Somachat Alayich - Episode 7 - What's Your Status?

00:00 Speaker 1 Shomachat Alayich, Michal Levitin.

00:01 Speaker 2 Shomachat Alayich, Chani Marzel.

00:04 Speaker 1 How are you?

00:05 Speaker 2 Wow!

00:05 Speaker 1 We’re in a new studio.

00:07 Speaker 2 What do you mean, new?

00:08 Speaker 1 Where’s the studio? Come on, tell us.

00:10 Speaker 2 Oh, in a place at the heart of creativity, at the heart of love, at the heart of joy, at the heart of joy, at the heart of joy.

00:18 Speaker 1 Wherever you’re comfortable, that’s where you do Shomachat Alayich.

00:20 Speaker 2 Yes, in my living room.

00:22 Speaker 1 This is wild! I walked into the house, and there’s equipment here like a real studio.

00:29 Speaker 2 Yes.

00:29 Speaker 1 You’re going all the way with this.

00:30 Speaker 2 Yes, yes, yes.

00:31 Speaker 1 You don’t mess around.

00:31 Speaker 2 Right. There’s a whole setup here.

00:33 Speaker 1 A whole production.

00:34 Speaker 2 With all the kids.

00:35 Speaker 1 I have to give them credit.

00:37 Speaker 2 Yes, yes, absolutely. Credit to—

00:39 Speaker 1 Mom, Dad.

00:41 Speaker 2 Oh yes, the kids.

00:42 Speaker 1 Purim.

00:42 Speaker 2 To Dovi, who’s right here on the... really.

00:45 Speaker 1 On sound.

00:45 Speaker 2 The soundman.

00:46 Speaker 1 Yes.

00:47 Speaker 2 And everyone, everyone with the advice and ideas about every flower and every bit of lighting here.

00:53 Speaker 1 No, no, there really is—

00:53 Speaker 2 And all the...

00:55 Speaker 1 Put it on your status, your secret status, wherever you want. Oh, this is so nice.

01:00 Speaker 2 Really.

01:01 Speaker 1 The studio’s right here.

01:02 Speaker 2 As far as I’m concerned, I’m at the Shabbos table. Wow, this calls for kiddush.

01:05 Speaker 1 …

01:05 Speaker 2 But yes, yes, really...

01:07 Speaker 1 I’ll tell you what I want to talk to you about. You had a Zoom session for the club.

01:14 Speaker 2 Right.

01:15 Speaker 1 Yesterday.

01:16 Speaker 2 Right.

01:16 Speaker 1 I don’t know when each person will hear this, but it was the end of the second month and the start of the third. Listen, I saw someone there who— We’ve been working on the substance and the process for a while now. And I thought, wow, this woman is bringing things I didn’t even know she could bring... What other abilities do you have?

01:35 Speaker 2 I’m discovering them. Listen, this is a new club.

01:38 Speaker 1 What do you mean, discovering them?

01:41 Speaker 2 What do I mean? I was very, very apprehensive about the teaching side of it, suddenly being the one to bring that, and—

01:50 Speaker 1 Now what do you mean by “teaching”?

01:52 Speaker 2 I mean people signed up for this club to learn from me, and as I see it, I’m supposed to give them material, both theoretical and... I mean, give them something. Look, not everyone—I know, right?—can learn from a vibe. I mean, a lot of women learn from my status updates and from the vibe and from what I post.

02:14 Speaker 1 Which is something that developed too.

02:15 Speaker 2 Exactly. But some need the—“So sum it up for me.” Right? “So what does that mean? What are the steps?” And yes, together we felt it was right—

02:26 Speaker 1 Yes.

02:27 Speaker 2 To create models, create a method, create something, and I’m the one who has to teach it. And that puts me in a sort of box. First of all, a box. Okay?

02:37 Speaker 1 But you’re not someone who fits into boxes.

02:38 Speaker 2 Right. Right.

02:39 Speaker 1 You’re the queen of the open field.

