OU Live 26 March 2020

a little bit we're gonna meet rabbi mark wilds the founder of mje we're gonna Jam a little bit with Avram Rosenbloom who founded the Diaspora Sheva bands still love to hear from you love all the comments and the notes that I'm getting oh you live at OU u org it's been a really fun week so open to comments suggestions and anything that I can show my wife to prove her that I'm actually doing something when I disappear for a half-hour in the meantime it is a distinct honor to introduce our next guest rabbi Jason Weiner rabbi Weiner is the senior rabbi and director of the Cedar sinai spiritual care department I it's been like a good 15 20 years since living in a life but I think Cedar sinai is the largest hospital or definitely one of the big ones and Rabbi Weiner has really earned a a place of distinction as a rabbi and caretaker spiritual mentor rabbi Weiner welcome thank you thank you very kind so I can't imagine it shows mostly light-hearted I try to keep it that way but I I really can't imagine the notes that i i'm i'm seeing in i'm sure everyone's seeing same op-eds and memes and whatever it is from people who work in front-line health care and ER and i can't imagine what it's like to be on the spiritual side of that i'm just gonna ask you you know for those of us who don't know what what is the work of a hospital chaplain is that does that just mean you're you're someone's personal rabbi when their personal rabbi is not able to be there as any or the personal advocate what is it what does it look like and have have you built out your your department uh-huh yeah it's a great question you know a lot of people don't understand or chaplains are and i still get people asking me all the time you know when they introduced myself as chaplain Jews will say things like you know oh don't try it on us buddy no we're Jewish not gonna convert us so a lot of Jews don't understand what a chaplain does that's true it's basically you know I would not say that we're ever trying to replace persons rabbi if they have one we're certainly working in conjunction with them but a chaplain is the person who recognizes that you know healing health in general is about wholeness and wellness and just like we say Misha Berra you know Judaism has understood this for thousands of years you know when we say ref wats ha nefesh ref what a goof and unfortunately in the modern world the focus has only been in some places on you know a few watts ha goof but there's a much broader aspect of what it means to be human and part of being whole is being spiritually spiritually whole so a chaplains job is to try to help people find a sense of spiritual well-being and spiritual comfort whether that's specifically in ritual and text and traditional expressions of religion or in broader kind of prayer presence you know reflective practice that's more spiritual in nature so we're I mean like I said we're hearing these stories about about frontline healthcare and er's being run down and I see use how has your job changed since the onset of the virus yeah it's I mean it's stressful it's challenging it's scary there's just a lot of unknown and a lot of fear and it's changed in that you know the focus also has gone from being primarily on patients which it still is but it's brought into caring for the caregivers for staff who are feeling overwhelmed and afraid and on the one hand feeling like they have a sense of mission and they have to work hard and do everything they can for their patients which it means a lot more right now than it normally does at the same time feeling that they have to care for their families who are worried and concerned about them and it also means right now I'm caring for families of patients who are going through severe distress by not being able to be by their loved one side because hospitals have in vocht policies where they are preventing in in most cases outsiders from being in the hospital because of year of of you know transmitting disease and virus and so they have to be especially careful and so at this time when you have patients being brought to the hospital not just for a corona virus but for all sorts of things you have families who are stuck on the outside and need support and guidance and and and are anxious and looking for our guidance as well so it's brought it's also just this the hecticness I think everyone's experiencing where there's like no set schedule and things are happening at all hours and people are worried and we're trying to do everything we can but we don't have you know it's not like something that you do every day so it's like you know we're trying to do our best but there's the sense of you know everything's in haywire and you just have to figure out on the run what we're doing so what does that mean on a on a day to day basis or you are you finding care workers or you know nurses or PA then you just see like they're frazzled and you're like hey look let's talk or what does it mean to care for what does it mean to care for the caretakers yeah so it means a few things one thing it means simply as being present and being available we try to spend time you know on the floors up and about in the hospital and people you know there's a sense of camaraderie possible is much quieter now but those who are there feel like you know an appreciation that there's others there trying to help them and so that's part of what it means just being out and being available for them it also means proactively showing them that we care so whether that's creating signs that we put in the break rooms and care