Ep. 102 // "The Army in Stamford Hill" w/ Rabbi Gedalia Potash

00:00 Speaker 1 Officially, She-gimmel and up were allowed to go for the whole Tishrei. So everyone was booking tickets, and, and, and then everyone was flying together. And like before everyone went, uh, like, uh, usually right after Shabbos Sichos, so if it was, uh, late Sichos, it was before Shabbos Sichos, in front of mechinnah, they would all leave together from Stamford Hill Road. If you know Stamford Hill Road, there's viznings across the street, there's a Gutter across the street, there's, it's a Hamish, you know, there's bakeries and stores, and the Bachurim are singing and dancing And it was like a send-off. And you know, even when you weren't go-- it wasn't your-- of age to go, you were, you, you were looking forward when it's, when it's gonna be my turn, you know? So I was there from when I was eleven turning twelve. So I was always looking forward, like, "One day I'm gonna be doing that also."

00:48 Speaker 2 Welcome to Homesick for Lubavitch, a podcast where we explore Lubavitch identity in the year two thousand and twenty-six. My name is Benjie Afson, and I will be your host. Let's begin. All righty, we are here in San Francisco in the Mission Neighborhood with Rabbi Gedalia Potash, Shliach in Ch-- at Chabad of Noe Valley. Uh, we're on our way to the HFL trip down under in Australia, and, uh, we had an extended layover, so I figured I'd hop around and get, uh, a couple interviews, uh, here in the, the Greater Bay Area. Thank you very much for accommodating the schedule. And, uh, before we, before we begin, let me ask all those who listen to the podcast and enjoy it to like and subscribe on the platforms. It helps us with the algorithm, which is all the fault of this city over here. We need to-

01:47 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, essential.

01:48 Speaker 2 Need to satisfy the overlords of... No, YouTube is from here, Palo Alto.

01:51 Speaker 1 Everything, everything.

01:52 Speaker 2 It's all here. You guys, it's all your fault. And, uh, if you really like the podcast, um, you can support the podcast at hflpodcast.com/donate, and there will be opportunities to dedicate the different episodes of the Australia trip, which will-- which is a one-of-a-kind, uh, project for Homesick for Lubavitch. Anyway, Rabbi Potash, thank you very much.

02:18 Speaker 1 Pleasure.

02:19 Speaker 2 Uh, let's begin. How does a boy from the rainy streets of Stamford Hill end up in the, in the, in the, in the state where it's always sunny? Uh, that's, that's more LA, right? Here it rains a little bit.

02:34 Speaker 1 LA is more sunny, but, uh-

02:36 Speaker 2 It's not London weather over here.

02:37 Speaker 1 Maybe that's the answer. I was looking for some sunshine, you know?

02:39 Speaker 2 Is that, is that what it was?

02:41 Speaker 1 That and, that and, and more.

02:43 Speaker 2 That and drugs? Is that what...

02:47 Speaker 1 I won't disclose that part, but, uh...

02:49 Speaker 2 All right. Yeah. All right. So, uh, what, what was it like growing up in London?

02:55 Speaker 1 London was, uh, an amazing experience.

02:58 Speaker 2 Stamford Hill.

02:59 Speaker 1 Stamford Hill, to be specific, exactly.

03:00 Speaker 2 Yes, correct. It's, uh, its own world.

03:03 Speaker 1 Stamford Hill is, for those that are not familiar, it's, uh, a mini Borough Park and becoming more like Borough Park. Growing up in Stamford Hill was really, uh, an amazing, immensely empowering, beautiful experience. Uh, just to give a sense of the neighborhood, you know, you have, uh, on my street we have a few Lubavitcher families, a few Litvisher families, a few Polisher families, a few non-frum people, and there's just a, a dynamic and a flavor and a, and a beauty to that-

03:31 Speaker 2 Mm.

03:32 Speaker 1 -in and of itself. Uh, and you know, I grew up-- I'm born in, uh, Lamed Heh Vav, seventy-five. So growing up in the, in the eighties, you know, there's already like big things going on in Lubavitch and like the neighbors here and that we have discussions and debates and it was always very dynamic and very exciting just from a communal point of view, the broader community.

03:51 Speaker 2 What was it like growing up in the, in the mems? My favorite decade of, uh, of Lubavitch.

03:57 Speaker 1 The mems were amazing. They were-

03:59 Speaker 2 They were.

04:00 Speaker 1 I mean, I was younger, you know, I was, uh, you know, I was, I was bar mitzvah, mem tes.

04:05 Speaker 2 Right.

04:06 Speaker 1 But-

04:06 Speaker 2 No, you obviously, you were a child.

04:07 Speaker 1 I was a child.

04:08 Speaker 2 But what was it like? Yeah.

04:10 Speaker 1 I mean, in terms of my Chabad experience?

04:13 Speaker 2 Yeah. I mean, like, yeah, in terms of your Chabad experience.

04:16 Speaker 1 I mean, I can speak to several things, but in terms of my Chabad experience, it was, I mean, the Rebbe's engagement with the Hasidim in the mems was, uh, record high, if you, if you can call it that way, with, with farbrengens and Sichos and, uh, Tzvas Hashem rallies and, you know, Tzvas Hashem was launched in the mems, you know. As-- Sefer Torah was laun-launched in the mems. My family's very into, into Meforsim, so like every time the Rebbe came up with a mitzvah, my, my parents were all over it and, uh, it just infiltrated and elevated the house and, and the, and the feeling of what was going on.

04:47 Speaker 2 What was your father's posi-- He worked in the Moses? He was a businessman?

04:50 Speaker 1 My father, my father wa-- was in business. He worked in computers.

04:53 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

04:53 Speaker 1 He, uh, he worked for a company called ICL. We used to joke it stands for International Chabad Lubavitch. But it was a computer company and, uh, but we never heard much about his work. We always heard about the people he was meeting and the Meforsim that was going on and, uh, my father's, uh, he, he, he... Till this day, he goes on Meforsim every, every Friday. You know, he, he's retired already. But, uh, you know, Meforsim and, and doing the Rebbe's Mivtzoim is, is his real heart and soul. The, the work was just the kind of something to facilitate that. He was give-- always giving Shiurim and always, uh, and still is.

05:27 Speaker 2 He grew up in Lubavitch?

05:29 Speaker 1 My father has an interesting story. Um, I recommend you ask him a lot of these questions directly at some point.

05:34 Speaker 2 Fair, fair enough.

05:34 Speaker 1 But I can give you the, the short, short story-

05:37 Speaker 2 Right.

05:37 Speaker 1 -which isn't really so short, but he grew up in Manchester, England.

05:40 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

05:41 Speaker 1 Um, Manchester, England, had a small Chabad shul called, uh, Darchei Shul.

05:45 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

05:46 Speaker 1 The Rav of Darchei Shul is Reb Yisroel Beydov, a beautiful Beydov.

05:49 Speaker 2 My grandfather's Rosh Yeshiva. Yeah.

05:50 Speaker 1 Exactly. The Shentev learned in, in, in the yeshiva.

05:53 Speaker 2 Yeah. Rabbi Cousin spoke about him as well.

05:55 Speaker 1 Rabbi Cousin, exactly, and the Fritzes.

05:56 Speaker 2 Yeah.

05:56 Speaker 1 They all-- That was the yeshiva in England. Uh-

05:59 Speaker 2 Yeah.

05:59 Speaker 1 You know, some people went to Gateshead, but, uh, basically London was where they, where they learned.

06:03 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

06:03 Speaker 1 I remember hearing stories about, uh- A Rebbe once, I think he threw a </i>Mesilat Yesharim</i> across the room.

06:10 Speaker 2 In Manchester?

06:10 Speaker 1 In Manchester Yeshiva. The Manchester Yeshiva was also close to the Rebbe. He had the correspondence with the Rebbe.

06:15 Speaker 2 Yeah. Was it Ari Finkel? No. What was his name?

06:17 Speaker 1 Uh, Segal.

06:17 Speaker 2 Segal. Segal, yeah.

06:19 Speaker 1 So, uh, I just remember he, when he was seen doing it, he, he excused himself and said, "Oh, I, you can tell it was a mistake. I, if it was a, if I would know it was a </i>Mesilat Yesharim</i>, I would never done such a thing."

06:30 Speaker 2 Right.

06:31 Speaker 1 Is that, is that too stubborn?

