Ep. 3: The Power of Bitachon with Rabbi Mendel Teldon

00:00 Speaker 1 At the time, I made a list of all the beautiful things that happened because of the, the theft, the wire theft. And, um, you know, whether it was going to the oil and davening, like really, really davening, whether it was checking all the mezuzahs in the house, whether it was adding shiurim, whether whatever it was, certain thing that... It, it was a beautiful list of things that, okay, so whether or not the money comes back, we already have beautiful things that, uh, that happened because of it. If the money comes back, gravy. That'll be, that'll be pretty cool. But, um, the oil came back.

00:37 Speaker 2 I'm Yossi Kamen. Welcome to Among Chasidim By Der Her, an ongoing fabrengen about life as a Chasid, our vibrant connection with the Rebbe, and inspired living shaped by the way he teaches us each and every day. Hi, Mendy. How are you?

00:56 Speaker 1 Baruch Hashem.

00:57 Speaker 2 Okay. It's, uh... You've been very, uh, busy lately I think, no? You, uh, middle of buying a building for your Chabad house. You're-

01:06 Speaker 1 Baruch Hashem. Baruch Hashem. Very true. Very true.

01:08 Speaker 2 But you, you also told me something interesting that you're, uh, you have a new seder ha-limud.

01:15 Speaker 1 That is true.

01:15 Speaker 2 Personally.

01:16 Speaker 1 True.

01:16 Speaker 2 W- what, you wanna remind me what that is exactly?

01:19 Speaker 1 Well, we're, we're going s- jumping straight in?

01:23 Speaker 2 That's... There's no other way.

01:25 Speaker 1 I got you. I got you.

01:25 Speaker 2 I have a question, I have a question about it, that's why I'm asking.

01:28 Speaker 1 Go ahead. You want, uh, first I should talk and then you ask your question?

01:31 Speaker 2 Or I can tell everyone what, uh, what... I mean, I think what you told me was that you made a chawwah a few months ago to learn for a few hours every day as a-

01:45 Speaker 1 Okay

01:45 Speaker 2 ... as a... Is that, is that, is that, is that accurate? Is that true?

01:48 Speaker 1 So I'm, I'm like, I'm like, I need to like do a preamble before this whole conversation as we start, as this, this podcast, like, you know, m- you're jumping right in. Um, like the whole thing is, is uncomfortable, if I can use that term. I, I, I was thinking about it as we're getting ready for this morning, as I'm getting ready for this morning, and, um, I think the whole concept of a podcast is like but, but, but, like a big but, the Rebbe turned the whole Chasidut on its head and it's like the whole . Um, why?

02:28 Speaker 2 Well, well, hang on. Why is it ? Start with that.

02:31 Speaker 1 Up until , meaning like- ... if you would come to like someone like back in the day and say, "Hey, I want you to get on a, get on a, uh, on a, on a platform," whatever it is, "and talk about anything." Like, you can't imagine anybody doing this. This is the like a whole concept of, I don't know, it just, it doesn't sit-

02:49 Speaker 2 Are you say, are you saying because of the concept of bittul, like or who am I?

02:53 Speaker 1 So, yeah. You know, the whole, the whole influencer Instagramization of the world is not in, in sync with the, is of things we stand for. Um, I think the Rebbe changed that around, the whole, you know, at Sibeles off of Nervellen. Um, and, and, and not just turned it around, but like ran with it and celebrated it. So it, it... I don't know if it's supposed to come natural. I don't know if it, it requires a scafia to go down this path and go ahead and do it. Um, just recognizing the discomfort in, in the platform and how it's, uh... And, and, and the conversation. Kaviach, we're having a con- it's just the two of us sitting here in our respective, uh, hole in the walls and, um, bullshoving one with the other, and then, uh, we're gonna let, you know, at least, you know, my wife and your wife listen in. Maybe our- ... my mother and your mother-in-law will listen in and, um, and, and we'll have the, the maybe a couple. What I, what I hear the first podcast between you and Joe Rogan, there were like 5 million people that listened between the two of you together.

03:53 Speaker 2 100%.

03:55 Speaker 1 So-

03:55 Speaker 2 But I think in general, the idea of, the idea of when someone asks you to do something, many people, their instinct is to say, "Nah, who am I?" You know, we, we want you to fabrengen, I don't know, let's say. "Who am I? I don't have anything to say." I think if you are a Chasid of , if someone asks you to do something, what we learned from the Rebbe is, "Of course, I'm gonna do it."

04:22 Speaker 1 Right. Right. Hence, hence I'm here.

04:25 Speaker 2 Yeah. And no, I think-

04:26 Speaker 1 I can barely hear the brain noise that I went through in the last few days as I'm prepping for this. I'm like, "This is the craziest idea ever to have this conversation." And, um, listen, if it, if it can help one other person and, uh, all I have to give up is a few hours of my time, then that's productive afternoon.

04:44 Speaker 2 Okay. So thank you for the disclaimer, and everyone should know that you- ... that this is, you're only doing this for, for the kavana, for the cause. So, uh-

04:51 Speaker 1 100%.

04:53 Speaker 2 That's, that's why we asked you. Someone that wants to do it. We don't want a man. I mean-

04:56 Speaker 1 I got you. I got you.

04:57 Speaker 2 So back to my original question, what's-

04:59 Speaker 1 That was the disclaimer. Ask me anything you want, and please, pr- um, I'm happy to share.

05:04 Speaker 2 So what's with the seder ha-limud? What's going on?

05:08 Speaker 1 So h- so how far back should I go? Um, my seder ha-limud is like this. You want me to get so vulnerable so quickly? Um, my seder ha-limud. So currently at the Baruch Hashem, I, I, uh, get up in the morning, put my kids on the bus, um, and from 7:30 till 10:15, um, I daven and learn. And, uh, then from 11:15, 10:15 to 11:15, I go to Starbucks, sit in their l- in their, in their lounge area, make phone calls. I w- I try to come in the office not earlier than 11:15.

05:44 Speaker 2 And that's a significant amount of more learning that you have done that, that you're doing than, than, than in, in the past. I'm saying it's a few hours.

05:52 Speaker 1 I think I was sitting by the oil, um, which by the kinus, a bunch of guys, and we were amazed by the- You know, the, the litvishe gang of, you know, I sit and on a seder, the first seder, the second seder, and the businessmen, they sit and they learn, and they, and they learn Torah for a couple hours, and then they walk in, and these real estate people and these business people, they, they pride themselves in their lack of being in the office. Now, as a shliach, as a askan, as a person that our pur-our purpose is to interact with other people, it might seem counterint intuitive, maybe even, like, against marshutras. But I was intrigued by the concept, and around the table, we got, like, committed to, uh, to learn a little bit more and to shut off the phone, to not be engaged in, um, avodas haklal for the first chapter of the day, and then engage a little later and see where that takes you in the, uh, in your e-effect, in your impact, in your fundraising, et cetera. So-

06:55 Speaker 2 So I brought up the building on purpose-

06:58 Speaker 1 Go ahead

06:58 Speaker 2 ... 'cause at the same time that you made this haklata to add in your limud haTorah, what's called mitzvat Torah for now, that's the same time when-

07:10 Speaker 1 Private, private question on Torah?

07:12 Speaker 2 That's the, that's the same time that you're buying a building, and Sefer HaYashar or whatever, Baal HaBatish assefer would, would tell you, "What do you mean? Um, I have to raise X amount of money for this new project. I have to double down. I have to work harder." And you're doing something which apisefer may be counterintuitive by saying, "No, Dafka now I'm going to learn extra hours." Or I, I think you made that haklata to learn before you got into this whole thing with the building. So maybe, may-maybe adaraba it's connected very much.

07:42 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah. Um, putting it in that context is very interesting to see how they worked out together. Um, I don't know, was it six months now? Well, it, it was actually originally till ten o'clock, and then for my birthday I added fifteen minutes to go till ten fifteen. But, but a, a incremental, um, growth in that area has not had less of an effect adaraba. It's been, uh, it's, it's opened up new, uh, blessings in our, may I say, in my life, et cetera.

08:08 Speaker 2 So, I mean, I've been thinking a lot about this whole concept. It seems to me that one of the... You say this, I was listening to a sicha in the Sheikh Abad. The, the Rebbe says there was this, this So in your case, if it's, if it, uh-uh, I saw, uh, Rabbi, uh, Connor Shmatkin used to have hanging in his office a yichidas. The Rebbe says, um, uh, in that yichidas, I don't know who it's to, the Rebbe says, "An askan," what does it mean? There's an askan siburi that doesn't have a You know, the sh- the shlichas environment, the sh- the, the pressure of shlichas, which can be overwhelming

12:12 Speaker 1 On one hand, the business side of it doesn't, doesn't easily go in the way of bitachon. You know, the, the pressure of covering the bank and the, the, the, the running of an organization, the running of, of, of your house, the running of your finances, all that is just... It, it very easily, it doesn't have to naturally go the course of bitachon. It just the harder I work, the longer hours, the more pressure I put on myself, the more I'll produce. Until it doesn't work anymore, until it, it's not, it- until you realize that that solution doesn't actually have fruits. It, it doesn't play itself easily to, uh, to have just more productive life. Um, when you start building that foundation, let me see how you say this, life is just simpler. Life is a lot easier when, uh... I was gonna say when the abish is in charge, but he's in charge anyways. Life's a lot easier when I can get on that bandwagon of recognizing, listen, I don't know where the line between hishtadlus and bitachon laws li- you know, where, where is too much hishta- hishtadlus, where is too little hishtadlus. That's, I guess, a lifelong balance of how to walk that tightrope. But, um, sometimes err on the side of too much hishtadlus, some, uh, sometimes on too much bitachon and, and, and you figure it out over the course of your life. But this limud haTorah thing has not negate- has not brought down any revenue or any, uh, um,

13:40 Speaker 1 productivity.

13:41 Speaker 2 Right. Now it's, uh, it's a, it's such an important thing because, well, uh, I mean, I, I mentioned that the Rebbe was talking about, you know, breaking the American mold, that mo- that, that, that mold exists very much in today's society. And talking about the, the Frum world and the Lubavitch world. I mean, I speak to young people that are telling me that they're concerned about how can you, uh, not get an income or figure out an income even when they're not even married yet, because you need a few hundred thousand dollars to live as a Frum person.

14:17 Speaker 1 Right. Right.

14:18 Speaker 2 And if these m- these bitachon... Yeah, bas- it, it's true. Our lives don't really make sense. The amount of responsibility that we have, the amount of costs that we have, the tuition, the amount of children that we have, the, the, that it actually doesn't compute. It doesn't actually make sense. And if you wanna make sense out of it, of it all, the, that's a exercise that you may not be successful at because it, it-

14:45 Speaker 1 It doesn't make sense

14:46 Speaker 2 ... it doesn't make sense.

14:47 Speaker 1 There's no requirement. There's no way to add it up. Right.

14:49 Speaker 2 So I, I, I'm just thinking that it's really, really important that from a very young age, we cultivate this type of feeling amongst Dafka young people because they're, you know... If you think life's complicated now and you're worried about what's gonna happen in a few years, imagine when you're in it and you actually do have to deal with all of this. And if you, if you haven't, um, built those bitachon muscles based on what it says in Torah, and what it says in, uh, Shaar Bitachon, and what it says in the Rebbe Sichos, and what it says in Chassidus, then you have no tools. You, you need that tool. And by the way, it's not only financial, it's in everything, in Shidduchim. Uh, your mother, my mother-in-law has a personal story that the Rebbe told her to learn Shaar Bitachon. I'm not sure if I have permission to say the whole story. Do you, do you know?

15:42 Speaker 1 As a, a representative of the family, please share.

15:46 Speaker 2 I'm obviously gonna say it wrong because, you know.

15:48 Speaker 1 I'll correct you.

