#42: Behind the Bima - Special Guest: Shulem Lemmer

from boca raton florida rabbis ephraim goldberg philip moskowitz and josh brody are taking you behind the bema the brs rabbi's 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 bema welcome to behind the beam it is wednesday night 9 p.m yeshiva week what yeshiva week we are here as always for behind the bema it is a great pleasure and honor as always to be joined by my co-host rabbi phillip moscow by josh brody dear friends colleagues and co-hosts gentlemen how is your week going phenomenal phenomenal how about yours are we brody love new background new background we are coming to you from an undisclosed location somewhere in the world i can't say where but i will say that wherever i go i see a lot of a lot of new yorkers a lot of people from all over america and i and i somehow try to say oh that's a funny thing wouldn't that be great if they featured that on the show called behind the bema i throw it in everywhere thinking everyone's going to be like oh that'd be so funny i'm getting nothing getting nothing right now much much like right now i want to thank our sponsor for tonight's episode our dear friends from revote dedicated to the core jewish values it's talking olam it provides programs tools resources to educate engage motivate and inspire others to action uh thank you so much for your sponsorship for your generosity everybody can check it out revout.org a-r-e-y-v-u-t dot org thank you so much for your generosity and your sponsorship and for your friendship tonight rabbi moskowitz what about you where are you tonight i am also at an undisclosed location but i have a phenomenal behind the bema story i was at a minhamar of outdoor manhamar the other night and you know i try to be inconspicuous i am away of course away with my family and uh we finished my hammar we're about to get back in the car and this sweet little boy comes over to me and he says excuse me but are you rabbi philip moskowitz so i said yeah i am she goes daddy it's him it's him it's him calls over his father takes out his phone he's got behind the bema podcast sitting on the home screen of his phone i promised him he's such a sweet boy probably 12 13 years old menachem solomon from woodmere there's your shout out thanks for coming over to me the dad is a big listener as well told me that he listens regularly um from his house and i was really great a lot of great phenomena behind the beam of buzz going on after that min hamarav and apparently we've spread to wood in here that's that that's what it became clear to me i think it's time that we produced some behind the beam of swag so that when you run into fans both of you in your exotic locations undisclosed you can give out some of that swag rabbi moscow i don't know where you are but you're having some party tonight because there is strobe light going on behind you do you see that flashing light i don't know if it's just me but there is some part hey taking place and uh wishing you a great time i too took a couple days off with my family i think it's critically critically important to spend time with the family um and to differentiate what we like to say the difference between a family trip and a vacation now don't get me wrong i'm not complaining if you're blessed to have a family you should be eternally grateful to the almighty what a blessing so many others long for and wish for don't take it for granted for one moment if you have the opportunity to get away and to do something with them enormous enormous bracha so i say it not from the perspective of complaining at all just from the perspective of perspective that there is a fundamental difference between a family trip and a vacation it was a fantastic family trip we had we had a really great time uh i would say the highlight for me was when i was with my children somewhere and an older gentleman said to me you know it's a beautiful thing that you take your grandchildren away they grow up so quickly it's really important that you spend time with them so and my children didn't flinch they didn't say what are you talking about that's our youthful athletic young father they said thanks grandpa so god bless the kids i'm sure your wife will preach it so you just shared the story on air with lots and lots of people yeah well the opposite was true that somebody who was taking us on an excursion that we did all safely distanced with masks everything all the precautions observing all the guidelines and being very very careful but with the opposite which she he was convinced that she wasn't my wife and when i said her age which i will not say now he said no way she's at least 10 years younger than that so in her case he refused to believe that she's actually a grandmother in my case they refused to believe that these weren't all my grandchildren so tell me a little bit right there between us but we had a nice time and it was good too it was good to be away now did both of you wherever you are in your locations did you did you have the jewish nod you know what i'm talking about you're out and about and there's some other guy with with the baseball cap and the pants with the sneakers and the polo shirt and you look at each other like jew jew get the nod then you're like maybe and you have this whole secret code that you have in amusement parks and all over the all over the world yeah for sure we actually also have a ranking of baseball caps right like which one is higher on the like you are jewish list is it a yankees hat or a giant's hat right like there are different gradations of how obvious it is letting everybody know that you're that you're jewish so it's uh it's definitely noticeable whenever you walk somewhere and you get that nod from people that's for sure but i'm going to tell you an amazing story and i'll disclose where we were without the permission of the people i was with but you know once the worst comes to worst i'll i'll sleep at one of your houses apparently they're up to tonight so uh we went to um we went to busch gardens which is the other direction from where all the jews migrate on their alia la regal aliali shiva week so we went to busch gardens and i ran into a chabad rabbi there and he's walking around with this little sack and i said did you bring your tillon on this family vacation to busch gardens he said yeah absolutely i bring him everywhere i go he said i just made a bar mitzvah for one of the guards here in busch gardens he never put on filling he never observed his bar mitzvah so i went and made a whole bar mitzvah for him now i you know some people say that we talk about chabad almost every week i'm behind the bhima they wonder whether we're really the boca raton synagogue or you know 770 palmetto park road they wonder like what we really are i'm not going to apologize but i think it's outstanding and extraordinary that that's the level of commitment that the rebbe created the leaders that that he created that this individual was away on vacation or a family trip but wouldn't go anywhere without his opportunity to put filling on people it really really inspired me and i had put filing on already that morning so i was good just in case you're curious but you're recovered i was covered shine as they say but i was really inspired by that it was really amazing that is amazing so we were we were somewhere and um one of the people at the place that we were had a big white yarmulke and i said i've never seen anything like that so i went over to him he's uh he's a he's a jew on the path to to be being religious and he told his employers that he wants to start wearing a kippah and at first they gave him a little bit of trouble and then