The Shabbat Show - Episode 20: The Jews Don't Make Sense: G-d's Fingerprints in History

[Music] hello everybody welcome to the shabbat show i hope everybody's doing well another week together i can't believe it's another week you know what i'm talking about every single we get to see each other again it's an honor for me to be back i'll be here with you right now and each week as we spend more time together as more people join the show we're building a bigger and stronger community of of like-minded individuals that are here to celebrate our culture our history our heritage and shabbat so thanks so much for joining us we've got an incredible show for you today you know growing up as i said to you in a couple of shows ago growing up i come from a very interesting background my mom's ashkenazi from mooncache romania and romania my father is sorry from aleppo when when you're a kid growing up life is very black and white and sometimes when you're growing up you don't really appreciate when you're little the the diversity of your background kids like things that are black and white and so many times in my life growing up my mom would say to me charlie you gotta be proud of who you are you're gonna be proud of the differences that you come from and she was right i couldn't be prouder of my background i couldn't be prouder of where i grew up and where i'm from and sometimes in life we have to take a minute and understand who we are and understand where we're from i remember this moment like it was yesterday it was one of the most inspiring moments of my life because i was born a jew so i never really took it seriously that like it's great to be a jew i don't know what it's like to not be a jew i don't i never really appreciated what it means to be a jew what that stands for i it is what it is that's just that's who i am and one day it changed i had a guest on the radio show his name was bird bernd wolschleger burton walshlager is what i would call a wonderful jew why because he's a doctor and when i grew up if you're a doctor you're amazing that's the jewish mom's dream and he lives in boca he lives in miami or in south florida like what could be better a doctor from florida does it get better than that but what makes him so special isn't that he's just a doctor that would be enough for many jewish moms what makes him so special is his background burned came from germany in the 1970s in the munich olympics for those you remember palestinian terrorists killed the many of the israeli olympics olympians now during that time in germany there were papers speaking all over of the tragedy and there was one paper that said jewish blood spilled spills in germany again burned was a small little boy at the time in a school his father actually received an iron cross from adolf hitler his father was a nazi soldier in germany in the 1970s the germans had basically decided that the holocaust was a war it wasn't really a holocaust and the schools weren't talking to the kids about what took place in on those land in that land just a few decades earlier and brenda walked into school the day after the papers came out jewish blood spills on german soil again and asked his teachers what does this mean when did was it before when was the first time can you imagine can you imagine 1970 a kid in germany didn't know about the holocaust and this teacher says nah that's nothing you know those jews they exaggerate everything it was a war people died and jews are one of them but he didn't buy it he knew it was more and on the radio show i'm listening to this man tell over his story and i i can't believe what's happening in my brain a nazi father like what's going on and he tells the story of where he hitchhikes to israel because he wants to understand these people that his father and all everyone he knew he knew hate so much he ends up meeting a girl at a bar [Music] she brings him home her father's a holocaust survivor can you imagine the scene where the holocaust surviving father has his daughter bring home a boy whose father was a nazi like can you just imagine this and he's like expecting like the worst and the father was kind he understood he didn't know he took him around to the neighborhood and he showed him israel and vern asked him the following question he said what's with all the kindergartens because what are you talking about he's like what's the kindergartens he goes the kindergartens he goes wait weren't you the nation that just were sent to your slaughter six million people he obviously learned about it since 6 million people this is 10 minutes later this is 1970s shouldn't you be in bunkers why would you bring children to a world like this where why are there kids playing shouldn't you be protecting yourself in bunkers and just surviving why are you building the next generation and the old man didn't have a good answer he said that's what we do that's just what we do we don't stop for the jewish people and burn told me on the radio he said at that moment i understood what it means to be eternal it means you're never going away no matter what hitler and all his armies that only almost took over the world could have a plan to annihilate you you're not going down and you know it as soon as you get out you build again you build again you build again and at that moment he said if i want to be part of one nation i want to be part of an eternal nation imagine he converts he becomes an officer in the israeli can you imagine his father fought for the nazis his son is an officer for the idf ultimately comes most america and then like i said achieved achieves the jewish dream becomes a doctor at that moment i felt a pride like i never felt before there's something about us there's something about us that is so special that someone from the outside can look at it and see it and sitting in that interviewer's chair swelling with pride that i was born into this nation i felt this sense of do i know how lucky i am did i ever stop to think about the improbability of the jewish people am i proud of who i am that's what we're going to talk about today we're going to stop and pause and swell up our chests and learn about just how incredible it is to just be part of this nation get ready we got great guests we got a great crew we got roof god freeman on we've got max and to be on we've got wherever you are you have rabbi milstein rockmeal milstein on these are these are superstars this is like all star weekend jamie geller is on send me your shout outs for shabbat shalom that's coming on as well we've got before we get going a couple announcements number one mind flex check it take take a look at mine flex that's taking place i'll turn to my project inspire team to get all those ads up mind flex is taking place this week as well of course as you know here it is mineflex this week is with this is like an all-star cast over here i see rabbi zack gutinski rabbi sittinger is on real change in the air mineflex we also have the deep dive mindfully series going on so check that out this week is taking taking place on tuesday of course shabbat show has its own website check it out the shabbat show.com if there's someone in the world that you want to know about it now if there's someone you're thinking of right now that's like wow i would love to them i would love