The Shabbat Show- Episode 25: Sukkot Edition

[Music] hello everybody and welcome to another edition of the shabbat show so great to be back with you again what an honor to be here another incredible week with you um you know this is a special show because this is really a show that is beyond just uh shabbat now now we're entering into a no another world we're entering into a world of joy we're entering the world of sukkot and thank you so much for joining us throughout this period of time we were together for rosh hashanah we were together for yom kippur now being here together for the next of this incredible series of holidays is so special and what we're going to talk about in the show is joy where does it come from how do we get it where does happiness rest we live in a world sometimes where we think that the the person who consumes the most is the happiness but then when you get close to that you realize that's not really the case the jewish perspective on happiness is critical verb tells us that we have this obligation to be always happy can you imagine can you imagine that god wants us he's commanding us to figure out how to live a life you're happy all the time ups downs good days bad days and what i think we're going to discover throughout the show and stick with us so we get really through each piece of this i think we're going to discover throughout the show is that the holiday of sukkot is very much not only a holiday that is we are able to be happy but it's actually a holiday that is going to give us the tools that we need to be happy not only for the next few weeks but as we get into the next few months living in very uncertain times in many ways we're living in if you will a temporary dwelling things feel temporary things don't feel like it's gonna last this way are we going in one direction another direction we're trying to plan something is is january gonna be okay to plan something is it february is it march like no one knows school's open school's clothes you have it you don't have it do we have guests doing all desks living in this temporary world everything feels off well there is no greater holiday than sukkot which is a holiday where we're commanded to move into a temporary dwelling and figure out a way to stay happy even though we're not in our houses we're a little bit more insecure if you will that whole metaphor that we go through in sukkot is the metaphor of our lives and we're going to delve into it today so thank you so much for joining us i want to give a special shout out to baltimore a time if you are here from baltimore you are in the right place if you if you're coming based on this flyer this is the right place for you to be um and the reason is because i was scheduled to speak just for baltimore it's high-end tonight and because we have the shabbat show it conflicted and the baltimore and guys were so kind nice and forgiving and they said let's listen we'll just come to this show it's about joy let's just do it once so i want to thank them so much they have actually been our sponsors since day one and they've been with us on the shabbat ever since and i want to give a special shout out before i introduce the rabbi um to the sponsors of the event for the baltimore time group to doctors isaacs and nowy and stern from braces md and braces md orthodontics and to richard rubin for their sponsorships and their support and their love and their friendship and now we have on uh tonight today a special guest who's going to share with us a few words the director of a time rabbi zev pomeranza rabbi welcome to the show thank you very much charlie it's great to have you on and of course i would love to have been spending more time with you hopefully we'll get that into the future and welcome to you and the entire baltimore crew for being on with us today you know we're talking about happiness and joy share this if you can your perspective on it that may be something we can take with us just how to become more connected to that um so just a quick thought um you know in sukkot the torah tells us to be assamef only happy only joyous and uh i think you know you've heard of you knock one before about happiness renault says that our natural state is really to be happy and we just kind of have to peel away other things that kind of take that away from us so going out into the sukkah roughing it everyone likes roughing it a little bit you know going out in into the elements and not having to worry about so much of the aesthetics and and i think you know the more that we can learn how to take away the external things in our lives and coming back to the elemental things of who we are as human beings and just what it is to be alive it's just beautiful just you know you see like a small child like a baby and you just they don't have anything they don't worry about anything they're just happy with what what they've got and you know i think trying to get back to that beautiful uh sweet um simple joy is uh that that's very meaningful to me that's what i'm looking forward to do over circus oh it's amazing that's an amazing concept and i think you're absolutely right this ability to sort of give back to the basics and who we are thank you rabbi so much for joining us thank you for bringing your incredible group and i look forward i hope in the future be able to connect to you guys directly thank you very much and what a great story what a great thought and what a great way to get opened here is this idea of sukkot coming bringing us back to something getting us back to our fundamentals that's really where the secret of happiness is we've got a lot to talk about on happiness this is a big show on it we've got the show back kahoot's back so those who missed kahoot last week we got it back so get your competitive juices flowing got a great litany of guests we got harvard graduate rabbi hanan anthony gordon from l.a on we got the hysterical debbie hirsch