January 29, 2025 • 43 mins
Yona Eliezer Tuvia Ben Yosef Wolf and A Story
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (00:03):
He saw that.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Who do you want to talk about tonight? The options
we can speak about a review, B Uncle Jerry, C Safta, Sylvia. F.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I don't know where we're up to right now. F.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Maybe we could speak about love Love Who Uncle Jerry? Okay, Okay,
so it's Uncle Jerry tonight. Okay, tonight, we have a
very exciting night. We're gonna speak about Uncle Jerry. Everyone
(00:52):
has what to contribute regarding stories of people and what
we can learn from them, and especiallytually some of the
more hidden meddles. We'll start with a little bit about
his life. Jerry's Hebrew name was Jona Eliazar two. I
(01:17):
don't believe Epstein Hebrew Academy was around when Jerry first
started school. I think my father was the first one
in the family to go there. It could be wrong
about that.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Okay. There were two things that he was famous.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
For, and and I think this is we're gonna explain
something else, which is a mystery which you may not
even know it's a mystery, but it is.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
And we're gonna solve the mystery tonight. Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
The two things that Jerry is famous for is his strength,
like really unbelievable strength, and if you hear stories, you
would really think that. And when you think about Shimmin
and Lavy going out and massacre, totally destroying a city
in Schran, So you see when you go back to
(02:14):
Skoki Shiva, I have no idea what went on in
that generation. By there really were gangsters and Jerry. The
stories go that Jerry really did save people, he really did.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Fight them off. I wasn't there.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I can't tell you either way, but I could tell
you that we had someone stay at our house.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It was freed from jail.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
He was freed from jail and there was and his
brother Jerry said to stay away. These people were a sakona.
They were dangerous people that uncle Jerry actually saved the
yeshiva from. So it's almost like we're going back to
the wild West. Those were the words that Arrown left
(02:53):
and once used. That place must have had barbed wire
around it. I don't think they did, and I think
maybe that was the problem. But it's going back to
that generation I think is very different. Actually we're becoming
a little bit similar now, back to that generation. But
he really had enormous strength, but he also was known
(03:14):
as a masmid So when I was intel yeshiva, I
was teaching a bacher.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
It was one to one. I was a rebby for
that bacher. And the first day so I sat on
the table.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
You know, really in Tels yeshiva here in Chicago, they're
really famous for their stenders and the schenders really give
it a European feel to the whole yeshiva. The first
day of yeshiva, I come in. I found a spot
and it was at a table with Vishua Eichenstein. At
(03:50):
some point that day, Revishua Eichenstein, you know, I don't
know who said sew malichm do I think he said
it to me? And you know, he asked me what
my name was. I said left In. He said, oh,
do you know do you know Jerry left In? I said, yeah,
he's my uncle. So Atckenstein said, he said he was
(04:13):
a big, big tomil Kochelm and he was a big
Lombdon and he kept saying it, and he's like, I'm
not just saying it.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
He really was. He really was, and he helped me
out so much.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
And I don't think they were It's not that they
were roommates, but there was He mentioned something about the
sleeping arrangements.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Maybe at one point they were, but he apparently Uncle
Jerry might have even tutored him, might have or I
don't know if the word was tutored, but they learned,
they learned Bill Russa could be more of teaching or.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
But he just said he was a very very big lombdon,
a very very big time kOhm. So here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So if you were to envision all of that, like
for real, put yourself in the shoes of those people
that felt protected around Jerry, not just someone who could
hit the long ball, but someone who actually is able
to fight off these gangsters, something that I can't even
(05:27):
really relate to because I've never seen that in Yeshiva.
Like I've never when there's a threat in Yeshiva, we
called nine one one. You know, there are quite some
amazing stories in Theirsral where we weren't able to call
nine one one and is a place full of stories.
(05:48):
But it's just amazing that they had someone there that
was always there and their stories are that he actually
fought the people off.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
I never saw it.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
It hard to envision it outside of the movies. It
sounds like something that would only take place in the movies.
So someone like that, it's not just they get known
as having a lot of strength.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
They they're an asset to the Yeshiva for real.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
They're an asset to the Yeshiva for real, not because
of an American sports, not because we're into American sports,
but because they actually are protecting the Yeshiva as.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
A guy boar, as a gyboarer, he's protecting the Yeshiva.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So and the other thing is that in Ruchnius, I
would say in Torah was we're saying a bunch of
things here. Number one, he was a Toma rachelm and
he also was a London It wasn't just he actually
learned and learned and learned and he I mean, the
(06:49):
best way to describe the how well he learned it
would be to say he had a photographic memory. I
have no idea if he had a photographic memory, being that.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
He's my uncle.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
He never came across as like having a photographic memory.
But the questions he asked are questions that only someone
with a photographic memory would ask, or someone who just
learned the material so often that they just knew it
really really well. Not only that, But during the years
(07:19):
that I warn't with him, I think that my mind
also was more. My mind also had it didn't feel
so far fetched at the time, and now it really does.
So I think when you're around people that are doing
things in a certain way and your family, you kind
of have higher expectations of yourself and it's easier for
(07:44):
you to develop us to develop yourself in that area
to the best of your ability, even if you're gonna
fall very very short from what's actually happening. And once
you're taken out of that environment and your c hootes
are invested elsewhere, so you see that you really had
no shycas at all to the to.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
The original talent Jay with someone.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
As we pointed out before, he's really one in a million,
because Mische Locklin would come to his door, uh and
people would you would ask them, what the sector are
you learning? I remember I was once collecting for Providence Ishievo.
He asked us what mis sector are we learning? And
(08:35):
we would tell them in what daf for you up
to Zionum and base Did you look at the toastos
on the tosos on the right, did re Ha masco
whatever it was I should and did you look at this?
And he'ld be asking questions. Is if he's holding in
the cilia, is if he's learning in the Yeshievo. And
(08:57):
there's not one word that I'm saying right now that's
an exaggeration. Anybody who has interacted with him those that
this is true, this is and it's not just that masto,
it's it's any misto. I remember, even not as a
micheloch just he would ask me what mascta I'm learning
and he would ask those types of questions. So he
(09:19):
clearly was a really big time at his levyah. We
heard stories of how he would stay up late, late
into the night preparing the sugias of the gamaras that
his kids are learning in school.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
We heard stories we one am, two am.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
He would just be up learning, learning, preparing the gamara,
preparing to I guess teach it to his kids, since
his kids went away to yeshiva. But when they first
started learning, so they were in Epstein Hebrew Academy. At
one point, Epstein started learning gamar in sixth grade. Then
it became fifth grade, but either way.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
So he prepared. That's another big thing.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Sometimes if a person knows the gamar really well. And
you might say, what's the point of preparing, just go
to sleep?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
You know it?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Anyways, I'm sure he knew it anyway, he knew it
well enough to teach the kids. But know because when
you have an av a satorro, and you have maybe
a lot of other av as well, there's a lot
of av over here, so you go out of your
way and you give it all that you've got. This
is someone who is fully employed, fully employed in a
(10:34):
downtown Saint Louis. There's travel, nothing remote in those days,
so the days are spent working, so a night nights
were spent learning. Those are the stories that we heard
at the leva, and the imagery is not hard to
imagine at all. And I've seen him myself, just seeing him,
(10:55):
I mean I envisioned him like on the couch with
the gamar, sitting sitting on the couch with the gamar,
but at the yaguda all the time, you'd see him
with the Carrusso when I was in fifth grade, so
my father actually arranged for me to learn with him
during Shala shutis every week and I learned a lumitas.