for them to appreciate the jewish people if you know somebody who you would love for them to appreciate jewish people more just send to them right now shabbat show.com this is what the show is about the more people we get the greater community is and of course the one-on-ones remember if you haven't yet signed up and you'd like to especially as we get into the high holiday season to learn more about anything you want to learn about text one on one to 97 000 that's your uh that's your one-on-one opportunity before we continue one more thing important announcement september 4th is project inspires online dinner project inspire is the host of the show as you can see they're spending countless hours trying to inspire us through so many different ways they're an incredible organization and they can use your support here it is they have um their dinner coming up the the guests are off the charts take a look at the flyer it's september 4th you can sign up even now if you're on the website sign up now go to the shabbato.com to find the projectsinspire.com to find but you want to be part of it i'll i'll be there other people will be there i know i see freeman's going to be hosting it with me we're going to have a great time you don't want to miss it singers the whole thing september 4th market on your calendars okay let's begin so for those who do or do not know there's a discover this one of the most famous seminars of all time is a seminar called discovery discovery is a seminar that was built by asia torah and maybe has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and in there one of the offerings is this concept of the jewish people understanding the seven wonders of jewish history understanding the jewish people are this eternal riddle they've survived longer than any other civilization they're constantly under threat and what is it about the jewish people so we caught up with some of the top speakers this weekend this week and we brought them to you live to your home this is like on them you don't want to go to the seminar i mean you do if you want to but we brought the three superstar speakers to speak to you today and the first one is a person i had a chance to catch up with earlier today he's in israel shabbat his name is rav gov and i am positive you've heard of gov is originally from new york he has spent the last decade studying and teaching in various yeshiva through jerusalem he's teaching in satora tons of different lectures he is incredibly popular he is the an all-star on the circuit people absolutely adore him wherever he goes around the world sometimes i sit in his classes and i cannot hold myself back from the wisdom and the laughter that he brings out it's an incredible concept check out rob gobb in the competition i had with him this morning okay we're joined here with the one and only rough god of god welcome to the show thank you very much it's so good to have you on i'm feeling the holiness of the land of israel when i just even speak to you yeah i wish i could feel it like you do so we're talking about the jewish people the um improbability of the jewish people and it's important sometimes sometimes like you know when you're in things you don't appreciate it right like if you're just in the nation you just go through your day and use shabbat and then holidays and this and that and it's hard to like pull back and get the whole picture as to wait a second like we really shouldn't even be here like if you look at the the the stats if you look at the numbers look at the probabilities if someone's investing in the jewish people and like hey is this going to really make it is this a good stock i want to buy and you look at like exile persecution if you in number like everything that should be um cutting against us it seems like it doesn't so give me your perspective as to this the improbability of the jewish people yeah so so first off i just want to share this that there's a quote that most people when they talk about this idea that they they quote mark twain and mark twain famously said that i'm i'm just paraphrasing big time but the egyptian the roman the babylonian you know they all rose up they held their torch high for a time they fed out the dream stuff and they're gone and essentially the jew saw them all beat them all is what he always was exhibiting no decadence of age no infirmities no weakening of his parts i cannot believe we're saying this by heart yelling wow are you playing with others call me mr clemens i prefer but uh basically he says the jewish people are still here it's miraculous what is the secret to its immortality it kind of makes it really makes no sense but that that's the quote most people quote but very few people i don't see very few less people quote were of yakult ending jacob ending was a great great sage he lived in the 18th century that's the 1700s for people who are lacking in math skills and he says amazing he says you know what i swear by my life when i use a very intense wording that the greatest miracle that has ever happened is not the splitting of the sea is not the plagues it's not the craziness that judaism is it's the fact that we exist that is the greatest miracle that can ever be told so yeah i mean it's pretty it's pretty crazy so yeah so let's talk about that for a second because i think that when you when we sort of get lost in the drama of it right we find out the story of uh in the war of 1967 you know this happened and that happened or you know the studs came in the 1990s and and it missed this and we we seem to love the sensationalism of miracles and it seems like we lose the the real powerful miracles right the small stuff that it's a greater miracle that the state of israel even exists or the jewish people even exist in any one particular thing why is that and and and how does that sort of change if we can just shift the the lens on how we see miracles in general you know the fact that we are having a discussion right now that i'm in israel and that and that we're talking about shabbat the shabbat program and that you have jews that are going to be celebrating it in some way shape or form it's these are like the small quote-unquote mundane things that you kind of like you're saying we fly by in life but if you take a step back it's it's yes there's 67 and why are you going to skip to what our 48 and what about you know you just pretty much 49 50 51 52 53 54 i mean 18 51. i mean 17 i mean 1651 just the fact that we're here it's like you know it goes i know it's like rain rain is miraculous but you get used to it you know it's like okay we're here there are other people here so what's the big deal right the answer is how many other people went through what we went through and go through what we go through you know it's just it's just unbelievable and i'll tell you really it goes back to to the holy bible itself the words of the lord you know god tells us if you take a look i don't know who's listening about i'll give you from all three perspectives genesis 17 7 or genesis 17 7 if you're not from the south viracious youth zion's zion zion if you look over there this is an amazing idea it says that god basically promises we're going to be here we're going to be an eternal nation we're always going to be here now you think about that okay like somebody