The Jewish Story: Interlude – Yom Haatzmaut Interview 2020

[Music] all right so hello everyone thank you so much for everybody's here for joining so even though the program tonight we're talking about notes Rep Mike foyer I do want to start by acknowledging that it's youma Zika realm we just heard the siren here just very half an hour ago Israel Memorial Day and I would like to first acknowledge all the students and alumni of ours who served in the IDF and now there's one I'm here who's going into the IDF so I want to thank you for the service yeah and and and give him a buffer for China's going in and for those who served and really thank you from the bottom of my heart it's an incredible incredible minute so that you participated in and I really thank you and I want to dedicate the learning that we're doing tonight to those who gave their lives to serve and protect I'm your soil and Eric Israel we will have you in mind tonight and we wouldn't be here without your sacrifice so we'll definitely have those holy souls in mind I'm like - yeah I'd like to welcome my dear friend and my Jewish history Rebbe Mike foyer yeah thank you so much for Mike it's great to see you I haven't seen you in too long just give a little bit of background about you Mike Feuer holds an MA from Brandeis University and got his rabbinic ordination and eight Madras tsunami ACOs he currently lives in Mali dumain with his wife and five children amazing all of them guys even after a month and a half together the house music Penn State the earphones his life mission is breaking down walls to build up consciousness whereas mike has pioneered a new approach to Jewish history first podcast the Jewish story I'm a huge fan of a Jewish story I love it I listen to it I saw that there was a a lead-up episode for a 1967 that just Ralph and because I'm not commuting I don't get to listen to it as like right as soon as it comes out but I'm very excited that's definitely so I everyone should check out the Jewish story as soon as we finish if you have not checked it out he's also the co-author with biblical fiction series called the age of prophecy which is also fantastic and he's a faculty member of the partyís Institute of Jewish Studies we give a special shout out to par days for allowing ruff Mike to be here with me tonight for co-sponsoring it like you want to give a little shout out to them as well for helping us out tonight yeah for folks who don't know what partes is we are an open inclusive and intellectually challenging Jewish learning community here in Jerusalem with programs worldwide especially opening up a whole bunch of stuff in North America and I'm excited to say that despite the current very challenging situation partes has been going strong we've kept our year program not just afloat really thriving and in fact we're looking in the next month to end on a strong note with a whole summer program coming up and if folks are thinking about learning opportunities for the coming year I highly encourage you to send me an email at Rob Mike Feuer at gmail.com we're going to have very significant financial incentives available for people who want to take next year to do some real tour learning here in Jerusalem a lot of great opportunities fellowships focused learning hard time full time it's really a place that our mission is to open the doors that maybe Josh as white as possible so that all of our material can really get a taste of their heritage and I have to say that it's a mission I'm quite dedicated to so thanks parties for letting me be here thank you reviewing time my dear friend for inviting me and I'm excited to have a good conversation amazingamazing I'm so excited and as far as I'm going to talk to you about history and he'll not smoke and the significance of this I'm super excited so I want to start off with the discussion tonight about your month's mode with a famous quote I'm sure you've heard this quote before maybe some others in the audience have heard it as well the Egyptian the Babylonian and the Persian Rose filled the planet with sound and splendor and then faded to dream stuff and passed away the Greek and the Roman followed and made a vast noise and they are gone all things are mortal but the Jew all other forces past but he remains what is the secret of his immortality this is a famous quote from Mark Twain from back in 1899 and here's this what this quote says to me Jews don't follow the rules especially the rules of history just funny right because we are these huge tomes of law but we don't follow the rules of history and all the more so we talk about the return of the Jewish people to Israel and the establishment of the State of Israel it is unprecedented historically unprecedented to the extent that it almost begs to be called miraculous it's almost hard to describe without using some sort of some sort of language like a miracle so I've mic here's my question to kick us off tonight how do you look at the historical significance of the creation of the State of Israel both through the lens of the Jewish story as well as the human story it's a really great question first I would say that you know they old adage that the victors write the history right one of the ways you can understand the difference in the Jewish journey through time and that of other peoples is that it's actually not true for us now even if people who've been telling our own story longer than obviou any other people who is still alive in the planet and that story has been told from the perspective of those who have nominally lost right with we lost we lost to