So it was very good that was the year that
(11:18):
I had her by Pollock. That was my first time
learning Gamar and I had her Bye Pollock that year.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
So it was a great shock because this way I
can really give it all that I've.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Got in class, even if I spaced out for a
few minutes. But I came prepared because of the learning
that I did with Uncle Jerry, and he really, uh
you know. I know we have stories of people who
learned one with the Rabbi Herber and would get drilled
a lot of questions. But I have to tell you
that learning with Uncle Jerry really was something similar.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
That's how I remember it was. It was something similar.
It was it was like there weren't It.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Wasn't like therefore, therefore therefore, but the questions. It was
very very serious learning with serious questions. And even though
I was only in fifth grade, my father ended that
satir because he felt since I was coming.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
A little bit late, he felt that that it should
be over. I don't know, but but that's what happened.
Regarding Sharla.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Should is in case you're you want to take some
aloha into your own hands based on the story, you
should just know that every chala should his Uncle Jerry
would ask me to please bring him a cookie, go
downstairs and get him a chocolate cookie or just a cookie.
It was always a cookie so he can make him
his zono to be yo Scharla should have. So there
(12:48):
is this thing about being yote Charlotte should have with
dibray Tora. But apparently that's only a thing when paystock
falls out on earth. When paysock falls out, mote shavis
and then only the only thing available to do is
toro by Harloh should have. So on that type of
(13:08):
a shavice, it seems like there is a shita and
we probably even possking like it because I heard it.
I first tell someone where it was that you could
be yoa say Charlow should through too learning heard people
say maybe by others.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
About them too.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
But with Uncle Jerry, it would seem like he felt
you should at least have a cookie because that's what
you would have every week by Charlot should Okay, now
we mentioned something about a mystery last line.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
So see there's.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
One thing and people in the family have probably picked
up on this that if you can get let's say,
like my father maybe other people in that generation, if
you could connect baseball in Toro, or you can connect
being an athlete and a tom kham ti together.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
It creates so much Hannah.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
That it produces a laughter the like it's it's like
almost like there's an Indian to do it.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
So the truth is is that you might just think
it's you know, that's just the way it is.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
But if you understand that the very first exposure that
many of these people had to true strength, to true strength,
strength that actually could help people, strength that actually perhaps
has even saved people's lives physical strength along with an
(14:42):
emis automic rochem in Alamdin, the first true exposure came
in one person. Both was in one person that was
in Skokiyashiva, and that was Uncle Jerry. When you realize that,
so it becomes more understandable why putting those two together
creates this feeling of just like yeah, I don't know
(15:07):
what the feeling is. But you should also know our
rebe Mosha Rabin who was also like that, Mosha Rebenu.
Obviously we can't compare Mosha Rabeno had his his strength
was just unbelievable, even at one hundred and twenty years old,
he was carrying I don't know he was carrying Siffrey toro.
(15:30):
He was he's at one hundred and twenty years old.
He still had the strength that he had and he
was a youth, and plus obviously he knew call it takula.
So we do find that we find that at times
in our history where the two things go together, the
strength this we find that yakobavi we you know, picking
(15:55):
up the stone by the well. We find those things
coming together sometimes. So that picture that many of us
have of what does like a real yai shamayam look
like may not always fit that that picture. It may
not fit people who are learning toro. Learning is known
(16:17):
to weaken you because I'll tell us that that toro
weakens the body, and we find it all over the place.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Toro weakens the body at.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
The same time, I don't know, maybe when a person
reach reaches a certain madrego or maybe it's coincidence.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I mean, nothing's coincident.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
But so these things could be an inspiration as an
inspiration to some people. Maybe some people they really want
to be a tom But there's so many Khazals that
say it weakens the body. They don't really want to
weaken their body. So chanon some people, it doesn't really
do that, and it might even make things better. Did
(17:01):
you live on Balston Avenue? I grew up on Balston
Avenue in Saint Louis. My parents lived about three houses
down from the green Blatz now the green Blatz, a
family that I could say was from Memphis, and anyone
who knows a Frime green Blatz, the guttle of post
(17:23):
Sake finished chots four times a year.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
That's his father. So, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
So Rebe Menachan green Blat moved to Saint Louis probably
around nineteen it was somewhere in the nineteen eighties, and
he became the rob of the Yogota and.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
They had a lot of kids the six five or six.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
You know, a bunch of girls and a bunch of boys.
Maybe there was a it was something like that. So
one thing that was always really healthy to see, and
something that's becoming more rare in this day and age,
is to see the boys out playing ball and you know,
in bolts and there's not really so many cars and
(18:08):
these types of families there's no television in the house.
So and in Saint Louis for much of the year,
the weather isn't really so bad, so you would.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
It would often be the scene.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
You would often see the green Blats.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
We have to it's making too much noise. Don't you
think it's making too much noise? Listen to all the
noise you're making. So we would often see it would
be nice if we get other voices here.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
But I guess nobody knows what's going on. Okay, Mommy
has nothing to contribute by Uncle Jerry, all right, So
the green Blats would often be playing ball at the
corner over there by.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Balson and Alison.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
You would have the yold cuts out there, and to
my father that was like the greatest nachas, just to
just to.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
See them playing ball. Okay. Meanwhile, I don't know why
in the world this was happening.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
But meanwhile you had Uncle Jerry. He would go in
his car and he would drive around town so and
he would make sure to drive down Ballston and he
would put his window down and he would just say.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Bittel toyra, bittel tooyra. Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Then I don't know, maybe he came back around bittele toyra,
meaning the message is why are you playing ball?
Speaker 2 (19:54):
It's bittel toyro. So maybe some of the kids stop playing.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
But but one of them, Rabbi Greenblatt said this at
the Leva. One of the kids said to their father, Tati,
doesn't Jerry realize that driving around town all day putting
down your window yelling bittel.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Tyra, bittel tyre, that that's also bitt o tayra. And uh,
you know.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
The at the Levyah people still had a good left.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Mm hm.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
He also had a tremendous voice when dobbining for the
Almud for the young orayme. He would domind for the Ahmud.
He learned from the Hasanim, the of the European Hello,
of the European Well Shshiva's they were in Skoki Shiva.
I believe I know who, but in case I have
it wrong, I'm not gonna say. And unfortunately, towards the end,
(20:57):
at one point he he fainted or had a heart
attack in the middle. And my aunt Harriet, I remember,
she said that from that point on he didn't want
to dobbin for the Amada anymore, and the yam d
Royan because he took it as like a bad sign.