15:49 Speaker 2 But, uh, I believe the story is that, um, she was in Bais Yaakov or seminary or, or maybe she at that point she was-

15:57 Speaker 1 Older

15:57 Speaker 2 ... she was older. She, she was very past that. I mean, she had been in Bais Yaakov, and at a certain point, she was very down about, um, you know, the Shidduchim and, you know, many of her friends got married already. And she wrote a letter to the Rebbe, and she basically, like a real full letter laying everything out, everything that's on her heart, her whole story, and specifically about the, the concept of Shidduchim. And she was holding this letter. She, she, she wrote the letter, and she was holding it, and she was walking on the way to Mosdos to, to give in her letter. Happened to be that point while she was holding the letter, the Rebbe was in the car, and Rabbi Yomen Klein was driving the Rebbe. I think it was in the corner where, where the, uh, where the museum is.

16:50 Speaker 1 The Breidel.

16:51 Speaker 2 Where the... Yeah, exactly. And the Rebbe, the car stopped, and the Rebbe was look... You know, very often the Rebbe would be, uh, with a Sefer or something, but the Rebbe was looking at her. So at that time, um, your mother was adopted by, uh, by the Kleins, by, um, Rabbi Binyamin and Leah Klein and their Mishpacha. So the Klein asked her afterwards what was going on. What-- "The Rebbe was looking at you. Something's, something's up. What was, what, what was that?" So she said, "Actually, I was holding a letter in my hand. My whole life was on this letter. I mean, and, uh, I was, I was about to deliver it to Mosdos. That's what was happening." Anyhow, the Rebbe responded to her letter, and the Rebbe told her to learn Shaar Bitachon. And I believe the Rebbe said to do it, learn it two or three times. And the Rebbe said, "And it's also you can find it in English."

17:57 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

18:00 Speaker 2 And, um, in general, I've, uh, myself, I've, I've been learning it, you know, based on the Rebbe said, uh, to some, to, to many to, to learn Shaar Bitachon. I've been learning it. I'm, I'm always learning it. You know, I learned it once and, you know, I do it, uh, sometimes with Shiur and whatever. I'm not always learning it, but I'm always getting back to it and continuing. So I actually recently I had that click because I heard Avart in a shiur that I was listening to on it, that all of a sudden I've heard this before because I read it before, but then now this time like it clicked and like it did a lot. So that's the idea. You do it two or three times.

18:35 Speaker 1 The only-- I think there's the only part of the story I heard differently. We're gonna have to ask my mom for-

18:40 Speaker 2 Yeah. And I, I made, I made a disclaimer. I'm sure I'm saying it wrong, but go ahead.

18:43 Speaker 1 That, that she had wr-- she had written in but did not hear back from the Rebbe, and then she was, she was standing at the corner and, and, and the Rebbe, you know, got in the car-

18:50 Speaker 2 But she wasn't, she wasn't holding the letter?

18:52 Speaker 1 I'm getting that she had, she had written a few days earlier and did not hear back.

18:55 Speaker 2 Okay. We're gonna have to do a redo to get the story right. Um, yeah, so it's just a, it's, it's-

19:01 Speaker 1 Listen, it's, it's a, it, it, it takes a lifetime, you know. It's, it's not a all or nothing, uh, proposition, you know, to really start moving that to live a life of bitachon takes time, takes effort, takes work, takes, uh, takes... It, it takes un- being uncomfortable and, and, and to jump out on that ledge to be able to do something out of bitachon.

19:25 Speaker 2 Why do you think this is such a yusad, uh, the Rebbe, this concept of bitachon? By the way, it's a very fascinating thing, just shine bitachon. It's not a chidduch sefer. And-

19:35 Speaker 1 Right. It's probably the only term that I've been really pushed not being tois achsidus.

19:39 Speaker 2 Yeah. So why do you think this is such a yusad?

19:42 Speaker 1 It's a worldview. It's a whole, it's a whole different, uh... It's, it's a different way of, of living your life. It's a whole different, uh, attitude, a-and it permeates every single thing. There's no part of your life that is not affected by really living bitachon, from your schedule of your day to your, to your finances, to having children, to have-- to the way you run your company, to the way you interact with other people. Every single part of your day is... Plus you're not looking for something. If a, a shliach that lives in bitachon, when you see a guy who's tackling bitachon, he's not... He's a lot more comfortable with himself, and he's a lot more comfortable with his ve'alabatim, and he's lot, lot more comfortable in his way he interacts with other people, 'cause I don't, I don't need-- I don't... I'm not in charge of the outcome. I'm not in charge of what happens from this interaction. It was just Hak running the world. And, and my, my... I remember a while ago, I think it was before COVID, um, I started calling on... I, I needed money. It sounds familiar. Like I, well, I mean, it, it was financially tight, but I started calling on local business people to meet with them with no agenda, and just calling on them as the local shliach, as the local rabbi, as the local, in my mind, you know, the way I was in my, in my own mind trying to present it, as local,

20:58 Speaker 1 um, representative you know, and, and, and really engaging and having a relationship with them, with takin' no motive outside of Abba's Yisroel. Takin' no motive. And it was hard. You know, it's, you know, obviously I'm looking a, a, a very filtered out demographic of who I'm calling on. But then to, but then to rewind and say, "No, I'm, I'm really... There's no agenda here. There's, there's pashut to offer them the service of a rabbi, to have a, a connection to a shliach, to have a connection to chassidus." But that, that really is possible. It's a lot easier when I'm just-- when I'm not in charge of the world. I'm not in charge of the outcome. I'm not in charge of how this is gonna play itself out. How to And sure enough, some of those relationships developed into beautiful relationships. And, and some of them were dead ends, whatever. But, but e-even from a very basic perspective like that, how I interact with people is affected on my bitachon level. Of course, the fundraising, of course, the scheduling, of course, programming is all affected by that. But that foundational attitude is like Hashem's in charge, he really is. And, and the money I have in my bank account this morning, the how many people come to my program is mamash from the Hebescher. Which sometimes, um, you know, I, you bl-- I blame myself more-- Either I blame myself when less people come or I take credit when more people come. Both of them are

22:26 Speaker 1 wrong. Both of them are wrong. The only, the only thing I control is did I make the phone calls? Did I, did I do my best in my, in my industry for the effort that I'm supposed to put in?

22:38 Speaker 2 Right.

22:38 Speaker 1 I think that's where the Rebbe puts the line. Are you doing the, are you, are you doing the best you can in the, in the industry of what you are performing, what the normative process is? Are you doing that the best you can? And then stop trying to manage the world.

22:51 Speaker 2 I would, I would also take it a step further. It's not only that you don't have, you know, not trying to control the result, you can't be in a spell from the result as well.

23:02 Speaker 1 Yeah.

23:03 Speaker 2 It's like, "Oh, someone gave a huge donation. Let's go dance hakafos." Or being dejected because someone told you no. Whatever. We're talking about finances, but it's, and again, there's so many other aspects of life. Part of that is not being... It's not, it's not just step number one is not looking for the outcome, just doing what you need to do. Step two is not letting the, the ups and downs control your minds and your, and your emotion. That's, that's how-

23:31 Speaker 1 I wonder that hypothetically a person with complete... And there wa- there, there was a moment that I thought that complete bitachon might look on the outside like apathy.

23:44 Speaker 2 Right.

23:44 Speaker 1 Because both of them, you don't go high, you don't go low. The dinim achitza there. But I realized that's not true. Complete bitachon is a person's actually always besimcha. Hypothetically, you might look a little crazy, but you're always on a high.

24:05 Speaker 2 One second. There's a video that the Rebbe tells... Who was it? He said he's giving me five hundred thousand to Lubavitch. You know what I'm talking about?

24:13 Speaker 1 The Federation?

24:15 Speaker 2 I forgot who it was, but... And the Rebbe says-

24:16 Speaker 1 That's it?

24:17 Speaker 2 The Rebbe said, yeah, a million, maybe a million, the Rebbe says. And the Rebbe said a million would be a lot-

24:21 Speaker 1 Oh, yeah

24:21 Speaker 2 ... would be a lot better.

24:22 Speaker 1 Hashan from Toronto.

24:24 Speaker 2 I don't think it was him, but-

24:25 Speaker 1 Someone. Rebbe.

24:27 Speaker 2 The Rebbe said a million would be a lot better And the idea is if you like, let's say, obviously, another Chassid, but not, not... It's different, but, uh, uh, if, if someone is so excited about the five hundred thousand dollars, you can't-- It's not a... You can't do that gimmick and say, "Ah, give a, give a million." That's not gonna work. But if you think that the person will benefit and have a bigger mitzvah by giving a million, so you're gonna let him know.

24:58 Speaker 1 Right. And, and the fear that he might be turned off, whatever, it's not, it's-- that's not part of my calculation.

25:05 Speaker 2 Right. So... And it's als- I mean, we're talking about finances, like, by the way, interestingly, Shomer Shabbos talks. Some, uh, Shliach told me that he was learning Shomer Shabbos with someone who's one of his constituents, and the guy said, "Oh, this is all about money. I don't have, I don't have that problem."

25:21 Speaker 1 Right.

25:22 Speaker 2 Baruch Hashem. But, um, halachah eyl yiding iz sagt. But, uh-

25:27 Speaker 1 Most, most, most Bitachon challenge, I don't know most, I know for myself, a lot of Bitachon relates to finances.

25:34 Speaker 2 For your ev- And, and that's also across the board because-

25:37 Speaker 1 Day-to-day person, unless they're tremendously... You know what tremendously wealthy per- people are? I have a friend who's tremendously wealthy, and he worries, he checks his spre- his balance, his, uh, his net worth every day.

25:49 Speaker 2 Right.

25:50 Speaker 1 That's complete oppo- That's like he's a traditional guy, not, you know, uh, Shomer Shabbos, but he checks his net worth every day. I can't imagine, um, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, every morning, you know, "Am I the top or am I the top three in today?" That's a, that, s- uh, that, that same fear is the person with... I mean, it's, it, it expresses itself different, but it's the same lack of Bitachon than the guy who's has eight dollars or negative a thousand dollars. And when you're under duress, it's treme- it's tremendously difficult, but it's the same lack of Bitachon.

26:25 Speaker 2 And the Rebbe als- but the Rebbe also, a lot of the... There's other things that are connected to Bitachon very much that not relate-- I mean, they are, actually it is related to finance. Thinking about, you mentioned in a different conversation the Rebbe Sichos about, uh, family planning. So some of it is about, you know, the har- the hardship, the emotional hardship on, especially on the mother. But a lot of, a lot of the Sichos are addressing the financial. I mean, you speak to people that don't have this outlook, and it's a very simple heshbon. Can I afford to have another kid?

26:58 Speaker 1 Right.

26:59 Speaker 2 And we never, uh, uh, uh, someone that's a mechunek, it firmly is bachal, but an achas kama, kama, a Chassid of the Rashbi of the Rebbe. But if not, that's not a calculation. That's not, that's not one of the calculations at all because-

27:13 Speaker 1 Rebbe spells it out. The Rebbe gets very specific. The, it's, every child not only opens up a new spiritual reservoir-

27:19 Speaker 2 The Gemara, the Gemara s- the Gemara says it. It comes from the Gemara. Yeah.

27:22 Speaker 1 Okay. Yeah, I'm... That's above my pay grade. Go ahead.

27:26 Speaker 2 Um, right. So the, so, yeah, it's just, it's just the, the, these muscles are... I, I heard a story-

27:35 Speaker 1 It doesn't make sense. A person with, with, with six, seven, eight, nine, ten kids.

27:40 Speaker 2 Right. Um, I heard a story, I think, uh, I think pretty sure, um, Rabbi Pesach Schmerling is the one that posted this story.

27:51 Speaker 1 Go ahead.

27:52 Speaker 2 But I might be wrong. He'll correct me. And that Rabbi Menachem Klein, we mentioned him earlier, came to the Rebbe with a, a, um, a sack of letters. People writing to the Rebbe. And the Rebbe said that if people would learn cha Bitachon, this sack would be half empty. And the idea is everyone has problems. Everyone has challenges. What does a Yid do? As soon as he has a problem, he writes to the Rebbe about it. But if you are, if you're in tuned and you believe in the Aibishter and you have the proper Bitachon, you don't have that problem. Yes, you have the tech-

28:34 Speaker 1 There's no problem to begin with.

28:36 Speaker 2 Right. The, the Hashlachas, you have the, the practical implications of this, you have like anyone else, but you're able-- Y-you, you write what's really bothering you. But if it's not really bothering you because you believe in the Aibishter-

28:50 Speaker 1 Does, does a person with complete Bitachon never write?