the Greeks we lost to the Romans well I didn't bring the list even though they're all gone and we're still here at the time in which the event we're taking place it often seemed that we had lost so I would say that part of the way I understand what's happening is that we have a position of telling a story which is larger than the events at hand what I mean you think you know what this is about but then if it's not over yet you don't actually know you like you read the Bible you think that the project of Jewish kingship was a failure right there was a period in our history we had Kings didn't work out you know some ups and downs but basically but then all of a sudden in the year 1948 in the secular calendar it merges a kingdom which is stronger and at this point larger than any Kingdom since the time of Solomon so what's the story of kingship over and that kind of answer is the other part of your question which is that I see the significance of the State of Israel on the human story level as simply an indication is that you don't know the stories about until it's over and don't ever be certain that it's over because the Jews have a staying power which is nothing short of astonishing on the more rabbinic side of the divide I would say that it's very important to remember that we're people that embodies a promise we embody a promise between not just God and I'm Israel but between creator and creation there will always be a place in the world in which heaven and earth meet so to speak and the responsibility of I'm Israel is to cultivate that place within ourselves within sort of a history and within the present sociology of the world in which we live in it has a physical manifestation in your shall I am in the temple it has I would say cultural and religious manifestations but but that's the promise God says you do that task and and you won't just survive but you will thrive I say that's my my brief answer to what is it a Titanic question last but certainly not least I would say it's also a testimony of the fact that we're you know less as Mark Twain noted we have lived outside of the model of history for quite some time in terms of the way history is generally understood as kings and their wars and and you know sort of a socio economics etc and the Jews have lived outside of that realm of people for almost the last two thousand years the last one hundred and hundred twenty we've begun to step back into that but our power is not so much in history as it is in memory we shape our future by telling our past in a way which can create a people in the present that's equipped to navigate between what's happening now and where we want to get and that's one of the great themes of the work I'm trying to do with the Jewish story which is telling the story of the past in a way in which creates the people in the present that has the power really to take command of our future and I see the project that we have the sort of great merit to be sitting in the midst of right now as one of the greatest expressions of that ability to use memory as opposed to history as a tool to navigate time I worked out a couple of questions here but the first one that pops out to me from what you shared what is the story about what was the hava Mena what do we think the story was about and then what did we think it was about through the Middle Ages and how did that unfold as far as understanding what the story is about and what do you think the story is about it's a redemptive story it's a redemptive story and it's important to remember as well cook teaches us there's always at least three essential scales on which that story takes place there's the personal we believe very deeply in the value of the individual human being or at the human being is a world and therefore has their own redemptive story one of the things I do that you didn't mention is spiritual counseling and I find in my practice that helping people tell a redemptive story is one of the most liberating and empowering acts that I can do so redemptive story on that flames also redemptive story on the national historical plane and in the simple meaning of redemption people that were scattered from our land we're now back and we're rebuilding economy and politics and and military with all the very deep challenges that those things can spring right don't forget that in many ways exile was a luxury we didn't struggle with these both logistical and moral issues but it's I'm a even more profound scale this is a redemptive story for all creation we have a mission we're a mission oriented people our mission like I said is to connect heaven and earth and to help to actualize that human potential which is the divine image in humanity so when you're singing worry we're telling a redemptive story our stories when a Redemption I get the sense that we're talking about something more than let's say four Africans in America and the slavery that they endured that they would utilize our story and to say okay here's a story of a people who have rise risen up from the ashes come out of slavery and you know coming to greatness right that's that would that be a small part of the story but it's a much broader kind of story about the redemption of the entire world in other words we are our story is not just our story our story is and not just to be utilized for say by another groups to show how one Rises out of oppression but that it's a story that everyone finds their place in he is a story and everyone finds their place in which is why not just the sort of african-americans in the time of slavery but you know here