Episode 33: Blooming, with All Your Strength 🌷 | With Yospi Rozen, manager of the 'Prachonit' brand and lecturer of talks and creative workshops

00:00 Speaker 1 What made an insecure little girl start a huge business? And what does it have to do with a missionary booth in Tel Aviv and the Tanya? Join us for a fun conversation with Yosfi Rosen, who takes us on her journey of growth through a lens of emotion, laughter, and lots of faith. A reminder: if you enjoyed the podcast, share it far and wide—with friends, neighbors, sisters, and anyone who matters to you. Enjoy. Intro, and we’re off. How can we turn our lives into lives of shlichus, full of meaning? I’m Chani Moskowitz, a shlucha in Kharkiv, Ukraine. On this podcast, we’ll meet different women who have brought their shlichus into all kinds of fields. Through their stories, they’ll help each of us find and refine our own shlichus in the world. Because living the lives we were created to live is the best there is. Shlichus as a Way of Life. We’re starting now. Good evening, Yosfi.

01:01 Speaker 2 Good week! Nice, you said my name right.

01:03 Speaker 1 Good weeek! That’s it, I do this to myself on every podcast. I open with, “Did I say it right? Didn’t I?”

01:08 Speaker 2 Now—

01:08 Speaker 1 I keep coming across interesting names. So first, explain yours to us.

01:12 Speaker 2 Yosfi—

01:12 Speaker 1 Keep us in suspense.

01:13 Speaker 2 Right, it’s—

01:13 Speaker 1 Yosfi Rosen.

01:15 Speaker 2 Right, it’s a nickname for Yosefa.

01:18 Speaker 1 Your name is Yosefa?

01:19 Speaker 2 Yes.

01:19 Speaker 1 How interesting. Where does it come from?

01:20 Speaker 2 Yosefa Yehudis—my mother’s grandmother.

01:25 Speaker 1 Your mother’s grandmother, Yosefa. So you went with Yosfi specifically. Nobody said, “Okay, let’s call her Yehudis so she won’t have to deal with this”?

01:31 Speaker 2 There was a time in my teens when I felt like doing that for a day or two, but then—

01:36 Speaker 1 It didn’t stick.

01:36 Speaker 2 I gave up on it.

01:37 Speaker 1 It doesn’t work. Changing a name takes effort, huh?

01:38 Speaker 2 I really, really love my name. I feel very connected to it.

01:42 Speaker 1 But you must have to correct people, spell it out for them.

01:44 Speaker 2 All the time.

01:44 Speaker 1 You know.

01:45 Speaker 2 But that’s okay. It’s part of life. It’s fun.

01:47 Speaker 1 Yes, it’s unique.

01:49 Speaker 2 A lot of the time I don’t correct people, because it really embarrasses some of them, and I don’t want to embarrass anyone.

01:54 Speaker 1 No, and there’s no way to guess it, either. I think you’re the only—

01:57 Speaker 2 Look, these days we type things.

01:58 Speaker 1 Have you ever met another Yosfi?

01:59 Speaker 2 My cousins.

02:00 Speaker 1 Ah, okay.

02:02 Speaker 2 I see them sometimes.

02:03 Speaker 1 Nice, but it’s something that you have the same nickname.

02:05 Speaker 2 Yes.

02:06 Speaker 1 That’s—

02:06 Speaker 2 Something my parents came up with, apparently.

02:08 Speaker 1 And it caught on.

02:09 Speaker 2 Yes.

02:10 Speaker 1 Nice. Okay, tell us about yourself. Who are you? Where are you? Go ahead.

02:14 Speaker 2 Wow, there’s so much to tell.

02:16 Speaker 1 Start somewhere.

02:16 Speaker 2 Let’s start with the fact that I’m from Ashdod, born and raised, boruch Hashem. I have five treasures, five gifts.

02:23 Speaker 1 Wow.

02:23 Speaker 2 And the sixth is my baby, Prachonit, which I really treat like a baby.

02:28 Speaker 1 When was it born?

02:29 Speaker 2 Well, before that—it was a process—

02:31 Speaker 1 Between which children?

02:33 Speaker 2 It actually fits right in with the story of waiting for my third child.

02:39 Speaker 1 Then start at the beginning.

02:40 Speaker 2 Okay.

02:42 Speaker 1 What kind of little girl were you?

02:43 Speaker 2 I was a very, very, very creative and genuinely talented child, but I had a tremendous inferiority complex. I didn’t believe in myself. I didn’t think I was nearly as good as I believe I am today.

02:56 Speaker 1 Were you one of those kids who makes something and says, “Mom, it’s ugly, isn’t it?”

02:59 Speaker 2 No, I wouldn’t even say that. I’d destroy it. My self-image was that low—absurdly low. I didn’t believe compliments people gave me. I’d say, “Oh, stop flattering me.”

03:08 Speaker 1 Yes.

03:09 Speaker 2 And I always felt terribly different from everyone else. Partly because of my name, but also because I felt like such an odd one out. My name was just an added layer. Over time I learned to really love it and understand that it—

03:20 Speaker 1 Has a meaning that’s kind of—

03:21 Speaker 2 Yes, the difference.

03:22 Speaker 1 The talents.

03:22 Speaker 2 Yes, but it wasn’t just the name. I’m making that distinction deliberately, because I’m so proud of my name and love it so much. I don’t think I’d be who I am today if I had a different name. A name has an essence, and it’s part of me. I also think what I went through helped make me who I am today. And it’s okay that I had low self-esteem, because it gave me somewhere to rise from. If I hadn’t had that, where would I really be today? How high can you fly? I don’t want to, you know—

03:52 Speaker 1 No, it really is part of the journey, too. There’s no getting around it.

03:54 Speaker 2 Absolutely. The small and big steps of growth really made me who I am. I still have a long way to go, but—

04:00 Speaker 1 Yes.

04:01 Speaker 2 To stand on this solid ground today and believe in the talents Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave me—that’s an enormous gift.

04:07 Speaker 1 So when did something begin to change for you?

04:09 Speaker 2 It was a very long process, largely thanks to learning Chassidus. Through it, I discovered what my purpose here in the world actually is. What’s the point? What are you getting up for in the morning? Not just going along with the crowd the way I’d been used to—getting married because that’s what people do, and having children because that’s what people do. There’s meaning in everything I do, every action, every word, and every thought. I have strengths, so many strengths, and when I discovered that, my whole life changed.

04:39 Speaker 1 Wow.

04:39 Speaker 2 It was learning Chassidus, and also a lot of therapy. I went for emotional therapy with professionals, and I’m proud to say so, because I realized I was at a point where I could make things better.

04:52 Speaker 1 What age are you talking about?

04:54 Speaker 2 I’ll tell you, but let’s go back a little first. I got married very, very young. Even in the Polish Chassidic community I come from, where marrying young isn’t so unusual, around nineteen was the norm. I got married just before I turned eighteen.

05:10 Speaker 1 Wow.

05:11 Speaker 2 I was still practically a schoolgirl, wet behind the ears.

05:13 Speaker 1 What does “just before eighteen” mean? You were in twelfth grade?

05:15 Speaker 2 Yes. And I got engaged just after turning seventeen. So there was a wait of about seven or eight months. But I was an innocent girl waiting for the butterflies and flowers and all of that.