they came back to him and said as long as it fits your uniform and it has to match the uniform then they're okay with it so he got himself a big white yarmulke he says it wears it on the high holidays now as well and i was phenomenal it was such a moment of jewish pride to be able to meet him to interact with him is great does he wear it right between the two big mickey ears on top of that no he does not understand we can't say we can't say where you are today is also another significant day we're going to have our guest on shortly shulem lemmer super exciting we're still all remembering the amazing beautiful shabbots we had in boca thanks to george and stephanie sachs's generosity of beautiful shabbos with shulam lemmer he'll join us shortly but before he does tonight and tomorrow are two bishop maybe we'll get into that a little bit but today was also another day which is international holocaust remembrance day sometimes it's hard to keep track because we have yomashua of course tish above we incorporate the mourning the grief the loss of all that happened but this is an international day and today represented the 76th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz death camp i know robert brody you've been there many times moscow's and i have been there also uh both uh as as youth ourselves and and leading tours um rabbi brody what does international holocaust remembrance day mean to you particularly in this year as holocaust survivors are are restricted to their homes and for the most part are are quarantined really living in solitude it's really really hard you know some people ask they're confused they say i don't get it you know you have tish above which is a day to memorialize the holocaust you've got yo macho which is another very very significant day and then they hear about this holocaust international holocaust memorial day which a lot of people aren't aware of but then you really got to ask yourself three days you really have 365 days that you could observe a memorial day for the for the holocaust so it's kind of strange you know which one do you really observe which one do you put the emphasis on and it does get harder and harder even today there was someone that contacted us and said this is with one of the local organizations that we work with where there's not a lot of emails that go out about this particular date but there was a holocaust survivor that called up and said i don't understand i didn't see anything being put out so you again you might say well we do you on my show or we do tisha buff but to the survivor you know in our community this is a very significant day as well one of the biggest fears of survivors i found is their their fear that all that they endured and all that they experienced and all that they lost that'll be forgotten that you know they're grateful for the continuity that it created but it's not that they want attention most of them wouldn't share their stories with their even their own family so it's not that they crave attention or sympathy but they want to make sure that all that they went through is not forgotten and i think you know international holocaust remembrance day particularly this year in the middle of this pandemic is significant we have a very beloved member obviously you both know our community knows martin who's a holocaust survivor and just a sweet and amazing and brilliant visionary of our community a special special man and he told me several months ago in this pandemic that he was for the first time since the holocaust having nightmares again about being back in the camps about being in the holocaust and he told me that feeling like a prisoner in his own home the inability to go out and be about um quarantining in the restrictions because of his age and and his vulnerability made him feel like he's a prisoner all over again like he's trapped and he's a prisoner and it was the first time he's had these feelings since he was liberated uh 76 years ago so it is significant there are a lot of survivors you know we don't have a lot of survivors left but a lot of them are reliving some of that tragedy and today's a day that we think about what they went through and we pledge and promise to create a jewish vibrant and a rich jewish continuity that is a tribute to their survival well you know obviously i agree with everything but i'm gonna i'm gonna say something a little bit controversial actually ask it as a question um do you feel that the words never again carry meaning at this point significant meaning at this point or do you feel that they are amongst perhaps the most overused words that someone might employ right in other words saying never again has become somewhat of like a tagline politicians have to say and you have to put out that tweet that says never again but in a way and again maybe this is controversial but i almost feel like it cheapens it a little bit like there was a time where never again really meant an iron class commitment to never again now i feel like in many circles it's become like a political statement check on my box i said never again there i'm pro-israel i'm pro-jewish and i can then go and say and do whatever i want afterwards so i'm curious to you when you guys hear never again from a politician or someone posting on social media does that carry the same meaning for you that it once did i i don't think it not anything could be never again i think that's i think it's more of a hope we hope and we pray that things will be never again but the reality is that things can happen things can change very quickly i think you're asking a great question and it's an important question this year because i think we saw over the last several weeks and months maybe more than in a long time the comparisons to hitler to gobbles to the holocaust and you know there's a whole industry and there's whose law is it i forgot which uh they attributed to that eventually in every debate or conversation someone will make comparison to hitler the nazis in the holocaust so you know what what is just or fair to compare what is not fair um when do we invoke that imagery or those names when is it out of bounds to do so when do we lose a sense of scope you know the arnold schwarzenegger video that went somewhat viral and and arnold schwarzenegger had it was very eloquent and very powerful he described his drunk father and he described you know some of the atrocities that his father was part of in austria took a lot of courage from to put out that video but the comparison of what happened at the capitol to kristallnacht which i'm not getting into the politics it was horrific and historically horrific in the history of this country but it was a crystal knock when you talk about the beatings the murder the destruction the wanton pogrom you know my grandparents their store was destroyed they were beaten that ultimately they fled and it saved their lives they're very lucky that they got out at that time and before they they went they needed to suffer or survive much more but that it is a question and one of the things to think about on on international holocaust remembrance day is holocaust terminology and how we use it and how we use it responsibly we we have um a phenomenal guest this evening and uh it's really a great honor to be able to welcome him i'm gonna welcome in a moment but before i do i just want to play a couple maybe a minute or two of one of his songs um but because i want our audience who are all familiar with him who hasn't heard of lemmer but to hear the richness of his voice as we welcome the sweetness of the shama onto the show but for a moment ladies and gentlemen shulam lammer you're broken down and tired of