Lynn & Tony Know
Lynn & Tony Know
From Synagogue to Social Media: The Transformative Journey of @rabbi_david_schlusselberg
How does one transition from being a spiritual leader to a digital influencer? Rabbi Schlusselberg joins us to share his remarkable journey, recounting his path from a traditional rabbi to a prominent voice on Instagram. As we gear up for the high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Rabbi Schlusselberg sheds light on how he leverages social media to spread Jewish inspiration and combat anti-Semitism, offering insightful reflections on the intersection of faith and modern technology.
Our conversation takes a deep dive into the intricacies of religious identity and the roles rabbis play in their communities. Reflecting on my own journey from a modern Orthodox upbringing to becoming a rabbi, we explore the significant impact of the events of October 7th on the Jewish community and the surge in spiritual connection it has sparked. We touch upon the dual roles rabbis often assume as both spiritual guides and informal therapists, emphasizing the importance of knowing when to refer individuals to professional help and the transformative power of books like "Gateways to Judaism."
Dealing with online hate is a challenge many face, and Rabbi Schlusselberg shares his strategies for addressing antisemitism on social media. From the importance of responding to hate comments to the complexities of political dialogue, we cover the nuanced approaches necessary for meaningful engagement. We also delve into the rigorous process of converting to Judaism, underscoring the genuine commitment required. Listen in for a heartfelt discussion on faith, resilience, and the vital role of community in navigating the modern spiritual landscape.
Your hosts: @lynnhazan_ and @tonydoesknow
follow us on social @ltkpod!
Hey, welcome to the Lynn and Tony Know podcast. I'm your host, Lynn.
Speaker 2:And I'm Tony. We are both wellness coaches and married with kids.
Speaker 1:Join us as we talk about all things health, wellness, relationships, life hacks, parenting and everything in between, unfiltered. Thanks for listening and let's get into it. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Welcome back Shalom lechulam.
Speaker 1:Good job, Tony. We are gearing up for the high holidays.
Speaker 2:Yes, we are.
Speaker 1:Rosh Hashanah is coming up, it's the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement Very important holidays and we're taking it seriously this year, like I do take it seriously every year, but I think post-October 7th, we have been definitely taking up our Judaism up a notch.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And it's very baby steps for us. And just to give background, obviously we know that Tony is not Jewish. We spoke about it the last at our interfaith relationship podcast last episode. If you didn't listen to it it's a really good episode and I am.
Speaker 1:But I grew up in a very secular home. My parents, both of them, come from religious backgrounds. Like my great uncle was this huge rabbi in Jerusalem and my father went to yeshiva school and they went kind of the opposite direction where they just became very, very secular. And I grew up in a very secular home and it was very confusing because, like, being Jewish was very important in my family and going to a Jewish school and having you know Jewish values and going to Israel like twice a year and all those things. But then, like, the God aspect was like very gray and you know we would do Passover, but my dad would just like mumble the prayers and we'd get right to the Seder and I'd be like, don't we need to suffer a little bit, like before we eat and you know, and.
Speaker 1:But I always felt like this longing for more and and I would I literally once sneaked out of my house to go to temple, to like meet my friends on, like Rosh Hashanah, actually because I wanted to go and I wanted, I wanted. I was always seeking more and I think there was a period in my like adult life where I completely disconnected from it and after Tony and I met, I started more and more and then October 7th happened and it was just like I need to. Yes, this is, I have a call. I feel like I'm being called and time to plug in time to plug in yeah and it's.
Speaker 1:It feels really good like we do shabbat dinner every friday and you know we've been fasting every year. But you know fasting kind of like drinking water, having a little little coffee, um, but we're doing it like the right way this year dry and digital fast yeah, and I'm really looking forward to it, which brings us to our with our guest, which I'm really excited to have on the show. Do you want to give a little background on him?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we have on the show today Rabbi Schlosselberg. He received his bachelor's degree in psychology and rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University. He holds a master's degree in Jewish education from the Azrieli School of Jewish Education. Currently he works at the Ray Kushner Yeshiva High School as the Mashkiach Rukhani, which is a spiritual advisor, and just over a year ago one year ago he started an Instagram page which now has over 20,000 followers. He provides Jewish inspiration and, I would say, inspiration in general. I find that some of the inspiration is very broad and applies to anything really but Jewish specific inspiration and education about Israel and anti-Semitism, and he has lectured at Columbia, princeton NYU and many other colleges. And, on top of all that, he is one of the most prolific Instagram comment uh commenters I've ever seen. Like every post that I'm scrolling through, his name pops up with a with a comment, and it's always, it's always pretty uplifting, it's not like positive yeah.
Speaker 2:It's not like something I would say right, I would like it's just funny, like I don't know.
Speaker 1:I guess seeing you know a rabbi on instagram, it's kind of like I'd never, I don't know. I never thought, if you'd asked me, like 10, 15 years ago, that I would be following like these spiritual amazing people that are teaching me weekly parasha and like you know different things, that it just I would never think, that I would never think that, but why not?
Speaker 2:And with all that, we welcome Rabbi Schlisselberg. Welcome to the podcast. We are so happy to have you.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. Really excited to be here with you guys. Thanks for inviting me.
Speaker 1:I don't know where to start so many questions. Let's start with the IG.
Speaker 2:Let's start with the IG. Let's start with the IG. What got you into the digital game like that?
Speaker 3:It could be an hour-long answer.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow, I'll give you the short version, okay, sure, the short version is that I've always had it in me to want to help people, want to educate people, and also, tied to that, which is, what content creators want, is create a name for themselves.
Speaker 3:And so the frustration I had for a long time is, let's say, I would contact a synagogue or a place to speak and, in theory, certainly if they knew me, they'd say, like I think you're a good speaker, but we're not going to have you come because no one knows who you are. But then, because no one knows who I am, I can't go to places. So there's like a vicious cycle. So I recognize, as opposed to trying to get to an audience, let me bring an audience to me. And that's why I started the page to be able to inspire people. And obviously, when you start your first post, you have zero followers and you have to just grow and inspire people and then hopefully build yourself up where people recognize that there's something really beneficial that you're providing, and then now kind of like walking through the back door. Now I have more opportunities to be able to provide inspiration to people in person.
Speaker 1:Wait, I want to know, though, more your story, but why did you decide to become a rabbi? So the short version, obviously, because I'm sure that's a long one too.
Speaker 3:That one's actually pretty short. There is, I think, only a version which is I grew up, modern Orthodox and basically, in general, what modern orthodoxy is? It's basically orthodox Judaism, while recognizing the benefit of secular studies. Let's leave it with that definition. And so after high school, many kids who are modern orthodox they learn in Israel for a year. They have a gap year. It happens to be in my high school.