He just took it as a I don't know as
Maybe I don't know what that means, but he didn't
(21:17):
want to do it. It sounded like it wasn't for
health reasons, just he didn't want to do it.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Maybe it really was for health reasons.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I know that you Selan thinks that that's all that
I'm doing right now too, but that's that's something he
would do. And much of what I remember about the
yum de roy, I mean, the dobbinning still comes from
Uncle Jerry because when I was in fourth grade up
until fourth grade, we domined at Young Yusral for the
yum Deruan. But from fourth grade through eighth grade, this
is before I went to Yeshiva, each and every year
(21:46):
we dobbined at the Yaguda. And to those people who think,
to those people who think that a ten year old
is not impressionable when it comes to dobbining, it's those
words and those thoughts are very very far from the truth,
because I was learning how to dine from the Ohmud
from fourth grade on being at the Aguda, I was
(22:08):
there the I love the dobbining, the dovening, the nosch
the I'm someone who appreciates the music. I appreciate music
a young Israel all I did was I play with
my friend. So I don't know if it's because fourth
grade I was more mature, or if fourth grade we
were finally at the Aguda and there was actually something
to be inspired by.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
But with the with the badin the just they almost be.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
He need, there's a each place sometimes has a little
bit of a different way of doing it. So in
my mind, that's his dobbining is is what's very much
part of me by certain parts of the dam despite
(23:02):
the fact that I'd been in yeshiva for many, many years,
and one would think that somehow a different nosak would
nig it into a different niggin.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
And but for certain parts.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
It really it all goes back to those four years, fourth, fifth, sixth,
and I guess it was five years fourth through eighth
grade when I got to hear him dollin. Now that
you saw that was in the room, I want to
tell you this beautiful story. But as we said before,
(23:35):
uncle Jerry was a very big tim kacham, and not
just that, he also had an ava sata and he
stayed up late at night learning even while.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
He was working. So he saw you remember that, all right.
So and at the Aguda, on Chavis.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
It was common to see Uncle Jerry learning with his
two sons, Aaron and d'neil. They would be sometimes as
they took turns. Sometimes they learned together. They would hang
out in that little corner with Rabbi Herber's fan and
Rebbi Herber. When the Aguda moved, it was in nineteen ninety.
There was a whole line of stenders when you first
(24:15):
walked in, but all of them had to go because
by Greenlet said they all have to go. They all
left except for Uncle Jerry's stender. His was allowed to stay,
probably because he was a lawyer.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
I don't know. I think that's part of it. Maybe,
so his stenders stayed.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Okay, Now, the very last cossenal he went to, he
saw that Who's Costin?
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Do you think? Was the very last costina that he
went to?
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Mommy and My are Casino June June fourth, two thousand
and seven. So at that cossino he was actually very sick.
Nobody really knew about it, but everyone was dancing, and
he asked Graham's to hold up his hand so that
he could dance too. He was feeling really weak.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
During those months he spent a lot of time learning
in Theseska and the masta was Masstaska, and during the
final days before he passed away, I believe he was
out of it. He was in the hospital and there
was a The problem was they almost finished Masectaska, but
(25:27):
they didn't finish it, but they almost did. So Aaron
and d'anil decided, I don't know what they decided, they're
gonna make it see him on by his deathbed. They're
gonna make it see him now, Uncle Jerry was totally
out of it. Now, if you ever see someone who's
totally out of it in the hospital, they're dying, so
(25:52):
you don't even know, you really don't know what they know.
It looks like they don't really know what's going on
at all. There's no way for us to know whether
they know what's going on or not. And we kind
of just hope they do. And oh wait, so this
is what happened. So they made us see him. Okay,
So Jerry's blood pressure was in a dangerously low level.
(26:16):
But as whoever it was, Aaron ord'neill finished Masakasuka, the
blood pressure went way up into the healthy level. You
could tell that he was so besimclal just from the vitals.
There was no way to communicate with him, but the
vitals were there was a change, so you could tell
he was very bisimclal. You could see a genuine avasatura there.
(26:39):
So what happened, It's a good thing he was allowed
to keep that stender because ye Huda Rascus, who has
a lot of artistic talent, he decided to make like
a sculpture, like to insculpt the beginning of the front
page of a Massactasuka in that because that was his
(27:02):
final moments in the world, was finishing the Massaktaska. Twenty
years ago, for some reason, Uncle Jerry was in New York,
probably visiting one of his children.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
He stayed at a hotel and there was.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
A big air conditioner issue and they got a repair man.
Anytime I'm talk so Yukam Shalm likes to be louder,
but they got a repair man to come in. I
don't know if they got a repair man to fix
the air conditioner or not. But there was a phrase
that he used to always say, and I don't remember
(27:52):
him saying the phrase, but this is what they say.
No one really knows what he meant, but he would
tell the repair man, don't let the pipes bleed. I
don't know what it meant, but it's something that he
would say. So he said that phrase because he was
at the hotel and there actually was a repair man
and who came to fix the air conditioner.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
So that's the exact scenario where he would say, don't
let the bipes pleed. Okay.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
So while he was there, he divined at a shoal,
and I just I remember the last name of maybe
the rabbi's name of the shoal, or maybe the shoal itself.
There was bab Bad. Maybe it was Rabbi Babad, or
there was something bah Bod. I have no idea if
there's a connection between that Bahbad and in Skoki Shiva,
(28:44):
I don't know. But he got into Aliyah there and
he pledged to give a certain amount of money. Let's
say it was fifty dollars. Maybe he forgot about it,
I don't know, but the fifty dollars wasn't given at
that time.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
He came back to Saint Louis and she.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Remembered that he didn't give the fifty dollars, so he
sent a check a fifty dollars check to be given
to that show. I don't know really who he sent
it with or who. But for whatever reason, this fifty
(29:32):
dollars check actually never made it into the show, and
nobody knew that it never made it into the show
until we're holding right now in January twenty twenty five,
until about I would say, maybe two months ago, I guess,
twenty years later. So Miriam, his daughter, Miriam was cleaning
(29:58):
up in her house or maybe messing up, I don't know,
but she found a check in the bottom of a drawer,
a check fifty dollars to be given to the Shoal
from twenty years ago.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Now.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
So she called O'Neil and she asked him.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
About this check. And okay, there was a little shock
of viitariat. You were supposed to give the check. You
were supposed to gay.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Whoever was supposed to give the check, I don't know.
But the point right now is that there's a check
and it wasn't given. So the goal now is to
just give the check.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
So at some point d'anil was in New York.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
I don't know if he flew in to do it,
I don't know, but he was there and that was
the showl that they were going to dominate. And there
was like this. You know when people do things like
this so they know they're doing a mitzvah. I have
a story of my own actually when I was I
was returning money.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Where there clearly was he how shas in my story.
I'll mention my story in a few minutes, but.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Because I think it will bring out the point in
this story even more so.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Danil goes into the show and he he gives the check,
and I think at moments like that, a.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Person's just more perceptive and more.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Like it's like something.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Special has to happen, like it's I don't know. It's
like on one hand, it's, well, why did you wait
twenty years? But on the other hand, you cared, You
actually cared about.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
It, and you did it. It shows that this was
important to you.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
And at some point as someone was leaving, they yelled
and don't let the pipes.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Bleed, and the guy left.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Apparently it's a phrase that nobody really says. Uncle Jerry
said it. People don't know what he meant. But when
they gave that check, someone said it. It's almost it.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Was like to me, that's like a holscamal.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
You could take it for whatever you want. But if
a person wants to feel a hug from Samayan, maybe
even from Uncle Jerry.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
That they did the right thing.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
And that this was something special, we don't even know
how it affects them. The shama in the next world,
who knows, who knows what it did. But you have
to wonder the person who said it don't let the
pipes bleed?
