Living in a Prophecy: Devastating & Gorgeous | Rav Shlomo Katz

www.moraledge.com

Chanale sits down with renowned musician and spiritual leader Rav Shlomo Katz on The Weekly Squeeze for an intense look inside Israel’s current reality. We dive into the raw, unspoken paradox of a generation forced to grow up under fire, facing challenges that traditional answers completely fail to solve. Discover the exact moment logic breaks down, and why survival here requires operating entirely beyond nature.

Connect with us:
• Follow Chanale on Instagram:   / chanaleinisrael 
• Follow Moral Edge on Instagram:   / moraledgepodcast 
• Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7ceq9fS...
• Visit our website: https://moraledge.com/

Connect with Rav Shlomo Katz:
• Official Website & Shiurim: https://ravshlomokatz.com/
• Learn about Kehilat Shirat David: https://shiratdavid.com/

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Reclaiming Prayer: The Crisis of the Siddur
05:00 Living Inside an Ancient Prophecy
07:45 The Simultaneous Need for Torah and Connection
11:00 Building a Future Where the Story Will Endure
14:00 The Privilege and Weight of Raising Israeli Kids
18:10 Forged by Fire: The Heroism of Our Soldiers
22:30 Singing for the Angels in the Darkest Hours
26:10 God Believes in You: A Radical Message to the Cynical
30:10 Shifting the Calculations: Why Aliyah Never "Adds Up"
37:40 The Renaissance of Authentic Israeli Music
41:40 Merging Tanya and Breslov for the Modern Nervous System
45:35 Final Takeaway: Tilt Your Head Up

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Most kids don't connect to a sitter. Can you blame them? Why would I expect a kid to connect to words that you repeat you say every single day? How much of that becomes authentic?

SPEAKER_00 0:08

We are living inside this prophecy right now, in this land, in the middle of a war that has no ending in sight, and it is devastating, and it is gorgeous.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Also, the youth attains there's a passion that they're not going to be satisfied or satiated with many of the answers we we were given to the deep questions that we had. There needs to be a spiritual revolution with the way that we interact with the world of Hinoch, the world of education, and with in our relationships with our children and with the teens of today. The unknown, instead of it being frightening, to me is almost more of an invite to get deeper with my connection to the privilege of being alive right now in this generation. Here in this holy land, when someone says, Do you believe in God and you say yes, and then you ask, Does God believe in you? and you say I'm not so sure, you have to understand that means you don't really believe in God, because believing in God, in my humble opinion, means that you believe that Hashem believes in you.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

I'm Khanala, and this is the weekly squeeze on Moral Edge. Please subscribe and like this episode and share with others. There is a little land. In that little land, there is a little city. In that city, there is a little street, and in that street there is a little wall. When you stand by that holy wall, you can hear the footsteps of our father Abraham, and you can hear the trumpet of the great day to come. You hear the past, and you can hear the future. You can hear the singing of the Levites, or you can hear us crying, going into exile. You can hear the six million crying out of the gas chambers, and you can hear the yiddelach's tears in Siberia. You can only see clearly if your eyes are filled with tears. When you stand by the Holy Wall and your tears are flowing, you see six million tears by that holy wall. You see the tears of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You see the tears of King David. You can see the tears of your own children. You can see the tears of the whole world. You can hear people singing, singing the songs of yesterday, of tomorrow, of the great day to come. These words belong to Rebshlom Karabach. But the man sitting across from me today has spent his entire life making them his own. He was born in America. He could have stayed, he had a guitar, a gift, a future that could have been built anywhere. And he chose this little land. He chose Ephrat, 15 minutes from Jerusalem, a window that looks out toward the city that every Jew has been facing since the day we lost it. He built a community here called Shirat David, Song of David, and he became its Rav. He married here, he raised six children here, he buried people from his community here. He danced at their weddings here. Rafslomkatz is a posek and a performer, a halachic authority, and a man who goes on stage in the middle of a war and plays guitar for a room full of people with broken hearts. He received his micha from Rav Riskin and Rav Ravander. He has released albums that people don't just listen to, they dive into. He has carried Rebshlom Karabach's legacy as a living transmission and continues to reach people in their hardest moments. He was sitting in prison when he wrote this. The city outside was being destroyed, and he wrote, it will yet be heard in this place that you say is destroyed. In the towns of Yehudan, in the streets of Yerushalaim that are desolate, the voices of joy and the voices of gladness will be heard again. The voice of the Khatan, the voice of the Kala. We are living inside this prophecy right now, in this land, after October 7th, in the middle of a war that has no ending in sight, and it is devastating, and it is gorgeous, and it is in a country full of paradoxes where yes, it can be both. Because what better thing to give when you are talking about this place, this people, this moment in history that none of us have adequate words for yet. This is what we're gonna do today. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Thank you for coming out. So I read a little bit about your history. And I say your history because you're as young as I am. I mean, you know, we're still teenagers, but still, you know, dug back a couple of decades. You're an American-born. I say at this point you're an Anglo-Israeli. You came to this land because your mother wanted to be here and loved it. And I hope that one day my kids say, I came to this land because my mother wanted to be here. So tell our listeners who are all around the world, some of whom are big pro-Israel Zionist supporters, some have never visited Israel, some yearn to be here, are confused by the conversations. Tell us a little bit about what living here means to you as a Jew on a regular day basis, and then we'll dig a little bit into your life in Ephrat and your career.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Uh I I can't imagine any other scenario. I can't imagine I don't know what life could even look like. We're so living in it. We're in an experience right now. I feel like that it's only getting stronger every single day. And the unknown, which you alluded to in the intro, the unknown, instead of it being frightening, uh to me is almost more of an invite to get deeper with my connection to the privilege of being alive right now in this generation here in this holy land. So it's invigorating the experience of being here every single day. Never gets old. It's such a blessing that it never gets old. Keeps you young, keeps you focused, keeps you energized and determined. Determined to not I people like to say to totally win, whatever that means.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

It makes you I listen, it's uh very loaded life here.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Loaded.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Loaded. So whatever that feeling is, however it translates on any given day, it could be loaded in the sense that look how gorgeous the weather is today, and there's just a viral atmosphere of newness. You know, that Rav Cook said that the ear here actually heals you. So there is so many dimensions. There's the fact that we live here physically and we have the benefits of living or surrounded by Jews, and then the spiritual aspect of it, the way where there's just something subliminal in the air, in the and you're a Torah God and you take people and you experience it. So we're drinking up your love for the land. Totally.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Every second.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

How does it manifest on a daily basis?

