Shabbos Is Not a Break - It's the Center: Yaakov Shwekey & Rabbi Shlomo Diamond

Thank you so much for hosting us, Rabbi. It's uh I don't know if the public knows the extent of uh our relationship. You've been my rebi for many many years. Uh I want to extend of course Akarat to as I always do in private but now in public for uh really really giving your time and uh also your knowledge in terms of what I love to know what happened before I came along and I love to know the the wisdom of how we how we attribute today's climate of the the youth and their music and how you're an education also you have girls school the co I I learn in every day and I know how many hundreds of people are there in the k and you have so much experience and also teaching us and what I'm coming from a zamirus angle in this specific interview but I feel zir is also a way to discuss many different things that are happening in our generation terms of in terms of my own children how the memories I have of my parents at the Shabbat table of a happiness in Yiddish kite And a lot of a lot of the stuff that we go through on a day-to-day with and everything that we have dissipates when you're a happy person and your happiness and you have a joy of singing and you have a joy of in general. I feel it's a cure. I mean you'll tell me more. I feel it's just a cure. This what the reason why I'm putting out this project of course lunes parents but also to really give is a a taste of Shabbat with today's sound of course mostly older songs but today's sound and today's uh way of delivering with the greatest arrangers of all time with arts girl doing a brand new ziro book explaining to people sometimes you sing and over and over and you don't really get into it because you don't know what it means to give people a little more meaning and a little more inspiration with Besser on the book and I want you to elaborate of what you feel first of what you feel about this project secondly how ziot could be a uh a a cure for a lot of ailments today >> you you want to know what came first what happened earlier I'm going to bring you back when I was 18 years old graduate from public didn't know yes and I'm meeting for the first time my future father-in-law but then my future rebi my future of Yehuda Davis Abu Davis the sist of the earlier pioneers the America that started the Torah Moses who were behind the ops he said tells in the first 10 he was the one that had a big kite plains of yeshiva before Rabal came in I raar and I had a conversation with him as a year old was 1961 and surprisingly the conversation he asked me what's my hobbies as I love to sing in those days we didn't sing the zamirus we sang uh little dooops the doo-ops out and things like that was the f of late 50s those years in 1955 to 1960 my teenage years and Those of the years that that was a popular saying that harmony and so on and right away ra you start to say music you know that says that music is the connection between the and it's the bridge you can't call you can't call to either because the boys the sound and so on he says it's the connection it's the between the and from that conversation among other things he spoke it out but we started with mus he won the ela totally I was mesmerized by him and that's how I eventually I started to learn with him then she went into yeshiva and then years later married his daughter so it was all a big change in my life and that's the starting point the first conversation I had with him was about me and and how and he asked me to be good in music is it pitch is a sense of beat sense of rhythm is it is it the harmony feeling of park and he start and then you should know later when we were in the yeshiva one day he had a uh fire bonfire all the boys were around and we started to talk to the boys about bonfires and so on the thing where did you come from and so on and he started to say you know a lot of the we have we don't know where they're coming from why don't you make it be only a peace and He put us on a task to look at the was to look at the hill and I made a few >> right was one of them. Yes. And many >> why did those talk to you? I'm just curious. They were first of all he talked a lot about you always the wonders of theem in the world is and so on and then who want to get away from the he only have and those things touched me that's of leaving a secular world I was a very secular person the secular world I'm leaving that world to come to the world of tois and those type of pursuit really kashm and we tried to make the guru wasn't so great but we made the guru and we and he used to sing them that we the boys made he used to sing those be of the on shabas we used to sing them all the getting back to the present we ask me am I behind this b you know how I admire you I had to just mention to the that you came to the 20 some odd years ago 20 ba You weren't at all a singer then. You may have been working on certain things but then you were totally a bucka. You got engaged and your wife your caller then requested that I interview you to take you to beha because she wanted to wear red hair and I owed her a little bit because she was one of the first girls of the alarm girls high school. So I had a little bit of a to her. >> Basically no choice, right? >> Yeah. No choice