06:33 Speaker 2 Uh, yeah, I mean, we can hear it.

06:35 Speaker 1 Okay. Let's put it there. Anyways, so my father grew up in this, uh, in this shul called the Das Israel. My grandfather happened to be the gabbai of the shul. My grandfather was not necessarily a card-carrying member of, of Knowledge. He didn't have a beard. He didn't dress like a, like a Hasid, but he was mesmerized by Rabbi, uh, Dubov.

06:54 Speaker 2 Your grandfather?

06:54 Speaker 1 My grandfather.

06:55 Speaker 2 And your grandfather-

06:56 Speaker 1 Shimon

06:56 Speaker 2 ... your grandfather was, uh, like one of the

06:59 Speaker 1 He was a modern-

06:59 Speaker 2 ... ... ...

07:01 Speaker 1 Yeah.

07:01 Speaker 2 Right.

07:02 Speaker 1 You know, Dam Yid, but, uh-

07:04 Speaker 2 Right

07:04 Speaker 1 ... spoke fluent Hebrew, but, uh, you know-

07:06 Speaker 2 Right

07:07 Speaker 1 ... modern Orthodox.

07:08 Speaker 2 Right.

07:08 Speaker 1 But when Rabbi Dubov came to Manchester, he, uh, he was just attracted to the authenticity of a, of a Hasid.

07:15 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

07:16 Speaker 1 And, and just that drew him, and he, he wanted to ... daven in that shul, and I'm not sure how it evolved that he became the gabbai of the shul, but he became the gabbai, and his, some of his brother-in-laws were more involved with Chabad, also in a more modern sense, and in the beards, the Kleins.

07:31 Speaker 2 Yeah. So I, I don't want, I, I don't want you to have to tell your father's story-

07:33 Speaker 1 Okay, that's right

07:34 Speaker 2 ... because like you said, hopefully one day-

07:36 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah

07:36 Speaker 2 ... we speak to him, and we don't want him to talk about you, but- ... you growing up as a boy, why is your dad so interested in ...

07:50 Speaker 1 A number of things. Probably pri-primarily, I had an older brother, Shimon, Alav HaShalom, passed away five, six years ago. He was born very, very sick with a hole in his heart.

08:02 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

08:03 Speaker 1 And he, uh, basically his life was a miracle from, from the moment he was born.

08:09 Speaker 2 His old, his oldest boy?

08:10 Speaker 1 The ... yeah.

08:11 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

08:12 Speaker 1 So he had, like, a open heart surgery a few hours after he was born, and then several open heart surgeries, uh, throughout his childhood. Baruch Hashem, he made it till 47. Um, had six children, got married, had six children. But basically, a lot of the berachos that the Rebbe gave were interestingly presented in the package of ... And at one point, the Rebbe told my parents that, uh, he needs to become a general in ... in, like, in response to a beracha that they requested.

08:42 Speaker 2 Right. So you were, you were, you, you said you were born in

08:45 Speaker 1 Yeah. He was born in ...

08:46 Speaker 2 He was born in

08:47 Speaker 1 ...

08:47 Speaker 2 ... So

08:48 Speaker 1 ... started, what, in ... He was eight years old.

08:50 Speaker 2 Yeah. He was young. He was young.

08:50 Speaker 1 'Cause he was right in that age of ...

08:53 Speaker 2 ...

08:53 Speaker 1 The Rebbe had, and my parents had been in close correspondence, you know, with, with his situation.

08:58 Speaker 2 Well, I'm sure they were asking for berachos earlier, though.

09:01 Speaker 1 Yes. Yes. But I mean, I don't, I can't talk... But ...

09:04 Speaker 2 But once

09:05 Speaker 1 ... happened, the Rebbe tied it to ... And basically, the ... was that he should become a general in ... But how do you become a general in ... The missions, you know, last till your bar mitzvah. So basically, Sandy Weinbaum, who ran ... in London, maybe still does, I'm not even sure.

09:20 Speaker 2 Uh-

09:20 Speaker 1 She made a special program for my brother to be able to become a general in ...

09:25 Speaker 2 To accelerate.

09:26 Speaker 1 To accelerate, 'cause that Rebbe's beracha was kind of contingent on that.

09:30 Speaker 2 Well, what, what do you mean? What, what was the beracha?

09:31 Speaker 1 That he should become a general.

09:33 Speaker 2 And then, then, then he'll be good?

09:35 Speaker 1 That was the beracha. I don't remember... I don't know all the-

09:37 Speaker 2 Uh-huh

09:37 Speaker 1 ... exact details, but-

09:38 Speaker 2 But they understood that-

09:38 Speaker 1 The Rebbe's ... was he should become a general in ... The Rebbe told my mother she can become a general too.

09:44 Speaker 2 How did that work? Sandy made a program for her too?

09:47 Speaker 1 No. No. She's not, she's not eligible for ... It's for children.

09:50 Speaker 2 Uh, so what-

09:50 Speaker 1 But she-

09:51 Speaker 2 ... what did Rebbe mean?

09:52 Speaker 1 I think what I, if I remember correctly, what happened was when the Rebbe told my parents that in front of my brother that he should become a general, my mother, my mother gasped. Like, she thought that that was too high of a mission for him to fulfill.

10:03 Speaker 2 Where was this? At

10:05 Speaker 1 No, this was in, in Yechidus.

10:06 Speaker 2 In Yechidus. Okay.

10:07 Speaker 1 So the Rebbe s- said to her-

10:10 Speaker 2 One second. How was it in Yechidus? So it's before

10:13 Speaker 1 ... There was many encounters. He went to the Rebbe many different times.

10:16 Speaker 2 But Yechidus ended before

10:18 Speaker 1 No.

10:19 Speaker 2 What, a private Yechidus? St-

10:21 Speaker 1 No.

10:22 Speaker 2 Then-

10:22 Speaker 1 I mean, uh, he, he had Yechidus when he was-

10:24 Speaker 2 When did that, in the middle of the mems?

10:25 Speaker 1 I think the middle of the mems or early mems, I think.

10:27 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

10:28 Speaker 1 Think so.

10:28 Speaker 2 I thought it ended in the lameds. Okay. My bad.

10:32 Speaker 1 I'm pretty sure early mems. I'm not-

10:34 Speaker 2 Fair enough. Fair enough.

10:35 Speaker 1 I can ask the

10:36 Speaker 2 Well, if the story is like you say, then it's the-

10:38 Speaker 1 But he went several times. I don't know exactly which-

10:40 Speaker 2 For Yechidus.

10:40 Speaker 1 Yechidus, and there's definitely a context of, of ... I also actually had an interesting answer about ... which I can get to later.

10:45 Speaker 2 I, I know the Yechidus tapered off over the years.

10:47 Speaker 1 Yeah.

10:48 Speaker 2 So it could be, yeah.

10:50 Speaker 1 Uh, at any rate, um, the way that Sandy Weinbaum w- uh, enabled him to become a general, so it was if he did ... So my father would literally take him on ... you know, Sundays and sometimes middle of the week to, like, flats and apartments and go put on tefillin on people. And I'm, I'm, I'm not 100% sure whether it started then, but then he, he definitely, it was accelerated then. And, uh, for all my years, I, I remember my father and still, so long as he continues ... he's just his thing. Uh, he lives and breathes ...

11:22 Speaker 2 So he was partially taking his son on time to save his son, in his mind.

11:26 Speaker 1 To, yeah, to fulfill the Rebbe's

11:28 Speaker 2 Yeah, but to save his... He was asking for a beracha-

11:30 Speaker 1 For sure

11:30 Speaker 2 ... to save his son.

11:31 Speaker 1 For sure. Yeah. Yeah.

11:33 Speaker 2 Wow. What a story. Hmm. What a story.

11:39 Speaker 1 And, uh, you know, he had miracles. He had, you know, he had many surgeries which were some of them 50/50 chance, and, uh, Baruch Hashem, he pulled through.

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12:36 Speaker 1 After Numbeys, one of his, uh, serious surgeries, and, um, the Rebbe wasn't giving verbal answers, but, uh, as a bracha, and the Rebbe shackled, gave a nod with his head. So I remember my brother telling me, I actually stayed with him in the hospital. It was at Rebbe for Shuras. I stayed with him for a couple nights. So he said that, uh, when the Rebbe shackles with his head, it's amshacha se atmas. That was his, uh, that was his way of... This is not less of a bracha. This is, this is, uh, a bigger bracha. But that was very close to him. We were only, we were less than three years apart in age, and, uh, I would say a lot of who I became was influenced by him.