packages that are just kind of expressing that you know we care about you we appreciate you it means a lot to them it really goes a long way um I'm curious is there a cross over religiously meaning you have a robust department do you end up servicing Catholics do Catholics and observing Jews do catholics ever ask you to do rituals specific or the lot of Catholics Muslims whatever it is what happens when that happens well so our department I mean cedar side as a Jewish Hospital and even though we have chaplains of all different religions we believe that part of what it means to be Jewish hospitals to be concerned for patients who other would feel alienated meaning Jews who oftentimes feel when their let's say in a Catholic hospital to use that example your having a cross on the wall and a priest come to visit them feels you know it's feels strange to many Jews so we we want to be sensitive to that and therefore at our hospital we try to make sure that a Jewish patient gets a Jewish chaplain the Catholic patient gets a Catholic chaplain and etc so we're trying to provide care that is co-religionist as we call it although of course there are times whether it's the emergencies or someone's not available or things come up where support is needed across from the jinsan basically our approach to that is to say that you know what i like to say is you know every human being is in some ways like everyone else in the world in some ways like no one else in the world and in some ways like some other people and so what we try to recognize is that yeah for a practicing Catholic or practicing Muslim or never if you want to use as an example there are certain things that I do not have in common with them and certain things that we practice differently but there are certain things that we have in common for example most human beings I mean almost everyone there's there's a common sense of loneliness or fear or anxiety and the power of having someone who's compassionate and cares and non-judgmental to sit and listen and be with you so that can go beyond religion and sometimes there's even slight slightly sort of religious things that can cross religious boundaries like let's say a Christian patient even though I'm not going to perform any sort of Christian rituals with them but perhaps we can connect over Psalms or something like that if that's meaningful to them there are things that we share in common that we can not we can maintain our own authenticity but still share some sort of somewhat religious expressions together just thinking before about taking care of the caretakers and you're the caretaker taking care of the caretakers so who's taking care of the caretakers and to rephrase the question has has this crisis struck you personally pardon if it's overly personal question but it has this affected you has this affected you spiritually do you feel that that tension inside yourself or inside the other Co chaplains yeah of course I mean I think everyone's feeling I think everyone's feeling anxious right now and a little bit depressed and nervous and worried you know one knows what the futures gonna bring and us people already seen so much sadness and destruction and pain so of course I'm feeling that as well and some days really intensely and it's crucial every person in a caring profession in a service profession has to have some kind of a self-care plan so for me you know when I got into chaplaincy I got really into exercise I unfortunate had done a number of years of sort of neglecting myself physically and then I got unfortunately had that same experience I'm undergoing this experiences yeah so it's never too late so like lately I've been really trying to run a lot and you know do things to care for myself forcing myself to try to get enough sleep even when it's hard you know to go to sleep at night but sort of saying like I'm sorry too sometimes it's just leaving the hospital and say you know what today I need to make it a half-day or you know doing things to proactively care for ourselves is absolutely crucial right now and it's a great question I appreciate you asset because people need to be thinking about that especially as this drags on and on cannot maintain this without stopping to care for one's self and do things to promote one's own well-being definitely rather wiener just uh you have a final message or do you want to let people know how they can find you online I know you're a recent macabre safer thank you well I have a website rabbi whiner comm W ein a our rabbi whiner comm and people are and welcome I try to post stuff about medical ethics related and things that I'm interested in and people are welcome to be in touch that way and to know that um you know this is a difficult crisis but I have been so impressed and so heart warmed by the way the Jewish community has come together provided resources reached out to each other proactively people haven't just hunkered down and kind of hidden themselves rather they've sought and sought out ways to help others and I've been so impressed by that and we should really be proud of our community and the way we really care about each other and and that merit may God protect all of us have put an end to this and check the whole world and maybe see brighter days very soon I mean I want to thank you for joining and hopefully this is a reversal shabbos for you thank you I appreciate that seem too good to talk to you take care bye this is oh you live I'm your host Rabbi David Pardo we have an awesome lineup we've had a great week we've had some really great guests and we've