Speaker 3:I'm actually the head of Boys Israel Guidance, so I help instruct people to provide them the information for places to go. So when I was 19 years old, I was in Israel. I was becoming more religious and I was very inspired and I decided at that moment a combination of enjoying learning Torah for pretty much the first time, and I was also helping friends through random things. Some of the things I was helping them through was, like I remember one kid, like a girlfriend issue, where I was trying to give them advice, someone else, a religious issue, and it was a combination of enjoying learning, wanting to teach others and wanting to help other people, whereas since I was 19, I was set on becoming a rabbi and haven't looked back.
Speaker 1:Wow, and I always felt like rabbis are kind of like therapists too in a way. Right, Is that accurate?
Speaker 3:In a certain sense, yeah, meaning obviously, if there's someone that has a serious or it doesn't even have to be so serious, but a real psychological issue, I always will tell them you really need to see a therapist. I'm happy to speak to you and I'm happy to help how I can?
Speaker 1:that's very responsible of you.
Speaker 3:I mean, I've had a lot of serious cases over the last year of people on Instagram, of multiple people who have been suicidal, people with depression, like some serious stuff, and certainly I'm happy to help how I can, but I always have to provide that information to make sure they get the help they really need, while at the same time but to answer your question also meaning yeah, many people turn to religious figures for advice and I mean I really thank God and I believe overall I have a good sense of getting a person, understanding them and a certain intuition to provide beneficial advice understanding them and a certain intuition to provide beneficial advice. I certainly and you'll probably hear it tonight based on the questions I'm asked, I'm not scared to say I don't know, and I think all people have to say that and have to be honest with themselves. As opposed to living up to what they think their ego is to try to provide an answer when they don't really have a good one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is a key. A key a bit like honestly, I look at that as as an ability, an ability to be able to tell somebody that you don't know the answer to something. Um, I work with I work with men and men's coaching lot and come across some very serious situations as well, and having the humility to be like this is out of my depth a little bit. But I will get you in front of somebody that can help, and it may not be me. That takes a level of skill and shrinking of the ego to pull off Because it's hard. You want to help everyone, but at some point you have to understand your limitations, which is a powerful skill in itself 100%.
Speaker 1:Now, obviously, I always talk about how, as a Jew, I hate saying as a Jew because it's a triggering thing to say as a Jew, I hate saying as a Jew, but because it's a triggering thing to say as a Jew. But you get right. It is now um that there's the pre October 7th version of us and there's the post October version of of us.
Speaker 3:And what have you seen in your position being a rabbi in the Jewish community, with people and their spirituality, pre and post, as I talked about in the beginning of the podcast than what I do in my school, because in my school meaning, the kids overall are from Orthodox homes and they honestly seem to me overall pretty similar to how they were pre and post October 7th. Certainly, their kids they're a little more inspired, the kids are moving the needle a little bit, but what I've seen on Instagram has been very eye-opening. I'm in touch, I've been reached out to by it's gotta be over a hundred people I don't know if I could say hundreds, but many, many people who really have a yearning to tap into their Jewishness that they never felt prior to October 7th. Some people who messaged me who would say I'm definitely marrying a Jew. Now I get messages like that. I get messages of like I want to. I got messages like last week or two weeks ago. I didn't mean to bring anything up, uncomfortable, I'm just saying yeah, no, it's not uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:We talked about it.
Speaker 2:We literally had the conversation and we put out that clip today of her saying if she was single now during post October 7th, she would be in Israel trying to find a reservist to marry.
Speaker 3:They definitely work out and so not saying you don't. But so there are people who I get messages from people saying I want to become more religious, like what do I do? I've had like, for example, there's kind of like a certain book that I that I provide to people that I suggest that they buy, where I literally should contact that author and claim some royalties.
Speaker 1:Okay, what's the book?
Speaker 3:So I always forget the name because it's either like I'm pretty sure it's Gateways to Judaism or it's like I'm pretty sure it's Gateways to Judaism. It definitely has a key on the cover, which is why I also think maybe key is in the title there, but Gateways to Judaism and just like it goes, it's very in there, but anyways to Judaism and and just like it goes it's a very in-depth, but it goes to like the how, why and what's of Judaism. And there are just so many people that contact me. Sometimes it's broadly like I want more religious, what did I do? And sometimes it's a very specific question.
Speaker 3:Sometimes it's people, unfortunately, like there are many people have contacted me who, now that they recognize how important it is to feel Jewish and be Jewish, they say, like I live in the middle of nowhere, like what do I do? How do I connect? Uh, so it's really like it's across the spectrum of people, across denominational, of course, meaning I get reached out to from Messianic, conservative, reform, orthodox Jews, and there are here and there people who have lost faith, certainly because of how they view God based on what happened on October 7th and since October 7th. But I will say the overwhelming majority of people. Their faith has been ignited from it.
Speaker 1:So I have two follow-up questions. One of them is you know, you get the question of how do I become more religious? So what is that answer?
Speaker 3:Let's say I was one of those people DMing you how do I become more religious? So the two important things to recognize and we have to bifurcate is knowledge and practice. Those are key. You can't have practice without knowledge, and knowledge is always the first thing you need. But if someone just has knowledge, there are people who are extremely brilliant in Judaism, but if they don't do anything, then it's almost worthless. So those are the two things so I provide them with. Like I said, then it's almost worthless. So those are the two things so I provide them with.
Speaker 3:Like I said, sometimes it's content to like a book to buy. Sometimes it's sharing information. If it's a specific question, like you said, if it's just, how do I become more religious, I always, always, will tell someone to start off small. One of the things I usually one of my go-tos is to tell them to work on prayer, because prayer is something that's essential to religion. It's something that provides your connection to God and it's also something that doesn't impose on your life. So if someone like, let's say, I were to say so as an Orthodox Jew, for example, so we don't drive on Shabbat or use our computer or phone. So imagine if someone's like I want to become more loose. What do I do? Oh, for 24 hours you can drive Like. Imagine if I started with that Like. Obviously, like for most people, I would never even bring it up. Meaning you have to work with a person where they are.
Speaker 3:It's also about not being judgmental. It's about seeing every person for who they are and where they are, and it's important also to make sure that they don't feel guilt for how they lived their life prior. Meaning one of the things that people don't really recognize about Judaism and I think there are other religions where other religions let's say there's a law. Let's just say, let's say broadly, like, be kind, okay. And let's say if you're kind, you get points. And let's say you get a hundred points, you're kind, and if you're not kind, you lose a hundred points. And so, whether, however, someone's raised, whatever their background is, whether they're come from an abusive home or a regular home, that's what it is Judaism is not meaning. That's not what we believe. We believe every single thing is tailor-made.