from jerusalem who will be joining us we got rabbi aries arya roy from rocklin county part of a great group he's going to be on as well we got jamie yellow of course jamie's our constant source of of inspiration and we love having her on we got videos we got inspiration a lot coming on i hope you stick with us all to the end and if you want to share it with somebody else please just send them to the shabbat show.com anytime shabbato.com we actually have all the other episodes up there as well so if you see something that you like you heard an interview that you're like wow i love that or many times we have interviews and we have the full one online so check out the shabach.com you can vote it to somebody that you know that you feel would gain from this show and of course it's always a good time for one on ones why not get wisdom delivered directly to you one on one ninety seven thousand to one on one text no 101 to 97 000 such a great time we just came out of yom kippur we told god we want to be closer we want to know more about runs than his religion we're entering into the who knows what like who doesn't need wisdom right now and it's available so check it out 97 one-on-ones let's just begin a little bit i know we got so much to cover just a couple a couple of couple a couple i missed so much this last week being able to see everybody and just wish everybody uh uh shabbat shalom and uh the first one to adami adam left from mount vernon new york to leia friedman um in from california to ozzie from baltimore miriam carr shabbat shalom julie roll shabbat shalom covey baron shabbat shalom loving the baltimore representation that's coming down over here leon pomerantz from atlanta georgia shabbat resnik reznicki shabbat shalom to you the seidel is from baltimore shabbat oh my gosh baltimore is killing him i expect other cities to start jumping in right now um to john from oxfordshire england how's that thank you for watching thanks for tuning in shabbat shalom uh carol druck from the upper west side the silvers from highland park bob in atlanta shabbat shalom of course servka tyler patriots rock getting ready for your performance today uh cesendro from baltimore the goldman family from baltimore shabbat shalom okay we'll get some more a little later for now let's check out this incredible video um from from h.com entitled sukis living under the stars [Music] oh my god say that i love that as an understatement that what an incredibly true video wow so inspiring to see people that push past limitations that's the beginning i think what we're getting at with the holiday of sukkot being able to look at who we are and realizing that we're much deeper than that life is so much deeper than our possessions life is so much deeper than the things that we have and as we start to delve into it we start to look at those possessions very differently my first guest is anthony anthony gordon he was the he from his days of a stand-up comment in johannesburg south africa to organizing a major music concert wallace while a student at the harvard law school to representing as a wealth and business manager some of the most prominent athletes celebrities and the wealthiest families in this in this world hanan's experiences are certainly unique and his perspective is as well you're really going to enjoy i had a chance to listen to him earlier check out this message from so folks the question is does success equal happiness in many ways i think the almighty gave me a very unique vantage point to respond to that question and in the context of sukkot specifically allow me to explain there was uh in the early 1990s a few months after graduating from harvard law school the partner walks into my office not that dissimilar from this office hands me a manila folder and i turned the folder over to see the name of the client what the assignment was and in black bold i saw the names janet jackson so one of our clients janet jackson i want to do a specific movie based on a manuscript and the whole issue turned around a copyright so in the course of the assignment i had to befriend counsel from the other side a person by the name of john branca so john represented one of janet's brothers who you might have heard of michael jackson and so months led into a relationship between myself and john one day john said anthony why don't you come over to the house on a specific sunday so as i arrived at this palace you know with a butler as a butler parked my car it was clear to me within minutes that everyone who wasn't anyone in the music world in the 1990s was in that house famous people tremendously rich people but here's the problem as i reversed out of john branca's house i felt a pet in my stomach i don't think i've experienced as many unhappy people under one roof and these people my friends are the richest and the most famous it was very clear to me at the time that money is certainly not going to buy happiness and being a household name is not the ticket to happiness either and i think a large part of the unhappiness that was that was so clear to me at the time is that these are folks who are connecting happiness purely to the body something that is transient something that is connected to what other people expect their their entire self-worth so connected with their net worth true happiness my friend can only be by definition connected to the other part of the human psyche which is the soul the soul is eternal the soul is a part of the almighty himself and true happiness can only be a byproduct of living a meaningful and purposeful life as opposed to the transience of fame and fortune in fact if you look at the hebrew word for happiness if you look at the phonetic etymology of samar the same root means to grow true happiness comes from setting goals growing something that's not transient but something by definition that is part of our spiritual connection sukkot is coming up and one of the