SPEAKER_01 7:32

So without activating it, meaning it doesn't just happen. You don't just sit here and Okay, I'm here. It's more of it's there's an activation, and I think it's two things. It's learning, learning Torah every day while having a desire to connect with Amcha Beit Israel, with the Jewish nation that lives here. And they both have to happen simultaneously. It's not just one or the other. You can't just be like, I'm just gonna connect to people. I have to remember, I have to be drawn to my destiny. What's the purpose of being connected to everyone in the first place? That should be getting revealed to me the more Torah that I learn. So both things have to happen at the same time, in my humble opinion.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

So everything has to be in sync. It has to be very harmonious life here. You can't really live with a lot of um conflict and uh I mean there's a struggle to live here. Right. But the feeling has to be one of I want to be here, and it's a relationship, it's a give and take. That's what love is. Give, you take, you give and you take.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

It's nonstop. And uh I think that when you said uh even what what do you say to those that they're not sure they want to be here? So you have who says you can't pray to God to want to want?

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Yeah, right. Yeah. Whatever my kid's like, you want a piece of cake? I I want it, but I also don't want to want it. So the answer is no.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

So we pray for our will. We we everything's open for us. Just because we feel something right now, who says that that's what has to be? So wanting to want it, yeah. Wanting to be closer to every single Jew on the face of the earth, but really creating the critical mass of closeness that has to stem from here. Kim it's aim. The word of God has to, it stems from here and then spreads to the four corners of the world.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Aaron Powell Well, we speak to so many fascinating people here on the show on Moral Edge, and what they all have in common, because Jews are on the one hand, you know, we have the same Torah, same God, same religion, so it's like family. On the other hand, we really at this point run the gamut on the, you know, on the skin color and the nationalities. The people, the guests who come in are from all walks of life. What they all have in common is this kind of um blind, it was like a calling that that a yearning to come here to Israel, a lot of unknown, which I think is what scares people, because even though with the internet, the world has become a smaller place, you don't really know a place and feel it until you live here, especially a place like Israel, right? So what I'm saying, what we see from all our guests is that it's like any other relationship. You have to nurture it and invest in it. But the beauty of Ertisrael is that unlike other places around the world or any other place in the world, it's like you said, it's an automatic relationship because God, Israel, the Jewish people, and the land are one.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

So everything kind of fuses, starts fusing together when you're happy here.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Right?

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

That's a wrap. Thank you for following us.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Great, we're done. What else do we need to say?

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Well, I want people to get a tell us a little bit about your life. I know for people watching, Ephrat might be, you know, it's it's the the heartland of of Israel. Um, it's not Bechemesh. You it's people would tell us a little bit about your life there and and raising children there and the challenges.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

So I've only, yeah, we've we've only raised, we've only been living in in Ephrat in the area of of Yehuda, um, my my my married life, but I didn't I wasn't raised there. So I have a little bit of a I'm so lucky, I'm so blessed because my parents brought us here when I was a kid, when I was nine. We left Los Angeles and moved to Rahanana. Okay, spent my teenage years. And then we moved back to LA when I was about 16, almost 17. And then at 22, my calling was clearly to come back home, to come and learn to be a rabbi in the yeshiva that I found in Ephrat. This was talk about Hajjgaha. We had a few friends that lived in Ephrat, and I had visited over the years.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Efrat is huge now. Ephrat used to be a what they call a small settlement. Now, how many people live there?

SPEAKER_01 11:44

I think it's nearing 16,000 people.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

And it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

It's gorgeous and it's only growing. So I had a very my my my teeth, my heart was sunk into Eritra from the time I remember. But I also lived here for a while, but not in Ephrat. When I moved back at 22 and I found this amazing place to learn in Ishivata Miftar, under the leadership of uh of um Rabbi Chaim Bravandar Masheshiva and under the and Rabbi Riskin, Rabshlomar Riskin, the dean of the Institute of Ortora Stone, my heart immediately, this is hard for me to describe to anyone unless you had this feeling, where you feel like you found your Dalit Amot in Eritisrail. Like each soul, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov speaks about this. Each person has their own portion in the land. Now it's true, they used to be a lot, and they used to divide the land according to lots, but on a soul level, every person has their Dalit Amot in Eritisfrail. And the four corners. Yeah, probably that's the best way to say it.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

I don't know if it translates.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Yeah. Your your own your own piece of your own soul, body, st exactly. I would look out the window of the Beit Midrash where we're learning Torah the first few days. And I'm looking out at the road, and it was the 60 road, it's still there today. And I'm realizing fifteen minutes to my left is Chevron, is Maratha Machpelah, where Adam and Eve and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are buried, and Sarah, Rebecca, and Leia are buried there. And fifteen minutes that way, more or less, is the Beta Migdash, where it's going to be. And I found myself so drawn to the notion that the pebbles I'm looking at, it's not that maybe our four, you know, our ancestors walked this. They they did. It's right in front of me. And I'm in the middle of the past, the present, and the future, and it's all one. That role, the geographical location of where I live, is a very vibrant piece of my existence. I'm I'm conscious of it. We're conscious of it all the time. But with that comes a lot of intensity because you did be asked for challenges. The challenges are the intensity of the times of raising children. Um I couldn't be more proud to raise my children where I'm raising them. My precious, our precious six children, five daughters, and a son.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Would you advise raising children to people abroad in Israel under any circumstance?

SPEAKER_01 14:12

That's a good question. Because we've had that conversation. Yeah, it's a great question. Um I used to always say uh yes without even right, without even thinking about it twice. I still say yes, but you have to think about it. Um I would advise anyone to choose to live in a place where the future of the Jewish people will be. Is sure and so the answer to that is yes. But to go about it in a very in a smart way.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Well the Lababa Dreva said you're supposed to spend uh up to a half an hour a day thinking about your children's education. I don't know if it's per child or collectively, but you know, so it's it's something that that you have to Yeah, you have to invest in.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Yeah. You have to think of, of course.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Doesn't matter where you live. You're as parents, we're a happy home is a place where the kids want to be. So if you don't want them in the streets, you don't want them influenced and you want them around you, then you could live in Alaska and in Igloo. Of course. And raise happy kids that have your Shemayim and that are well. People do, yeah. Yeah. The advantage here, which some could say is a disadvantage, is that everybody we're surrounded by Jewish people. The few future of the Jewish people are here. Um, but then all the challenges, you know, we're all the challenges of the Jewish people are here too. Where else are you going to find 800 teenagers in Dolev Park over like on the Jewish holidays hanging out? Right. And you don't really worry. It's not Chicago.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Correct. But the challenges, the challenges that I look at, I also we always have to remember we're still so young. We we're only we've only started. Like people that look at the situation here and the I guess the way that everything is presented to us here, this is an everything is an invite to be part of creating something that was never existed before. The most ideal state of being able to live in the Holy Land. So when you see a challenge here, change the word challenge to invite to make a change.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