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Did he know what he was saying?
Speaker 1 (32:48):
You know, with that story being said, and with all
the stories of his skip, I'm just gonna end off
with a story on my own, which has to do
with returning money. The year was two thousand and two.
(33:14):
I was in Providence Yeshiva. I was in the base
matrish and someone comes into the base matrish and says, simply,
you have a phone call. Now, in those days, we
didn't have cell phones, and Artis saw they did have
cell phones, but Yeshima Bakham did not have cell phones
in America. So there was a phone, a landline phone
(33:39):
that the entire yeshiva used, which was in the basement
to the yeshiva. So I asked who was it and
they said they didn't know.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Sorry, bent.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
To the truth is I don't remember what they said.
Actually maybe they knew, maybe they didn't know, but I
down there not knowing who it was. So I come downstairs,
I answer the phone and they say, are you simply
I say yeah, and they tell me who they are.
(34:19):
They said that this is a gomach, this is the
Near you Thraw, Baltimore, Gamach, and we have a star.
We have a document that says that you owe us
one hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I have no recollection of this whatsoever. It's been years
since I was in Near you Thraw, two or three years.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
The story either happened in two thousand and two, or
could be it happened in two thousand and three.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
So and.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
The strange thing to me was that how come nobody
contacted you before? I said, it's just strange that nobody
ever tried to contact me before.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
This is the first time hearing of it. But they're
not going to make it up.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
I mean, he's there have been a torah and they're.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Not going to make it up.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
So I said, okay, if you have a star that
says I owe one hundred dollars, so it's it would
no one's making that up. There has to be a
reason why they have this star, so it must be
that I borrowed one hundred dollars. So I tried to
(35:42):
think very hard when it might have happened, and I
eventually believe I figured it out.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Which we'll talk about that in a second.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
But the important thing is that in Providence Yeshiva, every
month we had an off shot, so every shot is
we spent shavis in the yeshiva.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
It was really kishmak.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Actually, I really enjoy the American yeshivas because in the
American yeshivas, the rebbem live next to the yeshiva, and
shavis is an amazing experience. Even in a small yeshiva,
shavis is an amazing experience. In fact, in a small
yeshiva you even get invited out to the rebby's house.
(36:27):
So there are certain milas that happened in a small
yeshiva that wouldn't happen in the big yeshiva. Big yeshivas
have their own miles, but it's this is something super
special about American yeshiva's. Once a month in Providence we
had an off shavas, and by the off shavis I
(36:48):
would go home. I actually would go to Saint Louis.
An airplane ticket was not much money, and if it was,
no one told me. So. My parents got a an
airplane ticket from Murray's Travel, and you go to Saint Louis.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Every off job is once a month.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Well, unfortunately for me, I'm not going to be able
to go to Saint Louis for the next off job
is because I have to go to there estrall.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
To return this money.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
To return one hundred dollars, Now one hundred dollars too
many people might not sound like a lot of money,
but the truth is that for a Yeshiva bacher who
has no way of making money, it was a lot
of money. And there also was other money. You had
to have to travel. And I believe I tutored people,
(37:50):
and I know that I tutored people, and that's one
of the ways I got money.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
He says that please stop bouncing.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
I got a train ticket. Actually I got a plane
ticket to Baltimore, from Providence to Baltimore for the next
off shob is and then I took a train or
a subway or whatever you call it, from the airport
in Baltimore to Nerystraw. At least a train was part
(38:31):
of it. I'm sure there probably was a taxi. It's
not really so relevant. But I made sure to leave
Providence with a lot of extra money, a lot of
extra money.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
I don't know exactly how much it was.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
And the goal, of course, is to return the one
hundred dollars when I get to near you thaw. So
I come to you shab is, and you know, of course,
while I'm on trip by by like little snacks, mostly
just diet cokes, and I think maybe peanuts, peanuts or
(39:10):
almonds and diet cokes and stuff like that. I come
to the Yeshiva. It spent shotvis in the yeshiva. The
Sunday morning, I go to the Gomah to right before
I'm returning to Providence, I go to the Gamah to
return the money. So I have to set aside one
(39:30):
hundred dollars and then I'm going to return that one
hundred dollars to the Gomah.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
So I empty up my pockets.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
I count up one hundred dollars and I was shocked
to see that I did not have one hundred dollars.
I only had eighty seven. And it was like my
heart sank because this is horrible. I came all the
(40:05):
way here to return the one hundred dollars. I made
sure to come with extra money, a lot of extra money,
so much that I wasn't worried at all.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
But apparently maybe I should have been worried.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Maybe I should have been watching what I was spending,
because apparently I spent too much. So it was only
eighty seven dollars. I only had eighty seven dollars, Okay,
So I figure, i'll go to the Goamach and I'll
return whatever I have and we'll just do it like that.
(40:47):
So on my way to the Gamach, there's a bucker,
I guess, so a fryme cook who's one of the rebbe,
and he's actually the current Minahill.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
And there's Roll.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
It's his son, someone whom I was not friendly with
at all. Like it's not that I was unfriendly with,
but he was a year older than me, and then
there he saw us a big place and even to
be friends with everyone in your grade was a big thing.
But like I was, I was friendly, like we say hi,
(41:20):
but I wasn't. I didn't really have much of a
catcher with him. But when he saw me, he came
up to me. He said he said, Wow, I'm so.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Happy you're here.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
This is He's like, this is amazing. It's amazing that
you're here. And I.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Said why, Like what.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Can what can possibly be so amazing about this? Like
that's what I was thinking. So he said, just this
morning he woke up, he opened up the bottom drawer
to his desk, and he fought on the bottom of
his drawer, he found thirteen dollars with a note.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
That said please return to samklefton.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
And he said, it's just amazing that I'm here the
very day that he just found the note, Like, he
didn't know how he was going to get the thirteen
dollars to me. He didn't know where I was, He
had no idea how to locate.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Me or anything.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
So he handed me the thirteen dollars. Eighty seven plus
thirteen is one hundred. I returned the one hundred dollars
to the Gamach and I come back to Providence. And
I was thinking recently that maybe not all the stories,
(42:48):
but some of them maybe really should be.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Sad because there's what to learn from it. And when
we just heard.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
The Uncle Jerry's story about the returning of the money
and the person who yelled out the pipes fleeting. You
felt in that story there was some type of a
hug or, but a person could deny it over there.
So I wanted to give another example story over here,
(43:15):
and over here it's returning money. It's not money that
I pledged, but in a certain way, it's even a
higher level of owing money because it's money that I borrowed.