28:54 Speaker 2 First of all-

28:55 Speaker 1 Siras Teves he writes about

28:56 Speaker 2 ... you could write to the Rebbe of Siras Teves. I, I mean, in general, the, the whole concept that, you know, some people say, "I'm going to the oil, have me mind for a bracha." Right? That's like, uh, people use that, uh, that, that-

29:11 Speaker 1 Status.

29:12 Speaker 2 Yeah, whatever. Yeah. I mean, it's true the Rebbe gives brachos, and every Chassid writes to the Rebbe when he needs something, a bracha. That's not why we go to the oil. We don't go to the oil to ask for brachos. There's like, uh, there's a language, uh, used in other Kreis in. You go to, to a tzadik, uh, pilnalles gits, like, you know, to accomplish something. Who said you're going to accomplish something? You... A Chassid has to go to the Rebbe because that's where a, a Chassid is connected to the Rebbe. Yeah, uh, obviously, who, uh, uh, if I need a bracha, you know, I'm going down to the Aibishter and I'm gonna, uh, and I'm gonna ask the, the, the Rebbe for a bracha, but that's not why we go. So I mean, the Rebbe spoke clearly about this whole concept of the tzaddis chassidim, right? The chassidim that the only time you hear from them is when they need something, and you never hear from them any other time, especially, uh, of Siras Teves. Right? There's that famous video where, um, above other tafshin and beis when the Rebbe-- someone tells the Rebbe that this is the, a child who was born-

30:21 Speaker 1 One dozen.

30:22 Speaker 2 Yeah, a child born from a bracha. The Rebbe says, "Thank you for telling me. Not e- not everyone is doing so." The Rebbe says. I mean, this, this is, uh, such, such an important Such an important concept, but it, but it's, it, it, it's really, it, it's really dependent on the person, you know? Uh, and the same thing is like, you know, the is a, is a I mean, the we're asking, we're asking for all the . We're asking for everything you need, but there's also the . There's also the That, that's part of the package. You know, that, that you need to have that too. It's not just asking what you need. I mean, there's the famous that a Hasid came to the Rebbe, it's a story. A Hasid came to the Rebbe and he said he needs this, he needs that, he needs that. And the Rebbe said, "" If I... I think I'm saying it correctly. "This is everything that you need. What's needed from you, you don't mention at all." So it's like a-

31:24 Speaker 1 There's a the Rebbe wrote. There's someone, someone wrote a letter to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe in the I don't know if it was English or Hebrew, but they, they, uh, I need... There was a bunch of I's and I think the Rebbe just circled all the I's. It was like a or, or if, whatever it was, the Rebbe just circled and like returned to sender. It was like a little, little sharp, but, but, you know.

31:50 Speaker 2 But I mean, t-today there is a lot of focus on the 'I'.

31:55 Speaker 1 Yeah.

31:56 Speaker 2 Like in the, in the culture that, that, that's a, a big focus. Is that a to, to, to, to, to this?

32:05 Speaker 1 I don't know. There's the, uh, mental health world.

32:08 Speaker 2 Right.

32:12 Speaker 1 I don't know. The Rebbe-- The, the reality is that the focus is there. You can't undo the-- You can't put the, uh, the salt back into the shaker. Um-

32:21 Speaker 2 So pe-people are self-absorbed, you're saying?

32:23 Speaker 1 The culture is such.

32:25 Speaker 2 Huh.

32:25 Speaker 1 Maybe that's actually That the Rebbe's-- That, you know, the, the, the should affect even the, even the self-obsession should even, uh, reach there. Somehow that also becomes . The focus on self also becomes in a way that I'm, that I'm humble about it. I... You can't undo the culture of, of self-obsession. You know, everyone's on their phone. The, the Instagramification of the world of, of everyone, uh, everyone's on a podcast speaking. Um, you can't undo the culture. The question is how do you take a culture where there is an obsession with self and, uh, someti- somehow turn it around to make it into a, into a, an reality?

33:14 Speaker 2 I mean, yeah, I mean, that, I think maybe that's the whole concept that where the Rebbe makes... empowers the individual, that every individual has the I mean, uh, I heard, I heard a word from, um, Rabbi Yeshayahu Toub said that, uh... And he had, he has a column, if he still does, he has a column in, uh, the Ami Magazine.

33:42 Speaker 1 Yeah.

33:42 Speaker 2 He's answering people, people's questions. So someone- Some- someone told him that this is like you really... Oh, he said it's very hard for him to do. It takes a, takes a, takes, takes a lot. So someone told him, "Can you imagine, uh, the Rebbe, all these letters, and he had to, he had to take out, you know, how much it takes from the Rebbe? Now, now you, now you see what it's like." So I think he said, "That's not, that's not the part. That's not so exciting. That's obvious. It's very... What's exciting is that the Rebbe really knew the inner workings of everybody," right? People wrote to the Rebbe often. These days, letters are coming out. We, we always have let-- the, the Rebbe's answers. Now it's becoming in style. People are sending the, the letters they wrote to the Rebbe, where some people uncover some files and they send it all over. You've seen the way people wrote to the Rebbe. People wrote to the Rebbe everything, everything that's going on. So Rabbi Toub says, "The Rebbe, not only he answered, but he, he knew everybody so well."

34:46 Speaker 1 Yeah.

34:47 Speaker 2 And yet, a-and he thought he could build an army with these people?

34:49 Speaker 1 Yeah.

34:51 Speaker 2 So I think that's, I think that, that's what it is. It's taking the, the, the self-ab, the self-absorption and utilizing the, the I mean, uh, no one, no one... I mean, only in I mean, there was never such a concept till that every Hasid is empowered to change the world. That, that, that never existed. It was for , it was for, uh, you know, for, for I mean, it start, it started in phases, and maybe that the But then the Rebbe said the famous that this generation, it changed. The Rebbe said, The Rebbe says that in the previous generations, was if you're The of this generation is that every single person is a lamplighter, and no matter if you're or not, that it goes over to the whole generation.

35:51 Speaker 1 I think that, you know, imposter syndrome is, uh, is a real thing in the sense that y- I think I know for myself and people, friends that I talk with, and talk with younger shluchim as well. You know, who, who am I to actually make a difference i-in a very real way? You know, w-w... Especially when you see the-

36:14 Speaker 2 You talk to younger shluchim in what, like, in what capacity?

36:21 Speaker 1 As it happens. Sometimes, uh, calling for advice, sometimes, uh, whatever, you know, financial advice or, or, or just senior peer advice.

36:31 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

36:33 Speaker 1 Let's, let's say you say in financial ways, people call in and, and advice on how to structure finances or how to build a device like that, um, you know, to responsible finances. So I found that a lot of people don't feel worth- worthy of whether it's the salary that they're taking or they don't believe enough in the cause that they're representing. Whatever. I'm so much-- I'm a yokel in, in my little town, you know, what am I doing over here? I haven't done much yet. I'm on two, three years. I haven't accomplished much. I'm costing X amount. I'm not worth the money that I'm, that I'm, uh, taking. Um, I, I ha-- I, I don't see myself on the same level of, uh, you know, the stars in Lubavitch, the, uh, the, the, um, those that have at least in a revealed way, high level influence of the world around them. You know, we, we compare ourself to them, and it's like, eh, you know, I'm not accomplishing much. I'm not worth that much. Um, and then you start the conversation about, no, you know, you are genuinely the of in your little town. You're worth, you're worth an infinite amount of money. Not the money is the, is the barometer of what you're worth. You are worth every-- the Jewish world has to invest everything it can in you because you really are a huge deal. You really are. I'm not a yokel in a little town with eight people at my minyan or,

38:02 Speaker 1 or, or, you know, nine people at my seder. It, it's a very, um, lonely and discouraging job at times when, when you don't believe in, in your true power and potential. And I think there's that, I don't know, people trying to figure out... You know, your whole life you're trying to figure out your own ego, your own, your place in the world. Um, and I, I forget where we got here.

38:32 Speaker 2 You were talking about the power of the individual.

38:34 Speaker 1 The power of the individual. The rabbi taught to believe in every single person. The rabbi believed in, in the person themselves, that you are, um, the most important guy in your town. The shliach has to really believe that. The real-- the shliach really has to internalize that idea. I remember years ago, I had a deher. I think you have to like make a, a, um, jingle, and every time- ... someone on the podcast says deher, you play like a little deher jingle. Yeah.

38:59 Speaker 2 So we'll ask the-

39:00 Speaker 1 I had a deher

39:00 Speaker 2 ... we'll ask the producers to add that.

39:03 Speaker 1 There you go. I had a deher that, um, there's a vert. I don't think it's, it's the rebbe's vert, but there's a vert of why is Eretz Yisrael where it is geographically. It's at the intersection of Asia, Africa, and Europe. You know, of all the places on, on... Why did-- why is that ? Why is that Eretz HaKodesh? Why is that, why is that there? And because that's really the intersection of the world, that the Times Square of reality, and anyone doing business between Africa, Asia, Europe has to go through that part of the world. And therefore, the Yidden's job is to, is to, um, influence the world if we're the Avraham Avinu of humanity that really have to influence everyone, the best way strategically to be able to do that is, is right there at that intersection. And therefore, um, Eretz Yisrael is purposefully there, even though it's not a great... You know, there's no oil there and there's no, uh, but, uh, that's the place because to, to, to make a that's the place it has to happen. I think part of that vert is like the whole Hashpa'ah, the whole world happens through the Yidden, so all people have to come in contact with Yidden in order to get their Hashpa'ah, so that is the, the greatest place in order to accomplish that. So, so I thought that, that the shliach is the same thing in his locale. The shliach is the same-- represents Eretz Yisrael, Machne Eretz Yisrael, in his little,

40:22 Speaker 1 in his little corner of the world. Really, the entirety of the Hashpa'ah of the whole community happens through the shliach's office, living room, Chabad house, meetings. The Starbucks that the shliach goes to, that's where all the Hashpa'ahs of the town happens, and the shliach has to really embrace that. Meaning everyone in the town... You know, who am I? No, every influencer in town has to have a yakas with the shliach. Every school superintendent, every-- anyone in town that, that is a Matzias Dvar or not a Matzias Dvar, their Hashpa'ah comes through the local shliach, and therefore, it's the shliach's responsibility to, uh, to, to step into his position of influence of, of what am I doing here and, you know, the oppos-- embrace your ego, embrace your, your, the power that you have, which is the rebbe's oftu of, of celebrating that Matzias, of celebrating that, that, uh, the the, the, the, the ego and saying, "Run with it. You are the most important person in your town." Now, if you do that in a selfish way, you're gonna screw the whole thing up. If you do that in a, in a selfish way, you're gonna, you're gonna have a negative impact on the, on the community. But if you do that in a proper way, in a eidel way, then your ego is the most important ego of the town.

41:41 Speaker 2 I think it's also-- I think that's the concept that's, uh, brought down in Iyov Yim, which is not about a shliach in particular, it's about a Hasid in general, that a Hasid That you create your environment. You create an environment.

41:57 Speaker 1 Yeah.

41:58 Speaker 2 I think it's the same concept that what is the definition of a Hasid? A Hasid is somebody that, you know, u-use the word influencer, that people use that word today. It's actually a good, it's a good word. Every, every Hasid is, is an influencer or, or is supposed to be, right? It says in Iyov Yim if you're not, it's right? You know, it's a, it's a... If you're not an influencer-

42:22 Speaker 1 If you don't dive in, if you don't dive in the worst thing is that you're not an influencer.

42:28 Speaker 2 Yeah.

42:28 Speaker 1 That's what it's... In that same Iyov Yim.

42:30 Speaker 2 Yeah.

42:33 Speaker 1 You know?

42:33 Speaker 2 Yeah.

