Meaningful Interview: Rabbi Meir Plotkin #2

welcome to meaningful interviews part number two with mayor plotkin we had a fascinating interview so far talking about his background his childhood as parents and now we're up to the point where we're discussing him leaving montreal in the end of 1956 going to tara of das and beginning his learning at that yeshiva that mayor please continue okay so [Music] i just turned i just turned 14 and at that time and that i learned the last year with when i was bar mitzvah i learned by you know a little fishy issue which it's not good it was nothing special and and then but in montreal at that time had as much in the issue the shiva was an old building uh a big house uh indeed in where we lived not whether where it's today and uh we would go to yeshiva and on let's say on shabbos uh we would go and we and we we became friends with small kids and when we became friends with the balkan over there so not to go into get together go astray i'm going to concentrate really on one bokeh because he had more direct charges than than other though over theirs listeners are listening you have to realize i was a boy i was involved i just turned 14 i turned 14 i thought i was 13 years old okay maybe i was even 12 let's say i was 13. and uh i give an example i mentioned some bachelor okay but they're six seven eight years older than me and even when i came to learning to shave i was the youngest one nobody younger than me learning to i was trying to put it back that was something before your course will become a big wait why did you go to montreal was it your decision was it your desire or your parents my parents had no were not interested in anything my parents were interested in one thing in one thing and that has to do with a whole interview okay i should be another year for the rest of my life and do whatever you want my name my mother my parents never said one word when i became the middle of arbitrary not which i said no no no so what made this just interesting i should remain up from the end okay so what made so was it your decision you want to go to taravadas no yes or no i went somewhere else before tomorrow dax that's why i started telling you there was else five six seven eight years older than me those who are listening today in 2000 their day today unfortunately they passed away in the last year or two so i mentioned two of them that were big names in in crown heights okay and there was the students in the shiva okay one of them became the law of crown heights and the same we called them yanko that's what we call them i never called them yakov his name is aaron yarkov i never called him that by me he was the uncle schwein the rest of my that's what he was and pinterest was pinyin and there were in this out that's what 56 57 58 59 60 wait but wait what those years they were in montreal i thought at the age of fourteen you went to paradise in brooklyn yeah survivor i didn't get there yet i didn't get to here you talked about it before while you're in montreal in the literature what i want to drive at that there was one booker champion is alive today and i'm beginning to give the whole credit to him because he deserved the whole credit and i told him when i tell my children today you know i meet his class and this and that i even became a sticker with his family that's nothing here i said it was one bunker if not for him i wouldn't end up with the barbie and his name is sean berglukov sholem gakov got into a system that three bahram have to end up in the barbershop and he worked on it and we came very close to him in ages oh well i'll tell you how old he is today out there he's seven years older than me approximately good enough so if i was 13 he was 20. i think he got married a few years later okay he was 12 i'd say he was 20. somehow okay okay go ahead okay and he worked on this and he had a bigger spawn on us we looked up to this bottom we didn't understand his sparkle because we came from a different world they were gazettes the balcony and we were vast to they could kill the kenneth that they gave us was a vassal they didn't know better i don't know just one i know that but wait a minute i don't understand how you got from being in the literature yeshiva to to going to type to these bachelor you didn't tell us how what made you do that what made you do that what made me do with it okay i'll tell you what made me do with it i was a young kid i didn't understand literature shivers and everything okay but when you have the roshi shiva and i was a kid and i looked at these things and i had and i and there was rosh hashem and he ran the holy shiver and i see and the horseman is picking his nose yeah you can laugh and i know something is wrong i didn't know what i'll give you two examples not the shame russian harder i was a kid when i was a small kid i didn't understand better where should i understand better and they would did and this person wrote a safer and he was one of the top mirror medium and he has this mullet and his yellow described and first of all the woman the all day the hair was uncovered no no how it looked i'm not going to go into everything i'm not saying little shamelessness but you want to know what pushed me off i'll tell you what push me off okay and i'm the king of of 13 i was 13 years old then i was by mister the dead yeah and one of the one of the faculty i don't want to go with him it's a different story altogether whereas it was hirshbro he was an elite fishy yeshiva he had no connection with khabar you'll see later i brought him to khabar nobody else but that's not the gay or no she calls me over once it says medicare come ahead so i go over to him and he gives me an envelope okay and he says that this rabbit i don't want to mention him condensable harder he has to sign this piece of paper or give it to him i don't remember