living life on a merry-go-round and you can't find that fighter but i see it in you so we gonna walk it [Music] out [Music] our eyes oh our eyes like the day our eyes are our eyes unafraid our eyes up and i'll do it a thousand times again [Music] [Applause] [Music] now the truth is i can listen to that the rest of the night but people are not tuning in to behind the bema to hear what they could hear online i sat for a few minutes and there were so many videos i could have shared it really is such a tribute to shulam the the width and breadth of his talent and the different genres that he sings and all you have to do is google his name and you'll find yiddish klezmer um hasidus you'll find hazonus and then you'll find the whole spectrum of secular music i didn't i wasn't familiar with this song i thought it was about being a benalia rising up to be a benalia it turns out that it's not of jewish origin but it just shows uh his background and his and his uh his depth it's really amazing and it's a great pleasure to be able to welcome them this evening thank you for being with us thank you so much for having me here and thanks for such a beautiful welcome and uh i feel bad they actually introduced me you were having such a great conversation before and i feel like i ruined everything you don't ruin anything you make everything better and we were nostalgically remembering the wonderful shabbos we had with you in boca and at brs and how you lifted us up with your davening and with the conversation that we had there so you know for those who don't know and there is no one who doesn't know that uh is uh a belzer hosted from borough park the bel zakir for six and a half years and uh today is a hasid signed by universal music group deca gold producing albums singing all over the world i could have played the video of you singing in in fenway park or singing in for the mets at the beginning of one of one of their games and shalom you've been all over signed by this secular music record out label it's just really an extraordinary extraordinary accomplishment and doing it with humility and at a young age and without compromising who you are and where you're from your background there is so much to talk to you about tonight but first of all thank you so much for being with us it's really really great to see you again here's here's my opening question shalom when we think about um ahazen and i know that you have a brother who's a professional cousin as well you think about ahaz and you picture as a big boy they bring out that big hazard voice from their you know their diaphragm you know the very same place that houses all the challenge and the kegel and uh that's what produces that that tenor how is it that such a such a slight guy like you are able to produce such an extraordinary voice is it years of training do you continue to expand um your reach of your voice how are you able to produce that um so that's a great question i mean a voice is something that really that hashem creates um hold on just one second is i should have some headphones if that makes it any clearer yeah we're getting some feedback but we didn't want to tell you exactly sure about the feedback it might be a little bit big headphones so hold on those are cool those are headphones of someone who has a record exactly somebody's been signed by deca gold universal music group should have actually not so much but hold on all right is this better that is better yeah much better yes so tell us about your voice how do you produce that voice is it something you're expanding you're still training um so yeah i definitely still train but what i was getting to is training the voice doesn't change your voice it makes it more uh it doesn't make it different it makes it more natural and not get hoarse and not be able to project a little bit more um but at the end of the day ultimately it's all from hashem regardless of what kind of body you have and the voice is right there straight from hashem and another point you were saying about khazen i think the most really about is not so much about the voice really how you produce it is from here every singer but especially when it comes to the feelings it comes to the darwining it's really comfortable you could have some from generations back they had small ranges not such beaut such powerful voices but when they dive in but when they you hear their recordings just go straight into your bones then you have other casanova that have massive voices and not so much because it really ultimately is what comes from the heart so how do you focus your heart before you're about to get up for a performance and and you play on so many different platforms and stages right so there's the bhima when you're starting it's called nidra it's you have an amazing avenue everybody go online listen to shulam's aveeno malcano i i listened to that over and over again while writing yamana and joshua's so thank you for that so on the one hand you're on the bhima and then you could be at home behind the beam behind the spot you could be on the bema behind the bema you could be off of home plate singing god bless america you could be on broadway off-broadway you could be in lincoln's center you could be everywhere so how do you focus that heart for that particular song that you're about to sing do you get into a different headspace are you equally nervous in all these venues how do you loosen up your voice and how do you get to the right place for your neshama for your soul for your heart given the different audiences you might be playing for it's a great question and it's some of the things you don't want to think about but at the end of the day i think whatever you say whatever you sing whatever you do has to be with true belief and conviction so whatever you're saying regardless of what uh what type of songs whatever audience you want to make sure that you truly believe and you convey a message not just sing a song that's number one number two i think we can't be too nervous about a performance because it could always go well and it could have something could as much as we prepare there's something that could always happen so again it's all up to hashem you say capital i always say one at least one regardless of whatever it is something even if i go sing for a mitzvah uh because it's all up to him and one one little thing could happen and then boom your voice is not there and you know it's it's it's more like that i mean it's always like that and every job and every uh thing that you do but in the voice it's so little out of your so much out of your control so little that you can control that it's really up to hashem that's an amazing point and i just want to come back to it for one moment because i want our audience and i'm listening to that point which is that the great shulam lemmer this enormous superstar still says the character hilum to say hashem you've lent me this voice but it's on loan it's not permanent and therefore i turn to you before i got and whether as you just said walking into a hospital room to sing for one person or walking onto a stage to sing for thousands or tens of thousands equally you'll turn to god and you'll ask please help me succeed on my way out yeah definitely and there's actually a very uh there's there's this um youtube series by peter sentinel if you've seen it about the cassette community a bunch of different series different videos and one of the things he came out was now during covert everyone there's all this anxiety and ev everyone is walking around and feeling this tense uh anxiety but you hear you come into bar park or lakewood or wherever it is like really you would think with the less