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!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, welcome to the Lynn and Tony Know podcast.
I'm your host, Lynn.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
And I'm Tony.
We are both wellness coachesand married with kids.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Join us as we talk about all things health,
wellness, relationships, lifehacks, parenting and everything
in between, unfiltered.
Thanks for listening and let'sget into it.
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Welcome back Shalom lechulam.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Good job, Tony.
We are gearing up for the highholidays.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yes, we are.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Rosh Hashanah is coming up, it's the Jewish New
Year and Yom Kippur is the Dayof Atonement Very important
holidays and we're taking itseriously this year, like I do
take it seriously every year,but I think post-October 7th, we
have been definitely taking upour Judaism up a notch.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
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 atour interfaith relationship
podcast last episode.
If you didn't listen to it it'sa really good episode and I am.
But I grew up in a very secularhome.
My parents, both of them, comefrom religious backgrounds.

(01:10):
Like my great uncle was thishuge rabbi in Jerusalem and my
father went to yeshiva schooland they went kind of the
opposite direction where theyjust became very, very secular.
And I grew up in a very secularhome and it was very confusing
because, like, being Jewish wasvery important in my family and
going to a Jewish school andhaving you know Jewish values

(01:31):
and going to Israel like twice ayear and all those things.
But then, like, the God aspectwas like very gray and you know
we would do Passover, but my dadwould just like mumble the
prayers and we'd get right tothe Seder and I'd be like, don't
we need to suffer a little bit,like before we eat and you know
, and.
But I always felt like thislonging for more and and I would

(01:54):
I literally once sneaked out ofmy house to go to temple, to
like meet my friends on, likeRosh Hashanah, actually because
I wanted to go and I wanted, Iwanted.
I was always seeking more and Ithink there was a period in my
like adult life where Icompletely disconnected from it
and after Tony and I met, Istarted more and more and then

(02:17):
October 7th happened and it wasjust like I need to.
Yes, this is, I have a call.
I feel like I'm being calledand time to plug in time to plug
in yeah and it's.
It feels really good like we doshabbat dinner every friday and
you know we've been fastingevery year.
But you know fasting kind oflike drinking water, having a
little little coffee, um, butwe're doing it like the right

(02:40):
way this year dry and digitalfast yeah, and I'm really
looking forward to it, whichbrings us to our with our guest,
which I'm really excited tohave on the show.
Do you want to give a littlebackground on him?

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, so we have on the show today Rabbi
Schlosselberg.
He received his bachelor'sdegree in psychology and
rabbinic ordination from YeshivaUniversity.
He holds a master's degree inJewish education from the
Azrieli School of JewishEducation.
Currently he works at the RayKushner Yeshiva High School as
the Mashkiach Rukhani, which isa spiritual advisor, and just

(03:17):
over a year ago one year ago hestarted an Instagram page which
now has over 20,000 followers.
He provides Jewish inspirationand, I would say, inspiration in
general.
I find that some of theinspiration is very broad and
applies to anything really butJewish specific inspiration and

(03:39):
education about Israel andanti-Semitism, and he has
lectured at Columbia, princetonNYU and many other colleges.
And, on top of all that, he isone of the most prolific
Instagram comment uh commentersI've ever seen.
Like every post that I'mscrolling through, his name pops
up with a with a comment, andit's always, it's always pretty

(04:00):
uplifting, it's not likepositive yeah.
It's not like something I wouldsay right, I would like it's
just funny, like I don't know.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
I guess seeing you know a rabbi on instagram, it's
kind of like I'd never, I don'tknow.
I never thought, if you'd askedme, like 10, 15 years ago, that
I would be following like thesespiritual amazing people that
are teaching me weekly parashaand like you know different
things, that it just I wouldnever think, that I would never
think that, but why not?

Speaker 2 (04:27):
And with all that, we welcome Rabbi Schlisselberg.
Welcome to the podcast.
We are so happy to have you.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
Thank you so much.
Really excited to be here withyou guys.
Thanks for inviting me.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
I don't know where to start so many questions.
Let's start with the IG.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Let's start with the IG.
Let's start with the IG.
What got you into the digitalgame like that?

Speaker 3 (04:51):
It could be an hour-long answer.
Oh, wow, I'll give you the shortversion, okay, sure, the short
version is that I've always hadit in me to want to help people,
want to educate people, andalso, tied to that, which is,
what content creators want, iscreate a name for themselves.
And so the frustration I had fora long time is, let's say, I

(05:13):
would contact a synagogue or aplace to speak and, in theory,
certainly if they knew me,they'd say, like I think you're
a good speaker, but we're notgoing to have you come because
no one knows who you are.
But then, because no one knowswho I am, I can't go to places.
So there's like a vicious cycle.
So I recognize, as opposed totrying to get to an audience,
let me bring an audience to me.

(05:34):
And that's why I started thepage to be able to inspire
people.
And obviously, when you startyour first post, you have zero
followers and you have to justgrow and inspire people and then
hopefully build yourself upwhere people recognize that
there's something reallybeneficial that you're providing
, and then now kind of likewalking through the back door.
Now I have more opportunitiesto be able to provide

(05:57):
inspiration to people in person.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Wait, I want to know, though, more your story, but
why did you decide to become arabbi?
So the short version, obviously, because I'm sure that's a long
one too.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
That one's actually pretty short.
There is, I think, only aversion 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 thatdefinition.

(06:32):
And so after high school, manykids who are modern orthodox
they learn in Israel for a year.
They have a gap year.
It happens to be in my highschool.
I'm actually the head of BoysIsrael Guidance, so I help
instruct people to provide themthe information for places to go
.
So when I was 19 years old, Iwas in Israel.
I was becoming more religiousand I was very inspired and I

(06:56):
decided at that moment acombination of enjoying learning
Torah for pretty much the firsttime, and I was also helping
friends through random things.
Some of the things I washelping them through was, like I
remember one kid, like agirlfriend issue, where I was
trying to give them advice,someone else, a religious issue,
and it was a combination ofenjoying learning, wanting to
teach others and wanting to helpother people, whereas since I

(07:18):
was 19, I was set on becoming arabbi and haven't looked back.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
Wow, and I always felt like rabbis are kind of
like therapists too in a way.
Right, Is that accurate?

Speaker 3 (07:31):
In a certain sense, yeah, meaning obviously, if
there's someone that has aserious or it doesn't even have
to be so serious, but a realpsychological issue, I always
will tell them you really needto see a therapist.
I'm happy to speak to you andI'm happy to help how I can?