basically. And we took we we interviewed you. We took you in. I'll never forget we had a shepherd brushes back dancer and he was singing a niggan and there was a big goblin next to me raising many many years and a very big brother a person that helped me tremendously in in open k and so on and he was sitting next to me he said to me who's this I said yes is this This should not stand. He has a he recognized in him then as a 20 some odd years ago a that he had a killing for soul and all the years he's been in the learning and then he start to get into records and music and famous and celebrity. I have to try he's still learning in the car and many times he would ask me if he was called let's say at hotel hostels to visit people who were dying very sick people if he could take off from the l he was very meticulous and responsible by how he learned that's why I have a special connection with him the world may look at him as a celebrity and maybe some of his nag are not typically yeshibish but I So this is a real Ben Taro and that's why I like him. That's why I love him. In fact, we have a class every member of he comes and we open up the class for him singing just to get the the mood of the boys and there's no question that especially on Shabas to be singing with your family brings out a that very few things can can create that same spirit. very few things in in ink I can create a feeling of love but a thing and even when we have we have hundreds of boys there plus there we always say the singing is what makes it the singing is what creates the rua and when I eat with the boys I review Jews I eat with the boys Friday night hours with them and we have question answer we always break it up into because in the gut is the thing that really gets the boys into it. That gets the boys in spirit and has an amazing kayak that if you take a rece by me, you should take a person with me and and the press and and and give him and pick him up. How does music do that? I think the is what mentioned was the rabbi of David back then that is and once you start singing it touches and touches the sh that we have in us our in us that music awakeness and so this project I'm definitely behind two reasons one it's an important project that we should notice the mirrors and if you have help in singing the mirror and understanding the metaphing that who it's who's singing it. You don't only have a good voice to anchor. You have a real heart. You have a real shim in you that I know and I watch it for 20 years and I know you have it. And when you sing, you're putting a feeling of your shite into the soul. So, it's a little different than the regular popular music. Even though you're a celebrity in the popular music world too and you everyone loves you. All the people love you singing but there's something like Rabbi Rosen told me something about you and I I don't know what it was that he showing you but he saw something wasn't just a voice he saw something. Maybe it was a mig was singing and how you were singing it but I'm really behind this project. I think it'd be a tremendous project. I think Clydeville needs a a and the of the music and all we do is a beautiful especially we have a company on the on and so on and and especially on Shabas that every mitzvah we do on Shabas is multiplied for what it is during the same song that you'll sing on Wednesday has a totally different feeling on Shabasu on every say the same the same has a totally different every including our eating and including therefore it's I think it's a beautiful project >> thank you so much thank really thank you um as far as the since October 7th happened. I came back. I was there with my family on Sukkot and I was there when the war broke out. And I'll never forget, you know, Rabbi Diamond has been just for everybody watching and listening, Robert Diamond has been really like my second father when it comes down to his advice only because Robert Diamond also is very authentic with me. And I want somebody to tell me straight. This is right. This is not right. This is And after October 7th, I felt I was there with my family and we ran out of Israel. We were very afraid. My kids, the sirens. It's amazing. Right. The night before October 7th, I had like tens of thousands of people singing in Ashkalon. And almost this near the spot where like the the night before, I think it was or two nights before that and everything the war broke out. I run through Greece with my family and all that. I come back and I the co starts the zan starts and I feel a little guilty from running away. Yes, I'm learning I have to be for many years and there's a certain beautiful you guys came from there's a certain ganed when you're there you just want to stay there you want to learn and you want to be you know away from and I said but I still felt guilty so I went to Rabbi Diamond I don't know if you remember Rabbi but you told me now it's time for you to go back and to sing for the Jewish people and I I thought you were going to tell me maybe stay and learn this that there is a certain time that people need song. And I kept on being in touch with you on the journey because I met so many of the parents and so many of the people that were involved in this tragedy. And I realized then through [clears throat] the