in Israel master my wife was at a second Seder where Irit rien refugees who literally walked out of Egypt to Israel right we're celebrating and she tells this incredible story that one of the young men that was there when they brought out the matzah didn't know what it was but he said look that's the bread of freedom and everyone looked at him said how do you know that it turns out that this young man had actually crossed the border from Eritrea into Israel during colloid essa' I don't know ten years before and the soldiers the Israeli soldiers they found it was close the Egyptians that were shooting them in the legs right gave him food and shelter but they were in a military base during essa' so only bread that they gave him what are they giving beginning chocolate spread in matzah and they said here's the bread of freedom we picture like these like secular Israeli soldiers like here you go here's the better feeling so on that level for sure it's a very powerful and we're a people that um has been vulnerable to what's called a cultural appropriation on a scale which give us like inconceivable right if the last 2,000 years nevertheless it's also a very down-to-earth social project and I think it's important to remember that is that the world needs a center and it's not going to be the type of center that Rome attempted to build or frankly that America attempts to build which is a center from which you rule it's gonna be an anchor point around which the world can find its right sort of revolution so to speak and that's what I mean when I say that dumb our task is to always maintain to cultivate that place where heaven and earth meet because you know look at the world right now we're in this crazy crisis of oh you know the Crone of the kovat crisis and one of the most challenging and sort of enlivening elements of it is asking the question of look how do i reorganize my life what's essential right everybody out there is like Oh am i part of an essential industry can I go I can leave my house to do essential needs there's never been a more important question that's been posed to humanity and what is actually essential and our task in human history is to build a society around that which is essential not in the be sort of Maslow's hierarchy food clothing shelter sense of a central but in terms of what is the essence of humanity essentially I mean it's a challenging task and we haven't had an easy time of it but I do believe that we're not only capable that we're making progress if we can put together a government then anything is possible this this we could be going to brown for it without blink of an eye but I would point out you but probably didn't that is proof the whole world is struggling with the question of um what's the meaning of democracy as a political system today and in our democracy right now he's working I want you to know that it's working almost too well because it's perfectly reflective of the fact that we see people don't know what we want if our democracy weren't working as well we they had government long ago the reality is is that um Israel doesn't know what we want and therefore there you go that's what you get Matt I don't mean it's always pleasant but I do want to instead of like give credit where credit is due it's working quite well amazing beautiful insight I want you to take us back to the lens of history to that moment when ben-gurion over the radio announces the everyone has to go on YouTube and listen tomorrow it is like an infant asking the chef Jana me kiamana be ganas Manos ed looking amazing talking to my wife about this what it must have been like to sit there and to hear that you know can you give us a little bit of weight of that moment you know what's what's that moment about I'll tell you foreign minister Moshe Sharett was actually at that point I think still Moshe Sharett talk describe the experience because you know they they were subject to incredible pressure just don't don't do it don't declare the state the United States was saying if you do declare this day we won't back you you know the whole world was against them the Arab armies around them were poised to invade triggered by this declaration and and sure talks a day was like the experience of standing on the top of a very tall cliff in high winds right that they that V the potential the danger but the energy in this sense of a moment in time and you know this was really the greatness of David ben-gurion who as a listener to the Jewish story you realize I have deeply mixed feelings about which I think he deserves but nevertheless his greatness was his ability to seize the moment and that shouldn't be undervalued in history you can miss the moment it does happen and one of the great aspects of leadership is to simply say it's now or never and and and I feel that um the decision that was made to declare the state and frankly the entire path that led up to it was was messy he has worse still paying for it in many ways and I will quite literally fall down on my hands and knees and thank God that they did it right because we have been privileged to receive a vessel with which we can really shape the world you know that I'm sort of the expression from Archimedes like give me a lever and where to stand and I'll move the world well the way our history works is this is that our lever is the Torah in the broadest sense of all the wisdom that we've accumulated down through the generations but the place that we need to stand in order to move the world is the land of Israel and if you do that collectively it's not just in the Land of