technology or less um resources to knowledge or something or whatever it is there's a certain sense of the calmness which means and he explained why because everyone at the end of the day like gives it up to a higher power it's not and so much in our control at the end of the day hashem is the one that does everything so it takes away that that pressure and that guilt or that anything that you have it's all up to hashem at the end of the day so do you really not get nervous i can't say that i do get nervous but uh it gets less and less over time what gives you the strength when you are able to continue to credit god with your success and with your talent and the recognition that you and we all rely on him going forward a lot of people who get signed by a record label or who get the acclaim and the prominence that you have lose their way they lose their humility and they lose their way their ego takes over what keeps your ego in check is it family is it a rabbit is it total learning that you're doing are there particular exercises that consciously you're doing in order to make sure that the bigger the stage and the bigger your profile gets that the more humble that you stay and the more you remember there's hashem what what are the critical important things for you i think it's all the above i'm not sure i do have a structure they do have my learning i do have my even nothing really changed in myself like my friends would come over and say i haven't seen you in so long you're now this uh i don't know big superstar i'm like i don't know i don't know what you're talking about i haven't i didn't change so what another thousand ten thousand hundred thousand people know about me it doesn't change anything about me it changed something about them so you know but but at the end of the day i think it goes back to the humility of like you know it's all up to hashem it's it's it's what's there to of course i'm proud of the things i do and you work hard for it and you're proud and there's a certain satisfaction when you accomplish things and um but at the end of the day uh i think it's all up to hashem and also another thing what really keeps you going is with the impact it makes it's not the uh the impact it makes on you the impact it makes on on myself is the what impact it makes on others so when you keep on hearing the feedback from people when uh you know it's amazing what this song has done for me i went through this time and it's it's it it just changed my mood and and the stories go on and on what it what it's done you know people were when they were this close to doing something that they would regret or not even being able to regret and turning on that you know youtube literally i once got an email saying that someone decided to commit suicide and just to get into the mood they turned on you know youtube to get into some songs and one of my songs came up and like wow you i just changed the entire perspective and just you know what it's worth living or whatever that did and there's something more powerful than that it's not about yourself and and it's also yeah i don't know i'm not sure i don't know if i have the exact answer i think it's just very obvious i don't i think it's a it's a and very not smart thing to be uh like to get to yourself to be egoistic just to follow up on robby gobert's question maybe dig a little deeper so you know you said you haven't changed you know even though a hundred thousand people more listen to it you haven't changed as a person but there's probably a little bit of inevitability to the fact that you're now in venues you probably weren't in previously you're dealing with the secular world in a way that not everyone um for many communities they're dealing with differently and that must have challenges along the way i mean for religious from jew to be signed by a major record and you're now going to events and venues and and interacting with people are there any challenges with that are people mostly respectful of your guidelines and your restrictions have you found yourself in any challenging situations where you've had to ask either a rob or a post sake whether it's the type of venue you're comfortable either singing at or attending or being associated with um what are some of those challenges maybe just give a little insight into what it's like to to have some stardom as a firm jew uh yeah the answer is of course there's challenges and it's not that once in a while i would have to ask around i think every scenario that comes up i ask around and not only about the specific if it makes if it's okay but also you know as they say surpassed if it's okay for me to do certain things and i don't know if i can discuss specifics because the certain things are like confidential but i've probably said more said no to more things than i that i actually did i had opportunities that people would like even myself i got very excited and at the end of the day i didn't do it but i don't even regret to not doing it it's just it's who i am but going into this thing i said look i this is way yet um like i i don't know if i could do this so the only way i was able to go about this is having a rub with specific grab on mo so to make sure everything every opportunity that comes i can make sure that uh i can do it and when i when i don't it's fine i don't i don't regret it i don't think because it's not like i lost something i only went into this with uh with this understanding that i'm not gonna be able to do everything it's not like okay now i'm gonna be up with everything and then oh you're holding me back so that's yeah whatever you get from it is you're gaining and of course you're not being able to do everything but it is what it is shulam you really are amazing and what's obvious to you is not obvious to so many others who dream or wish they were in your position or frankly others who've been in your position and who've lost their way and without judgment of them but you know unfortunately people who were a source of great inspiration and and were considered role models who that has become a challenging thing but let's i'm getting a lot of text and a lot of uh a lot of pushback from our listeners who want us to go back to the beginning shalom lambert belzer hasset growing up in borough park belzer heider who becomes signed by a secular record label how does that happen at what age did you realize you had a special talent we have a listener and a good friend who saw we promoted that you'd be on tonight who plays uh horns trumpet saxophone for prominent jewish bands and sent me a video earlier today when you were just in the background you were part of sheer choir before you recognized before you were noticed before you were um you know big stuff so at what point at what age did you knew that god gave you a special talent that this voice was a great instrument in itself that you had a responsibility to use and what age did you know it how did you go from the belzerheider to being this uh this music superstar not just jewish but a music superstar um how did you make that transition and i'll throw in because i'm guilty always packing a lot of questions into one but i'll throw in also you know if you if you google you you look on youtube you've got videos ranging from as i said classic yiddish songs you've got hazanas and you've got billy joel piano man and sound of silence and rise up and uh from les mis and from all kinds of other how did you get exposed to that were you listening to those different forms of music as a child was that encouraged discouraged was there pushback the fact that you're singing that today is their pushback so i know i just threw a lot at you but let's