Speaker 3:So there's a concept the Hebrew term is Ones Rachmanipatre, which means if someone is basically does something totally by accident, it's not even their fault, it's not even. Let's say, for example, if I know. On Shabbat, for example, I don't turn on the light so I accidentally hit the light switch. So that's one level where that's, of course, by accident and you're not punished as if it would be deliberate. But then there's a level of someone doesn't even know what Shabbat is. So if you don't even know what it is, it's like there's zero punishment. Punishment so people who come to Judaism later on, where they're raised in a certain way in their household, like a person has to recognize and I have to make them feel as if, like they did nothing wrong and don't regret. I'm in touch with. I'm in touch with people in their literally in their sixties, meaning people who want to become more religious now, and I've shared these concepts with them. And it's also another important concept for the listeners to know that it's never too late. If someone is 60 or 70 years old, you know I want to start doing something, but like eh, I already wasted my life it's never too late.
Speaker 3:There's a concept, there's a story in the Talmud about a person who is kind of like Yom Kippur story, like a person who repents literally like the last day of life. And they passed away. They were a big sinner, happens to be. The actual story is someone who was, who was sleeping with prostitutes that's literally the story and the person died after repenting and not sinning with, like the last prostitute he was going to be with, and then a heavenly voice came out and said Rebbe Elazar ben-Duradaya. It gave him, like he became, rabbinic ordination. The guy got and says now.
Speaker 3:He welcomed him to Olam Haba, to heaven, and two rabbis heard that heavenly voice and they turned to each other and they say a person could acquire heaven in just a moment, and that's one of the stories in the Talmud. So it's really literally never, ever too late. One of the last small point I'll say is that one of the greatest rabbis in all of Jewish history is someone named Rebbe Akiva, and Rebbe Akiva literally says in the Talmud that he hated rabbis. He hated not just Judaism, he hated rabbis until he was the age of 40.
Speaker 2:At the age of 40, he started learning Hebrew and he became one of the greatest rabbis ever. How do you rank rabbis? Good question, I'm kind of joking, but I'm also kind of serious how do you determine the best rabbi?
Speaker 3:like the best rabbi. So one of the things that a person should recognize is that it's not something like in presidential elections, where it's self-appointed and you're trying to get people to vote for you or to get your rabbi fantasy.
Speaker 1:It's not a popularity contest.
Speaker 3:Correct, it's not a popularity contest, just to share like a story of someone who's the greatest rabbi, probably in the 20th century, certainly in America, if not probably the world. His name was Moshe Feinstein. Moshe Feinstein was born in Russia in the late 1800s. He died in 1986. He was a rabbi on the Lower East Side and meaning it's one small thing I'll say, just tangentially, just important for people to realize a great rabbi, in every religious person's book, is not just someone who has tremendous knowledge, but it's someone who has impeccable character traits. So if there's someone who has so much knowledge but they're a jerk, that's not a great rabbi, that's not. So now back to answering your question. Sorry, moshe Feinstein, there's a, there's a whole corpus of literature People know, like Torah, some people know what Mishnah is or Talmud. There's a whole corpus known as She'elot Etruvo, which just means question and answers, where very big rabbis will publish books of the questions they get and the answers. Now the answers are not like a yes or no, they are pages long going through the whole topic, from all of Jewish literature to how they get to that answer to a specific question.
Speaker 3:So Moshe Feinstein, in his introduction to the first volume of his Shalom Shuvahs Questions and Answers. He writes, he says people like he's extremely humble, like he was beyond brilliant, but he said meaning who am I? But people came to me, they asked me questions and I guess they were happy with the answers I provided and people just kept coming. So it's kind of like that where people just recognize what's known as Hebrew-like godliness, like greatness, and people cling to that. Like one of the greatest rabbis, also in the 20th century, who died in 1953, known as L', who died, and he lived in Israel, in Bnei Brak. He literally didn't hold a rabbinic position, can you imagine like the greatest rabbi, not even like being a rabbi of a congregation, just like sitting and learning, but like he was so brilliant that people recognize his greatness and swarm to him and his opinions literally are what people live with till today in many areas.
Speaker 1:And that's what I love about Judaism is that there's so many layers and to uncover. And it's the meeting where you're at, like I love that. Like I was talking to my rabbi the other day at my daughter's bat mitzvah and I was telling him I'm like Rabbi, I'm, you know, we're going to tackle Yom Kippur and, like you know, I think the hardest part is the no coffee, because I'm addicted to coffee and I have a toddler that I need to take care of and and it's really hard. And he's like, well, he's like you know, there's a concept of pikuach nefesh. You know you have to take care of others, so you have to take care of yourself. Obviously, don't chug a cappuccino and, like you know, and and and watch a reality show, but like, if you need a little bit to to get you through the day, then then Hashem will, will be okay with that, so that. And I was like, wow, that's really forgiving.
Speaker 3:And he's like some women don't, can't fast at all for health reasons or if they have, you know, eating issues or disorders, and because you have to put your health first 100% and the source for that in the Torah is the Torah says the words, which means you shall live by it, and the Talmud derives from that you shall live by these words and don't die by these words. So we don't believe in just martyrdom for the sake of the Torah, except there are certain exceptions, but overall meaning. If someone comes to me and puts a gun to my head and says, eat this thing, eat this pork, or I'm going to kill you, I have an obligation to eat the pork and I'll probably enjoy it.
Speaker 3:Um, but that's okay.
Speaker 1:Um, so we are no, we're not using that Um, okay, so I want to. I want to go back to another follow-up question that I had, uh, about people like losing hope, in a sense of like losing faith in Hashem Um, and I think that's something I relate to because that's where that's. Like you know, I think my parents have been through, and my grandparents as well have been through so much hardships, Holocaust and loss and and just you know, I think they've lost faith and they're very practical people that they don't believe in like a higher spirit. And especially post October 7th, I could see a lot of people losing faith. Like, how could there be a God if God let this happen? How, if we're the you know, chosen people, why are we continuously suffering? What do you say to those people who reach out to you, who've lost hope?