at the time with them saying it because all right right whenever you say it sure all right good luck with that but we have we have hindsight we get to look back pogrom after pogrom you know holocaust after holocaust quite literally and the fact is that we're still here i mean that that's that's just pretty nuts it really just takes time to just stop and look through history one of the greatest and more viacom did not quoted before he's not a simple person right if he's saying that that means he's picking this to be the one of like stop and just think just open your eyes we shouldn't here and it was promised we're going to be here it was predicted and we're here that's exactly right i think you're right and i think really it's one thing to say but i think what we want to do here on the show and just in our conversation now is to is to move it to a level of awareness right that if you just like i think what you characterized it was great when god said it so to speak or at least in the beginning or let's say earlier on in time right you're looking at the torah and you're you're living during the times i'll say like of the first time the jews conquested israel right and you're like okay like i got it but like you know maybe maybe not i mean like you're the nation next to me looks good and this nation called girgushi looks like they're okay and you know these guys look like they're wonderful and like but if you really think about it right there's a jew who was in israel and the romans and the romans were killing everybody and they were just dominating the world and like there's like there's one jew getting rocked and then the babylo beforehand the babylonians then and i'm sure that she's like we're dead it's over like what are the chances like we're sitting around we're getting persecuted they're moving us left to right we can't do this we can't do that like what are the chances that that jew he's his great-great-great-great-grandchildren are still going to be sitting around today you know it's like it's not a given that we're going to be here it's not a given it's only a given because god said so but but if you would look logically it's not a given so when i say the person hey isn't it amazing we still exist like was a big deal like what it was a big deal no one exists anymore like nobody and we have new cultures and new existence and new stuff and like what do you mean there's romans no there aren't but there are people in rome yes there are people that live in rome but the roman empire is gone you understand it's over right we have the jewish people that again we're talking about this is a shabbat program which means we're connected to 3 332 years 23 to 32 years it's going all the way back and if i could just drag us in just a minute just uh two points which i think come out from this is it's not just it was that god said would be an eternal nation he also said two more things that kind of contradicted that concept god said that we're said more and you'll have other guests that will discuss it but one of them is he said that we're going to be dispersed we're gonna be chucked all over the world and just stop and think what happens to people when they're exiled what happens to every people 95 of wars i'm sure you've seen this in one of the documentaries 95 of wars are fought over land because if you get someone's land you can get rid of them and they vanish into history we have been essentially i mean not to quote too many famous singers here but if you look and you search then you will find it time after time we've been shocked from country from place to place to place and at the end of the day if you look and you search you'll find it god will be waiting and he's waiting for us he says don't worry we're going to do it again we're going to do it again are you saying anything to yourself okay god said we're going to be here and he also said i'm going to chuck you all over the place there has not been a people that have been shocked that have survived never history is the barometer of truth and it's never happened but before you jump in i want to throw one more thing in and then the fact is well okay but at least we'll survive because we'll be a great big nation we'll be huge we'll have so many people do you know what the percentage of jews are in the world it's really damn you i know you know but if you stop and think for a minute i want the listeners right now to ask yourself ask the person sitting next to you so how many jews are in the world and write it down pause this you can't pause it it's going to be live for you but you're like point this pause and think three two one 14 million i think is a bumped up number or maybe 14 million jews it's it makes no sense makes no sense god says you're gonna be here forever you'll be exxon dispersed you'll be a few number but you'll be here forever come on god seriously come on amazing keep on doing what you do my friend keep on being the light to the world thank you for your insights and your wisdom looking forward to getting you back on the show soon okay my friend shabbat shalom shalom gov and it's exactly right it's it's incredible that we're here and we can't take it for granted and we have to take a few minutes on this show tonight and just just breed that in for a second we're sitting here celebrating shabbat that means we're connecting back to thousands of years of other jews just think about what this means other jews for thousands of years are doing this they're not doing it on zoom for sure not but they're still doing it it's an incredible thing that we're a part of good time to i'll tell you what else we've been doing for 3 32 years we've been saying shabbat shalom to each other that's for sure there's one thing that we're doing is talking i'm positive that's one of our greatest talents eating and talking so i want to give a couple of shabbat shaloms while i do that i want to launch kahoot so we're gonna go to kahoot right now um let's have the project inspired team pull up kahoot and while they pull up kahoot we're gonna have a couple of shabbat shaloms shabbat shalom from to from ozzie in baltimore shabbat shalom to you shabbat okay kahoot's here let's do that for a second uh okay eight four nine three seven six [Music] that's wonderful eight four nine three seven six seven as everybody pulls up let's get some shabbat shalom uh to erica and roger matloff shabbat shalom to nama and david from pittsburgh shabbat shalom to you michael and rochelle kurzner thank you that thank you both shabbat shalom to you henya shabbat shalom to the novak family from toronto shabbat shalom 22 ruth and moshe in miami shabbat shalom alan stacey levin rad from california shabbat shalom to you leia from quebec shabbat shalom to you the mervis family in silver spring shabbat don't you love this look how fast we are we're everywhere i love the jewish people tyler patriots rock shabbat shalom good luck sheree asheville from mountain view california mark mark cohen from mountain view california the lapels from miami shabbat shalom as our kahoot signs up everybody please go on to kahoot you get it on your app or you get it on the computer it's competitive i know that i get calls from people in between wherever you are playing if you some reason can't get on play with the people next to you just