things that we learn in a sukkah is this the covering of the sukkah should be in such a way that you should be able to see the stars as someone who's been around the hollywood stars i can say unequivocally if you want to be a true star connect with your soul not your body we've been given the instructions of how to have a fulfilled meaningful a happy life in the torah that's our gps let's focus on that and let's keep our feet on the ground and reach for the slaughters as well and this exactly sort of the the the thinking that we've been doing over here which is there's got to be another way there's got to be a deeper place that you as we build out we realize that's where our happiness lies and thank you for that message to uh dana goldman in the goldman family from baltimore shabbat shalom miriam um to mike skolnick mike skolig from st louis huxmark from tobacco from baltimore uh to rifka to you okay let's get to the next uh part of our program over here listen we thought that we had you know a lot of baltimoreans here today so we would uh give another shout out to that it's a wonderful group so in honor of our partners joining us today and speaking about joy we want to show you a piece written and performed by a local baltimorean it's called ano movado and it's the second single from the guitarist singer songwriter yutzi kaplowitz who by the way is also a doctor so for the jewish moms forget it does it get better than that i don't think so his other songs coming right next to right this song is a piece of his upcoming debut album called hyom check out this song [Music] the sun shines bright each and every day give thanks for the miracles i say open your eyes to see the world's lights they're [Music] me [Music] bye the morning dew listens endlessly spring flowers bloom comes for all to see the birds sing their songs [Music] sing this [Music] there may come a day where life won't go away [Music] sadness and despair gray skies everywhere [Music] but you know yes it's true [Music] he's always standing with you helping you to get by there's no reason to cry [Music] him [Music] ain't nobody [Applause] [Music] is [Music] me [Music] you know thank you so much for that beautiful song coming at you straight from baltimore we appreciate that and it's so true god runs this world and nothing but him the more we think we get that the more we can connect to something much deeper i mean really joy is connected to [Music] that concept there's more out there than just me taking life sometimes a little bit too seriously sometimes i think in life we take ourselves a drop too seriously all of us do we want things to be right we want things to make sense especially now with what's going on and everyone sort of has their way and if it's not my way then it's not right and sometimes it gets too tight well i had a great conversation earlier this week that i want to share with you it's with a woman named debbie hirsch now debbie rush has run laughter games workshops internationally for over 10 years and she's coached tens of thousands of people on how to have more fun it's awesome she's attended she attended the school of performing arts in new york city she's been in the hollywood films she's performed on stage all over the world interviewed by diane sawyer on good morning america in front of over 20 million people about how she lives her daily life she also worked in morgan stanley in human resources and she's been teaching dance improv and music for over 30 years she's a wife and mother of eight adventurous children living in jerusalem and she's hysterical and really practical i really enjoyed my conversation earlier this week with her check her out check out this interview i had a chance to sit down with her and get really practical things that we can do immediately with our families to bring a little more of that joy and laughter and humor in their lives check this out so um one of the games that we like to do we actually do it around the shabbat table often uh is an exercise called catch the good and really it's uh it's just as it sounds we all go around and we talk about a time when we actually caught someone doing something good whether it was that day that week that year it could have been 10 years ago so what do i mean by that is is that um i find that it's so easy for for myself to catch people doing things wrong or to criticize of course as a parent and as a wife you know can you just put the socks inside the laundry basket it's right there you know or like kids just stop fighting it's way easier than saying you're playing so nicely and quietly together that's much harder but if we can practice and work that muscle and get good at it i think that would actually add a lot of joy so for example last week i was online at the supermarket and i saw this teenager in these ripped clothes and i'm thinking to myself like everything was ripped his pants his shirt his shoes like couldn't he find anything that wasn't ripped and then i saw that he let an old person with a ton of stuff go right in front of him and i thought to myself wow like who cares if he has ripped clothes that was amazing and so i shared that with the family and and the family whoever wanted to participate shared something nice catching other people doing things right and why is that actually such an important thing um besides the obvious we want to ultimately be able to catch ourselves doing things right and become our biggest fans and our biggest cheerleaders you know we make mistakes we fall down like we get so upset but if we can just raw right and and keep on cheering ourselves on then there's nothing that we can't do so that's a nice exercise yeah it's great here's another one yeah great another one i'd like actually you two uh to try with me it's a really fun game okay again work on that positivity it's called fortunately and unfortunately so basically we're gonna have a little conversation here charlie