42:34 Speaker 1 The worst thing is They're no longer an influencer

42:37 Speaker 2 There's a famous-

42:38 Speaker 1 A re-a real influencer, not a BS, uh, consentious to influencer

42:42 Speaker 2 Right. There's a famous that the rabbi says that, uh, I don't know if it's how famous it is, that the rabbi says that if you're davening on Shabbos and you have your tallis over your head, even if you're sleeping, but it looks like you're davening, there's already an opinion. So-

42:56 Speaker 1 I never, I never understood that

43:00 Speaker 2 No. What, what the-

43:01 Speaker 1 No. Go ahead. Ex-explain it. Explain it

43:04 Speaker 2 Um, I think the, the concept is no one's... Not looking f- to be fake, not the idea, but you s- a healthy Hasid sh- basically, a lot of people think that they're in their own corner, and they have a shliach has that, that stamas tos and, uh, needs to be taken care of. But sometimes people have legitimate reasons for saying this. Let's say I'm not a shliach, or I'm one of the shlichim in the town, you know, I'm not, not so important. And I think the, that part, the partic- about the tallis, but in general we're talking about, is that you can never look at yourself as you're not part. Like, y- you know, you're just, you're just, you know, part of the collective crowd. You know, there's the fame in the Sichas, and many... Very often when the rabbi speaks, the rabbi says, "Yadir eineh fun eich, fun eich al gezamnt." It's a lashon that the rebbe uses, every one of you in particular-

44:05 Speaker 1 Every-

44:05 Speaker 2 And all of you together.

44:07 Speaker 1 Yeah.

44:07 Speaker 2 So you need bo- you need both of those because we have how we're part of a klal and also the prat. So I-i-it's, uh, just an important part of the fabric of being a Hasid in general, and a Hasid that actually in particular, is recognizing that you are a person of influence. I mean, everything that, you know, the, the rebbe writes in so many letters not to move from your, from y- your location. Obviously, the rebbe did let people move, you know, this, you know, this, I'm ge- I'm generalizing. But you see a cav, the rebbe doesn't like when people are, are, are, are abandoning their community. Why? Who am I? I'm a b- if you're a shliach and you're a rav, for sure the rebbe never lets people leave. But I mean, I, I, like I, like I said, I made a disclaimer, there were cases that the rebbe did let, but I came out generally. But any person, the rebbe... You're a Yid. You have a shvah on your community. That's, it's a, it's a, it's a real revolutionary concept. I meet people that, "Okay, we're making aliyah, we're going here." I mean, not outside of Lubavitch, I'm talking about, "We're doing this, we're doing that." And like, you know, I'm not gonna get into too many details 'cause I, you know, but I don't wanna talk about in-individuals, but I've saw instances where I saw how those people were very effective in the community. They weren't necessarily rabbonim or they, they, they,

45:28 Speaker 2 they had this project and they did that project. And one of them-

45:31 Speaker 1 Yeah

45:31 Speaker 2 ... one of them were, were, was actually making aliyah. Not, not all of Lubavitch. I asked them, "Did you find a replacement?" I asked this person, "Did you find a replacement for this program they used to do? That you do?" They never even thought of it.

45:45 Speaker 1 Right.

45:45 Speaker 2 It's not because, it's not because they don't care. It's because it was a thing that they did.

45:49 Speaker 1 It could be they did and now they moved on. They're onto the next chapter of their life.

45:51 Speaker 2 It's not their respo- or it's not their responsibility.

45:53 Speaker 1 We have a couple in the community so far, Baruch Hashem, I convinced. They, they really wanna make aliyah. Hey, I'm here, Michelle. Thank you. And, uh, they really, really wanna make aliyah. And, um, Baruch Hashem, you know, they're there quite often. But, um, conversations with them about the rebbe wants you to stay here. If you, if you're influential here, if you... And they're very influential here in the community, you don't have the privilege of, of leaving. You are influencers and, and embracing the influencer position is, uh... And, and you can talk about it. You actually don't sh- uh, ""Ve'rabbeinu, ve'rabbeinu," you know. No, it's... You are influential, and you don't have the, the privilege or the right to pick yourself up and make aliyah, which tack would be very nice for you. It would be very nice. Maybe even add in Yiddish shmaim, which is debatable if it will or won't, but, but it might even have a, you know, be a plus in your own Yiddishkeit, but you have the here. Masgune.

46:44 Speaker 2 Right. And, and sometimes it g- right. And sometimes, I mean, the whole concept of schlichas when the rebbe was introducing it, and then it's cl- it's clear in the Sichas. Look, uh, look at the Sichas, if you have a galif. The way the rebbe... It's very interesting in general to l- to... If you learn the early Sichas, you can see how the rebbe's developing the concept of schlichas. Not necessarily is it always about schlichas. So the whole concept of, of, of hafatsa, the idea that, that the rebbe has to be mechanech from, you know, from alf bas. And one of the things that the rebbe says there-

47:16 Speaker 1 Training a generation to think in th- in those mindsets.

47:19 Speaker 2 Right. Right. The sh- yeah. So one of the things the rebbe says is, yes, it may affect your spiritual and your ruchnisdike growth, but it's what's needed from you, and other people can benefit from it, so it's your responsibility.

47:36 Speaker 1 Right.

47:36 Speaker 2 So we were discussing this in a different conversation, that the, I think the rebbe's approach in general is empowering through giving responsibility.

47:51 Speaker 1 The more you did, the more you, uh, you got empowered to do more.

47:55 Speaker 2 Right. And it's like, uh, some people have a hard time with it. Like, you know, "What do you want from me? I do, I do what I can." Obviously, you do what you can. And but i-i-it's, I, I think it's a, it's such a different approach to life that like... Well, that approach that it's f- you're doing it for yourself. It's for, it-it's part of your shleimus. Ev-everything, right? The Yashmi She'adav, yeah, there's selfish motives there, but it's for yourself. You want to look at yourself as someone that has responsibility and as someone that has influence, because ultimately, you're gonna be in a healthier spot, your family's gonna be in a healthier spot if you, if you feel like you're doing something- I mean, uh, someone sent me this little, uh, uh, a meme. There's a new breakthrough, breakthrough, new approach to self-care, and the new approach is that there's been studies that if you help others, it actually helps you be happier. This is, this is a huge-

49:07 Speaker 1 Important

49:08 Speaker 2 ... huge breakthrough in, in, in modern psychology.

49:12 Speaker 1 Biopsychology. Billions of dollars of research.

49:15 Speaker 2 Right. And this is, uh, th-this is basic rebbe, you know, uh, you know, this is so basic and, and but people take it for granted. Like or, or, or they're not realizing or not tapping into that.

49:29 Speaker 1 Right.

49:29 Speaker 2 Like, you know, you, you have-- you, you're, you're a massive influencer. And a, a lot of times also people look and, oh, this is, this is wrong. This is... You know, they're trying-- they're looking at society or they're looking at the-- in Lubavitch like this is not going right, and that's not going right, and then they complain about it on their, uh, WhatsApp group or to their, to their best friend.

49:51 Speaker 1 By the way, every-- the-- from the Rebbe's perspective, every part of Olam Haza has to become Al Pi Torah. Every single part of the human experience, your seichel, your middos, your ma'aseh, you know, all Esros Midahs of your makeup, um, and the, the entirety of civilization, part of bringing Mashiach is the entirety of civilization is, um, that it's functioning Al Pi Torah. You know, whether it's the Shleimus Ha'olam happens Al Pi Torah, that which showed him that the only way real Shalom can happen is when it's Al Pi Torah. If it's make-believe, uh, um, ideas, then it, it, it's just temporary measures that won't really bring Shalom Al Midat. It can only happen Al Pi Torah. Commerce can only happen Al Pi Torah. Business. Money can be only-- real money can only be made Al Pi Shalom. Society should only ultimately be running Al Pi Torah. So each one of us have huge influence on a segment of the world that is still not running Al Pi Torah. And whether it's a Shliach, it, it-- everyone in this context, every single person is a Shliach. Which is how, how the Rebbe presented it. That we all have a part of Olam Haza that is not-

51:04 Speaker 2 Yeah. It says in Yemei Yemei, Chassidim and Shluchim from Lubavitch. A Chassid is a Shliach of the Rebbe. Yeah.

51:10 Speaker 1 To, to create a reality where everything in this world is functioning Al Pi Torah. So, you know, there's, there's never a moment where, um, where you're, you're outside of a Shlichus. There's a room full of Goyim and you're in the room. Great. Well, I think it was Drizin in California when that, uh, the cult kill-- they killed themselves. Is that-- You know what I'm talking about?

51:31 Speaker 2 No. I mean, I heard of the cult that killed themselves, but you can elaborate.

51:37 Speaker 1 I think the '70s, I don't know, late '60s, early '70s, Rabbi Drizin was a-

51:41 Speaker 2 I met Drizin

51:42 Speaker 1 ... I met him in Shliach in San Francisco, in Northern California or something.

51:45 Speaker 2 He was in Berkeley, I believe. No? That was short period away with both of them. Okay.

51:49 Speaker 1 And there was a, the, the cult, either they were there or they were sourced from there, or they, I don't know, from there, and they, they all, uh, um, committed mass suicide. And soon thereafter, Chabad called him and says, "Hayitachan." He's like, "Hayitachan?" Like, "Ma?" Like, "What? What? How do I get mixed into this?" The bunch-- Although probably there were many of them who were Jewish, but they lived there. It's an hour from here. Whatever it is, it's far away and-

52:11 Speaker 2 So the Chabad says you have to assume responsibility.

52:14 Speaker 1 It's your thing. It's your thing. It's your part of the world. Um, you know, that's-- you are in a position of influence. It's under your umbrella, whatever that means. But just like like all these things that the Rebbe pushed, which is a novelty of the Rashbi, that all these things should, should happen, is really understanding that every person can influence every part of reality, that it should be Al Pi Torah. Not just Al Pi Torah, Al Pi Chassidus, Al Pi, you know, deeper, deeper things.

52:46 Speaker 2 And this would also explain why the Rashbi is tasked with bringing Mashiach.

52:52 Speaker 1 A natural-- That's a natural conclusion of this process.

52:55 Speaker 2 Right. Because-

52:56 Speaker 1 When you're doing, when you're doing this and when, when, when every single detail of reality, is infused with the Mayan itself, then automatically Mashiach happens. It's like that's a natural outcome.

53:09 Speaker 2 Right. So the Rebbe basically, on Bas Lag B'Mez, was setting out the mission and telling every Chassid that Chassidus will no longer be, you know, for Chassidim, but Lubavitch is not a party, it's not a Maflega, and each one of you have to bring Mashiach, and you're all gonna take responsibility for this. The Rebbe-

53:31 Speaker 1 It's a crazy idea, by the way, if you look at it from, from a very grub, um, analytical sense. The b- the Rebbe's business strategy systematically laid out from Taf Shin Yud, even before Taf Shin Yud. What's the goal? The mission statement. Like, the Rebbe's very, like, vocal. There's a mission statement.

53:50 Speaker 2 The Rebbe said in America, we like statements.

53:52 Speaker 1 Mission statement. Right. Ma statement.

53:53 Speaker 2 Yeah.

53:53 Speaker 1 The Rebbe lays that as a mission statement. The Rebbe slowly starts building infrastructure. The Rebbe slowly starts... The, the Rebbe, you know, waits for certain things to come from Chassidim, whatever it is, certain, certain initiatives coming from Chassidim. The Rebbe, like with progressively goes and slowly goes and m- builds up this, this, this, this, um, flywheel effect that just bigger, bigger, and all of a sudden all the-- everything gets sucked into it and, and, and, and you have the Lubavitch what it is today. But it, it's a fascinating... I don't know if there's a s-- you know, uh, an article's written about the Rebbe's business strategy, but the Rebbe's-

54:26 Speaker 2 Weren't you, weren't you working on such a project?

54:29 Speaker 1 No. Something similar. I don't know. You wanna-- You have a couple thousand dollars for me?

54:33 Speaker 2 What, what is the project?

54:36 Speaker 1 Really? We're gonna go there? Okay. Um, I, I had seen an article, um, I wanna say 10 years ago, of the... Of someone built the data of Shalas and Shuvus. I don't even know when the Shalas and Shuvus are. I don't know, 300, 400, 500 years ago. Each sha- sha- the Shalas and Shuvus of, uh, the, the reach of the Shalas and Shuvus, meaning, um... Okay, I'm drawing, I'm drawing a blank. Who's a Shalas and Shu- who, who... Give me an example of the is he a Shalas and Shu- is a Shalas and Shuvus?