05:30 Speaker 1 Exciting.

05:31 Speaker 2 Very.

05:31 Speaker 1 All the silly stuff that goes with it.

05:32 Speaker 2 But Hakadosh Boruch Hu blessed me so generously that I can’t stop thanking Him for what I was given. I was simply blessed. It’s not something to take for granted at all. But it was a sort of—I don’t want to call it a solution, but sort of. Because I couldn’t find my place. I was just warming a chair, just sitting there, not really learning. My mind was somewhere else entirely. ADHD was my breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It took me time even to understand that there was a name for it, that it was okay, and that there were ways to deal with it. I have to say my parents invested so, so much in me. And that wasn’t typical of—this is a story from thirty years ago, twenty-five years ago. I sound old, but—

06:17 Speaker 1 How old are you?

06:18 Speaker 2 I’m a baby, not thirty years—I exaggerated.

06:20 Speaker 1 Yes.

06:22 Speaker 2 I really exaggerated.

06:22 Speaker 1 How old?

06:22 Speaker 2 I’m thirty-two.

06:23 Speaker 1 Ah, okay.

06:24 Speaker 2 So this was twenty-five years ago.

06:26 Speaker 1 Yes.

06:26 Speaker 2 That’s one thing I lose track of a little when talking about time. You know, sometimes one year feels like three.

06:35 Speaker 1 Right.

06:36 Speaker 2 But really, I owe my parents tremendous thanks. Tremendous. They invested so much in me. I remember periods when they practically begged me to take a pill in the morning, and I had no idea what they wanted from me.

06:49 Speaker 1 Ritalin?

06:50 Speaker 2 Yes, it was Ritalin. There were times when it really helped me, but I was terribly ashamed of it. And with that low self-esteem as my starting point, I was sure that everyone noticed every little thing I did and had negative thoughts about me, that I wasn’t okay. So whatever I did seemed terrible to me. And on tests, my highest grades were thirty or forty.

07:12 Speaker 1 Wow. Oh, wow.

07:13 Speaker 2 The first and only test I remember getting a hundred on was a national test in Jewish law in eighth grade. I told myself, “I need this for my life. Jewish law is something I have to know.” I put everything I had into it, and I went to the teacher and told her, “I want to succeed at this.” Looking back today, I wonder why I wanted to succeed at it, because it wasn’t typical of how I felt then.

07:35 Speaker 1 Interesting.

07:35 Speaker 2 But thanks to her, I really did get a hundred. At first I didn’t believe the grade. I was sure she’d done it for me herself—as if she’d just taken my test and written the answers. Then she explained that there was no way: it was a national test, graded by outside examiners. She had no connection to it and no way to touch the test. At first I didn’t believe her.

07:50 Speaker 1 So you could study for a test and succeed.

07:52 Speaker 2 That’s why, when I remember that story, I tell myself, “Look how much you had in you. You just didn’t know it, and you didn’t believe you had those strengths.”

08:00 Speaker 1 Wow.

08:00 Speaker 2 You have the ability. You just need to know it.

08:02 Speaker 1 You went through all those years with a belief about yourself that simply determined your results.

08:07 Speaker 2 Yes, sort of. And it’s interesting, because I had so many talents. I used to run art classes for the neighbors in our building, do lots of babysitting, and draw and embroider all the time. I was always making things—craft class was the class I looked forward to all week. But I didn’t do anything with it. I dismissed it so completely.

08:31 Speaker 1 So after you got married, you reached a point where you thought, okay, let’s take care of myself.

08:36 Speaker 2 Even before that—a year after the wedding, I gave birth to my oldest daughter. She’s almost fourteen now.

08:42 Speaker 1 Wow, what a young lady.

08:43 Speaker 2 She was such a gift. Two years later I gave birth to my second daughter, and that’s when I started looking for myself—in my work, spiritually, in every area. I had a salaried job as a graphic designer at a newspaper, and I also worked as a secretary. It was a combination of the two. I really enjoyed the work, but I felt very uncomfortable in that role. I desperately wanted to work for myself and didn’t know how to make it happen. That was when I started studying Chassidus.

09:21 Speaker 1 How did you come to that?

09:22 Speaker 2 It was tremendous Divine providence.

09:24 Speaker 1 But you knew Chassidus.

09:26 Speaker 2 Right, but studying Chassidus isn’t common everywhere. Especially Tanya, which is a guide for the perplexed. It really... At first I described it as life-changing, to the point that it was like going to a psychologist. It answered so many questions and uncertainties I had. Every time I left the class, I was astonished. I’d say, wow, I want to stand in the street and shout, I’m so excited!

09:54 Speaker 1 How could you only discover it halfway through life? Because I grew up with it.

09:57 Speaker 2 You grew up with it.

09:58 Speaker 1 But still, even though I grew up with it, I’m astonished by it, just as you said. So all the more so—it really is something.

10:04 Speaker 2 You also need Divine providence to hear it from the right person.

10:08 Speaker 1 Yes.

10:08 Speaker 2 Because if someone presents it dryly, it doesn’t work. It’s too deep for that.

10:12 Speaker 1 It has to be presented in a way you connect with, so you understand how it speaks to you and where it fits in your life.

10:16 Speaker 2 How it works in practice—that’s the skill.

10:20 Speaker 1 So how did you come to it?

10:21 Speaker 2 I was at a neighbor’s house; our children were just playing together. She said to me, “You know, Yosfi, there’s a Tanya class that would really suit you.” Something inside me jumped—the Chabad soul in me—and I said, “It’s connected to Chabad, right?” She said, “Yes.” I said, “Tell me right now: the name, phone number, address, exact time. I’ll be there.” And that was it. The rest is history.

10:42 Speaker 1 How about that! What class was it?

10:43 Speaker 2 It was a Tanya class given by Shterna Alperovitch from Kfar Chabad. Until COVID, she would make the trip here to Ashdod every week with such dedication.

10:51 Speaker 1 Wow.

10:52 Speaker 2 To give the class—it was an amazing, amazing class. Even when there were sirens, in the winter, in the rain or terrible heat, she would come and sit down to teach.

11:01 Speaker 1 Leaving her husband and home.

11:02 Speaker 2 Exactly. And I was right there with her. I would sit and drink in every word she said. At the same time—and this is how I see it looking back now—I was growing a great deal in my business too. It’s amazing to see how our personal growth leads to growth in our business, because the business is part of me. Even though, thank G-d, I have two employees and I’ve let go of a lot of the reins, it’s still my baby.

11:28 Speaker 1 You can see that every corner here—and we’re in the studio right now—comes from deep within you.

11:33 Speaker 2 Thank G-d, yes. I feel it’s a gift.

11:36 Speaker 1 How did you get started with this in particular?

11:38 Speaker 2 Let’s start with the story I love telling over and over, because it’s the little seed that was planted. I told you I was desperately trying to find my place professionally. I didn’t want to sit in front of a computer dealing with briefs and having a client tell me, “Change this letter and take off that...” I wanted to work with materials. I had a neighbor, a Belzer chassid, who made hats and headbands. She used to travel a lot to south Tel Aviv to buy all the materials she needed—fabrics and notions. One day I said to her, “Malki, I’m coming with you.” She said, “Come on, wonderful.” The moment I got to that neighborhood, to those streets—if you know HaChashmal Street, Derech Yafo, Kfar Giladi—I felt as if I’d arrived in a kingdom where I could make anything I wanted.