Israel as individuals but it's actually within a sovereign when we use the word state and if I would say within a sovereign entity with the government which is able to marshal individual action into a truly collective vision amazing I feel like that moment broke the rules of history in so many ways I mean I've heard you talk about Arnold Toynbee the famous British historian before and the model that he had about you know how we were fossils and yes how we kind of came back and what's a fossil is fossilized it doesn't grow beat on it again so we broke broke his mother Isaac Park aside as far as Christianity's perspective of those Christians that believe that they were the new Jews and we would never come home I feel like that moment just broke so many historical paradigm yes and let's touch Queen B for a second because 20 B has a number of very interesting structures they used analyze history even though many people dismiss him today he was one of the last if not be last the great history we had a whole philosophy of existence that he both used to understand history and that he demonstrated through history and one of his great points was that civilizations die they cease to worship the future and they begin to worship the past but the ancestor worship is the indication that even though your solution may culturally economically etc continue to progress all right you've already you're dead man walking and one of the fascinating things about sort of the Zionist period in Jewish history culminating and not just the foundation of the state but really in the creation of a modern Israeli identity he said we went from a people who venerated the past on a scale which is like hard to imagine too in many ways very damaging shift to like now with the old in with the new the new Jew right the the deeply Nietzschean sense that of a break with history and the ability to free oneself through an act of will which had a lot to do with the sort of courage that was displayed by the the secular zionists leadership in making moves that they made but but there's a very good reason that we should maintain that momentum right even though I think that giving up on our past as a ridiculous notion I think it's also impossible notion it's foolish to waste that wisdom and but nevertheless we need to remember that the old notion of you redacted the looked at this idea of the descent of generations at the further from Sinai from the source of Torah that we get the lower and level we are that's true but don't forget that it's also the further in history to go the closer you get to Messiah right so so that is that is part of the pattern that I see at this stage of history we turned a corner that we need to begin to appreciate the fact that we are drawing closer to a redemptive era and we have to ask ourselves a very human questions not just what does the pass ask of us but what's our duty to the future amazing beautiful so you're already kind of touching on again on this idea of the redemptive nature of our story and the kind of the spiritual underpinnings of who we are as a nation and the importance of our story so I would like to speak more about the spiritual significance specifically about your monster and there's an amazing piece of fundamental we spoke about as the that made his rabbi yehuda are you laid out there he is coming to us at the end of the 19th century in Poland one of the great lights from the world of classy dudes was holding in all facets the Torah he's also a I'm done you know yes wasn't it just because they grabby right right now he was perishing on the on the gomorrah central yeah so he says something very very interesting and he says the following that we have three holidays in the jewish calendar known as the shallow speculum and those are basic sugar world and Sukkot those three holidays the shallow struggling sine shine such a incredibly bright spiritual light like the Sun that we as the Jewish people who are likened to the moon we reflect that light back to God so to speak and through that create rabbinical holidays now each of the the Philosopher's galley makes three holidays which are holidays from the Torah they have more binnacle equivalent which is that response or that kind of reflection but the Oracles there in the Kabbalistic term if they so for Sukkot the response would be Chanukah for sure well the response will be poorer now we could spend a lot of time going into why those are maybe it's an amazing discussion to see those connections and it's not a simple thing that he says but but Pesach so Pesach says the Cybernet that's the one we're still waiting for right this is his time in the 19th century in other words there's going to be one more holiday one more rabbinic holiday one more holiday that kind of flows from within mu Sorrell from the bottom up so the speakers at the top down and that one we haven't yet reached that one's going to mirror the leaving of Egypt in this incredible miraculous way we're not eat just per se but go let's leaving those leaving exile in an incredible and miraculous way so that's what the supplement sense and we're waiting for that third holiday to awaken us to the miracles now there are some that have jumped on the boat and said hey this is it don't we see now that with the establishment of State of Israel this is the third holiday your matzah mode is the third holiday that we've been waiting for this but this fundament was hinting and and it's a very powerful statement it's profound but it also has a lot of serious ramifications for those of us that love toiling in the books and that is