55:10 Speaker 2 Yeah.

55:10 Speaker 1 I guessed right? Okay. The is sitting in, in a shtetl in, um, the, the, the-

55:16 Speaker 2 Prague

55:17 Speaker 1 ... the, uh, the planet, on the planet.

55:19 Speaker 2 Prague, Prague, Prague.

55:20 Speaker 1 Thank you. Right. Near the goyim. And he's sitting there, and he's, um-

55:24 Speaker 2 Yeah, it's a, yeah, if you listen to Shmol Kunda, you would know that, uh, is from Prague.

55:29 Speaker 1 There you go. I think that to video is blocked on my, you know, that video I can't watch.

55:35 Speaker 2 It's pre, it's pre to video. I mean, this is, uh-

55:37 Speaker 1 Cassette. It's cassette

55:37 Speaker 2 ... cassette, and in the car we listen to it. Okay.

55:40 Speaker 1 So, um-

55:41 Speaker 2 May- maybe in, uh, the Talbins they don't have, uh, Shmol Kunda.

55:44 Speaker 1 We don't have, we don't have cassettes.

55:46 Speaker 2 Oh, okay.

55:48 Speaker 1 So we ha- so is sitting in his basement or his living room, wherever he is. Is that the same guy that, um, the longest Pesach? Same guy?

55:56 Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah. That's the story, yeah.

55:57 Speaker 1 Okay. So he's, uh, I already can hear the sounds of his living room. He's sitting in his living room, the goy knocks. Now he's sitting in his living room and he sends out 500,000 different letters, Shalas and Shuvus. So they actually, in a very cool way, built out a database of all the places and dates that he sent out letters. So, um, you have, you can see, I don't know what year, year he lived in, you know, this year he sent letters there and then that year. You can see over the course of the 30, 40, 50 years of he's sending out letters, the reach of the . And you can do that with m- many different, um, um, authors, uh, over the course of their lifetime, their influence. It's actually done, I think, at University of Haifa. So they would digitize Shalas and Shuvus. I thought it was cool. I thought, "Why don't we do that with the Rebbe?" Whatever it never happened.

56:51 Speaker 2 Do, do, do what?

56:53 Speaker 1 So a, a year and a half ago, two years ago, it dawned on me that maybe you talk, you can, I don't know the technology, but I, I started dabbling in it. So imagine you can do the reach . We don't know the reach, the reach. It's impossible to quantify it. But imagine how if you can digitize the Rebbe's reach, meaning from, from Samach Beis, you know, you have a small dot in the Nepe Petrovsk.

57:21 Speaker 2 Nikolaev.

57:22 Speaker 1 Nikolaev.

57:22 Speaker 2 Nikolaev, the Rebbe was born.

57:24 Speaker 1 Nikolaev. And then, um, and then over the course of time, so you have, you have different metrics, you have different data points of what the, of, of, of where the Rebbe is. So you have Mozes open, you have shluchim sent, you have letters sent. So you have the date and the location. You have places referenced in Seches. You have, um, Tanyas printed. You have, um, American shluchim sent. You have, um, things like that. You have, uh, uh, places the Rebbe went. So imagine you can actually have it on a map, these type of visuals of the reach of the Lubavitch Rebbe. Now, you can do it in a way, you can do the, pull up the data multiple ways. Um, Taf Shin Chaf. What did, what was done in Lubavitch in Taf Shin Chaf? The people that came for Yachidus, where did they come from? It's a c- you know, in communications, Hebrew and English, what, there's, there's, there's 10,000 Hebrew letters and there's at least another 10,000 English of other languages, letters from the Rebbe. There's 20, 30, 40,000 minus. Whatever it is, there's a tremendous volume of data that is, uh, that is, um, available to be able to really quantify or visualize. You know, they have the thing, the Rebbe's gift to the world and all the cities that currently have Lubavitch, but that's not, that's not a strong visual and it's also not interactive, and it's not the over time. So imagine you can do Taf Shin Chaf. What happened in

58:44 Speaker 1 Taf Shin Chaf? These are the shluchim sent, the Mozes open, the American shluchim sent d- though, in, during those years. Um, the minus sent, the letters, the et cetera. Imagine you could do from Taf Reish Samech Beis till Taf Shin Chaf. Where was Lubavitch at that point? I believe if you have all that data, you can create a, um, an interactive map of really covering the planet. I mean, where, where on this planet was there not a letter sent or a shliach didn't walk through and, um, American shluchim, et cetera. So some of the-

59:19 Speaker 2 It's funny, I, I just sent, I just recently saw a letter from the Rebbe in English to someone in Stanford.

59:27 Speaker 1 20 years before your shlichim there.

59:28 Speaker 2 He, he lives mamish around the corner from where, where I live, and no one knows. I asked a bunch of people, the, the Rabbi Darren and o- others. They don't know who he is. It was bef- it was before and, uh-

59:39 Speaker 1 Right

59:39 Speaker 2 ... we don't know it . But the Rebbe was communicating with a Yid that lives around the block from me. You know .

59:45 Speaker 1 I moved into, I moved into Smithtown four years ago.

59:48 Speaker 2 Your father has an, your father has hanging in his office a letter that the Rebbe wrote to, uh, what, what was that group in Long Island? There was a group that was becoming Frum.

1:00:02 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:00:02 Speaker 2 That, that was the precursor for y- for, for your parents-

1:00:06 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah

1:00:06 Speaker 2 ... becoming, uh, becoming shluchim in, in, in Long Island. Oh, your father has the, the letter that Rebbe wrote to them. It's hanging in your father's office.

1:00:13 Speaker 1 I moved to Smithtown four years ago to a new house. I'm walking to... We moved there Pesach. Six months later, you know, you know your neighbors, you wave at them, you smile at them. I, I don't really know who you are. I knew there was a couple doors down this Jewish guy. And, um, I'm walking to Rosh Hashanah morning. I walk by this guy's house. He's in his... He's out in his car. He's washing his car Rosh Hashanah morning, music blasting, young kid. I walk by, he waves at me. "Happy Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi." I say, "Hey, you wanna hear shofar?" I walk over. He, uh, he comes out to put a yarmulke on. I blow shofar. And he says to me, "Oh, I was by the oil yesterday." I'm like, "What?" He says, "Yeah, whenever I have a problem, I go to the oil. Did I say it right? Oil?" So he says, "But it was too busy. There were too many people that Rosh Hashanah."

1:00:55 Speaker 2 Rosh Hashanah.

1:00:55 Speaker 1 "There were too many people, so I left. I'm gonna go back next week." I was gonna ask him like, "How'd you end up there?" And that's like the stupidest question ever. Like, what do you mean how'd you end up there? Of course, he ended up there.

1:01:04 Speaker 2 Yeah. And-

1:01:05 Speaker 1 The rebbe, the rebbe didn't need me. Like, the, the rebbe has his, you know, uh, maybe I'll have the chutz to be able to get involved in this person's relationship. The rebbe, the, you know, the relationship happened independent without me. But so I actually spent some time researching, so we have, you know, the, the Moises just generally have the data available. Some data... The Merkos of the early years is not, uh, is not digitized in any real way. It's, it's hard to track, but maybe this can be part of the process of digitizing. I re- Ironically, I reached out to the guy who, who, um, originally digitized this Chassidism Shul thing, and he s- he got all excited. He says University of Haifa would love to get involved, and he quoted me forty thousand dollars to build out this huge map. I said, "No, thank you." But on Fiverr, I got a guy-

1:01:47 Speaker 2 Oh, he wanted forty thousand dollars.

1:01:48 Speaker 1 He wanted forty thousand dollars to build out this interactive map that, that really can-

1:01:52 Speaker 2 W- so what, what do you think of the... What is the point of this besides the data?

1:01:56 Speaker 1 The point is that there has to be influencing every, every, every corner of the globe. The really changed... If Mashiach's gonna-- If Mashiach's coming is dependent on us reaching every corner of the globe with m- the Mayan itself and really getting there, that gives a visualization of, of how that's happening. Also, let's say Tanya's. You're in a place, no Tanya was printed there. It's very hard today to find out was a Tanya ever printed here. So you boom, you have the... You can find it. W-what-- Where is there a place? It's all great for shlichus development of these people.

1:02:31 Speaker 2 Oh, so you're saying this is also could be a tool to see where on the map-

1:02:35 Speaker 1 I don't know

1:02:35 Speaker 2 ... we have not.

1:02:35 Speaker 1 Once it happens, once it happens, there's a lot that can be done with it. And, and, and the Moises are very supportive of it happening also. They just need someone to, uh, pull it all together onto, onto one bro- maybe that's their hair project next. But, um, whatever. It's, it's, it, it's using modern technology to really appreciate the enormity. It's, it's hard to fathom the Rebbe's reach on the world. It's hard to put that in a visual of what that actually means. Literally every zip code either has a Tanya printed, it has a Shliah, has a Mois, it has a Merkos Shliah in certain areas of the globe. It's a pretty cool, whatever. It's a pretty cool idea.

1:03:12 Speaker 2 Right.

1:03:13 Speaker 1 Sponsorships available.

1:03:14 Speaker 2 And you-- And the vision is that it goes after the Gematamos also?

1:03:20 Speaker 1 Yeah, hundred percent. Yatom Im Chai. Like i- imagine you can see from, from nineteen oh two to nineteen twenty-five, to twenty thou- to, to twenty twenty-five, as, as the world just gets covered with these little flames or whatever you wanna, whatever the icon is, the Rebbe's influence. You know, by the Kinos, it's, you know, those shook went out before Gematamos. Those shook went out after Gematamos. You don't really see, you know, everyone's halfway standing anyways. When you see Yatom Im Chai, y-you actually see Yatom Im Chai. Like, you can actually see, wow, like this is, this is a crazy visual.

1:03:57 Speaker 2 And it's also because in the Yatom Im Chai reality is how we're gonna fulfill the mission. It's gonna-- It ha- it, it didn't, it didn't happen before. It's, and it's gonna happen now.

1:04:11 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yep. Yep.

1:04:14 Speaker 2 And by the, and by the way, uh, the Chei, uh, what could tie everything in, believing in, in this mission and really having Emunah in Mashiach to also tie it into the Bitachan. If you think that you're here, Mikra and Mikras, and you're here by chance, and you just happen to be here 'cause you don't really believe in the Eibishter, how can you believe in Mashiach? Believing, really believing in Mashiach is a total outgrowth of having strong Yesais in your Emunah in the Eibishter and, and, and, and, and in your Bitachan. So, well, that's the Maisa that, uh... I, I heard a different... I always thought it was the Alter Rebbe, but I just heard now that, uh, it might have been someone else, that the Alter Rebbe came back from, uh, from Izitch. You know, you know the story?

1:05:05 Speaker 1 Go ahead.

1:05:07 Speaker 2 I always heard it was the Alter Rebbe, but I don't know. And then someone asked, uh, "What were you... What did you learn there?" He said, "At the Eibishter."

1:05:17 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:05:19 Speaker 2 He said, "Well, you don't know the Eibishter? Uh, my, uh, the, the, the Shifrah knows it also." She brought her in. He asked her, "What, you know, is it Eibishter?" Yeah. So he said that, "She says there's a Eibishter. I know that there's an Eibishter." And I think that's really the concept. Well, that's the concept of a Rebbe in general. The Amin HaShem of Meisha Avzay, that the, you know, the Nasiim, a Nasi, a Nasi Adai is Mafarnus the Emunah. It gives us, it sustains our Emunah in the Eibishter. You know, when, when you have the Rebbe lay-- the Rebbe laying out, there's a Eibishter in this world, there's Basi Lagani, the Gnunmi, the Makav Sheikivat Chila, and you have the... And, and, and, and, and, and, and translating that to the here and now, then now we have to actually make a Didot Betachtainim and bring the Eibishter to this world. I mean, this is a, a huge, huge gift that, uh, that, that we have as, as Chidim, and that the whole world has to be able to have that clarity and that, you know, that the-- to, to, to know that it's real, to know, to really know that it's real, and, uh, you know, to be able to wake up in the morning and say, "I'm part of, I, I, I'm part of this godly mission." So it's, it's, uh, the Ashenim Atef HaKeino takes on a whole new dimension when, when it's coming in this context. It's not, it's not

1:06:49 Speaker 2 Ashenim Atef HaKeino because we're, we're, we're murdered and because of, because of anti-Semitism, and Ashenim Atef HaKeino because we're Am HaNifcha. That's also true.