12:25 Speaker 1 Is it like wholesale stalls?

12:26 Speaker 2 I don’t know what it’s like there today. I haven’t set foot there since COVID, because by then we’d learned to connect with suppliers in other ways. But back then it was full of wholesale shops. There are also lots of clothes, an incredible selection for stores. I’d walk into a fabric shop, say, and see all kinds of buttons and rickrack and other things.

12:50 Speaker 1 [unclear].

12:51 Speaker 2 Appliqués. Exactly. I would just—I don’t want to say waste, but I’d pour a ton of money into things I still have today. At first I went wild buying things. I was so excited. But the thing that really caught me—and this is where the story begins—was a flower shop I found there. For anyone who knew it, it was called Pacht[?]. It was on Derech Yafo. They had a breathtaking flower shop, and that’s putting it mildly. You walked into this sort of Dutch paradise, with every kind of flower there was, some higher-quality and some less so.

13:23 Speaker 1 Real flowers?

13:24 Speaker 2 No, not live ones.

13:25 Speaker 1 Oh.

13:25 Speaker 2 Silk flowers.

13:27 Speaker 1 Wow.

13:27 Speaker 2 Artificial flowers. And I felt, that’s it, I’m not leaving this place. I called my husband and said, “Listen, I’ve found what my soul loves. I’m coming home with a shipping container full of flowers.”

13:36 Speaker 1 What did your husband say?

13:37 Speaker 2 Yes. Open the door or come with the car—I don’t care which you do first, all these flowers are coming home with me. What was I going to do with them? We’d see. Then I made flower headbands for my daughters. That was before they were everywhere. Today you hardly see them anymore, though that trend has already passed.

13:52 Speaker 1 Yes.

13:52 Speaker 2 But... I remember walking down the street with them—it was the eve of Shavuos, and I was on my way to my parents’ house. People would stop me and say, “What’s that garden on your daughters’ heads?” Like, what’s going on? So little by little, I brought the idea in. I placed a tiny ad in the local paper saying that I made silk-flower accessories. I called it Pirchonit. A friend of mine helped me a lot.

14:15 Speaker 1 Where did you get the name?

14:16 Speaker 2 It came out of a brainstorming session we had together. I have a very good friend named [unclear]. By the way, she deserves a whole episode of her own...

14:23 Speaker 1 Podcast.

14:24 Speaker 2 A whole podcast. She’s an amazing woman, a gifted graphic designer. When we were teenagers, we created so much together. We’d have competitions with each other. For example, once we did “Blind Cow.” Each of us had to design a cover for a book with that title.

14:40 Speaker 1 Wow, how cool.

14:40 Speaker 2 Then we’d bring our work to a third person to judge who had won. We were thirteen or fourteen. We made so many things on the computer. We’d design ads for preschool teachers, use all kinds of pictures of babies—things you have Canva for today.

14:56 Speaker 1 Yes. You have AI that will make you...

15:00 Speaker 2 That sort of thing.

15:01 Speaker 1 “Make me a cover for Blind Cow.”

15:04 Speaker 2 I haven’t tried that yet, but...

15:06 Speaker 1 You never know.

15:06 Speaker 2 But that’s what we used to do.

15:07 Speaker 1 See what it comes up with.

15:08 Speaker 2 Yes, right?

15:08 Speaker 1 How funny. So she came up with the idea for the name—

15:10 Speaker 2 We thought of it together. It was her idea; she deserves the credit. She said to me, “Yosfi, that’s you. Pirchonit is you. When I see flowers, I see you. They go together.” And it was so funny, because that tiny ad in the paper brought me dozens of customers.

15:23 Speaker 1 Wow.

15:24 Speaker 2 I had simply entered a market that was wide open in terms of—

15:27 Speaker 1 A niche that was missing.

15:28 Speaker 2 There was so much demand for it. Someone needed to do it. People from all over the country would send me dresses to match. I would sit for hours and hours in the living room, with the entire coffee table covered in flowers. My house was full of flowers—in the kitchen, the living room, the bedroom, wherever you looked.

15:45 Speaker 1 Completely Pirchonit.

15:46 Speaker 2 Exactly. I remember the first headbands I made—

15:49 Speaker 1 With a hot-glue gun?

15:50 Speaker 2 Yes. By the way, I still work with a hot-glue gun. I have lots of them here.

15:52 Speaker 1 You must have a lot of burns on your fingers, I have to—

15:55 Speaker 2 Not anymore, because...

15:56 Speaker 1 You’re experienced now, that’s it.

15:57 Speaker 2 No, it just doesn’t turn into a burn anymore. It doesn’t take.

15:59 Speaker 1 Right.

16:00 Speaker 2 The skin has already...

16:01 Speaker 1 Oh, wow, there are quite a few here.

16:04 Speaker 2 There are, and these—

16:05 Speaker 1 Eight of them.

16:06 Speaker 2 These are professional glue guns.

16:08 Speaker 1 Do you have a gun license?

16:10 Speaker 2 For a hot weapon.

16:12 Speaker 1 Exactly.

16:12 Speaker 2 But that really was one of the good things that happened then. Beyond the things I made and the art I created, to this day I feel privileged to have brought people joy. It wasn’t only that I had the satisfaction of creating and had found my place—

16:29 Speaker 1 Yes.

16:30 Speaker 2 But also this place, which I owe to... In a minute, look, I have a photo album here. I don’t throw it away because it reminds me where I came from. Photos customers sent me of their dresses after the wedding.

16:41 Speaker 1 You used to do things on dresses—

16:43 Speaker 2 Yes.

16:44 Speaker 1 Flower arrangements, you mean?

16:46 Speaker 2 For brides.

16:46 Speaker 1 That took courage.

16:47 Speaker 2 All kinds of things. I remember a woman who came to me when people had just started shopping on AliExpress. This was about seven years ago, when it was just catching on.

16:56 Speaker 1 Yes.

16:57 Speaker 2 They ordered white dresses for a group of six or seven girls, and what arrived looked like clown costumes—completely different from what they’d seen. They took it really hard. It was less than a week before the wedding. She came to me in tears: “Save me.” I’ll show you a picture of the dresses in a minute, how they ended up looking. Truly like princesses.

17:14 Speaker 1 Wow.

17:14 Speaker 2 It really upgrades the— I don’t work with that anymore, partly because there’s no demand for it and partly because, baruch Hashem, I don’t have the time. But it used to transform clothes in an incredible way. Imagine flowers all over, flowers on their heads, and I made bracelets and necklaces. It really elevated an outfit.

17:31 Speaker 1 You really can make almost anything out of flowers.

17:33 Speaker 2 Anything. Right. When someone comes to me and says, “I need a flower workshop,” I offer her the options, and none of them suit her—whether it’s the group or the concept. I tell her, “Tell me what you’d like.” It can be done. You can make anything out of silk flowers.

17:47 Speaker 1 Wow! That’s amazing.

17:50 Speaker 2 Yes, really, baruch Hashem.

17:52 Speaker 1 So how did you suddenly come to have a business that also sells things without flowers?