let's take a step back and start with what's the story how'd you go from being a young belzer hussein to to being launched on the music stage well i think i'm still a young bellezza classic maybe not as young but uh uh i think it's it's this it's not one switch that happens uh it's it's slowly you keep just like in in every aspect in your life you keep on growing you grow and you learn more and you grow and you learn um about singing i so i grew up with my brother yankee he was a cousin so he learned he studied a lot of music he started voice he studied kazanas as i was in uh i guess she was kind of like 13 14 young teenager so it obviously piqued my interest i enjoyed it i i learned a lot then uh but when i went to shiva you know forgot oh wait i actually sang on an album when i was a kid so a teenager that same time i still had a child's voice but i sang on a few albums as a guest soloist so that's that kind of gave me the confidence uh that i knew how to sing but i didn't make do anything about it you know i just uh i was a shy kid still shy it was very shy then didn't even mention to my friends that i sang until the album came out wait it's you yeah um but i don't one thing led to another once i when i was in israel already um was in yeshiva for a while then i started singing in choirs during you know the breaks and i went to the studio to sing this choir that quite just backup vocals on albums uh then when i got married i joined the cheer choir as you mentioned slowly became the soloist i guess people say oh wait you're yankees brothers could you want to do some kazana studio and do something yeah this piece that piece then i came up with my own look i like this piece this is what i listen to maybe we do this and there we went we recorded you know my show issue song and feedback was amazing we recorded avina volcano which i loved always so one thing led to another it's it's it's you could always plan but at the same time people plan for you meaning to say they decide what they want to hear from you so based on feedback miss what people like people want one thing leads to another it leads to another and like i said it evolves you evolve around your successes and what people like so your older brothers is ahazan but i know that you had a sister allah shalom also who who encouraged you and tragic correct is that is that correct that is true yeah i actually it's it's i recently had this epiphany because you know growing up it's all a blur it's all one like life and all one happy story but i do i do remember that she encouraged me actually the first time i sang as i mentioned i was shy but the first time i sang in public was by my brother's wedding my oldest brother my sister leia shalom she's one under him and she i don't know why but we always like she enjoyed music a lot uh made me sing she always sung to uh i'm not i'm exactly how but she said you're gonna sing at the wedding and she made me learn a yiddish song with all the lyrics i memorized all the lyrics i was not even bar mitzvah yet and i remember singing then and i felt like a million bucks like i wasn't even shy when i see the videos now me jumping and dancing in front of so many people that's not me then um but that's kind of when i knew that's this is i think what i want to do this is what i said i feel comfortable i feel feel home and the same feeling now sometimes when you go out like you mentioned before the stadium you're shy you're nervous but once you're there and you start singing all the nerves go away it's all the nerves is always before once you're there you're in a moment and everything goes away so shalom first of all on behalf of all the young rockers out there that still think that one day we could maybe one day become famous i appreciate all the inspiration i hope one day yeah come true um first of all we're muscle my uncle my uncle his brother it's nathan and cyril oh yeah a small world small world and for people that don't know cyril is my father's first cousin there you go she's a lemme she's a lever yeah okay that's number one number two is that when i when i first saw that video that rabbi goldberg played at the beginning of the show i showed it to a number of people and i said do me a favor close your eyes don't look at the video but i want you to listen and play the minute like just for a minute i said now what i want you to do is start it again because you got that nice little piano intro so you're right you know about 15 seconds before you get to see you know who's actually seeing you and they're hearing the piano intro they heard they red they already heard the lyrics being song and then all of a sudden they see you and they're you got to see the reaction of the people when they see who's like this is not what i expected it's amazing they're so pleasantly surprised that's that's number two number three i actually have a question is what kind of what kind of music what genre of music do you do you enjoy listening to what inspires you all right so first of all back to that that was actually part of the marketing campaign when universal pitched it to different countries or different labels when you know the distribution the way it works that's exactly what they had in mind they did a video that started playing the music but only showed my face like 30 seconds in and then this is you know always when they repeat it like this is the reaction that they would get i don't think it's necessarily because uh it's interesting what like why do you think that is why i'll ask you that question why do you think people have such a uh such a shock i guess it's funny because you when you're listening to that particular song it does sound like let's say call it a you know a top 40 pop pit right some other singers although i can't probably name some of the more modern ones that say that my kids might be listening to some of the other people i showed it to you might be listening to but there is there's an image of a particular singer that they think they're listening to or it's close to that so if it's not him it might be someone probably that looks like him and then all of a sudden like one second not only is he jewish but he looks really really jewish he's one of us he's our guy yeah that's interesting i guess um yeah but at the end of the day we can't judge people from the outside and we can't judge it it just shows what what uh uh what kind of uh pre-pre um what's it called preconceived exactly we have on other people and this just proves us that you know hey it's not always it's not always that it's not always so so uh it's it's a lesson for everyone i think so people have preconceived notions of of they hear that voice they don't expect to see a guy with with longitudes behind it they're a skinny or a skinny person or a skinny right i have preconceived notions you hear you expect to see a nice boy so but another preconceived notion people have myself included is that a young bell's accosted probably didn't grow up listening to pavarotti michael jackson billy joellet and john stevie wonder andrea bacheli josh grover and so many others so how did you get exposed to listening to them um did you find them you know on itunes who exposed you to it did you get in trouble that's clearly not part of the culture of where you grew up frank it's not a sign of our culture and our children you know we're always having conversations my wife is amazingly musical she plays piano you could play her song she'll play it right back to you she can't read notes but she could play back she plays the drums she's very very musical wow and she loves jewish music but she finds sometimes non-jewish music could be more sophisticated or rich