So for you, we're living in like the most exciting era in Jewish history.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Yeah, but that doesn't mean that it's not painful.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Right. And if anything, I mean, every generation, every door has its own set, whether it was a vodasara, they had their own unique evil inclination that compelled them to do a certain sin. That now we look back and think, why would that interest them? I suppose if they looked in the future and saw staring at screens all day, and God said, they're sinning, looking at bad things. They would say, What? They're just sitting, they're not doing a thing. So, yes, we have different challenges in this generation. And the eight Zahara is here, if not stronger. And our teenagers are exposed to the same things on their phones as they are anywhere else in the world. And the parenting responsibilities are the same. But I look at it, you know, they say it takes a village. For me, it takes a country. The country enhances my parenting, it brings the atmosphere of the holidays, of the Hagim. My children wear a white shirt on Rosh Chodish. They go to school, they recognize you look around, everyone knows it's the first day of the month. There's something, there's always something symbolic. When the pomegranate trees start budding, I see it when I walk my dog here. I know that in six months they're gonna be ripe, ready for Rosh Hashanah.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

It's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

And it's unbelievable. The land is in synchronicity, in harmony, and the children feel it. I never in a million years thought when I was making Aliyah that my 14-year-old would walk from BHMS to Jerusalem overnight wearing LED mini mouse headbands. A bunch of girls, and never complain. Which American kid wants to walk six hours or eight hours overnight? This is what we do here. You become one with the land.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

You do, you become one of the land. And when you see it in your children, like you brought up before, it takes your own experience to I know exactly. Bur Hashem, I I really, I really feel connected to what you just said. My children, I have two, my two older daughters are 16 and 15, and they're really finding their own rhythm and their own relationship with Erites, which was definitely Bur Hashem. They received a lot from that love and the passion from home, but it's becoming theirs. It's becoming theirs. I'm in awe of the younger generation. When I said it's the most exciting and thrilling time, I'm not really speaking about the older generation. I'm speaking about the generation of not just Messi Rutnefish of our holy soldiers that we've been exposed to, that have changed our lives forever. Forever. But it's also the youth, the teens. There's a passion. They're not going to be satisfied or satiated with many of the answers we we were given to deep questions that we had.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Well, they've been living through a complete such a unique experience. I mean, my kids are saying in the same time frame as yours. COVID, which we didn't even have time to address. And then if you're living here, the wars, October 7th, the two Iran wars, though, and those are things that just an undercurrent, you know, under just sometimes I'll even ask my kids, how's the word treating you? And they'd be like, I'm not paying attention to the word. I don't care about the word, I'm thinking about this war, you know, whatever they're. But like it's funny when I we moved here, my kids would complain when we left because we walked a lot and they would say, Is it uphill? Is it uphill? And I said, Guys, from now on, it's always uphill. It's always uphill. But that doesn't mean it's bad.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

No.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Because then you get to the top and it's beautiful. That's true.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

And I think that our kids, our kids know that. They're living it. It's you can't, they're experiencing that which we have to try to give over to them. They're living it. And they're becoming more and more one with the land and they're connecting our the older generation to show them it was worth fighting for what you fought for.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

I want to go into the soldiers a little bit because that's something that speaks to our audience. And of course, to me, I spent a lot of time volunteering on army bases. I still do and I can, raising money. And, you know, after October 7th, there was this, you know, flurry of activities supporting the army. And but at the end of the day, everyone goes back to their lives, and our soldiers are our sons and our brothers and our husbands and our community members. And you can't, you you see them everywhere. They're they're us, the we're we're the people's army, and we're deeply connected to the IDF. How tell us a little bit about your experiences, okay, over the last, I would say, I mean, obviously there's been a shift. We're moved on to the Iran war era now, kind of. But I think October 7th changed every single Israeli on a deep level. So what's your relationship with um the soldiers and how did you connect with them musically?

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Right after October 7th, like you had mentioned earlier, yeah, there was a there there was, and there could still continues to a certain extent to be an invite from from from soldiers from bases to be more active and to come and to perform or teach or learn with them and whatnot. For me, uh seeing the 14-year-old boys in my community and looking at them, walking down the street and realizing they may look like they're young 14-year-old boys. In four to five years, these boys are gonna be willing to give their lives so that I could live here. Stop, pause, inhale that. Now, the truth is that most soldiers that I come in contact with, they live like that, meaning they they have that, they're willing to give their lives. So you and I could sit here in Beit Shemesh in this beautiful studio and open our hearts and hopefully connect with other people. That's because they're 18 and 19-year-old boys and girls that are literally willing to give their lives.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

And injured soldiers who go back.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

And injured soldiers that go back. We've seen, we've experienced terrorism. I I always say like this they've ushered in an era of Messi Rut Nefesh that there's no going back from anymore. So the question is to those of us that aren't on the battlefields, where are we, where's our Misirut? They're doing physical They raise the bar. They there's no going back.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

There's no going back. So I'm in awe. I'm more in awe of the fact that they don't think highly of themselves at all. They just say they're humble. This is what we do.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Speak to anyone I know who's in the army. Thank you for your service. And they're like, me? Yeah, yeah, you.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

I have one main experience that I'm as as we're speaking right now, I just remembered right now. About two weeks after October 7th, somewhere in the 20s of the October 2023, one of the things I was asked to do was to show up at a house in, I think it was in Ain Karim or Bait Vagan neighborhood of Ushalaim to sing for a group of soldiers, a group of reservists from the Rabbanut that were involved in heavy things. I didn't understand anything else. They just said, can you show up? And back in the, you know, hopefully today it's like that too, but back in October, November, December, January of the of the war, you just showed you didn't ask any questions. You got a call, there was a need, you showed up. This one I wasn't prepared for. It was about 30 reservists that are in the Rabbanut that came out of the area of Otef Aza. Uh and for the first time had one day where they weren't identifying bodies. It was the they were in there day after day after day from morning to night, doing the doing the unimaginable, unim Yeah, angels. And um I came into this room and they had told me right then and there what it was.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

What am I supposed to do? Can you offer?