02:40 Speaker 2 And I can say that from the first Zoom until now, the third Zoom?

02:46 Speaker 1 Third.

02:47 Speaker 2 Third.

02:47 Speaker 1 We’ve started the third month.

02:48 Speaker 2 My mind has opened up.

02:51 Speaker 1 Listen, you were soaring.

02:52 Speaker 2 Because—

02:52 Speaker 1 Because you sat there and taught. I thought, does she see herself from the outside? This woman sat there and simply delivered genuinely structured material. You taught it like a mentor. What’s it like to feel that you’re a mentor to mothers?

03:08 Speaker 2 Look, let’s say—

03:09 Speaker 1 Not even a parenting instructor. A mentor.

03:12 Speaker 2 Okay, I don’t know what the difference is, but fine, thank you. I’ll tell you this: as someone who collects characters, playing a mentor onstage is a character I’m familiar with, right? I mean, I can—

03:24 Speaker 1 Be, um, play the part.

03:26 Speaker 2 Play the part.

03:26 Speaker 1 But play it as a character.

03:27 Speaker 2 As a character.

03:29 Speaker 1 Okay.

03:29 Speaker 2 But finding it inside myself, rather than in a character—that’s been a process.

03:32 Speaker 1 You’re really stepping out of the characters.

03:34 Speaker 2 Right?

03:35 Speaker 1 What’s that like?

03:36 Speaker 2 It’s an incredible experience.

03:37 Speaker 1 Yes?

03:37 Speaker 2 Because suddenly you— I’m peeling away layers. I mean, I feel as though coverings are coming off me. Because, to me, a character protects me.

03:47 Speaker 1 Now, what excites me—

03:47 Speaker 2 A character is something that—

03:48 Speaker 1 What excites me is that we started this whole thing even before the club. We started with a show.

03:54 Speaker 2 Right.

03:54 Speaker 1 Where does that stand, by the way? Tell us about the new show.

03:58 Speaker 2 Right, that’s also—

03:59 Speaker 1 And with the show, I was sitting there thinking, wow, you have to come out from behind the characters and be Michal. Come onstage without characters. And it was so hard for you.

04:08 Speaker 2 Very hard. Look, it’s still hard. I think I’ll have to find the right concept. I mean, if I don’t call this show stand-up, maybe then it’ll work. Then it’ll work. You understand?

04:23 Speaker 1 I think that, ultimately, the community you’re building now will get you there.

04:28 Speaker 2 Right.

04:29 Speaker 1 Go do community events. We’ll talk about your dreams in a little while, because your dreams reach the sky, and I think it’s possible—

04:33 Speaker 2 First of all, I did something new for me there: I didn’t dress up as a character, and I brought in two—

04:38 Speaker 1 So tell us what happened there. It was beautiful. You did it beautifully.

04:43 Speaker 2 So we actually split the screen in two, and I moved with the chair—

04:46 Speaker 1 Like you had a dialogue with—

04:47 Speaker 2 A dialogue with myself. A character. Right.

04:49 Speaker 1 Michal, the Shomachat Alayich mentor.

04:51 Speaker 2 Exactly. Then I brought in a character and moved with the chair, and the screen behind me was split into what looked like two locations. That freed me up, and it was also a relief because I didn’t have to dress up.

05:04 Speaker 1 Right.

05:05 Speaker 2 I mean, I just switched into it—click, click, click, click, click.

05:06 Speaker 1 But still, there’s a character there.

05:08 Speaker 2 There’s a character there.

05:09 Speaker 1 That was your anchor.

05:10 Speaker 2 Right.

05:11 Speaker 1 Okay.

05:12 Speaker 2 So for me, that’s part of the process too.

05:16 Speaker 1 Yes. So there’s really an incredible process happening here.

05:18 Speaker 2 Right.

05:19 Speaker 1 And you look so pleased and happy. How much pressure is there, really, and how much joy?

05:27 Speaker 2 There is—there was pressure. I mean, on the day of the Zoom session...