compete that's what brings out the best in us i guess eight four nine three seven six seven not everyone's gonna be what i just said a barney artel shabbat shalom from austin okay we're good for kahoot let's roll first question how do you say nation in hebrew uma medina eretz to helene and boca shabbat shalom jamie's mom and poppy and balowic and balochinwood shabbat shalom lawrence lawrence and hillary hessen farlow and shabbat shalom the beer family from fairlawn new jersey shabbat shalom to the silvers as well in highland park here's the answer it's uma the answer is uma i know medina is tight it was a close one but it's uma eres is the land is the state um all right let's roll what's next let's see how we did been seeing rm brown's rock sounds like it's a competitor to patriots rock rage which may be rachel and the winner hannah okay here goes next question who started the custom of lighting shabbat candles noah sarah abraham or rebecca noah sarah abraham these are great questions who started the custom of shabbat candles lay a pair from new york shabbat shalom rabbi claire ginsberg goldstein from broken field shabbat shalom helen from toronto shabbat shalom linda schwartz from annandale virginia shabbat shalom here it goes what's the answer here it is sarah wow you guys killed it been seeing brown's rock rm who continues to perform winner and the silver family here goes next one what was the name of the ship of german jewish refugees that was turned away from both american and cuban ports in 1939 the nina the mayflower the saint louis or the titanic you can get this from process of elimination the cantor's family and suffering shabbat shalom recent brian will from oak park michigan shabbat shalom suzanne from birmingham shabbat shalom rav gov is the best those are the notes for him jen from georgia shabbat shalom here goes what's the answer there we go very good i see someone knows the at least part of the american history let's see how we did today vincent continues brown's rock jamie's mom jamie's mom winner and rach okay here goes last question who was the first prime minister of israel haim weitzman gold in the ear theater herzl or david ben-gurion the first prime minister of israel this should be a gimme to many people to the heifetz family lori heifetz upper west side did i get that right laurie hi fitz shabbat shalom here goes what's the answer david ben-gurion very good david ben gorion okay let's see how we did third place hana second place jamie's mom wow and the first place is the browns rock this is incredible we got patriots and browns right here rocking this is an incredible thing thanks so much for joining us and being a part of this i'm still cracking up but those who are who were here last week i want you to understand something for those who are watching last week if you weren't watching this week i got to bring you up to to what i think is kahoot history i'm still thinking about it last week question four kahoot do you remember it last week question for was what was the most stressful thing and there was a multiple choices and the one of the choices was jail the other choice was marriage and i told rabbi ginager don't do it it's a gimme and the number one answer was marriage most people thought that marriage was more stressful and jealous wanted to note that for the record to this day i'm still going crazy but my family loved it thank you everybody for playing congratulations to brown's rock a clear rival to patriots rock and thanks so much for joining us and playing if you want to win get your prizes go to project inspire dot com and you get all your good stuff one correction it's not september 4th it's september 14th the project inspired dinner the event you don't want to miss september 14th market on your calendars okay we're up to our next guest another incredibly powerful inspirational informational speaker is a man named max antibate max entoby is the cfo of icer brands he's a popular speaker for discovery seminars for over 20 years as well as many many other jewish organizations he's the author of several books including the jewish theory of everything spiritual life judaism to the max and judaism beyond the max he's also a proud member and speaker for the syrians for our community of brooklyn new york max welcome to the show thank you so much for joining us on the show we've been talking about the jewish people and i want to bring something up as a question to you we are talking about being the eternal nation i told the story earlier about a nazi's son who recognized the eternality of it but that's cool in itself to be an eternal nation how do you balance that against the intense anti-semitism that we've been facing all of these years and the contradictory promise of this being a lie to the nation it seems like these things are all contradictory how do you make sense of it all so first of all i love rough god he's great but i think he made a mistake it's just impossible it's impossible that we're not going to have a homeland that we're going to be exiled that we're going to be smaller than number or we're going to live forever it just just can't happen so i thought about it while you were doing kahoot i don't have the app sorry i thought about how is it possible so i said the only way that we can continue to exist in exile with no homeland is if every place we go everybody loves us i think every even with the mute i think i hear people laughing yeah everybody doesn't love us no i think like we're the world's puppy dogs everybody talks about us we're on the front page of every newspaper the left talks about us the right talks about us everybody loves us no no i don't think so so if they don't love us how is it that we can't exist they were the same as what god had told us is that there is a prediction a prediction in the torah in the bible that it says in several different places is that you will become an object of horror an example among all the nations to which god will lead you anti-semitism and we are going to be the example of the world it's the oldest hatred in the world ever since abraham our forefather was thrown into the fiery furnace people hated us it's universal as we see it today every nation in the world has that vocal part of the population that's calling out against the jewish people it's intense as we've discussed before as you've mentioned we have the holocaust we have the dramas we have the exiles we have the explosions we have all those terrible things and it's irrational it just doesn't make sense they hate us because we were too powerful when we weren't rich and powerful they hated us anyway they hate us because we're communists they hit us because we're capitalists they hate us because we stay by ourselves and then we assimilate we're ruining their superior race and they hate us because they think today that we're white supremacists and they don't realize who was marching with martin luther king and all of his watches of freedom so possibly the only way that we can get by is to live under the radar no one will see us don't know us very simple as rough god said there's about making numbers around 15 billion people in uh sorry 15 million jews in the world seven and a half billion people if you do your math that's point two percent of the world's population that's