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Who the world could I offer them? So you don't think too much, you just start dominating with them, you start playing. And I there were two groups. There was one group that could not get up, they couldn't sing, they but they sat there. And there was another group that needed to sing and cry, and they were singing and crying and even getting up and dancing. These are people that for two and a half weeks straight from morning to night were identifying their brothers and sisters, and yet when they on their day off, what they're doing Instead of getting drunk, passing out, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

They're doing having a connection to the creator who you would imagine they have so many questions.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

Legitimately.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

It's not natural for a human to witness these things. And we live in a country where we say that the the mazal of the Jewish people is above nature. Everything here is above nature. There's so many paradoxes, things we can never understand. You have to be here to understand how everything is works. So when you see people like this, human beings, as simple, they're just regular human beings.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

And they're not just giving a few weeks, they they sacrifice their whole lives. This is something that doesn't ever go away. So the reason I wanted to talk about the army is because it's such a microcosm of Israel as a whole now. And I saw it on the bases where I saw soldiers that had Rastot and soldiers that were, you know, Hasidic Jews, you every every stripe and type. And you know, we're we were talking about how amazing our teenagers are. They're forged by fire. Yeah. They're forged by fire. It's like so we're in such a beautiful position as Jews, where we have tremendous respect for the younger generation. Right. And as Jews, we have tremendous respect for the older generation because we don't just throw it.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

And that's why it comes together so beautifully in a nation where our army is the army of, you know, the army that's fighting for for all that's right in the world. I don't understand when people say things negative about the idea. I mean, don't you start with my IDF, you know? That's like one definitely want to die on. I want to talk more about a message to young people today, because we touched on it, but in a generation where COVID and the phones and the challenges, and to children, you know, to young people abroad, what do you say to a 17-year-old at this day when you know they could be a little cynical and jaded? A little lot. What do we say? And the truth is, I'm not, I'm not the Torah speaks to them. Our job is to channel the lessons of the Torah in a way that they can understand it. So what what do how do we do that?

SPEAKER_01 26:22

It's a similar message that I give to bar mitzvah boys that I've in my shoulder that have been bar mitzvah in the last two and a half years, and bot mitzvah girls that have their bot mitzvahs. Uh God knows exactly what people need when they need it. Vata no ten lahem etohlam beito. You give us what we need when we need it, not when we think we need it, but when we actually need it. It must be that God wanted it wants this generation to have exactly the people that are about to enter this stage in life, like you said, 17, going into 18 to tune into a tremendous responsibility together with natural heroism that it's going to emerge from them. This is the way Hashem designed this planet. The Hashem designed the concept of time that these kids, these souls that were born seventeen years ago or whenever it is, to show up right now in life for something awesome. So all we have to do is that when someone says, Do you believe in God and you say yes, and then you ask, Does God believe in you? and you say, I'm not so sure, you have to understand that means you don't really believe in God, because believing in God, in my humble opinion, means that you believe that Hashem believes in you. And that's why he sent you here now, at this age, to do something far greater than anything we could have ever imagined for you. And to instill this young generation with more empowerment than ever before and pride and feeling of, oh, it's you guys that are showing up now. Akolietov, Akolia Basan.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

I I wanna push a little more on the actual meados, the uh attributes it takes, because in this day and age where our kids have phones, a lot of it comes down to self-control. And I tell my girls, I don't, I can't watch you, I'm not policing you. At the end of the day, it's you know, I would say your education and your reputation. Those are the most important things. Yeah, you know. But I want I want them to be able to practice self-control because everything is available and free, whether it's food, whether it's schmutz, whether it's it's like, you know, life is just all about offering those endorphins that instant gratification. And when you're young and you're you're growing up on this diet of secular music and all this stuff that's designed to hit the spot so that you keep watching and you keep, it could be hard to sit down, open a Gemara Davin, like, you know, do a spot de dut and all those things, right? So what so is I mean, I I am glad that you that you're acknowledging that it is hard and you're not like, no, no, they should break themselves. Uh but what's the advice? What do we tell our kids when we ourselves are staring at our phone? I always think, imagine if when we were 15, we had there was uh, you know, my mother always says, if I had a phone when I was raising you guys, I also would have been a Pinterest all day.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

It's one of the most if if if I think for a second that there's a way to give any short, smart answers to this question, I should have never showed up here.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

This is you're you're now you're dealing with the Well, you could give it a try so that this, you know, like this show, and you never know what gold nuggets are coming your way.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

That that's true. That's why I believe that there needs to be a spiritual revolution, as much as there's a hopefully a physical and geographical revolution taking place here. Uh, there needs to be a spiritual revolution with the way that we interact with the world of Kinoch, the world of education, and with in our relationships with our children and with the teens of today. Uh to get a child to get, let's let's choose an age, to get it, to take a teenager today, a 15-year-old teenager, and try to explain to them that it's so much more uh worthwhile for them to do a half hour of it bodedut, which you mentioned before.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

Which is solitary meditation, contemplation.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Uh well, actually, it's it's not meditation and contemplation as much as it's verbal. Uh Kitbodud is a verbal expression of the of the inner conversation that's happening in the chichak box, according to Rabinachman of Breslev.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

It's not silent.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

No, according to the the the great grandson of the Baal Shemtov, the founder of the Hasidic movement, Rabbi Nachman of Breslev, who was born in 1772 and passed away at the young age of 38 in 1810 due to tuberculosis, he revealed to the world something that was a lost art, Hitbo Dudut. Most kids don't connect to a sitter. Can you blame them? Why would I expect a kid to connect to words that you repeat, you say every single day, and you're looked at to see, are you Davan? Are you praying good? Are you praying everything? Are you showing up for prayers? How much of that becomes authentic, right? So hitbo dedut is saying to a child, saying to a kid, saying to an adult, go out to the field or close yourself up in a closed place and start pouring it out before the one above verbally. How do I give over to a child that's working on it, like you said, the stimuli and the endorphins that they receive from the excitement that's popping off of a screen? How do I get them to go and even volunt, you know, to ever want to engage in such a practice?

SPEAKER_00 31:33

So you're not supposed to put a stumbling block in front of a blinder. So I even look at my child who's tapping at his keyboard while simultaneously playing with this while listening on his earbuds, and I'm like asking him to take the dog for a walk is a it's a huge uh huge thing. I want to see so much more fun engaging in whatever universe he's in right now than walking the dog.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

So I think us parents and educators have to humble ourselves before Hashem and say, we really have no chance of giving over to them what they need unless you give us a matnathinam, which means an undeserved gift. You just Hashem, we we we need you to pour onto us a completely new way of transmitting our love and our belief into the next generation. And to not give up if we haven't figured out the right way yet. That's okay. For instance, I don't have the peace of mind. Or I don't have peace of mind yet. I don't know how to learn Torah. It's a horrible statement. Or I don't know how to learn Torah yet, which shifts it from being I can't cook.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

I can't cook yet. It's true. I'm only in my forties. It's true.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

As a person looking for their spouse, I'm not married versus I'm not married yet.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Right.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