05:32 Speaker 1 What happens to you? Take us behind the scenes.

05:33 Speaker 2 Oh, I have plenty to tell. Because I tell myself, I want to know the material well.

05:38 Speaker 1 Is that a responsibility?

05:39 Speaker 2 Very much so. Very much. Listen, women are paying, showing up, setting aside their time for this. And there’s also the pressure of balancing funny Michal with mentor Michal, as you put it.

05:55 Speaker 1 I think the women in the community—

05:58 Speaker 2 They know that, and they’re not coming to a stand-up show, of course. But still.

06:04 Speaker 1 I think it’s also a transition for you, because what you’re used to performing is stand-up.

06:08 Speaker 2 Right.

06:09 Speaker 1 And suddenly you’re discovering other things there.

06:11 Speaker 2 Right.

06:11 Speaker 1 And then there was that bit with the guided visualization. What happened there? Tell me, because I was stunned. Never mind that there were sound effects and all sorts of things here.

06:19 Speaker 2 Listen, I’m exactly the kind of character you’d ask to do a guided visualization. I do it onstage at my shows. I call it “the absurd visualization.” But I really got into this one because I also deeply believed in the message I was conveying through it. So it was really...

06:34 Speaker 1 Give us a taste of what happened there.

06:38 Speaker 2 …

06:39 Speaker 1 You’re not ready to present it?

06:40 Speaker 2 No, that’s fine. Okay, put on some music for me and the— No, I want to. Yes, exactly, a little sound.

06:46 Speaker 1 Not the visualization. First, tell us what you brought to it.

06:51 Speaker 2 What I brought to it, really, was heart and feeling. I asked the women to close their eyes, go deep into their memories, and imagine themselves ten years from now.

07:14 Speaker 1 And it was about their conversations with their children.

07:17 Speaker 2 The child who drove you up the wall just a moment ago is now a father himself. You look at him, he looks at you, and what does he remember about you? From the Roaring Lion war—were you a lioness, or were you more of a roar? That’s it.

07:46 Speaker 1 Now I’m sitting there, watching from the side. I believe every word you’re saying, but I also don’t know whether you’re joking.

07:53 Speaker 2 No, it was very, very real.

07:55 Speaker 1 Really?

07:56 Speaker 2 Yes, yes, yes, yes. I even got emotional. It really was—

07:58 Speaker 1 No, but that came across. It really, really came across.

08:01 Speaker 2 Yes, because I believe in the message. I mean, there was a message there that I believed in. It wasn’t like going onstage and doing something humorous that—

08:09 Speaker 1 I believe that onstage, too, you convey messages you believe in.

08:12 Speaker 2 Right, but there it’s geared toward getting a laugh, or turning something on its head, or... Here, I really wanted them to get to the heart of the message. And it came across, and it was really enjoyable.

08:24 Speaker 1 And I do want to give the listeners a glimpse of the content. The topic, basically, is major productions: how to handle major productions. Each time, you give them a model.

08:38 Speaker 2 Right.

08:39 Speaker 1 So...

08:40 Speaker 2 Well, a lot of that is thanks to you, Chani, because you get me to— Actually, you should know we need to do a podcast about you: how you draw out the way I live and what I bring, and present it as a tool.

08:55 Speaker 1 You’re setting the bar—

08:56 Speaker 2 Completely.

08:56 Speaker 1 Mussar at the bar.

08:58 Speaker 2 It’s wild. I remember us sitting together, and you said to me, “What’s this topic of major productions? It doesn’t connect to—what, Pesach is a major production? What does that have to do with it?” And I told you, “Chani, for every woman, every project can be a major production. It’s all relative.”

09:14 Speaker 1 It really is relative.

09:16 Speaker 2 I mean—

09:16 Speaker 1 So what did we build there?

09:17 Speaker 2 And that’s where we built the juggling model, which is incredible, and it’s going to stay with us this month. Every woman has the ability to juggle the balls she chooses to hold in her hands.

09:31 Speaker 1 Basically, what we’re saying is: we juggle our lives.