had a lot of great suggestions from you thank you for being in touch please continue to do so we're taking off after today you know or shop Scottish but after that we're back on oh you live at oh you thought org share your suggestions stay tuned in about ten or so minutes we're going to jam out with our M Rosenblum of the day asked for you Shiva ban in the meantime it is my pleasure to introduce our next guest rabbi mark wilds my wilds is the founder and director of the Manhattan Jewish experience some 18 years ago maybe nineteen years ago he'll tell us about my wild okay 21 21 oh yeah I'm not bad 21 that's pretty good 18s close I mean 18 is like adulthood 21 is I don't know what that number means I'm just impressed you got Avram Rosenbloom he was one of my idols musically growing up and I have these lists of actually playing with him I played drums percussion he's awesome you know stick around you're not gonna kick you out yeah he's amazing 21 years ago you were like the first one thinking that there needs to be something for this age group that wasn't the rule yeah I mean we it was an experiment when I began mje the idea was to see if we could pull out of the woodwork 20s and 30s unaffiliated who were not currently engaged in Judaism actively engaged in their Judaism and didn't have much of a background and it turned into a whole big organizational mess called mg a big beautiful lovely mess yeah you know we had the days are bleeding into each other it was either yesterday or two days ago meaning last year in Corona years we had a rabbi Robinson on talking about how households have changed and adjusted and responded virtualized supposed to this you know new status quo I'm curious how 20s and 30s I can't say Millennials anymore because now we're grouping in Gen Z so how do how do you know folks who are living in the city and a lot of them alone how are they how are you servicing them and how are they planning on spending piece off and how are they dating and was my life looks like and yeah it's it's a really weird you know on one hand our population 20s and 30s maybe a little less anxious about the disease itself but a little more anxious about the isolation and aloneness because they're sort of initiative English to hear in their lives they no longer their families and having created their own family yet so they're very much alone a lot of them cooped up in these like tiny apartments it's probably one of the reasons that our heavy dose of online programming we shifted very quickly on purim to online not just with Magilla s there but with everything since literally every night of the week there are classes I'm doing a Lunch and Learn myself every day for an hour and I'm getting an average of a thousand viewers just for the Lunch and Learn those aren't the special ones my son who plays guitar yo SAF has been accompanying me for Kabbalah Shabbos 6:15 tomorrow you can just go on mje Jewish experience I'm sure the yo-you has a ton of this Abdullah Saturday night we had did a halal with eat on cast this morning so it's been like wonderful for my that Dominick I was on that too he's he's incredible he was incredible so it's being extremely well received it was a very quick pivot for us because we do so much already on social media and our population is so comfortable with it I would say primarily Facebook and Instagram those seem to be the big mediums for our population but it's like people feeling very very alone and isolated they're little freaked out about pass and we're a bit of an ik wand REE I've spoken with a number of post-game just about how to just creatively try to connect people because we can't do what we're so good at and what every care of organization needs to do which is to set people up for meals my wife is around the clock always setting people up every Shabbos I'm in my dining room here there's always 20 people here for lunch at my own home and the other five rabbis and we can't do that and it broke my heart I spoke to one of my students today Daniel he's originally from California he's in New Jersey now and his family he's an amazing amazing guy but his family's not really connected he didn't grow up with much and as of now he's doing the seder alone because I can't fix him up with a family and I don't want to take that responsibility that maybe he's carrying him if even if he isn't symptomatic that he's gonna bring it someplace the families are nervous about hosting I haven't seen my own father who's 87 billion Hara he lives across the park I haven't seen him in almost three weeks and you know everyone's a little freaked out so I on the good note on the positive note mg is actually taking a step forward we've gotten so much social media attention I've been on CBS twice and MetroFocus once and on PBS I'm getting calls because I did my first virtual bris thank God I wasn't the mohel I don't know if that would have been fine well I did I mean I'm doing yeah but I'm bummed I did I'm doing all this like stuff and and and people are loving it and they're so appreciative I'm getting outpourings and getting texts and emails all day thank you thank you thank you what's what's next you know I had one student we went to Israel this past summer we go every summer so I just in my life whatsapp the group it's like 25 participants you guys want to do a little zoom call so one woman you know everyone was like yeah everybody and we said well when's good and one woman responded I'm available all day all week any time you pick I'll be here people are so available now it just it's like a golden era of being able to