So I don't know how to talk to the I don't know how to give over to the youth of today the secrets of the Torah. Or I don't know how to connect them to the purpose of what Amisrael is doing here. Or I don't yet know how to do all that, but I believe with positivity and an optimistic, which to be optimistic today means you're really godly. Like to be really like, you know, having a positive and optimistic outlook today means you're really operating from beyond nature. So that leads us to the place of believing that things haven't happened yet, but they will.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

I'm tying this into having teenagers in Israel, or yet, if your teenagers are still abroad. They're not in Israel yet, but they will be in Israel. So one of the things I think are great for the kids, and you really can't replace technology with anything better than nature and with effort, when humans put in effort and they go and they hike, and my girls go to a surfing camp, or they have to take three buses and two trains to get to a mall, or fill up their own phone cards. You know, the weather's hot here. Nobody's coming to save you. Mom, no one's picking you up if you took the wrong bus. And, you know, even the pre-army life, we were we were at the beach in Tel Aviv with some friends in the evening, and we see these teenagers, maybe 15 or 16, carrying sandbags, running in the sand, elbows in the water. American kids would just, they wouldn't, they would just wouldn't. And those are the things. It's like the refour before the maka, it's the cure before the disease. If you raise kids that have that balance that the schools take them on trips to, that balance of being outdoors, I think the body will consort itself out. But even my girls are like, oh, I'm sick of my phone. Let's grow their phone. I'm going for biking.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

Yeah, hopefully.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:56

And we're around all these examples of people that actually lived like that. So you know it's possible. Uh you know, on the way here, I got so emotional because one of the roads you take right before you get to this street is called Roiklein. Ruho Roiklein. Roiklein was my neighbor. I get it. He was killed in in uh and the way he was killed in Lebanon is that he threw himself on a grenade. He threw himself on the grenade while saying Shma Israel. So you say, uh, I always think to myself, that guy, he was a few years older than me. I used to see him do exactly what you just described before he went into the army. I have a picture of it, Mamash, right here, where he would go and he would do these late night runs and chin-ups, and I I saw that growing up, and then you become that person that is a gibor, is a hero. That was one person that and that happened in the Second Lebanon War, which took place already was it 20 years ago, I think, already, something like that. I think like 19, 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 35:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

We're surrounded by people like that that God forbid shouldn't shouldn't have to do what he did, but they're willing to, meaning we're surrounded by so many people that are already have reached the place that you're talking about. They're there already. This generation's ready for the highest.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

But what about the hundreds of thousands of teenagers that are not here and whose parents are not making aliyah? And we need them. We do need them here. And I, you know, we look around Naveshamir. You said you drove through the neighborhood, they're building like crazy, and there's construction everywhere. And I look around and I think, how could anyone not want to be here? How could Muncie or Toronto or Detroit or anywhere, you know, be a better option than an air-straw? But for some reason, not for some reason, for many reasons, parnasa, I'm worried about my kids going off the derivatives, my my parents are elderly, my you know, health issues, I don't know if I want to invest my money there. You have a kahila, you're the rav, you're a postik, you hear from people's problems and their lives and their challenges. Do you firmly believe that a Jew can live in Eritral? In other words, can you do you believe that if a yid wants to live in erchisral, Hashem will the I mean, at the end of the day, Pranasa is predetermined at the end of the year, Hashem decides. And you see, everyone has a peckle, everyone has a challenge. Moving to Israel is not going to make your life so significantly more difficult that it's gonna be like a punishment. The land gives so much. The land gives so much. So, yes, it's a challenge to get here. And yes, there's a million reasons why you don't want to make aliyah, but I want to talk about that a little.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

Good.

SPEAKER_00 37:42

Because you know people, you know people's lives, you see what they're experiencing. Should people be thinking about living in Eritesral?

SPEAKER_01 37:49

Should people be thinking about living in Eritre?

SPEAKER_00 37:51

Like without a question, but pursuing it. It should be something that's happening actively. I'm making alias.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

So y yes, but the caveat is like this. Don't want to move to Erit the Eritral that you know of already. Want to move to the Eritreal that is waiting for you to be part of the revolution. And there's a big difference between the two. If my mindset of moving to Eritrail is just to the Eritra that I already know, then I could really be stuck in all the world of pros and cons, and that's what's gonna dictate my decision making. But if I want to move, if I believe in the concept of making Aliyah, moving to Eritrao, as an invite from my own light to shine here and be part of shifting and changing and rediscovering what it's all about, then I come here as a pioneer. I know it's not a pioneer with one of those funny heads.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

You're coming to claim your destiny here. That's what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

Yeah, but you're but our but our the per the individual.

SPEAKER_00 38:55

Of course, but your destiny is waiting for you.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

It's waiting for you to do exactly what you and only you. Exactly. But I used to tell you that that's the difference between saying every Jew should come here, every every Jew should every Jew should follow every word of uh I should follow every word of a of of uh of of Hashem's light and love in the Torah. Why Dafka, this mitzvah? Well, so that's only because there's one criteria in order to keep the Torah. You gotta stay alive. And it seems that the world is shifting us more and more to realizing that this whole thing you could debate Zionism, non-Zionism for the rest until you're blue in the face. The bottom line is that we're not exactly loved in the world. We never were. Now it's a bit more revealed, not a bit more, much more revealed. And Hashem gave us a gift of being able to fulfill a prophecy of physically coming back to a land. This is where it's all happening. We all need each other. The Jew that sits here in Israel and looks at Jews and Chutzlards and says, man, they really should be there. He's not doing it's not a good thing. Because that's that's judgment. That that's horrible.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

So you feel that all the Jews should be together in Erit Israel? I mean, that's the final prophecy, but then the question becomes who's financing, who's bankrolling, uh, you know, the all the Zionistic organizations, who's who's bringing the the for the lost Jews back to back to the fold. Say two things. For their money and for their position.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

Two things. One is a shtickle com cynical, but I think like everyone should move here besides luchum and benchapiro. Everyone else should come, right? But I want to tell with you a story because this is the heart of the issue over here. I don't know anyone that moved here because financially it made sense.

SPEAKER_00 40:46

Right.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

Where does this come from?

SPEAKER_00 40:48

So Especially with the dollar.

SPEAKER_01 40:51

It doesn't, it's not a concept. Of course, you have to have some type of a plan. But most people, like, how do I know? What kind of limits did I put on Hashem? How do I know that God doesn't want to make me a millionaire in Eric Cyril? You know how many millionaires there are in Eric C. Surround? There are plenty. But what makes me think that I know what God wants to do with me or not?

SPEAKER_00 41:12

Well, there's a certain level of responsibility, financial security, having a job when you're.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

So of course, the basic levels of making sure that the immediate needs for sure have to be employed.

SPEAKER_00 41:22

To put the effort in, right?