13:12 Speaker 2 By your brother?

13:13 Speaker 1 By my brother.

13:13 Speaker 2 By your brother.

13:14 Speaker 1 Yeah. Like going to the Rebbe for Tishrei, and, uh, just his, his example. He was also very intimate friend himself as a, independently every Friday.

13:21 Speaker 2 Well, I'm sure it left a roshe on him growing up like that as a child.

13:25 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

13:27 Speaker 2 Wow.

13:27 Speaker 1 He, he was a big gam to the Rebbe. He, uh, you say you don't wanna talk about, uh, I, I, I'll talk about him in the way it reflected me. Like, like when the Rebbe would speak-

13:35 Speaker 2 No, I, I'm happy to talk about anything.

13:36 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

13:37 Speaker 2 I, I just don't, I don't want it to sh- I don't wanna shift it completely away from you.

13:40 Speaker 1 Yeah, for sure. No problem.

13:41 Speaker 2 That's all I'm saying. I'm happy for you to talk whatever you want.

13:43 Speaker 1 Right. So I feel like he would go with time, even like his lunch break in, in, in London, in Mechina, which we can talk a lot about. Mechina, you know, to me, Mechina, Mechina was a, a golden experience. It was, it was mamash-

13:57 Speaker 2 Your years in Mechina.

13:58 Speaker 1 My years in Mechina. It, it changed a little bit after I left.

14:01 Speaker 2 But, but let's just take a step back. Tzvias Hashem, you're talking about Tzvias Hashem. What, what did the Tzvias Hashem rally look like for the kids in London?

14:09 Speaker 1 Tzvias Hashem rally in London, um, uh, from, from me, what I remember was the Rebbe would, would be speaking, and we were encouraged to take a pen and paper.

14:19 Speaker 2 So there was a hookup.

14:20 Speaker 1 There was a hookup, and-

14:20 Speaker 2 You wa- you watched it or you just heard it?

14:22 Speaker 1 Well, rallies we just heard. There were occasional farbrengens that we also watched. I remember like, uh, Shanas Hashemenim, we, we, we paid for a live satellite, which costed thousands of pounds. But in general, it was a hookup. Uh, Benzion Hackner, alav ha-shalom, he would be running the communications room, and London would actually give, uh-

14:43 Speaker 2 Benzion Hackner-

14:44 Speaker 1 The brother of Yonassan Hackner

14:45 Speaker 2 ... lived in London.

14:46 Speaker 1 Li- yeah. He passed away a couple years ago.

14:48 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

14:48 Speaker 1 And he would run the... He would, he would give, uh, access to the Rebbe's, uh, hookup, uh, to a lot of Europe.

14:55 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

14:56 Speaker 1 Uh, so like s- like it was a communication center.

14:59 Speaker 2 So what time of day was it? In, in, in America, what time is the rally?

15:02 Speaker 1 It's five hours, so eight thirty. The Rebbe would have lunch at three fifteen, which is eight fifteen.

15:05 Speaker 2 Right.

15:06 Speaker 1 And then, and then after that was the rally, so eight thirty, you know.

15:09 Speaker 2 So you all, you all, you all knew that that evening you would come-

15:12 Speaker 1 Yeah, you would come to Lubavitch at the-

15:13 Speaker 2 To Lubavitch, Lubavitch House?

15:14 Speaker 1 Lubavitch House, Stamford Hill, one fifteen Stamford Hill Road.

15:17 Speaker 2 All right. If you know, you know.

15:19 Speaker 1 Exactly. And, uh, the way I was in... Sometimes they had like special, like there's a school there also, a girls school, so-

15:27 Speaker 2 Right

15:27 Speaker 1 ... sometimes they used the classrooms for the, for the boys to sit in one classroom, and the girls sit in another classroom. And we had like someone kind of encouraging us to write down and to listen. So the, the, the, we were told to write down whatever words we recognized. You, S, S. Eretz Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael.

15:42 Speaker 2 But-

15:42 Speaker 1 Just get used to writing down what the Rebbe was saying.

15:44 Speaker 2 But you didn't understand what the Rebbe was saying?

15:46 Speaker 1 I went to Lubavitch school. I, I, I, I, half a day we only learned Yiddish, so I had some familiarity. Um, but I didn't, didn't understand the concepts per se, not-

15:55 Speaker 2 How old are you?

15:57 Speaker 1 I'm born in 'am et vav, so-

15:58 Speaker 2 No, no. No, I'm saying but at some point did you start understanding?

16:00 Speaker 1 Eighteen ninety. Yeah, I mean, I grew up, I could speak Yiddish when I was-

16:03 Speaker 2 No, as, as, as you grew, got older, did you understand what the Rebbe was saying at these rallies?

16:06 Speaker 1 Sure. Y- yeah. Yeah.

16:06 Speaker 2 You're saying when you started out, when you were younger.

16:08 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. The general aver was this is how we train everyone to pay attention to what the Rebbe was talking.

16:13 Speaker 2 Uh-huh. Were there adults in the room too?

16:15 Speaker 1 There was usually like one person who was assigned to watch over the kids-

16:17 Speaker 2 Uh-huh

16:17 Speaker 1 ... and make it like a kids thing.

16:18 Speaker 2 But the parents didn't come to sit?

16:20 Speaker 1 The parents would sit in the big shul.

16:22 Speaker 2 They, they listened to the rally too?

16:23 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure.

16:25 Speaker 2 'Cause if you've seen 770, it's usually the kids and the teachers, right?

16:29 Speaker 1 That's, that's 'cause the Rebbe wanted the-

16:30 Speaker 2 Or the teachers

16:31 Speaker 1 ... to speak to the children. But once you're outside of that room of 770, you, you can take them anyplace.

16:35 Speaker 2 No, no, no. I'm not saying that, I'm not saying adults shouldn't have listened. I'm saying I'm thinking now it was the kids and the teachers. It wasn't the parents.

16:41 Speaker 1 Correct.

16:42 Speaker 2 And then so they had the similar thing in England that it was the kids with the teacher or what?

16:45 Speaker 1 I would say it was really the kids were secondary in a way. Like, the kids were in like a side classroom.

16:50 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

16:50 Speaker 1 And it wasn't even every single time. It was just when someone realized we should do something to make this more g- engaging for the kids.

16:56 Speaker 2 You did listen to every Tzvas Hashem rally?

16:57 Speaker 1 I did, but they didn't always have a kids program for the Tzvas Hashem rally.

17:00 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

17:00 Speaker 1 My father went to every rally. We went to farbrengens in the middle of the night. When the farbrengens were at nine thirty-

17:05 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm

17:06 Speaker 1 ... which the Rebbe farbrenged several times a year at nine thirty, we would get up at two o'clock in the morning and be in shul at two thirty in the morning, and it was, it was an amazing highlight. I mean, I, Adir Mazeh, I j- I remember those days, and the Nigunim, and just, uh, like whenever we sing the Rebbe Shabs Nigun, the, the Hacham Nigun-

17:24 Speaker 2 Yeah

17:24 Speaker 1 ... uh, yeah, yeah. I, I, I, I, my first flash is in Lubavitch in London, it's already like six o'clock in the morning. The farbrengen's been going on since two thirty, and I'm a little kid, and, and the sun is starting to rise, and just that like reverent dreariness. I am getting emotional, you know, just thinking about it. But that's, that's the image, and you j- you just... I felt there. I felt present. Yeah.

17:46 Speaker 2 The, the, the, the Nigun that they said.

17:48 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

17:48 Speaker 2 Same with what the Rebbe said at Meimer.

17:49 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. That, for some reason, that just clicked in my head, and, uh-

17:52 Speaker 2 It's a beautiful Nigun

17:53 Speaker 1 ... it's a beautiful Nigun. And, but it made an impression, even from a, from a young child.

17:57 Speaker 2 The Chassidim in England, they, would they stand up when the Rebbe said a Meimer?

18:01 Speaker 1 Yeah. Uh-

18:02 Speaker 2 They were standing up. They were standing up the whole time.

18:04 Speaker 1 No, no. My father would actually write all the Rebbe's farbrengens too.