09:34 Speaker 2 Absolutely.

09:35 Speaker 1 And we have balls. So then what?

09:37 Speaker 2 And we can choose which ones we hold on to.

09:39 Speaker 1 There are different kinds of balls.

09:41 Speaker 2 Exactly. There are different kinds of balls, and the most important are the glass balls. We don’t toss those around. We always keep them close and protect them, and we don’t—

09:49 Speaker 1 You mustn’t throw them on the floor.

09:50 Speaker 2 You mustn’t drop them. That’s your mental health, your time as a couple, your family time, your sanity—everything that brings you joy and makes your heart feel good and keeps you sane. You don’t give that up. It’s not something you can play around with. All the other balls are rubber balls. You can leave them on the floor. They’ll bounce back tomorrow; the dishes will bounce back tomorrow. They’re not going anywhere.

10:17 Speaker 1 They won’t disappear.

10:18 Speaker 2 Exactly. And then there are the balls I don’t even pick up in the first place. They’re on the floor, and they can stay there until next year. The baseboards, the curtains, and all those things—I’m simply not picking them up, because now isn’t the time.

10:31 Speaker 1 Right.

10:32 Speaker 2 And that’s it—

10:33 Speaker 1 No, but I saw the women’s responses. It’s amazing, the gift you have that you can just pass on. And you know it’s reaching dozens, and with Hashem’s help hundreds, of homes—hundreds! Why did I say dozens?

10:48 Speaker 2 Yes, hundreds already. Definitely hundreds.

10:51 Speaker 1 I want to talk to you about your dream of a community. Because ultimately, you’re building a community here.

10:57 Speaker 2 Right, right. I have a feeling we’re losing the connection a little—or is it just me? Yes, it’s just a feeling? Great. That was a sound check.

11:08 Speaker 1 It’s important.

11:09 Speaker 2 It is. Um, my dream of a community is—look, I’ve felt for a long time that there’s a community around me. It just doesn’t have a name or a place.

11:21 Speaker 1 No hands or feet.

11:22 Speaker 2 Exactly. It doesn’t have a place to gather, but it exists. Wherever I go after a performance, I feel that the women know me better than I know them.

11:32 Speaker 1 Of course. Of course, because you’ve reached hundreds of thousands of women. I don’t know what number you’d put on it. We’re talking about years.

11:41 Speaker 2 Right. And the thousands who follow my status updates know my home and my children, my state of mind, and everything I do.

11:53 Speaker 1 What you’re thinking of writing about even before the club.

11:54 Speaker 2 Right. And they’re waiting for something that can really be called a community—for a chance to come, experience it, and get more from me, and—

12:07 Speaker 1 So come on, let’s say the dream out loud. I believe a dream needs to be shouted.

12:10 Speaker 2 Wow. Well, the dream is, first of all, to get together—

12:13 Speaker 1 I think we see the dream the same way, because I... Okay, go on, tell me.

12:16 Speaker 2 Okay. First of all, I picture a huge gathering of thousands of women who are in the club.

12:25 Speaker 1 And speak the same language.

12:26 Speaker 2 Speak the same language. We create a conversation, and there will be Shabbos gatherings and trips and incredible things—meetups and podcasts—and really give the women in the community a platform too.

12:50 Speaker 1 What does that mean?

12:52 Speaker 2 I truly believe that every woman who makes a change by being in my club—and there are already so many—

13:01 Speaker 1 Boruch Hashem, it lifts them so high.

13:02 Speaker 2 Boruch Hashem, it lifts them so high.

13:04 Speaker 1 Yes.

13:04 Speaker 2 It’s incredible. She has a story behind her, about how she—

13:10 Speaker 1 A whole lifetime.

13:11 Speaker 2 Exactly. Who she was, who she is today—these are extraordinary stories. And there are so many women who could be given a platform, who we could hear from. And—

13:26 Speaker 1 Which is something you could do at smaller, more intimate gatherings.