wait a second that's beautiful but you're telling me now that you'll not slow it is on the same spiritual level as konoka you're telling me that you're not solute is on the same spiritual level as forum that's a bit of a leap so I don't want to hear your feelings about this is this an exaggeration of the words in the supplements or is this right on target your mots mood is exactly in your perspective what we've been waiting for and this is it so so there's two pieces and I'm sort of debating in my mind which one to answer first I'll say it like this all that this this structure of the UM so the direct in the Nirvana in the Torah level holidays and then the rabbinic level holiday is a very important structure to understand overall and in particular if you look both Hanukkah and Purim are historical events which the sages were able to extract an essential message and therefore elevated to something that even when the relevance of the historical events themselves was no longer true the second third temple is destroyed right we're back in exile nevertheless Poorman and Konica remain expressions of a fundamental relationship between i'm israel and college baku or you can really just think creator and created we can talk about what those are but as you said we're gonna leave aside the the essential nature of dark and light or they hidden in the revealed it's a tourette cetera so so on that level i would say yo my food has a lot of potential but we haven't yet done the work haven't done the work because if you ask the average Jew and certainly the average Israeli what's your mots mood about its independence it's still it's still associated with me if not personal at least close generational experience of like hmm that was a brutal time we made it that's why the celebration is a very I would call it gosh me celebration without any denigration of like the barbecue and out in the in the parks in like I'm just gonna live a good life right now because the truth is I couldn't do it when I was fleeing from the Nazis like I couldn't do it well I was fighting the Arab armies I'm gonna do it now so with with real respect to that reaction it's not sufficient if we're going to actually create a true parallel to pestle so well there before well the one moment because because they that that is by the way when we spoke about what we're gonna talk about tonight via your question was like how should people celebrate your mom's moods in the current situation yeah yeah well I'll get there well I but I want you to remind and remember this part of the conversation when we do so so before I get to like what is that element I also want to add the historical perspective is that we have fairly decent documentation as much as such things exist from that time that Chanukah wasn't really celebrated as a national holiday until the time of Herod so we're talking about you know a hundred 150 years after the Maccabee in revolt and not only that it seems that even then it was far from clear what the story was I mean you and I have spent many many hours speak about Chanukah if people are curious it happens at my father's yard so he falls out right by Hanukkah so every year I give a sheer devoted to this topic you can send me an e-mail I'll share that stuff with you but my point is this that it took quite some time for not only the spiritual elites in the leadership at that time but for the people to process within their historical experience what is the real message what what is even once the temple is destroyed what is it about the experience of poram that carries an essential part of our relationship and so now our hope here in the Land of Israel now in the State of Israel is that we will have to experience exile again but I would say if we don't want to experience exile again then we need to dig deep within ourselves and figure out what is the parallel to freedom because the the liberation from the throwing off the yoke of foreign rule the escape from exile must be sort of joined to the freedom of right the ability to deeply articulate some aspect of personal and national and even sort of all creations self wood which was truly subjugated and then I had just the question that we have right now what is the portion of ourselves which was otherwise unavailable or at least it under subjugation which we can now give expression which is essential to our mission as a people in the world if you think I would answer that question right now you're wrong but this idea that you know on a simple level we need kind of time just to digest this but on another level you know and speaking about the parallelism between a self and your mud smut Pesach was exactly that it was that freedom from right and but then that's definitely not the end of the story right we have these seven weeks the period that we're in right now this preparation towards that freedom towards so sounds like we're kind of waiting for the cheveux piece to kind of come into play to maybe not necessarily as a top-down but some sort of revelation as to where it is that we're going or well what it is that we're doing well here here I will give you a little bit of sense of what I think is happening because I don't believe in coincidence I think that that every experience in one's own life and historically is an invitation to either derive or create meaning and so therefore the fact that yamato-kun falls out during spirit to omen it falls out in the heart of the process can teach us a lot about what the essence of this day really is furthermore notice the word ox mahute doesn't really mean independence there is