what and he was wait it's a two three minute walk in the same street just to walk up you know block the two so i did it serened the bell and his wife answers i've seen it before of course the hair wasn't covered and but uh and i knew you're supposed to cover her hair but i'm not gonna go with all that and i told that that i have to just okay so go in over there yeah he didn't come to ship he had a flu or something i walk into a room and this is a senior roshi shiva and he's sitting sitting with whether about a shirt with an undershirt i don't think was wearing scissors i don't remember it that i don't know was his underwear and he had a little box on him with a gemara open and a television on i was a kid of 13 years old and i saw that and i i was i was amazed from the greatness of these great people because because rabbi dolphin wants to know wait a minute you were about to live for sure weren't you were influenced by them yes i was influenced by them now when this guy when this guy scholenberger cove okay that he took an interest with us and he would sit with shabbos and he would forbank with us and tell us stories how they lived in russia how it was hard how when he was 13 years old how they lived over there i don't remember all the things and we came close to him we liked him and then he talked to three of us that we should go learn in esheba who are the three who are the three yourself yeah we'll come and go big sunny rolls will go there is a mishpocker today rosenbloom percent they went to the same family my family did with but that's a different story altogether so he talked us into going to pittsburgh hey you know what happened we went i told my parents i'm going to learn a pittsburgh jake is into hate because i'm a slayer they didn't care where i went right back to israel as long as i went to give it to them oh yes but i still have a question that i didn't get an answer to how did you meet the show and bear show in bed gurkhav how did you meet him how did you know about it i knew all the books we were going to be spanish we wish to play around and we met him he took an interest in us he came to us we didn't go to him we came to play the shiva had a big big big yard we went game to play with small kids i was 12. okay i was 12 years old i knew my ready we limit what you can do in chapters yeah and sharpest is no school so good weather we would play he would call us in and tell us stories and forbid with us and became english with us and we liked him and we looked up to him we were from kids didn't have to make us fro okay so i'll say you went lepaul you went to pittsburgh in what year tonight in the in the end of 56 you stay school starts in september yeah that's when the school year starts september 56 and we lasted there for two weeks why long time why tell you why first of all we were kids second of all we didn't have any background whatsoever really what a shiv is supposed to be and we and and yeshivas didn't have really the proper spa on us you know because that's how it was you know that that would it was with everybody okay okay well just let me finish just that's all so we went there the roshi shiver i mean the one who talked to us the murder that the holy [ __ ] was maybe 20 to 20 time he did and it was also in a house true the house was a little bit better than montreal and uh and washing his name was who eventually became doroth in crown heights who learned in la babies by their shop yet and uh and he liked me more than the other two the other two were not learners okay one of them is i have mine unfortunately he passed away young and the other one is a live one welding in a laboratory but also he wasn't a learner i was a learner the other two weren't learners and he wanted very much i should stay i became close to him and the fact was i remained close to him for the rest of his life he always liked me years later but that's really not talking about now okay and we lasted there for two weeks and then we started we're leaving pittsburgh why we wanted to go to our yeshiva that's a yeshiva a building get away from the montreal atmosphere we wanted to go to my biggest shiver a proper yeshiva right no house not you're going to hear me damn it but that's already a continuation from montreal the staff was good i didn't understand and i didn't appreciate it i was a young kid what do you want from me first time i left my prior we left but i didn't leave sean berg he didn't leave me and i went to tour with us the three of us went and there we got our uh that's what we were dreaming of here we came to toyotas and they had a dormitory yeah a four storey self-contained building 23 rooms in each floor we'll still talk about the dormitory and the barbish okay from kindergarten and they had maybe four or five six buildings in wittensburg that one speed valley too i really organized big with the biggest it was the biggest issue in north america and then i learned and i was happy there because i was i was happy there because this it was run properly there was a proper english department the principal was without a beard a german jew from who was he from he taught us the last class we read the first year high school or something it taught us the last class with the winter and everything still didn't like what do you teach i think maths every student has to come with a hat because when we finish learning which is about five thirty six o'clock in the winter without any modern fear y'all stopping when you and with a hat if you don't bring a hat you're gonna layer i don't know you're gonna get a class or something it had i liked that and he was the english principal from who was he from what other beer okay because germans didn't have beers but from and i i was happy the first year i was happy i came and the first chieftain that i learned properly i had a good rapper and i was happy there