The Warrior Rabbi: Why Health Is a Jewish Responsibility | With Rabbi Danny Yaffe

In this episode of the Frum Health Club Podcast, I sit down with Rabbi Danny Jaffe, known to many as the Warrior Rabbi, for a powerful conversation about health, discipline, parenting, purpose, and what it really means to care for the body as a vessel for the neshamah.

Rabbi Jaffe has been involved in fitness and training since his teenage years, but over time his understanding of health evolved far beyond strength or appearance. After the passing of his father, and as he began building his own family, his perspective changed. Fitness was no longer just about pushing limits or looking a certain way. It became about being present for his children, protecting his future health, and recognizing that the body is a כלי, a vessel through which we serve Hashem and fulfill our mission in this world.

One of the most striking parts of this episode is Rabbi Jaffe’s message that he would rather accept the pain of discipline now than the pain of preventable sickness later. He shares how health is not only personal, but deeply connected to family, responsibility, and avodas Hashem.

We also speak about why health is often neglected in frum communities, the challenges of balancing Torah life with physical wellbeing, how parents shape their children through example, and why simply showing up is often the most important first step.

This conversation is thoughtful, honest, practical, and deeply inspiring.

Connect with Rabbi Danny Jaffe:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/warriorrabbi/

Join the Frum Health Club WhatsApp Community:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/KaCltJZoGmp3qbeZh9K7z4?mode=gi_t

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Sayings I often have in my head is that it's it's it's a bit of a musadik uh expression, but I prefer the pain now. I prefer that type of pain and the pain in a hospital bed when I'm 60-70, unable to be with my kids. You're teaching the kids how to respect their purpose. Yeah, at the end of the day, your body isn't your body is a base of Migdash, just like you treat the shoal, just like you treat your classroom, you treat your bedroom properly. So too, you have to treat your body properly. And that involves not just intake over you to eat healthily, but also the way you exercise it, the way you develop it, the way you grow it.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Welcome back, everyone, to the Froom Health Club Podcast. I'm your host, Mendel Khrushinski. Here at the Froom Health Club, we believe that health isn't separate from our Yiddishkeit, it's all part of it. When we strengthen our health, we become better able to serve Hashem, our families, and our communities with energy, clarity, and joy. Today's guest is Rabbi Danny Yafi, known to many as the Warrior Rabbi. Rabbi Yafi has been involved in training and fitness since his teenage years, originally drawn to it through strength, discipline, and physical challenge. But over time, his understanding of health evolved into something much deeper. After the passing of his father, and his be and as he began raising his family, his perspective shifted. Fitness was no longer about aesthetics or pushing physical limits, it became about something far more meaningful and recognizing that the body is a markavah for the Nishama, a vessel through which we serve Hashem and show up fully for our children and our mission in life. The name warrior rabbi itself has an interesting origin. What began as an anti-Semitic attack in a bodybuilding form, eventually transformed into a symbol of Jewish strength and resilience. And today, Rabbi Yafi uses his platform to inspire thousands of people to approach health through the lens of Torah, discipline, and purpose. Rabbi Yafi, it's a pleasure to have you with us.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Likewise, thank you for inviting me, Mendel. And uh follow Kavod for all the work you do with the From Health Club. Um, it's been rather enlightening since I've joined, so thank you.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Wonderful, thank you. So, Rabbi Yafi, if you could take us back to when you first started training as a teenager, what originally drew you into fitness at that age?

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Um, yeah, so it's uh it was a while ago. I actually started probably probably started, um, I don't really remember what I looked like when I was a kid, um, other than probably not being particularly healthy. Um and it kind of started with I it was a challenge, I guess. I said uh my my brother was into uh training, and I thought you know, I I want to try this as well. He was very into fitness, and so I started probably when I was 13. Um, I'd gone to physical training, so my parent, my mother enrolled me into karate, um, and which in the UK it wasn't obviously growing up, it wasn't the most welcoming place for Jews. And I think there was some belief that if I was training or if I had some some type of fighting defense under my belt, um, it'd be a positive. So I started doing karate. I just wanted to get stronger, not so much healthier, just stronger and saw weights as the way. So I started started training when I was 13. And I remember walking in seeing me training, and she's like, nah, too young, and took the weights away. And I said, okay, so I'll wait till I was 15. And I used to start doing body weights, shocking experiences. I was doing, remember trying to do pull-ups once and the bar fell, and I was winded on the ground upstairs in my bedroom for like 10 minutes. Uh, my mom, my mother didn't hear, and I was just like, couldn't breathe properly. Um, so those are some of them, some of my experiences growing up where I was completely uh no clue what I was doing. But by the time I got to Yeshiva 15, um, I started going to gyms in I was in Manchester by that point in Masifta. And there was a orthodox gym, um a Jewish, well, Jewish gym, but a gym that was in an Orthodox um owned location. So I started training there when I could. Again, it wasn't wasn't so easy in Yeshiva. Obviously, uh I'm sure we'll get to later, the connotations of fitness often has the wrong wrong inference and this wrong wrong association. So it was looked down upon. But by the time I got to 17, 18, I really began to train with whatever weights I could find, and what really in whatever um resources I could access to try and understand and train and get stronger. Um, and yes, uh there was there was aesthetics. I wanted, you know, it was I I felt that I wanted to look good. Um, I didn't really know what that meant in your shiva. You don't, you know, I grew up in Chabad my whole life, so I didn't really understand truly what aesthetics meant. I don't think I could pronounce the word up until maybe 10 years ago. I think I'm pronouncing it right now. But in general, it was just like, you know, I want to look good, I wanted to look, you know, like I looked after myself, and so I trained with whatever research I could find. So that's really how I got into it. Um, and then when I went to Morristown, I think it shifted slightly to be less about what I looked like to become more about health. The reality is Morristown is great, but it's very isolated. And if you're not learning, um, there's really not much else to do, to be honest. Um, this is at least when I was growing up, when I was there, and we'd go to set we'd go to Crown Heights, obviously, but as a pastime and as part of just a routine I wanted to get into and this discipline for myself, I started training and I had a a weight, a weight setup in my room. By that point, I had uh learn to find a lot more resource, access a lot more resources. Um, and I really began to train, but this time it went from looks to physical strength, and probably that was when I was at my peak strength. Um, for what I understood and what I knew. Obviously, since then, you learn form and you learn all the different elements of um training. Um, but that's where I really began to um really focus on my strength, really focus on the routines, the forms.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