experience of going back and being with these people, they weren't a lot of them were not brought up like we are in Shabbat and singing and zamir. They just weren't brought up that way. So when you sit down and you explain to them a song, a Jewish song, and you start singing with them, this man, there was I'll give you an example. It was a man I sent it to you afterwards. I we just went cold turkey into this apartment building in Tel Aviv. His daughter was uh was uh taken on the motorcycle with this guy with the terrorist and we said, "You know what? We're going to go to his first stop from the airport. We're just going to go straight to his apartment." What are you going to tell a man who's whose daughter is taken by the worst rashim in the world? And I didn't know what it you know what we say. We said we're just going to sing. So we brought a guitar player and we come up to the floor of the apartment building. It's like the 15th floor, whatever. I see a guy pacing back and forth, pacing. And there's like a few media people trying to get into him. And I'm like I said, as I asked somebody, who is that man? He's pacing back and forth. Oh, that's the father. He never has any peace. He's always pacing. He can't sleep. He can't be in his house. He comes in and out. And I started to get emotional just seeing this man pacing back and forth, looking down, not looking at any faces. I said, "How am I going to say hello to this man? How am I going to I was very like, you know, in a place where I didn't know what to do. I had this guitar player with me. I'm I got the the the uh the energy to go over to him say you know what I'm here I came all the way from America and you don't know me and we just want to sing with you give me give me a few minutes I said okay please no it's not I just want to sing with you few minutes later he comes over he goes okay you know what five minutes my wife is very sick she's definitely ill she's sleeping do it quietly. We'll do it for 5 minutes. And he's basically telling me, I'll do you the favor and let you sing. I said, okay, you know, I'll take it. I'll take the interest. We went with a few people in the apartment. I told the rabbi then I'm I'm saying it on video now for a reason because I've moved me and I moved Rabbi Diamond. What we did with songs and not not only me, it was a bunch of people with me and the guitar player. It wasn't five minutes. You're talking about we were there probably almost three hours. He didn't let us leave. He cried tears to I explained to him how every generation we face challenges. I explained to him the Shabbat table and what we sing on Shabbat. We sang some Shabbat songs. We tried to sprinkle in. So this guy was in tears. He got up and he hugged each one of us and he said, "I feel like you're my own children." The wife came out. She woke up. She she came out. Unfortunately, she passed away before she saw her daughter her daughter Noah come out. But at the end of the day, I had told Rabbi Diamond, I say this now is Rabbi Diamond also knew when to send me back and realize he realized the power of music before I even realized it. the power that we that was just one example the stories I think we could write a book about just that week week and a half visit of how song you can't say anything to anybody who's suffering when you sing together Shabbat or any time of tragedy that we're going through I felt that I don't know you knew something maybe that I didn't know and if you could explain like what what got you to tell me just go and just sing and just heal the people through music. What did you feel that uh I mean there's no pressure. We knew that it was a very difficult time to cla in Edison cell especially hostages soldiers that were wounded in the hospital. It was a hard time. I'm going to tell you something that happened today to give you the props. Not today, yesterday. Yesterday was show the fastest. I get a text from a graduate from the alumni full girl very confused and very overwhelmed boys are I'm very confused where I just listened to the several classes they had many classes in community yesterday and I don't know everyone's emphasizing tears and crying and I don't know how to balance that with the happiness and that I don't know how to she very confused I basically called The commandment of the sra is always always in force even in times of sorrow and times of mourning but the is always in force in the sugo this morning for someone in his family but not believe he asked me some >> wow >> during ais >> yes even during ais And he says to be said to have a sus of sug has to be the way we behave and we don't do sin because we don't do certain thing. Yes. But inside a person has to have the sins up. And furthermore, we know that a novi is not except did not have of for 22 years that was the we had that described the holocaust of the mdish. You had describing how Bishar and yet he had nu how could he have nvu in such describing sorrows and I heard that he asked this question one from a and he says the source only went down to the body but pass the button then it the heart of heart so the core of a person always had to be s and when you started to tell me that uh singing you want to sing for the people sadness and so on. The truth is that what does the singing do is saying