SPEAKER_01 41:23

Yeah, but most people that are toying with the concept of aliyah, the basic needs are more or less there. It's just the question of the the more of that.

SPEAKER_00 41:34

I mean, between all of between the two of us and between all of us, who really knows how we finish the month every month? I mean, literally and between all the things that we are inevitable, are are you know unavoidable and all the things that we can't control, it really doesn't matter. And how much better to be broke and and without a shekel than you know, where else you want to be like that than in Israel?

SPEAKER_01 42:01

All one, which is hopefully what this land is creating out of us. It sounds Chinese. It sounds insane.

SPEAKER_00 42:07

Israel's dangerous, it's so there's so much the language and all the things seem like so foreign.

SPEAKER_01 42:13

But us that are here have the greatest, greatest obligation to not just extend our arms, our hand, and the invite out to our brothers and sisters that aren't in the country. It's to remove the element of judgment that we don't may not talk about, but it's there to remove it completely from the air of from the energy of how we look at those that aren't here yet. No one should ever move here because they feel judged. Or pressured, or God forbid. It's just to dive into Hashem to please to please be uh to be a proper and holy and fitting mouthpiece for the fulfillment of this prophecy. And yeah, you gotta humble the daylights out of yourself to become that type of person. My friends always my friends know I share this story all the time that Rav Cook, the great first chief rabbi here, in the early 30s, he passed away in 1935, but a few years before he passed away, a group of very wealthy philanthropists were visiting from the States, and they were visiting Erit Israel of the early 30s. They came to bid farewell after their week of traveling through the land, and they come to Rav Cook and they say to him, Thank, what an amazing, amazing time. Our hearts are so elated, we feel so amazing. This is an amazing experience. So Rav Cook said to them, So no, why don't you join us here? This could be your life. And they went into the what you're singing. I don't know financially if it would work out, if it would make all the sense in the world, and we probably wouldn't. So that we will come visit. So Rav Kuch said, it's interesting that you said that because that week happened to be the Barsha, the Torah portion of Chukat. In the Torah portion of Chukat, we advanced from the desert towards Israel by 38 years, and we had to wage some wars, and one of the wars we had to To wage on a nation that was standing in our way was a king, his name was Sichon, and the Torah calls him Sichon Melech Cheshbon. Which means literally, like Keshbon is an was a name of a region, but Kheshbon means calculations. So Rafkut says, listen, nothing, nothing changed. The journey towards Eritrael entails schechting Sichon Melech Cheshbon, the king of calculations, because it'll never add up. And if you come here because it added up, you'll get very disappointed.

SPEAKER_00 44:34

Wow. It doesn't make sense. It makes shekels.

SPEAKER_01 44:37

I'll tell you an amazing thing. Friends of mine over the years that I've heard that story, when the the when they when they come home and they make aliyah, they'll share with me pictures of their lift. And it's like hashtag killing Sihon. Ah, oh, what a message was heard. Enjoyment that is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:56

Your message was heard. Um, such an interesting conversation. First of all, before we even get to the last few things, tell people where they could find you. I know you give sheer and you give classes, and um, you're available on the internet.

SPEAKER_01 45:09

And you say I have a j I have this dream that it's not even my dream. I I never dreamt it. Maybe my grandparents did, or my great-grandparents. Maybe it's a Sashem's dream. I'm living in this in this dream with and I'm not one of these people that wakes up dancing every day and like smiling all day, but as I'm sitting here thinking about all these things with you, I just can't imagine at this point in life a more fulfilling way of spending my time, which is to grow with a bunch of people that we built this amazing, amazing community in Ephrat, as you mentioned, called Shirat David, which is an explosive dynamic center for discovering your Nishama in a communal way with a bunch of other Anglos? Uh mainly Anglos. Ephrat has, you know, a very high percentage of Anglos. Aval Bigral Shani Gadalti people, because I I grew up here, so I I'm trying to get a little bit more of the Hebrew and I'm more of the Israeli Khever who are.

SPEAKER_00 46:03

I'm a big fan of that. A local Khabad rabbi came over on Hanukkah to light the menorah. Yeah. And we had a bunch of Israelis at our party. Yeah. And he was speaking in English. And I was like, dude, dude, dude. I know everyone's looks into it, but nobody understands.

SPEAKER_01 46:16

It's true, no. There was a guest rabbi that came to the shoulder a few weeks ago. Yeah, a guest rabbi that I had come speak in the shoul is Israeli, but he could speak in English. And uh he he said, uh what language should I speak? And I said, uh, I said Hebrew. He said, but I I could speak in English. I'm like, they'll what I want people to feel is that we're going towards them, not that you know someone else.

SPEAKER_00 46:40

And also, what like you said at the be you know earlier, how everything's interconnected. I love and appreciate the language the longer I live here. First of all, I find it just it's so precise, and the words are so accurate. Um especially when I'm texting, and I do speak a lot in Hebrew. English is like like just a bunch of fluff, but Hebrews are very and it also the definitions of the words and the connection. You know, you do tours and you show people the country and all the like you were just saying about that story earlier, the language itself is connected.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

Very big.

SPEAKER_00 47:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:12

So anyway, so we have the please check us out, shiraddavi.com, or on uh my platform, I think, is uh on the webpage is Refshlomocats.com, and where we have a lot, a lot of content every single day. There's a whole team that's working on distributing because we really have a lot of learning and amazing men and women that are on fire. Please besimcha go anywhere. Hopefully, we'll link it from here and we'll Yeah, no, we'll put everything in the show notes.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

Yes. Just look below and follow and collab and all that. A lot of music. A lot of music. I want to talk about the music for a second. I did a podcast with Reb Chaim Dolphin a few times, and we discussed a book he wrote about Reb Shlomo Karabach.

SPEAKER_01 47:55

The real Shlomo.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

That is the real Shlomo, which I'm sure you have every book ever written on the man. So as a Lebaver, I grew up and we had like kind of like this inside view and of what Shlomo was doing. But as a musician, I have so much respect for what he accomplished and how he was able to communicate with his guitar, something that I've done. And it's beautiful when you know how to do it, but not everyone can do it. Right. It's a gift to, like you said, to be able to sit down and look around the room and think this is I'm not even worthy and still play.

