uh why we were so successful in whatever we touched one thing is yeah but what did we do we give you know OA is giv money right givesa money what purpose I don't know part of right to show how important it is to give St to do St and to gift St and to teach people to gift St if he doesn't so you know they should find somebody else you're fine we you know many times I said we said we're plain people I'm very simple person PL nothing special the people smarter than me more tent than me that we're that our name is associated with this tremendous revolution in the revolution that's taking us to be so one thing is and all of us everybody here probably has a situation where you want to help you want to do something you want to to something um we we never felt you know oh great yeah I accomplished this it was never personal what we accomplished it was a great feeling that we got reports in in Africa people are learning the and that was a great feeling never attach ourselves and none of us attached ourselves to that we're we're like bystanders we're it's not us that's the first thing the second thing was M when we published the gamor it took about 15 years two cycles of D to finish it and so you figure out uh how many you know you learn like a the day it's roughly publish the of the day right so if you figure out you make the we published uh five what is it average about five volumes a year four five volumes a year we published and and uh yeah it's about it's about five volumes a year we published so every 10 weeks roughly some a little more some a little less but roughly the same number and that carried through throughout the sh and we would we would work through the night we would work through the night in fact there was one of the Publications which I said I almost disproved a Miss almost but I fell asleep on the job and the missioner proved to be correct the missioner says somebody who makes a NE or right that he won't sleep for three m l so Mal me out right cuz there's no way and one project I was up three ma SL in a row starting with M shabas starting with M shabas three mes l in the row I didn't go to D with minion uh the office was um about in flatb I lived in Bur Park which I still do so it was about 20 20 minute drive I went home at about 6:00 in the morning took a quick shower went to where D Schnell ate something and went back to work and did that for three days in a row I took I fell asleep for about 10 minutes during those three days for 10 minutes just that the mission should be proven correct we worked in every project we worked like there were a few all nighters it was famous I I I uh the building where we work most of the work was done most of was on Second Avenue or maybe some of it was done at on the Island Avenue in Brooklyn and I had in my basement I made set up nice bedrooms I set up for Dan right set up for them so every night any night you know work late come and stay by me during the entire time that came either one or two nights you know why because you couldn't go to sleep we stayed and we worked through the night every gamor we worked at least two three nights through the night and just and the next day we were there working V came shabas came M shabas People came in from lwood we work M shabas so the the M NE was tremendous you and the third thing which is the most important thing I think is no ego no ego I the you know anybody writes it say right I say so I have an anle who is in now but he was iniva here Lakewood and he wrot not not in one of theas in Lakewood and they gave gives and he wrote a beautiful and he brought he brought the says something like that but you know going was brought it to me it was a he came showed me that and I read it and I say beautiful I say I have such a respect for you you're B PL up you know there was no ego here no ego people write SP I right I said I think there's no there's nothing nothing ever written by an editor by an author who writes I think if anything it'll be in Brackets possibly we say possibly this might be theot there's totally no ego and it starts with a writer writer and he writes and he writes beautifully he gives it over to the editor and the editor rips it apart from head to toe ripped the pot and finally the editor gets it in perfect shape and it's ready to go no no no it's got to get read by our Super Readers we also marus we had tremendous tremendous who read it and now start to rep that apart so by the time it was finished if anybody had any ego he was deflated nothing left there was a har there the editors and the writers you RI me a part no no no appreciation so if you have these you saw this maybe that's why we to be in this situation should help we should continue everybody here should continue in their life doing whatever you do do it the learning should be with and we should be all to to see see payis and to see the real P the the this is this is the rough name