Speaker 3:It's a great question. This is one of the times where it's not where I'll say the words I don't know, but it's where I will share ideas which I do say over. But it's also where we don't know the reason, and no one should ever provide the reason why October 7th happened, meaning I literally I can't fathom how someone who is an atheist, as a Jew, could go on and live in this world and try to be somewhat sane. I'd be going crazy. But with my faith, meaning it's that I certainly believe that there is a reason, unfortunately, why this stuff happens, why the Holocaust happened, why the Spanish Inquisition happened, and it's not up to us to finger point. It's not up to us to finger point to the nation what was bad. It's not up to us to even finger point when we have individual personal things like oh, it must be. This happened to me because I do this. What we should do and I still realize I'm not answering your question, but I'll get back to it in a second what we should do and I still realize I'm not answering your question, but I'll get back to it in a second but what we should do is certainly be able to think how can I improve that. There must be a reason why some of this stuff happens. Let me think how I can improve.
Speaker 3:So now to answer your question, it's where we have to recognize that God is concealed. God such a basic question, literally like elementary, is like why did God choose to create the world this way? And you can fill in the blank for whatever this way is. So here it's like why did God? I mean, if God wants people to believe in him, so why make it so hard to see him? Why is it where 10% of this country don't even believe he exists? So there must be a reason for that. And it's not where life is supposed to be easy. I use an analogy sometimes of like someone who wants to go to the Navy SEALs. So if someone wants to join the army, you can literally just sign up. If someone wants to join the Navy SEALs, you have to really, really, really work hard. You have to train intensely prior to it, go through hell in that boot camp and maybe that it is challenging.
Speaker 3:Judaism is hard, faith is hard, but it's important to recognize that there's so many reasons for us to see that God exists, the fact that the Jewish people are still around, literally. Mark Twain, in the late 1800s, spoke about it like the miracle of the Jewish people existing. Like we have to put certain things into perspective. It's not like, oh God hates us, god, it can't be. There's a God. Because it's happening to us. Like look at the miracles that have happened throughout Jewish history. Look at even the miracles that have happened over the last few months the fact that Iran, when they shot all the rockets on the Saturday night a few months ago and literally not one Israeli was killed in that whole attack. Of course, one thing that's important to recognize is some people might be thinking right now yeah, it's because of the Iron Dome, because of the allies that came to help. Obviously, God's not coming out of the sky to just stop them where it's like well, that's a clear miracle. It's a separate question why God doesn't do clear miracles right now, but it's where God uses the tools and the people to be able to do his miracles, to perform things. I'm sure when people use the word coincidence or karma, it's like just replace that with that's God Meaning. I'm pretty sure I've heard the idea Like there is no Hebrew word for coincidence, certainly biblical Hebrew word. Like that's not a thing. It's recognizing that this stuff happens Now, unfortunately, of course, bad things happen.
Speaker 3:One of the things based on who I'm speaking to sometimes I just have to get a sense of, if I want to share this, which it is a truth and it is important. I mean throughout the time of the Torah, when the Jewish people were in the land of Israel, when we had prophets, which we had prophets for a thousand years. So God spoke to the prophets to warn the people that if you continue sinning and doing X, y or Z, this is going to happen. So one of those this is going to happen was the destruction of the temple, with the first temple and the second temple. So obviously, if you were living in that time and the temple was destroyed, it's not like, how could this happen? It's like, oh yeah, the prophet told us exactly what God said and that's exactly what happened because we kept sinning. So that notion still exists.
Speaker 3:Just because we don't have prophets doesn't mean bad things don't happen because we're not doing the best thing we could do. Like I said, which is a critical, it doesn't mean we finger point. It doesn't mean I could say that as a nation, we're failing in this area or individually we're failing in that area. We all have to look internally, we all have to do what we can for ourselves and we could say you know, I don't know what's going on, but I want to become a better Jew and I know that if I'm a better Jew a little bit, and certainly if we're all better Jews, then that will better the world, and so that's something that's important to recognize. But it's also important and I'll end with this, I'm sure you want to interrupt me in a second but it is also important for me to say that God loves us, that God really loves us, and sometimes it seems so, so hard to see.
Speaker 3:For example, on the topic of the temple being destroyed, when the leader of the I think it was the Babylonians. It was probably the first temple, so the leader of, or the second, it was either the Babylonians or the Romans. When he entered the Holy of Holies, where inside you have the Ark, and on top of the Ark are these angelic figures, golden figures, known as the Kruven. And there was a miracle that occurred when the Jewish people listened to God, they faced each other. When the Jewish people went against God, they turned their backs to each other. God, they faced each other. When the Jewish people went against God, they turned their backs to each other. So one would expect, as the temple is being destroyed, their backs would be against, away from each other. However, when he got there, they were interlocked as close as could be, and the message is that God is with us. Even in our time of suffering, god is there with us.
Speaker 3:And it's not where God is sadistic. Trust me, if God was sadistic, we would all be dead. He could do it. Trust me, we would have been dead a long time ago. But it's really. It's like if a person and when you take your little kid, your two-year-old, to the doctor and they have to get a shot, they think the doctor is the meanest person in the world, but somehow that shot is something that they need actually for their health. It's going to help them, and so it's like that where sometimes pain and suffering it's not exactly what we think in our through our eyes of this is terrible. There's objectively bad, but it's actually something that somehow there could actually be good from it.
Speaker 1:I think the one thing that I struggle with and everything that like keeps coming up for me even though, like, I'm obviously in a place where I'm seeking to deepen my faith but there's one thing that I do struggle is thinking about, you know, the good people that are held hostage, the people that were murdered on October 7th, people who've dedicated their lives to service, to helping others, and and it's hard to kind of think about, like, why them and not me? Why? Why am I worthy of being safe in this home? My kids are healthy, they're not being held hostage. Like you know that I think that kind of pain and suffering that's inflicted on their themselves, that were inflicted on them for 11 months and then on their families, like it's just so hard to conceive this. Oh, everything happens for a reason. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 3:A hundred percent, and everything I said until now is speaking to the 99.9% of Jews who are not the ones who are directly impacted, meaning it's the people like us, meaning the observers of what's going on, but it's not to the mother of a child who was murdered. And so if it were to come to speak or understand someone like that, I would almost never say anything. I just told you it's really just, we don't know, and I'm sure, and they're a righteous soul. One of the things I do told you it's really just, we don't know, and I'm sure, and they're a righteous soul. One of the things I do say, which is what we believe, is that when someone is killed because they're a Jew, that they're in a special place in heaven.
Speaker 1:So just like the certain level of comfort to know that they're in a better place. That gives me so much comfort.