i liked it there so i came to turmeric i was happy and i learned there and they're so happy the other guys i don't think they lasted even three years they weren't learners i don't know i think i don't know what happened but they they were not the issue with those when i'm younger or friends we really we remain but two truth friends also i mean i became modest if i came in so there was a certain degree there were on the sidelines a little bit okay but i went to tournaments i understand stop okay let me let me ask a question you mentioned that you uh kept up with you even when you were in terre haute what do you mean what do you mean okay when we have to go to new york in those years so keep it down but don't forget don't forget i was a 14 year old booker okay 14. yeah so you know buckled from montreal let's see it just kiss if you try so they would come to my new york then the only way to get to montreal then was with the train so we took the train at night and we came in to grand central station new york in the morning yeah he would call up my mother and tell mr tortilla for some level or hot if you have something to send to america give it to me i want i'm gonna go see you so what's my mother gonna send me what about my need yeah money i had maybe sent me money but money and there was no problem uh so she baked the cake i used to love her banana cake she baked the cake and she sent it with him sean they called didn't go to 70. and he was a joshua don't think he was he was about children on one of his ages okay so he wasn't he didn't come down the chimney yeah he would come to the train station determined as to give me that and that speak to me and i asked him and he was in contact with me the whole time with all of us they had a big big cash what kind of a spot did it have it had a spur that the marshall someone would go now that was one he had worse for me than anybody else when i came to the shiva in montreal that's later but in those years he was the only one who had spoiled us and he kept up he kept up on us especially wait a minute wait a minute you you also met shmuelu and maisha feller in montreal no in yeshiva no no no no no gold maisha fowler learned to talk about us right now yeah you meant to get close with them want to be some making a little marshall oh now we're going to something else when i was in somebody else i had a chakra too okay the two years i was in target hey until if unofficially but i was young said it didn't bother me too much the other guys had it worse now we're gonna go over to somewhere else i was i was settled in total with us wait wait wait you said something you didn't explain you said they didn't happen no you said they get it over there you're gonna die so much what are you talking about you can't you say something you have to explain that should be mentioned nation below or says island though and the martial fell there yes they were in turbodust and i had a shockers with them i had a chassis with them because they had a sharkas with lavage they weren't libabuture marsha fella was the oldest one marsha fella had already he was he was much ahead of me and schmueller was also much ahead of me there were about three four steps ahead of me because they learned to talk with us and they they went properly so they were even even though years wasn't such a big thing but the learning they were way way ahead of me because they learned from us the whole life i mean they were different i know i know that so but they had a shark they had a shocker with which i had the same characters eventually okay i had to get into it yeah and don't get in the la marshall let me explain i'll tell you what it was it's gonna have to come to that yeah it's not that i learned two years in terms of dallas i had no chances and then i came to my job no no no no didn't work like but right that for the first time when i came to to to toyota vidas yeah uh first of all there was a tiny share which you could they could you couldn't have it in the shipy building which i didn't like that i was a small kid i didn't even understand why can't you have a tiny share in yeshiva what is it something you're not allowed to open that i never said a word i was only 14 years old but that doesn't make sense then i heard that when wrote on your own i know you have to live according to and he made it still you can buy it and you want to save it on you you know if i find it let me tell you the throne marina shiva does that make sense maybe to you too it didn't but i was 40 years old so i shut up i didn't say anything but i like it no when i found out there's a share right around the corner of the launch people i don't know they got to keep for it and came december 70. so i went also did i stand tanya zero zero i understood but i went why number one i don't know why number two i didn't like the idea that you can't have it you ship it i don't like it even though i didn't understand i didn't say a word and then i liked the balcony also but here i have more i saw it maybe closely if you see a guy above her let's say guys shimano gorilla just mentioned into there then i was thinking about i have to realize i was 14 years old i just came from montreal that we left my background leave alone you this guy with god would pass that already but i thought there's something over there look at these guys these american guys hmm look at that so it had in the background had over there and then i decided there's going to be a big for banging i'm going to bend it where was the verbal in the hall at eastern parkway in australia what was the day you disgusted i found out that the wonderful time you got out of jail okay that's all uh if i shot the number before i don't think i saw because i just came to uh it's not a really warming i don't believe that leave them besides i went there for a break and it's inspired me the things