You mentioned to me before um this interview that the passing of your father had uh similar to me, it had a big impact on how you view health in general. How how did that experience shape your thinking about health?

SPEAKER_01 6:53

Yeah, so the like I said, I was I was training my entire Yushiva life, training through Sumikha, training. Wherever I went, I'd find gyms. Um, and even in the first few years of marriage, I was training. Um, I was a member of a gym, I'd regularly go, regularly go. Um, and when my father passed away, my father wasn't the healthiest individual. Um, there were heart issues, there was um food-related issues with my father. But one of the one of the memories of my father I have of my father is that he rarely was involved in running around with us. Um he he would always be, well, he wasn't always, he sometimes would stand by the side and he would watch us or he would come, but he wouldn't be involved. It was too strenuous. Um and he was very often out of breath. Um, his diet, his food and his in um his diet, um, food intake was shocking. Um and I don't know if that well, that's what was eventually led to the passing, but he didn't pass away a healthy individual, um, or particularly old. Um, and so when when I look when I was looking back and over the you know, over the following year after his passing, it's been 11 years now, um, I realized that for me, my training on my health isn't really about purely for me. There's a level of stress, releasing stress, it's you know, in my head, it's space in my head, it's a space for myself. But there were it had switched to becoming an investment over the future. The first few first few years after my past my father passed away, it was about Summeira. I didn't want to be unhealthy, I didn't want to be like him, I didn't want to have that um that potential. Uh there's there's heart there's heart issues in our family genetically. So anything that I can do to diminish the do to diminish the risk for that is my responsibility. And then after a couple of years, I switched to assey to and I realized that health and fitness and training is not about it's not simply about the aesthetics, it's not simply about being healthy, it's also about being there for your children, it's about being there for the next generation, um, being there that you can actually be part of their lives, um, run around with them, play with them. Um, and even if that, even if that means, you know, picking picking them up in the morning and not having pain running through your back or you know, bending down to tie their shoelaces, standing up and suddenly you don't have pain, pain in your knees, it's as simple as that, where they are able to look up to you and they can understand that this is what it means to be healthy, this is what it means to be, you know, uh the avoid of serving Hashem is looking after your health and looking after your soul. Um, and I think those though the one of the um sayings I often have in my head is that uh it's it's sound it's a bit of a Musadic uh expression, but I prefer the pain now. Um, if there is pain, there will usually be, especially the next day. But if there's any pain now, I prefer that type of pain and the pain in a hospital bed when I'm 60-70, unable to be with my kids. Um, and whenever, whenever I'm feeling, you know, I can't be bothered, or I'm feeling it goes like a week where I haven't managed to get to gym, I'll be like, it's sometimes a good kick up the uh uh good kick um to uh wake myself up and say, hang on, you know, it's not I'm not just doing this for myself. There is a you know about 60-70% of it is for myself, but 40% to 50% is very much also for the next my kids and for my family. So that's that's I think has had a very strong effect in my development, the way I look at my health, and the way I also the way I train. Um, initially when I first started training, it was big weights, it was heavy weights, I had multiple injuries. Um when my daughter was two, um my wife had gone away. Um, and I did my PR, um my best rep, and I injured myself. Um and she was away that Shabbos, and on Shaabus we had scored ambulance. Um and I held off till after Showbus because I didn't know who was gonna look after my daughter. Um and we realized how far I was pushing myself and in in potential risking my family's situation. Uh, we don't have family here, you know, we're obviously on Shilakus. Um and my wife was a two-hour drive. Um, so luckily, as soon as Shabbos went out, um, I was still standing. Uh well, I wasn't standing, I was still semi-mobile. Um, and I was lying on lying with my daughter on the couch, I couldn't move. Um, and someone came, they took me to hospital. My wife, so and I stayed with my daughter, my wife got back, you know, I think an hour after Shabbos, an hour and a half driving, don't doing doing don't even want to know how fast she was driving from where she was. Um, and I spent almost a week in hospital. Um, and I can never do that again. Um, physically I can't do it again, but also I can't make that risk. My family's bigger now, um, and I can't make that risk ever ever again. So my training and my routine and the whole full outlook of why I train has shifted dramatically. Um, I'm still stronger than I was, but I can't maybe you could share a bit.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Maybe you could share a bit uh what do you do like on a daily basis uh for your workouts, for your favorite workouts?