Speaker 1 (07:46):
that's very responsible of you.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
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 withdepression, like some serious
stuff, and certainly I'm happyto help how I can, but I always
have to provide that informationto make sure they get the help
they really need, while at thesame time but to answer your

(08:09):
question also meaning yeah, manypeople turn to religious
figures for advice and I mean Ireally thank God and I believe
overall I have a good sense ofgetting a person, understanding
them and a certain intuition toprovide beneficial advice
understanding them and a certainintuition to provide beneficial
advice.
I certainly and you'll probablyhear it tonight based on the

(08:30):
questions I'm asked, I'm notscared to say I don't know, and
I think all people have to saythat and have to be honest with
themselves.
As opposed to living up to whatthey think their ego is to try
to provide an answer when theydon't really have a good one.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah, that is a key.
A key a bit like honestly, Ilook at that as as an ability,
an ability to be able to tellsomebody that you don't know the
answer to something.
Um, I work with I work with menand men's coaching lot and come
across some very serioussituations as well, and having

(09:10):
the humility to be like this isout of my depth a little bit.
But I will get you in front ofsomebody that can help, and it
may not be me.
That takes a level of skill andshrinking of the ego to pull
off Because it's hard.
You want to help everyone, butat some point you have to

(09:35):
understand your limitations,which is a powerful skill in
itself 100%.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Now, obviously, I always talk about how, as a Jew,
I hate saying as a Jew becauseit'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 thepre October 7th version of us
and there's the post Octoberversion of of us.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
And what have you seen in your position being a
rabbi in the Jewish community,with people and their
spirituality, pre and post, as Italked about in the beginning
of the podcast than what I do inmy school, because in my school

(10:22):
meaning, the kids overall arefrom Orthodox homes and they
honestly seem to me overallpretty similar to how they were
pre and post October 7th.
Certainly, their kids they're alittle more inspired, the kids
are moving the needle a littlebit, but what I've seen on
Instagram has been veryeye-opening.
I'm in touch, I've been reachedout to by it's gotta be over a

(10:45):
hundred people I don't know if Icould say hundreds, but many,
many people who really have ayearning to tap into their
Jewishness that they never feltprior to October 7th.
Some people who messaged me whowould say I'm definitely
marrying a Jew.
Now I get messages like that.
I get messages of like I wantto.

(11:05):
I got messages like last weekor two weeks ago.
I didn't mean to bring anythingup, uncomfortable, I'm just
saying yeah, no, it's notuncomfortable.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
We talked about it.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
We literally had the conversation and we put out that
clip today of her saying if shewas single now during post
October 7th, she would be inIsrael trying to find a
reservist to marry.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
They definitely work out and so not saying you don't.
But so there are people who Iget 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 topeople that I suggest that they
buy, where I literally shouldcontact that author and claim

(11:45):
some royalties.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
Okay, what's the book ?

Speaker 3 (11:48):
So I always forget the name because it's either
like I'm pretty sure it'sGateways to Judaism or it's like
I'm pretty sure it's Gatewaysto Judaism.
It definitely has a key on thecover, 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 inthere, but anyways to Judaism
and and just like it goes it's avery in-depth, but it goes to

(12:11):
like the how, why and what's ofJudaism.
And there are just so manypeople that contact me.
Sometimes it's broadly like Iwant more religious, what did I
do?
And sometimes it's a veryspecific question.
Sometimes it's people,unfortunately, like there are
many people have contacted mewho, now that they recognize how
important it is to feel Jewishand be Jewish, they say, like I
live in the middle of nowhere,like what do I do?

(12:33):
How do I connect?
Uh, so it's really like it'sacross 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 whohave lost faith, certainly

(12:56):
because of how they view Godbased on what happened on
October 7th and since October7th.
But I will say the overwhelmingmajority of people.
Their faith has been ignitedfrom it.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
So I have two follow-up questions.
One of them is you know, youget the question of how do I
become more religious?
So what is that answer?

Speaker 3 (13:20):
Let's say I was one of those people DMing you how do
I become more religious?
So the two important things torecognize and we have to
bifurcate is knowledge andpractice.
Those are key.
You can't have practice withoutknowledge, and knowledge is
always the first thing you need.
But if someone just hasknowledge, there are people who
are extremely brilliant inJudaism, but if they don't do
anything, then it's almostworthless.

(13:42):
So those are the two things soI provide them with.
Like I said, then it's almostworthless.
So those are the two things soI provide them with.
Like I said, sometimes it'scontent to like a book to buy.
Sometimes it's sharinginformation.
If it's a specific question,like you said, if it's just, how
do I become more religious, Ialways, always, will tell
someone to start off small.
One of the things I usually oneof my go-tos is to tell them to

(14:05):
work on prayer, because prayeris something that's essential to
religion.
It's something that providesyour connection to God and it's
also something that doesn'timpose on your life.
So if someone like, let's say,I were to say so as an Orthodox
Jew, for example, so we don'tdrive on Shabbat or use our
computer or phone.
So imagine if someone's like Iwant to become more loose.

(14:26):
What do I do?
Oh, for 24 hours you can driveLike.
Imagine if I started with thatLike.
Obviously, like for most people, I would never even bring it up
.
Meaning you have to work with aperson where they are.
It's also about not beingjudgmental.
It's about seeing every personfor who they are and where they

(14:46):
are, and it's important also tomake sure that they don't feel
guilt for how they lived theirlife prior.
Meaning one of the things thatpeople don't really recognize
about Judaism and I think thereare other religions where other
religions let's say there's alaw.
Let's just say, let's saybroadly, like, be kind, okay.

(15:07):
And let's say if you're kind,you get points.
And let's say you get a hundredpoints, you're kind, and if
you're not kind, you lose ahundred points.
And so, whether, however,someone's raised, whatever their
background is, whether they'recome from an abusive home or a
regular home, that's what it isJudaism is not meaning.
That's not what we believe.
We believe every single thingis tailor-made.

(15:30):
So there's a concept the Hebrewterm is Ones Rachmanipatre,
which means if someone isbasically does something totally
by accident, it's not eventheir fault, it's not even.
Let's say, for example, if Iknow.
On Shabbat, for example, Idon't turn on the light so I
accidentally hit the lightswitch.
So that's one level wherethat's, of course, by accident
and you're not punished as if itwould be deliberate.

(15:52):
But then there's a level ofsomeone doesn't even know what
Shabbat is.
So if you don't even know whatit is, it's like there's zero
punishment.
Punishment so people who cometo Judaism later on, where
they're raised in a certain wayin their household, like a
person has to recognize and Ihave to make them feel as if,
like they did nothing wrong anddon't regret.