i understood very little but there were things i understood yetis was not problem i was i was born with yetish nobody taught me english english and yiddish by me were exactly the same thing since i was four five years old no difference you know so i understood i i mean language has done every word i understand i was a kid but had it that i wanted to see that a bit more the next for being in the hall is going to be a huge fact well that's nearly two months away yeah so it hadn't affected me so if the weather was good and i knew the shadows the ball came the weather was going for brain so the weather was good and i finished eating shabbos it was about 11 30 12 o'clock i finished eating something like that maybe 12 30 and after the weather was good and i was in the mood and i say you know what i have nothing but to do now 12 30 the barbecue verbage and then there was a circuit it was 770 wasn't even built but the weather was going so i would walk to crown heights and that's really that's really when when i was there and i saw that a bit i saw the way he's acting i saw the way he was walking on the street crown heights was full of hidden there's more for me unicorn nicer than witnessburg there was more strength in williamsburg but numbers oh crown i i had to finish i used to i ate my house today he's a very famous rabbi by the fatherland he the father-in-law didn't live downstairs a jew from vienna and upstairs there was a he was after he just got married as he smoked his name is marcia wolfson today he's a big famous person and dolphin will go into uh he had probably made a big big biography in here but then he was young and i had to go back to yeshivas i had to get it was on climber street and corn i had to get the bedford bedford go down to turn the desert at the corner of bedford climber that's where the he had to lived over there it was called the southerner turdas helped him out a lot when he came so every time i went by and he would see me i would save this for shabbaston a month three out of four probably something like that and he was saying good shoppers to me you know what i did i had some good sharpies did you have a spoon me zero all right saw him walking down the street the whole bunch of people following him i don't know didn't have affected him there's a small kid 14 years old i'm just jumping around but abhidhafal wants to know what attracted me to the rabbit and not as serious as goddess not siddhis cities i didn't know you know it was strange for me i didn't even understand the words it wasn't getting out too i have a long letter for the rap about that even though i was a small kid and i see that i've been walking from this house you know i don't remember if i listened in new york i meant no he moved i remember going to the parking lot apartment he moved to the pr and he was walking on eastern parkway you know i'm jumping around in a time it's but i sized walking down eastern park when eastern park was full of yiddish and i see somebody going with a black beard they had a black beard with a few gray hairs it was winter and it was really cold that should happen you wore a coat a light coat it wasn't really cold you know and i thought that his head is down i see i saw his lips are moving but it's not just looking normally and i see how he's walking so plain and held the sidewalk is opening up the barbecue again he looked like a like eventually true and it touched me it touched me they looked at the town then i found out more and more things about that and i looked at it and everything i i saw emma's i didn't see this making a whole big tim is in tennis you know i i don't know i was a kid i was attracted to him so i went to shield and tanya and i went to fabregas during the two years and eventually i got the second year i had a terrible reven i got into and i wasted a year there and uh i got ready uh not such a good taste from toyo vedasto even though it was run properly now i'll give you one example okay i went to the front venues i didn't know you're 14 years old okay i just took my my younger lettuce is simple to eat i don't think i was 14 years 14 and a half yeah yes when i left to my left i was right i just turned 14. that my misfit is not at 57 it's 56 is a simple australian but anyway so i stood in front until the end and the next day i didn't come to share so my remember who i knew was when he was young he had a little shouldn't be a pretty dog with a god it was again and he called me over and he calls me he says i said book hashem let's knock together that he says then he gives me a whole talking which i didn't like but he gave me a nice talkie he gave me a nice talking and he says to me that you have to sit and learn to go to whatever is a big thing but not in the husband for learning i accepted him the way he spoke to me and everything yeah but i told him i'm telling you right now and i couldn't care less you're going to cancer me but every now and i i don't know why i said nothing was pushing me i hear what you say and i i'm not gonna argue with you but you know every now and then besides the learning you need a pep talk but sometimes people take vitamins what do you think vitamins for orange has vitamin c and this has vitamin d and decides that vitamin b so we put a little cup over there once the yogurt if i go to a barbecue now what happened i missed the share so what do you think i'm going to become the look of trouble going i'm going to become a kind biscuit i'm not going to be coming up with you going he didn't know what to answer me it ended with that and i went again at the bank and i get that income and he just say something about it came the second year oh and then the guys became the second year now things changed first of all martial fell uh went to the december 70. schmollo went to learn to montreal and arshas arnegold went also to go to montreal