gives you hope. gives you a sinful gives you a certain sense of should be better and and and that feeling of sin that one gets from is the all leave at a time of so I wrote to this lady this girl I said I want you always to be happy and the fact that you can't cry said she couldn't cry cry really bad I can't cry or feel I said no that the idea is these three weeks is of morning is to make to become a better Yid to be a better Jew to live better as a Jew you have to and so on that's what supposed to be inspire yourself too and you have to emotional tears what inspires you not tears of I said is never a mitra ever it's never trying to because when you're out you can't function norally and then you then your mind is is covered and you can't think clearly you can't think about >> so what's the difference between and and >> als And mourning mourning is unherog of that we're sad but in the heart of hearts pass the button like reash said pass the button there has to be at your cost always because you're in the hands of hashem that's losanel why is your commandment in mourning l your skin he says because because we have to feel that he really die he went to a different world he did a different m die if you over mourn It's just they don't really believe that there's nus and there's life after death and so on and so you don't believe in the whole and so on that the idea being that even though it was a terrible it was a holocaust miniature holocaust that took place in Israel October 7 two years ago but you went there and you gave sim to them at a time when it was a true nagun it's not just plain uh you know happiness it's emotion It's getting their emotions and giving them like you said that person and and that feeling is there's no greater in than that and you use music that's it best way to there's no question that's what you did and that's why I felt you could do by being there both in in hostages both in the in in in hospitals where you had soldiers that were wounded and paralle iz and could and and and who knows what the rest of the life will be like and you were able to sing there too. I remember you sent me a big one. You went and brought my girlfriend to the hospitals. I remember you sent me a video. You opened that and that's what you did and you brought tremendous sent the time when they needed of all that too little. >> I felt that these guys a lot of them also you see their families not religious. When we went Reverend Grossman he also has a long beard and we start to sing and explain to them what the song are. all want meaning always tells us let's not take politics or judge anyone we [clears throat] shouldn't judge anyone ever but the point was that as soon as you start the guy by the way had no one of them had he had no leg and no arm one and he's under the cover and I'm singing on Imami Benim and faster songs and and he's smiling and somebody asks him a question what happened to you or and and also would you do it again after knowing and this guy with a smile on his face rabbi I could I don't know if I ever sent you this WhatsApp a while back smile on his face telling him of course I would do it again even for somebody who you don't even know he went into a tunnel this he had a mission to go into a tunnel and try to get a a uh a hostage that they knew where they were and they sent him now they don't know who they're saving and I'm thinking to of we think we're better. These guys are on a so much higher level in terms of mess nephesh. Would I would I go into a grenadefilled tunnel for somebody for somebody who I never met and just embrace it and lose an arm and a leg and then say I would do it again? I I walked out and said Rabbi Diamond was always right in saying that let's understand that we're lucky to grow up the way we are with the shabas with the zirus with everything but we have to look at the world as every has such a such a specialness to them. I walked out I said look at our nation to to to moes and say you do it again. I don't know. I felt um I felt music was really a mission. I I opened up the other day in your office, Rabbi, and I sent you a picture because I took a Ramal a safer out of your out of your collection. I never saw the safer. I don't know what it means. I said, "You know what? I'm going to open it to a page." And I opened it up and it was about music. And I sent you a picture of Adir was called this that I never heard of. And I opened it. nervous about music and you've proceeded to to to to write me a a very deep text that music I showed it to to my wife I showed it to the ones who are close to me that music is telling Rabhal was saying that music is like you said before is maybe in higher amote fixing certain broken which I don't know exactly what that means but the the so when we sit around the shabas table and we just sing and we don't know the depth of the words that we're singing. We open up as mirrors. I don't exactly know the the the the beautiful garments to kindle the flame, but you just see and you close your eyes. Is are you are you doing something much higher than than you even know what's happening in the higher worlds? >> No question. Do something. And maybe your uh conscious levels doesn't understand what you're doing. But the maz the sha knows you ought to sing does something