(16:14):
I'm in touch with.
I'm in touch with people intheir literally in their sixties
, meaning people who want tobecome more religious now, and
I've shared these concepts withthem.
And it's also another importantconcept for the listeners to
know that it's never too late.
If someone is 60 or 70 yearsold, you know I want to start
doing something, but like eh, Ialready wasted my life it's

(16:36):
never too late.
There's a concept, there's astory in the Talmud about a
person who is kind of like YomKippur story, like a person who
repents literally like the lastday of life.
And they passed away.
They were a big sinner, happensto be.
The actual story is someone whowas, who was sleeping with
prostitutes that's literally thestory and the person died after

(16:59):
repenting and not sinning with,like the last prostitute he was
going to be with, and then aheavenly voice came out and said
Rebbe Elazar ben-Duradaya.
It gave him, like he became,rabbinic ordination.
The guy got and says now.
He welcomed him to Olam Haba, toheaven, and two rabbis heard
that heavenly voice and theyturned to each other and they

(17:20):
say a person could acquireheaven in just a moment, and
that's one of the stories in theTalmud.
So it's really literally never,ever too late.
One of the last small pointI'll say is that one of the
greatest rabbis in all of Jewishhistory is someone named Rebbe
Akiva, and Rebbe Akiva literallysays in the Talmud that he
hated rabbis.

(17:41):
He hated not just Judaism, hehated rabbis until he was the
age of 40.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
At the age of 40, he started learning Hebrew and he
became one of the greatestrabbis ever.
How do you rank rabbis?
Good question, I'm kind ofjoking, but I'm also kind of
serious how do you determine thebest rabbi?

Speaker 3 (18:06):
like the best rabbi.
So one of the things that aperson should recognize is that
it's not something like inpresidential elections, where
it's self-appointed and you'retrying to get people to vote for
you or to get your rabbifantasy.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
It's not a popularity contest.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
Correct, it's not a popularity contest, just to
share like a story of someonewho'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 inRussia in the late 1800s.
He died in 1986.
He was a rabbi on the LowerEast Side and meaning it's one

(18:43):
small thing I'll say, justtangentially, just important for
people to realize a great rabbi, in every religious person's
book, is not just someone whohas tremendous knowledge, but
it's someone who has impeccablecharacter traits.
So if there's someone who hasso much knowledge but they're a
jerk, that's not a great rabbi,that's not.
So now back to answering yourquestion.
Sorry, moshe Feinstein, there'sa, there's a whole corpus of

(19:07):
literature People know, likeTorah, some people know what
Mishnah is or Talmud.
There's a whole corpus known asShe'elot Etruvo, which just
means question and answers,where very big rabbis will
publish books of the questionsthey get and the answers.
Now the answers are not like ayes or no, they are pages long
going through the whole topic,from all of Jewish literature to

(19:28):
how they get to that answer toa specific question.
So Moshe Feinstein, in hisintroduction to the first volume
of his Shalom Shuvahs Questionsand Answers.
He writes, he says people likehe's extremely humble, like he
was beyond brilliant, but hesaid meaning who am I?
But people came to me, theyasked me questions and I guess
they were happy with the answersI provided and people just kept

(19:49):
coming.
So it's kind of like that wherepeople 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', whodied, and he lived in Israel, in
Bnei Brak.
He literally didn't hold arabbinic position, can you

(20:10):
imagine like the greatest rabbi,not even like being a rabbi of
a congregation, just likesitting and learning, but like
he was so brilliant that peoplerecognize his greatness and
swarm to him and his opinionsliterally are what people live
with till today in many areas.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
And that's what I love about Judaism is that
there's so many layers and touncover.
And it's the meeting whereyou're at, like I love that.
Like I was talking to my rabbithe other day at my daughter's
bat mitzvah and I was tellinghim I'm like Rabbi, I'm, you
know, we're going to tackle YomKippur and, like you know, I
think the hardest part is the nocoffee, because I'm addicted to

(20:52):
coffee and I have a toddlerthat I need to take care of and
and it's really hard.
And he's like, well, he's likeyou know, there's a concept of
pikuach nefesh.
You know you have to take careof others, so you have to take
care of yourself.
Obviously, don't chug acappuccino and, like you know,
and and and watch a reality show, but like, if you need a little
bit to to get you through theday, then then Hashem will, will

(21:16):
be okay with that, so that.
And I was like, wow, that'sreally forgiving.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
And he's like some women don't, can't fast at all
for health reasons or if theyhave, you know, eating issues or
disorders, and because you haveto put your health first 100%
and the source for that in theTorah is the Torah says the
words, which means you shalllive by it, and the Talmud
derives from that you shall liveby these words and don't die by

(21:45):
these words.
So we don't believe in justmartyrdom for the sake of the
Torah, except there are certainexceptions, but overall meaning.
If someone comes to me and putsa gun to my head and says, eat
this thing, eat this pork, orI'm going to kill you, I have an

(22:07):
obligation to eat the pork andI'll probably enjoy it.
Um, but that's okay.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
Um, so we are no, we're not using that Um, okay,
so I want to.
I want to go back to anotherfollow-up question that I had,
uh, about people like losinghope, in a sense of like losing
faith in Hashem Um, and I thinkthat's something I relate to
because that's where that's.
Like you know, I think myparents have been through, and

(22:31):
my grandparents as well havebeen through so much hardships,
Holocaust and loss and and justyou know, I think they've lost
faith and they're very practicalpeople 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 Godif God let this happen?
How, if we're the you know,chosen people, why are we

(22:54):
continuously suffering?
What do you say to those peoplewho reach out to you, who've
lost hope?

Speaker 3 (23:00):
It's a great question .
This is one of the times whereit's not where I'll say the
words I don't know, but it'swhere I will share ideas which I
do say over.
But it's also where we don'tknow the reason, and no one
should ever provide the reasonwhy October 7th happened,

(23:21):
meaning I literally I can'tfathom how someone who is an
atheist, as a Jew, could go onand live in this world and try
to be somewhat sane.
I'd be going crazy.
But with my faith, meaning it'sthat I certainly believe that
there is a reason, unfortunately, why this stuff happens, why

(23:42):
the Holocaust happened, why theSpanish Inquisition happened,
and it's not up to us to fingerpoint.
It's not up to us to fingerpoint to the nation what was bad
.
It's not up to us to evenfinger point when we have
individual personal things likeoh, it must be.
This happened to me because Ido this.
What we should do and I stillrealize I'm not answering your

(24:04):
question, but I'll get back toit in a second what we should do
and I still realize I'm notanswering your question, but
I'll get back to it in a secondbut what we should do is
certainly be able to think howcan I improve that.
There must be a reason why someof this stuff happens.
Let me think how I can improve.
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

(24:29):
like why did God choose tocreate the world this way?
And you can fill in the blankfor whatever this way is.
So here it's like why did God?
I mean, if God wants people tobelieve in him, so why make it
so hard to see him?
Why is it where 10% of thiscountry don't even believe he
exists?
So there must be a reason forthat.
And it's not where life issupposed to be easy.