18:07 Speaker 2 The way you were as children.

18:09 Speaker 1 We, yeah, my father-

18:09 Speaker 2 And your father spoke Yiddish, I guess, from yeshiva too.

18:12 Speaker 1 My father, I don't know, from yeshiva, somehow he picked up, uh, Yiddish. Um, he only learned in yeshiva for one year in, uh, non-Lubavitch yeshiva.

18:19 Speaker 2 I see. Uh, uh, you said Manchester. He, they knew the Russian-

18:22 Speaker 1 Yeah

18:22 Speaker 2 ... but they didn't learn in the yeshiva.

18:23 Speaker 1 My father didn't learn in the yeshiva. My father learned in, in Kol Torah in North Israel-

18:26 Speaker 2 Uh-huh

18:26 Speaker 1 ... for one year.

18:27 Speaker 2 Uh-huh. So he picked up Yiddish along the way?

18:29 Speaker 1 He picked up Yiddish, yeah. Yeah. He's, uh-

18:32 Speaker 2 Right.

18:32 Speaker 1 But, uh, my father, so my father wrote, Moshe took notes. He was, he's... And sometimes they had the translation, just like in 770.

18:39 Speaker 2 Right.

18:40 Speaker 1 They would have, uh, Manis Friedman or somebody translating. My father would often be asked to translate the frengerens for the... And we'd have a whole system if people wanted to listen in English.

18:48 Speaker 2 I see. He would... Oh, so the translation wouldn't come through on the live feed.

18:51 Speaker 1 Correct.

18:51 Speaker 2 So he would do a separate translation.

18:53 Speaker 1 Correct.

18:53 Speaker 2 Loc-

18:53 Speaker 1 There was a group of people, a shmoloo in a town, a town-

18:56 Speaker 2 Locally, locally in London.

18:57 Speaker 1 Locally in London.

18:57 Speaker 2 For that room. Just for that room.

19:00 Speaker 1 Just for that room. Maybe it was that, maybe that was, uh, the connected to other places in, in, in, uh, England and Europe, I don't know. But, uh, definitely in that room there was, like places where you could plug in your earphones and-

19:09 Speaker 2 How, how distant did England feel? You know, 'cause I, like I said, I'm going to Australia.

19:14 Speaker 1 Mm.

19:14 Speaker 2 Australia is famously like a day apart-

19:18 Speaker 1 Right

19:18 Speaker 2 ... time zone-wise and travel-wise, those days even further from New York. Like they're, they're just a complete-

19:24 Speaker 1 Right

19:24 Speaker 2 ... a different planet.

19:25 Speaker 1 Right.

19:25 Speaker 2 Down, down under, you know. They got kangaroos down there.

19:27 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

19:28 Speaker 2 Um, and, and Aussies, two separate. Um, but you, uh, you were in England. England is distinct from the United States, but it's not as far away. Like you growing up in England, did you feel this kind of distance that like you're outside of what's going on in New York? Did you feel like you're another city? Just, uh, you know, you're basically as far away as California, essentially.

19:55 Speaker 1 I would say my experience growing up in Stamford Hill in, in Lubavitch house, it was an annex of 770.

20:02 Speaker 2 Really?

20:03 Speaker 1 In, in very real ways. Uh, I would say primarily due to Rabbi Tzedek.

20:07 Speaker 2 Yeah.

20:08 Speaker 1 I mean, he was Makusha believe in Efesh. You know, he, he loved the Rebbe in such a deep, passionate way, and he, he, he brought that energy to him, and, and, uh, to the, to the community, and my parents channeled it even more for our family. My parents were very close to Rabbi Tzedek. Uh, they had their first real Lubavitch of Pesach in Rabbi Tzedek's house. A lot of the Menahgem that we do was learned from Rabbi Tzedek.

20:29 Speaker 2 So you... So getting back to your father's story-

20:31 Speaker 1 Yeah, but he was-

20:31 Speaker 2 They became Lubavitch, like committed Lubavitch with, with Rabbi Tzedek.

20:36 Speaker 1 Yeah. The, yeah. I think-

20:37 Speaker 2 Even though they had an earlier experience before.

20:39 Speaker 1 They were exposed before, but they, uh, they didn't concretize it until, till after they got married, after they moved to London. When they got married, they weren't sure whether to live in Manchester or London. The rabbi told them preferably London. Uh, I, I interpreted it because Manchester is more of a Lubavitcher, Lubavitcher community.

20:58 Speaker 2 Right.

20:58 Speaker 1 Uh, Stamford Hill is a, is a authentic Hasidisha community. You know, you have all the Ru- the Russian families, uh, Katz-On-The-Wagens, the Raskins, uh, Futavas.

21:07 Speaker 2 Right.

21:08 Speaker 1 Um, it was, it was, it was, to me it was, uh, an amazing... It was, it was a, to answer your question, it was an extension of 770. It was far, and the first time I went to the Rebbe was when I was nine years old in Tosh Ben Hei. But, uh, the connection and the feeling of Rebbe was there every day. I mean, and as I got older, it just became more and more. I... And when I became bar mitzvah, I, I, I used to save up my own money to go to the Rebbe.

21:34 Speaker 2 Mm.

21:34 Speaker 1 When I became bar mitzvah, I used to learn in different shuls in, uh, the east end of London, sometimes the west end of London. Let's say like a four, five hour, five hour-

21:42 Speaker 2 Those are the, those are the posh areas?

21:44 Speaker 1 The west end is the posh area. The east end it was the old Jewish neighborhood, like the Lower East Side equivalent.

21:49 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

21:49 Speaker 1 And there was a lot of like dying out shuls. They couldn't afford rabbis. So me and friends, we would, uh, basically walk to these shuls-

21:56 Speaker 2 Right

21:56 Speaker 1 ... and learn and m- and make money, and sometimes good money.

21:59 Speaker 2 Right.

22:00 Speaker 1 You know, sometimes 50 pounds a week, you know. This is back in the-

22:03 Speaker 2 Yeah, sure

22:03 Speaker 1 ... late '80s, early '90s, uh-

22:05 Speaker 2 Pre, pre, pre-inflation.

22:06 Speaker 1 Pre-inflation, exactly. So, uh, I would, I... My father, I, I went twice to the Rebbe on my father's dime, and I think probably another 10 times on my own dime.

22:16 Speaker 2 Once a year? More than once a year?

22:18 Speaker 1 Sometimes more than once a year. Tishrei-

22:20 Speaker 2 Okay

22:20 Speaker 1 ... like I went to the Rebbe, uh, Tishrei, uh, Toshan Dun.

22:23 Speaker 2 That was your first time?

22:24 Speaker 1 No, no. My first time was, uh, Mem Hei with my father.

22:26 Speaker 2 Tishrei?

22:27 Speaker 1 No, uh, Shvuos Mem Hei.

22:28 Speaker 2 Shvuos Mem Hei.

22:30 Speaker 1 Then we-

22:31 Speaker 2 When, when was your first time went for Tishrei?

22:33 Speaker 1 No, Toshan Dun.

22:34 Speaker 2 Toshan Dun was your first time went for Tishrei?

22:35 Speaker 1 Tishrei, yeah. For, I, I went just for Sukkot. My father didn't let me go for Shemini Atzeret.

22:38 Speaker 2 Why not?

22:39 Speaker 1 I was, I was, I was just 13. I flew by myself. Uh, I don't know. I guess he didn't feel, uh, very, very-

22:44 Speaker 2 Yeah, fair, fair, fair enough, to be honest.

22:46 Speaker 1 Fair enough, but, uh, yeah, you g- you know, it would've been nice. But I, I still went to the end, the Noah from the base.

22:51 Speaker 2 The whole Tishrei?

22:52 Speaker 1 The whole Tishrei. And then I went for Yahrzeit, and four years-

22:55 Speaker 2 Was there, was there, was there like a group that went from England, or were you just kind of just-

22:58 Speaker 1 Another, another beautiful aspect of like London and the connection to Rebbe. So the way it works is the Mechina, basically She-Gimel, there was those days-

23:06 Speaker 2 Who ran the Mechina back then?

23:08 Speaker 1 Rabbi Schrags. The Mechina was like, uh-

23:10 Speaker 2 He's the one that teaches now under in the, in the, in the-

23:12 Speaker 1 I think he teaches now in the Goldsmun, yeah

23:14 Speaker 2 ... yeshiva in Taylor?