1:07:04 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, uh, now that we, we sat together, um, we're already friends.

1:07:15 Speaker 2 So we're just pretending.

1:07:18 Speaker 1 We're just pretending. So I'll, I'll, I'll share, I'll share a story hopefully that ties a few things in together. So, so many years ago, or not so many years ago, we were looking for a house, um, for years. Baruch Hashem, we got our, our recent house, our previous house, and we were looking for a new house. Wanna try and remember all the details correctly, but I might clarify throughout. We're looking for a new house, and we couldn't find, we just couldn't find one. You know, of course, walking distance to Chabad. Um, didn't work out. Fast-forward to, um, it was a Tishri-- so Tishri, we-- right after Tishri put out, we, we, we expanded on Zillow. We went, "You know what? We'll find a mile radius from our house. We'll find a, um, walkable distance one mile." Sure enough, within a few days after Yom Kippur, we found a house. We, we, we put in a offer. We won the bid. Great house, great location. Um, we had to s- we had to refurbish. We had to fix up our current house before we moved into the new one. So we couldn't sell that house until we bought the new one, so I needed a loan. I called my grandfather. They live in Mexico. He gave me a loan so that we can buy the new house. Very good. So we were supposed to close on the house, um, December twenty-- December thirtieth, we were supposed to close on the house. Um, our lawyer had everything

1:08:51 Speaker 1 lined up. He sends me an email about 10 days beforehand saying, "Hey, this is the amount we need for closing. Can you please wire me the amount? And I will send you... And, um, that way when we get to closing, everything will be fine. We don't have to have any problems." I wire him the money. I call, go to the bank, I wire the money. Um, December-- that year, December twenty-fifth. Yeah, December twenty-fifth was Shabbos. I went to the bank. He calls me, the lawyer calls me December twenty-fourth, Friday at three thirty, and he says, um, "Okay, closing is next week. When-- It's Thursday. I just wanted to give you the numbers of what you should bring to closing a, a check." I said, uh, "You know, I already wired you the money." And he says, , "I, I have no idea what you're talking about. Why, why, um, why do, why do you think you sent me the money? I never asked you for money." And all of a sudden a dawn on me what happened, like, "Oh, shoot." So I'm like, "No, stop a sec." Like, "You never asked for money?" He says, "No, I never asked you for money." I said, um, "Here's an email that you sent me." He says, "I never sent you that email." Guess it was a hack. I had wired $136,000 to, um, the proverbial Nigerian prince in some, uh, some place. Whatever. And that was, that was, you know, the loan that I got from my

1:10:05 Speaker 1 grandfather to go to closing. So it's, it's Friday afternoon, 3:30. Shabbos is 4:07. It's a, it's a short Shabbos. Shabbos is 4:07. So I, um, quick-- I didn't even call home. I ran to the bank. I ran to Chase where the money was, and they're closed already for the Chag. Um, I call. It's, it's 3:45, it's 3:50. I call... I don't know who to call. The whole country's shut down already, and we have guests coming to our house in half hour, in 45 minutes. I call the police, and I say, "I don't know the right person to call. Uh, can you please-- can I file a report?" They said they'll send someone to my house. I said, "Okay, but it's gonna be the Sabbath, and I can't do anything." They said, "Listen, there's no one in the office now. We'll do the best we can." I run home. I walk in the house. My wife sees ex-- you know, she sees something went off. I'm like, "It's, it's 4:10." It's like right after Lachmanch. It's 4:15. Um, I say, "Give me a second. Let me just empty out my pockets. I'll, I'll tell you everything." I run to the bedroom to take out my p- my, uh, my stuff. As I'm in the bedroom, the doorbell rings. There's a cop at the door. So my kids are there, and no one knows what happened yet, and there's a cop at the door, and Tati's freaking out. So I come out my bedroom like, "Okay, guys,

1:11:25 Speaker 1 everyone's okay." I said, "Everyone's fine. Um, give me two minutes. I'll explain everything." I step out of the house, and I tell the cop, "Listen, this is what happened." Um, he says, uh, "Oh, you know, when did this hap-- You know, when did you wire the money? This morning? This afternoon?" I said, "No, I wired it like 10 days ago." And he's like, "Oh." Now, um, what it was like, it was five days. It was five days before I spoke to him. And, um, he's like, "Oh, okay." You know, whatever. Like, if it was this morning, there's nothing to do about it. But five days, there was nothing to do about it. Okay, so he wr- takes down a, uh, police report. I go back into the house, and, um, I, my wife and kids are standing there like, "What just happened?" I said, "Listen, Tati made a mistake, and, uh, I wired the money to some crook. Um, we're gonna buy the house. We're gonna-- I have no idea how, but we're gonna buy the house. And I, I don't-- I, I have no idea. That's all the information I know. I, I don't know anything else. I wired the money to the wrong person, and the closing is Thursday. I'm gonna buy the house. I'm gonna have a, you know, Baruch Hashem." And somehow internally, like, it was just, "Okay, Mendy, the guests are coming, and everything you ever learnt in yeshiva about Shabbos and about Bitachon and about maybe she runs the

1:12:39 Speaker 1 world and about whatever, you know, the moment Shabbos begins, Malchus asaya, like everything, the world at shkiya on Friday afternoon is perfect." And somehow something just clicked in my mind. I'm like, "Okay, let's go with this." Like, I have, I have nothing to lose. Like, I really there's nothing to do. There's nothing to do. Guests came. It was a delightful Friday night. Didn't I actually called th-those guests like a year later and said, "Did you-- were able to, you notice anything that Friday night?" They're like, "No, everything was beautiful."

1:13:05 Speaker 2 They didn't notice.

1:13:06 Speaker 1 They didn't notice. Um- One of the families actually committed to put the kids in day school that night. It was, it was a-- it was beautiful. The moment Moshe Shabbos happened, of course, you know, now reality hits, and it was like, whatever, it's Kransbach weekend, and not everything shut. There's nothing to do. There's nothing to do. I called every person I knew that I thought could be influential. No one can do anything. And the moment they heard that, it's like, now it's six, seven days ago, there's nothing to do. Monday morning comes, okay, fine. So we, we get-- we're able to track it that was sent from... It, it takes like twenty-four hours to get these things done 'cause you have to get a, a permit from the government, from the police to go to U-- chase. And they sent-- I wired it to US Bank. Okay, now you have to talk to US Bank. It takes another twenty-eight, forty-eight hours. And forty-eight hours later, okay, now they sent it to, to the next, to the next, uh, uh, uh. Finally, um, the closing is on Thursday. I borrowed money from four different people, a hundred thousand dollars to go to closing. We closed. Um, we're still running after the money. It's nowhere, whatever. Um, then it's New Year's weekend. My Jewish pushed off for three days. After a couple... We found out that it was put into a signature bank account, and the bank account belongs to a cryptocurrency company. Like it's a-- you,

1:14:20 Speaker 1 you... From there, it's a cryptocurrency holding company, and the money gets sent away. The moment it's incur... So during this process, like it was a genuine... That week coming back to the bitachan was a very, um, reality, a strong reality check. Like you, you couldn't pretend anymore. And that's when I asked you before about, you know, I said the difference between bitachan and apathy.

1:14:44 Speaker 2 Right. So were you saying to yourself that week that I know this is gonna work out, I'm gonna get the money back, or you were saying relying on the Abishin, that's it?

1:14:55 Speaker 1 I didn't know what to think. It was so overwhelming. There were times that I thought both of those. There were times that I thought... I remember distinctly having one thought. When I, when I found out that the money went into a crypto account, which basically means it's over. I mean, once it's in crypto money, it's anonymous, it's gone.

1:15:10 Speaker 2 Right.

1:15:11 Speaker 1 So I remember things that I, that I heard at, at Rabash when he was in prison, when he said, he said when the last person he thought could help him said, "I can't help you," I think he, at that moment, either he got very upset or he got very... I think he actually got very happy, like, "Okay, now only the Abishin can help me."

1:15:31 Speaker 2 Abishin.

1:15:31 Speaker 1 Only the Abishin. Only the Abishin. And when it went into crypto, I'm like, "Okay, God, this is mamish only on you. There's nothing that could be done here." It's not po-- No one, no one gave me even that small chance of, of getting back the money. And, um, but, but in the course of that week, I, I was speaking to anyone that I can, and I realized that, that I'm in a position of being able to share my bitachan with other people. That, that... And I share with people, I have, I have no idea how this is gonna work out, but I'm-- but the Abishin runs the world. I wasn't, I wasn't in Yehudi Lamo yet. I wasn't like, "Everything's gonna be perfect 'cause Abishin run the world and, and everything." Like, I don't know, I'm not nervous 'cause Hashem runs the world. And, and, and, and I wasn't nervous. I wasn't-- my heartbeat wasn't going up or down. I wasn't bisinfa, but my-- but I was like, "Okay, this God's gonna run the world." And boom, mamish two weeks later, I got a call from the, from the detective. He said, "Rabbi, don't repeat this story to anyone 'cause it will never happen again. We found your money." Like how? He says, "Rabbi, don't ask. We have your money." And it took, uh, four, six weeks, and he-- then they wired it back.

1:16:42 Speaker 2 Your local, your local police? Got it.

1:16:43 Speaker 1 Fourth precinct over here, whatever. The, you know... I don't know who they talk with, and I don't know how it goes. I spoke to the FBI, I spoke to CIA, I spoke to mamish anyone that I thought knew anyone about anything. But then they were all immediately at the end of the phone call like, "Rabbi, there's nothing to do." I've gotten phone calls with people that I've told this story to. I've gotten phone calls from other people saying, "Rabbi, I wired money. You know, how, how do you get the money back?" I'm like, "There's no, there's no method to this. It's, it was fine." But in, in the course of that time, it was a beautiful experience of actualizing bitachan, of actualizing, um, the tools that I read about, Shabbetachan, et cetera, and learnt about, and, and farbrenged about. But actually like, okay, you know, I called Eli Rosenfeld in Florida who helps shul, and I said, "Eli, I have this thing. I discussed with my wife. We're out a hundred and thirty thousand dollars. We're, we're, we're, we're, we're pretty confident that God's gonna s- get it back to us. I have no idea how. So I wanna preemptively commit to you thirteen thousand dollars, and, um, I'm gonna send you eighteen hundred dollars now." I actually borrowed eighteen hundred dollars to be able to send it to him as a prepayment for the thirteen thousand dollars. I just wanna-

1:17:54 Speaker 2 You gave, you gave him a bit tnai that you're getting the money back, or you're saying, "No, this is a pledge no matter what the outcome is"?

1:17:59 Speaker 1 I... The eighteen hundred I sent, and then I said, "Eli, tell the Abishin that there's more money waiting for you. I don't know where, but there's more money waiting for you. So as soon as I get that money, I'm gonna send you the money." Okay, so lapail we sent him, you know, the, another twelve thousand dollars, and he said there was a wedding, a shaliach in somewhere in Afri-- uh, in Ukraine or Russia that we able to send, we, we paid for that wedding. And I made a... At the time, I made a list of all the beautiful things that happened because of the, the theft, the wire theft. And, um, you know, whether it was going to the oil and davening, like really, really davening, whether it was checking all the mezuzahs in the house, whether it was adding shiurim, whether... Whatever it was, certain thing that... It, it was a beautiful list of things that, okay, so whether or not the money comes back, we already have beautiful things that, uh, that happened because of it. If the money comes back, gravy. It'll be, it'll be pretty cool. But, um, the payola came back. Simcha Baruch Hashem, we able to, you know, send back my grandfather the money, pay back the loans, start construction on my house, whatever. Good stuff. Fast-forward, th-th-there's a follow-up and a follow-up to the follow-up to the story. But fast-forward, um, about to move in a few months later Till we sold our old-- uh, till, uh-- so

1:19:18 Speaker 1 fast forward. Our new house, we were doing construction. A week before we're supposed to move into the new house, there's a flood and destroys the floor. New-- we, we put in a brand-new floor, all destroyed. Call the insurance company, they say, "No, you're not covered." Why? I didn't know this, but when you get insurance on your house, you have six weeks to move into your house, or else it becomes a, a rental, uh, an investment property if you have two different properties, and you need a special rider to expend your insurance on your new house. I don't know. We weren't-- it was supposed to take less than six weeks, so we're not covered by insurance. And now they say we have, you know, there's no money here. I called a, uh, one of these people that help with insurance. She said, "There's nothing here." I said, "Do me a favor. Try." Said, "There's nothing here. It's over. It's over, you know? I'm sorry. There's nothing here. There's no, there's no responsibility of them to give you a dollar." I pray all, and a conversation with my wife and, um, we committed. If the money comes in, it's new money. It's Give maaser. Sure enough, uh, two months later, we got a random call. They said, "Okay. We decided to give you fifty thousand dollars to cover the damage." They didn't, they didn't owe it to us anything. Beautiful . The next... We're trying to sell our old house. No bites. No bites. No bites. No

1:20:35 Speaker 1 bites. No bites. It's a hot market. Everything's selling. We had to bring them nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. It's the middle of June, July. I'm paying two mortgages. Schlepped. And then I, I, I, I had a-- I stopped the reality like this. It dawned on me, the year before, twenty twenty. Yeah, twenty twenty with the PPPs and all that.