17:58 Speaker 2 I started by creating a line of flower gifts. I set aside the whole area of accessories, headbands, hair clips and all that. I still have those today, by the way, but I felt I’d done it. I’d already been at it for four or five years. Lovely, beautiful. Now come on, grow, develop yourself.

18:15 Speaker 1 Go for it.

18:16 Speaker 2 Create something new. So I made decorated hangers for brides, headbands for babies, picture frames and napkin rings, which were something new that nobody knew about. And door signs. So many, many different things. Then, after two or three years of development, making all these products, I said, “Wait, I can’t offer a customer just one product. I need to give her a whole package.” Say someone wants to give a gift to a new mother—she won’t just give her a headband for the baby girl, right?

18:50 Speaker 1 Right, with a little outfit, with—

18:52 Speaker 2 Soaps, fragrance diffusers.

18:53 Speaker 1 Oh, so that’s how—

18:54 Speaker 2 Exactly. So little by little, I searched and searched. I’m still searching today. I’m always looking for more products and more things, and I noticed that I only bring in things I really, really like. That became my whole concept: I bring in things I would personally use. Even when someone wants me to stock her products, I first examine them, try them, experience them. Once I feel a connection to them, I bring them in to sell.

19:22 Speaker 1 So there’s something of you in them, even if you didn’t make them.

19:25 Speaker 2 Even before that, I need to be able to stand behind them. It can’t be just some random product. For example, a lovely woman approached me, an artist who makes things out of plastic... The name has slipped my mind. It’s something very new that’s just come in. Oh, right, like those new plastic cups. Acrylic.

19:42 Speaker 1 Ah.

19:42 Speaker 2 It’s something that’s come in over the past year.

19:45 Speaker 1 Yes, a material.

19:45 Speaker 2 Yes, a material you can use for DIY—you can really make whatever you want from it with a silicone mold. She wanted me to sell a product she makes from it herself. I told her, “No problem, I’d be happy to, but send it to me first so I can see the product.” Then I realized she herself wasn’t yet quite sure how to make it. She’d told me what she was thinking of making. Fine, no problem, I’d be happy to. But I want to see it first, experience it, try it.

20:08 Speaker 1 Yes.

20:08 Speaker 2 When an idea is still too undeveloped, there’s nothing you can do with it. You need to develop it further.

20:12 Speaker 1 You can’t stand behind it, of course. And all this was happening while you were studying Tanya and growing on both fronts at the same time.

20:23 Speaker 2 Right. And at the same time, we were going through a really nerve-racking wait. We badly wanted another child. The girls were getting older. I also suddenly learned to appreciate what it means to have a healthy child. A normal pregnancy was something I didn’t know how to appreciate until we entered that period of waiting. I got married, I had a child. Baruch Hashem, I experienced childbirth, maternity leave, then another birth. Those are life-changing experiences, but I didn’t know how to appreciate the enormous gift I held in my hands. Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose me to be His partner in bringing another child into the world.

20:59 Speaker 1 That’s incredible.

21:00 Speaker 2 It’s an extraordinary privilege.

21:02 Speaker 1 It’s incredible. So why, after your second daughter—

21:05 Speaker 2 There was so much, so much expectation, so much tension, so much waiting, some treatments. It really worked on the soul intensely, like scrubbing it hard with a scouring pad.

21:15 Speaker 1 Bitush.

21:16 Speaker 2 Exactly. A very—

21:18 Speaker 1 Yes.

21:19 Speaker 2 Painful term, but it’s real. And... the eve of... um, I have to remember the date. I think it was during the summer vacation. I told my husband, “For my birthday—I was born in Cheshvan—I want to travel to the Rebbe.” He said, “Sure, what’s the problem? Buy a plane ticket. I’ll stay here with the girls. Everything will be taken care of. You can relax and go.” Okay, but where do you go? How do you go? When? For how long? Where do you sleep? Where do you eat? H-how do you travel to the Rebbe? You need preparations. You need—

21:50 Speaker 1 Your husband isn’t a Chabad chossid.

21:52 Speaker 2 No. He doesn’t define himself that way either, though I do define myself that way. And this is a wonderful opportunity to say something that’s very important to me for people to know. There are many mixed couples in the world, and we’re used to seeing couples where the wife became observant or the husband became observant, and people really admire—

22:12 Speaker 1 Religious and nonreligious, you mean.

22:14 Speaker 2 Yes. Mixed marriages exist in the charedi community too, and it’s very, very, very important to me to emphasize how beautiful and special I think that is. It takes a lot of work, but I think every marriage takes a lot of work.

22:28 Speaker 1 Right.

22:29 Speaker 2 And the fact that my husband gives me the opportunity to choose to be a Chabad chassidah and a chassidah of the Rebbe is one of the most special things in the world.

22:39 Speaker 1 That’s interesting. I’m trying to think what that looks like in practice.

22:42 Speaker 2 Look, let’s start with the fact that I didn’t come from that background.

22:45 Speaker 1 What you have in common outweighs what separates you, presumably.

22:47 Speaker 2 Yes and no. Yes and no, because there are many, um, things—

22:51 Speaker 1 I don’t know the nuances.

22:52 Speaker 2 Exactly, there are many nuances that— But also, that freedom, the freedom to choose, is something you really can’t take for granted.

22:59 Speaker 1 Meaning, even the very way you define yourself.

23:00 Speaker 2 You want to travel to the Rebbe, and you go. That’s not something to take for granted.

23:04 Speaker 1 Yes.

23:04 Speaker 2 You want to go to a class, and you go. You want to teach a class, and you teach it. You have someone behind you saying, “Do it. If it’s good for you, do it.” And why did I say it’s so important to me to emphasize this? “Mixed marriage” may not be a popular term in the charedi community, but it just shows us that even couples who belong to the same Chassidic group might think differently—even politically. That isn’t something that should destroy your home. Quite the opposite. Take it and use it to rise as high as you can. I remember we sat with a woman who was a professional. We consulted her about something very specific concerning our daughters. It was a while ago, not recently. She told us, “You know, I really, really enjoy seeing your marriage.” Why? And what she said has stayed with me. She said, “A child who grows up with parents who are different from one another, but parent together—with harmony, love, understanding, acceptance and generosity—is receiving from you the greatest gift for life: the ability to navigate their own marriage in the future. You have no control over what kind of relationship your child will have. But you can set an example, and what your child takes from your relationship and from the parenting you give them will go with them into their own life later on.”

24:21 Speaker 1 They see how it’s possible to embrace complexity.

24:22 Speaker 2 Everything. You’re preparing them for life in the best possible way. That has stayed with me, and I say it often. I speak with women a lot, in all kinds of situations, and I think this is one of the most beautiful things. What I’m saying is especially fitting now, during Sefiras HaOmer, with “Love your fellow as yourself.” Because it’s easiest to get upset and disagree, and inside the home it’s easiest of all to get upset.

24:45 Speaker 1 Absolutely.

24:45 Speaker 2 Much more than with people outside.

24:46 Speaker 1 In what’s supposedly your private space.

24:49 Speaker 2 Private and personal.

24:50 Speaker 1 Yes.

24:50 Speaker 2 But that’s where the work is put to the test.

24:53 Speaker 1 Precisely because of that.

24:54 Speaker 2 Yes.

24:54 Speaker 1 It’s the hardest work.

24:55 Speaker 2 But giving gives rise to genuine love.