13:30 Speaker 2 I don’t know yet. I’m just throwing ideas out here. I don’t know. But it’s something that needs to happen, because there are stories. The things that come my way every day—I don’t even know what to say.

13:42 Speaker 1 How do you take it all in?

13:42 Speaker 2 I tell myself, every woman here needs a book written about her. Every one of them could give a talk. Really, the stories are just wow, wow, wow. This one took that line, that one took something else from me, another one did this—

13:54 Speaker 1 You share a little of it. I’m sure you share only a tiny bit.

13:56 Speaker 2 Right. Listen, I can’t go on and on about it, but I receive these stories.

14:00 Speaker 1 But I’m saying, even just what you do share—how do you live with that?

14:07 Speaker 2 I think I already answered you once on one of the podcasts.

14:10 Speaker 1 No, but it’s...

14:10 Speaker 2 That I’m a kind of channel. I tell myself: give thanks.

14:14 Speaker 1 It passed through me.

14:15 Speaker 2 It passed through me. That’s it. I can’t let it get stuck inside me, because I can’t contain it. Not really. It isn’t really me.

14:22 Speaker 1 But that’s also a way to keep going, to keep drawing down the abundance.

14:25 Speaker 2 Exactly. Because it isn’t really me. I don’t feel as though I made some incredible move to get here. I simply agreed to answer the call, went along with it, and that was it. So I keep moving.

14:46 Speaker 1 Okay.

14:47 Speaker 2 Keep moving. Exactly.

14:48 Speaker 1 Okay, so let’s continue with the dream.

14:50 Speaker 2 The dream is for the community to really grow, because I believe in the power of many women. We can do incredible things.

15:04 Speaker 1 Think of the change happening in their homes.

15:06 Speaker 2 First of all, absolutely. And the dream is—I don’t know. I think I’ve spoken about it with the children too, and with... There’s a lot.

15:17 Speaker 1 Tell me, a question. Until now, maybe you’ve had a certain role, an identity, the title of stand-up comedian. And you’re moving into the role of a mentor—which, as far as I’m concerned, you’ve already earned a certificate for.

15:32 Speaker 2 Thank you. But first of all, I don’t think there’s been a change or a transition or some kind of leap. I don’t feel that, because—

15:40 Speaker 1 Aren’t you afraid of getting confused along the way?

15:43 Speaker 2 No, because I still feel like I’m on a kind of stage. I haven’t left the stage and moved into some other role.

15:55 Speaker 1 No, but—

15:56 Speaker 2 I’m still in the position of—

15:58 Speaker 1 Ultimately, you’re taking your place as a mentor to mothers. I’ll tell you what I see from my side: I see people get confused along the way.

16:09 Speaker 2 What does it mean to get confused along the way?

16:10 Speaker 1 What does it mean? At some point, they suddenly start thinking it’s all them. I have a definition.

16:18 Speaker 2 I see you came prepared.

16:20 Speaker 1 No, I didn’t come prepared. Actually, I—

16:23 Speaker 2 Let’s bring in the One Above, the Dreamer, by whose word everything came to be.

16:25 Speaker 1 Amen. If we’re talking about channels—

16:30 Speaker 2 Yes.

16:30 Speaker 1 Then there’s the channel of abundance. We all have channels through which Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings us abundance.

16:35 Speaker 2 Right.

16:36 Speaker 1 And when the water in the channel is clean, and you know it isn’t mine, none of it is mine, then it really passes through. The abundance flows. Now, there are a few other kinds of channels. There’s a channel where you put your ego in, and then your ego gets stuck.

16:52 Speaker 2 Stuck.

16:52 Speaker 1 We’ve talked about that too, and then the abundance—

16:55 Speaker 2 Right.

16:55 Speaker 1 And there’s a channel where people start feeling that it’s them, them, them, and then it becomes not so pleasant.

17:04 Speaker 2 Okay.

17:04 Speaker 1 There’s another channel that’s rusty: a person who doesn’t work on themselves at all. So the abundance—it’s as though the channel rusts. Those are four kinds of channels that I—

17:12 Speaker 2 Wow.