1:21:02 Speaker 2 The PPPs. Yeah.

1:21:04 Speaker 1 Yeah. So the PPPs, um, Baruch Hashem, money came in, right? Money came in. And it was personal money. It wasn't maaser money. It was personal money. And then, uh, whatever. I had some other things that I was doing on the side that I was able to, to bring in money. And, and when I made a cheshbon at, in Elul, Elul twenty twenty-one. Elul twenty twenty-one, I made a cheshbon of the monies that came in. So I gave maaser during all that. And it was like when I-- you make a cheshbon of the, of the money they gave to the state. No, you make a cheshbon of the money you gave to the So I made a, a cheshbon of, of the money, and it was like a pretty cool number. Like, wow, that was pretty cool. I never thought I can give that much amount of tzedakah. Ever. Wow. So I remember at that time, so this is, this is twenty twenty-one. I remember at that time saying to myself, "You know what? Um, wouldn't it be cool if next year, even though there's no PPP, and I wasn't doing the same things that I thought I can make some money on the side, if I can give the same amount of maaser?" And I thought to myself like, "That's stupid. That's like a silly thought." Like, it's not poss-- it's not sh-- like, just the math is not . For me, for me to make that much money, to be able to give that

1:22:28 Speaker 1 much maaser is not in my wheelhouse to make that much money. There's no, you know, PPP was a lot of money, and other things a lot of... Like, it's just not . Then I thought to myself like, like, why, why do I need to manage the money? Like, if you gave me this amount this year, you can give me a different amount next year. So I wrote down on a piece of paper, and, and I'm like, "You know what? Why am I being stingy with the money? If I'm already asking for that amount, go big or go home."

1:22:58 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

1:22:58 Speaker 1 So I wrote the number double, literally double the amount of what I gave last year.

1:23:05 Speaker 2 Simply doubling it.

1:23:06 Speaker 1 Last year was a crazy number. I'm like, "Why not?" It's not my money anyways. So I doubled it, and I wrote it down on a piece of paper. I actually sent it to myself as an email that should pop up in my Gmail account the following year. And then I-- it was such a crazy number, I forgot about it. That's why it didn't dawn on me. I like forgot about it. It was like a silly thought. I'm standing now middle of, of, and I made the cheshbon of the money that I-- tzedakah I generally gave, plus the money that I gave from the wire, um, thirteen thousand dollars there, plus the five thousand dollars from the insurance. Like, you know what? We committed to give maaser from the benefit, from the profits on the sale of our old house. Like, wow, that's gonna get me to that number.

1:23:54 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

1:23:55 Speaker 1 I told my wife, I'm like, "I'm pretty confident we're gonna sell the house before Rosh Hashanah." And I did the math. I showed it to her. She's like, "Halayai, whatever. That's pretty cool." Sure enough, literally a few days before Rosh Hashanah, we closed on the house. Uh, we, we-- on, on, on Elul, we went to contract, and they asked special request. Usually, it's sixty to ninety days-

1:24:18 Speaker 2 Yeah.

1:24:19 Speaker 1 -for the closing. They asked if we're okay doing it in thirty days. Like, "Yeah, yeah, we can do thirty days."

1:24:25 Speaker 2 I have a deadline to meet.

1:24:26 Speaker 1 Right. So we got the money, and I had already planned out, you know, where it's going . I took out a paper. It was three hundred dollars more than the number that I gave, that I wrote down in the email the year before. All right. I come... Very cool. Like we talk, it all worked out.

1:24:40 Speaker 2 Yeah.

1:24:40 Speaker 1 It all worked out. I, I got the money back from the wire. I got the insurance. I sold the house. All three-

1:24:44 Speaker 2 And they li- they lived happily ever after.

1:24:46 Speaker 1 Lived happily ever after. All three things that were not even in my, in my the year before. Now it's . Now, now I'm a, I'm a, I'm a lumid in, uh, in, in, in, in mel- in, in, in nissim, right?

1:25:00 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

1:25:00 Speaker 1 I know how this... I know how the game works. So I wrote last year, I doubled. Now I'm a smart boy.

1:25:10 Speaker 2 Triple.

1:25:11 Speaker 1 I, I, I, I know how this works. So I wrote a number. I wrote a number. Fast-forward the next year, I didn't even e- hit the previous number Right? So a year later now, now, now I'm like going through my own internal, uh, um, . And I thought that's how it works. You put a number, and you start giving towards it, and the neighbor should just sends, you know, fills in the blank. So I was like, I was-- in, in retrospect, it's like silly, but I was like wondering, like how kakka does this work? And, and, and what's the algorithm? So I was watching a inter-- a gem interview with Armland from Florida, from, uh... He has an interesting mese. Also similar thing.

1:26:04 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

1:26:04 Speaker 1 Magazin?

1:26:05 Speaker 2 Yeah.

1:26:06 Speaker 1 So he, he also, he had-- he, he came, he was bidding out the reisas, and he, and he gave I think five hundred dollars, and the Rebbe said, "Send Molazoy," which was a crazy number, five thousand dollars. The Rebbe said, "Of, of, of a, basimcha." Like y- um, the Rebbe said, "You should do it happily." And he, he said, "Yeah." The pay of the next-- He didn't have the money. The following-- So he sold a piece of property, and he was able to do that plus. And he comes back the next year of Chalav Chperasias, and he's, he's bidding things on Garari. I forget who he's bidding against. And the Rebbe-- They, they were-- He's bidding, bidding, bidding, 'cause now he's a, he's a yevdig vir. And, and not only that, but the Rebbe takes care of him. Whatever number he says, the Rebbe's gonna back him up. So the Rebbe-- So the Rebbe, they arrange that whoever, whoever the other person was wins, and he gets second-- he gets another kaven. But like the Rebbe told him, "I'll, I'll take it, you know, I'll tell you the number." Basically an open check. So he comes in for yachidus afterwards, and the Rebbe-- and he sits there, and he comes in with a whole balabatashkite, you know. He, he describes, like he comes in like the Rebbe's gonna tell him a number, and he's gonna write the number, and then he knows that's his profit for the year times ten. And at the end of

1:27:25 Speaker 1 the yachidus, like the Rebbe doesn't bring it up at all.

1:27:28 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

1:27:29 Speaker 1 And he's disappointed. He's like, he's like, "Where'd I go wrong?" And at the-- he br- he brings it up, and the Rebbe I think says like a hundred and eighteen dollars.

1:27:39 Speaker 2 Hmm.

1:27:41 Speaker 1 And he's like heartbroken. He's like devastated. Like, like, like does that, um, really that's what it's about? I forget if this is him talking or the Rebbe told him. But he realized, again, I'm not sure if the Rebbe tell him this or just him, him understanding himself, that last year he came, it was mitzvot bital. And this year he came with the whole matzias. The Rebbe brought him down to size. Not only that, but also, again, I don't know. I, I think this-- I-I'm not sure if this is him talking or me translating in my own mind about him talking. But also, like the Rebbe the previous year took him to a place where he didn't see possible. The Rebbe took him to a place where was not in his, was not in his bechal, his, he's not shayach to that. What do you mean five thousand dollars tzedakah? The Rebbe took him to a different place, and now you've gotta figure it out on yourself. You gotta, you gotta, um, you, you can't-- I'm not carrying you through this process anymore. Now zabi the tzedakah to actually get there on your own. And he doesn't follow up the rest of his life, but you know what happened. But, but Baruch Hashem, he was able to give tzedakah. But now he had to come to the conclusion himself and the automatic math of stick in, you know, the spreadsheet that number and times it by ten and happily ever after, that's what Hashem provide you

1:28:54 Speaker 1 for the year is not, is not the algorithm of, of how the Amish to work. So it was a reality check for myself of, okay, you know, you did something very nice one year, and it worked out one year. Now going forward, you gotta, you gotta s- flex those muscles and, and work on the b'tachan muscle of taking that leap and, and doing whatever I think is the appropriate thing, but s- but stretching it and stretching it till it gets to a place where, where, um, it's beyond my previous machshavas. But, uh, you know, it's not a, it's not an automatic thing. It, it takes, it takes work.

1:29:30 Speaker 2 So you're saying that b'tachan is not a ticket for a good life. And I saw the Rebbe writes many times to people that at least in Galus, life is full of ups and downs and hardships. So it's not a ticket that, uh, if you have real b'tachan, doesn't always, doesn't mean that everything's always going to be good. But you will have the-- you will see that there will be times, if you have b'tachan, you will see there are times in your life where there is no other way of explaining it besides the Amisha's hand. And that gives you the ability not only to, to stretch way beyond any place you can that, that you've gone before, but it also helps you during those times where you're on those downs to also re-real-realize it's the same Amisha, and that you can, you can do it.

1:30:29 Speaker 1 Yeah. Very good. There's no, there's no, um, there's no free ticket. Yeah. And, and life is easier when there's, when it's in a b'tachan mindset. Life is easier not because the things that happen to you, it's not like those things don't happen to you anymore. The-- whatever those things that we stress about still happen. And the, life, you know, the, the, the waves are constantly coming at you. Maybe life doesn't even change that much. It does. Life does-

1:31:03 Speaker 2 Yeah. So-

1:31:03 Speaker 1 It does change. Life does change.

1:31:05 Speaker 2 But even if it doesn't, you changed.

1:31:07 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah. And, and life becomes, listen, easier not as in li-- there's not tzaddis. Easier as in you have s-- y- when you're, when you're on Amisha's sh-shoulders, it's easier.

1:31:22 Speaker 2 I, I saw a letter that the Rebbe wrote to Mr. Mel Landau.

1:31:28 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:31:30 Speaker 2 From, um, from Florida in the land of Yeshiva. So the Rebbe writes, they have a letter that I s-- I get regards from you for Rebbe Sholom Ber Lipsker, and I also read the newspaper clippings regarding yourself and your business. Apparently, there was some downturn in his business.

1:31:50 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:31:50 Speaker 2 You familiar with this letter?

1:31:51 Speaker 1 No, but I heard that one, um, during that downturn, what he would do is he would s-- I think he was mamish like, I don't know, homeless, but like mamish didn't have money. He would, uh, sit in front of the land of Yeshiva and just watch the kids playing in the yard. Like that was his like-- that can never be taken away from him. It's time to keep, keep the-

1:32:08 Speaker 2 Interesting.

1:32:08 Speaker 1 He would sit there and... But he has b-- he had no business, he had nothing, but he would sit in this, the land of Yeshiva was his, and that's his nachas.