23:15 Speaker 1 In Yeshivat Taylor. I think so. Um, so he was Shi-Hei. Rabbi Peretz was Shi-Gimel, Shi-Daled. Rabbi Tifum was Shi-Gimel.

23:23 Speaker 2 Right.

23:23 Speaker 1 Rabbi Safran was Shi-Beis. Rabbi Kesselman was Shi-Alef. So Rabbi Safran was a kind of a different genre. He was from Manchester, but Rabbi Kesselman, Rabbi, Rabbi Peretz, Rabbi Tifum, Rabbi Schrags, they were all same caliber, and there was just an Aveir over there between them. You know, that some of them were part of the Vildechaivid. So I don't know, it just, it just created an Aveir. So officially, Shi-Gimel and up were allowed to go for the whole Tishrei. So everyone was booking tickets, and, and, and then, then everyone was flying together. And like before everyone went, uh, like usually right after Shabbos Zichron. So if it was, uh, late Zichron, it was before Shabbos Zichron. In front of Mechina, they would all leave together from Stamford Hill Road. If you know Stamford Hill Road, there's Viznitzer across the street, there's Agudda across the street, there's, it's a Heimische, you know, there's bakeries and stores-

24:07 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. Sure

24:08 Speaker 1 ... and the Bachrim are singing and dancing. And it was like a send-off. And you know, even when you weren't go- wasn't your of age to go, you were, you, you were looking forward when is, when it's gonna be my turn, you know? So I was there from when I was, uh, 11 turning 12. So I was always looking forward, like one day I'm gonna be doing that also.

24:26 Speaker 2 As many of you know, I recently traveled to Australia to spend six days exclusively recording for the Homesick for Lubavitch podcast. I went in with high expectations. I felt that there were stories interesting and important enough that deserved a trip across the Pacific Ocean. But what I came away with far exceeded even my wildest dreams. For these 20 interviews were more than just 20 separate stories. Rather, they came together to tell a much larger story, a much more powerful story, one that I believe changed my life, and I also believe will change the lives of thousands of people around the world. For this is a story about love, the love that the Rebbe had for Chassidim across the ocean, the love that they had to him, the love that they had for each other, and the love that overflowed from these relationships to thousands and then tens of thousands of fellow Yidden in Australia who became part of the thriving and growing community that is Lubavitch of Australia today. If you would like to take part in this historic project, either by dedicating one of the episodes in memory or in honor of a loved one, or by advertising your company in one or multiple episodes, please reach out to me at bentzi@uvlamedia.com, bentzi@uvlamedia.com. I invite you to take part in this project, and I look forward to sharing this wonderful story, what I call The Miracle of Lubavitch in Australia, with all of you in the weeks to come. And now, back to the

25:55 Speaker 2 show. Why, why were you only there from eleven to turning twelve?

25:58 Speaker 3 No, no, I, I start-

25:59 Speaker 2 The mechanah

25:59 Speaker 3 ... the mechanah starts-

26:00 Speaker 2 Oh, mechanah, right

26:00 Speaker 3 ... the mechanah starts, uh, in Shaul if you're, like, turning twelve.

26:03 Speaker 2 Was there supervision when you came to New York?

26:05 Speaker 3 That's an interesting question. Officially, there was.

26:08 Speaker 2 Right.

26:09 Speaker 3 And every year, the mechanah arranged a, a teacher to go.

26:12 Speaker 2 Right.

26:13 Speaker 3 I remember in Beis, we're all excited, we're going. Uh, most of us were planning to go, and so we were anxious.

26:21 Speaker 2 Why?

26:21 Speaker 3 Why? 'Cause there's no teacher that can go. So I personally went around to each teacher and I said, uh, "Would you go?" So they all said, "I can't." This, that, this one's having a baby, this, one this. Anyways, I said to Rab- Rab- Rabbi Fariz, although he passed away, well, Rashal. I said, "We've gotta go. You gotta, you know, I wanna take us." So he, uh, he said, "I would go, ."

26:44 Speaker 2 That's what he said?

26:44 Speaker 3 That's what he told me.

26:45 Speaker 2 And school wasn't gonna pay? Okay.

26:46 Speaker 3 School, no.

26:46 Speaker 2 I guess-

26:47 Speaker 3 The school, they barely paid salary, so forget about-

26:48 Speaker 2 Fair

26:48 Speaker 3 ... paying tickets.

26:49 Speaker 2 Fair.

26:50 Speaker 3 Um, I said, "We'll pay for your tickets." So I went around, and most of the kids gave a few pounds or whatever, but I had been learning, and I had the money. I paid £195 for his ticket.

27:03 Speaker 2 How about that?

27:04 Speaker 3 And he could never thank me enough. That was in Beis.

27:06 Speaker 2 Right, that was the last year.

27:07 Speaker 3 That was on Beis. You know, it was sukkahs, you know, the Rebbe, Rebbe Zolov.

27:10 Speaker 2 And you went for the Rosh Hashana through Simchat Torah.

27:12 Speaker 3 The whole thing, the whole thing.

27:14 Speaker 2 Wow.

27:15 Speaker 3 And the-

27:15 Speaker 2 And the, the story of the lulav-

27:16 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah

27:16 Speaker 2 ... Velvel Lipsker told me this story. You rem- you were there.

27:18 Speaker 3 I was there, I was there. For sure.

27:19 Speaker 2 And you benched lulav 'cause you were bar mitzvah already.

27:21 Speaker 3 Exactly, exactly.

27:22 Speaker 2 How was that? I mean, just for the people that, that didn't hear that episode, I heard it for the first time from Velvel Lipsker.

27:27 Speaker 3 Oh. Velvel's a few years younger than me, I think.

27:28 Speaker 2 If Velvel wasn't bar mitzvah, he didn't bench.

27:30 Speaker 3 Right.

27:31 Speaker 2 I just-

27:31 Speaker 3 He took a long time with him in Manhattan, yeah. He-

27:32 Speaker 2 I think it's only bar mitzvah and up, right?

27:33 Speaker 3 Rosh Hashana Rabbi, I think, was only bar mitzvah, but, uh, yeah.

27:36 Speaker 2 Sh-

27:36 Speaker 3 This was the first day of sukkot.

27:37 Speaker 2 First day of sukkot.

27:38 Speaker 3 Yeah.

27:38 Speaker 2 That went till mincha time, right?

27:39 Speaker 3 Around three o'clock, something like that.

27:40 Speaker 2 Yeah. So it was only bar mitzvah and up. So I think, I think... Right? Am I right?

27:43 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

27:44 Speaker 2 So-

27:44 Speaker 3 Only men, only bar mitzvah and up.

27:45 Speaker 2 Right. So he was watching it.

27:47 Speaker 3 Right.

27:48 Speaker 2 But he, so he told me the story. For those who don't know, um, well, why don't you tell the story?

27:53 Speaker 3 Yeah. I can tell it from, from my vantage point.

27:54 Speaker 2 Exactly, yeah.

27:56 Speaker 3 So the w- this is really due to my brother. Whenever I, we went to the Rebbe for tishrei, so I needed a place to stay, and he would, like, guide me-

28:03 Speaker 2 Your older brother was already in Beis?

28:05 Speaker 3 He was already in yeshiva in Alter, I think.

28:07 Speaker 2 So he was already there.

28:08 Speaker 3 He was already there, but so he had a place to stay. The other years, he was also looking for a place to stay.

28:13 Speaker 2 Where would you stay?

28:14 Speaker 3 So one year I stayed by Cooperman on, uh-

28:17 Speaker 2 Hashmonai?

28:18 Speaker 3 No. Uh, the safer, not a Cooperman, on Crown Street, across the street from Beis Rivkah.

28:22 Speaker 2 Oh, what, what was the shailchas then?

28:23 Speaker 3 No shailchas. I-- You would open the phone book, the, the, the phone national book. Call someone up, "Can I stay by you for tishrei?" "Sure, no problem." I actually called up-

28:31 Speaker 2 Where would, where would you stay? In their couch?

28:33 Speaker 3 The basement. Yeah, some of them had a ex- extra room, some of them had a basement. I stayed actually in Beis by Bogomolsky.

28:39 Speaker 2 Oh, Rabbi M- Rabbi Moshe Bogomolsky?