17:12 Speaker 1 See.

17:13 Speaker 2 A model.

17:14 Speaker 1 A whole model of channels.

17:16 Speaker 2 That’s how I see it.

17:17 Speaker 1 But where does it happen—that point where you get carried away with yourself? You get feedback, you get affirmation, and surely it gets mixed up for you too: “This is me.” I don’t know about you. I’m just asking.

17:34 Speaker 2 Look, I can’t lie and say I’m not part of this, because I feel that I give it my all and put a lot into it. I am here.

17:44 Speaker 1 What you’re describing is strengthening the channel. In the channel model, if a great deal of abundance is going to pass through, we need to work on our channel so it’s strong and the abundance can pass through us. I have no doubt about that.

17:57 Speaker 2 Okay.

17:57 Speaker 1 But when does it start getting mixed up with the abundance from Hakadosh Boruch Hu? When do we start forgetting where we received this gift from?

18:04 Speaker 2 No, no, I’m not there.

18:06 Speaker 1 You’re not there. I don’t think so either. I’m not worried about you.

18:08 Speaker 2 And if you see me getting close to that, chas v’shalom, pull me back quickly.

18:13 Speaker 1 I mean—

18:13 Speaker 2 Yes. I don’t think so, because look, I’m already trained to—

18:19 Speaker 1 I’ll tell you where the confusion lies: people start really believing what others say about them.

18:26 Speaker 2 But people have been saying these things about me since I was little. I’m used to being praised like that, to that level of admiration, and—

18:37 Speaker 1 And when people say it to you, what do you do? How do you really manage to remain a channel?

18:42 Speaker 2 I say, “How lovely for them that they see that in me.” That’s it. I’m happy for them.

18:47 Speaker 1 I’ve developed a theory about that too.

18:50 Speaker 2 No, I’m genuinely happy for them that they see me that way, and thank Hashem. Because, look, it’s really nice to find someone you respect and admire, and...

19:00 Speaker 1 So I’ll tell you what—

19:01 Speaker 2 It’s a joy to see, and... for me, that’s the Rebbe of Lubavitch, okay? That’s the person I—

19:10 Speaker 1 So you’re in that position... Okay, I’m not going to compare you to the Rebbe of Lubavitch, but—

19:13 Speaker 2 No, I’m not saying—

19:14 Speaker 1 People look up to you and have a certain idea of you.

19:18 Speaker 2 First of all, please don’t think, G-d forbid, that I put myself on that level.

19:20 Speaker 1 I didn’t think that.

19:21 Speaker 2 Myself—the pleasure of it, and—

19:22 Speaker 1 How do you look up to someone?

19:24 Speaker 2 I enjoy knowing there are people who look at me and feel good about it. It makes them happy. I—

19:33 Speaker 1 So you know what conclusion I came to? I’ll share my theory with you, and I’m interested in what you think. Your opinion matters to me.

19:39 Speaker 2 Yes.

19:40 Speaker 1 Lately, I’ve become a bit better known. Now, I’m not an influencer, I don’t share my life, and I’m not in that space at all. But I work in AI, and there’s a sort of community around it. I don’t know what to call my place in it, but I’m better known. In other words, more people know me than I know, and I’m active, so people see me in different things. Then people meet me and think I’m something I’m not. One day I met a woman, and she said to me, “The woman, the legend.” I said, “Why ‘legend’?” She said, “What do you mean...?” I said, “Do you think you know me?” She said, “Of course!” I asked, “How do you know me?” She said, “Well, you do this and you do that.” I said, “Okay, but you don’t know me.” So here’s the theory I came up with: we think in patterns. When we see a person, we immediately form some sort of picture. I see a point here, a point there, another point over there. We connect the dots, and the picture we form also contains a bit of our own fantasy. There are lots of versions of Chani Marzel, because each one exists in someone’s imagination. What’s more, I thought, she doesn’t know what I do or don’t do at home. I might post a picture of challahs—which, between us, are practically the only thing I make—and she thinks, “Wow, she makes challahs too! So she must have made twelve salads and everything else.” You know what I mean?