no hebrew word for the word independence because frankly independence in the classic Western sense is a non Jewish concept we don't believe in Independence we're completely totally Larry completely dependent upon a college but really we understand that that we ourselves don't exist as isolated not as isolated beings not as an isolated people that we are an expression of a will which is all-encompassing nevertheless Hopps mood comes from what word once the roots will play a little game here it's about the bones the essence are good so bones in essence so therefore ox my boots is actually better translated as self-actualization as the expression of essence and and I would say that that's an aspect of freedom which is process-oriented see the challenge of the PASOK to vote sort of like polls is we see liberation and freedom NASA should vote as essentially separate acts whereas I really believe that your mom comes to teach us that no no that they really it's an ongoing process of self actualization because we're created in the divine image here we get frustrated that you're not actual izing a potential down we've talked about that we've done this many times right and you you remember my answer always is it's not mine it's actually rough Daniel god bless him Daniel : are ready right who says you should feel good about that because your essence is uh is infinite since you're creating the divine image so there's no hope to actualize in your potential right but nevertheless the task of the human being is to constantly strive and and I think that um that that's what your thoughts mood is really about and that's a very difficult message to absorb when its first iteration is is being embodied by a culture that just wants a break once it's it in barbecue and it's been a hard funny was a hard fight to get out of Exile was a hard fight to create this state it was uh you know but but then to try to say yeah but this is actually a day about constant struggle now it might be that the way in which you celebrate count struggles this is the day off from it and we recognize that the other 630 364 days a year well Shabbos excluded right that we're striving etc right and this is a day that we just celebrate take it easy fine but it should be within the context in my humble opinion of recognizing that that ox Mons actualization which falls out in the heart of the Sphero of the process orientation about how we build the vessels that are going to be prepared to really hold the divine light these are not accidents this is a and we'll go into the last part I want to discuss with you about which is how do we celebrate the Amon smooth this year and their different openings and opportunities that are available to us you said you don't believe in coincidence and maybe this offers us something that was not available otherwise that now we can step into especially if striving is the theme of the day which is a very beautiful understanding of that what does striving and bodied look like like and how would that look today with us being isolated you know in our homes it's a great I mean it's a great image and you know I think we were joking earlier I might have been on the phone or there some time about how basically the whole world has been sent to our room to think about what it is that we need to do with our lives when I think about it I don't know if it like they started to loosen up via via closure right now but it's actually half the planet has been sent to timeout go your rooms and think about what you've done don't come out until you're ready to change right and so I'm some level that's the invitation here which is it goes back to what I was saying before is what's essential that's the phrase beeping essential services you're allowed to go out for essential purposes but this is what we need to ask ourselves what is essential and not like I said not that sort of Maslow's hierarchy what I we need just to survive but like what is my essence because if it's something is really my essence then I can I can find a way to express it wherever I am you know furthermore what I would say is what am I actually grateful for because the reality is a key to a barbecue on the beach in Tahiti I mean do I can do a barbecue in the park in New York City right and I'm not disparaging our views you know I am a vegetarian I happen to be the best vegetarian grill chef that you probably know since I'm a very rare breed I do serve my children meat and the V the point is they what is it I'm grateful for wrapped up in the opportunity that the very existence of the State of Israel offers me whether I live here or not by the way and let's not forget that is that that day the invitation and what the state offers is not exclusively available to those who live here because it has changed Jewish existence forever throughout the world right and so if I think spending time figuring out what am i grateful for is a very important act and having that time um and what's what is really essential to me right and I would say they last but certainly not least what am I gonna do to preserve that right because the world which emerges at the other side of this crisis will not be the same as the one that we left by definition what it looks like I'm not a prophet nor am ia sort of political analysts like I start hypothesizing about what is to come well I can tell you is you know you never go home right there's no going back yes back to normal going back right but that's not that's not possible not only that but not no wasn't so great I mean look at the world like even coming thought about the