and yet she wavers between a commitment to you know we should be listening to jewish music based on jewish themes and maybe not being exposed to that and you know do you have that tension within you and what you're exposing yourself to and through your singing and what you're producing what you're exposing others to a hundred percent that's a great question and something that we should that you know needs to be addressed i made very clear so i grew up i did not listen to any secular music until i was probably 18 19 or later even of course the hazardous a little bit of pavarotti opera that's that i did listen to a little younger because i loved you know hassanis and voice anything i was fascinated by the voice and the operas but generally i i had no clue no zero zero uh you know my mother would sing some fiddler songs tell us so just but that's all that's a few of the songs that i knew and that's it but as you as i you know was in the music industry and recording already and singing certain things you get introduced just like any other um just like any other career or um you know field that you're in you start exploring and knowing and getting to know people and and this is what you learn from and this is what you grow from and you take you know knowledge and uh from any from wherever you can um however is but you did you did raise a very good point when i did when i recorded the album the perfect dream from universal i made sure that it wasn't re it wasn't sold in any of the bar park stores williamsburg and any of the high-emission stores because who am i to say you know this is okay for your kids to listen to i don't want to be that judge it's something you should be i don't want to push it at anyone i didn't do any interviews and any haimish publications about it because at the end of the day it's it is non-jewish music and for people that don't want to listen to non-jewish music they should continue to i don't want to encourage to you know to do that however at the same time there's a lot more people than just you know our from orthodox community which with what i do that i can sing has the opportunity and i've seen it that can bring so many people together and take away a lot of the pre pre-conceived notions about about us not only about you know for some people i'm a belgian class of some people for some people especially when you go to boston or go even in in europe you're you're a jewish person and i music is so powerful and it's so universal pun intended so that it people will be like hey you know what it makes us it brings us together and says you know what it changes a lot of you and you can see the comments on youtube you can see the comments on facebook people that you know and some of the private messages you can't like to say wow i would never think that the uh you know this would be possible it makes it it's that it's that bridge that connects the two and say you know what this is this is how i can relate to um this is what i can relate to and especially on the on the non-affiliated jewish community which is it's so powerful and it's so huge and you can see at the at the shows i do and places where you know it's hard to find kosher food or a minion and somehow someway one of the videos get there and the entire community decides let's do a show and then besides the singing more of it is interesting of the hasidic life and the jewish life you remind me of my grandfather you speak yiddish i know through you and it brings that whole life and that whole yiddish guy back to normal so certain doors have certain keys the key doesn't work for every door and it's not for everyone to go into every door so it's it's a fine line and it's i try to do the best i can to walk between the drops and try to i guess please everyone and this is you know it's a continuous uh you know walk it's a it's a you're walking on eggshells kind of but also you want to do as much as you can so yeah so so you've referenced the the universe of the label that you were assigned to tell us what they like right you are and you're as you said about your cousin you're singing in a place like allentown pennsylvania for the um tobin and all of a sudden you know you come to a record label excited when you're nervous like what walk people most people have not had experience you've had so walk behind the beam of what that experience is like um that's that's a great question and it's a lot it's not just a one-time thing and it's a little it's this and it doesn't mean to say uh i know where do i start i don't know oh okay so how did it happen one of the uh executive the president of one of the sub labels in universal which is the classical label his name is grant parker uh a jewish person obviously not with the name but the that listened to one of my videos actually on youtube and was fascinated he was not even at universal then and he started following the songs my career where i was going at the time he was and when he was um uh got the position at universal music he's like look i know this guy i've been following him for the last two years hasidic he's an incredible voice what do you think we take a chance and do something with it and you know one thing like led to another it's it's took months and months and you know negotiations back and forth but ultimately we were able to get that album the funds and the songs and incredible songwriters i mean it's it's definitely different working with the big leagues as they say the whole entire process with the songwriting and the recording it's a whole different ballgame but at the end of the day it's still it's not nothing changes in you you have an opportunity to go sing and record on the highest level that you that you can and you bring out a beautiful product and you hope reaches so many people's hearts so what's your favorite song what's your favorite song to sing to jewish audiences and what's your favorite song to sing to non-jewish audiences that's a good question uh it is hard to say favorite song because it depends on the moment i always say a song or singing is an expression of emotion right like people would ask what's your favorite song depends when sometimes you're sad you want to have a sad song because sometimes you're happy and you want to express that happiness uh so the same thing with the crowd it depends the best the best song is what's fitting that crowd at that moment at the time so if it's something hey outside see the sudo you want to sing something for the nishama if it's some you know wedding you want to see something happy um but uh how about let me change it what was the favorite venue you've ever sang it i won it was it fenway park was it fenway park is definitely definitely right there on the top of the list fenway park uh lincoln center is always you know it's always very uh uh the other i once had a private wedding on a mountaintop on chili in chile in santiago chile overlooking the entire i think that was that was very you would you were able to see the gliders and planes at the same level as your eyes like so that was very cool um thinking of venues i did some beautiful old schools in europe in poland where you know the old schools you see that it was there for a few hundred years and it's the walls are full of history and you have there you know after the holocaust which is you know holocaust memorial day as you started go back and and bring that back ignite that spark of yiddish kite bring whatever people is left whatever jewish people are sometimes not even jewish people but older people that remember things before the holocaust and they see people walking on the streets with paius i think that actually was also a very beautiful moment i