24:58 Speaker 1 Wow. So one day you just decided, that’s it, Tanya, I’m all about Tanya, so I kept—

25:02 Speaker 2 It wasn’t one day. It was a process. It’s like becoming—yes, almost like becoming religious.

25:06 Speaker 1 Are the children in Chabad schools, for example?

25:08 Speaker 2 My daughters do go to Chabad schools, yes. My son goes to a general Chassidic cheder. It’s very, very important to my husband that he know Yiddish. I see that as an advantage. For example, that way he’ll understand the Rebbe’s sichos.

25:19 Speaker 1 Right.

25:20 Speaker 2 There’s an example of how you can find the very best in everything.

25:25 Speaker 1 There’s something cool about it. I was about to say you get to enjoy the best of both worlds, but that’s not really accurate. Still, you have a bit from here and a bit from there, and you know this world and you know that one. It’s like...

25:36 Speaker 2 I think that’s also what makes us who we are as the Jewish people.

25:38 Speaker 1 In a way, it takes you out of a narrow space.

25:40 Speaker 2 We’re a very diverse people, right? So I do enjoy both worlds, because there are things I love here and things I love there. And I very much belong to, and feel connected to, the Rebbe and Chabad teachings. But I still very much belong there too, because my whole family is there.

25:56 Speaker 1 Yes.

25:56 Speaker 2 And my husband is there.

25:57 Speaker 1 You’re still part of them.

25:58 Speaker 2 Yes, I didn’t run away. I’m here.

26:01 Speaker 1 So you added something else to your life.

26:02 Speaker 2 Absolutely.

26:03 Speaker 1 In a way.

26:03 Speaker 2 Something extra.

26:04 Speaker 1 It’s not that you switched sides. There’s no contradiction here.

26:09 Speaker 2 Just the opposite.

26:09 Speaker 1 It’s simply extra. Yes.

26:11 Speaker 2 It’s a whole lot of “do good.” A whole lot.

26:14 Speaker 1 Okay, so let’s go back to the trip to the Rebbe.

26:16 Speaker 2 Yes, right. So I simply started davening, asking for it, because I didn’t know how to do it. I didn’t know how to travel to the Rebbe. How do you actually make it happen?

26:25 Speaker 1 Weren’t there women from the class who...?

26:26 Speaker 2 Exactly. So I decided that whenever I found myself in any kind of setting with Chabad women, I would just let them know: the Rebbe and I need to meet at some point. Just help me do it the right way. And after the Yom Kippur davening, exhausted and hungry, I said to one of the women who’d been davening with me—I davened at Chabad, of course—I said, “Chani, I really, really want to travel to the Rebbe. Would you like to go with me now?” She looked at me and said, “You know, that’s a very sweet, Chassidic wish, but I’m a teacher. A teacher can’t just get up and travel because you feel like going to the Rebbe. It doesn’t work that way. But I’ll think about it, and if I hear of someone, I’ll let you know.” Then the holidays went by, Sukkos. I decided—or rather, my husband did, sorry, I didn’t decide. My husband said, “Why don’t you write to the Rebbe? You want to go so badly. Write. You write about every little thing, so write about this too.” I wrote through the Igros Kodesh. I don’t always open the volume to read the answer; I just put the letter in and trust that the Rebbe has his ways of showing me the answer. And the next morning, Chani, this wonderful friend, called me and said, “Yosfi, I’m booking tickets for Chanukah. Want to come with me?”

27:38 Speaker 1 Wow.

27:39 Speaker 2 Now, I think this was a day before my birthday or a day after, and it was the day after I’d written to the Rebbe—the very next morning. I felt as though the Rebbe was saying to me, “I’m waiting for you. I want you here for Chanukah.” Okay, how do we do this? First, get your passport and apply for a visa. Wait, I already had a visa, because there had been a time when I wanted to go but didn’t know how. So I’d gotten a visa.

28:03 Speaker 1 Right.

28:03 Speaker 2 So buy a suitcase. You already have a suitcase. What do you need, then? To prepare yourself emotionally and make arrangements for the children. As for the arrangements, boruch Hashem, my husband said he’d take responsibility for that so I could prepare my heart too. “I’ll be with them.” Excellent. What else do you need? Nothing. “I’ll arrange a place for you to stay. I’ll take care of the flight. Just give me your credit card. I’ll take care of the flights from here. You don’t have to.” I said, “Master of the Universe. Wow. You’ve just sent me a gift.” As if there was nothing left for me to do but get on the plane. And it was my first time flying to the United States, which is a long flight if you’re not used to it. The whole way, we studied and really prepared ourselves to enter the Ohel. We landed and went straight to the Ohel. I remember entering the Ohel grounds, even before reaching the gravesite, and I simply couldn’t take it in. I felt for a moment as though my heart was bursting and coming out of my chest. People were driving along normally, other people were going into the Ohel, and others were coming out. How was all this happening as though it were perfectly ordinary? I couldn’t take it in. We sat for hours, farbrenged outside and wrote panim. I wrote—wow—things I hadn’t even imagined I would write. And when I went in, I felt as though I’d come to my father. That’s the only way to describe it. Such a huge embrace, emotional and spiritual. No matter how many times I try to describe it, I can’t. It was something else. An out-of-body experience. Something beyond comprehension. Just talking about it makes me want to cry, I miss it so intensely. And I remember how I cried. I had never cried like that before. It wasn’t crying from pain, and it wasn’t crying from joy, and it wasn’t crying from—there was no sorrow, no... I remember looking at him and saying, “Rebbe, when will we see you? I came all the way

29:48 Speaker 2 here. Get up.” As if to say, “Get up, just get up. I came all the way to you. I traveled so far for this.” I believe it’s only a matter of time before he’s here, but enough—let it happen already. We don’t have the strength to wait anymore. Wow. May Moshiach come already; may we merit it. Amen. And it really was an incredible experience. I could write a book about everything that happened during that one-week visit. There was, for example, a story that really—this was a year ago. It was five and a half years ago. I said, “What, do I want to get pregnant?” I wanted to so badly. My younger daughter was already seven—the older one was nine, and she was seven. You reach a point where you want another child so badly. On the other hand, you don’t want to be disappointed again, but you’re tired of being disappointed. You’re tired of trying. And... there was a farbrengen for bas mitzvah girls from Israel, and the friend I’d traveled with said, “Let’s go.” It was at the home of Reb Yoel Kahn’s wife. She’s a remarkable woman—impressive. I’d heard about her. Remarkable, truly remarkable. We sat there, and when we arrived— Was she leading the farbrengen? Yes, it was in her home, in her living room. She has an amazing living room, so beautifully put together, with her own distinctive taste. And when she opens her mouth, without the evil eye, pearls come out. Amazing, fascinating stories about Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, about the Rebbe, and all sorts of things. As the farbrengen was ending, she looked at me and beckoned with her finger. I asked, “What?” She said, “I have something for you.” She took out a handkerchief containing a piece of fabric and a tiny pair of nail scissors, and began cutting little pieces off the fabric to give to each person. You could see how excited everyone was, and I was thinking, What’s going on