28:40 Speaker 3 Rabbi Moshe Bogomolsky. His wife is, is Rabbi Sodex's-

28:42 Speaker 2 Right, right, right, right

28:43 Speaker 3 ... aunt. And I was looking for a place. I can't remember if my mother called or she said, "You call." And I called. She said, "Sure, whatever." I stayed in the house. The Sodex were making a chassan that year. Uh, I think his daughter got married right before, so they were taking the basement. But she gave me... Her family had grown up. She gave me a room right next to the kitchen, and I had a great time. Uh-

28:58 Speaker 2 The whole tishrei?

28:59 Speaker 3 The whole tishrei.

29:00 Speaker 2 Wow.

29:01 Speaker 3 So people were amazingly hospitable. I stayed by Deitch's a couple of y- time, a couple of times. Um-

29:05 Speaker 2 Who, Zalman?

29:06 Speaker 3 Zalman Deitch, yeah. I'm g- I was good friends with Levi. We were the same age.

29:10 Speaker 2 Oh, no kidding.

29:10 Speaker 3 When we went on a class trip one, uh, one year in one through five, the, the elementary school, which my cousin was running at the time, they had a, a school trip.

29:20 Speaker 2 To?

29:20 Speaker 3 To, to the Rebbe.

29:21 Speaker 2 Oh, the-

29:22 Speaker 3 Yeah

29:22 Speaker 2 ... he, she spoke about that, yeah. Well, you had to win-

29:24 Speaker 3 Yes, she-

29:24 Speaker 2 You had to win a competition or something? That one?

29:26 Speaker 3 No, no, no. Anyone could go.

29:26 Speaker 2 The whole school?

29:27 Speaker 3 The, the whole class. Uh, the class six, I think it was.

29:30 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

29:30 Speaker 3 So you're, like, 10, 11 years old. So I went with that, and I ended up staying with Deitch. Actually, some of the non-Lubavitch kids in the class, one through five had non-Lubavitch kids, too.

29:38 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

29:38 Speaker 3 So one of, some non-Lubavitch kids came also, and I actually was appointed to, to, you know, stay where they stayed so I could kind of, uh, make the experience a little bit more enjoyable for them, explain what was going on. So that time we stayed by Deitch. But getting back to your question about the-

29:52 Speaker 2 Yes, yes

29:54 Speaker 3 ... so because of my brother's influence, I kind of knew my way around. So basically, Simchas mitzvah shaver was a whole night. We would dance the whole night sukkot. Um, and it went, it went till six o'clock in the morning. Officially, Simchas mitzvah shaver ended six o'clock in the morning. So the first night there's no music, but bachur would dance, and that was it. After six o'clock in the morning, most people would go home. But my brother, uh, uh, he introduced me to that day you go and get a line in, for the Rebbe's zolv.

30:20 Speaker 2 Because if you, if you go to sleep-

30:22 Speaker 3 You'll be first

30:23 Speaker 2 ... by the time you get there, there'll be a line up to Azu and you'll-

30:26 Speaker 3 He, my brother didn't sleep. He, he's, he said, uh, "Sesma Kirshma, Sesma Tefillah," whatever. Like, he cared about doing the right thing more than anything else.

30:33 Speaker 2 Oh.

30:33 Speaker 3 And shake the Rebbe's lulav, then you daven and then-

30:36 Speaker 2 And then he goes to-

30:36 Speaker 3 ... if, if, if you have time, you go to sleep, you know.

30:38 Speaker 2 Well, how did he function?

30:40 Speaker 3 He always used to say after Mayav hasam, you know, sleep enough. He, he functioned on, on little sleep.

30:45 Speaker 2 I was telling you, you said he had half a heart.

30:48 Speaker 3 A hole in his heart.

30:49 Speaker 2 Right. I, I don't know-

30:49 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah, yeah

30:50 Speaker 2 ... what I'm saying.

30:51 Speaker 3 He was a, he, he lived in a little bit of a lamai medakchat ela kind of thing.

30:53 Speaker 2 That's what it, that, that's what it sounds like, yeah.

30:55 Speaker 3 Uh, very much so.

30:57 Speaker 2 Hm.

30:57 Speaker 3 So, uh, basically from the dancing, we went And, uh, sit on the bench. We're outside by where they built the Tashlich, uh, the, the, the, the Tashlich little pond over there, and there was like... They built a small little sukkah where it was designed in an L shape so that it would be a s- a, a single file going through that sukkah where Meir HaLevi would stand and, and, and you just shake the lulav and go in one side and come out the other end. It was almost like that. But you would start lining up by the, by the, by the Tashlich, uh, pond that they had built over there, and there was, like, benches there, and we would doze off.

31:31 Speaker 2 Hold on a second. You, you would start, you would start-

31:32 Speaker 3 You come in from Union.

31:33 Speaker 2 Right. Start from coming in where they were gonna build the kohel or whatever.

31:36 Speaker 3 Exactly. So there was a path over there.

31:38 Speaker 2 And then you'd come by the Rebbe's sukkah.

31:40 Speaker 3 No, not the Rebbe's sukkah.

31:41 Speaker 2 No, where... So where do you end up?

31:43 Speaker 3 You end up just in the back of the chatzer over there.

31:45 Speaker 2 Where the Tashlich is.

31:46 Speaker 3 Where the Tashlich is.

31:47 Speaker 2 Ah, that's where it ended.

31:48 Speaker 3 That's where the line started.

31:51 Speaker 2 That's where the line... Oh, that's where the line started, and that's where you shook.

31:53 Speaker 3 That's where you shook, and then when you have shaken, you would go further into the sukkah, into the main sukkah.

31:58 Speaker 2 Towards the front of seven seventy.

31:59 Speaker 3 Towards the front of seven seventy.

32:01 Speaker 2 Uh, and Meir HaLevi-

32:01 Speaker 3 That was the flow of, that was the flow.

32:02 Speaker 2 And generally speaking, the Rebbe didn't stand there. Meir HaLevi-

32:04 Speaker 3 No. Yeah, the Rebbe-

32:05 Speaker 2 They had a bench lulav, then he would give it to-

32:07 Speaker 3 If we were lucky, we would hold our place in line, and then when we heard the Rebbe was coming out, we would run out of line, watch the Rebbe come out of seven seventy, go into his sukkah and shake lulav in his sukkah, watch him give it to Meir HaLevi, and then run back into line, and someone would have saved our spot in line.

32:24 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

32:24 Speaker 3 Sometimes we did that.

32:26 Speaker 2 Uh.

32:26 Speaker 3 This time we didn't do that, and I remember, you know, from six, the Rebbe would come out by eight, eight thirty approximately.

32:32 Speaker 2 And the Rebbe, those year... In general, lived those years in seven seventy the whole time, those year. But I, I think-

32:37 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah. After, after, after Simchas, the Rebbe-

32:39 Speaker 2 Right

32:39 Speaker 3 ...spent much more time in seven seventy, yes.

32:41 Speaker 2 I mean, the Rebbe lived in seven seventy, right?

32:42 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah.

32:42 Speaker 2 But I think even, even in the year zer... I mean, even the year zer, if we upt, if he'd come seven seventy, am I wrong?

32:48 Speaker 3 The library next door usually.

32:49 Speaker 2 Right, right.

32:49 Speaker 3 The Rebbe, the Rebbe-

32:50 Speaker 2 And the Rebbe, the Rebbe obviously didn't sleep on, didn't-

32:52 Speaker 3 The Rebbe, correct. The Rebbe would say the Rebbe didn't-

32:52 Speaker 2 Stayed in his office, dozed in his office or something.

32:54 Speaker 3 Say the Rebbe didn't, uh, yeah, didn't, didn't sleep, uh, a proper sleep, uh-

32:58 Speaker 2 He would sit on a chair or something the whole night.

33:00 Speaker 3 Chair, exactly. That's what they say.

33:01 Speaker 2 So he'd come out at eight o'clock.

33:02 Speaker 3 Around eight, eight thirty somewhere.

33:04 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

33:04 Speaker 3 Yeah. And so I'm, just remember being, you know, you're exhausted. You're... It's f-freezing cold out there too.

33:09 Speaker 2 Yeah. It's, it's getting-

33:10 Speaker 3 Uh, it's cold.

33:10 Speaker 2 It's getting chilly.

33:10 Speaker 3 Exactly.