21:20 Speaker 1 In the end, the version of me that exists for someone else is in the picture they’ve formed. It’s lovely that, with Hashem’s help, I have a good place in that picture. Maybe I have a less good place in someone else’s picture, and that’s okay too. But ultimately, fantasy is mixed into it as well. Right. And that’s where I could start getting confused, because I’ll start taking in all that feedback. I mean, I’m not dealing with it on your scale, and you handle it beautifully. First of all, that’s why it’s so important to me to show the less polished sides on my status too. Ah, I see. So that it won’t create— Maybe that’s part of what draws people in. Maybe. I show the mess, I show the imperfection, I show the—so that there really won’t be some sort of— But when someone sees you as a complete picture, then in the picture they’ve formed, those things become part of the whole too. That’s fine. I show what’s real. And I can also say that everything I share isn’t even ten percent of my life. Of course. People don’t realize that. Exactly. People often meet me in different places and say, “What? How are you here? Wait, we checked your status, you didn’t...” In other words, “But you didn’t share that you were here.” Ah. They might see me in a store or on vacation, or— They think you’re sharing twenty-four seven. That I’m sharing everything. Wow. But I don’t share my whole day. Right. I could go from Dan to Eilat in a single day and only share that I was in Dan. You know? So how do you choose what to share? Wow, what a question. Tell us. Okay, so—

22:59 Speaker 1 First of all, I really do have lots and lots of content that I tell myself, “Okay, I’ll share this,” and then, when I’m about to press the button, I ask myself, “Why?” It’s unnecessary. Give an example. So I don’t post it. Can you give an example? It happens every day. First of all, you don’t film everything. Right, I’m not on my phone all the time. Okay. But say you filmed something. I filmed it. And then? For example, yesterday I got a delivery of clothes for Yom Tov, and Shirale decided Pesach had already arrived. You know, the poor kids are confused. They don’t know what’s Purim and what’s what anymore. I don’t know what’ll happen when they go back. I think all the holidays will come at once. No, I saw a picture of kids in costumes, with a Pesach Seder, Shavuos—and a Shavuos cow, all together. Yes. Yes. Anyway, she decided it was already Pesach, and she spent the whole day in the festive outfit she’d picked out. Then there was a siren and we went inside, and everyone was in pajamas while she was all dressed up. It was such a surreal sight. Well? So I filmed it, and I thought, “Okay, should I share this?” I couldn’t find the... Maybe it was the holidays all together. Yes, but— So what does make you stop and share something? Look, maybe I’ll still share it, but the timing has to be right. I don’t know, the timing. Everyone was exhausted and in pajamas. I thought, “Wait, I need to consider how everyone else looked, not just this gorgeous girl.” Wow, there’s a lot to consider. You really think it through. Yes. I mean, everyone needs to look at least somewhat... Presentable. Presentable, exactly. And they didn’t. Everyone was—

24:39 Speaker 1 —a mess, and she was a princess. Sometimes I tell myself there’s room to leave something as a sweet memory. I mean, keep it in the family, just for us. For the family, just for us. Even though it really was hilarious. Okay, but now you really have to share it with the episode. No, because, again, there’s also the question of how everyone looks. I have a child, for example, who doesn’t like being filmed at all, and I respect that. So lots of great videos go in the trash because he suddenly peeks into the frame. Wow. But that’s okay. It’s okay. I really consider whether it will benefit both the people in the video and the people watching it. If it doesn’t offer some kind of real inspiration... If it’s just “I ate, I drank,” that’s not interesting. To me, that doesn’t count. “I’m shopping right now”—not interesting. Unless something interesting happened while I was shopping, something about that moment made me take out the camera. First, I get a strong feeling that I should. I feel there’s something here. Intuition? Yes, intuition. Wow. “Come on, there’s something interesting here.” I don’t know; I start filming and see what happens. Sometimes nothing interesting really happens after all. Or sometimes I do catch interesting things. But this could be a whole topic on its own. A whole topic. Having someone holding the camera—how does that work for you? Getting inside your head is like watching someone juggle. Right, and lots of times I’ve caught amazing things. Really, the funniest things. I don’t know, people waiting in line, and suddenly an old man, suddenly a woman... And then, when I start telling myself, “This will...”