SPEAKER_01 48:26

Right.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

I spoke a lot about the influence of secular music on our on our kids. I remember from a very early age that that was probably my first portal from like the from bubble that I grew up in to the secular world. And unfortunately, or fortunately, music is so powerful, yeah, and the lyrics and the music and the tune, and especially in the 80s and the rock music and the ballads and the bands, it goes right into your nishama. Oh, yeah. It goes right into your nashama. And I would say with I say with complete certainty that it was Gaiush music, secular music, that took my innocence in a sense, that exposed me to the world and to the things that are not so good, heartbreak and things that are not necessarily tsunua, things that we don't sing about publicly. You know, as a woman, we're taught modesty and music is all about selling and we know what sells, so that's what's promoted. And it just, just with a couple of songs, suddenly you're exposed to all the garbage on the planet. I worry because our kids, you know, we we want to provide them with alternatives. We want to give them great kosher Jewish media, but it's hard. You know, there's a concert, I think, tonight. Noah Curell is performing here in Beit Chemish, and my girls are going to be going with their friends, and the whole city's going. And it's talk to our audience a little bit about, as someone who's a musician who writes music in a world where we're using AI now to write songs, the importance, it it how important it is to surround ourselves with kosher culture. You know, the word culture comes from kol Torah, you could say that. What really our culture is the kol Torah.

SPEAKER_01 50:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:03

So when you surround yourself with secular culture, it really affects your essence.

SPEAKER_01 50:09

Well, I think you're hitting something, you're hitting on something that Episode two of the of the podcast. This is very, very chazak.

SPEAKER_00 50:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:17

But we're also very much living in a time that Hashem knew exactly what this generation needed, and within the Israeli culture, you have music today that Bensur. Bensur, Yesha Ribo, Hanan Benari. You have the cream of the crop that are that are connecting all worlds. And you know, I was I recently was actually here in Beit Chemish and invited to come to a late night gathering by someone's shack. And uh Ben, yeah, it was like a shack connected to a house. And uh Bensur was there. Bensur was sitting there, and before he left, I told him I I didn't recognize him right away, but I know my daughters go crazy. Huge star here.

SPEAKER_00 51:04

He has tattoos, he's about chuva, he speaks about coming back to Hashem, he speaks about the struggle that our youth have in a very open-honest way.

SPEAKER_01 51:13

Yeah, he wears he wears tsits, he doesn't wear a keeper, but he wears tsits, and he's on his on his journey. And but all his songs are real. They're about Emuna and they're about the struggle with Emuna too. I went up to him and I said to him, I'll I'll tell you, say it in English, I said, I just want you to let you know, it's a father's dream that when his daughter wants to go out to have a good time at night, that a teenage girl chooses to go and to pray with you at your concerts. And I just want to say as a father, thank you. And as a Jew, thank you. Oh, he was it was such a moment. So we have the most amazing thing going on in the music scene over here right now, but you're right. On the other hand, I mean, I'm not sure what era you're speaking of when you first got exposed. You're talking like early 80s. In the late 80s, yeah. Early 90s, yeah. So I once had a long conversation about this with my Rabbi Rabbimosha Weinberger. He said, back in the 60s, when you had guys like Jackson Brown, Simon and Garfunko that are coming out with their sexuality.

SPEAKER_00 52:08

It wasn't to corrupt your soul.

SPEAKER_01 52:10

It was it wasn't holy, but it wasn't necessarily tame impure.

SPEAKER_00 52:16

Okay. Right?

SPEAKER_01 52:16

It wasn't holy. You can't say that. But about the artists that okay, but you're saying, but then the artists who were alcoholics and gluttons and all these So as time progressed, exactly, a lot of these people were feeding into the need of what would draw people to identify with their issues, their own issues, and everything became parut. How do you say that in English? Uh wild and free and free, like like uh uh no borders. Everything goes talk about anything, express anything. And now hopefully, I I don't know, I'm not I don't know that much about what's goes on in total secular music, meaning things that are uh vulgar and stuff like that. But I do feel there is a calling worldwide for people to come back to music in a more theme music.

SPEAKER_00 53:01

So I think there was this Yuridata Dorothe, like a lowering uh uh decline of the generation, and we had this whole era where the rock and rollers were behaving in the most egregious ways and publicly, and people wanted to people revered them. I mean, people were upset. This was before social media. Your celebrities were were like the most they were God themselves. It's a it's uh worship, celebrity worship. Um but so we had this era where there was this like big concern, and like you said, I think the pendulum has swung. I think so. Now we're cleaning up a little bit. I think so. You know what I I always say I want to run for Knesset here, and my platform is to be lice-free. I want to be lice-free. Um, and I want to be the F-word free. I would love it if Israel would because we because it's it's a it's one the most foul word in the English language, and I don't like when it pulled blares out of the speakers here because it's a different language.

SPEAKER_01 53:58

It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 53:59

It carries weight.

SPEAKER_01 54:00

It's true.

SPEAKER_00 54:01

Tuma cleaning. I'll vote for you. I'm gonna vote for you. You vote for me, thank you. There was one more thing I already forgot. Um so, yes. So when I'm saying about the the music and the effect that it has, thankfully, we do have so many incredible artists, and we have we're the the kids can use the same phones to create their own great stuff and to post their own music. And with AI, you can create music that speaks to you and you can do it without having a lick of talent. So you don't really have to sit and listen to some Guns N' Roses cassette over and over and over again. You could pick up and find in two seconds, you can access the music. It's fine-tuned for you.

SPEAKER_01 54:41

So I think that's what's beautiful of this generation.

SPEAKER_00 54:43

Show our kids you have it.

SPEAKER_01 54:44

That you could also be as more creative than you ever uh were told. Right. So if you activate their own creativity.

SPEAKER_00 54:52

If you don't find the music, make it.

SPEAKER_01 54:54

Make it. That's what I'm getting to about also coming here. Be a creator, be an innovator. I I know many people you've had on this on this show. These are everyone's a shaker and not a macher. Uh macher's like a like a hot shot.

SPEAKER_00 55:09

Do you not like that? No.

SPEAKER_01 55:11

No.

SPEAKER_00 55:12

No, you've But there's an element of risk and trust.

SPEAKER_01 55:15

Okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:16

Jumping off, God's gonna catch you. And if he's for sure gonna catch you here, he's waiting for you in the airport. He's everywhere, but you know, yeah, definitely feel him in Israel. Another question I wanted to ask you specifically, because you know a lot of people, and you know through music a lot of different uh shitot or I would say directions or paths in which we serve God. So we have Chasidut and Breslev and Chabad, like you mentioned, and then we you know, and we live here in Beijamesh, and we have this more Haredi, Zionist, um and and it's fine. I I don't fall into any specific category. I'm a Jew without boundaries in that sense. But in this generation, where people are meditating in Ashwagandha and ayahuasca and all these things, okay? And weed is more potent than ever, and prescription pills are a problem. What sh what way of life do you think? And you could say it's maybe Rab Nachman, like you know, you could do Reb or whatever it is, what do you think our generation needs to prescribe more to?