connect with people in an era where we can't connect with people yeah time frauds what's your you know yesterday a rabbi while with whom you're not to be confused had some tips for for running a seder with your family meaning like half of the people running starting this year are running for the first time you are probably preparing people to lead start them by themselves I'm curious I'm curious a if if that's right and what what those conversations are like and B what your tips are so for us we are training people to run they are not only a seder alone but their very first ever Seder because every year we spend most of our time trying to send our people to other people's sadaham and we give them nice little void lot to share look what I learned at mje they don't really do their own okay now we're training them to actually run their own Seder and unfortunately as I just shared before we're not really setting them up with other people some so some people might just be with one parent some people might be alone what we're trying to do is replace the family if you will this is difficult replace the energy of the group with I'm doing this I can do this we have I'm doing a mock Seder next week rabbi penny Rosenthal who I'm sure you know is doing a mock Seder for us for Bobby Heller's we're just doing a lot of mock Saders and how to's to train people to sort of replace the chevre or the family with never done this before I'm gonna try this on my own this year and everything from costume your kitchen to selling comments to running your own Seder it's quite challenging I've been I was on the phone just last night with Rochester from from Rome while you were Herschel chefs - Lita and it was very very helpful to me I've been talking to other posts qiyam and mentors and teachers of mine how to really just pump them up and make them feel good about Passover even though they're nervous about being alone you have a you have like a tip or it could be a voir store could be a something to leave us with I know you please later remind me if I don't ask it's plug that that webinar but obviously you have a lot of material prepared but I'm just curious something you can leave with our listeners I'll tell you one thing I heard this actually from one of the Russia's Shiva's at weiu I have two boys in weiu and their home so I'm like peeking over their shoulder listening on their Torah one of the remains said something interesting about Korona the word seder means order because in order for us to feel cool ooh-hoo yacht salmon mitzraim as though you yourself were redeemed from Egypt you have to structure things it can't be loosey-goosey and that is a very important message for people now when you wake up who cares what time we wake up who cares what time we Dalvin who cares what time we know you have to create an order you got to get dressed I mean I'm sitting here I put the jacket on I just keep it right here and I keep putting it on before I teach it's a really important thing for people to create structure and Seder in their lives I know that's not maybe a piece of Torah for the Seder itself but it's a piece of Torah about the Seder that could be used for our lives right now don't let your day just sort of morph along hanging out in your sweats all day that is a not a good recipe for a healthy kind of structured day that needs beginnings and ends and times to pray and time to relax and and and and and and call other people the other thing I will mention I just saw a beautiful piece of Torah from the Rev Rev solve a check zakat olive Rocco who wrote so magnificently about how many times you'd see it mitzraim again and again and again is mentioned throughout our liturgy it's in the third paragraph of the Sh mods and brackets and Mazzone it's all over and then we've passed out on top of it and one of the things he mentions which is very very powerful we don't always think about this but our sensitivity to the oppressed to the victim to individuals who are somehow helpless in their situations you know where's the bleeding Jewish heart liberal come from why is it that in the forefront of every civil rights and human rights movement there's always Jews without fail and the rough roads that it is embedded within the Jewish consciousness to feel compassion and to feel sympathy for someone that is down and out and it's over the tariff I hafta say garel of the stranger thirty-six times not to take the amana's security of the collateral overnight I mean like a million-in-one because we began as slaves we began as an oppressed victimized people and that's why we keep going back to tea you'd see it mitzraim one of the reasons there are many reasons why it's so fundamental in our theology but one of the ideas is because acid alum Cassady banette and sensitivity compassion and kindness it's another very important message I think during this corona time no matter how bad off you think you are don't let the day go by without picking up the phone and calling someone who is older your parents your grandparents if you're blessed to have them and in and attend to someone that is more down-and-out and that could be very helpful to us and it's really expressive of one of the great themes of Pesa can I just want to break a rule because you you shred this piece from the rub and I I've heard a similar piece from the rub and maybe you were it also but I just want to share it anyway about the I it's that book that you know he came out these books constituents Lee the the one pays attention Redemption he talks about the meaning of yachts it's a strange like why we