and uh i remember frank rose lafranbosco also went to learn in in service 17. i was certainly left alone so i'll tell you a few things that pushed me like the final push i came to montreal for hanukkah we will get they gave us a few days off so i said i'll go home so i got into my train i came home and i went to the south over there now the whole time i had a shark of the scholar called the whole time every time he came to york he came to me to us and he would tell us and for bangalore with us and this and that and i have i had a shark with you then i came the second year and that shmulu was there i came i became very close with this mulu that goes on till today we always had a very very very close shyfus it didn't go away till today even though so many years and uh more than with anybody else ushers on eagle not so much i've been once or twice in minneapolis but it was different and i come with an engineer into montreal and shmuels and i that year was the second year i had a horrible record i don't want to speak it was horrible believe my mother say it was hard i didn't learn anything i couldn't stand him he was an idiot because it's something i think last time daddy brush and precious teeth was when he was in shanghai probably didn't brush they let me progress over there we got closer he got to stay taller anyway and then he was he i had a horrible year the first ship was okay i liked it over there him i wasted my time so uh shimoga says i don't understand you you're wasting your time there come here look at the spanish there's here you're gonna have this in terms of us then look around i see pokhara yeah i remember one thing and again he says you know you come next year i think we're going to learn getting he says i'm not sure we come to you we learn so and i was close with him and pushed me yeah another thing that pushed me there was a bokeh that i knew is a big time with coffee not that i was a big baby later when i came to learning shimmer so my rosh hashimo it was on me he was a senior hiking tells me those visitors was a booker a regular book he was an older birther young his boy spay calls me over beside shmolog i may become i was hamish with him to extend when i came to learn so there was two books two younger life i wanted to go to eating sugar and get out of my shop as i was born so these two um every shop they loosened me it was too one guy his name was peanut core for one time i was younger i have to go i have to go eat right here i didn't want to go eat my boat for them because i wanted to knock it off but i had to go wait for them for a year for two or three years every shabbos right he was like an older brother to me see that's when i was in the shiver but i'm going ahead of you see calls me over i'm learning and he says to me make you do lens you see this so i said no and you're not learning nothing that really explains you you should understand and feel and really know was haste titus hashem what is the ambitious tiniest piece this is who explains you the greatness of toilet and i looked at him like again and saying look at the guy ever saying up to them i don't know what to answer you if you don't learn cities you're going to everything blindly citiz opens up your eyes okay so okay so continue after that what happened but hold on wait wait wait wait definitely what happened i wasn't gonna leave in the middle of the year so the final have over there is i got in i was really fed up and i decided i'm gonna leave and i had to do with the manal off the sifter i don't but ben if i don't mention names the mouth of my sister had two black and white pictures of good old limb from the ceiling to the floor one of them was that someone's headache and one of them was the rocket showroom and i knew that he had something to do with the garbage right that's all he was a son-in-law of fiber mendelovich which rob a dolphin that doesn't have to explain who he was uh but later i found out that it's both had a broken finger that his grandchildren her grandchildren were going to america are going to remain elderly yeah you mean grabbing the samo quinn and that's when i told them that i'm quitting and you're not going to see me again i'm saying it to the end of the year which is ready for it before the end of the year anyway i was very fed up i understand let's go on i understand i understand let's go on okay anyways he calls me and this quinn calls me here i was invited by learning why you would they survived second third time you went by a wedding i was fed up and broke hashem david sure blessed me and i'm not a coffee typer i have a big mouth i swear i'm equipping what's bugging you so what's bugging me pickle tighter i said [ __ ] of tyler is bugging you you're a hypocrite was sitting the whole time behind the rabbit and i guarantee you and he says the ship for one of the she or him in the midspanders he didn't come to say a share here because he remembered from being to four or four thirty until he got home was about 5 30. he included he didn't come to sayashir yeah he's older than you and he has more tyrant than you and he's the roshi shiva since 1940 it's already close to 20 years that he's the russian talk with us what are you afraid i'm gonna leave you yeah i'm gonna leave you because i'm sick and tired i have to answer that if i went on the show to a movie let me tell you rabbi quinn there's guys in the dormitory who are doing things which are not kosher and you're doing nothing you know why because i'm not leaving you and i'm going to leave you to and i'm going to go something else i'm going to go to the barbecue that's all you looked at me didn't know what hit him and that's what i told him that's exactly what i did okay so now stop stop stop we're going to end now the second part of this unbelievable interview and uh we will continue very soon with the third part thank you