and we're begin each sentence with the word fortunately and then we'll move to unfortunately and of course doing that we'll be able to focus on something good about whatever subject we choose and also be able to sort of let go complain a little bit just sort of you know let out whatever steam we have and be real okay so let's take the obvious i thought maybe we would just do corona because that's on everybody's mind so i had to begin with unfortunately so let me actually do two and then you'll do two unfortunately we can't have as many guests this year in arsenica because of corona fortunately that means more food for me okay how about you your turn um unfortunately i can't go to israel this year because it's locked down and not letting us in fortunately that means i get to spend a lot more time in my house that was amazing okay so obviously we can keep going back and forth and what's really more fun is that you know we have a whole bunch of people playing it and each person unfortunately fortunately and it doesn't even have to be about something deep fortunately i had the day off of work today unfortunately i had to take my son to the dentist unfortunately they fit me in you know right away unfortunately he had 10 cavities unfortunately you know that my son lied and said it was because i was such a great cook unfortunately the dentist was at my house and she knew it was a big fat lie it's great because you can't go wrong it's not like you can have the wrong answer it's just fun and it's real and again it's just so important to be able to work that muscle of positivity because really charlie i mean we all go downhill i complain you know politics our situation the weather we all do but what happens when we do that is it just saps us of energy you gotta try this you the moment you find a karate toe something to appreciate some little small good we're completely energized it's like an amazing amazing thing so i think it's a nice way for all of us to sort of work that muscle yeah i love it more importantly what you're getting at is so critical because if you're in a situation with other people without lecturing them you're teaching them how to be positive it's not like you're giving them a class on positivity you're just this is what we do and i can't see my i can see my in my house like some kids being like this is so dumb but if you just keep on pushing long enough they'll buy it exactly oh and they will my teenagers of course is done yet absolutely but it's true because the moment my child starts uh complaining about the homework or about these zoom calls that have to do with school and i'll say fortunately one day he'll get a job because of this teacher and then he'll say unfortunately and then i'll make himself fortunately and they'll have to find it but we all can do it about anything we just have to be able to choose to so i think the last the last thing i would like to share and it's really my favorite i'm actually going to grab a prop right next to me uh which is a water bottle and the game is called imagination so basically you just grab any prop next to you a spoon a shoe it doesn't matter what a pack of sugar and we're going to use our imagination and we're going to pretend it's something other than it's not so for example welcome ladies and gentlemen i'd like to invite you to name that tune lala oh i forgot to brush my teeth one second okay a little brush my hair a little bit um oh the baby's crying it doesn't matter actually can come up with a hundred things when we play this game at home we literally can take one object and come up with about 50 things and what's amazing who do you think is of course the best at this game just keep going kids they are amazing why because they have no blocks their imagination is absolutely open they're amazing and you cannot help first of all say wow which is an amazing confidence booster but i love the game why is it important for me because i'm able to see other possibilities you know we're all in our little comfort zones and you know we're like i'm good here no no i don't exercise i don't know that volunteer stuff that's not really for me i'm i'm good i'm here i'm fine the only problem is it's comfortable but i'm not going to learn a thing and the moment i come out of that comfort zone or i stop seeing this as a water bottle suddenly the whole world is like available to me and all of these possibilities are open and i'm able to see it more so it's just a great way for for me to just open up and just be open to all the amazing amazing gifts that are really come you know coming our way so i just i just just want to encourage everybody once again to just be open you know there's all these challenges our situation it's just it's very challenging i'm not going to make up and say it's wonderful smile be positive that's crazy but the truth is somehow it's great for us so as we're in the sukkah and we're like moved outside and it might be a little uncomfortable a little too cold a little too hot it's something different it's something other than what we're used to and that's good because that helps us to grow and then we're open to new things oh i love it i hope that those are some good good ideas for them great ideas and it's all it's the right message it's what we want we need it's that the happiness that we're looking for in life is not going to be handed to us on a silver platter it's on the inside we got to bring it out debbie that was awesome i thought that was awesome i thought she was great you can go to her website if you want to find out more it's laughtergamesworkshop.com apparently she's got like dozens and dozens and dozens of these games you know one of the things that i think is is coming out is two different concepts that i want to make sure is clear one is a concept and one is an exercise there's a concept that when we understand them and think about them they drive us towards a happier life right