So I actually did borrow the money. It was pour
in twelfth grade.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
And I do remember.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
I eventually did remember borrowing the one hundred dollars, so
it did come back to me. And if you think
about that story, what.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
It shows you is that.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
A Coatach Sparko is watching over us when we're especially
when we're doing a mitzvah, when we're doing a mitzvah,
and Coach Sparkle even he puts up with our own
misera gas
He saw that.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Who do you want to talk about tonight? The options
we can speak about a review, B Uncle Jerry, C Safta, Sylvia. F.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I don't know where we're up to right now. F.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Maybe we could speak about love Love Who Uncle Jerry? Okay, Okay,
so it's Uncle Jerry tonight. Okay, tonight, we have a
very exciting night. We're gonna speak about Uncle Jerry. Everyone
(00:52):
has what to contribute regarding stories of people and what
we can learn from them, and especiallytually some of the
more hidden meddles. We'll start with a little bit about
his life. Jerry's Hebrew name was Jona Eliazar two. I
(01:17):
don't believe Epstein Hebrew Academy was around when Jerry first
started school. I think my father was the first one
in the family to go there. It could be wrong
about that.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Okay. There were two things that he was famous.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
For, and and I think this is we're gonna explain
something else, which is a mystery which you may not
even know it's a mystery, but it is.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
And we're gonna solve the mystery tonight. Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
The two things that Jerry is famous for is his strength,
like really unbelievable strength, and if you hear stories, you
would really think that. And when you think about Shimmin
and Lavy going out and massacre, totally destroying a city
in Schran, So you see when you go back to
(02:14):
Skoki Shiva, I have no idea what went on in
that generation. By there really were gangsters and Jerry. The
stories go that Jerry really did save people, he really did.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Fight them off. I wasn't there.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I can't tell you either way, but I could tell
you that we had someone stay at our house.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It was freed from jail.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
He was freed from jail and there was and his
brother Jerry said to stay away. These people were a sakona.
They were dangerous people that uncle Jerry actually saved the
yeshiva from. So it's almost like we're going back to
the wild West. Those were the words that Arrown left
(02:53):
and once used. That place must have had barbed wire
around it. I don't think they did, and I think
maybe that was the problem. But it's going back to
that generation I think is very different. Actually we're becoming
a little bit similar now, back to that generation. But
he really had enormous strength, but he also was known
(03:14):
as a masmid So when I was intel yeshiva, I
was teaching a bacher.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
It was one to one. I was a rebby for
that bacher. And the first day so I sat on
the table.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
You know, really in Tels yeshiva here in Chicago, they're
really famous for their stenders and the schenders really give
it a European feel to the whole yeshiva. The first
day of yeshiva, I come in. I found a spot
and it was at a table with Vishua Eichenstein. At
(03:50):
some point that day, Revishua Eichenstein, you know, I don't
know who said sew malichm do I think he said
it to me? And you know, he asked me what
my name was. I said left In. He said, oh,
do you know do you know Jerry left In? I said, yeah,
he's my uncle. So Atckenstein said, he said he was
(04:13):
a big, big tomil Kochelm and he was a big
Lombdon and he kept saying it, and he's like, I'm
not just saying it.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
He really was. He really was, and he helped me
out so much.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
And I don't think they were It's not that they
were roommates, but there was He mentioned something about the
sleeping arrangements.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Maybe at one point they were, but he apparently Uncle
Jerry might have even tutored him, might have or I
don't know if the word was tutored, but they learned,
they learned Bill Russa could be more of teaching or.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
But he just said he was a very very big lombdon,
a very very big time kOhm. So here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So if you were to envision all of that, like
for real, put yourself in the shoes of those people
that felt protected around Jerry, not just someone who could
hit the long ball, but someone who actually is able
to fight off these gangsters, something that I can't even
(05:27):
really relate to because I've never seen that in Yeshiva.
Like I've never when there's a threat in Yeshiva, we
called nine one one. You know, there are quite some
amazing stories in Theirsral where we weren't able to call
nine one one and is a place full of stories.
(05:48):
But it's just amazing that they had someone there that
was always there and their stories are that he actually
fought the people off.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
I never saw it.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
It hard to envision it outside of the movies. It
sounds like something that would only take place in the movies.
So someone like that, it's not just they get known
as having a lot of strength.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
They they're an asset to the Yeshiva for real.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
They're an asset to the Yeshiva for real, not because
of an American sports, not because we're into American sports,
but because they actually are protecting the Yeshiva as.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
A guy boar, as a gyboarer, he's protecting the Yeshiva.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So and the other thing is that in Ruchnius, I
would say in Torah was we're saying a bunch of
things here. Number one, he was a Toma rachelm and
he also was a London It wasn't just he actually
learned and learned and learned and he I mean, the
(06:49):
best way to describe the how well he learned it
would be to say he had a photographic memory. I
have no idea if he had a photographic memory, being that.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
He's my uncle.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
He never came across as like having a photographic memory.
But the questions he asked are questions that only someone
with a photographic memory would ask, or someone who just
learned the material so often that they just knew it
really really well. Not only that, But during the years
(07:19):
that I warn't with him, I think that my mind
also was more. My mind also had it didn't feel
so far fetched at the time, and now it really does.
So I think when you're around people that are doing
things in a certain way and your family, you kind
of have higher expectations of yourself and it's easier for
(07:44):
you to develop us to develop yourself in that area
to the best of your ability, even if you're gonna
fall very very short from what's actually happening. And once
you're taken out of that environment and your c hootes
are invested elsewhere, so you see that you really had
no shycas at all to the to.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
The original talent Jay with someone.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
As we pointed out before, he's really one in a million,
because Mische Locklin would come to his door, uh and
people would you would ask them, what the sector are
you learning? I remember I was once collecting for Providence Ishievo.
He asked us what mis sector are we learning? And
(08:35):
we would tell them in what daf for you up
to Zionum and base Did you look at the toastos
on the tosos on the right, did re Ha masco
whatever it was I should and did you look at this?
And he'ld be asking questions. Is if he's holding in
the cilia, is if he's learning in the Yeshievo. And
(08:57):
there's not one word that I'm saying right now that's
an exaggeration. Anybody who has interacted with him those that
this is true, this is and it's not just that masto,
it's it's any misto. I remember, even not as a
micheloch just he would ask me what mascta I'm learning
and he would ask those types of questions. So he
(09:19):
clearly was a really big time at his levyah. We
heard stories of how he would stay up late, late
into the night preparing the sugias of the gamaras that
his kids are learning in school.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
We heard stories we one am, two am.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
He would just be up learning, learning, preparing the gamara,
preparing to I guess teach it to his kids, since
his kids went away to yeshiva. But when they first
started learning, so they were in Epstein Hebrew Academy. At
one point, Epstein started learning gamar in sixth grade. Then
it became fifth grade, but either way.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
So he prepared. That's another big thing.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Sometimes if a person knows the gamar really well. And
you might say, what's the point of preparing, just go
to sleep?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
You know it?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Anyways, I'm sure he knew it anyway, he knew it
well enough to teach the kids. But know because when
you have an av a satorro, and you have maybe
a lot of other av as well, there's a lot
of av over here, so you go out of your
way and you give it all that you've got. This
is someone who is fully employed, fully employed in a
(10:34):
downtown Saint Louis. There's travel, nothing remote in those days,
so the days are spent working, so a night nights
were spent learning. Those are the stories that we heard
at the leva, and the imagery is not hard to
imagine at all. And I've seen him myself, just seeing him,
(10:55):
I mean I envisioned him like on the couch with
the gamar, sitting sitting on the couch with the gamar,
but at the yaguda all the time, you'd see him
with the Carrusso when I was in fifth grade, so
my father actually arranged for me to learn with him
during Shala shutis every week and I learned a lumitas.