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Yeah, so uh definitely not on a daily basis. Um not um I wish it was on a daily basis. It's usually on a on a good week is about four times four to five times a week. Um and on a bit of a rough week it'll be maybe two to three times a week. Um but the it look every every two months I change. Um I'm a big believer in keeping keeping my training completely dynamic. So I'm always changing um every routine I will do a um I will do try and do a um personal best. Um I will always try and do a new variation of an exercise in every routine I do, um regardless of what what it may be. But on average, I will always do and I always try I always try that every every every um session I work out my whole body. But the session will be divided into two parts. There'll be the primary focus and there'll be the secondary focus. So the primary focus on day one will be upper body, um and then the secondary focus will be on legs and torso. And that's this way, the way I split it. I know there's very different many different different disciplines, different ways that people operate. And I'm a big believer that if it works for you, do what works for you. Um listen to your body. And so over the years I've listened to my body and I do what works for me. Um, and I will I'll do, you know, I'll do the it's it's uh it hasn't changed that much in the past two years, other than the exercises and the intensity and the order, so to speak. But I'll always do day one, I'll do chest, back, um, biceps, triceps. Um, all my supersets now for the past two months have been with kettlebells, uh kettlebells, sorry, kettlebells, and that a lot of that uses core and shoulder. So by nature, every day I'm exercising shoulders, um, exercising core. Um, and then day two, and then obviously each super with the kettlebells, each superset between, you know, uh chest, my chest will be, let's say, you know, um you know uh four four set uh four sets of um four sets of chest, supersetting with another four sets of flies. So it'll be a bench press, flies, and in between that will be uh the kettlebells. Um so I'll that'll be 20 minutes and then 20 minutes on my back. Um the similar similar process, and then the remaining 20 minutes will be biceps, triceps, um, and include because of the way kettlebells work, it elevates my heart rate. So I I hate cardio um with a passion. Um like I will do I'll do anything I can not to do cardio. Um if someone comes along and finds a new exercise that doesn't involve cardio, I'll do it. Um now unfortunately I'm dealing with a chronic um chronic health issue, um, physical, not not um, not you know, nothing too nothing serious, but I can't run. Um conveniently. Um, but yeah, I have to find variations which I can exercise. I can I can barely do a lot of exercises, unfortunately, that require bending of my feet. But the beauty of kettlebells I've discovered is that it seems to replicate cardio. Um, as in it elevates, it whacks my heart right through the roof. Um, so I've incorporated that a lot into all my root routines, all my sessions. Um, it's very dynamic. This is one of the things I also have shifted is that I used to train very, I don't know all the right words for it, but I used to train very um static exercises, push, pull, you know, your classic big four, deadlift, bench press, leg press. Um, with kids, your body doesn't operate like that. Um, you don't deadlift a child. Um, and I discovered that a lot of the exercises, while they were great for you know, looking good, so to speak, they were shocking when it came to grabbing a kid or lifting a kid out of a cot or you know, holding a baby in one arm and while pushing another baby, um, or or just doing things that required a lot of dynamic movement. So the kettlebells have helped massively with it. Um, and they also help massively with quick twitch muscles, which allow me to lift heavier um in the long run. So that, and then obviously, so that's my going back to the original question. So my day one would be upper body, chest, back, um, bike, triceps, shoulders, and then day two will be um I always do a deadlift. Every week I'll do um deadlift. Um, and then every week I will also do isol um deadlift again, but isolation. So it'll be always a deadlift, leg press, um, and then it there'll be a variation. Um, I can't do calf exercises at the moment, at least not the next three to six months. Um, but I will always do variations that a lot of my leg exercises will focus on kettlebell. So on the leg day, so to speak, or lower body day, there's a lot of exercises that are kettlebell, um, kettlebell influenced. So a lot of swings, a lot of lunes, um, I can't do lunges anymore, um, a lot of squats, um, a lot of side lunges because it doesn't require the actual bending of the um of the foot, so to speak, um, which and then obviously the Bulgarian splits, which I'll try and get back into. So a lot of these exercises hit all the parts of my legs. Um, but I'll then incorporate again the core muscles on the upper body, um, on the secondary, on the second, on the leg day. So within a 24-hour period, I've done a series of compound compound exercises. Sorry, done a series of compound exercises, um, but have also hit upper body and lower body. The second day, second round, so let's say that'll be Monday, Tuesday. Um Sunday, I'm just giving an example. Um, Sunday, Monday, that'll be within 24 hours, upper body, lower body. Um, but the focus will be very much based on compound. Um, so I'll be using bench press, uh, leg press, deadlift. Um, I'll be doing cable um pull downs, um, but using the the bars. But on the second day, on the second round, so on Wednesday, Thursday, um, assuming it's a good week, on Wednesday, Thursday, I will be doing isolation exercises. So I'll be doing flies, um, I'll be doing um rows, but not the fixed bar, but with the independent bars. Um, uh, or I'll be doing um, again, I can't remember all the names for the exercises, um, I'll be doing overhead um overhead rows, but using dumbbells versus using the barbell, um, which obviously then is a lot more focused, but then I'll also incorporate the kettlebell. So second session will be exact replica of the muscles used in the first session, however, it will not be compound or be isolation. So by the end of the week, um by Thursday night um or by Friday, I'll either be unable to move um or my body will feel like it's been compressed and slowly unpacking itself. But over Shabbos, that's my rest time. Um so that's that's on a good day, that's on a good week, and then on not such great weeks, I will obviously compound that into uh whatever I can, depending upon what's going on. But you learn to be adaptable, and one of the things in gym that I learned is never stop, so I never wait for machines. Um if a machine is being used, straight away go on to another machine. Just there's no first of all, I only have an hour, so I have an hour a day uh max. I mean an hour 15, strictly speaking. Um, but uh I'm not gonna be sitting waiting on the machines. Um, it's that's my time. So I'll find a variation, I'll do a variation or something.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Great, great, awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Um, so the name Warrior Rabbi, that's so that's your name on different social uh platforms, and it's definitely a powerful name. But where did it come from? How did that start?