31:38 Speaker 2 here? It turned out that the fabric had belonged to Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka. Every woman who received a piece was glowing with excitement at having merited to get one. Then she said to me, “No, no, this isn’t for you. I have something else for you.” She gave me a huge scarf with a piece of that fabric inside, this big. Wow. Now, the Chabad women mustn’t hear this, but at that moment I had no idea what I was receiving. Everyone was looking at me, and my friend looked at me and said, “What? I don’t understand—what did you just get?” And I said to her, “Wow, thank you. May I hug you?” She said, “Of course. It’s for you.” She told me there’s a practice of putting it on your head when you go to the mikveh, and... Wait, how did she know that you...? I have no idea. No idea. She didn’t know my name, who I was, where I came from—nothing. Afterward, when we left, everyone gathered around me, shouting, “You have no idea! You got such a huge piece of fabric from Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka! Don’t lose it, don’t sell it, don’t give it away—hold on to it tightly!” That was when I learned to appreciate what I had in my hands. But suddenly I also understood how extraordinary it was that I’d merited to receive something so special: everyone else had received a little piece she’d cut for them with scissors, while I’d been given... So I really felt a tremendous closeness. And when I visited the Ohel, I said, “Rebbe, I’m asking you with all my heart: please grant me the merit of standing here in a year with a healthy child and saying thank you.” I didn’t know what I was saying. It just came out. I hadn’t planned it; it just... And the amazing thing was that when I returned to Israel, after, boruch Hashem, the seven clean days and everything,

33:16 Speaker 2 I got pregnant. Wow. Now, I didn’t know I was pregnant. My husband had flown to the United States for a family simcha, and when he came back to Israel, I told him, “I don’t feel well. Something’s wrong, and I don’t know what.” He said, “So get some blood tests. If you don’t feel well, let’s find out what’s going on.” Then he said, “Maybe you’re pregnant?” I said, “What? What does that have to do with it? Come on, stop asking me that. I can’t deal with going through this again…” He said, “What do you care if you go and check? How much does a test cost? Ten shekels? Five, ten shekels? I’ll buy one.” I was like, what? And I found out I was pregnant. Wow. It was simply unbelievable. I felt like… I wasn’t the one making the decisions at all. I was just doing what I needed to do, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu was doing His part. I had become a vessel for abundance, a vessel for blessing. Wow. And baruch Hashem, baruch Hashem, we named him Menachem Mendel, as a small tribute to the Rebbe. His bris was on… He was born on 13 Tishrei, which is also a Chassidic date. Right. And his bris was on the Shabbos of Sukkos. The whole family was there, surrounding us with love, and it was such a moving occasion. It was simply amazing. On Lag BaOmer, when he was a little older—it had been a bit challenging to get him a visa—the three of us, my husband, the baby and I, traveled to thank the Rebbe. Wow. Now, being at the Ohel on Lag BaOmer is like being there on Gimmel Tammuz. Packed, packed. Very, very crowded, so you can only stay a few seconds and leave. At first, when they told me that, I took it really hard. What? I came to say thank you, and I’m supposed to turn around and leave? No way. I have to go in; I have to be at the tziyun…

35:02 Speaker 2 Then I told myself, yes, appreciate the minute you have inside. Make the most of it, say thank you. You didn’t come now to pour your heart out. Really, there’s a timer. Yes, know how to say thank you. Wow. We came back again the next day, but on the day itself, that was… Baruch Hashem, we were blessed: after Menachem Mendel, we have Shaina and we have Avrami. Wow. Each one is a gift in their own right, beyond description. And I have no doubt, no doubt, that each one of them is a child of the Rebbe. Listen, I keep getting goosebumps. I don’t even know what to say anymore. It’s incredible. By the way, before my youngest baby’s pregnancy, I started a family purity class in my home. I’d heard about a woman in the neighborhood who was having a very hard time with family purity. She’s very observant, and she shared that with me. So I said to her, “Let’s learn together,” and I asked that wonderful friend of mine, the one I flew to the Rebbe with, to teach the class. We have a very, very good relationship, and she teaches it amazingly. The group has really come together, and it’s amazing to see. A group of almost twenty women, each from a completely different background. Wow. Across the spectrum of observance. I live in a neighborhood with a very mixed religious population.

36:15 Speaker 2 Religious? Yes? Not far from here? Where I live is very… I live in Vav. I don’t live here. I live in… The studio is in District Dalet. By the way, there’s a range of observant people here too. Actually, the neighborhood where I live wasn’t religious at all originally. I moved there ten years ago. It really, really wasn’t a religious neighborhood. It became more religious, as they say. Yes, absolutely. All the TAMA redevelopment projects that went up brought lots of Chassidic families with them. And that class really brought so much blessing. Half the women in the class gave birth. Wow. It was amazing. Now, when I found out I was pregnant and told Chani, she said, “What did you expect? You brought blessing into your home. What did you think would happen?” It’s amazing. Honestly, I hadn’t thought about it. I just wanted to do something good for other women. It strengthens me too. Listen, a family purity class is important. You know, it’s amazing that you heard… you spoke with this friend and simply said, “Come on, let’s start a class.” Because the thought of it troubled me. So you found a solution. That thought troubled me. Don’t be afraid, don’t… Is there a problem? You solve it. I’m sure a lot of women in your place wouldn’t have done that. But you said, “Let’s make a vessel for blessing here. Let’s do something useful, something beautiful.” And it is beautiful. It’s inspiring. Yes, maybe it seems obvious to you because you did it, so it came naturally to you. But I’m saying, no—ladies, listen, this is what we need to do. When there’s a problem, we solve it. Why is there a problem? So it can be solved, right? Right. I also think it comes from the belief that anything I hear, I hear

37:51 Speaker 2 through hashgachah pratis, and I understand that I have some role to play. Meaning, you didn’t just happen to hear her; she didn’t just happen to tell you. Right. You had a role to play here. But look, baruch Hashem, baruch Hashem. How many women benefited from it? Yes. So many women. Some women told me at first that they were worried we would discuss only Chabad practices, because there are areas where Chabad is very stringent. So throughout the classes, both Chani, who taught them, and I stressed that we were learning according to halachah. This wasn’t about practices or customs; it was about halachah. Yes. And when we got to immersion, for example—where in Chabad the mikveh has one pool above another, and that’s a whole subject of its own—I asked them, “Do you want us to learn the Chabad approach too?” They all said in unison, “Yes, we at least want to know.” Yes, to clarify what applies and what doesn’t. Listen, some things are between husband and wife to the extent that you need to ask your husband whether he agrees to your taking on a stringency. You can’t just do whatever you want. You’re in a marriage, baruch Hashem. Yes. Wow. Tell me, you said you traveled to the Rebbe five and a half years ago. Since then you’ve had three more children, and you’re building a business that keeps growing. So give us a few tips on managing home and family and everything together, all with a sense of shlichus and with that smile. Wow, it really is a gift. It really, really is a gift. First of all, I treat the business almost like a child of mine that I need to nurture. There’s no way I’ll be exhausted in the morning and not open the studio. Let’s put it this way: maternity leave? No. There’s no maternity leave. But you do need to know how to set boundaries. Yes, especially when you’re self-employed.