environment we can talk about the socio-economic inequality we can talk about ami soil and whether we're actually succeeding in our mission let's take this opportunity people don't go back go forward figure out what's essential and and put our energy into that and if I could wave a magic wand and do one thing right now I would sit the world leaders down in my living room and send my kids somewhere else and and and give them a good strong talking to about the opportunity that I really fear could be squandered here e to to on certain levels reset and reprioritize based on what's essential and notice what is our hot Smuts what is our essential self that is waiting to be actualized in a policy that will provide a that's a love to sit in to contemplate once while eating that that burger or cyborg having a little inherently beer oh crap I get I'm just excited to drink a little Israeli Crosby I was checking whether the cap was here on that now it's I took it out of the fridge it will be cold by by the time we need to drink that but that's some very deep contemplation that that should take place and introspection and B dude he devoted dudes yeah real meditation and contemplation that that can come out I thought of this question as well I have a couple ideas that I want to bounce off here also and I think the last one in particular really was was influenced by my listening to your podcast so let me share this with you number one taking a walk of course with the masks and the social distancing and and all of that but but and this has to the highs in with your gratitude you know the day-in day-out when were commuting you know driving quickly taking the kids that type of thing there's opportunities to miss the beautiful flowers growing this time of year I mean there's a set up there's an area behind our place which my kids of course I've discovered because it's within 100 or 500 meters if you know and they're out there and kind of saw where they bringing our two year old daughter with or there's like this big hill on the you party about yeah is fine okay look if exploded on but there's all these areas and right now flowers and the logic of a father who knows there's just within 100 meters of our home I really don't know that I haven't explored so here's a chance with all the proper measures we will just walk around the area that I sometimes run run past so quickly and and and stop and smell the flowers for lack of a better phrase to really appreciate how that gravity with those lenses of you know that's Luton and the historical background that we spoke about them and the redemptive story and just a simple expression of being of I'm standing in here to sell and I grew up in you know Florida you know understanding appreciating our story and a broader level of being able to stand in Erica Sarah no last week being Yama Yama Yama show up I was thinking a lot about Tina's grandmother my wife's grandmother was a survivor and to imagine explaining to her in the work camp where she was you know that in 1948 only a few years after she would be released that there would be a State of Israel and that her great-grandchildren would be speaking fluent Hebrew growing up walking around the streets with tremendous smiles and laughter in the Jewish state that's just that's an amazing you know talking about contemplations like that's an amazing opportunity so you know the point there I would be to just you know as you say gratitude to take time to look at the little things that's one certainly as you mentioned no constraints on eating or barbecuing so funny mean whoever is making money off memes right now is really humorous humorous the best I think I've ever seen yeah no question so I was a pair of pants they were open and it took my buttons our social distancing so you know sitting around the house all of dying with all the food you know whatever money is saved for people on you know whatever pace on traveling we didn't do we got it's all gone three times thing about the grocery store there's certainly no problem as far as barbecuing and enjoying visesa and decide to eggs I mean the grocery shopping experience with which I know you and I both there has been pretty normal you know there's a bit of a challenge but pretty man most everything is available and and that's pretty amazing so appreciate me of that is fantastic and then I think this is the last point again this is the point that I think was somehow influenced by learning from you is jumping back to that pace on comparison so Pesach we have this incredible beautiful unique mitzvah cuz it's a supportive team but I am telling the story of leaving Egypt and our sages insist that we don't just tell the story as it was but that we have to live it and just to quote the Rambam beautiful reformulation of that hamadan the holler order that's loki lou who you thought may be trying a time right you are obligated to show ourselves to illustrate to ourselves as if we went out of Egypt right now so to kind of extrapolate from that model and to utilize that and to number one tell personally our stories for those of us who do live here as I mentioned it's very briefly it's not in any way logical that someone who grew up where I grew up and drop where I've ended up most guys don't get where you are either so that's a Cleveland represents all right okay from Shaker Heights High School not so much hey tell for those as you mention I agree that those who are not able to be or don't or not here which is not to be in Israel right now and they can still tell tell their personal stories from time spent in Israel for