Speaker 3:I didn't know that that gives me so much comfort. Yeah, yeah. And the other thing, one thing that I wouldn't say then but I will share with you and your audience, is that and I've thought about it also, of course like these, hashem's were just like good people, saddest day of the year when we mourn the destruction of the temple, and it's also something we actually recite on Yom Kippur, where we speak about 10 of the greatest rabbis who were literally tortured to death, and so one of them is that rabbi I mentioned before, rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva, literally the Romans took iron combs and took off his skin that way, and he said the Shema and he died, meaning it's terrible, they're terrible deaths, gruesome deaths. Now, of course, they were extremely holy individuals, meaning the holiest people having the most brutal deaths. Like. There's no other example I could think of that's more poignant, to think about this area of like. How is this fair? And one small thing I'll share with you, and I'm not going to give you the long version of the story in the Talmud, although the long version is fascinating.
Speaker 3:But basically, on Mount Sinai, the Talmud tells us that Moses was having a conversation with God and Moses, like I said, not to go into the full example of the story. But Moses found out about this guy, rebbe Akiva, in the future and he found out he's going to be an amazing, amazing rabbi. Moses even said to God like, if he's so great, why are you giving the Torah through me? And Moses said show me what his life's going to be like, what's his life going to end like? And God shows him him being tortured and killed by the Romans. And Moses turns to God and he says is this fair? Like, how are you doing this? And he says like this is the reward for what he did in this world. And God says shtok, which means silence, like be silent, stop talking. You can't understand. You literally just can't understand Meaning what he's saying to him, to Moses, the greatest prophet of all time is trust me, I have my reasons and you will never be able to know or understand that. It doesn't mean that it's, obviously it's not sadistic reasons, but it's nothing we can ever relate to. We just can't understand or fathom. But we have to have the faith and idea that there is a reason. One thing that I heard is that the idea that it's obvious, of course, that basically it's easy to have faith when things are going well job and I got it and everything is going well amazing with my family and it's like wow, I really believe in God. Like yeah, that's easy.
Speaker 3:Faith begins where our rational minds end, when things seem like they don't make sense. That's where our faith has to kick in and that's where we're tested the most. And it's important for a person. Literally last night someone was messaging me, someone who said that after October I think they were prior to October 7th, I believe they were not observant whatsoever and after October 7th they began praying a lot and they said but as the months have gone on, they really stopped. And that part was actually a public comment and I wrote to them publicly and I said I want you to pray for pray today, pray a little bit and then please message me. And so they prayed, they messaged me and I said to them that we often think that we have to pray or do anything when we're in the mood.
Speaker 3:But it's actually where, if we do the actions when we're not in the mood, that kind of gets us in the mood. The analogy I give is if you're at a basketball game, so there's two types of cheering. There's like there's the LU, there's the deep three and there's a cheer. But the other type of cheering is absolutely nothing is going on in the game and on the Jumbotron they'll have like defense because they want you to get into it, and by you just cheering out of nowhere, that will hopefully help inspire. And so consistency in Judaism is key.
Speaker 3:It's not a coincidence that we have so many things that we do daily, because it's about the commitment, it's about the loyalty, and when a person is doing it, you're actually going to grow in your faith more. Rather than saying, you know what, when I'm in the mood, I'll do it. Like if I have students that are going off to college and they say, you know, if I'm in the mood, like maybe I'll go here and there, I know they're going to fail religiously. If they have that attitude from where they are, it doesn't mean they're going to fail overall, but they're going to, they're going to go down religiously. If it's only you know, maybe I'll try it out here and there. It has to be. You have to be steadfast, you have to be committed, and then you will grow internally from that.
Speaker 2:That's how it will come. Yeah, that's the adage. Motion creates emotion comes to mind when you speak about that sort of thing, where you know it's as simple as, like, our mood is a reflective of what we are doing with ourselves, and a lot of senses where if, like, if I'm in a bad mood or something I'm not in the mood to do, x, y, z, it could be as simple as changing my posture, in a sense where if I'm slumped over and my heart's closed off and my back is curled, then I'm not going to be receptive to the type of energy that's required to do whatever I want to do in that moment, whereas if I bring my shoulders back and I engage my heart and it's more pointed toward the sky, or if I simply just reach my hands up. It's hard to be in a bad mood when you're reaching your hands up towards the sky with your chest open and you're now receiving a different signal than you were before, even though it's not something I want to do, because part of me wants to be in a bad mood, because there's certainty in being in a bad mood and I know how to control that outcome, whereas if I let myself be free and open to any possibility that's available to me. That's scary because there's uncertainty involved in that and I'm not as comfortable engaging in that type of activity.
Speaker 2:So what you're saying is you have to do the thing that you know to be right in the moment where you don't want to do it and I love the way that you explain that, because it's so and so many things like I was saying in the introduction, so many things that you're speaking to are applicable to everything, like any part of your life. Right? How many times do you not want to work out and you choose to work out? How many times would it be easier to order dinner instead of cooking at home? Right, there's, there's so many instances where many instances where the choices that we make every day cast the vote for the person that we want to be. We can either choose to we can vote for that person that we know we can become, or we can choose to remain the person that we are.
Speaker 2:And so very much in line with what you're saying is that faith is hard. Faith is hard because it's meant to be hard, because God designed it to be hard, because if it was easy, it would just be easy, and there is no growth in the easy things. The growth happens in the dirt. So I had a period of time in my 20s where I was a big fan of a comedian and he talked about atheism and in a way that I was like, oh yeah, what are you saying Makes a lot of sense. We could.
Speaker 3:We could say George Carlin, if you want.
Speaker 2:I've seen it. It wasn't. It was David.
Speaker 3:It was David Cross it was.
Speaker 2:David Cross.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry. George Carlin has a famous one about atheism too.
Speaker 2:But yes, in that school of comedy for sure. And when I look back on that period of time without judgment, I look back on that part of my life where I kind of adopted that identity for a period and I go well, it was easier. It was easier to be absolved of all the responsibility that comes with having faith and to surrender to the divinity of timing. Because what the hell does that mean? Because so many times we get confined by.
Speaker 2:When Lynn asked the question of what is the meaning behind innocent lives being taken so much of what our rational brain, like you're speaking to, wants to do is confine us to our time here on earth, right, Confine us to the physical manifestation of who we are and that's just, that's it. So when that's taken away from somebody that we either we know or we don't know and we want to understand why, it's because our brain is limiting us to what we do on this earth when we're. There's an infinite possibility to what power a soul has after it leaves this place, and what I believe is that if somebody's life ends in a way that doesn't make sense to me, that there is a design for them on the other side, that they are destined to become. That I can't possibly understand yet and I'm okay with that. Yeah, so I don't know if, if anything I said made sense, my brain is like it's like melting right now from all this.