(24:52):
I use an analogy sometimes oflike someone who wants to go to
the Navy SEALs.
So if someone wants to join thearmy, you can literally just
sign up.
If someone wants to join theNavy SEALs, you have to really,
really, really work hard.
You have to train intenselyprior to it, go through hell in

(25:13):
that boot camp and maybe that itis challenging.
Judaism is hard, faith is hard,but it's important to recognize
that there's so many reasons forus to see that God exists, the

(25:36):
fact that the Jewish people arestill around, literally.
Mark Twain, in the late 1800s,spoke about it like the miracle
of the Jewish people existing.
Like we have to put certainthings 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 thathave happened throughout Jewish
history.
Look at even the miracles thathave happened over the last few

(25:58):
months the fact that Iran, whenthey shot all the rockets on the
Saturday night a few months agoand literally not one Israeli
was killed in that whole attack.
Of course, one thing that'simportant to recognize is some
people might be thinking rightnow yeah, it's because of the
Iron Dome, because of the alliesthat came to help.

(26:19):
Obviously, God's not coming outof the sky to just stop them
where it's like well, that's aclear miracle.
It's a separate question whyGod doesn't do clear miracles
right now, but it's where Goduses the tools and the people to
be able to do his miracles, toperform things.
I'm sure when people use theword coincidence or karma, it's

(26:43):
like just replace that withthat's God Meaning.
I'm pretty sure I've heard theidea Like there is no Hebrew
word for coincidence, certainlybiblical Hebrew word.
Like that's not a thing.
It's recognizing that thisstuff happens Now, unfortunately
, of course, bad things happen.
One of the things based on whoI'm speaking to sometimes I just

(27:06):
have to get a sense of, if Iwant to share this, which it is
a truth and it is important.
I mean throughout the time ofthe Torah, when the Jewish
people were in the land ofIsrael, when we had prophets,
which we had prophets for athousand years.
So God spoke to the prophets towarn the people that if you
continue sinning and doing X, yor Z, this is going to happen.

(27:29):
So one of those this is goingto happen was the destruction of
the temple, with the firsttemple and the second temple.
So obviously, if you wereliving in that time and the
temple was destroyed, it's notlike, how could this happen?
It's like, oh yeah, the prophettold us exactly what God said
and that's exactly what happenedbecause we kept sinning.
So that notion still exists.

(27:50):
Just because we don't haveprophets doesn't mean bad things
don't happen because we're notdoing the best thing we could do
.
Like I said, which is acritical, it doesn't mean we
finger point.
It doesn't mean I could saythat as a nation, we're failing
in this area or individuallywe're failing in that area.
We all have to look internally,we all have to do what we can

(28:10):
for ourselves and we could sayyou know, I don't know what's
going on, but I want to become abetter Jew and I know that if
I'm a better Jew a little bit,and certainly if we're all
better Jews, then that willbetter the world, and so that's
something that's important torecognize.
But it's also important andI'll end with this, I'm sure you
want to interrupt me in asecond but it is also important
for me to say that God loves us,that God really loves us, and

(28:31):
sometimes it seems so, so hardto see.
For example, on the topic of thetemple being destroyed, when
the leader of the I think it wasthe Babylonians.
It was probably the firsttemple, so the leader of, or the
second, it was either theBabylonians or the Romans.
When he entered the Holy ofHolies, where inside you have

(28:53):
the Ark, and on top of the Arkare these angelic figures,
golden figures, known as theKruven.
And there was a miracle thatoccurred when the Jewish people
listened to God, they faced eachother.
When the Jewish people wentagainst God, they turned their
backs to each other.
God, they faced each other.
When the Jewish people wentagainst God, they turned their
backs to each other.
So one would expect, as thetemple is being destroyed, their
backs would be against, awayfrom each other.
However, when he got there,they were interlocked as close

(29:13):
as could be, and the message isthat God is with us.
Even in our time of suffering,god is there with us.
And it's not where God issadistic.
Trust me, if God was sadistic,we would all be dead.
He could do it.
Trust me, we would have beendead a long time ago.
But it's really.
It's like if a person and whenyou take your little kid, your

(29:38):
two-year-old, to the doctor andthey have to get a shot, they
think the doctor is the meanestperson in the world, but somehow
that shot is something thatthey need actually for their
health.
It's going to help them, and soit's like that where sometimes
pain and suffering it's notexactly what we think in our
through our eyes of this isterrible.

(29:59):
There's objectively bad, butit's actually something that
somehow there could actually begood from it.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
I think the one thing that I struggle with and
everything that like keepscoming up for me even though,
like, I'm obviously in a placewhere I'm seeking to deepen my
faith but there's one thing thatI do struggle is thinking about
, you know, the good people thatare held hostage, the people
that were murdered on October7th, people who've dedicated
their lives to service, tohelping others, and and it's

(30:32):
hard to kind of think about,like, why them and not me?
Why?
Why am I worthy of being safein this home?
My kids are healthy, they'renot being held hostage.
Like you know that I think thatkind of pain and suffering
that's inflicted on theirthemselves, that were inflicted

(31:08):
on them for 11 months and thenon their families, like it's
just so hard to conceive this.
Oh, everything happens for areason.
Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (31:17):
A hundred percent, and everything I said until now
is speaking to the 99.9% of Jewswho are not the ones who are
directly impacted, meaning it'sthe 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 tospeak or understand someone like

(31:38):
that, I would almost never sayanything.
I just told you it's reallyjust, we don't know, and I'm
sure, and they're a righteoussoul.
One of the things I do told youit's really just, we don't know
, and I'm sure, and they're arighteous soul.
One of the things I do say,which is what we believe, is
that when someone is killedbecause they're a Jew, that
they're in a special place inheaven.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
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 (32:04):
I didn't know that that gives me so much comfort.
Yeah, yeah.
And the other thing, one thingthat I wouldn't say then but I
will share with you and youraudience, is that and I've
thought about it also, of courselike these, hashem's were just
like good people, saddest day ofthe year when we mourn the
destruction of the temple, andit's also something we actually

(32:25):
recite on Yom Kippur, where wespeak about 10 of the greatest
rabbis who were literallytortured to death, and so one of
them is that rabbi I mentionedbefore, rabbi Akiva.
Rabbi Akiva, literally theRomans took iron combs and took
off his skin that way, and hesaid the Shema and he died,

(32:46):
meaning it's terrible, they'reterrible deaths, gruesome deaths
.
Now, of course, they wereextremely holy individuals,
meaning the holiest peoplehaving the most brutal deaths.
Like.
There's no other example Icould think of that's more
poignant, to think about thisarea of like.
How is this fair?
And one small thing I'll sharewith you, and I'm not going to

(33:09):
give you the long version of thestory in the Talmud, although
the long version is fascinating.
But basically, on Mount Sinai,the Talmud tells us that Moses
was having a conversation withGod and Moses, like I said, not
to go into the full example ofthe story.
But Moses found out about thisguy, rebbe Akiva, in the future
and he found out he's going tobe an amazing, amazing rabbi.