have to break it and the reason you have to break it the rough had this theory that he shares in the end of a logic mind that we could extrapolate all of scruffy from Malacca in a scientific orderly way if only we understood all the haha then we would we would be able to you know not putz around we would know for sure with the correct disguise so said they're one of the hollow hoes of being a slave in order to understand how stuff of freedom you need to understand the Holocaust of slavery and one of the locals of slaves is you can't marry why can't you marry that's all what's a scuffle not being able to marry the reason you can't marry is because marriage requires you to be able to abandon your identity I'm no longer a me I'm part of a we there's a new entity there's me you and then there's a we that's new and that you're part of these concentric circles as part of being part of a great person is being able to let go of the of the I'm just I and now I'm part of a larger thing and then you have a family and you have kids you have grandkids and you know concentric circles of community and hat and where's the moment where we saw that that the Jews who were slaves for hundreds of years became free it was in the moment when they left me trying and some had matzah and some didn't and the ones who had matzah broke theirs in half and shared with the ones who didn't I was in the home same idea differently Bush thank God well and by the way I mention other thing you could share this and your listeners can share this at the state or the ruff said that when he was a little boy his grandfather the famed rope climbs elevator came to his Seder as with a pot on his head and the reason he came with a pot on his head was to get to quit the kids to question and like what is going on he giggled as a kid you know serious grand for the trip times got a Thomas and there the other thing is is shake it up don't be bound if you will by the Haggadah the Haggadah should really be a springboard into a broader conversation and do whatever is necessary to get everyone at the table involved absolutely absolutely rabbi Wells those of us who are very fired up about the idea of coming to your webinar or just want to learn more from you and with you how did they find you online go my Facebook page is like crazy right now so rabbi mark wilds the picture you had of me before address like I was uh you know that was actually a mortgage am pulling up and virtually yeah that was my page what a rabbi mark wiles my public page or in Manhattan Jewish experience and you'll be able to hear it every every day 12:30 Kabbalah Shabbos tomorrow 6:15 Havdalah Saturday night you'll get all the stuff I would I would I would recommend the Facebook about a while it's been a pleasure I hope this job is brings you and your your halo of many thousands a lot of rest and restoration oh man you should be much sleep as well and thank you for doing this coca book take care you are on oh you live my name is rabbi David Pardo it's been an exciting week and genuinely looking forward to Shabbos even though it's been hard and different but it's a reconnect and we I don't to lose cash flow with you so be in touch screen touch in the comments be in touch at oh you live at ob.org let us know how things are sounds like we're ready for our next guest [Music] Omron Rosenblum can you flip your video on I hope you weren't expecting John Lennon there we go there we go alright thank you so much for joining oh it's a pleasure it's a real pleasure hang on let me yeah but I have to do there it's my video working yeah yeah yeah out of my way hey I'm great how are you [Applause] [Music] just leave who picks up the hockey can you shop [Music] good evening ladies and gentlemen and all the ships at sea we're great all of us would say how are you okay I'm very happy I appreciate you inviting me here time and my two brights in the face I look like a ghost the ghost of Avram Rossum anyway talk about Jewish rock what do you want to talk about your you're like one of the founders right like when you started in there in the eighties rock wasn't a thing the 70s yeah the band the Diaspora Sheva band actually kicked off in 1975 at Attica concert we did a date - um which is anybody knows baton that was also where they tried Eichmann originally so it's a very famous place but it's a beautiful auditorium and we put our first album out in 76 and that has a quick little story to it our launch date our release date was July 4th of 1976 you know history at all that was the day of Entebbe yeah absolutely right so we were waiting on you know and and in the end the whole country was dancing you know with with joy because you know the Entebbe rescue took place and so that was that was our launch date for our first album so that's it they will never forget and I don't know so let's see Jewish rock right we were on like this guy that represents Jewish rock right yeah I think you're the Godfather I mean there wasn't there wasn't a thing called Jewish rock when he started right there was there was the country music there was it was Jewish rock I'll tell you why because at about the same time that we were kicking off in Brooklyn and Crown Heights so my dear my dear friend yes tienta the colonel of raqqa had a band called peer mentor with his brother avi and they were they were rocking about the same time at the advantage that the thing that got his famous was that we were in the Israeli acoustic song festival in 77 and 78 77 was who you thought Phoebe knew which hoop and then the following year was this is the Reader's