SPEAKER_01 20:32

So I I'll have to give a f uh a uh one of my Khaverimate credit for it. Uh we were I I'd opened Instagram a while ago. I don't remember why I called it 2015. I'd opened my Instagram account, but I don't know if I called it Warrior Rabbi. Um I can't remember what I called it. Um but I was sitting with I was sitting with one of my Khaverima guy called um Benny Schnellenberg, if he ever sees this, um he knows he's responsible anyway. Um but we were sitting in a bar and we were talking, and he said, I can't remember the exact context, but he said, you know, you have you you you are very relatable to a lot of chevra because of your ability to balance between what seems to be very secular to that which seems to be very spiritual, and you are able to find that balance and pass it on, and it must be a fight. And he's like, Oh, Warrior Rabbi is a perfect name, and it stuck. I liked it. Um so it started there, and I didn't really do anything with it per se. Um, I started making, you know, I just started playing around with the wording. Um, I think I switched my Instagram to Warrior Rabbi, but then what happened was um there was a Facebook page. I'm not gonna give it credit here. Um there's a Facebook page which has about 70,000 people on it. Um and it expands a lot bigger than that. They had they had multiple pages, and they had, I don't even know where they had found, but they had found a picture of. Me doing preacher calls. Um, and the the by now people have seen this picture many times. Um, and they had basically said, you know, pre preacher calls, rabbi, do them anyway. I can't remember the exact terminology. Um, obviously, the point was is that they're called preacher culls, which is preacher is not a Jewish concept of preaching, uh, preacher is Christian, so to speak, and I'm a rabbi, and therefore it was funny, so to speak, and that was fine. Um, it was the seven and a half thousand comments that came after, um, with 70,000 shares, likes, um, and the the comments were beyond disgusting. Um, I read through, I didn't read through 7,000, um, but after about 50, 60 of them, I was just like, this is insane, incredible, and disgusting. Um, and being chabad, we're taught napoiko. Um, and I thought, what can I do with this? How can I take this seemingly very anti-Semitic direction this post has gone in? Um, and the image of the rabbi doing pretracles burned itself into my head, and that's where the logo, uh the warrior rabbi logo came from, which is a rabbi that is doing preciacles. Um, you on bonding the idea of the the the uh bench, so to speak, as a book. Um, there was some debate about using a safer as the the um the angle that my elbows are on, but it was meant to be the merge between the spiritual and the physical, the balance between um the the the fight and the balance of what you know health of the body, health of the soul is about. Um and that's what we developed with my um I have a uh uh a design that I work with with a lot of our bad house and a lot of our our marketing, and I worked on this with her. And that's where it all came from, the logo and this this uh approach. Um, and I went back to the page, posted the logo on the page, so I'd just like to thank seven seven and a half thousand of you for uh inspiring a Jewish logo. Um, it didn't get much credit, um, but we had people uh I I bumped that I began to notice a lot of my own chavra um and guys who would come to the chabad house were past the page, and they started posting and they started responding. Um, and many of them began to follow uh my Instagram, my Instagram page. And yeah, um that's that's where it really all started from. And just since then, I I felt that this approach of the balance between you know Sumera, Asitov, Ava Yira, uh Nishama Guf has been a strong drive both in my own life, in my own health, and as Khabar Khasidim, this is this is what everything is about, so to speak, both for the body and for the soul from both angles. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

That's beautiful. Yeah, that's beautiful. You took a negative experience and made it into something positive and beautiful that impacts a lot of people now. It's really, really great. So, why do you think that health is sometimes neglected in from communities?