what we are so maybe no one will hear of us now my kids have been coming up and learning at home because of coving so i've been watching them i learned mathematics i learned how to round to the nearest whole number 0.2 round to the whole the nearest whole number zero we don't exist that's it no one will ever know us but there's a problem i mean we've won of all the nobel prizes since the beginning we have a drive to perfect the world whether it's in the religious field science technology medicine the structure of society there's a book called the jewish mystique written by ernest vandenhogg and he says in there that there were four people four men who have influenced the world more in the last 200 years freud einstein for sure karl marx and darwin three of them are jewish and the last guy was wrong how do we do that how do we do that once we were allowed into the colleges loud into society with enlightenment we just moved ahead we have this drive to perfect the world the values of the bible are the basis of the magna carta the bill of rights the constitution of the united states it doesn't make sense if everybody hates us why do they listen to us they do how did we rise above this hatred and enlighten the world it just doesn't make sense to me it's gotta be something wrong no homeland scattered among the world everybody hates us with you in number everybody listens to us how does that happen you're probably familiar with a british historian named paul johnson he wrote a book called the history of christianity major major book on the new york times bestselling list for many many years and he said everywhere he looked at christian christianity he saw the jews he says after i finished writing this book and i write a book about the jews call the history of the jews i want to quote you what paul johnson non-jewish historian says about us the jewish people he says without the jews this world would have been a radically different place to them we owe the idea of equality before the law sanctity of life social responsibility peace as an abstract ideal and love as the basis of justice and many other ideas that form the basic moral furniture of of the mind that's us we've done that people don't like us but basically they know that what we speak is the truth and sooner or later the truth has to win out that's what i think we did when laura came down from mount sinai everybody recognized that the values that are in there are the truth that mankind has to live by and in fact as paul johnson says sanctity of life child sacrifice human sacrifice all these things are wrong everybody's life is valuable everyone's alive equal justice for everyone we're the ones who set up the court system we told everybody you have to have justice justice justice justice it's it's repeated many many times throughout the bible and people recognize that's the truth and sooner or later you have to want to abide by that so regardless how they feel about us regardless of the fact that they don't like what what we stand for which is goodness that's fascinating it's fascinating in that in hearing and hearing it's driving home this very unique message which is the following here's how i'm hearing it the the odds are zero like no one would bet the stock called the jewish people like that's like the worst bet in the world right the odds are nothing you're you're winning this this game is over right forget it like the thought that like a small little nation scatters the world gets beat up everywhere is everyone's problem for every cause of everything like even now today's day and age like both it's just ridiculous like it's it's getting to a point where like you know it gets to the point when someone's like anti-semitism and like people are still shocked like what are you like oh my gosh like they don't like us like it's it's getting to a point where like it's normal for us to expect people to hate us which is so insane take all that together that should lead to total annihilation and not only does it lead to survival which would be insane it leads to influence it leads to additive thought it leads to world shaping ideas and what's driving your point which i want to make sure is clear because i'm getting it is that it's as if god handed us the truth and said listen learn and live it and go scatter around and share it and i'm never going to keep you comfortable because if i give you comfortable you're going to be booking out so here's what we're gonna do we're gonna make sure the fire is on just high enough to make sure that you know who's who but at the same time i'm gonna teach you that you just be you you just drive as hard as you can you just do what's right and what's gonna happen is your ideas will take place and you will look back in history and go wow we really did shape this world you make a very very interesting point and that is that most of us don't appreciate who we are yeah i want to leave you with a quote how much time i have left i want to leave you with a quote charlie i think you know who said it but i want to let the audience maybe put this on kahoot next week okay don't totally give me answers he says even if there had never been a synagogue or a jewish school i know the old testament yeah yeah the jewish spirit would still exist and exert its influence it has been there from the beginning and there is no jew not a single one who does not personify it oh i love it we represent goodness who said it adolf hitler no elijah the prophet moses king david we are the greatest nation john adams second president united states says he says we are the most glorious nation ever to inhabit the earth when you people are listening think about the jewish people do you think that you belong to the most glorious nation in the history of europe yeah people recognize that yes they have to appreciate who we are what we've done for the world our greatest enemy the one who hated us the most in the last 100 years he understood what we are and imposed from the hatred that's exactly right that was yeah that's exactly right you know who knew us hitler knew us he knew who each and every one was and the power of you know i got to tell you in today's day and age sometimes you look to the right look to the left and go he's not like me or she's not like me i'm not a good enough jew and all this other stuff you know who never said that adolf hitler adolf hitler said a jew's a jew every jew is valuable you gotta learn very good yes rabbi max and to be thank you so much for being part of this program god bless you shabbat shalom and thank you so much for joining us regards to your pop thank you we'll do she's watching i'm sure that was max antoine he's and this is exactly the point this is what we're doing the show it's so important to take a minute to do these things to think about us to be proud of who we are nothing wrongly proud nothing for being proud of who you are and nothing wrong with slowing down and understanding who we are the improbability of who we are the thought of what we've accomplished as a nation and how we're a part of that that means you and i whether you think you're a good you or a bad you or you're from this place or from that place it's all as they say in yiddish kite the end of the day we're part of something special and we need to we need to appreciate that