we're not really our possessions we god runs the world and the more we see that and are connected that in a deeper way the more we don't have to control it ourselves but there's exercises and i think what was so critical about what she brought out and i want to encourage everyone to make up your own because i i was really taken by it i've got thank god a table and you know it's like you say some stuff and whatever it is and by the way this isn't just applicable if you're sitting in a tsuka this is everyone in the world if you're going to be in a sukkah if you're not going to be in a sukkah we are all living in a temporary world right now so regardless of where you are we are all in the world's sukkah this sukkot so even if it's around your dining room table when we when we push to create exercises for people to start seeing and flexing the happiness muscle we make them better people we make them more grateful people we make them less serious about everything and i just think that it was so critical the one thing before we move on i try to what got me with that last one you know the last one was the hardest one the imagination i can only imagine like taking out a bottle and doing it in front of people and i think to myself actually saying it yeah my little ones would be like all over this and as you get older you just become less you become a little less imaginative you become a little bit more constrained and that's good sometimes but it's not sometimes not only do we have to recognize that the world is bigger than us and we have this ability to be happy internally we also have to realize that happiness is a muscle and it's like any other muscle if you want to run a marathon you got to start running you want to be happy always ups and downs where you got to start exercising that muscle and with you with the right ideas and the right exercises you get to a place where rabbi nachman and was taking us to which is this what god wants of us he wants us to be happy so i thought that was awesome and wonderful couple more shout outs lots of baltimore love this week the pomerantz family from baltimore uh shabbat shalom to reena brokovich to jeb shabbat shalom to you did the novak's from toronto shabbat so we always get some love from our brothers and sisters up north you saw mayor from passaic shabbat shalom to you elisheva gold savannah georgia shabbat shalom to you hannah anderson from scottsdale arizona fallon levin from detroit don't you love this for those who are joining us for the first time do you not love this i love this part i love the part i love saying baltimore scottsdale detroit toronto and georgia in one sentence together jewish people one nation i love it revain resin call from baltimore shabbat shalom to rachel s from providence rhode island shabbat shalom to you elisa baron um shabbat shalom to you dan k from silver spring uh okay let's go to the next video we have here another great video from h dot com it's called the three s's of sukkot happiness and the three s's of sukkot h.com delivers again check this out [Music] so foreign [Music] i love that some of the stuff that i think when we're watching it we know it's true but we have to really make sure it's it's really a part of our lives grad gratitude we gotta appreciate the smallest things in the world and really allow us to be bigger to be more which allows that growth of happiness to come out uh it's time for kahoot for those of us that are joining us the first time this is where your competitive juice starts to flow for those that are back welcome back to kahoot i know this is a fun time for everybody my mom included we try to slow down a little bit to go just to make sure my mom gets on 264-1798-264-1798 let the the party begin over here the al shimonis from baltimore shabbat shalom to you uh madeleine friedman from and avi maddie and abi shabbat shalom to you keith yeager from rockville maryland shabbat shalom adrian grant from atlanta lori hi fitz from the upper west side terry gitlitz from baltimore shabbat shalom cox make to all of you from erica and roger matlow from southampton thanks so much for tuning in we appreciate that um shabbat shalom to leia bessette shabbat shalom to esther bort esther bortnick shabbat shalom two okay here we go kahoot's coming and we'll give another minute or two and we'll get rolling with kahoot everyone's just signing in right now you go to kahoot.it on your app or you can just go to the website and go to kahoot put in this number and get ready to roll great gifts just go to projectinspire.com they will send you some stuff especially for this period of time okay let's begin uh okay okay let's just begin let's do this okay here goes first question the holiday of sukkot commemorates all the following except all the following except jews going through the wilderness after leaving egypt protective cloud that accompanied the jews through the wilderness the bamboo shoots that they ate while in the wilderness or the tents the jews lived in while in the wilderness right a lot of wilderness going on over here is it leaving egypt protective clouds bamboo shoots or the tent all of these except for which one edie goldberg from baltimore shabbat shalom eliza mervis shabbat shalom the answer is right not the bamboo shoots you would think that we would find a way to celebrate everything that we eat not in this time excellent we all did very well in this one okay here it goes how we did mervis family patriots rock right on right on the back of it sarah rm and gibbs the leader board continues let's go to the next question how do you say tent in hebrew sukha mishkan kiosk or o hell how do you say tent in hebrew sukha mishkan kiosk to michael and michelle sullivan from baltimore noah dubin from baltimore to the silver family thank you so much here comes the answer the answer is oh hell a little bit of a trick question with the holiday coming up here the oh hell mervis stays