Digest version big hole so that was 1978 and then two years later we came back they didn't want to for for 1980 I mean excuse me for 79 cuz we won first place twice in a row so they said no you can't come back this time you guys have too much of an advantage now so so but they let us back in in 1980 and we did that we did this one that they super silly charade said that all dead carcass typically [Music] okay and we stuck around for a while via the band was popular pretty much from 1977 you know 76 77 and our first incarnation ended in 83 in 83 then we changed our name for a while because too many people were having a problem with diaspora what does that mean exactly over their diet - Farah so we changed our name to Sela we were actually we're playing at the NCS Y Center on Strauss Street so what you must have been a young in back then but I won't confirm or deny so we played there for a couple years under the name cell Osama Klamath hey which is that an acronym for sub l'm alla a char which means take it from the top so we were taking it from the top starting under a new name with most of the guys in the band and that we played that word of an announcement also into hell him when he sucks I'll at the end of the thing it was a it was a signal to the love iane to take it from the top yeah it was so so we played there often or for a couple of years and we would alternate with it with another truly talented duo the Macao module which was Moshe s and the Shalom Levine both of them are you know smiling down on us from the next world unfortunately we lost them too early but they were also an amazing talent so there was a lot of stuff going on at the same time that we're kicking off but like I said so the couple of songs we had in me Israel conceited festival really you know we're good for us and helped us was booked you know shows in the back in the States in Canada so we started touring in 1979 late 78 79 and you know just kept building from there matzah Shabbos if anybody out there remembers on Hart Co and was King Dave Mileva Malcolm and we would get hundreds and hundreds of tourists and students all kinds of youth groups we'd get your ncy groups we'd also get us why we get nifty we get Whif tea we get I mean we had we had them all they were all coming up beautiful thing was everybody was dancing together it was so wonderful there was so much octaves there was so much joy and that everybody was feeling just you know being together and dancing and singing in eurasia Limon bike ever dove it so it was a really really unique experience so uh you know I don't want to say that I I have a complaint but I but I kind of wish Michelle had come then because it was a high point it was great it was just a great time for him to come so not too late that's okay well we'll let him we don't mind and then you restarted the band with your son so then I'm the 88 that's right number of years later so after the band had disbanded for a number of years so then we were here I was here in the States with my family and my son mo and I started a new version called album Rosenbloom and diaspora which was a few of the few of the originals and I've got a few new guys and we did an album called Jerusalem is calling and that did nicely but the touring didn't happen so much so we disbanded about a year later but it's a good band recording wise we did we did a you know some of my stuff and then we started with reunions that started happening in the 90 when was it already was like 90 to 93 my good friend David Golding known as ding brought us in for a Carnegie Hall concert for the show Russian organization which was you know for Soviet Jewry so we did that one is a wonderful reunion that was recorded that's out there a few years later we came back and did another one also at that Avery Fisher Hall this time for another room another Russian yeshiva high school and you know every once in a while they would you know take us out of the closet dust us off yeah you know Aris out for a while so you couldn't smell the mothballs you know and you know and we would rock rock again and we always had good chemistry the band was no matter no matter when we got together we could always we could always make it happen with him within a day's worth verse and we sounded just like ourselves it was the most famous band organization you have to rock out with the most famous band I ever Rock doubtless you or diaspora all together I think you know I think each one of us you know experienced the music world at different times with with different people I mean my my vocal partner Pensione Solomon had used to hang out with Jerry Garcia from The Grateful Dead out in San Francisco and and I got I got to hang out with with the Danny DeVito and Judd Hirsch and you know all the people from like the taxi days in a theater group that I was part of back in back in the late sixties in like 68 69 I also let's see who was there uh Morgan Freeman was also part of that group so you know I got to hang out with some pretty crazy people where was that in Philly right well I never mentioned I grew up in Philly well I didn't really grow up but I I'm from Philly you know and so there was a place called the theater of Living Arts famous place eventually became a big rock and roll center but anyway so that was that and then and then years later I was at the Kotel one night is this this is one one of one of my two good Kotel stories and you know there were always American groups coming in and the different artists from different parts of the world into Eurasia Lima so BB King and you shall I am I saw