a couple more shabbat shaloms before we get to our our next uh part of the program um shabbat shalom to uh sv stoner from boca raton florida to miriam daba from lakewood shabbat shalom to marilyn bodner from fair lawn new jersey okay let's go to our next part of the program i know her mom and dad are watching jamie geller jamie's always been with us uh a highlight for us to see jamie geller check out the latest jamie gala video right now thank you charlie so so much and hello everybody i know this week's show topic is heavy and intense so we're going to give you a little break this segment we want you to sit back relax and enjoy as we transport you to the famed open-air market here in israel in the heart of jerusalem now you can turn off your brains for this segment and turn on your taste buds because all we want from you is to salivate as we have a war of desserts it's kanape versus enjoy and shabbat shalom i'm jamie geller and my mission in life is to bring you the best eat food and drink from israel the entirety of the land of israel but today we are in the holy city of jerusalem famously affectionately and simply known as the shook the market this is where you come to shop eat drink morning noon or night alone or with friends you have not experienced the food scene in israel unless you've come here but today i'm going to show you something super special it's the battle of desserts an ashkenazi classic versus a middle eastern delicacy kanape [Applause] versus [Music] we're in marzipan bakery possibly one of the most famous bakeries in israel they're known for their super rich super chocolaty rugelach they export now to the states but honestly ain't nothing like tasting one of these babies hot out of the oven come take a look at this is the jewish pastry of ashkenazic origin popular in israel and commonly found in most jewish cafes and bakeries around the world traditional regulars are made in the form of a crescent by rolling a triangle of dough around a filling special and exclusive to marzipan is this incredible sugar syrup that's brushed really drenched all over the top look how wet it is it's baked perfectly it's wet it's crispy and doughy okay there's almost no dough it's really only chocolate the chocolate's crispy around the edges it's creamy in the inside look how thin thin thin that dough is you have a crispiness and a golden brown yet it's almost slightly under baked on the bottom which makes it doughy if i wasn't on camera i'd eat it all in one bite let me just show you how you're really supposed to eat this regular look there's no words to describe what this tastes like so much chocolate is dripping out it's like the biggest chocolate to dough ratio of any regular in the world 44 of breakfast come by taste it hot out of the oven bring your own napkins just a few blocks away inside the shook is kanapha ir david where you can order your very own pan of this sweet and crispy pastry kanape is a traditional arab dessert made with a thin noodle-like pastry called kazee or alternatively it can be made with a fine semolina dough it's typically layered with a brine cheese or even clotted cream once crisp and hot it's soaked in a sweet sugar-based syrup and topped with crushed pistachio nuts so both the rugelach and the kanape are finished with sugar water but that's where the similarity begins and ends let's take a bite here the texture of those pan-fried shredded pastry here and the crispy edges are addictive it's actually not too sweet which is pretty amazing and the cheese is like a briny creamy stringy quality to it finished off with those crumbled pistachios it's really really really hard to pick a winner but i have chosen my winner and it's going to surprise you because it surprised the stuffing out of me honestly it floored me let me first explain what's going on here i don't even like regular i never met a rugelach and i never meant a cheese danish that i didn't like the cheese that's used in the kanape is a mix between goat cheese and cow's cheese it wasn't stringy like a mozzarella and it wasn't creamy like a goat cheese instead the combination kind of resulted in a rubbery cheese similar to like so because of that the rugelach which honestly should not even be classified as a regular it's one of the best most delicious most melts in your mouth crescent bowl little dope things i have ever tasted so because of the cheese i am picking the broccoli but don't think it's because i'm ashkenazi because my heart's in the east and if i would remake that kanaka recipe i will put a link below to show you exactly how to make it at home and i'll put a link to the regular just so you can make that too and i'll put a link to a shortcut just so you can make that too but if i would remake that cannot be recipe for the creamy goat cheese it would have been like enough but as it stands as i've tasted them it is now you vote i want to see if you agree i'm not the final word hold on close to it let's see what you guys think and honestly it's gonna stop [Music] thank you jamie for that and thank you for bringing us back a little bit to the state of israel i can't i can't tell you how barely i'm going to walk walking down those streets of the shook to get any of those incredible things before we get to the next guest on a couple more um shout outs in shabbat shalom to karen stoner shabbat shalom to judy and clifton shabbat shalom to you um and now we're up to our next guest our next guest is a rabbi who i have been watching for years incredible his name is rabbi milstein rachmael milstein he has spent the better part of the last 30 years lecturing on behalf of asia torah discovery program project inspire project and many others he currently resides in lakewood new jersey where he leads the congregation each of israel but i want to tell you a little bit more before i let him talk i remember when i first started getting involved in ancient torah just sitting back and watching rabbi milstein go and thinking that's it with the passion the knowledge the energy the wisdom it's all one package rabbi welcome to the show it's great to be here how are you charlie i'm wonderful thank you for joining us we've been talking about the jewish people i know a subject you care about very very deeply favorite topic we're talking about really the improbability of the jewish people we spoke to of gov in the beginning we spoke to max and toby and i want to talk to you about this idea of exile in israel we spoke about our relationship to the improbability of our existence we spoke about how even anti-semitism isn't another nuance how we can be how do we navigate in a world where there's anti-semitism in line to the nations but we really want to drive you towards something that people may be forgetting which is the relationship to us being in exile in the state of israel how is how is that possible well the first thing you have to recognize is that the exile that we're talking about is no ordinary exile what's happened to us is is that we have been dispersed now just think for a moment try to occupy the mindset of a dictator of a conqueror of a barbarian and you can't just conquer the country would you go out and spend a ton of money on relocating people to other places or do you kill off the leadership and you let the little people work for you