So it was very good that was the year that
(11:18):
I had her by Pollock. That was my first time
learning Gamar and I had her Bye Pollock that year.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
So it was a great shock because this way I
can really give it all that I've.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Got in class, even if I spaced out for a
few minutes. But I came prepared because of the learning
that I did with Uncle Jerry, and he really, uh
you know. I know we have stories of people who
learned one with the Rabbi Herber and would get drilled
a lot of questions. But I have to tell you
that learning with Uncle Jerry really was something similar.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
That's how I remember it was. It was something similar.
It was it was like there weren't It.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Wasn't like therefore, therefore therefore, but the questions. It was
very very serious learning with serious questions. And even though
I was only in fifth grade, my father ended that
satir because he felt since I was coming.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
A little bit late, he felt that that it should
be over. I don't know, but but that's what happened.
Regarding Sharla.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Should is in case you're you want to take some
aloha into your own hands based on the story, you
should just know that every chala should his Uncle Jerry
would ask me to please bring him a cookie, go
downstairs and get him a chocolate cookie or just a cookie.
It was always a cookie so he can make him
his zono to be yo Scharla should have. So there
(12:48):
is this thing about being yote Charlotte should have with
dibray Tora. But apparently that's only a thing when paystock
falls out on earth. When paysock falls out, mote shavis
and then only the only thing available to do is
toro by Harloh should have. So on that type of
(13:08):
a shavice, it seems like there is a shita and
we probably even possking like it because I heard it.
I first tell someone where it was that you could
be yoa say Charlow should through too learning heard people
say maybe by others.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
About them too.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
But with Uncle Jerry, it would seem like he felt
you should at least have a cookie because that's what
you would have every week by Charlot should Okay, now
we mentioned something about a mystery last line.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
So see there's.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
One thing and people in the family have probably picked
up on this that if you can get let's say,
like my father maybe other people in that generation, if
you could connect baseball in Toro, or you can connect
being an athlete and a tom kham ti together.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
It creates so much Hannah.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
That it produces a laughter the like it's it's like
almost like there's an Indian to do it.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
So the truth is is that you might just think
it's you know, that's just the way it is.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
But if you understand that the very first exposure that
many of these people had to true strength, to true strength,
strength that actually could help people, strength that actually perhaps
has even saved people's lives physical strength along with an
(14:42):
emis automic rochem in Alamdin, the first true exposure came
in one person. Both was in one person that was
in Skokiyashiva, and that was Uncle Jerry. When you realize that,
so it becomes more understandable why putting those two together
creates this feeling of just like yeah, I don't know
(15:07):
what the feeling is. But you should also know our
rebe Mosha Rabin who was also like that, Mosha Rebenu.
Obviously we can't compare Mosha Rabeno had his his strength
was just unbelievable, even at one hundred and twenty years old,
he was carrying I don't know he was carrying Siffrey toro.
(15:30):
He was he's at one hundred and twenty years old.
He still had the strength that he had and he
was a youth, and plus obviously he knew call it takula.
So we do find that we find that at times
in our history where the two things go together, the
strength this we find that yakobavi we you know, picking
(15:55):
up the stone by the well. We find those things
coming together sometimes. So that picture that many of us
have of what does like a real yai shamayam look
like may not always fit that that picture. It may
not fit people who are learning toro. Learning is known
(16:17):
to weaken you because I'll tell us that that toro
weakens the body, and we find it all over the place.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Toro weakens the body at.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
The same time, I don't know, maybe when a person
reach reaches a certain madrego or maybe it's coincidence.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I mean, nothing's coincident.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
But so these things could be an inspiration as an
inspiration to some people. Maybe some people they really want
to be a tom But there's so many Khazals that
say it weakens the body. They don't really want to
weaken their body. So chanon some people, it doesn't really
do that, and it might even make things better. Did
(17:01):
you live on Balston Avenue? I grew up on Balston
Avenue in Saint Louis. My parents lived about three houses
down from the green Blatz now the green Blatz, a
family that I could say was from Memphis, and anyone
who knows a Frime green Blatz, the guttle of post
(17:23):
Sake finished chots four times a year.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
That's his father. So, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
So Rebe Menachan green Blat moved to Saint Louis probably
around nineteen it was somewhere in the nineteen eighties, and
he became the rob of the Yogota and.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
They had a lot of kids the six five or six.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
You know, a bunch of girls and a bunch of boys.
Maybe there was a it was something like that. So
one thing that was always really healthy to see, and
something that's becoming more rare in this day and age,
is to see the boys out playing ball and you know,
in bolts and there's not really so many cars and
(18:08):
these types of families there's no television in the house.
So and in Saint Louis for much of the year,
the weather isn't really so bad, so you would.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
It would often be the scene.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
You would often see the green Blats.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
We have to it's making too much noise. Don't you
think it's making too much noise? Listen to all the
noise you're making. So we would often see it would
be nice if we get other voices here.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
But I guess nobody knows what's going on. Okay, Mommy
has nothing to contribute by Uncle Jerry, all right, So
the green Blats would often be playing ball at the
corner over there by.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Balson and Alison.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
You would have the yold cuts out there, and to
my father that was like the greatest nachas, just to
just to.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
See them playing ball. Okay. Meanwhile, I don't know why
in the world this was happening.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
But meanwhile you had Uncle Jerry. He would go in
his car and he would drive around town so and
he would make sure to drive down Ballston and he
would put his window down and he would just say.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Bittel toyra, bittel tooyra. Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Then I don't know, maybe he came back around bittele toyra,
meaning the message is why are you playing ball?
Speaker 2 (19:54):
It's bittel toyro. So maybe some of the kids stop playing.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
But but one of them, Rabbi Greenblatt said this at
the Leva. One of the kids said to their father, Tati,
doesn't Jerry realize that driving around town all day putting
down your window yelling bittel.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Tyra, bittel tyre, that that's also bitt o tayra. And uh,
you know.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
The at the Levyah people still had a good left.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Mm hm.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
He also had a tremendous voice when dobbining for the
Almud for the young orayme. He would domind for the Ahmud.
He learned from the Hasanim, the of the European Hello,
of the European Well Shshiva's they were in Skoki Shiva.
I believe I know who, but in case I have
it wrong, I'm not gonna say. And unfortunately, towards the end,
(20:57):
at one point he he fainted or had a heart
attack in the middle. And my aunt Harriet, I remember,
she said that from that point on he didn't want
to dobbin for the Amada anymore, and the yam d
Royan because he took it as like a bad sign.