Speaker 1:So what do you do for fun, rabbi?
Speaker 3:can't tell. If you want me to actually answer that one thing, I'll say yeah, definitely, which is when you wrote up tony. You wrote up twice now and earlier, about kind of. You didn't use the word universal, but like the universal messages, and originally, when I started Instagram, I expected my followers to be Jewish, which many are, but I have thousands of non-Jewish followers. I get DMs from Christians every day and it's certainly something I didn't expect. To your question what do I do for fun In the summer? I enjoy playing golf. I play music. I actually have three albums I recorded, if you ever wanted my long answer to like why I do Instagram.
Speaker 3:I mean there's other stuff there but yeah, but I'm on like iTunes and Spotify and whatever that stuff I like literally. Like I don't want to say I couldn't care less, but like I don't attempt whatsoever, like I tried to, let's say, quote unquote, like make it in the Jewish music At the time I literally didn't even own a smartphone Like I was so dumb in how I tried to make it, so like I failed miserably. I loved it and I am so proud I recorded albums and write music and stuff like that, in a certain sense, like Taita, the way God runs the world. There's a Hebrew term called Hashkacha Pratis, which means God's involvement in the details and like seeing God, and so there's that's one of the parts in my life I have multiple ones where, as it was happening for literally years, of me trying to make it, let's say I think I recorded three albums in like four years or five years. And as I was trying to make it, you can't imagine the amount of times I prayed to be successful and when I wasn't, I was like why God?
Speaker 3:But now the fact that I'm able to do this, what I do on Instagram, and even though I told you and I mentioned in my in my intro that I did it to be able to like. Part of the reason I did is to be able to like get more speaking engagements and things like that. Like, even if I wouldn't get one speaking engagement my entire life, it's worth it. It's totally worth for the people I'm able to help in this through through Instagram, and so the fact that I failed in music and other ventures I did. I'm so happy, I felt, and I could only look back and be so blessed that I felt, while in the moment, for not just a moment of like, oh, you know, like a week, like five, six years of like feeling like why, god, why can I look back and say thank you, god?
Speaker 1:He had other plans for you.
Speaker 2:I mean I, I can relate to that story almost specifically. I mean I was, I was a musician. I mean I you're always a musician. But I was in a band.
Speaker 2:We were signed into a Warner brothers subsidiary, did the touring for years and, and you know, there was there was a point where it was when that, when that all sort of subsided, that it was like just all or nothing, and then I was left with what I felt like was nothing.
Speaker 2:And you know, when you pull back 10 years and go look at all of the all of the all of the failures that that lined up for me to get to where I am right now, thank God, thank God, I failed all the way to this place in my life, which I would not change for anything, which means that I have to accept how I got here. I can't be like, oh, what if I had started playing arenas? Wouldn't that have been cool? And it's like, yeah, well, what if you got big enough to afford a lot of hard drugs and your addiction took over and you died at 27 like all the other greats? I do accept the long view of what we in the moment think are failures and then realize that they were just sharpening our skills and nudging us in a different way. That didn't make sense at the time.
Speaker 1:God wanted you to become a real estate agent and marry me and have a podcast, but for real. Yeah, I wanted to also talk about the comment situation on your Instagram. You deal with a lot of antisemitism and you I guess you you put it out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I want to know why. Why do you do that? Cause it must be, it must be hard. Like I, I deal with hate comments and I block people right away because I just I can't deal with it anymore. You know what I mean? I don't want to see it, I, because I just I can't deal with it anymore.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. I don't want to see it, I don't want to deal with it anymore. I like, choose my piece, then, like you, you, you seem to address it, so I have a lot to say. Um, the first thing is I also block them. I blocked these people. I will tell you to date, I have blocked over 6,000 accounts. Wow, okay, all since October 7th, basically pretty much, and so I'll share with you and this will sound selfish and that I'm disingenuine, but the main reason I started commenting was just to grow my page.
Speaker 1:No, but I'm talking about the hate comments that you get, yeah. Meaning so one about the hate comments that you get, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, meaning. So one of the things that I recognized just to like explain that for a second is, like, because I felt I was putting out, let's say I feel like important, valuable material of Torah, jewish inspiration, stuff about Israel. So the biggest issue and like I didn't have to share my whole story but like a few years ago I ran an Instagram page. I had 14,000 followers. It was like literally had to do with parenting humor. I made memes, long story, but I deleted it on the day before Yom Kippur.
Speaker 3:Okay, so I spent at that time tens of hours, like over that year and a half, learning how to grow on social media and there's a lot of different tactics, because I find the biggest challenge is PR. Like, if I feel I'm putting out something, how do I get them to my page? You put out a post, so your followers see it, but if I start at zero followers or now I have 100, so 100 people see it how do I grow? So commenting is one of the ways where people will see your comment and people say, oh, who is this guy? Let me check out their page. It's not where if I have a comment that has a thousand likes, I get a hundred followers. It doesn't work like that. Many people would just assume that it's like if I have a comment that has a thousand likes, maybe I have five or ten like, five or ten follows, but when it comes to the people who certainly speed the hatred. So, firstly, I personally like, have thick skin.
Speaker 3:Probably the first few times I got intense anti-Semitic message whether it was a DM or a comment it probably rattled me. By now I'm used to it. I also recognize, like I have, the truth. So you could tell me I'm a genocidal baby killer and I'm burning in hell, or I'm the rabbi of Satan.
Speaker 1:Like you could tell me that I've heard that so many times too, that I'm a baby killer. I'm like I'm a mom in New.
Speaker 3:Jersey. What do you want from me? I haven't. You want me to call BB right now? Yeah, so I'm with you, so those types of things. So I feel I feel like I want to what I've recognized.
Speaker 3:I've actually received many messages from people saying they appreciate my comments. Sometimes my comments on certain posts are humorous based on the mood I see, based on what the post is. Sometimes, of course, it's serious. But I want to provide like an added layer to the post. But I want to provide like an added layer to the post. I think that, like just to share some social media statistics knowledge like approximately three to five percent of people give a post a like. Amongst that we're dealing with even smaller percentage that give a post a comment, majority of the comments are usually just emojis, like an applause emoji, a heart emoji of the comments are usually just emojis, like an applause emoji, a heart emoji, so it's a much smaller pool that actually provide valuable content. So some of the words if someone's like great post, or if they just reiterate exactly what was said, like wow, I love how you said that that Israel always cares for its citizens Like that's not value, that's, that's just redundancy. So I want to provide an added layer.