SPEAKER_01 25:12

This is a uh this is a question I'm asked a lot, um, especially when the the my socials and my Instagram started and who what who I was in general, um began to get exposure more. Um, and including by my own chabad house, uh, the chebra of my attendees, they would ask this question. Um it was more specifically about rabbis, um, you know, rabbis that preach about health and spirituality. Why are rabbis so unhealthy? The the simplest answer I gave was our lifestyle in general isn't the most conducive to leading a healthy lifestyle. We're a very Judaism is a very high cholesterol-based diet. Um, a lot of meat, a lot of bread, a lot of alcohol, um, not a huge amount of healthy options per se. You know, you got your coogle, and you've got your filterfish, and you got your everything, fry, donuts, harmantash, and that's just the last two yontas we've had. I mean, just go through the whole year, you know, Rosh Hashanah is the the the amount of unhealthy food we have access to, um, and the culture, our culture in general, and the traditions in general, are very hard to break. The reality is Jews, our tradition and our culture gives us comfort. It's our identity. And to break that uh is very, very difficult. But the aspect, the the whole the the challenge that Jews have, and the challenge that I guess rabbis have, Orthodox Jews have, is finding the balance to having the traditions, having that warmth, that connection, the ability to go to Febrangens and be part of it, but on the other hand, find the balance to, you know what, don't have the trip the chocolate chip chip cookie at the Febrengen, have the character. Um sounds easy to say when what I say, I've got the same challenge myself. Go to Febrangen, I'm not gonna eat anything, I'm not gonna eat anything, going come home, my tummy is sore. Um, you know, I'm like, no, that lasted all of 10 minutes. But the reality is we try each time. I think that that that's a very simplistic answer. I think in general, health, there's two parts to health. There is the passive aspect of health, which is not eating garbage, um, not not act eating too much, um and then there's the uh and just making healthy choices, even though that's not passive, but making healthy choices in your daily life and in your weekly life and what you eat on Shabbat. So but then there's the proactive element, which is the training. The reality is you don't have to train. Um you don't have to when I say when I say you don't have to train, as in you can be healthy without going to gym. You just need to make the right decisions, you need to have a good balance. Unfortunately, uh that in of itself, in the lifestyle of a orthodox Jew, and especially with rabbis, isn't enough. There is simply so much, you know, the the the haloch of Loyeva sits in Mirchol, don't play stumbling block before the blind. There is so much access we have and distractions we have away from your typical healthy lifestyle. It it gets it can be very, very difficult to simply say, Oh, just make healthy choices. You know, you're at Shabbos dinner, you're tired, and there's a Febrengan, and guys want to stay late and talk to you, and there's dessert on the table, and you're hungry, or you're gonna get up and go have a karo stick. No, you you're gonna want, you know, you'll start with one little bite of a cake, and uh, you know, half an hour later, the whole cake's gone, so to speak. Or I'll just have one ice cream and then shabbas, you'll just go to the forbrengan, but I'll just sit there. There's just and I'm just talking about within 24 hours on a daily basis. If you're giving shiya, I mean, I give shiy three times a week. I I bring relatively healthy food to the shabbas for to the for to the lunches, but that's great for the people who only come once a week, but I'm there three times. So by the end of the week, I've got I I'm I've haven't eaten that healthily the whole week because I've eaten the same thing three days in a row, which is you're not meant to eat that type of food three days in a row. It's not that healthy. Uh, but that's my lunch. So and that's just one example. But we're talking that there is so much of this, and you also have the issue of the obligations of taure. You know, if you're a chabad chosid, you've got chitas random, and then you've got your own shiorum, and if you're not a if you're not a um chabad chosid, you've got your dafyomi, you've got your eyakov, you've got your shiorum, your kvya situm of the tour, with the the the elements of tour you're meant to be learning. How do you find time to also balance that balance that out with a healthy, healthy lifestyle, never mind the dynamic aspect, which is also the training, exercise. So there are decisions that are being made, um, there are priorities being made. And in a world where unfortunately health is associated with fitness, and fitness, unfortunately, is associated with fitness, the fitness industry is the second largest um industry in the world. And only talk about what the first one is. Five years ago is worth 2.0 billion dollars. Okay. It's it's everywhere. And connected to fitness is aesthetics, which is perhaps even bigger. And with social media, with everything we have online, with all the distractions, with smartphones, it has a very bad connotation. There's no there's no no one can say it doesn't. Um, if you are on Instagram for a total of 30 seconds in the fitness world, guarantee you've been over on Shemir Tenaim. Okay, it's it's it's impossible. Okay, so by nature, you if you're an individual that your priority is, you know, Scholenbais, your priority is um being a family man or a chossid. By nature, if you're already being so influenced and there's so much access to food and so much access to a busy lifestyle, and your Kvir and trying to do all your daily shurim, to put step your foot, to put your foot into an environment which is completely, seemingly completely counterproductive to khasidish, to a way of terror life, to any element of Judaism, is an automatic, I'm not gonna say no-go, but is a tremendous scenario. They're not interested. So they begin to settle into a life of I'll just be healthy, I'll make the healthy choices, which are easily overridden by the type of lives many rabbis lead, the type of lives unfortunately many from people lead. Um, and that it becomes such a balance as simply making the decisions not to eat at the Fabrangun. That's