did that quite a few times in poland and that was very powerful any of any of your children inherit your talent i don't push anything on anyone uh well my oldest is only six so we'll wait and see see what happens now you mentioned you and rabbi brodie are related but in my research i saw that you're also related to a very famous lawyer alan dershowitz is a customer that's correct that is correct has he uh encouraged your performance is he representing you in your contracts is offering legal advice not so much legal advice but he showed his support he came to two of my shows actually uh maybe even more and yeah he he's actually a lot into his honest and opera as well so he came to the show we spoke before backstage we spoke for a while and he has yeah he's he's a big fan and tries to support as much as he can so it was it's great it's always great shulam you've been amazing being with us tonight we really appreciate it i know you're coming off of yeshiva week vacation too and really appreciate that you're sneaking us in it is tube tonight is there a tube song that comes to mind that you can uh bust out a couple bars for us of something tu bishvat related tu bishvat connected to bishfat themed i'm trying to buy you time by saying the words tubersvad as much as possible elon with a tree exactly i mean that's what i was going to say the only really song that's known that's connected to the tu shiva is elon there's a few versions a few renditions like composition songs for elon um i'm thinking which one your community the boca community or your listeners for that matter in general probably know that that one right exactly exactly see it you see that's what i said it's all about the community if it would be a community the audience i'm saying would be um a different one different elon so sometimes the songs are different sometimes the lyrics are different so it's hard to say what's the so the best one is always what connects the crowd the most so could could you give us a couple of uh seconds of elon on this tube sure of course and if you know the song join in as well [Applause] oh you can sing along with me now this time right now my windows can't handle it oh okay oh oh wait no there's this middle part first oh it's the middle part right right what are the words stick with the rabbit at rabbi exactly exactly hey [Applause] quality you what a privilege wow thank you so much thank you for being with us thank you for singing for us thank you for your friendship for your story hashem bless you you should continue to have this incredible talent use it to make a kittish hashem to sanctify hashem's name continue to be the humble modest spokesperson of the jewish people and we really really appreciate you spending time with us come back to boca thank you thank you so much thank you for having me continue doing all of you the amazing work you do and like i said looking forward to me at hashem to be back in boca and seeing everyone in person as a session absolutely thank you thank you thank you wow first of all i knew there was a higher part but his middle part is high for me that's why i said it's the high part that was unbelievable oh what a special special what a specialness angelic is the word that comes to mind when i think of his voice it's just angelic it's so pure and sweet and it flows so beautifully yes it is and you know again i don't want to everyone just listen so we don't need to summarize but it just strikes me his humility and his modesty to have that gift to have that talent and to be able to say that nothing changed in him it just changed for others and rabbi moscow's you worked with him when you planned the weekend he spent in boca and i worked with him chasing him to be on behind the bema and you know offline he's the same humble total mensch total mention and part of what i loved about our conversation was the struggle you know i think you and i were both trying to get to that but i hope people appreciate that at every stage you are in whatever industry you are there's a struggle right being a from jew in a world that that's sometimes antithetical to our values is a struggle and it's a tug and pull and you have to have a rub and you have to ask your shials and sometimes you get it right and sometimes you miss the mark a little bit and and i i loved hearing him being so honest and candid about that i did too and i want to come full circle to what he started with and the end and maybe i'll get in trouble for this but um you know i don't have a problem listening to him sing those non-jewish songs for the following reason assuming that the lyrics are are clean and appropriate and consistent with who we are and what we believe because it's the way he began he said so much of this comes from the heart and the hashem of the one singing it so you can have a person who is morally corrupt and bankrupt and depraved singing the most beautiful a.b rottenberg song or dweck a song or from talem david mela song and you could have a person with a sweet and beautiful nishama singing words that there's nothing wrong with so i think so much of it are not are not the words or who composed the music but it's about the person who's transmitting it communicating it and i think if you watch any of those videos of shulam singing those songs including what we played a few a few clips of of rise up it moves you it stirs you into shama to rise up and what bigger message that's appropriate for us than rising up and being a benalia so i think it's as much about who's singing it as it is you know what they're singing assuming that what they're singing is is appropriate rabbi brody you're a big music buff what are your thoughts on that yeah um i think i i think that there's there's a lot of unfortunately a little a lot there's a little bit of hypocrisy right now in the jewish music world where a lot of people are saying well we're listening to jewish music but you listen to the actual music it's not so jewish anymore it's very been like well inspired by or affected by the pop world that exists around us the music is is one thing words are another thing but we shouldn't sometimes fool ourselves into thinking that we're listening to what we'll call jewish music when the actual music isn't as jewish as as we would like to believe it sometimes is that's a great point sometimes that's interesting you said that we had i never fully appreciate that until a few weeks ago when um simcaliner was in our community and uh he had with him one of his uh like music arranger man i don't know what that's called but you know who i'm talking about and he shoot right he played for me the musical instrument you know the chords from a non-jewish song and then took a very prominent jewish singer took out the word and just played those chords exactly the same chords and i never had an appreciation for that until he showed me but there is a lot of that obviously uh that's going on yeah there's a lot more of that that goes on than we appreciate i someone sent me something recently about that with zemiros one of the kiasma shabbas i think it's like some some ukrainian or hungarian yeah whatever song and and you know misha misha misha necklace bella cotton uh hey uh it's the same so there's a lot that has that has seeped in as you say rabbi brody but you know i think it's it's that's why it's even more it's about uh not only what's being sung but who's singing it and whether they are a klee whether they're a vessel that's transmitting it in somewhat of a of a holy and a pure way so he's really just an outstanding person it was a great privilege to have them on we have we have a second uh superstar that we had an opportunity to spend a few