1:32:16 Speaker 2 The, the Rebbe writes to him that a true leader in a business is not somebody that's an effective leader when everything is going well. A true leader in a business is somebody that even when things are not doing well, uses that out when there's a, a, as an opportunity to, first of all, you know, recalculate and do things better, but also to be like an athlete, the Rebbe writes, that takes steps back in order to jump over an even higher hurdle. So having bitachon, the real bitachon like is like when, when things are going well, it's very easy to have bitachon, or you cannot have bitachon 'cause you don't need it. You really get bitachon muscles when you need it, when, when the Abish presents you with a challenge. So and one of-- First of all, there's the revolution of the concept of tachles the zangut, that just thinking positively about it and believing the Abish that it will be good can actually transform the reality. But there's also the concept that being in that mindset will, you know, re-- if the Abish had decided this is what's going to happen to you, that means it's an opportunity in that's a real thing, and the Abish has given you this challenge because you can handle. I mean, these are all things that say in Sefer HaMa'amarim, they're actually real. And it's up to every single person to learn the Rebbe Sichos and learn Shaar Bitachon and learn Torah, right? This I just saw someone wrote

1:33:56 Speaker 2 to the Rebbe about depression. The Rebbe said, "You have to learn Torah," right? Because, because the Torah is makes you, makes you happy. You have to learn Torah. So you have to, you have to plug into all of those things, and then one of two things can happen. It could be tachles the zangut, or it could be that you have less of a problem, the real-- even if reality doesn't change. Uh, it's an interesting... I can't figure out yet, someone could explain to me the, the are you okay with the reality or tachles the zangut, and when is that bestirred at each other? I recently missed a flight for the first, the first time since I'm seventeen years. I've only missed a flight twice in my life, and I just missed a flight for the first time since I was seventeen years old. Set the alarm the wrong hour, and I'm running to the, I'm running through the airport trying to make it. And as I'm running, you know, I'm running through JFK. As I'm running, I made a mental note to myself, "I don't need to go. I don't need to go." It was the truth. Whatever. I was going, "I don't need to go." Whatever. I was meeting someone. Fine, I don't need to go. I wanna go. I kept on running. I did, I, uh, I want... I, I, I was trying to make the flight, but I made a mental note that I don't need to go. I got there. I

1:35:18 Speaker 2 talked, I missed my flight by ten minutes, and she's like, "When do you need to be there?" "I need to be there by ten AM."

1:35:22 Speaker 1 Right.

1:35:23 Speaker 2 "Um, no problem. There's a flight leaving in twenty minutes." She put me on the flight. Like twenty... I ran to the other gate, and I boarded my flight in gang in. So I was thinking afterwards, I mean, first of all, that was an amazing... But so was it like I was... Was it-- Is that apathy that I don't need to go or it's tachles the zang-- I think, I think that's the right balance, like tachles the zangut. Do your staidlus, run to the gate, but also don't be committed to that result 'cause A, that result may not happen, B, it might happen a different way, and it's all Hashgacha Protis.

1:36:03 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:36:03 Speaker 2 My return flight, it was a one-day flight. My return flight was also delayed forty-five minutes, so mamish worked out perfectly.

1:36:12 Speaker 1 Find that, that the... What, what, what's shait? Emunah, the, the word Emunah comes from the word same etymology as practice.

1:36:20 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

1:36:21 Speaker 1 Or work. You gotta... It, it's, it's something, um, w-when it's not in a under pressure, that's the practice. And then when the pressure happens, that's when it, that's when it, you know, the... When, when, when you have to implement everything that you're talking about, and then you run on a, you run on a treadmill. Amol, I once ran on a treadmill. Amol it, it happened.

1:36:46 Speaker 2 It happened once.

1:36:47 Speaker 1 It once happened, amol. It was like, yeah, whatever. I won't go into the gory details, but I once was on a treadmill. And, uh, it happened twice, a second or third time. And then the guy that I was doing it with, he was on a different treadmill. But the guy that I was doing it with, um, says, "Now, okay, you have to go on the street. You have to work-- run in the street."

1:37:05 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

1:37:05 Speaker 1 Treadmill is cute, but to really run, you have to run in the street. So whatever. It was, it was May. It was nice weather. We went out, we started running in the street. And I real-- On the treadmill, I can run... I would do four miles, let's say. When I went into the street, I can barely do a mile. And I asked him, like, "What's..." Like, "Why is it so hard when you're... You're doing the same thing." He says, "It's very different. When you're on a treadmill, you're not actually running. You're picking up your feet fast enough that you don't trip." It looks like you're running. When the guy's standing on the side, if you had a green screen behind you, it looks like you're actually running. But you're just lifting up your feet quick that the street underneath you-- that the, the, the rubber underneath you doesn't trip you.

1:37:50 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

1:37:51 Speaker 1 When you go into the-- When you go onto the, uh, onto the road, you actually... Nothing's moving you. You actually-- You're doing the exact same movement, but it's a whole different muscle. It's an entirely different experience. So it stuck with me. Some, you know, you do, you do things, you're going through the actions, but, but it's, it's practice. You can't actually know how you're gonna pro-- uh, how you're gonna perform until you're, until you're on the street. But you're doing all these things. You're doing and doing and doing and doing and doing, and then, and then the day's gonna come, and you actually have to get on the street. You c- you can't just start running on the street without going on the treadmill. It's only-- It's the practice mode until you actually get out there. It takes time.

1:38:31 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

1:38:31 Speaker 1 A lifetime.

1:38:33 Speaker 2 So kamuvon v'gam pashtat that you can't wait till you get to the street in order to put into practice.

1:38:43 Speaker 1 Right.

1:38:44 Speaker 2 Like, it's so important. I mean, it's, it's a, it's a, it's, it's a funny concept because when you don't need it, let's say when you're a bachur, you don't have any worries. So then, uh, it's not even part of your reality. But, you know, when you get older-- But, but if you don't-- but if any of you go into the, into the world, right, whatever you're doing, you know, when you're in shlichus, you're in the world also, right? And then all of a sudden you have to face it, but you have no practice, so then you can't-- there's no way, there's no way you can do it. So it's so, it's so vital to, to really tap into this. The earlier, the better.

1:39:23 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah. It takes practice. It takes. It does. You're talking about it. Talk-- I once asked a local guy, I said, "When's the last time you spoke about God over dinner?" He looked at-- He laughed at me. He's like, "It's such an awkward conversation." Like, if it's not, it, it's not part of the normal conversation to bring up those topics in good company, like with your-- Like, what, what, what is the situation actually with your kid that you bring it up? Talk, you know, in, in, in, in-

1:39:52 Speaker 2 What, what does that mean? What does that mean for our Olam? What's a, what's a, uh, for our-

1:39:56 Speaker 1 If you don't proactively bring it up, it's a foreign topic. If it becomes part of the conversation. David Tal, I think Shays has a vort, Meshene David. And David's daughter comes home, comes home from school one day and says, uh, "Tab, homework. I have to tell a story of Hashgacha Protis." So he says, "Okay, come." He goes to the front door, and, um, he opens the door. He points out, he sees that car there. She says, "Yeah." "Okay, that's Hashgacha Protis, the fact that you saw that car. That's, that's the story."

1:40:28 Speaker 2 Yeah.

1:40:29 Speaker 1 She's like, "But, but what happened?" Like, "No, that's the story." You saw that-- That's the-- The fact that you saw that car is the Havish to running the world. It's not that, you know, something bad has to happen, and then I get saved because I missed my flight and the plane crashed. Why did, why does the plane have to crash in order for me to see Hashgacha Protis? Like, the pra-- the plane, the plane could survive, and it's still Hashgacha Protis. Like, the-- When, when you start talking that conversation like, "Oh, wow, Hashgacha Protis," like just random-- that Havish runs the world, like that becomes part of the lexicon of the conversation. It's, it's awkward, Lachatzilah. It's a weird, it's a weird, um... Until you, until you start doing it, it's a weird thing.

1:41:09 Speaker 2 Right. Okay. So, uh, any, any practical, uh, recommendations that you do to mechazek this, uh, this concept? I, I see you have the sign behind you, uh, V'sav yad of the Rebbe to Zam Jaffe. Don't worry so much about, don't worry so much about business, more b'tachan, more parnassa.

1:41:31 Speaker 1 More parnassa. Yeah. It's here, and I have it in my house. I just give it a kiss whenever I walk in the office. Whenever I'm overdrawn, it's like I don't know. All these things. I'm, I'm, I've an, an aversion to, uh... I don't know. Listen, every person-- Baby steps, baby steps. People-- Everyone has to do things on their, on their, um... Wherever you are now, do a drop more. Bringing it back to our-- the, the original conversation of, uh, the f- your opening monologue or your opening question about Limud HaTanya. For years, I practically didn't open a book. Like, mamish didn't open a book. I think I forgot to read Hebrew or something. I don't know. Whatever. You know, life is distracting, and then I never opened a book. Now that we're already talking for, for a while, like, chitas, um, um, might have happened, might not have happened. If I'm being honest with myself, it didn't happen. And, um, whatever, you know. Uh, the, the problem is it becomes a vicious cycle of, of once you're not doing, you're not, you know, you beat up in shame and guilt and all that stuff. Fast forward, the only way I'm able to do, to do what I now sit two and a half hours in the morning is, is mamish adding five minutes at a time. Literally five minutes at a time. Like-

1:42:55 Speaker 2 There's a story of the Rebbe about that.

1:42:57 Speaker 1 Go ahead.

1:43:00 Speaker 2 The Rebbe told somebody, I think I know who it is, but I'm not 100% sure. The Rebbe told them-- I think he asked the Rebbe about learn-- because he wasn't learning. The Rebbe said, "Learn for five minutes."

1:43:12 Speaker 1 Right, and not more.

1:43:14 Speaker 2 Yeah.

1:43:14 Speaker 1 Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:43:15 Speaker 2 Kamuvon v'gam pashtat that the guy started learning five.

1:43:18 Speaker 1 Right.

1:43:18 Speaker 2 He started at 10, he started at 15, et cetera. And I, um, a friend of mine, a Siddishinger man, like I can't talk to him because he's f- he's, uh, busy learning the whole Likutei Torah, Siddishar Parasha, like the Rebbe says. He's the mashalim, you know. He has no, he has no time to listen to the podcast 'cause he's, uh, he's, he's learning Likutei Torah. A number of years ago, he told me that there was like a ｡｡｡ That he wasn't learning anything. And he heard this story, started five minutes every day, and now he's, uh, he, he's too busy finishing the ｡｡｡ To, to do anything else.

1:43:56 Speaker 1 Ma mash teit. Ma mash teit. And, uh, having a-- h-having had an aversion or I still have an aversion to like ｡｡｡ and making resolutions and trying to change my life, for me, that's the only way that worked. Of literally like not trying to change my life, five minutes, and then adding one little thing. The, the beautiful thing about that is that once you have like an anchor, like if you brush your teeth every morning, it's easy when you're brushing your teeth to then add flossing. Like it's, it's not requiring a, a lifelong change to add a new thing. Like you're already doing one thing, you add a little bit to it. And so you don't have to change your life to add one component to it. You're already, uh, you know, doing one thing, you add a little more. Once you have a foundation of an hour or 20 minutes, five minutes, and you let that grow. I know for myself, if I make a shiur mo of the day, I'm never keeping it. Even a shiur at night is hard for me. Like once you get home, it's, it's... Day is already, you never know where the day's gonna go, and you never know where, what the night's happening at night. It's just a little lately ｡｡｡ It works a little better, just the qui-- house is quieter. But in the morning, it's still your time. The day hasn't gotten, you know, I don't turn my phone on till 10:15, till, till 10:30.

1:45:08 Speaker 1 My phone's off from the night before. And by slowly incrementing that little, little, little more, you still control your day, you still control your brain somewhat, your schedule, and you don't plan anything till 11 o'clock, till 12 o'clock. You don't plan anything. So in, in any area of trying to like implement these things, ma mesh, these-- the smallest things that are done are, are really the only things that, that last or, or are true genuine change. Anything that happens quickly for me at least doesn't, doesn't, doesn't persevere.

1:45:45 Speaker 2 All right. ｡｡｡ This is a very uplifting conversation, and, uh, if anyone else benefits and, uh, makes one more ｡｡｡ from it, whether in their mind or in ｡｡｡ all connected, so, uh, it's well worth it.

1:46:04 Speaker 1 The world's a better place thereof.

1:46:07 Speaker 2 Yeah. Okay.

1:46:09 Speaker 1 Yes, sure.

1:46:10 Speaker 2 ｡｡｡