not enough to be healthy. There has to be some level of proactive involvement in physical resistance, i.e., exercise. Um, so I think that it becomes such a challenge for people. People simply just turn off. Um, or people feel like, oh, I'm I'm trying to be healthy, I'm cutting down my diet coke, I'm cutting down on my cake intake, I'm not eating as much, you know, drinking as much alcohol. That's great, that's amazing. But that's you're you're you're at stage one. You're you're simply not putting on weight, so to speak. I'm using that as an example. You're not you're not getting worse, but you're definitely not getting better. Um, and if you, you know, as I always say to people, start with half an hour a week, half an hour a day, start with half an hour a day, half an hour, three times a week. Just start with that, so to speak. That is already a massive improvement compared to what they were beforehand, isn't it? A uh a um a massive jump. So I think that's the big challenge within the Orthodox communities. Um, in in, and God forbid I'm not making comparison, but soon as you remove Khitas Rambam, Khvirzitum de Torah, the the the many um ideologies of Chabad, the many ideologies of Frumkite, all of a sudden, many of the barriers no longer exist. Why? Because all of a sudden, so to speak, you realize, you know, I've got to be healthy, I've got to make the right choices. This in of itself is not a bad thing. Um, I can control my eyes, so to speak. Um you know, the the the the expression the greater the the greater the yetzatov, the greater the yadzahara. So unfortunately, in we've uh disciplined ourselves to become so focused on our yesutov, so focused on our uh um Yuras Shamayim, our Yezahra is uh exponentially bigger as well. If you're not focused on that element, the Yezah, Yezahura will get you another way, but at least it's not focused on distracting you in that particular element. Um, that's I'm not saying that you know if you're um orthodox or if you're not orthodox, all of a sudden you've got no problems, but there is going to be a less of this choice, this less of a barrier of choices, um, or be easier for you to make the choices than it is for in the orthodox world, so to speak. Um this is my personal belief, and that's my personal experience. When you talk to, you know, I've spoken to colleagues and I've spoken to um you know orthodox individuals, many of them will say, I don't want to feel the pain. Um, because it there is an automatic assumption that being healthy brings pain because you know they see they see people training and they see they hear of um you know the DOMs and they feel I'm sore from training, or they've trained once or twice and they feel sore, versus training for a month, two months, and they suddenly realize no I'm not sore anymore. There's a natural aversion, I don't want to feel pain. Why should I feel pain? I'll just make the right choices to eat. And again, we're back to square one where I started speaking about in the beginning. So that's the challenge we have. Um, there is a very bad um branding. Fitness is a very bad brand for for in the orthodoxy, um, which I've got no idea how to change it on a macro level, but on a micro level, one person at a time. Um, and it's it's not easy. It's not easy being healthy. There's we live in a world where it's easier to sell on a couch and order food via Uber Eats and you know go to your local kosher eatery and eat food quickly and get on with your day. That's easy. Yeah, saves time. Um it's not no one, it's not easy, but then again, nothing good, nothing positive is ever easy. That's you know, the whole point of Costa Lamar is the greatest light, the greatest the most beautiful light comes from resistance, from comes from heavy-duty resistance, and that's how you refine your body, how you refine your shama. I'll I'll never forget this story of um I'm shocking with sources and getting the right rebame. I think it was the Frida Kareba um when he was in charge of Yeshiva from his father in father, the Fred Frida Kareba was uh the uh Manal Gashmi, I think, um, or the Mashpiya in um in Yeshiva. And his father gave him a baker and said to this guy said to the Frida Kareba, this guy needs um to be um, you know, have um needs to be put through his paces. And the guy was had to uh run the pace at the matza bakery for that year. And the story, the story I found very inspirational because at the end of the story, this chossid, this seemingly coarse individual, became a chossid, not because he sat and learned, but because he broke himself, because he ran the matza bakery, he cleaned, and he sanded down everything, and he made sure everything was good. It was physical labor. And after he finished the physical labor, he still had to do all his shuram, he still had to do all his seder and yeshiva, and then that was day one and day two, and he did this for however long, six months. Finally, when he came before um the the Frieda Grabber's father, the Frieda Grabber's father said to him, said to the Friedrich Krabber, what do you do to him? Now he's a cossard. And I I it resonates a lot with me, especially when you know Pesach is coming, where that to to be to be a Frumyid takes serious, serious focus. It's hard work. But part of that is you find a balance where your Nashama has a Markava, has a real healthy body where it can do Hashem Zavoida. And I think that that is so important, especially where in a in the environment and the times we live in now, where there is so much distraction, so much, I'm not gonna say negativity, but there is so much else going on. To find that balance for ourselves, to focus on what we need to focus on as Khazim, as Jews, as from Jews, it takes tremendous discipline. Um, so it's not so much hard to do, it's the hard that comes out of it, gives you a real positive outcome um in one's own life. So that again, these are my personal outlooks, my personal opinion. I'm not talking on behalf of anyone, and that's my disclaimer. Uh, maybe for that in the very beginning. Um, but this is my experience. You know, I've been as I said, I've been training since I was 18. So what's 20 something years now? Uh through my evolution of my own journey of Yiddishkeit, so to speak. This is where I'm up to now. Ask me in another 20 years where I am, it'll be different. But that's where I'm at at the moment.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