moments with earlier today rabbi mosquito and i spent just a few moments with this other rising superstar and we're very glad to be able to welcome him to behind the beam as well we now have the great pleasure the honor to welcome for the first time maybe the only time the one the great the only the legend moishe francesa much thanks for being with us uh rabbis it's a pleasure nice to see uh some talent in the business you know uh been doing this a long time so it's nice to be in another program mush i tell you i listened to you my whole life growing up and i've always wanted to say the words long time listener first time caller so it's really a great honor to have you with us mike tell us about yeshiva week what does moist francesca do for yeshiva week i mean i'm gonna work you know i know people take off and go all kinds of places but you know some people have to work so i mean for wanting to stay in florida it's just crazy right now i mean you guys know better than i do but there's a civil war you know new yorkers come down and you know they pack the restaurants pack the supermarkets and i know there's a whole thing there uh people want to go home the orcas want to stay and i mean i don't know what's going on uh i'll tell you this i got a friend down there who he calls me and he says much uh what jewish holidays this week because the boardwalk's packed the 41st street's packed so what jewish holidays so no no it's not actually jewish holiday but me no i i don't need florida i don't need you know cancun stay home you know do my job understood my actually is a jewish holiday it's great to have you on it's actually tu b'shvat of course and i wanted to know your opinion on where tu b'shvat ranks on the jewish calendar i mean here's the thing there's a lot of people that nowadays make tuba shot until the big thing you know the tuba shot seda you see these platters of all the fruit i mean i mean you know as well as i do we were growing up tuba shot was a holiday that you know you went to school you got a little boxer carob whatever you went home and that was that you know maybe you sang old song or two nowadays the seda and this and that has become a whole thing and you know as far as i'm concerned it's certainly no pesach it's no hanukkah it's one of the minor holidays you get a nice day off from topman but it's certainly not a hall of fame holiday and uh certainly not something that you know you know in terms of something that we talk about we tell kids about yeah it's nice it's a good day it's a fun day but let's let's calm down with all the you know festivities understood much thanks for being with us tonight we look forward to continuing to hear your take on everything happening in the jewish world and beyond have a great day and thanks so much listen you know where you can find me uh i'm on the twitter uh i don't really have another source of programming right now but we'll work on a couple things stay tuned because uh got some big stuff happening hopefully next week we might do uh an annual contest but uh you know thanks for having me on looking forward looking forward sponsored by the lakewood cola will they learn for pay only it's not maybe one day thanks maish take care maisha francesa for those who don't know moist frances is the jewish version of mike frances i grew up in the new york area mike and the mad dog 66 wfan they take on all things sports or with brody sports the things that people play with a ball and a score there are teams they root and cheer that's what sport's about so anyway so uh uh so much mike francesa was a a great sports caster and there's a new twitter personality we can't reveal the identity of who it is francesa who is the twin brother the cousin of the great mike and his take on all things jewish so it was great to have him on as a special guest two superstars on behind the bema in one night who would have guessed it we are running out of time gentlemen once again i want to thank revout reboot.org check it out for all their amazing programming tools resources educate engage motivate inspire others to action closing thoughts on this wednesday evening of yeshiva week shulem lemmer mush francesa just gets better and better gentlemen closing thoughts so my closing thought comes from my email box where without exaggeration i get many many calls emails and texts a day from people around the country looking to move to south florida not just boca it's all around south florida the uh the market is crazy and people are moving from all over they're moving from the tri-state area they're moving from california a lot of calls from california recently and everyone wants a piece of the action there's something very special going on in south florida i don't know what it is and i don't know how it's going to play out but i think a lot of people are moving down and uh you know it's interesting as i call these people back you get to learn about what the attraction is and there have been a few who said that our main exposure to south florida is through behind the bema so i guess we are becoming guilt you know uh guilty of our own success but uh thank god the major change is taking place in south florida well we we welcome them and at the risk of getting uh criticism i want to thank the governor of new york and the governor of california who are the biggest uh agents real estate agents of helping people move down here and i don't mean to minimize those two states are going through a very difficult time our hearts and our thoughts go out to them and uh you know some of its self-imposed most of it not and we wish everyone well and success there and if they come to florida whether in boca or south florida in general it'd be our great privilege to host you and to welcome you and to have you integrate and join our community and hopefully it's magic without diluting what we stand for in our brand but really just joining into it and and broadening it and making it even bigger and more successful so that is something exciting that's going on what about you rabbi brody yes i'll just say that you know to pick up where rabbi moscow has left off we started doing these tours around the community but we can't give someone a tour in our car because everyone's gonna be socially distanced so we have cars following each other i put my phone on speakerphone they have their phone on speakerphone and we're pointing out all different parts of our jewish community taking them from the east side to the west side to the brs west the campus let them see everything that's available all the different schools it's like it's like a miami tour but except you get to see the jewish community of boca raton wow that's great you have to kick that up a notch and and broadcast on the radio have them go to a certain station on the radio and broadcast all the cars right through their radio no what i really want to do is i want to get one of those double decker buses and we're going to do a once a week i love it go big to home run by brody as always rabbi brody you got a lot of bracelets on there so either you just gave birth to a lot of new children or you've been visiting some special places in this location not sure what's going on over there yeah i gotcha well rabbi mosque what's up by brody wherever you are your undisclosed locations i want to wish you a safe journey back home looking forward to being back together again thank you all of our listeners thank you to arie wood our sponsor huge thank you to shulam lemmer the talented the humble the one and only shulim lemmer maish francesa thank you all for being part of us tonight until next time stay happy stay healthy stay holy see you next week on behind the beam