(33:30):
Moses even said to God like, ifhe's so great, why are you
giving the Torah through me?
And Moses said show me what hislife's going to be like, what's
his life going to end like?
And God shows him him beingtortured and killed by the
Romans.
And Moses turns to God and hesays is this fair?
Like, how are you doing this?
And he says like this is thereward for what he did in this

(33:54):
world.
And God says shtok, which meanssilence, like be silent, stop
talking.
You can't understand.
You literally just can'tunderstand Meaning what he's
saying to him, to Moses, thegreatest prophet of all time is
trust me, I have my reasons andyou will never be able to know

(34:16):
or understand that.
It doesn't mean that it's,obviously it's not sadistic
reasons, but it's nothing we canever relate to.
We just can't understand orfathom.
But we have to have the faithand idea that there is a reason.
One thing that I heard is thatthe idea that it's obvious, of
course, that basically it's easyto have faith when things are
going well job and I got it andeverything is going well amazing

(34:43):
with my family and it's likewow, I really believe in God.
Like yeah, that's easy.
Faith begins where our rationalminds end, when things seem like
they don't make sense.
That's where our faith has tokick in and that's where we're
tested the most.
And it's important for a person.

(35:03):
Literally last night someonewas messaging me, someone who
said that after October I thinkthey were prior to October 7th,
I believe they were notobservant whatsoever and after
October 7th they began praying alot and they said but as the
months have gone on, they reallystopped.
And that part was actually apublic comment and I wrote to
them publicly and I said I wantyou to pray for pray today, pray

(35:28):
a little bit and then pleasemessage me.
And so they prayed, theymessaged me and I said to them
that we often think that we haveto pray or do anything when
we're in the mood.
But it's actually where, if wedo the actions when we're not in
the mood, that kind of gets usin the mood.
The analogy I give is if you'reat a basketball game, so
there's two types of cheering.

(35:48):
There's like there's the LU,there's the deep three and
there's a cheer.
But the other type of cheeringis absolutely nothing is going
on in the game and on theJumbotron they'll have like
defense because they want you toget into it, and by you just
cheering out of nowhere, thatwill hopefully help inspire.
And so consistency in Judaismis key.

(36:12):
It's not a coincidence that wehave so many things that we do
daily, because it's about thecommitment, it's about the
loyalty, and when a person isdoing it, you're actually going
to grow in your faith more.
Rather than saying, you knowwhat, when I'm in the mood, I'll
do it.
Like if I have students thatare going off to college and
they say, you know, if I'm inthe mood, like maybe I'll go

(36:32):
here and there, I know they'regoing to fail religiously.
If they have that attitude fromwhere 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, maybeI'll try it out here and there.
It has to be.
You have to be steadfast, youhave to be committed, and then
you will grow internally fromthat.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
That's how it will come.
Yeah, that's the adage.
Motion creates emotion comes tomind when you speak about that
sort of thing, where you knowit's as simple as, like, our
mood is a reflective of what weare doing with ourselves, and a
lot of senses where if, like, ifI'm in a bad mood or something
I'm not in the mood to do, x, y,z, it could be as simple as

(37:20):
changing my posture, in a sensewhere if I'm slumped over and my
heart's closed off and my backis curled, then I'm not going to
be receptive to the type ofenergy that's required to do
whatever I want to do in thatmoment, whereas if I bring my
shoulders back and I engage myheart and it's more pointed
toward the sky, or if I simplyjust reach my hands up.

(37:41):
It's hard to be in a bad moodwhen you're reaching your hands
up towards the sky with yourchest open and you're now
receiving a different signalthan you were before, even
though it's not something I wantto do, because part of me wants
to be in a bad mood, becausethere's certainty in being in a
bad mood and I know how tocontrol that outcome, whereas if
I let myself be free and opento any possibility that's

(38:02):
available to me.
That's scary because there'suncertainty involved in that and
I'm not as comfortable engagingin that type of activity.
So what you're saying is youhave to do the thing that you
know to be right in the momentwhere you don't want to do it
and I love the way that youexplain that, because it's so

(38:22):
and so many things like I wassaying in the introduction, so
many things that you're speakingto are applicable to everything
, like any part of your life.
Right?
How many times do you not wantto work out and you choose to
work out?
How many times would it beeasier to order dinner instead
of cooking at home?
Right, there's, there's so manyinstances where many instances

(38:45):
where the choices that we makeevery day cast the vote for the
person that we want to be.
We can either choose to we canvote for that person that we
know we can become, or we canchoose to remain the person that
we are.
And so very much in line withwhat you're saying is that faith
is hard.
Faith is hard because it'smeant to be hard, because God

(39:09):
designed it to be hard, becauseif it was easy, it would just be
easy, and there is no growth inthe easy things.
The growth happens in the dirt.
So I had a period of time in my20s where I was a big fan of a
comedian and he talked aboutatheism and in a way that I was
like, oh yeah, what are yousaying Makes a lot of sense.

(39:29):
We could.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
We could say George Carlin, if you want.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
I've seen it.
It wasn't.
It was David.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
It was David Cross it was.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
David Cross.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
I'm sorry.
George Carlin has a famous oneabout atheism too.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
But yes, in that school of comedy for sure.
And when I look back on thatperiod of time without judgment,
I look back on that part of mylife where I kind of adopted
that identity for a period and Igo well, it was easier.
It was easier to be absolved ofall the responsibility that
comes with having faith and tosurrender to the divinity of

(40:04):
timing.
Because what the hell does thatmean?
Because so many times we getconfined by.
When Lynn asked the question ofwhat is the meaning behind
innocent lives being taken somuch of what our rational brain,
like you're speaking to, wantsto do is confine us to our time
here on earth, right, Confine usto the physical manifestation

(40:25):
of who we are and that's just,that's it.
So when that's taken away fromsomebody that we either we know
or we don't know and we want tounderstand why, it's because our
brain is limiting us to what wedo on this earth when we're.
There's an infinite possibilityto what power a soul has after
it leaves this place, and what Ibelieve is that if somebody's

(40:49):
life ends in a way that doesn'tmake sense to me, that there is
a design for them on the otherside, that they are destined to
become.
That I can't possiblyunderstand yet and I'm okay with
that.
Yeah, so I don't know if, ifanything I said made sense, my
brain is like it's like meltingright now from all this.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
So what do you do for fun, rabbi?

Speaker 3 (41:14):
can't tell.
If you want me to actuallyanswer that one thing, I'll say
yeah, definitely, which is whenyou wrote up tony.
You wrote up twice now andearlier, about kind of.
You didn't use the worduniversal, but like the
universal messages, andoriginally, when I started
Instagram, I expected myfollowers to be Jewish, which
many are, but I have thousandsof non-Jewish followers.

(41:36):
I get DMs from Christians everyday and it's certainly
something I didn't expect.
To your question what do I dofor fun In the summer?
I enjoy playing golf.
I play music.
I actually have three albums Irecorded, if you ever wanted my
long answer to like why I doInstagram.