you enslave them you make sure they become subservient to you they mine the land for old switches and it goes back to the conquering nation isn't that really what would happen of course that's what happened not going to say no the syrians got to flappish you know and the russians go to brighton beach and it's expensive it's ridiculous it doesn't happen and yet the torah the torah in leviticus tells us and you i will scatter among the nations at the point of my drawn sword leaving your country desolate and your cities in ruins right the torah tells us it's not just exile we're going to be dispersed it doesn't make sense history doesn't do that to people it doesn't make sense so just to make our existence i guess today even more glorious god says you know what i'm not going to exile them i'm going to disperse them tiny pockets of people in different countries throughout the world spread out now if you're going to be the best candidate for eternal nation status if you're going to be the people that's supposed to last for the end of all time better than anybody else in the world you probably should give the people a place to hang their hats on a country to live in god says no no no not just exile but dispersion it doesn't happen it's never happened it's never ever happened that a people's been exiled and dispersed yeah some people the romans temporarily they had certain people going to different places to destroy the sense of identity but as a to take an entire nation and do this unheard of unheard of and then on top of that that we are the people that go back and we accomplish another miracle we accomplish a miracle of return to the land it's an incredible feat how many people having been exiled we know that's a very small number but how many nations haven't been exiled actually returned to their land that's correct zero right it never happened there's no such thing you do not hang on to your identity when you're exiled dispersed and as max anthony said you are hated more than anybody else right and and rav gov was talking about the fact that we are the most unlikely of heroes in terms of being the best candidates to live anywhere we should be gone we should be totally gone and yet we return to the land of israel it's actually predicted that we got no place to be but at the end of time guess what you're coming back to land and that's in deuteronomy i'm going to read this next week anybody who goes to shul next week anybody goes to synagogue next week they're going to read this next week with pasha ki tavo and the torah tells us and lord your god shall return you from your captivity and have compassion upon you he shall return you from all of among all the nations we're going to be living among all the nations and he returns us and jews in israel today in fact come from 110 different countries ezekiel tells us thus says god i will gather you from the nations and assemble you from the lands where you have been scattered and i will give you the land of israel incredible it's incredible this just doesn't happen and on top of that do we do it in style so before we take this home i just want to focus us on something which is incredible how is it that in our absence over so many years no nation has taken firm hold of the land no other nation in our absence has made it their homeland how is it that for thousands of years what about thousands of years no other nation in the world was able to somehow come to the land of israel take it over make it theirs now there are people today who claim that there's no question they claim that but we know that you know the great palestinian yasser arafat was born in right egypt he wasn't a palestinian at all right this is that that's the fictional part but but no nation nobody the brits have tried the turks have tried they're vast and mighty people why isn't that they took firm root of the land so the truth is there's something much much more miraculous than we've been discussing all this time which by the way is miraculous enough but it's something much more relaxed it turns out that the maharisha one of the great commentaries on the talmud tells us that there's a special special blessing about the land of israel and this is a very unique blessing and the blessing is that as long as israel as long as the jewish people are not living in the land the land will lose its fertility and stop bearing fruit you got this here it is jews live in the land it gives this fruit they stop living in land it doesn't give its fruit right now this is an incredible incredible thing to say because i don't know too many lands that care about who lives on it i don't understand what do you do when you're a farmer you stick your credit card with the magnetic stripe into the ground and if it's the right one we can't identify you it's incredible what does that mean what does it even mean to make this prediction and again the marshall lives in in uh in the uh in the 17th century what does it mean what does it even mean to say that why would you say that and based upon the teachings of the rabbis it turns out the land is supposed to be a very fertile land but the torah actually predicts when the jews are not living there it's going to be an empty and desolate land it's going to be a land that no one lives it's going to be a land that doesn't treat its owners kindly the turkish soldiers that were there when they occupied the land the ottoman empire they couldn't make the land grow a stitch it just didn't work for them when the brits lived there i don't know about you but i've uh toured britain extensively francia torah i mean i've been all over the place in britain right britain is a very beautiful lush country it's really gorgeous it's gorgeous you travel on the highways and byways and you see fields of green they're great they're good farmers jews are not particularly known for being great farmers i mean in my family we don't know which way was up on the rake let's be honest right we're not going far and then suddenly we come to the land and israel has become the agricultural miracle of the world they're difficult i was in washington many years ago i used to be working for lonnie auto hospital in netanya and we're an american institution abroad and we would qualify what's called aid money from the government so i used to have to go to washington and talk to the senators and talk to the leaders of the house and try to get them to award us this money this foreign aid money that they would give out to american organizations abroad and i met with the senate uh a foreign relationship i forget his name he was a fellow from the south had a deep southern accent and i walked into the room and you should excuse me he looked like a redneck you know and i look like a rabbit if you can tell but i kind of like look like a rabbi and i come into the room and he looks at me says you know rabbi why i locked the jews i said no sir he said because your boss in israel there's such brilliant agricultural geniuses that they can plant right here on this floor and the floor was a uh a beautiful ceramic tile inlaid floor your heart earned tax money at work in washington right they could plant here they'd be flowers blue one in the morning we're becoming sacramento we don't know which way was up in a rake but that's what the rabbis say the torah says