So yeah, Florida. Wonderful. Do you do you think it's also a mix of priorities, not prioritizing health enough? Because I mean, if you if you think about it, when when something is important for a person, they'll make time for it, right? Like I know many people that are extremely busy, and I'm not gonna say their names, but I know of people that are just Thomas, you think, how in the world do you have time to do all of this? But they're still prioritizing health. And you know what's interesting? A couple of days ago, I was talking to my friend about we did a podcast with Michael Kaufman. He's uh actually, I have his book over here. It's called Am I My Body's Keeper? Have you heard of it? No. Okay, it's an amazing book. I would highly recommend. So we interviewed him. He's 94 years old, he exercises every single day, he's in amazing shape. He lives in Yorkshire, I'm a really incredible, incredible man. And and I was just talking to my friend, like discussing how in the world is our podcast the first and only podcast that has interviewed this person. Why hasn't this person been on every major podcast? And I realized because on a you know larger level, culturally, we're not prioritizing these things. You know, we have all the Jewish billionaires on the podcast and and different people, but that and that's kind of like what the From Health Club is trying to shift and change.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

I was having this conversation this morning. I I there's uh I'm not gonna mention the names of who the conversation was between, but there was a conversation between two individuals, and they were it was a it was a famous interview. Um and one of the one of them was very much into health, so to speak. Very much into health. Um, and but he was also he was a politician, and so he was being interviewed, or he was interviewing slash being interviewed by a another individual, and the individual asked him, where do you find the time? You know, you're a you're a governor, you're so busy, but you're also you know, train three, four times you know, several times a week, and each time for a couple of hours. Okay, his answer was very powerful, and his answer is very the answer I give a lot of people when A, when they ask me, and then I bounce the answer back to that, I bounce the question back to them. His answer was we all have the same 24 hours, no one has more time. Okay, what we have is the order of priority. What we have is where is your priority in life? That's what we have. Your choice, your decision. So if your choices are driven by your priorities, then you'll find the time for anything. As I said to this individual, if um, if I had, you know, if I barely slept and I was busy all day, but a dollar, a a donor came to me and said, I want to give you a million million dollars, please come to, you know, fly meet fly over to Perth. All of a sudden I'd find a day available. Okay, not saying I'm driven by money, I'm not saying that's my priority, but obviously fundraising is part of my chabad house. Yeah, but on that's on a much bigger scale, but it on a daily basis, every decision you make, every choice you make is rooted within your priorities of your life. So if your priorities is my family, my wife, well, my wife, my family, my kids, then obviously the the mysid or my parinasa, my income, or what effect I'm having on the world, your choices you're gonna make are gonna follow that. So let's say, you know, the the scenario of an scenario is you know, you have 45 minutes spare. Do I train or do I do khitas rambam? Assuming you can do chitas rambam in 45 minutes. But which one do I do? I have 45 minutes. What is what would I do? And in that case, it's much harder because my priority my priority is both. I'm a chosen, therefore I have chitas Rambam, but I also need my physical health. Depending upon what the the first the first challenge you have is how do you get to the point where you only have 45 minutes and have to choose between the two of them? Because if you're deciding if you'll have a proper sedu in your day, that wouldn't happen, so to speak. Um but very often, you know, you'll have a scenario where you need to make a decision. In my case, I know that I can do clear taste in the night, but my training is gonna suffer. So I'll go train and then I'll get home and I'll sit down for 45 minutes until one, two o'clock in the morning and does random. Will everything else suffer? Possibly. There's always going to be a sacrifice, something is always gonna drop, but that is down to your priorities. What are you willing to sacrifice to prioritize something else? That's just life. Our entire life is made up of priorities and sacrifices, and your choices will are defined by those two options, and it's a continuous balance. That's what I guess you could say what Warrior Rabbi is about. It's fine, always, every single moment is the finding the making the decision where you're balancing between what what is good, what is not essential, what is essential, what is positive for my soul, what's positive for my body. What are they symbi are they symbiotic at this moment, or are they conflicting with each other? Are they contradicting, conflicting with each other at this moment? And there's no right or wrong answer. The beauty is, and this is the the lesson of um of um spiritual is if you mess up one day, you can fix it the next day, at least when it comes to Kirtas Rambam and uh training. Um, but and the same thing, you know, I can train tomorrow, but khita's ramba must be done today. Or you can say chitas Ramba, I'll check, I'll catch up tomorrow. My training is cut, my training is today. Uh the that's just in that particular scenario. But this is it all comes down to priorities, and it also comes down to sadh. But your sedar of the day is based upon your priorities of your life, which is based upon what is your hierarchy of needs, family, paranasa, and that that is each to their own. There is obviously, you know, we have our, you know, as uh asidim, as orthodox Jews, and in general as humans, we have our morals, our ethics, and we have what we believe is our seda that we need to follow. Not everyone will agree, and they'll have their own sadh that they need to follow. Um, and everyone has their own decisions and their own priorities. That's life. Um, but I think what is essential um is the outcome, and I'm I don't want to keep harassing going on about uh Khabad Qasidim and about uh, but effectively what is essential is the the single most asked question in in hit in uh our reality is, and that is what's our purpose? And our purpose as khasidim is diriba tahtoinim. So whatever you're doing in your day, if you are doing dirabata tahtoinim, if you are revealing you know elokus, you're doing your job, you're doing your purpose. Okay, so you mess up here and there with other elements, fine, start again the next day. But the decisions and the choices and priorities and the sacrifices center around that this continuous dynamic moving environment that we live in called life. So yeah. Yeah, I don't know if that would answer the questions we'll say, but that's the way I perceive how I look at life.

SPEAKER_00 45:47

How important would you say it is for parents to show and to model healthy habits rather than just tell the kids you know what to do?

SPEAKER_01 45:58

Well, it's it's it's the uh f famous, famous um expression do as I do, don't do as I say. Um that that's the the telling your kids be healthy and telling your kids what to eat and what not to eat, but not doing yourself is is hypocritical. Um the the uh I'll I'll never forget during COVID um when we were in lockdown. Um I think Australia had one of the worst uh New South Wales had one of the worst lockdowns. Um I think we went for three, four months, um, and we weren't able to leave. I think we couldn't leave more than five kilometers from our area, gyms were closed. Um I used to train outside with my kids. Um and it was during that time I realized that they really val, apart from the time spent together, but they really began to value what it meant to be healthy. Um and yes, on one hand, by our Shabbos tables and by our dinners, we're not serving, you know, um grass-fed beef and um gluten-free and organic only. But we are we're not serving sugary, oily foods. Um, in our kitchen, the the in our kitchen and our own daily intake of food is relatively quite healthy. Um, and our lifestyles, I mean, our lifestyle at the moment is a bit all over the shop. But in general, our lifestyles, our training, they know that both their parents um are very much into physical training, but not to look good, not because it's you know, because it's craze, but because it's about making sure that we're healthy for them, um, we're healthy for each other, we're healthy to do our jobs, um, to do our shlokh's. And it's essential. Um the the kids are kids are gonna are always heavily influenced by the parents. And it's I think the element of khinoch is that just as just as important as it is for you to learn with your child and to do career and teach them, and you know, khinuch, part of chinoch, and we know this from the toeriza, is obligated to the father to teach the child to swim. Yes, that is for Baku Aknefesh, they have a skill that they can save their lives, but there's many talents that can help with Baku Aknefesh, especially when we, you know, we don't all live near water. Why what why specifically for them swimming? You know, my my takeout from that personally is it's healthy. You're teaching your child to live a healthy lifestyle. You know, it's yeah, it's also an essential skill that they need. But teaching your kids by nature to be healthy, lead a healthy lifestyle, is is I it's a because you're teaching the kid how to respect their bodies, you're teaching the kids how to respect their purpose. Yeah, at the end of the day, your body isn't your body is a basin McDush, just like you treat the shoal, just like you treat your classroom, you treat your bedroom properly, so too, you have to treat your body properly. And that involves not just intake over you to eat healthily, but also the way you exercise it, the way you develop it, the way you grow it. Um we we personally are very um, I'm gonna say forceful, completely the wrong word, um, but we push very heavily at all our kids have to do at least one physical training. Um, my kid, my my kid, my my one, my my kids aren't big on soccer or football or team sports. That's fine, but you have to do something physical. There has to be at least once or twice a week something physical you do where you're using your body, not just your mind, but using your entire body physically. Um, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Um, but that's yeah, it's it's it's for me, it's a no for me it's a no-brainer. It's equally as important as teaching them in school, is teaching them to physically be, and that is through you doing it. You know, it's can't tell your child to learn when you're watching television the whole time or you're you know doing something else, which is not yeah, whatever you tell your children, you have to do without without doubt.