Speaker 3:So if I'm commenting on a post about Judaism which I do on some pages so I'll add something else that the person didn't say. If I'm commenting on something that's political, I'll add something. It might be tied to it. It might be a different angle that someone didn't think about and when I get the hate, that's tied to it.
Speaker 3:So if it's someone, obviously we all have to use our senses. Like if it's someone who's just like psycho and it's like you, genocidal baby killer, like I'm not going to address, you block. But if it's someone who I sense either has a genuine question, even if they're very pro-Palestine, pro-palestinian, I'm happy to address it, or sometimes you should know, if you sometimes see me respond to someone who's anti-Semitic on a post, it might be where and it's not so uncommon for me to respond and block them right away where they will actually never see it. But the reason I do it is because other people who are looking at that post will see it and they'll see my reaction to that person and that's the value. That's the value of me providing the information to the actual people who care, not to the person who couldn't care less what I'm going to say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just block. I don't have time. I don't have time to educate people. I'm just like you're on my page, me, and I'm happy to have conversations with it.
Speaker 3:If a person is receptive and to have an honest conversation and be remotely open-minded about it, I'm happy to talk. If a person is totally closed-minded and believes all the propaganda, then there's nothing to talk about. We can start a conversation and I'll say let's just recognize from the beginning that you're biased towards your view and I'm biased towards my view. But we have to try to get to a place where we are open and willing to hear the other side. Um, like so I'll have, I'll have someone. Let's say they'll say something crazy and I'll be like there'll be, like there's an article about it. I'm like I assume it's from Al Jazeera, and they're like yeah, it is. I'm like exactly so, like it also depends where you get your sources. I'll share with you something you'll find interesting, without saying the name of the of the page, but there was a page, a large page, meaning tens of thousands of followers, where they literally did a post of their I don't remember if it was a DM or a comment or like part of the comment section, but like a conversation and the person who is posting this. They literally call this person a bot and, for those who don't know meaning, there are plenty of fake accounts and it's not really the picture you see or the name you see and they're calling them a bot and it goes to the conversation like okay, mohammed or Ahmed I forgot what they said and it was like a picture of a girl in her twenties or thirties. And I commented on that post and I said I actually think this is a real person. I'm pretty positive, this is a real person. And some people like argued with me, meaning pro Israel people like or no, it's not, this is a bot. This is how they speak. I'm like, and for one of the main reasons I felt it was a real person was because they had over a hundred posts the average bot. You'll see zero posts or three posts. That's like the two classic numbers. If you see like 10, it's possible that's a bot also. But when you see someone with like over a hundred, it's a real person probably. And so I actually and this person was obviously so pro-Palestinian, insanely pro-Palestinian, obviously this page decided like look how crazy these people are. I DM'd that person and I said I'm sorry for like what you've, what you faced, and for you being like put out there. And they said no, it's crazy.
Speaker 3:And I ended up having a conversation with that person on off for a week and a half and I spent and I don't spend like an hour or two hours talking to every person and sharing voice notes back and forth, like that but like the person really, and for plenty of people there's different categories of people. It's not all where everyone just like hates Jews and wants us dead. There are plenty of those. But there are people where it's like no, they actually genuinely care for humanity and they believe Israel's committing a genocide. And I'm happy to talk to you about why I think you're wrong and I'm happy to hear your thoughts, and one of the things that is always important when it comes to these conversations is to start off by giving them points. So I'll say to them things like if an IDF soldier were to do the wrong thing let's say they were to go against orders and if those videos that you say happened, if that's true, then I totally do not condone that behavior, I condemn it, and so you give us, and they would be like yeah, great, of course. So look what's happening. So you have to. Always it's.
Speaker 3:It's the same way in politics, by the way. Um, like, whichever side I support, I'm not one of those people that thinks like everyone who's on the other side is crazy and terrible, and I'm not the type of person who thinks that every single thing that the candidate I support is amazing. I'm not like that. Like I recognize there is so much gray and there's so many pros and cons to both sides, I'm happy to defend a side. I once, like within a week, I was actually criticized for something I said that was pro-Trump and pro-Biden. This is a few months ago. I'm probably the only person on all of Instagram who's criticized for was pro-Trump and pro-Biden. This is a few months ago. I'm probably the only person on all of Instagram who's criticized for saying things like pro-Trump and Biden. You know what I mean. Like you're either like gung-ho one way, gung-ho the other way.
Speaker 1:But I think that's the way to be Like. We can't like. You know, we're Jews.
Speaker 3:Like we gotta, they need to court us. You know, we need to figure out like who's best for us, of course, and I'm not saying we shouldn't have political posts and I'm not saying we shouldn't speak up for candidates we support, and like I'll even say here, meaning I'm a Republican, and I'll even say here like I'm someone who plans on voting for Trump, but at the same time, like I do, the amount of comments that I've received from people saying like how could a rabbi be someone who's supporting a rapist and someone who's friends with the Nazis? Like I get comments like that, oh, it's disgusting for a rabbi to endorse someone who's despicable. And it's like sometimes it's just firstly, tone it down and like that's the hard part is like those don't know how to tone it down. And like that's the hard part is like people just don't know how to tone it down or have a regular conversation. And even if I respond like so, my response to most of those people is like I'll give them points and I'll say I don't think he's a good person, like he's not the most righteous figure to look up to, where I'd be like wow, this is my child's role model in life. And I say be like wow, this is my child's role model in life and I say I'm a Republican because of the Republican values and I'm pro-Trump. And even people who say that he's narcissistic and just cares about himself which may or may not be true I'll say well, caring about himself means doing things that are for the Republican Party, because that's who he represents. So, even if he just cares about himself, that's still in line with the policies that I am more in line with and I believe that he's going to be supporting the Jews in Israel more.
Speaker 3:If there's someone that says to me in a respectful way and there's like literally one person who has that like no, they believe that Kamala will be better for the Jews, then I'm like I'm okay with that. Just because I disagree with you and I think she's worse for the Jews and Israel, that doesn't mean I don't respect your opinion. If you're coming from an honest place and you believe that, I'm happy to respect that. And I've had. There was some guy who DM'd me privately like the most intense DM, attacking me for being pro-Trump, and it was a person who's a Jewish person and I said let's just recognize we both want what's best for Israel and the Jewish people and we just have different views about what will achieve that. And he responded like you're right, I'm Yisrael Chai, like. And then we like DM'd a little more, like that's all you need to just like cool the fire. I could have responded like you're the psycho, like do you like?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:I mean.