(41:58):
I mean there's other stuff therebut yeah, but I'm on like
iTunes and Spotify and whateverthat stuff I like literally.
Like I don't want to say Icouldn't care less, but like I
don't attempt whatsoever, like Itried to, let's say, quote
unquote, like make it in theJewish music At the time I
literally didn't even own asmartphone Like I was so dumb in
how I tried to make it, so likeI failed miserably.

(42:22):
I loved it and I am so proud Irecorded albums and write music
and stuff like that, in acertain sense, like Taita, the
way God runs the world.
There's a Hebrew term calledHashkacha Pratis, which means
God's involvement in the detailsand like seeing God, and so
there's that's one of the partsin my life I have multiple ones

(42:44):
where, as it was happening forliterally years, of me trying to
make it, let's say I think Irecorded 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 successfuland when I wasn't, I was like
why God?
But now the fact that I'm ableto do this, what I do on

(43:05):
Instagram, and even though Itold you and I mentioned in my
in my intro that I did it to beable to like.
Part of the reason I did is tobe able to like get more
speaking engagements and thingslike that.
Like, even if I wouldn't getone speaking engagement my
entire life, it's worth it.
It's totally worth for thepeople I'm able to help in this
through through Instagram, andso the fact that I failed in

(43:29):
music and other ventures I did.
I'm so happy, I felt, and Icould only look back and be so
blessed that I felt, while inthe 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 (43:48):
He had other plans for you.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
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 amusician.
But I was in a band.
We were signed into a Warnerbrothers subsidiary, did the
touring for years and, and youknow, there was there was a
point where it was when that,when that all sort of subsided,
that it was like just all ornothing, and then I was left

(44:15):
with what I felt like wasnothing.
And you know, when you pull back10 years and go look at all of
the all of the all of thefailures that that lined up for
me to get to where I am rightnow, thank God, thank God, I
failed all the way to this placein my life, which I would not

(44:36):
change for anything, which meansthat I have to accept how I got
here.
I can't be like, oh, what if Ihad started playing arenas?
Wouldn't that have been cool?
And it's like, yeah, well, whatif you got big enough to afford
a lot of hard drugs and youraddiction took over and you died
at 27 like all the other greats?

(44:56):
I do accept the long view ofwhat we in the moment think are
failures and then realize thatthey were just sharpening our
skills and nudging us in adifferent way.
That didn't make sense at thetime.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
God wanted you to become a real estate agent and
marry me and have a podcast, butfor real.
Yeah, I wanted to also talkabout the comment situation on
your Instagram.
You deal with a lot ofantisemitism and you I guess you

(45:31):
you put it out there.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
I want to know why.
Why do you do that?
Cause it must be, it must behard.
Like I, I deal with hatecomments and I block people
right away because I just Ican'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 (45:52):
You know what I mean.
I don't want to see it, I don'twant to deal with it anymore.
I like, choose my piece, then,like you, you, you seem to
address it, so I have a lot tosay.
Um, the first thing is I alsoblock them.
I blocked these people.
I will tell you to date, I haveblocked over 6,000 accounts.
Wow, okay, all since October7th, basically pretty much, and
so I'll share with you and thiswill sound selfish and that I'm

(46:16):
disingenuine, but the mainreason I started commenting was
just to grow my page.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
No, but I'm talking about the hate comments that you
get, yeah.
Meaning so one about the hatecomments that you get, yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:27):
Yeah, meaning.
So one of the things that Irecognized just to like explain
that for a second is, like,because I felt I was putting out
, let's say I feel likeimportant, valuable material of
Torah, jewish inspiration, stuffabout Israel.
So the biggest issue and like Ididn't have to share my whole
story but like a few years ago Iran an Instagram page.
I had 14,000 followers.

(46:49):
It was like literally had to dowith parenting humor.
I made memes, long story, but Ideleted it on the day before
Yom Kippur.
Okay, so I spent at that timetens of hours, like over that
year and a half, learning how togrow on social media and
there's a lot of differenttactics, because I find the
biggest challenge is PR.
Like, if I feel I'm putting outsomething, how do I get them to

(47:13):
my page?
You put out a post, so yourfollowers see it, but if I start
at zero followers or now I have100, so 100 people see it how
do I grow?
So commenting is one of theways where people will see your
comment and people say, oh, whois this guy?
Let me check out their page.
It's not where if I have acomment that has a thousand
likes, I get a hundred followers.

(47:33):
It doesn't work like that.
Many people would just assumethat it's like if I have a
comment that has a thousandlikes, maybe I have five or ten
like, five or ten follows, butwhen it comes to the people who
certainly speed the hatred.
So, firstly, I personally like,have thick skin.
Probably the first few times Igot intense anti-Semitic message

(47:56):
whether it was a DM or acomment 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 agenocidal baby killer and I'm
burning in hell, or I'm therabbi of Satan.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
Like you could tell me that I've heard that so many
times too, that I'm a babykiller.
I'm like I'm a mom in New.

Speaker 3 (48:21):
Jersey.
What do you want from me?
I haven't.
You want me to call BB rightnow?
Yeah, so I'm with you, so thosetypes of things.
So I feel I feel like I want towhat I've recognized.
I've actually received manymessages from people saying they
appreciate my comments.
Sometimes my comments oncertain posts are humorous based
on the mood I see, based onwhat the post is.
Sometimes, of course, it'sserious.

(48:41):
But I want to provide like anadded layer to the post.
But I want to provide like anadded layer to the post.
I think that, like just toshare some social media
statistics knowledge likeapproximately three to five
percent of people give a post alike.
Amongst that we're dealing witheven smaller percentage that
give a post a comment, majorityof the comments are usually just

(49:03):
emojis, like an applause emoji,a heart emoji of the comments
are usually just emojis, like anapplause emoji, a heart emoji,
so it's a much smaller pool thatactually provide valuable
content.
So some of the words ifsomeone's like great post, or if
they just reiterate exactlywhat was said, like wow, I love
how you said that that Israelalways cares for its citizens
Like that's not value, that's,that's just redundancy.

(49:23):
So I want to provide an addedlayer.
So if I'm commenting on a postabout Judaism which I do on some
pages so I'll add somethingelse that the person didn't say.
If I'm commenting on somethingthat's political, I'll add
something.
It might be tied to it.
It might be a different anglethat someone didn't think about
and when I get the hate, that'stied to it.

(49:44):
So if it's someone, obviously weall have to use our senses.
Like if it's someone who's justlike psycho and it's like you,
genocidal baby killer, like I'mnot going to address, you block.
But if it's someone who I senseeither has a genuine question,
even if they're verypro-Palestine, pro-palestinian,
I'm happy to address it, orsometimes you should know, if

(50:05):
you sometimes see me respond tosomeone who's anti-Semitic on a
post, it might be where and it'snot so uncommon for me to
respond and block them rightaway where they will actually
never see it.
But the reason I do it isbecause other people who are
looking at that post will see itand they'll see my reaction to
that person and that's the value.
That's the value of meproviding the information to the
actual people who care, not tothe person who couldn't care

(50:29):
less what I'm going to say.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
Yeah, I just block.
I don't have time.
I don't have time to educatepeople.
I'm just like you're on my page, me, and I'm happy to have
conversations with it.