26:33 Speaker 1 Good for that old man. Wow. So you can give up a lot of ratings. Wow. I give up a lot—a lot, a lot, a lot, and a lot more. Because I told myself, this matters more. It’s like—I don’t want to humiliate anyone. I really don’t. A lot of the time, I just see things as funny. Yes. But it can come across as though I’m laughing at someone or belittling them. Even in stand-up. For example, I was at my mother’s this week, and we opened drawers to sort things out for Pesach. Now, my mother knows me, and she played along with my sarcasm. She enjoyed it. She knew I was going to laugh at everything I found in the drawer, all the odds and ends she keeps there. And there were a few responses to my status: “Tell me, how is your mother not offended by you?” But come on, my mother—I mean, you have to know us. I’m completely open with her; she knows exactly who I am, and we had fun. That’s honoring your parents. But you see, there were still women who interpreted it that way, or saw it and thought, “Wow, wow.” Because maybe it looked like I was belittling the odds and ends in my mother’s drawers. But then again, you have to keep so many people in mind. Right. So that’s something I’m truly sure about, and I have no problem with it. That’s fine; that’s yours. If that’s how it looks to you, that’s yours. I’m not going to delete it now, and I’m not going to apologize, because I know it was good. As far as I’m concerned, it was good. But if it were a stranger and something happened out on the street, even if to me it was the funniest thing ever, I’d have a hard time taking that risk with her. Listen, that’s—that’s a project. It’s a project. It’s… unless—

28:16 Speaker 1 Unless you can see that she went along with it, that there was a moment when she laughed about it too. Then, okay. But… All right, I’ll start a secret status for you. Oh, yes. Do you want to say a few words about that, or do we need to end the episode? I don’t know where we are, but—the secret status. Oh, I think this will upset a lot of people. Wait, let me grab the smiley. We’ll do a separate episode about it. No, that’s fine. I’ll tell you why it came up here: it was another breakthrough in figuring out exactly what you… what you… A lot of my followers were upset when they heard it existed. Why? Because they’re afraid I’ll start taking content away from my regular status. They don’t think that… Oh, because they think you’re already giving a hundred percent. Okay, so now they realize you’re not. Exactly. And then I realized what I’d been missing in the club. After I’d suddenly become terribly didactic, I said to myself, “Wait, what I’m bringing here really…” What did you suddenly feel was missing? I was missing the connection and the authenticity. And I said to myself, “Wait, how was this club built? Through the status.” So it has to go back to them. It has to go back to that community. Yes. And that’s really how the secret status came about. Who planted the idea? On Instagram, there’s an easy way to do it. So we said, “Let’s try making a secret status.” Right. And then your clever son figured out how to do it. The genius, yes, because it really took some figuring out. It needed… Listen, it’s all automations, it’s… No, okay, you did an episode about that. You could do an episode about his genius with automations. There, you’ve got material. And it’s not just him; it goes far beyond that. I need to do a podcast with all my other children. You know—

29:56 Speaker 1 When I turned forty, the gift my children gave me was a podcast. I recorded an episode with each of them. Wow. I think I’ll do that again this year. That’s an incredible gift. Well, I’m waiting for it right here in the living room. That’s it—there’s no reason not to. No reason not to. Wow, Michal, it was so lovely talking with you. With you too. And I think we’ll continue. So thank you very much. Thank you too. I… let’s do some kind of… See you in the next episode. See you in the next episode. Is there some other way to wrap up? Something. Oh, nice, nice. That’s it. L’chaim, l’chaim.