her Clapton in your ish alignment was like best place you could possibly see them and one night I'm down with the Kotel about midnight and there are a few people that start you know coming down towards the wall a so it was a bit of an entourage and I see their accompanying this one you know short guy with frizzy hair and I'm saying to myself that guy looks familiar and next thing I know he's standing next to me at the Kotel you know about an arm's length you know we could stand closer than six feet in those days so anyway so I'm old enough to remember well yeah so I said well Joe Cocker alright you know Joe Kocher mad dogs and Englishmen you are so beautiful to me I mean Joe Cocker you know so I said Joe where you been he looks at me says well I got to tell you a story yeah my managers ripped me off I was down and out for a couple of years you know and I I'm just starting to rebuild my career I said dude you've come to the right place you see this wall over here it's not really a wall it's the world's largest microphone and all you need to do is talk to it very quietly and God is listening to every word you have to say well I don't know if it's because of me but his career took off like amazingly like right after that so I don't know like maybe I helped a little bit so my place so then and then well I'll tell you the next one anyway so in in in 87 so Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were on tour with Bob Dylan and so there was a yeah there was a moment or a couple of a couple of days where I was I'd been working for Mayor Schuster the carnival of Rafah in the old city I was running his Heritage House for a while and I went down to the wall and there's Tom Petty and some of the other guys in his band his whole entourage and we had been invited to perform on an MTV special that was that was about his tour which we recorded like the day before but I didn't expect them to show up in the old city and as soon as I heard they were there I went down to the wall I had this whole session talking to Tom Petty and another major star named roger McGuinn from google called the birds hey mr. Tambourine you know that that's was that was their first big hit anyway it's careful we're worried about copyright issues kind of it was about Dylan song anyway but yeah bought me a knock on my door for royalties let's see what happens but anyway so that they were there with a bunch of other guys from their band and I got into this whole cabbalistic schmooze with Tom Petty telling him you know actually in breslav terms about how you know up there on that mountaintop is a rock and that rock is considered the foundation stone of the entire universe right and so from there they actually named the that that whole show Rock Israel because you know because rock and rock and all that stuff anyway so what was really beautiful was I explained it to him then he was very interested or he seemed to be very interested and then a a minute later when he's walking away from from the Kotel and they've got him on tape and he's saying you know I had 10 10 years of Sunday School and and I got more from five minutes of talking to that guy than ever got from any of that so that that made it that made it to MTV which was kind of cool anyway so well hold on I got MTV he had a camera crew with him it's on there it's on YouTube but just to go Rosenblum petty McGuinn just the rosenbloom petty you'll you'll see is there for a couple minutes at the Kotel they captured the whole thing was really kind of cool that's right yeah you know but so so if you want my opinion about today's Jewish music I was if I was gonna ask I was afraid to ask not sure listen here's the bottom line okay you know we are I guess diaster yeshiva band and my career you know are essentially you know boxed as classic Jewish rock you know like the the forerunners of a whole lot of different bands and a lot of different you know contemporary groups and and performers that that took it from there you know and took it into into there you know into their era into their group I mean there's some there's some great people out there there was some great bands after us you know like I mentioned there was pimenta there was my gamma there was a later on when they got a little bit older you had the moshav band which arose my band full harm that's been you who to Solomon's been sealed my partner's son and a few others Salomon groups so one of them is Saul farm with no chase Solomon and and and she lands mom I mean there was a whole you know wave that came out I came into that whole that whole time and do you appreciate the designation of being the The Godfather the progenitor of this I'm not wearing a ring and you don't have to kiss it but yes I like it where I come from you get a cool hat also yeah yeah I'm not wearing the hat today but I should get my turban yeah I mean it would be really pretentious here in my studio with his hat on you know looking like movie star all that stuff but I don't need the Hat and here it's hot in here anyway so house by you house what's going on in New York I used I assume that's where you are you were or after bed I'm in New Jersey you're in New Jersey it's a different thing we're in Jersey yeah I mean coming to you live from fairlawn oh yeah the roads from Teaneck I don't like to think of ourselves as down the road from Tina but yeah something like that yeah yeah I want to wish her a real flourish language by the way my brother-in-law Joey Bodnar who lives in Teaneck everybody knows Joey so Joey is a bit under the weather right now and they're just checking