SPEAKER_01 56:24

It's funny. I've never I've never found myself being a spokesman for Breslov, but I do see more and more that within the writings and the Itzot, the pieces of advice from Rabina Breslov, it does seem that he really was speaking directly, directly to the pulse of today's generation.

SPEAKER_00 56:45

Yeah, and the and the specific challenges, right?

SPEAKER_01 56:49

Specific challenges, but I also I I yesterday we just finished uh in the Tanya Yomi, we finished the first piece of the Tanya. I don't know how you could live without the Altarebi either.

SPEAKER_00 57:02

So that's the founder of Chabad.

SPEAKER_01 57:05

And and every every sich, like I my my my rebay and my my those that have that that guide me are a Michlol. They uh they're they're from a combination. Yeah, they're a combination.

SPEAKER_00 57:18

Well that's the uh concept the Balshamto said, Luxhaya futsu minus a chakutsu and the wellsprings of knowledge are what does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 57:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 57:24

You could go on torah.com or moraledge.com, whatever topic you want to explore.

SPEAKER_01 57:29

Right.

SPEAKER_00 57:30

And in whatever you want a man, you want a woman, you wanted uh more about the midot, you want it more about the the halacha or it's everything's available. That's right. Everything is available. That's the point. I think that's really what we're what I'm taking away from this episode. Sure, we can focus on. I always say when you come to Israel, just look up. Don't look at the cans and the litter and the cats, right? Look up at the sky and the trees and all the beautiful things. It's all about your angle, right? The perspective of your head, right? So we have to go through our entire lives like that.

SPEAKER_01 58:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:03

And yes, the devil's all over our shoulder, and the Yetzahara's, you know, and the distractions and the dopamine and all the pull and the addictions. But look at the other side. It's so beautiful. So beautiful. There's so much to enjoy. Israel's growing and it's more beautiful every year. And our our children are proving to be the most incredible generation ever.

SPEAKER_01 58:24

Ever. So, you know, just so we all we need is the teachings that lead us to think like that and to look at life from that angle. And that's why I do feel that Rabina Ahmed Braslov's words help us tremendously address exactly what we just said right now, to to to tilt our heads and to keep it in that direction. He I at least for me, he does.

SPEAKER_00 58:49

It's so hard. You know, yesterday I was it two days ago, I lost my phone. I'm recently divorced. It was very, very hot. I went to the area to take care of my Arnona, because I'm moving by myself. It's like a whole thing. I didn't end up getting the appointment because they were rude and they're like, You need to have an appointment. And I was like, I got a ticket. And by the time I came home, I realized my phone was gone. I was a wreck. And I watched myself from the outside because I know what I should be thinking. Everything's been a sham. The phone is a kapara. At least you're in a better place now. This is, you know, a year ago you would have been so happy to be where you are now. The your nervous system, the nervous system. I mean, if I think of one word that encapsulates like this generation, it's the nervous system. And Rabin Ahmad speaks a lot about the habits that keep your nervous system in check.

SPEAKER_01 59:39

Correct. That's why he's the shrink of the generation.

SPEAKER_00 59:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:44

Yeah?

SPEAKER_00 59:44

Is that something you speak about with your community a lot?

SPEAKER_01 59:47

Oh, yeah. Yeah. All the time. It's it's common language by us, of course. On Thursday mornings for a long time already is our Rabbi Nachman morning. And this whole year has been a journey called On the Path to Tranquility and Peace and from the Torah of Rabbi Nachman. And we we could learn this forever.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:04

And it relates to everyone.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:05

Everyone finds themselves I can't relate to someone that can't relate to it. Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:09

Well, I will say, as uh, you know, Lubavitch in my blood and my my ancestors, it's just who I am. I grew up on the Lubavit Rebbe's teachings, and at that time I remember thinking this is the only thing the world ever needs. And now as an adult, I I I like I I see how beautifully everything works together. You could learn your Tanya in the morning and your Reb Nachman in the evening. But I think at the end of the day, the most important thing is to live life with intention.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:38

Live life with intention which the Rebbe mastered in giving over to the generation as well. You I just want to say you cannot have uh uh an experience of going through this world without his cashus to the Rebbe.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:50

Like, yeah, the Labhabach Rebbe just he changed the way we experienced Judaism.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:55

Yeah. He was the Moshe Rabbeinu of our generation.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:58

Powerful stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:59

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:00

Powerful stuff. And it's a beautiful thing because I've I saw it with my own eyes. I was in 770, and what a big schlus. And I'm lucky because that was the holiness I felt when I came here. So I grew up in Chutzla Aretz, right? So for me, what was Yedushkay? What was holiness? What was Kedusha? The Rebbe. He gave his whole life over for the Jewish people. I mean, the man was self-sacrifice personified. And that's what holiness is. That's when you see Kedusha, holiness. And when you I always say when you leave Aret Israel, it feels like going from Shabbos to you know to Khul, to like from Shabbat to the the mundane to a weekday. So because I had that taste when I came here to Israel, I realized that's what it is. That's what it is. That's what it is. And the like you said, the Rebbe didn't have to be here. The Rebbe was the captain of the ship. The captain of the ship gets off last. The rebit didn't have to be here because the Rebbe was Erit Sisrow there. They needed him and he was there for them. But um as somebody who's been here almost 10 years, I I always appreciate when I speak to people who have been here longer than me and they're still enthusiastic and idealistic after everything we've been through. You're like, yeah, yeah. Meanwhile, they're chat putting in my chat, you know, prepare your mama. There might be missile strikes from Iran over the holiday. You know, you go from these ex you know It's beyond nature. It's beyond nature what we're trying to do like we could it's beyond that. You can't explain this. Why are we sitting here so excited and happy in this beautiful studio?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:41

It's beyond nature. Don't try to give words to that which is impossible to express verbally.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:48

That's why we do it with music. Yeah, I was watching your halo. You posted a live holo, which by the way, you can watch um live holo from your show.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:57

Yeah, yeah, there's a team that were you talking about this last one?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:01

Yes, they I saw a live hollow.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's put up.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:04

Yeah, so I'm saying even wherever you are, you can have a taste of um Yerushalayim, a taste of the holiness of the land. So for all of you watching, I want to encourage you to follow Rev Shlomo Cats uh on Spotify, on YouTube, subscribe to Moral Edge. This is where we have conversations with people who really love Eritusral. We encourage you with a full open heart to come join us. Not because we need you, because we just need you. We want you. We want you. We we want you to be together. That's it. It's just a an outpouring of love from the Holy Land. Thank you for being here, for sharing with honesty and for giving them advice and tips.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:40

My pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:41

And um, yeah, we'll see you again. Memoral edge. Thank you. This is Hanala on the weekly squeeze.