to us. It touches or claims that we can't touch through other means. And how important is for today's youth to listen to music that is not coming from a source of love songs. And today I I know the rabbi touched on the 50s. Today is a different world of America with music and everything and they get streaming and it's very easy to stream and I try to tell my children they're not gonna listen to their father all day long that I know but how important it is to be sensitive to what we we listen to and what we sing and how we >> I had to share this story. I was once on a trip with some girls way back maybe uh maybe 30 years ago and they're all on a bus and they all have earphones and they had those used to have the uh the the Walkmans the Walkman they all have the Walkmans with earphones and all in their own worlds. So I asked one girl, I tried to get a little conversation with that girl all the old world. I said, "What are you listening to? Use it." I said, "Can I listen?" What? And I put it off for a minute and I promise you the most power I ever heard. I couldn't believe that thing legal to put on a record. I I didn't believe that. I didn't know that how bad it was. I never I don't I haven't heard from the 50. 1960 was the last year I basically heard anything like that. Okay. I said stop we don't know we don't just we don't really we don't pay attention I said but it's going into the sh the worst garbage in the world is going into the sha no question that for that that was 30 years ago the music that was 30 I was like this that was in probably 1997 the story the story I'm went on a trip it was the first trip we went to Israel with the girls we went after two years or felt like at the 2 years old or maybe the end of that year was 90 days >> in Janine's days. >> Yeah. And we went to AR Israel and on the bus traveling they were all listen to this and I heard the the terrible language. Yeah. Mish and I was shocked that girls could absorb it. I'm saying regular girls and they're good girls and they're just listening to it and like nothing. It's music. So if that's how it was 30 years ago, I'm sure that today probably is much worse in many ways. So there's no question that the the mitzvah that one does when he's singing a koshin and zir and and and and giving them a flavor attracting them through music to kesh there's no question it's a tremendous mitzvah you got giving them what to listen to I just want to remind you rabbi the story that we h me and you had in Tavaria on the boat and I like to people to you repeated it a few times but every time you say it first of all I want them to know what That story was I was singing at a bar mitzvah on a boat in Israel and to see I'd like to hear from the rabbi. >> We were on a boat in Tiberius in the in the Canerat the nar sea and we're celebrating a mid from one of our close friends and he's hitting and now it's late at night. We pull into the pier the port and we park but we're still going. We're not stopping the party or we had a whole band on the boat and the whole band on the boat and he's singing and we're dancing and all great and out of the middle of our dancing now. It's like 1:00 at night. Two men walk on the I'm watching them walk on the pier and they come onto the boat. They asked what's going on with snow on what tried to call their boat. They heard Swiki had sw in Israel heard popular guy and heard how many years ago maybe 20 years ago 15 years ago >> like 18 years ago. >> 18 years ago. Okay. But very popular. I think that when he came out already and every song as you pass the store they're played. So very famous must have heard something. Now they're on the boat and one of the rabbis was he had a number of Israeli rabbis. One of them came over to me and says to me, "This guy is just walking on the boat. He's a famous person on television. He's on t Israeli TV and he's very very anti very anti-f okay. And the other guy is a minister of agriculture, some some minister in the Kness." So the two guys from the government, one guy is a real famous guy and so on and very Okay. We go over to him, welcome him, give him a drink, have a drink. Come, let's dance. And we start dancing. Now we're dancing and he's singing and they're loving and little by little they become part of the group. They become one of us. They're dancing just like us. We're dancing and he's singing, dancing. And finally we're walking up walking. We all all walking with this guy. I we what I see very emotional when he was singing. He was very emotional. He would say he's Oliver from Pangovich. I learned the pavishi bleak. I born in bleak and I'm not he must have had a rebby that you know came a hard time or something whatever it may be and he ran away from and but if I had known that there were rabbis like you and like here I probably would still be religious. I say all the rabbis are like us. You had a bad apple. You had one bad everyone's like us. And they saw we saw Ti and now we're on the pier with Porki >> singing Kalbach >> and they start talking about Kalbach and the guru of Kalbach and he love this thing and that and going on and on and on and it was an amazing story that at the end we tal about making sure and he said I will never speak from and one of the rabbi you know this was his name I forget oh yes