him out to make sure that everything's okay so push lemon jelly Joseph Joseph shimon ben yehuda sand you know I mean listen we're hearing so much and we're starting to hear names of people that we can recognize and we're starting here this one's you know relative and that one's relative it's it's you know it's a little scary I'll share this with you this is a thought that goes on in my head a lot because yeah I was born in in 1950 okay I'm I'm a you know ultra rocker if you will so you know my generation as children of Holocaust survivors my parents came from Vilna they they went through all that my dad was a teenage partisan with his brother my mom and my aunt survived with their parents somehow or other because a kind non-jewish family hid them in the basement of their home in the in the Vilna ghetto area and so you know we growing up with all that and all this you know and stories and if it wasn't stories it was still the emotions of the post Holocaust era you know that you got from your parents and you didn't know what was it Nia most of the time and so now you know here we are all these all these years later and the world seems to be turning on its head once again it's it's very interesting and it's very strange it's like talking about being a sandwich generation it's like this one's hard did you it's very hard did you you know because our our history is still with us you know the the you know the the experiences of our parents and grandparents are inside us you know we we still feel them very you know very very acutely because of the way we were we were raised and you know and now you know now we're facing a world that's getting a bit hostile again and now we've got this virus on top of all of it so the question is you know what does this young one from is I know you've had enough rabbis on your show already that are trying to explain that one I'm sure you didn't try and explain it also and I'm sure you have a better explanation than I do but I think that the one thing the one takeaway for real is that you get to you get to think you get to sit and think about your life you get to sit and think about how you can tweak things and make them a little bit better you know whether it's a do or don't do do it now so to speak you know it now is now is the time to you know to become woke I don't know is that a word it is it's definitely it's a word yeah but I'm not sure that it's yeah but now's the time to pick up the the guitar that you always wanted to pick up or the book you never finish the document you always wished you had invested more time in it so it's it's that it's it's that time it's that time whether it's whether we want to say something scary like it's Almohad in or whatever it is but whatever it is it's it's pretty heavy what's coming down from Shem I am right now and the average two wants something from us Claudia Liz you know we're all we're always on the spot and the spotlights always on us and we have to perform we have to do what we're best known to do which is you know service shame so they're going right to perform if there was a Shem bazooka evil assemble the fun [Music] how am i doing like you know I'm staring at a tiny little green light at the top of my iMac you know it represents there's actually millions of people you know it's like ehh Mariah you know it's like it's that moment you know that pinhole you know in in creation you know we're then everything explodes and becomes the universe so hi everybody in the universe how are you so anyway you want to ask me something good like really good oh my gosh you're your favorite shall you ever played my favorite show that we ever played probably the probably the most exciting show we ever played was when we were in Cincinnati Ohio hmm on the on the day that the first peace treaty between Israel and and and not Egypt where was this I think was the first the first PT peace treaty in it should have been Labour's Egypt like 1990 89 no we did a we did a peace treaty with with Bagan and Egypt before then in 75 right that was the early one this would so this is the one with with with Jimmy Carr I think with Jimmy Carter and know this is a woman Clinton with with the Aerith on our front yeah yeah and everybody got excited it really looked like it was gonna be a peace treaty but you know he said he was a snake so you know we we couldn't put any you know but it was exciting and we you know we were celebrating peace and what you know what's greater than that look in the at the end of the day that's that's our that's our spiel that's our that's our you know she moves to the world you know make it a peaceful place what's wrong with you like like why you know why are we repeating the same things in history that have been done time and time and time again you know and that's and that's that's my prayer every day to take hershberger I say look you know you've seen this before you've seen us go around the wheel again and again and again and our neighbors to die you know so we hope he is we hope he's can you uh where we are low on time can you play us one song from that from that show bring that bring that memory of peace back from that show all right [Music] [Applause] [Music] run thank you you that was amazing thank you thank you you too Thanks you know who choppers to everybody and what can I tell you it's it's make it meaningful it because it sure it is let's uh why don't we just play on the way out as we as we end the show all right here we go this is a song I like getting my show with these days it's called diva wrestle calm ready [Music] [Applause] [Music]