SPEAKER_00 50:07

Yeah, yeah, 100%. Totally agree with that, including cleaning your bedroom. Yeah, okay, Rabbi Yafi, if it's been really a pleasure speaking with you, but I want to ask you one more question. If someone, let's say, remembers just one idea from this conversation, let's say 10 or 20 years from now, what would you want that to be?

SPEAKER_01 50:35

Oh that's a very, very hard question to answer. Um I think I think the one takeaway message that is essential for everyone um is uh being healthy. Can I give you two messages? Rabbinical, rabbinical, um, I'm gonna grab my rabbinical um priorities here, um prerogative. Um one is uh you just need to show up. Being be it's it's great to be healthy, as in eat healthily, lead a healthy lifestyle, but don't be afraid just to show up to begin physically training. And it doesn't have to be in a gym, it can be in your own home, it can be you know on YouTube. There's um a lot of male um from from male trainers, from female trainers out there who can train you over YouTube, who can train you on courses. It doesn't have to be flashy, but you've got to start. That's all it takes, even if you don't want to start with just I remember I remember the um I remember reading, I don't remember where it was, I read it, that if you really don't want to go to the gym, if you really can't be bothered, go and sit on a bench press. On a bench, just go. Worst comes to worst, you wasted a half an hour. Maybe to get a s remb on the on the bench at the same time. But worse comes to worst, the best case scenario is you'll start something. So I think the most important, the most important message in life and in life in general, but especially when it comes to leading a healthy lifestyle, is showing up, putting your foot in the water, starting, starting within the comfort, start where you're comfortable, start in an environment you're comfortable with doing, um, start in a discipline that you're comfortable doing, if you like running, if you like swimming, if you like sports, whatever it may be, but start. Just start, and then try again the next day, or two days later, depending on if you need more for 48 hours of recovery. But uh just begin. So for me, that is the one message I would want to pass on to people. Um, is just start. Um, that's number one. Oh, number two is uh life is not perfect. There is, I personally do not believe everyone anyone has found the true balance of life. Every single day it's a battle, every single moment it's a battle. Very often you'll win it. Very often you'll subconsciously win it without even realizing you've won it. But every decision, every choice, every challenge between the spiritual and the physical happens continuously. Sometimes you'll fail, sometimes you'll win. You'll as each time you win, you'll get stronger. And each time you get stronger, that becomes subconscious till eventually, sure, this won't be a destruction anymore. This won't be a um it will be a non-break, uh, no-brainer to do this particular whatever it may be. But everyone is fighting the same battle, and that is finding the balance between the spiritual and the physical, and finding a way for the spiritual and the physical to work together. And I'm a big believer that the spiritual and the physical do work together. The reality is the yunashama is in your body, it's not above it, it's not next to it, it's in the body, which means God has created us to be able to utilize physicality for spirituality. We are the ones that have to find the way to make that happen. We're the ones that have to find the balance to prioritize, to utilize our physical bodies for the nishamah, to allow the nishama to use the physical body as a marakava, as a chariot. That's our challenge. And every decision we make is based on that. And every decision we make wrong, we have to fine-tune it till we find the balance again. And sometimes we'll be successful, sometimes we'll be thrown off. But we'll always try focus the focus, and our mission is to always find that very narrow balance. And it is a narrow balance, very easy to be knocked off the string, the famous story of mental footfas, where you know, the the um the tightrope walker always always looking ahead, and that's what it is. You're always looking towards a goal. Goal, Dr. Takdoin, how will I achieve that with my guff with my body, utilizing the Shoma as the driver, but also utilizing the prioritize, but the priorities based the decisions I make on that tightrope based upon my priorities. So I think that those are the two main thrusts that I would like to pass on to anyone who listens to this podcast, even in 20 years from now, it will be a holographic podcast in uh VR, but at least in some way that that should be a message that's passed on.

SPEAKER_00 55:30

So wonderful, wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you. It was wonderful speaking to you, and we'll of course link um in the description how people can connect with you and follow you and get inspired by your posts as well. Well, thank you for having me. Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much.