39:26 Speaker 2 Hiring an employee—for example, the first time I hired someone—taught me how to let go. To give the child up for adoption. Really. To let go of control. Until then, I’d had complete control. Those are growing pains; there’s nothing you can do about it. Right. And to get through growing pains, you get a lot of outside help, whether it’s business consulting or studying. I study a lot, a lot. What, for example? Business consulting, first of all, to help myself. A lot of work on mindset and awareness, like NLP for business, and… Nice. I really love to grow, as you’ve probably noticed. Yes, you can see that here. But I also think it’s very important—and this is something I say in my talk and when I meet one-on-one with women who are trying to find their way—to use the talents Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave us. Just two weeks ago, in Hayom Yom, it said that when a Jew doesn’t use a talent or gift Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave them, they’re missing… Not using it is considered a sin. Yes, it’s really a kind of transgression. We don’t want to miss out. The word for sin also means missing the mark. Right. You came into this world with certain talents. That means you need to use them. That’s your purpose: to illuminate the world with them. Right. Really to illuminate the world with them. So that’s my starting point, how I look at it. And I make people happy through it too. If a customer buys a new-mother gift package from me, or attends a workshop I give, what’s my goal? Leaving aside the money for a moment—I do need it. Yes, I’m not denying that, but it’s not why I work. So with Hashem’s help, there’ll be a blessing in the money too, and my real goal along the way is to enjoy it and bring joy to others. Basically, most of the customers

41:11 Speaker 2 Your customers—maybe all your customers—want to make someone happy. Right. And you’re the one who helps them do that. By the way, on the branded greeting card I include with every gift package, it says: “Someone loves you and is thinking of you. We’re here to help you feel it.” Wow, how beautiful. To me, that’s the essence of my whole business. Absolutely. I want to help you feel that someone is thinking of you. And really, it makes me want to stand on a mountaintop and shout: Hashem, thank You for this privilege. It’s an enormous privilege. How amazing! I should tell myself that every morning. You send the... the gifts directly to... not to the customer, but to the person they want to give it to. Give it to. Because if you want to make your sister in Jerusalem happy right now, you don’t even have to leave the house. You go to the website, or you send us a WhatsApp message, or you come here. And do you surprise her, or...? We send it with a delivery person right to her door. So it depends. If you want her to know in advance, we call first. Cool. Yes. Now, you asked how to manage both. You have to know how to set a lot of boundaries. It’s like a child who needs boundaries: a child can’t sit on a chair without a backrest, right? They might fall. It’s the same with us. We need to set boundaries for ourselves and remind ourselves of them from time to time, because when we forget them... Especially when it’s—listen, if you work at something you don’t love, you’re just waiting for the moment work ends so you can rush home, finish your chores, and get on with your life. But when your work is something you love so much, and it’s part of your life, you could stay with it from now until tomorrow if you don’t...

42:39 Speaker 2 One of my daughters complained two weeks ago that I went out twice in one day. I had a very important meeting, and I was also at work, during the hours I work from the studio. I told her, “You’re right. It really was a difficult day. But bear in mind that because of it, so many, many, many, many women were able to feel happy today. And if you really, really want to know, come, I’ll show you my schedule.” There’s endless work. I could be here from now until two weeks from now without sleeping or eating, boruch Hashem. I think every business owner who loves her business can relate to that. Yes. Wow. But really, one of the things is: first comes the home, first come the children. It may sound clichéd, but I remind myself of it all the time. The first shlichus, after all. Right. At the beginning. At the beginning. Yes. For example, spending quality time with them, each one separately—and not even necessarily going out. It’s enough for me to say to her, “Now we’re doing whatever you want for half an hour.” The older girls are smart; they just want to talk, because they always have something to say, to tell me, to share. With the younger ones, it’s a puzzle or a game, crafts or time in the kitchen. But that quality time matters. It matters very, very much. And I try very, very hard to be on my phone as little as possible in the afternoons. Even if I know I have critical messages, I try to step aside into a room, so there won’t be a situation where a child comes to talk to me and I’m nodding along while my head is in my phone. Wow. Because I don’t even like it myself. I think that’s life-changing. I don’t like talking to someone whose head is in... It doesn’t matter. Someone who’s on the phone while talking to you

44:16 Speaker 2 isn’t really talking to you. They’re... they’re talking to you, but their mind isn’t with you. Their heart isn’t either. You can’t really split your attention between two things and be a hundred percent here and a hundred percent there, even though we women can do lots of things at once. But it doesn’t feel good. It just... doesn’t feel good. Yes, yes, that’s something I noticed too. Sometimes I’d say, “No, I won’t be on my phone; I’m really here for the next five hours,” and so on. But I realized there’s no getting around it: sometimes you need a moment, you have to make a call or do something. So you really have to do it off to the side, take care of what you need to do. I go and leave my phone in the room, for example. If I need something, I go into the room for a moment, do it, and come back. In other words, it’s not beside me. That really makes a huge difference. It’s hard, too, because say you open WhatsApp and decide you’re just going to send a message to one specific person so you won’t forget. Then suddenly it’s, “Wait, she wrote to me, and now she wrote to me.” You have to stay very focused. And you want to answer because, well, it’s customer service, or a good friend, or whatever it may be. No. Right now my children are number one. Yes. Focused on the goal. WhatsApp is honestly one of the most dangerous things, you know. You go in for one thing—it’s an amazing tool, but it’s also so exhausting. You need to write a message, and suddenly you see all these messages and completely forget why you went in. Right. Crazy. Like a refrigerator. By the way, speaking of the refrigerator, four years ago—right after he... my prince Menachem Mendel is four and a half. He’ll turn five this Tishrei. I felt very heavy physically, to the point that I was really tired. So

45:46 Speaker 2 I learned an amazing approach based on the Rambam’s teachings and cut out gluten and sugar completely. Wow. And it just felt unbelievably good. When? After he was born? Yes, he was about six months old. A real cleanse. I traveled to Tel Aviv once a week, left him with my wonderful husband, and came home energized every single time. How amazing our bodies are, and how we ruin them. Yes, absolutely. With all the junk we put into them. With our own hands. With our own mouths. Speaking of the refrigerator—that’s why I remembered it. Really amazing. Tell me, what kinds of workshops do you do? You’re basically, um, passing the flowers on, so to speak. Um, there are two options. There are the workshops I run for groups and events, and there are kits I send out. Basically, have your own workshop. Yes. It’s an excellent solution for people who want to hold a smaller, more intimate event, for instance, or whose budget is a bit limited. And that solution is good for me personally, too, because I can’t travel everywhere in the country. Speaking of parenting, I don’t travel up north, for example, because it takes hours. Exactly. It’s... it’s not worth it for me. It’s just not worth it. It comes at my children’s expense. There’s no reason for me to travel to lead a workshop for an hour and a half and spend an entire day on the road while my children raise themselves. Especially if it can be arranged without you. Exactly. So I send ready-made kits with very detailed instructions and all the materials. If it’s napkin rings, for instance—with Shavuos coming up, they’re a big hit. Women’s gatherings of all kinds really love these kits. Each kit has exactly what you need: rings, fabrics, I even include hot glue. How sweet. The glue sticks, because that makes it much easier. Yes, of course. That’s the whole headache. Yes. And it’s so much fun.