33:11 Speaker 2 It's the fall, yeah.

33:11 Speaker 3 Exactly. And then I re-

33:13 Speaker 2 And ra- and rainy sometimes also.

33:15 Speaker 3 Right. So I, I just remember usually we were, like, aware. Meir HaLevi would, uh, would come, and you'd feel like a little shuffle 'cause everyone's just, like, getting who was first, who was second, you know. I'm in front of you, you're in front of me, and you just feel a little order all of a sudden just fall into place when the Rebbe's lulav was arriving. But that morning, as, as we were expecting that to happen, there was a whole just crash. Everyone was just, like, clamoring onto what was going on. And I couldn't really see 'cause of the sukkah was like an L shape, so you can't really see-

33:45 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

33:45 Speaker 3 If you're behind a bench.

33:46 Speaker 2 You didn't see what was going on, but you sensed that there's commotion.

33:48 Speaker 3 Until I turned the corner, I didn't know the Rebbe was there. I just knew there was a commotion and-

33:53 Speaker 2 Oh, no, but it didn't, like, travel down the line?

33:54 Speaker 3 It didn't, it didn't... It, it... No.

33:56 Speaker 2 It was just so... People were so shocked.

33:58 Speaker 3 So shocked. It was complete shock.

33:59 Speaker 2 So the Rebbe just walked from his sukkah through the main sukkah.

34:02 Speaker 3 Through the main sukkah.

34:03 Speaker 2 Yeah.

34:03 Speaker 3 The Rebbe I think asked Meir, "Where benchman?" And he just, and, and Meir was a little confused, and he came and showed the Rebbe where, where he sat.

34:10 Speaker 2 And then what? The Rebbe sat down?

34:11 Speaker 3 Nope. The Rebbe stood in the corner. I, I remember it, the Rebbe looked to me very uncomfortable.

34:17 Speaker 2 Yeah, I can imagine.

34:18 Speaker 3 Withdrawn in the corner, almost like the Rebbe didn't wanna be seen.

34:22 Speaker 2 Yeah.

34:22 Speaker 3 And it, it, it, it, it was a, a very uncomfortable moment for me seeing the Rebbe. I don't remember if I even said the berachah. I didn't say the berachah, but I remember the Rebbe, like, completely withdrawn into the corner, almost like should, people should notice him and just make a berachah and go.

34:35 Speaker 2 'Cause Velvel I think described that the Rebbe was looking very sternly at people.

34:39 Speaker 3 He looked, like, stern. It, it-

34:40 Speaker 2 So the Rebbe was looking at, at you.

34:43 Speaker 3 I would say, like, down with his eyes, looking. I remember the Rebbe, like, blinking a few times. It, it seemed like... It, it didn't seem like a, a freilicher experience quite honestly.

34:50 Speaker 2 And he was... Right.

34:52 Speaker 3 Right. It definitely did not seem like a freilich moment.

34:54 Speaker 2 It was not an uplifting... Something-

34:56 Speaker 3 It was-

34:56 Speaker 2 It was something else going on.

34:58 Speaker 3 I... That's definitely the ex-feeling I had in that moment.

35:01 Speaker 2 In that moment. Not, not-

35:02 Speaker 3 Hundred percent.

35:02 Speaker 2 Not months later-

35:03 Speaker 3 No, uh-

35:03 Speaker 2 When you tieched up l'mafrén.

35:04 Speaker 3 No, I, I didn't... I wasn't old enough to sit by all the, uh, farbrengen with the-

35:08 Speaker 2 No, I'm saying it was... You're not tieching this up after-

35:09 Speaker 3 In the moment, I remember feeling-

35:10 Speaker 2 You're not tieching this up after the stroke.

35:12 Speaker 3 No.

35:13 Speaker 2 You're not saying that in hindsight-

35:14 Speaker 3 No

35:14 Speaker 2 ...this is what it felt like.

35:15 Speaker 3 No, no, never made any connection like that.

35:17 Speaker 2 In that moment, you felt-

35:18 Speaker 3 In that moment I do-

35:18 Speaker 2 ...unsettled

35:19 Speaker 3 ...unsettled. The Rebbe did not look comfortable. I think they tried to bring a chair for the Rebbe to sit down. The Rebbe refused.

35:24 Speaker 2 So he stood for hours watching?

35:26 Speaker 3 The Rebbe st- so the Rebbe stood till I think it was two or three o'clock. I was already exhausted. I'd been up the whole night.

35:32 Speaker 2 So where did you go after your bench lulav?

35:33 Speaker 3 So I thought that-

35:33 Speaker 2 Usually you went, you went off probably.

35:35 Speaker 3 Oh, you go. You have some Mizrahi-ners.

35:37 Speaker 2 Right.

35:37 Speaker 3 You know, you, you already had... You've already been to mik- to mikvah before, before, uh, you shook the Rebbe's lulav. So I was waiting till ten o'clock when someone that was gonna come down. We're gonna daven and then-

35:45 Speaker 2 Oh, so you, you did walk off?

35:47 Speaker 3 I... Yeah, you walk into the sukkah. Yeah, yeah. You-

35:49 Speaker 2 No, you didn't, like, stand to watch the Rebbe stand there.

35:51 Speaker 3 You couldn't. Everyone was coming through.

35:51 Speaker 2 You had to move. You had to move.

35:52 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah, you had to move. Yeah. And the Rebbe had shook the lulav, and it was time to move on.

35:55 Speaker 2 Right.

35:55 Speaker 3 And you didn't do a lulav nunim. You just did a sha- a shakla, yeah.

35:57 Speaker 2 No, I'm saying it sound like people started making, like, a whole, like, uh-

36:00 Speaker 3 They made a seuda. I mean, I, I, I would say, m- I... They, and they used to give out these little tickets. Now I'm remembering. They used to give out these little coupons, numbers.

36:08 Speaker 2 Right. I took my father, right?

36:10 Speaker 3 I actually still have them. I could have brought it today. I don't have it here. I have it in my house.

36:12 Speaker 2 Yeah.

36:13 Speaker 3 But basically, these little coupons, which number you get. So, like, the first 500 people could come and get their place and then go to mikvah or go do whatever. So, uh, usually I ha- would get, like, number ten, 20, somewhere around that. So as soon as Meir HaLevi came, usually I was, like, one of the first. But that year, there must have been 200 people that somehow got in there before me. Like, once the Rebbe came in, all of a sudden there, there was a shuffle, and it took, took a little while for everyone to get organized and for it to be in mesadas. Uh, there must have been at least 200 people that went before me, but-

36:42 Speaker 2 Wow

36:42 Speaker 3 ...I clearly remember the Rebbe's look. It, it, it almost looked like the Rebbe's look by Kaparas. And you, you don't see the Rebbe's Kaparas, but, uh, but you see when the Rebbe, when the, the Rebbe would come out to the chatzer for the schrita, the, the Kalmerson with, with the shechit.

36:58 Speaker 2 Right. What do, what do you mean by that look? The rabbi kind of cringed when, when they, by the

37:04 Speaker 3 The rabbi didn't-- The rabbi w-wanted to see it, but didn't wanna look, it looked like.

37:08 Speaker 2 Uh, but that's-

37:08 Speaker 3 And there was like a, like there, there was that kind of look. That, that, that, that was kind of what I associated with i-in the moment.

37:14 Speaker 2 Not, not enjoying it.

37:15 Speaker 3 Not a, not a, not a happy time. I-- That was never my impression. But at the same time, it was considered a giloy. Like, uh, I remember Rabbi Gordon who was, uh... Whatever he-- It doesn't matter. Whatever. He missed it. Whatever. He, he-

37:31 Speaker 2 He went to his-

37:32 Speaker 3 He went to his father's for visiting for Sukkos. I remember him for bringing Yeshiva, I learned in Kingsway. So he would always, uh, he was for bringing about how he missed, uh, his first day Sukkos. It was considered a giloy. Like, the rabbi came out, stood for hours and hours.

37:46 Speaker 2 And you didn't feel that way?

37:47 Speaker 3 It was for sure giloy in some way, in some way, but, uh, it felt like there was something more serious going on-

37:53 Speaker 2 Uh-huh

37:53 Speaker 3 ... in the moment for sure. But what happened just on a personal-- on my personal experience, so I waited till ten o'clock, and the rabbi was not coming down. So I waited till ten thirty, and I was exhausted. I'm, you know, 14 years old. I'd not slept the whole night. So basically, I, I davened Shacharis on my own.