when they're off the land it doesn't grow but when they're on the land the land is an agricultural miracle who hasn't enjoyed jeff oranges the cherry tomatoes invented in israel case you don't know that right incredible incredible the words of the rabbi is coming a lot you know people look at the old prophets and they say wow would we have prophets today are you kidding me the days of the prophets made the prophecies didn't come true yet but we get to see the prophecies come true we can't receive prophecy a eternal nation no land to live in hated more than anybody and with what style we've come back to the land of israel i'm going to share with you a story if i may i had an uncle who passed away just a couple of years ago his name was uncle itzik his last name was ganat he's the brother of i think your music teacher moshe in flappas yeshiva if i remember it correctly and uh he was a great man truly great man he survived the holocaust literally by his whiskers i mean just barely survived the holocaust 16 year old kid comes to america manages to survive gets back on a banana boat and heads back to israel he's fighting the war in he's fighting he's volunteering to fight in israel he's fixing tanks he was a mechanic fixing tanks fixing trucks and every once in a while with his uncle issac tell me what was it like fighting in 1948 he says how i fought in 1948 it wasn't no big deal i had a tractor and i fought say how do you fight with the tractor so it's very simple he says you pick up the shovel attract in front of you that way any bullets that are coming hopefully it'll stop the bullets and then you take a milk bottle and you put a little gasoline you tear off a piece of your shirt you throw it and you light it and you throw it at them and charlie we won they were they were heavily armed of course they're happily on the the british had a one-way arms embargo in israel and the other people were getting everything the hours were getting everything we got nothing we had nothing we had milk bottles with a with a rag you know and some gasoline inside and if you aimed well hopefully you scored your hit incredible and we won incredible this we are living in the age of prophecy my friends we are living in the age of miracles israel you figure that israel should have been so beat up i think it was an op-ed i believe was the new york times in 1948 they were discussing whether or not the state of israel will ever turn into a nation and they doubted it and they wrote that no people could have their their moral courage so beaten up so destroyed by the nazis by the germans by the holocaust and still rise up again and manage their own affairs independently just couldn't be done well guess what we did it and rising like a phoenix from the still warm ashes of the crematoria israel was born and israel exists and israel is the cradle of technology and israel has done great things it's not like we've just barely survived we survived but boy are we there boy are we present torah study increasing to a level never before known in the diaspora tremendous number of children that are still running around the streets of jerusalem like you said before they shouldn't be there we shouldn't be there there should be no vibrancy there should be no youth there should be no birth rate but yet we're there this is who we are as a people this these are the predictions made for us and all of the previous people we can feel sorry for them they didn't get to see what we see we are truly living in the age of prophecy we are living in the age of miracles we are living in the age of the in gathering of the exile of jews from more than 100 countries every single day is a miracle like rap gov said but to us kind of like it looks like rain and we don't really see the wonder of rain unless you really sit down and think about it so a great thing to do this shabbat is for everybody to think about what you've just seen think about what you witnessed to count the ways that you feel lucky to be jewish to count the ways that you feel fortunate that we get to see this part of jewish history the flowering of jews in israel the flower of jerusalem throughout the world that we get to see not just survival but we get to see the thriving of the jewish people in our day what a miracle what an amazing time to be alive what a great opportunity it is to reflect upon how fortunate we are to be jewish rabbi thank you so much for your words i i'm inspired by them and i'm sure everyone's going to spend the time on shabbat really thinking it through appreciate your light i appreciate your words good job charlie the best when i grew up i want to be just like you i was rabbi and that that's our show today and and really i want to end with what the rabbi just said because he said something that triggered in my head with this i want to end shabbat's a time of reflection or surpassed times of appreciation you stand when you say and you turn to god and you give testimony to him creating the world it's an incredible moment and you give testimony the fact that he created a bond with us he the rabbi said something incredible i want to end with i remember once we took our kids from passover to a program and one of my kids whatever they were fetching a little bit you get used to living a different life when you're on a pesach program and we sat down over dinner and we tried to explain to our children this is gonna last forever like all the food and the pool and the whole deal don't don't not take this in don't miss what's in front of you because if you miss what's in front of you you're not to feel what you're supposed to feel you're you're privileged you're here on this program don't be blind to what's in front of you remember what ryan wilson said i want to make sure we i want to end with what he said we're living in the times of prophecy we're living we don't have a prophet we have the back end of the prophet when the prophet made the call no one was around to know he was right we're living in the times of prophecy insane we have to stop and just let that in i am part of a nation i am living in the times of prophecy i feel so blessed to be who i am and i'm so proud of it that i want other people to experience it as well that's the joy of what it means to be a jew and that's shabbat shabbat god says whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa don't run don't run don't run oh we have a bond me and you look at what i've been doing for you not bad huh you're living in a pesach program ups and downs but don't let your life go by without stopping to appreciate the privilege so on behalf of me and mine to you and yours i want to wish you a thoughtful and appreciative and inspiring a restful shabbat may we use this shabbat to swell our pride for who we are and may that pride spill over to everyone that we know we're part of something special it doesn't mean we're better than other people we're part of something special and it's important to know who you are no matter where you are in the world watching no matter how good or bad you think you are are a piece of a miracle and that's incredible good shabbos and shabbat shalom and i hope and i pray that next week we get to do this live from jerusalem but if not with god's help i hope to see you again next week at 5 30. shabbat shalom [Music] you