on gibbs rm sarah and ozzy i think that's ozzy from baltimore that would be my guess if it is identify yourself i'm getting ready for the third question over here let's say we do the etrogue or citron is one of the three core species of citrus fruits which of these which of these is a hybrid fruit what's a hybrid fruit mandarin orange pamela or pepita i think i should know what a pepita is but i don't mikhail dhanowicz from baltimore special shout out to the pomerantz kids to eat on youtube from baltimore of course the bagoon and bolton family shabbat sham told you guys we love you thank you for your constant love and support here it is an orange which of these is a hybrid fruit the orange whoa that is a shocker that's going to definitely mix up our leaderboard over here let's see how he did it didn't oh my gosh unbelievable this is the leader border as as it is right now okay next question here we go at the time when the holy temple was standing seventy bulls were offered on sukkot why seventy bulls you see we have just a range the prophetic connection between michael jordan 23 times three plus one okay merit for the 70 countries of the world they would have done more but there was no time or none of the above is it an mj connection 70 countries of the world there would have been lot more but there was no time how many bulls can you actually offer in a day or none of the above here we go very good very good okay we split here we're actually bringing offerings for the entire world sukkot is really the holiday for the for the entire world the jewish people bring it in okay let's see who won let's get to the final scores sarah comes in third good job sarah patriots rock represents yet again of course she does and the winner this week is the mervis family the murmus family look at this runner's up belleville nah thank you so much for playing congratulations for those that are playing kahoot you can email projectinspire.com for your gifts our next guest is a great guy who i've spent many many weekends with his name is rabbi arie royd he is the former director of project inspire rocklin county and is the founder and director of the organization the traveling hasidim they go around different communities they light the place up you got to see him and his incredible crew of awesome people uh in your community uh where he's traveled the world with fellow hasidim singing dancing and inspiring his way into the hearts of all jews rabbi welcome to the show thank you charlie for having me oh it's great to have you on nice to see you here usually when i see you you're dancing you're singing there's a group of people around you it's rocking wherever you go i'm happy i get to see you in one place sitting down i've never seen that before by the way i'm not in my element i don't know how to sit in one place i figured i'm happy we have you right now and we're talking about happiness right and happiness if it's a jewish concept it's not a simple concept god's not like listen you know what better be happy than unhappy there's got to be something very deep and mystical about the the the effort the being happy can you share with us maybe the hasidic perspective what joy is and how it relates to the holiday coming up oh so it's interesting interesting way how you phrased that question because like the hasidic perspective on joy is like asking elon musk what's his perspective on self-driving cars you know is joy this is what we are this is our essence so it's not our perspective on it this is what we do all day and we believe that not just one should add simran add joy to the mitzvos we do but in itself joy in itself is a mitzvah and just being happy that itself brings you the closest it's it's it's the greatest mitzvah more than anything else and you know i i've always felt that commonly the most the most famous jewish word out there is probably oi you may agree with me on that i is definitely in the top ten that's for sure now what i think is it's a mistake the mistake is that we that was just the first syllable of the oil which begins the song like oh your yo-yo type of thing right right right right so everyone got stuck in the first syllable of the oy and they think that's what judaism is but it really is that's just the beginning yiddish kite is all about the sinking and the dancing that's what you described is that's what khasid is really taught that as i mentioned besides doing a mitzvah yeah just be happy itself is the greatest smith's fan in itself so let's talk about that because that's definitely a new uh element that a lot of people i don't think understand even myself i've learned this my whole life it's it's really important that i can put this into my real emotional awareness which is it does seem like happiness is the cake the cherry on top like it'd be nice to be happy but like we got so much to do and a lot going on and and even as our as a nation we're always running to or from something and what you're getting at which really is a very core fundamental understanding and when and when we when we really think about this it'll really change our perspective maybe even on judaism entirely which is happiness in itself is a mitzvah the the the happiness that we bring alone is enough so to speak yeah so it's why is that why it's simple i i i would love for my children to always help more at home and sweep the floor and wash the dishes but if they are just happy kids that would be the greatest knackers for me not just they are happy kids outside but they prefer to spend their time in my house well then their friends is also the greatest thing for me as a parent you know when we do any mitzvah every mitzvah we do is nice we're listening to god okay but if we if we just walk around happy hashem put us in this world and we're just exploring life happily we show we're appreciative of just who we are and when we're in hashem's house and happy it's the best thing you could