47:37 Speaker 2 To get photos. It’s simply fun to see what the women make. Even women who think they’re all thumbs are surprised to see what they produce—amazing things. So there are napkin rings and a picture frame made of flowers. The napkin rings are made of flowers too. There’s a selfie frame for groups that want to build a sense of togetherness. It isn’t necessarily something for the home; it’s an activity in itself. And it’s really fun. Afterward, they have something to keep, and they take pictures inside it. I also have selfie frames here in the studio, like the ones you see here, and I rent them out for bas mitzvahs too. Oh, what an idea! Yes. Wow. Your kits are so well suited to bas mitzvahs. That’s right, to those too. Exactly that age group. For bas mitzvahs and women’s gatherings. Your daughters can probably glue flowers in their sleep by now, no? Actually, they don’t do it much, but when I really want to... Do they like it? Do they connect with... They like it. No, not the flowers. I was a little too, um, all-in on that for them to like it. By now there’s a bit of a reaction against it. Yes, unfortunately. But they really love the studio. If I want to treat them, I say, “Come visit the studio and choose whatever you want.” For them, that’s... It’s fun here, listen, it’s fun here. An experience. How far is it from your home? Five minutes. Oh, so it’s a short trip. Yes. Wow, there’s a scent in here. Such an especially pleasant scent. Just... Do you know why? Because there are natural fragrance diffusers here. I get them from women who make them; they’re not chemical products. Essential oils? Not essential oils. They’re fragrance diffusers for closets and clothes. I have an incredible variety here. I’ll show you. I’ll show you in a minute. The ones from [unclear]

49:22 Speaker 2 come in. For closets, for the air, for rooms too. All the bottles and reeds. So there are the big companies, and their products last about a second and a half. Yes. And then there’s what I have here, with these amazing scents. Wow. Boruch Hashem. Tell me, where, amid all this, do you also find time to write for a newspaper? That’s right. “Nashi,” the women’s supplement of Kfar Chabad magazine. What do you write? Tell me. There... Unfortunately, I don’t subscribe yet. I’ll take care of that for you. Great. It’s a weekly women’s magazine, included with Kfar Chabad magazine. Yes. There isn’t a Chabad woman who doesn’t know it. And anyone who isn’t Chabad is welcome to get to know it, because to me it’s one of the cleanest publications, with real content. Content, yes. It may not be a thick, hundred-page magazine, but every article is substantial. Rachel Bolton and Shosh Greenberg write for it. It really has an excellent selection of writers. There are poems by Shifra Rivkin, along with poems that other women send her. It really is a wonderful platform. When did you start doing that? I started... It began when I sent a proposal to the newspaper’s manager, the marketing manager, saying I wanted to work for them in marketing. At the time, I thought the newspaper was pretty poor—it isn’t poor at all, of course, but that was how I saw it then—and I thought it could be taken to another level. I had something to offer, something to contribute. This was about nine years ago, around the time I was starting with the flowers. It didn’t just happen out of nowhere. They got in touch and said, “We’d be very interested to hear what you have to say. Let’s meet.” We met, and then I got involved... They listened to what I had to say and explained what was feasible and what wasn’t so feasible. Then they said

51:02 Speaker 2 to me, “Listen, we’re looking for a marketing person. Would you like to work for us under certain terms?” Yes. So I jumped right in. I did good work, Boruch Hashem, but it came in periods, because I was investing a lot in my own business. They were really patient, I have to say. They took me as I was, as they say. I really brought what you could call a welcome change to the newspaper. I introduced some ideas that hadn’t been there before. Specifically to the women’s publication. Yes, yes. And then they changed the... Back then it was called “Mishpacha Chassidis.” Oh, that’s right. You remember? Then it became “Nashi,” and they even offered me the job of editor. But I realized that it wasn’t something I had any professional background in, and it wasn’t the direction I wanted to take. And you let that go; it would have become your whole... Then there wouldn’t have been “Prachonit” either. But throughout that time, they kept giving me feedback that what I was doing was excellent, that it was good and was moving the newspaper forward. I didn’t quite believe it, because I didn’t feel there was really... I’m the type who wants to do things on a big scale, see results right away, and get moving. A newspaper runs at a different pace. After all, it’s known as the Rebbe’s newspaper. The Rebbe... The Rebbe’s neighborhood. Yes, exactly. Because forty years ago... Incidentally, they just had their 2,000th issue. They celebrated issue 2,000. That’s right. They brought in Avraham Fried. It was a very beautiful, very special, very moving event. And then Prachonit kept growing, and we realized it wasn’t possible to do both. The marketing department is very demanding. You have to keep things moving, work long hours—especially before a Yom Tov. So we parted on good terms. Then they told me, “No, we’re not giving you up so quickly. Come, you have other

52:43 Speaker 2 talents. Write articles for us.” So when I manage to—and I usually do, because what happens is that the editor comes to me and says, “I want an article about this and that. I want you to interview a woman about this and that”—I take it on. When do I do it? I have no idea. It just happens. There really is a special blessing in writing articles for the newspaper. In general, it’s a very successful publication, and I really love it. If I don’t manage to read it, I feel like I’ve missed out and need to catch up. A feeling that there’s something I haven’t gotten to yet. Yes. Wait, so you interview people? I interview women, and it’s fascinating. How lovely. Because I get to hear their stories and meet these women. And don’t look for Yosefi Rosen in the newspaper, because you won’t find her. Oh. It says Yehudis Rosen. Yehudis Rosen. And why? Ask me why. All right, why? It’s your second name, but... Right. Because I made a very simple calculation: if they printed “Yosefi,” it would sound like a man. Yossi. Yossi. Right. And there’s no reason for a man to write in the feminine in a women’s magazine, especially in that magazine... In short, everyone can relax. Yes, it’s... It’s Yehudis. Yehudis, yes. Great. At first I thought you’d chosen a pen name, but... No, I just used my second name. Yes. That’s why they give you two names, you know. A start-up. Wow. It’s something to suddenly hear the whole history while I’m sitting here seeing the results already. It’s not... Though you probably think you’re only at the beginning. At the beginning, yes. Yes. That’s how it is. Right. But you know, that’s one of the characteristics of a Jew: not being satisfied with what they have,

54:23 Speaker 2 He wants to keep moving forward. Absolutely, absolutely. Give us a marketing tip for anyone listening who has a business or, um, wants to start one. Focus very sharply. Women who run their own businesses tend to be very creative, and if you’re a woman with ADHD like me, you have twenty thousand ideas a second and you want to do everything. That still happens to me today, by the way. I’m constantly bringing myself back into focus, back to the point. It’s really hard, because suddenly I’ll have an idea for one workshop, then another idea, a lecture, a gift package—a million and one ideas. But if I chase all of them, I lose my focus and can’t do anything. So really, really, really focus. Choose one thing, even if you want to do something big. Once you start with one thing and do it as well as you can, you can move on to the next stage. And then? Things start happening on their own. It’s amazing. It’s like throwing a stone into water and seeing all those ripples. That’s how it works. Wow. Hakadosh Boruch Hu sends us an incredible abundance. We just need to open our hands. And our hands can only hold so much, so we need to make a vessel that can hold that abundance, right? Yes, make a vessel for the blessing. And we can make a very big vessel. Our hands can reach far if we know how to focus. Once you focus on one thing—wow, the sky isn’t the limit. Amazing. Wow! Yosfi, thank you! It was worth coming—I was about to say, “all the way to Ashdod,” though [unclear]. But it really was fascinating. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! What a pleasure!