Speaker 3 (50:39):
If a person is receptive and to have an honest
conversation and be remotelyopen-minded about it, I'm happy
to talk.
If a person is totallyclosed-minded and believes all
the propaganda, then there'snothing to talk about.

(51:01):
We can start a conversation andI'll say let's just recognize
from the beginning that you'rebiased towards your view and I'm
biased towards my view.
But we have to try to get to aplace where we are open and
willing to hear the other side.
Um, like so I'll have, I'llhave someone.
Let's say they'll say somethingcrazy and I'll be like there'll
be, like there's an articleabout it.
I'm like I assume it's from AlJazeera, and they're like yeah,

(51:23):
it is.
I'm like exactly so, like italso depends where you get your
sources.
I'll share with you somethingyou'll find interesting, without
saying the name of the of thepage, but there was a page, a
large page, meaning tens ofthousands of followers, where
they literally did a post oftheir I don't remember if it was
a DM or a comment or like partof the comment section, but like

(51:45):
a conversation and the personwho is posting this.
They literally call this persona bot and, for those who don't
know meaning, there are plentyof fake accounts and it's not
really the picture you see orthe name you see and they're
calling them a bot and it goesto the conversation like okay,
mohammed or Ahmed I forgot whatthey said and it was like a
picture of a girl in hertwenties or thirties.
And I commented on that postand I said I actually think this

(52:08):
is a real person.
I'm pretty positive, this is areal person.
And some people like arguedwith 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 themain reasons I felt it was a
real person was because they hadover a hundred posts the
average bot.
You'll see zero posts or threeposts.
That's like the two classicnumbers.

(52:30):
If you see like 10, it'spossible that's a bot also.
But when you see someone withlike over a hundred, it's a real
person probably.
And so I actually and thisperson was obviously so
pro-Palestinian, insanelypro-Palestinian, obviously this
page decided like look how crazythese people are.
I DM'd that person and I saidI'm sorry for like what you've,

(52:52):
what you faced, and for youbeing like put out there.
And they said no, it's crazy.
And I ended up having aconversation with that person on
off for a week and a half and Ispent and I don't spend like an
hour or two hours talking toevery person and sharing voice
notes back and forth, like thatbut like the person really, and

(53:16):
for plenty of people there'sdifferent categories of people.
It's not all where everyonejust like hates Jews and wants
us dead.
There are plenty of those.
But there are people where it'slike no, they actually
genuinely care for humanity andthey believe Israel's committing
a genocide.
And I'm happy to talk to youabout why I think you're wrong

(53:36):
and I'm happy to hear yourthoughts, and one of the things
that is always important when itcomes to these conversations is
to start off by giving thempoints.
So I'll say to them things likeif an IDF soldier were to do
the wrong thing let's say theywere to go against orders and if
those videos that you sayhappened, if that's true, then I

(53:59):
totally do not condone thatbehavior, I condemn it, and so
you give us, and they would belike yeah, great, of course.
So look what's happening.
So you have to.
Always it's.
It's the same way in politics,by the way.
Um, like, whichever side Isupport, I'm not one of those
people that thinks like everyonewho's on the other side is

(54:20):
crazy and terrible, and I'm notthe type of person who thinks
that every single thing that thecandidate I support is amazing.
I'm not like that.
Like I recognize there is somuch gray and there's so many
pros and cons to both sides, I'mhappy to defend a side.
I once, like within a week, Iwas actually criticized for

(54:41):
something I said that waspro-Trump and pro-Biden.
This is a few months ago.
I'm probably the only person onall of Instagram who's
criticized for was pro-Trump andpro-Biden.
This is a few months ago.
I'm probably the only person onall of Instagram who's
criticized for saying thingslike pro-Trump and Biden.
You know what I mean.
Like you're either like gung-hoone way, gung-ho the other way.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
But I think that's the way to be Like.
We can't like.
You know, we're Jews.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
Like we gotta, they need to court us.
You know, we need to figure outlike who's best for us, of
course, and I'm not saying weshouldn't have political posts
and I'm not saying we shouldn'tspeak up for candidates we
support, and like I'll even sayhere, meaning I'm a Republican,
and I'll even say here like I'msomeone who plans on voting for
Trump, but at the same time,like I do, the amount of
comments that I've received frompeople saying like how could a
rabbi be someone who'ssupporting a rapist and someone

(55:32):
who's friends with the Nazis?
Like I get comments like that,oh, it's disgusting for a rabbi
to endorse someone who'sdespicable.
And it's like sometimes it'sjust firstly, tone it down and
like that's the hard part islike those don't know how to
tone it down.
And like that's the hard partis like people just don't know
how to tone it down or have aregular conversation.
And even if I respond like so,my response to most of those

(55:53):
people is like I'll give thempoints and I'll say I don't
think he's a good person, likehe's not the most righteous
figure to look up to, where I'dbe like wow, this is my child's
role model in life.
And I say be like wow, this ismy child's role model in life
and I say I'm a Republicanbecause of the Republican values
and I'm pro-Trump.
And even people who say thathe's narcissistic and just cares

(56:15):
about himself which may or maynot be true I'll say well,
caring about himself means doingthings that are for the
Republican Party, because that'swho he represents.
So, even if he just cares abouthimself, that's still in line
with the policies that I am morein line with and I believe that
he's going to be supporting theJews in Israel more.
If there's someone that says tome in a respectful way and

(56:38):
there's like literally oneperson who has that like no,
they believe that Kamala will bebetter for the Jews, then I'm
like I'm okay with that.
Just because I disagree withyou and I think she's worse for
the Jews and Israel, thatdoesn't mean I don't respect
your opinion.
If you're coming from an honestplace and you believe that, I'm

(56:59):
happy to respect that.
And I've had.
There was some guy who DM'd meprivately like the most intense
DM, attacking me for beingpro-Trump, and it was a person
who's a Jewish person and I saidlet's just recognize we both
want what's best for Israel andthe Jewish people and we just
have different views about whatwill achieve that.
And he responded like you'reright, I'm Yisrael Chai, like.

(57:23):
And then we like DM'd a littlemore, like that's all you need
to just like cool the fire.
I could have responded likeyou're the psycho, like do you
like?

Speaker 1 (57:32):
Right.