do as to show hashem this exactly what you gave me is exactly what what i want and therefore it's when we say mitzvah mitzvah is a way to connect or it brings knackers for hashem so as i said just like a parent all they want is the children to be happy yeah that's all goshem wants so every time we do our mitzvah as i said it's great we're listening to god we're doing we're doing mitzvos we're making him you know listening to his commandments it's not still not the real deal until we're just full of joy and hashem says oh that's all i want i created a beautiful world put in people that i want you to enjoy yourself and if you enjoy yourself it was worth creation just for that you know it's interesting to say that because i just had the very similar experience um you know so i just built the sukkah you know i that's what we do now like we're constantly building whatever so i spent you know today basically building the sukkah in the backyard and one of my children it's all good i love them all god bless them all one came out with me and he was so i mean they all helped but there's helping and then there's like blown away whatever it is i'm your right hand i'll do everything happy about helping and it it hit me in the middle of our our um building and whatever we were doing he wasn't doing anything like what was he doing he was like just around it did give me the greatest joy because he was happy just to be around me and just to be doing the things that i was doing and i think the deeper pieces what you're bringing out here which is so critical is that when we are able to find happiness in every moment in a way we're showing god you got the world that that's your business whether i'm doing i'm sitting on the couch having an isis or whether i'm building a sukkah whatever it is i'm doing in life that's your business i'll tell you what i'm going to do god i'm going to be happy i'm going to just take everything in life and try to find joy in it and when i do that i am just happy to be in it with it and with you um and i think that's exactly right and i think your points are and i think it's important for us to get it that happiness is itself a the destination itself rabbi thank you so much for joining us today a happy holidays to you a good yantas continue bringing light and joy to the world and i hope and pray that soon you'll be able to go back around and do it your way not in this and thank you so much for joining us and that's really what we're driving towards it's just this concept that when we're able to be a little bit bigger and realize that god's running this world it allows us to be present and when we're present and appreciative and grateful and disconnected from things sometimes that are connecting too much to us it brings out this joy it's a tremendous difference um i want to give a special show before we go to to jamie gill i want to give special shabbat shalom to some more people that are coming in right now to shira grill shabbat shalom to you um gabby kesten of queens shabbat shalom the patulski family from waterloo ontario rachel from providence shimon cats from baltimore of course rabbi gordon is on right now he's in orlando right now about to start his uh sukis gig we we welcome you and thank you for being on our program earlier rhys and brian wolfe oak park michigan shabbat shalom esther bortnick shabbat shalom to you pam and jim laken from cleveland shabbat shalom to you and how you like those browns man wow those browns are doing well okay let's see big year this year for the clevelanders over here uh david dabba thank you very much from lakewood thank you so much shimmy and cats from baltimore the burnham family from baltimore elena baron from baltimore um okay let's go right now to the one and only the one of our great partners who we enjoy having on the show all the time check out the latest from our one and only jamie yellow thanks charlie so much hello everybody and hi mom hi jerry i know you guys are watching mwah love you so much okay just a little shout out to the family this week we are making stuffed cabbage and not just because it's going to remind you of your bubbie but because it's actually a classic torah food so simcha tara is the holiday that ends the sort of sukkot celebrations and it's been customary to eat rolled and stuffed foods that remind us of rolling the torah and so it's gone from like extending to the beginning of sukkot so stuffed cabbage is a classic not just ashkenazi delight but classic for this holiday if you haven't noticed we are kind of like in the prime time holiday season here so hopefully you have room and all of your clothes still fit um for one at least one adorable cute stuffed cabbage roll enjoy this and shabbat shalom [Music] foreign [Music] hmm [Music] do [Music] thank you jamie every time i'm telling you i'm thinking wow that's i can really use that right now i get hungry right away jamie the best thank you so much for as always a wonderful recipe for more jamie gala go to jamiegale.com facebook instagram pinterest youtube twitter tick tock jamie geller jewish by jamie and of course shout out to her mom and jerry thanks so much for watching and being part of the show and and really this is where we're driving towards i'm sorry for those who couldn't get to the shout outs for this week we thank you so much just one or two more malka and toronto sarah vax from baltimore thank god so much please please send us and it gives us i i got to tell you i enjoy it so much just being able to wish shabbat shalom and everybody from those that are tuning in thanks so much for tuning in for the first time for those who are here for the first time we're here every single week eight o'clock and i really want to sort of bring a little bit of this together you know we're all looking for happiness in this world right what whatever you have if it doesn't come with happiness what's the point i was on the phone today