Speaker 1:I think at the end of the day, it's about like having respect for each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but what? But what is? What is becoming more clear and listening to, to your approach to it is you don't get there without having that intention to begin with. You have to want to offer the respect in order for it to permeate the conversation. You can't just go in thinking that you're owed it without giving it. And the other thing that's very striking about your examples to me and of course, there are creators within this world that they live in this one-on-one conversation avenue of advocacy, which I think is brilliant. But there is so much value to having the one-on-one conversation, Whereas sometimes it feels like, oh, I'll share a story and it'll reach more people and more people will see it. But the impact of one-on-one, I think, goes quite undervalued in the space that we're in 100%.
Speaker 3:Those are also the ones that are most meaningful Meaning. Think about like, imagine if I was giving a lecture to a synagogue of 200 people in the audience and how that would impact you versus if we're having a more intimate conversation like this, even if I'm saying the exact same words, just the more a person's able to be receptive and understand and see the body language and the care when it's more intimate and the attention they're given, then it has far more impact than just putting out a post that they could say this is crazy. Look where they believe. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You had some questions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this was relatively covered, but let's get to the specific part of the question for them. With Yom Kippur coming up, what's the Torah say about those that sin?
Speaker 3:So we have a line from scripture, that which means there's no righteous person who doesn't sin, meaning everyone sins, literally everyone sins. So everyone needs Yom Kippur, everyone needs the Devotoment, and it comes down to the recipe of how to repent. And it comes down to the recipe of how to repent, which is a person has to feel bad, have to have remorse. A person has to do what's called vidu, which is confession, where we have a general list, where we bang our chests and we go through different categories of sin and every specific sin anyone could do falls into one of those categories. And then the third, which is the most challenging, is what's known, as in Hebrew, kabbalah, which is accepting upon yourself to change. Because if a person feels bad, let's say yeah, I mean, I don't have to give an example If a person feels bad for the sin, they do, but they know they're going to do it that night right after Yom Kippur. So how is that real repentance? We do believe in a certain sense of partial credit. So it's not where a person has to necessarily like if you don't change forever, then you're done Like you didn't do anything on it. It's as if you did nothing on Yom Kippur. That's not what we believe. We do believe in partial credit.
Speaker 3:There also is a concept, two forms of repentance, known as chuvah mi out of fear and repentance out of love. So repentance out of fear, which the Talmud says wipes away our sins, is a person who wants to repent because they don't want to be punished in the next world or this world for what they did. And that's okay. It's okay to have that but and so that could still wipe clean your sins if you're sincere and genuine in that repentance. Repentance out of love means that you recognize that you failed yourself, you failed God, you damaged the relationship. Imagine, like someone, a spouse, who is unfaithful. So how do you repair that? And it's that feeling of I messed up, not because, oh no, now we might get divorced, but I messed up because I failed you and I recognized the value that you bring and the relationship that we did have, and so wanting to get close to God because of that, to repair the relationship, to just have that closeness. To get close to God because of that, to repair the relationship, to just have that closeness, that's known as tshuva me'ava.
Speaker 3:And the Talmud says something wild, which is that if a person does tshuva me'ava, does repentance out of love. It could take those sins that you committed, for whatever sin you're repenting for, and turn it into mitzvah, turn it into positive points as if you did something good. And so repentance, that fear, wipe clean. And let's say, before Yom Kippur you had minus a thousand points. If you do so now, you're neutral, you're at zero because you cleaned off those negative points and tshuva me'ava, repentance out of love will get you at plus a thousand.
Speaker 1:I love that. Well, we're Jews, we like good grades.
Speaker 2:We do. Yeah, that reminds me of a way that I approach some of the coaching work that I do, where I will tell men that when you do fall short of the standard that you hold for yourself and you're in a spot with your partner or your kids or whoever it is, that oftentimes there is more power and more trust built in the cleanup conversation than there ever would have been if you got it right from the beginning, meaning that if you have the ability to go back and say I know this is where I messed up, here's what I can take accountability for in this particular situation and here's how I want to improve, moving forward, that you have more of a chance to build something there with your partner than if it never happened in the first place. And it feels similar to what you're speaking to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. And there are a lot of general ideas that relate to Judaism. For sure I love that answer.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm fading, so last question. Okay, last question.
Speaker 2:I might need help pronouncing this what is your favorite part?
Speaker 1:of the Tanakh.
Speaker 2:The Tanakh Now what?
Speaker 1:is the Tanakh, it's the Old Testament.
Speaker 3:Okay, familiar so probably the stories of the forefathers of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Even though they're just general stories and it's something that everyone can relate to, there's so much depth in them and meaning. Some of the greatest rabbis and scholars have spilled tremendous amounts of ink to understand at a much deeper level of what is going on, and it's like that with all of Torah. But I guess my favorite part is understanding those stories and those lessons at a deeper level. Kai, just before we end, this was a great episode. Before we end Kai.
Speaker 1:Yes, please Go for it.
Speaker 3:I just want to say one very important thing. I had a mental note, like 40 minutes ago, to say this so, um, which is, if anyone listening needs any help, needs any guidance, religious guidance, whatever it may be or has any Jewish questions, you could always, always DM me uh, it's at Rabbi David Schlosselberg, so I'm really happy to help if I can.
Speaker 2:We need to get you back on, because I have so many more questions. I could talk to you for hours and, having consumed quite a bit of your content over the past six months to a year, I knew it would be a valuable conversation. But I truly, rabbi, I'm very impressed with you as a human, as a speaker, as a purveyor of wisdom, and we have to.
Speaker 1:If we want Tony to become a Jew, how long will it take him? Is there like an express route? It's got to be like 45 years for Tony, that's what it takes.
Speaker 3:It is a good question. You should know I get reached out to about twice a week from people around the world who want to convert. Literally, I've been reached out to from people from Iran, iraq, afghanistan, obviously the US, but all over the globe, and so I answer that question a lot. It is something. The most important thing is that if a person has to recognize that it requires tremendous dedication to convert and it's not just because of some ulterior motive that makes them want to do it, but if it's really a person has to recognize that, I mean we don't go around and proselytize, but we do welcome converts if it's extremely, extremely sincere and genuine and they're willing to put in the hard work to convert and to live as a religious Jew.
Speaker 1:Okay, heard that, rabbi. Thank you so much for your time, no problem. Thank you for having me on. This was a pleasure. We're so excited to have you and we'll definitely have you back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when Tony converts, we might just call, we'll set up you back. Yeah, when Tony converts, we might just. We might just call. We just set up zoom meetings and just talk that too Happy to Thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much.