anyone who spent any amount of time in Israel they have stories that have been incredibly impactful to them and and they can share those stories as well because those stories wouldn't be able to happen without the state share your story with you yeah please on that note the the Hakata tove that you're talking about right we usually translate hoc are thought of as gratitude but you know in this case it's important to understand it really means right to recognize the good and in on a deeper levels it's critical to understand what does it were recognized me right look you remember cuz cognition is not what you know it's how you know it's not that I I know there is one god it's I know the world in light of the reality of one God right as a as a um as an example imagine you're out for a run late at night and you see some like dark figure coming towards you in the shadows and you're starting to get a little nervous and the world's looking grim and sudden they they step into the the street lamp and it's your neighbor and you recognize them meaning you reconstruct reality in reflection of what you now see properly so in light of that I want I want to tell you a great story for my friend about about what it really means not here so I have a dear friend and the founder of the Land of Israel Network as you know is a as a platform for all kinds of audio work and many other things so so Jeremy Gimpel you know Jeremy write tells a story that these guys are building the world judean headquarters and whatever whatever the politics of people listening that they just need to appreciate the depth of this story as part of what they're doing the building this fantastic building which is meant to be a house of learning for all the nations of the world and they were contacted by a group which at first they thought it was just a standard Christian group that wants become build and it turned out in their conversations there wasn't just a standard Christian group they were German they weren't just German they were a group of the grandchildren of Nazis who in this man's name within this man's words who called up Jeremy wanted to do chuhwa they wanted to do an act of repentance and a return to essential self by coming to Israel and helping to build Jeremy great but I came out gonna help us out as he always jokes it's like it's the best build room in whole building okay so so say there is and he's like over at the building site is helping oversee and he's got an Israeli um sort of uh you know cobb lana contractor who's overseeing the process and here these some these sort of young to middle-aged Germans on their hands and knees lean piles and pipes and he says to his Israeli Foreman he says I want you to just imagine something imagine that you could step into Auschwitz right now and then you could just go up to some suffering Jew who's literally in hell and just tap him on the shoulder and say listen listen I know this is really bad but just turn around for a minute I want to show you something and the recognition of the good God has in store for me as well that would come into that wholeness of the picture and I'm not trying to justify this suffering or to diminish that's not the point the point is that you don't really know what a story's about until you're able to recognize the next chapter and so that level of seeing the fantastic goodness within which we live and recognizing recognizing coming to a different understanding of our lives personally of our national history and it really that relationship between heaven and earth around which creation revolves that's the opportunity I think that we have in doing what you so nicely said in telling our stories in a way in which ties the past to the present and gives us that energy of hopefulness for the future that's beautiful you tied everything together so beautifully there I think we should pause here my last point though was to listen to a podcast by yours truly dependence is a great way to appreciate and hear the story to me you know maybe I'll go tonight and they put some of that stuff back out on my social media feeds so that people get a chance listen yeah those episodes are about they yeah absolutely and please I know there's some our group who is going to be interested to hear more from you where can they find you your mic so you can reach me personally Rob Mike footer at gmail.com you can find me on Facebook at Rob Mike foyer my audios all on Soundcloud find me Twitter the Jewish story I mean my websites Jewish story dot Co I mean in particular I'd like to say people have questions about the partes Institute we have even those who not just even those who are in America we're running a full summer program online for a very nominal fee based on the hours of North America uh and again once again I would say that if you're interested in even curious about learning next year we're putting forth financial incentives that it simply can't be P so send me an email that's probably the best way to reach me Ralph Mike foyer at gmail.com and I'm happy to pass on any and all information thank you so much for Mike with this I well I'll have you in mind as I have my Israeli craft beer this year and I hope that next year he's and I will get to share them together I'll be thinking about gratitude I will be thinking about what's essential I think there's a beautiful meditation and thank you for your time tonight is awesome to be able to speak with you and they were sure hikes and walks consonant you're very welcome and thank you to be invitation all right take care thank you thank you Mike thank you Jonathan