with a good a great holy rabbi and i was asking him for a blessing for somebody and the person has everything i mean everything and he said to me something so interesting he said if he doesn't have happiness from it what's the point you can have things in life but if it doesn't give you happiness if it doesn't give you satisfaction if it doesn't bring you joy then is it better to have it and we live in a world where we are taught and told so often that consume first and you'll feel good later just go go go go go go go go no one has ever taught happiness in schools at least not the ones that i went to you're just taught to accomplish and when you're done accomplishing they have another level for you to accomplish so when you're done accomplishing elementary school all you get for your efforts is you get to go to high school and then from high school you get to go my path was to college and then from college i went to law school and from law school i got to the law firms and from the law firms i get you climb into the world all of us in our own ways are down this world of accomplishing when they're little you get them here then they get bigger you get them here then you get you're constantly in a game of either accomplishing for yourself or for others and it's awesome and it's wonderful but it is it's a consume first mentality right it's like eat first and then you'll feel better later but the jewish approach is not like that trust me the jewish approach is for sure in the world of building this world where we're charged by god to be his partners in creation we're charged by god to go make the world a better place materialism is something that we run from we don't live in monasteries but with the essence of judaism is not the consumption of things the essence of judaism is the integration of things it's always making sure that whatever we have it can be integrated properly and integration takes place through gratitude and through understanding that it's not just me that did it and in getting perspective and knowing that there's a time and a place for everything and learning how to take the things that i have and suck out the joy in them you know many times in life the things that bring us the most bitterness really are the things that we have to work on to find the most joy because by finding the joy in our challenges we not only train ourselves to be happier people we start to find joy in everything in life and this holiday of sukkot which i implore everybody to celebrate in whatever way you can if you have a tsukawa wonderful if you don't have a sukkah still have meals if you can get to a sukkah even once even one time it's worth it because the experience whether it's the rabbis or neighbors or friends it doesn't matter the holiday really is a holiday of as much as possible in our new world of of this virus getting together with others but this the lessons of the tsukais you were once on a mountaintop in yom kippur just a minute ago you were standing you know face to face with god you were able to shed your materialism you were able to stand in a fast and pray and and remove the blocks both physically spiritually and be a an angel and yom kippur were considered like angels and what sukkot really is is this bridge to the world it's the ability to come back down and when you come back down you don't come back down to your regular life you go through a period of time where you say well i'm not going to be like that i'm not an angel i'm a human being but i want to be able to still look up and realize that you're on this world i want to be able to still be inside something that is the shade of god and i want to get that lesson down so that when i go back into my home now i can live with that for the rest of the year when you live with god anything is possible and bad things will pass and insecurity and uncertainty becomes a little bit more secure and a little bit more certain because something else and someone else is running the world you are free to be present and when you're present you are free to find joy wherever we are the more present we're in it the more we let go of the things that we can't control the more we are appreciative and the more we are connected to the deep source and the more we have the ability to find joy because joy and happiness don't come to us we search for it that's the greatest accomplishment the consumption model that many of us grew up in could be correct if what we're consuming is the joy within things not the thing itself there's no greater time than right a second so for those that are joining us now thank you so much for being a part of this and for me and mine to you and yours i want to wish you an incredible holiday wherever you are an incredible holiday in shabbat this is the season now of joy and may we become searchers of joy may we not wait for it to come to us those days are over now we have to go ahead and get it we have to go ahead and find it we got to look at our spouses and our children and our families and ourselves and go find ways to be happier to be more appreciative to be more grateful and with that we will find ways to live in joy which is the mitzvah in itself wherever you are you can do this mitzvah you can look from search for joy so for me and mine to you and yours i want to wish you shalom may this be a time filled with joy and i hope and pray that we get to enjoy the company of each other in the huge sukkah in jerusalem hopefully soon but if not look forward to seeing you again next week incredible incredible holiday and may we all live lives of true [Music] happiness [Music] bring me back to you back into your loving arms [Music] are you listening [Music] i don't know where i am [Music] bring me back into your loving nose so take me back take me back take me back into your lovely nose i can't do it alone [Music] bring me back to [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] my [Music] oh you