rabbi We rabbi Weiss who a big rabbi told us but the guy tak changed and he never spoke bad about the what he changed from singing on the singus and a sim together that gave that touches the sh to the point that imamish made trouble on the spot it's amazing it is amazing that's the true story one last thing rabbi is amazing Amazing story it is cuz I kept up with him a little bit afterwards. He sent me a book of Kalbakov. One last thing I know that this table that we're sitting on right now, it's your dining room table and somebody mentioned this before and I think I saw it inside also. the Benanishes Kaya thing writes that they used to even take a piece of the table after 120 and and put it, you know, with them to show Hashem how important our Shabbat tables could could become if we really sit by the table and not just talk about frivolous ideas and about this and what happened and what gratitude to Hashem and singing songs and understanding the songs. How does the youth of today who are faced with everything Rabbi and you know more than anyone the technology the desires the social media that is so fast and everything is what what what would be your advice to somebody who's listening to this music now and opening these ziras what would be the the is it one step at a time is it something that that you know when they come and they they don't have to be the co yung man to some of them are work is for everyone. But what what would your advice be to to really be Morappa the the anxiety of today, the addictions of today and many people feel like it's it's monotonous every time. It's the same song. It's the same. It's just a repeat. I'm not understanding what's going on. I'm not a learned person. I'm just want to appeal to all the people, not just the people that are in Cole and yeshiva and have a gift of understanding Hebrew and understanding. What would what would your advice be for someone like that? >> Advice to the boy himself? >> To the boy themselves or to the girls themselves? >> I understand. I I I would tell you ask you what advice will I give to you in which songs you should be choosing. That's your I'll leave it for you. >> I chose the ones that touched me. >> You regard the one that touch you. I my advice to them is singing is a uh introduction to the sim of Judaism. But I would say that through singing and through these type of they should make cabala to learn a little bit of Torah because learning Torah singing is the introduction to and for us who are already in there it's a a way of expressing our ine but for the newcomer who's has all type of msiness and test that he facing He has to use the music this music to learn something every day. Well, have a have a say to learn. It should be a small say to learn a mish day something small but it could change your whole life. >> Tab, do you remember we had a celebration? I think it was by Joey Dian's backyard. There was a guy that showed up to my house a few weeks ago on the basketball court. I was playing ball with a baby in his hand. Do you know that he came to that one that you spoke at? I was singing. He was speaking. It was like a few hundred boys that made half of them made decisions to go to yeshiva just from a few hours of singing and speaking. I don't know if you know this. He showed up with his baby a few weeks ago to my basketball court. And he was telling me it changed his whole life by just being in the environment of rabbis like Rabbi Diamond who embraced everyone and sang with everyone. And you spoke about what songs can mean and what I don't know if the rabbi knows but I'm saying it on record that we've seen the change. We've seen the tremendous impact. He came he's married now. He went to yeshiva since that night he went to learn. Wow. >> We had boys after all. half off the dar some totally off the dar and we had a concert of him singing and name the far the songs and speaking in between and I can't tell you how many boys afterwards came over to us shilas but how getting back into learning where CC they all see for the first time >> you remember clear >> yeah I remember that it was a very big m and they tell me now years later and something came with a baby and that is true and old Mishbuffet. There's no question it's a means to get them back, but like you bringing this rightly sold, but through that you got them to the or the yeshiva or at least have a say they're learning or learn something because at the end of the day learning is the biggest security to say and get close but you need the music to bring them in and later to express the happiness and express the talk like us we love music not to get not to become involved in learning but to express our to learning. Hashem and they needed to draw them in. They get is drawing them in because I think it music is the language of all people. Everyone understands the language of music. Not everyone understands the language of Torah yet. But everyone understands the language of music and you're using the language of music to draw the Torah. And if you do that and what you are doing and I've been doing all along, I think that this sir should bring people closer to Shabas suburbance and singing and enjoying Shabas and through that also to bring them closer to the Tors. >> Amen. >> Amen. Thank you so much. Where?