He just took it as a I don't know as
Maybe I don't know what that means, but he didn't
(21:17):
want to do it. It sounded like it wasn't for
health reasons, just he didn't want to do it.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Maybe it really was for health reasons.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I know that you Selan thinks that that's all that
I'm doing right now too, but that's that's something he
would do. And much of what I remember about the
yum de roy, I mean, the dobbinning still comes from
Uncle Jerry because when I was in fourth grade up
until fourth grade, we domined at Young Yusral for the
yum Deruan. But from fourth grade through eighth grade, this
is before I went to Yeshiva, each and every year
(21:46):
we dobbined at the Yaguda. And to those people who think,
to those people who think that a ten year old
is not impressionable when it comes to dobbining, it's those
words and those thoughts are very very far from the truth,
because I was learning how to dine from the Ohmud
from fourth grade on being at the Aguda, I was
(22:08):
there the I love the dobbining, the dovening, the nosch
the I'm someone who appreciates the music. I appreciate music
a young Israel all I did was I play with
my friend. So I don't know if it's because fourth
grade I was more mature, or if fourth grade we
were finally at the Aguda and there was actually something
to be inspired by.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
But with the with the badin the just they almost be.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
He need, there's a each place sometimes has a little
bit of a different way of doing it. So in
my mind, that's his dobbining is is what's very much
part of me by certain parts of the dam despite
(23:02):
the fact that I'd been in yeshiva for many, many years,
and one would think that somehow a different nosak would
nig it into a different niggin.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
And but for certain parts.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
It really it all goes back to those four years, fourth, fifth, sixth,
and I guess it was five years fourth through eighth
grade when I got to hear him dollin. Now that
you saw that was in the room, I want to
tell you this beautiful story. But as we said before,
(23:35):
uncle Jerry was a very big tim kacham, and not
just that, he also had an ava sata and he
stayed up late at night learning even while.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
He was working. So he saw you remember that, all right.
So and at the Aguda, on Chavis.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
It was common to see Uncle Jerry learning with his
two sons, Aaron and d'neil. They would be sometimes as
they took turns. Sometimes they learned together. They would hang
out in that little corner with Rabbi Herber's fan and
Rebbi Herber. When the Aguda moved, it was in nineteen ninety.
There was a whole line of stenders when you first
(24:15):
walked in, but all of them had to go because
by Greenlet said they all have to go. They all
left except for Uncle Jerry's stender. His was allowed to stay,
probably because he was a lawyer.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
I don't know. I think that's part of it. Maybe,
so his stenders stayed.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Okay, Now, the very last cossenal he went to, he
saw that Who's Costin?
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Do you think? Was the very last costina that he
went to?
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Mommy and My are Casino June June fourth, two thousand
and seven. So at that cossino he was actually very sick.
Nobody really knew about it, but everyone was dancing, and
he asked Graham's to hold up his hand so that
he could dance too. He was feeling really weak.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
During those months he spent a lot of time learning
in Theseska and the masta was Masstaska, and during the
final days before he passed away, I believe he was
out of it. He was in the hospital and there
was a The problem was they almost finished Masectaska, but
(25:27):
they didn't finish it, but they almost did. So Aaron
and d'anil decided, I don't know what they decided, they're
gonna make it see him on by his deathbed. They're
gonna make it see him now, Uncle Jerry was totally
out of it. Now, if you ever see someone who's
totally out of it in the hospital, they're dying, so
(25:52):
you don't even know, you really don't know what they know.
It looks like they don't really know what's going on
at all. There's no way for us to know whether
they know what's going on or not. And we kind
of just hope they do. And oh wait, so this
is what happened. So they made us see him. Okay,
So Jerry's blood pressure was in a dangerously low level.
(26:16):
But as whoever it was, Aaron ord'neill finished Masakasuka, the
blood pressure went way up into the healthy level. You
could tell that he was so besimclal just from the vitals.
There was no way to communicate with him, but the
vitals were there was a change, so you could tell
he was very bisimclal. You could see a genuine avasatura there.
(26:39):
So what happened, It's a good thing he was allowed
to keep that stender because ye Huda Rascus, who has
a lot of artistic talent, he decided to make like
a sculpture, like to insculpt the beginning of the front
page of a Massactasuka in that because that was his
(27:02):
final moments in the world, was finishing the Massaktaska. Twenty
years ago, for some reason, Uncle Jerry was in New York,
probably visiting one of his children.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
He stayed at a hotel and there was.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
A big air conditioner issue and they got a repair man.
Anytime I'm talk so Yukam Shalm likes to be louder,
but they got a repair man to come in. I
don't know if they got a repair man to fix
the air conditioner or not. But there was a phrase
that he used to always say, and I don't remember
(27:52):
him saying the phrase, but this is what they say.
No one really knows what he meant, but he would
tell the repair man, don't let the pipes bleed. I
don't know what it meant, but it's something that he
would say. So he said that phrase because he was
at the hotel and there actually was a repair man
and who came to fix the air conditioner.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
So that's the exact scenario where he would say, don't
let the bipes pleed. Okay.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
So while he was there, he divined at a shoal,
and I just I remember the last name of maybe
the rabbi's name of the shoal, or maybe the shoal itself.
There was bab Bad. Maybe it was Rabbi Babad, or
there was something bah Bod. I have no idea if
there's a connection between that Bahbad and in Skoki Shiva,
(28:44):
I don't know. But he got into Aliyah there and
he pledged to give a certain amount of money. Let's
say it was fifty dollars. Maybe he forgot about it,
I don't know, but the fifty dollars wasn't given at
that time.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
He came back to Saint Louis and she.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Remembered that he didn't give the fifty dollars, so he
sent a check a fifty dollars check to be given
to that show. I don't know really who he sent
it with or who. But for whatever reason, this fifty
(29:32):
dollars check actually never made it into the show, and
nobody knew that it never made it into the show
until we're holding right now in January twenty twenty five,
until about I would say, maybe two months ago, I guess,
twenty years later. So Miriam, his daughter, Miriam was cleaning
(29:58):
up in her house or maybe messing up, I don't know,
but she found a check in the bottom of a drawer,
a check fifty dollars to be given to the Shoal
from twenty years ago.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Now.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
So she called O'Neil and she asked him.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
About this check. And okay, there was a little shock
of viitariat. You were supposed to give the check. You
were supposed to gay.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Whoever was supposed to give the check, I don't know.
But the point right now is that there's a check
and it wasn't given. So the goal now is to
just give the check.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
So at some point d'anil was in New York.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
I don't know if he flew in to do it,
I don't know, but he was there and that was
the showl that they were going to dominate. And there
was like this. You know when people do things like
this so they know they're doing a mitzvah. I have
a story of my own actually when I was I
was returning money.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Where there clearly was he how shas in my story.
I'll mention my story in a few minutes, but.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Because I think it will bring out the point in
this story even more so.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Danil goes into the show and he he gives the check,
and I think at moments like that, a.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Person's just more perceptive and more.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Like it's like something.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Special has to happen, like it's I don't know. It's
like on one hand, it's, well, why did you wait
twenty years? But on the other hand, you cared, You
actually cared about.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
It, and you did it. It shows that this was
important to you.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
And at some point as someone was leaving, they yelled
and don't let the pipes.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Bleed, and the guy left.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Apparently it's a phrase that nobody really says. Uncle Jerry
said it. People don't know what he meant. But when
they gave that check, someone said it. It's almost it.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Was like to me, that's like a holscamal.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
You could take it for whatever you want. But if
a person wants to feel a hug from Samayan, maybe
even from Uncle Jerry.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
That they did the right thing.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
And that this was something special, we don't even know
how it affects them. The shama in the next world,
who knows, who knows what it did. But you have
to wonder the person who said it don't let the
pipes bleed?