Speaker 3 (57:33):
I mean.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
I think at the end of the day, it's about like having
respect for each other.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
Yeah, yeah, but what?
But what is?
What is becoming more clear andlistening to, to your approach
to it is you don't get therewithout having that intention to
begin with.
You have to want to offer therespect in order for it to

(57:59):
permeate the conversation.
You can't just go in thinkingthat you're owed it without
giving it.
And the other thing that's verystriking about your examples to
me and of course, there arecreators within this world that
they live in this one-on-oneconversation avenue of advocacy,

(58:20):
which I think is brilliant.
But there is so much value tohaving the one-on-one
conversation, Whereas sometimesit feels like, oh, I'll share a
story and it'll reach morepeople and more people will see
it.
But the impact of one-on-one, Ithink, goes quite undervalued

(58:41):
in the space that we're in 100%.

Speaker 3 (58:46):
Those are also the ones that are most meaningful
Meaning.
Think about like, imagine if Iwas giving a lecture to a
synagogue of 200 people in theaudience and how that would
impact you versus if we'rehaving a more intimate
conversation like this, even ifI'm saying the exact same words,
just the more a person's ableto be receptive and understand

(59:10):
and see the body language andthe care when it's more intimate
and the attention they're given, then it has far more impact
than just putting out a postthat they could say this is
crazy.
Look where they believe.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
You had some questions.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
Yeah, and this was relatively covered, but let's
get to the specific part of thequestion for them.
With Yom Kippur coming up,what's the Torah say about those
that sin?

Speaker 3 (59:43):
So we have a line from scripture, that which means
there's no righteous person whodoesn't sin, meaning everyone
sins, literally everyone sins.
So everyone needs Yom Kippur,everyone needs the Devotoment,
and it comes down to the recipeof how to repent.

(01:00:04):
And it comes down to the recipeof how to repent, which is a
person has to feel bad, have tohave remorse.
A person has to do what'scalled vidu, which is confession
, where we have a general list,where we bang our chests and we
go through different categoriesof sin and every specific sin

(01:00:25):
anyone could do falls into oneof those categories.
And then the third, which isthe 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 aperson feels bad for the sin,
they do, but they know they'regoing to do it that night right
after Yom Kippur.
So how is that real repentance?

(01:00:46):
We do believe in a certainsense of partial credit.
So it's not where a person hasto necessarily like if you don't
change forever, then you'redone Like you didn't do anything
on it.
It's as if you did nothing onYom Kippur.
That's not what we believe.
We do believe in partial credit.
There also is a concept, twoforms of repentance, known as

(01:01:10):
chuvah mi out of fear andrepentance out of love.
So repentance out of fear,which the Talmud says wipes away
our sins, is a person who wantsto repent because they don't
want to be punished in the nextworld or this world for what
they did.
And that's okay.
It's okay to have that but andso that could still wipe clean

(01:01:30):
your sins if you're sincere andgenuine in that repentance.
Repentance out of love meansthat 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 Imessed up, not because, oh no,

(01:01:55):
now we might get divorced, but Imessed up because I failed you
and I recognized the value thatyou bring and the relationship
that we did have, and so wantingto get close to God because of
that, to repair the relationship, to just have that closeness.
To get close to God because ofthat, to repair the relationship
, to just have that closeness,that's known as tshuva me'ava.
And the Talmud says somethingwild, which is that if a person
does tshuva me'ava, doesrepentance out of love.

(01:02:16):
It could take those sins thatyou committed, for whatever sin
you're repenting for, and turnit into mitzvah, turn it into
positive points as if you didsomething good.
And so repentance, that fear,wipe clean.
And let's say, before YomKippur you had minus a thousand
points.
If you do so now, you'reneutral, you're at zero because

(01:02:38):
you cleaned off those negativepoints and tshuva me'ava,
repentance out of love will getyou at plus a thousand.

Speaker 1 (01:02:45):
I love that.
Well, we're Jews, we like goodgrades.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
We do.
Yeah, that reminds me of a waythat I approach some of the
coaching work that I do, where Iwill tell men that when you do
fall short of the standard thatyou hold for yourself and you're
in a spot with your partner oryour kids or whoever it is, that
oftentimes there is more powerand more trust built in the

(01:03:10):
cleanup conversation than thereever would have been if you got
it right from the beginning,meaning that if you have the
ability to go back and say Iknow this is where I messed up,
here's what I can takeaccountability for in this
particular situation and here'show I want to improve, moving
forward, that you have more of achance to build something there

(01:03:33):
with your partner than if itnever happened in the first
place.
And it feels similar to whatyou're speaking to.

Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent.
And there are a lot of generalideas that relate to Judaism.
For sure I love that answer.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
Okay, I'm fading, so last question.
Okay, last question.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
I might need help pronouncing this what is your
favorite part?

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
of the Tanakh.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
The Tanakh Now what?

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
is the Tanakh, it's the Old Testament.

Speaker 3 (01:04:01):
Okay, familiar so probably the stories of the
forefathers of Abraham, Isaacand Jacob.
Even though they're justgeneral stories and it's
something that everyone canrelate to, there's so much depth
in them and meaning.
Some of the greatest rabbis andscholars have spilled

(01:04:24):
tremendous amounts of ink tounderstand at a much deeper
level of what is going on, andit's like that with all of Torah
.
But I guess my favorite part isunderstanding those stories and
those lessons at a deeper level.
Kai, just before we end, thiswas a great episode.
Before we end Kai.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
Yes, please Go for it .

Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
I just want to say one very important thing.
I had a mental note, like 40minutes ago, to say this so, um,
which is, if anyone listeningneeds any help, needs any
guidance, religious guidance,whatever it may be or has any
Jewish questions, you couldalways, always DM me uh, it's at
Rabbi David Schlosselberg, soI'm really happy to help if I
can.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
We need to get you back on, because I have so many
more questions.
I could talk to you for hoursand, having consumed quite a bit
of your content over the pastsix months to a year, I knew it
would be a valuable conversation.
But I truly, rabbi, I'm veryimpressed with you as a human,
as a speaker, as a purveyor ofwisdom, and we have to.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
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 yearsfor Tony, that's what it takes.

Speaker 3 (01:05:42):
It is a good question .
You should know I get reachedout to about twice a week from
people around the world who wantto convert.
Literally, I've been reachedout to from people from Iran,
iraq, afghanistan, obviously theUS, but all over the globe, and
so I answer that question a lot.
It is something.

(01:06:02):
The most important thing isthat if a person has to
recognize that it requirestremendous dedication to convert
and it's not just because ofsome ulterior motive that makes
them want to do it, but if it'sreally a person has to recognize
that, I mean we don't go aroundand proselytize, but we do

(01:06:22):
welcome converts if it'sextremely, extremely sincere and
genuine and they're willing toput in the hard work to convert
and to live as a religious Jew.

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
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 youand we'll definitely have you
back.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
Yeah, when Tony converts, we might just call,
we'll set up you back.
Yeah, when Tony converts, wemight just.
We might just call.
We just set up zoom meetingsand just talk that too Happy to
Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you so much.