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Did he know what he was saying?
Speaker 1 (32:48):
You know, with that story being said, and with all
the stories of his skip, I'm just gonna end off
with a story on my own, which has to do
with returning money. The year was two thousand and two.
(33:14):
I was in Providence Yeshiva. I was in the base
matrish and someone comes into the base matrish and says, simply,
you have a phone call. Now, in those days, we
didn't have cell phones, and Artis saw they did have
cell phones, but Yeshima Bakham did not have cell phones
in America. So there was a phone, a landline phone
(33:39):
that the entire yeshiva used, which was in the basement
to the yeshiva. So I asked who was it and
they said they didn't know.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Sorry, bent.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
To the truth is I don't remember what they said.
Actually maybe they knew, maybe they didn't know, but I
down there not knowing who it was. So I come downstairs,
I answer the phone and they say, are you simply
I say yeah, and they tell me who they are.
(34:19):
They said that this is a gomach, this is the
Near you Thraw, Baltimore, Gamach, and we have a star.
We have a document that says that you owe us
one hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I have no recollection of this whatsoever. It's been years
since I was in Near you Thraw, two or three years.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
The story either happened in two thousand and two, or
could be it happened in two thousand and three.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
So and.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
The strange thing to me was that how come nobody
contacted you before? I said, it's just strange that nobody
ever tried to contact me before.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
This is the first time hearing of it. But they're
not going to make it up.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
I mean, he's there have been a torah and they're.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Not going to make it up.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
So I said, okay, if you have a star that
says I owe one hundred dollars, so it's it would
no one's making that up. There has to be a
reason why they have this star, so it must be
that I borrowed one hundred dollars. So I tried to
(35:42):
think very hard when it might have happened, and I
eventually believe I figured it out.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Which we'll talk about that in a second.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
But the important thing is that in Providence Yeshiva, every
month we had an off shot, so every shot is
we spent shavis in the yeshiva.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
It was really kishmak.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Actually, I really enjoy the American yeshivas because in the
American yeshivas, the rebbem live next to the yeshiva, and
shavis is an amazing experience. Even in a small yeshiva,
shavis is an amazing experience. In fact, in a small
yeshiva you even get invited out to the rebby's house.
(36:27):
So there are certain milas that happened in a small
yeshiva that wouldn't happen in the big yeshiva. Big yeshivas
have their own miles, but it's this is something super
special about American yeshiva's. Once a month in Providence we
had an off shavas, and by the off shavis I
(36:48):
would go home. I actually would go to Saint Louis.
An airplane ticket was not much money, and if it was,
no one told me. So. My parents got a an
airplane ticket from Murray's Travel, and you go to Saint Louis.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Every off job is once a month.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Well, unfortunately for me, I'm not going to be able
to go to Saint Louis for the next off job
is because I have to go to there estrall.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
To return this money.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
To return one hundred dollars, Now one hundred dollars too
many people might not sound like a lot of money,
but the truth is that for a Yeshiva bacher who
has no way of making money, it was a lot
of money. And there also was other money. You had
to have to travel. And I believe I tutored people,
(37:50):
and I know that I tutored people, and that's one
of the ways I got money.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
He says that please stop bouncing.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
I got a train ticket. Actually I got a plane
ticket to Baltimore, from Providence to Baltimore for the next
off shob is and then I took a train or
a subway or whatever you call it, from the airport
in Baltimore to Nerystraw. At least a train was part
(38:31):
of it. I'm sure there probably was a taxi. It's
not really so relevant. But I made sure to leave
Providence with a lot of extra money, a lot of
extra money.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
I don't know exactly how much it was.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
And the goal, of course, is to return the one
hundred dollars when I get to near you thaw. So
I come to you shab is, and you know, of course,
while I'm on trip by by like little snacks, mostly
just diet cokes, and I think maybe peanuts, peanuts or
(39:10):
almonds and diet cokes and stuff like that. I come
to the Yeshiva. It spent shotvis in the yeshiva. The
Sunday morning, I go to the Gomah to right before
I'm returning to Providence, I go to the Gamah to
return the money. So I have to set aside one
(39:30):
hundred dollars and then I'm going to return that one
hundred dollars to the Gomah.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
So I empty up my pockets.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
I count up one hundred dollars and I was shocked
to see that I did not have one hundred dollars.
I only had eighty seven. And it was like my
heart sank because this is horrible. I came all the
(40:05):
way here to return the one hundred dollars. I made
sure to come with extra money, a lot of extra money,
so much that I wasn't worried at all.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
But apparently maybe I should have been worried.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Maybe I should have been watching what I was spending,
because apparently I spent too much. So it was only
eighty seven dollars. I only had eighty seven dollars, Okay,
So I figure, i'll go to the Goamach and I'll
return whatever I have and we'll just do it like that.
(40:47):
So on my way to the Gamach, there's a bucker,
I guess, so a fryme cook who's one of the rebbe,
and he's actually the current Minahill.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
And there's Roll.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
It's his son, someone whom I was not friendly with
at all. Like it's not that I was unfriendly with,
but he was a year older than me, and then
there he saw us a big place and even to
be friends with everyone in your grade was a big thing.
But like I was, I was friendly, like we say hi,
(41:20):
but I wasn't. I didn't really have much of a
catcher with him. But when he saw me, he came
up to me. He said he said, Wow, I'm so.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Happy you're here.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
This is He's like, this is amazing. It's amazing that
you're here. And I.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Said why, Like what.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Can what can possibly be so amazing about this? Like
that's what I was thinking. So he said, just this
morning he woke up, he opened up the bottom drawer
to his desk, and he fought on the bottom of
his drawer, he found thirteen dollars with a note.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
That said please return to samklefton.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
And he said, it's just amazing that I'm here the
very day that he just found the note, Like, he
didn't know how he was going to get the thirteen
dollars to me. He didn't know where I was, He
had no idea how to locate.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Me or anything.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
So he handed me the thirteen dollars. Eighty seven plus
thirteen is one hundred. I returned the one hundred dollars
to the Gamach and I come back to Providence. And
I was thinking recently that maybe not all the stories,
(42:48):
but some of them maybe really should be.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Sad because there's what to learn from it. And when
we just heard.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
The Uncle Jerry's story about the returning of the money
and the person who yelled out the pipes fleeting. You
felt in that story there was some type of a
hug or, but a person could deny it over there.
So I wanted to give another example story over here,
(43:15):
and over here it's returning money. It's not money that
I pledged, but in a certain way, it's even a
higher level of owing money because it's money that I borrowed.
So I actually did borrow the money. It was pour
in twelfth grade.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
And I do remember.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
I eventually did remember borrowing the one hundred dollars, so
it did come back to me. And if you think
about that story, what.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
It shows you is that.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
A Coatach Sparko is watching over us when we're especially
when we're doing a mitzvah, when we're doing a mitzvah,
and Coach Sparkle even he puts up with our own
misera gas
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