38:08 Speaker 2 As you get older, it gets harder to do that, aren't you? You know what I'm saying?

38:11 Speaker 3 I, uh, I davened, um, I davened on my own. Maybe I found a minyan or whatever I did, and I, and I went to sleep, and I, I, uh, woke up around one thirty, two o'clock. I thought, "Okay, for sure I missed m- I missed Shacharis, and, uh, I'll go to Simchat Torah and see what's going on." And as I go to Simchat Torah, the rabbi's still not down.

38:30 Speaker 2 Wow.

38:30 Speaker 3 So I reali-- whatever. It was just like, uh, it was amazing. The whole Simchat Torah was packed. Everyone's waiting.

38:34 Speaker 2 Homesick for Lubavitch is brought to you by Yuvala Media, a boutique video production company that I have run for close to ten years. Today, Yuvala Media works with organizations all around the country, bringing their stories to life in a way that is both meaningful and memorable. Whether it's a video for a milestone dinner, an online fundraiser, or a building campaign, we begin each project with the same question: What does your audience need to know about you to feel more connected to your cause? Once we answer that question, we tailor-make a video that best addresses this need. Over the years, we have built a reputation for top-of-the-line visuals while also being responsive and reliable. As one of our clients put it, "A combination of technical excellence and real heart." If you are looking to make a video for an upcoming dinner, fundraiser, or building campaign, please reach out to us to schedule a fifteen-minute phone call to see if we can make something beautiful together. Email us at hello@yuvalamedia.com. Again, that is hello@yuvalamedia.com. A link can be found in the show notes. And now, back to the show. How did that impact the rest of Sukkos? Was there a sense... First of all, did, did you feel that this sense you had was a sense that other people had that something is up? And did it impact, like, the spirit of Sukkos in general?

39:51 Speaker 3 I think in general, it was interpreted as a great simcha, a great giloy.

39:55 Speaker 2 Really?

39:56 Speaker 3 I, I th-- That's, that's the memory I have. Thought, "Wow, the rabbi came out," and-

40:00 Speaker 2 'Cause you and Velvel Michri both told me that that's not what you felt.

40:02 Speaker 3 But I'm-- But my personal recollection of my-- what I saw was the rabbi was serious. A hundred percent the rabbi was serious. But, uh, you know, who knows?

40:10 Speaker 2 Yeah. Velvel s-Velvel felt like it was some kinda like farewell almost.

40:14 Speaker 3 Yeah. I don't, I don't like to talk in those terms, but, uh, can say-

40:17 Speaker 2 I'm saying, but I'm saying that-- I'm saying it's interesting that the two people, obviously, it's anecdotal, but the two people I speak to about it have this sense. And the way you're describing it to me makes it sound impo-- like, like obvious. It's, it's not like you're... You, you're reading it how it is, not, you know, like you're describing the scene. And then you're saying that it was typed in a different way. It's very interesting to me.

40:41 Speaker 3 At least from the people that didn't-- weren't there felt like they missed a, a great opportunity.

40:45 Speaker 2 That, that's in-

40:46 Speaker 3 So maybe that's the-

40:46 Speaker 2 That's interesting

40:47 Speaker 3 ... maybe that's where the framing is coming from a lot.

40:49 Speaker 2 I mean, you could say, you could say that about Lubavitch in general, right?

40:51 Speaker 3 Excuse me?

40:52 Speaker 2 Like, in general, when, when you miss out on something, it changes entire... I'm not saying this even in a critical way. I'm just describing it. Like, the fact that you don't have it, you automatically des-

41:04 Speaker 3 Right.

41:04 Speaker 2 It feels different.

41:05 Speaker 3 Right.

41:06 Speaker 2 Right?

41:06 Speaker 3 Which is in many ways a distortion.

41:07 Speaker 2 Yeah. No, it's, it's absolutely a distortion.

41:10 Speaker 3 Right.

41:10 Speaker 2 Like, there's no doubt in my mind, and I, I, I know it'll come across as being cynical, but I don't mean it cynically. There's no question in my mind that a lot of these zachronos are totally distorted. I'll give you an example. Uh, it was on a podcast. For example, Rabbi Winner from Australia was talking about how during

41:32 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

41:34 Speaker 2 That's not the zachronos that we're given, right? Those zachronos we're given, everyone was there, and ah.

41:39 Speaker 3 A hundred percent. I mean, I can, I can relate to that in many ways. I mean, during the

41:42 Speaker 2 There was people playing outside. I mean, uh-

41:45 Speaker 3 No, but that's-

41:45 Speaker 2 ... talking. There was talk. I remember, like, being on the... I was coming from London. The rabbi's speaking.

41:49 Speaker 3 Right.

41:50 Speaker 2 Every second, and then right behind me is...

41:52 Speaker 3 Right. Right. But that is some people weren't interested. That's, that's not-- That, that's understandable.

41:57 Speaker 2 I think I do as well.

41:58 Speaker 3 He, he was talking about Chassidishe Bachurim who like, "Okay," like, the, you know, like we-- that wants, wants us to do this.

42:04 Speaker 2 Right.

42:05 Speaker 3 Other people will sing. You know, maybe they finished Chitas already or whatever. But like, you know, we all have things that we need to do as well.

42:10 Speaker 2 Right.

42:10 Speaker 3 It wasn't like... It wasn't Bachurim who didn't care. It was like... My point is... That's why I brought up that example. My point is that, like, it's presented in a ver-- the, the, the distortion of memory in general and the distortion of memory is something that you don't have anymore changes everything. I mean, when, when, when anybody, God forbid, passes away, we remember them, and this is a nice thing. We remember them in a very positive light 'cause what's the point of remembering their faults? Like, it's over, right?

42:37 Speaker 2 Right.

42:38 Speaker 3 What's the point of holding on to that?

42:40 Speaker 2 Right.

42:40 Speaker 3 So these things, it's very interesting. Like, you're describing, like, it happening in real time, where like you're there-

42:48 Speaker 2 Right

42:48 Speaker 3 ... and you see it one way, and you're clearly, at least you're pr-- the way you're presenting it to me, you're not saying it in a cynical way at all. That's the way you just, you understood it. And the people who weren't there take it in a completely different way.

43:00 Speaker 2 Right. Right.

43:00 Speaker 3 Like, my God, is this big... Yeah.

43:02 Speaker 2 At the same time, I, I went to sleep afterwards 'cause I couldn't stay up, you know. So-

43:05 Speaker 3 Well, this is-

43:05 Speaker 2 Similar to, you know, Rabbi Winner's Bachurim, uh-

43:07 Speaker 3 Well, you're just a phys-

43:08 Speaker 2 Right. Right

43:08 Speaker 3 ... you're a phys- you're a physical person at the end of the day.

43:10 Speaker 2 Right. Sure.

43:10 Speaker 3 And how old were you?

43:12 Speaker 2 Fourteen, fifteen. Yeah.

43:12 Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah. And you were, you, you know, you, you, you were, you were already... The fact you were there in the first place

43:18 Speaker 2 That's very-

43:19 Speaker 3 I almost didn't go back. I, I, I wanted to stay. I just felt a-

43:22 Speaker 2 Was there-

43:22 Speaker 3 Connection

43:23 Speaker 2 Was there-- Being that you didn't live in Carleites and you were coming in from time to time, was there a sense in your mind that the Rebbe was getting older and like something... I'm not even-- Just even the Rebbe's appearance changed, right? There was a certain s- It, it-- Begash me, it looked different over the, over those last years. Was there-- Were-- Was that noticeable to you or, or-

43:46 Speaker 3 My earliest memories of the Rebbe w-was from the mem, from the early mems, like, uh, Tzanua Shemena, Mem Base.

43:52 Speaker 2 Right.

43:53 Speaker 3 We saw that video for the live hookup.

43:55 Speaker 2 Right.

43:56 Speaker 3 The Rebbe's beard was already white, so-

43:58 Speaker 2 No, but the Rebbe's hair got longer.

43:59 Speaker 3 That was a choice. I mean, the Rebbe decided to not take haircuts so often. Uh-

44:03 Speaker 2 The Rebbe's gait changed.

44:05 Speaker 3 Yeah. For sure when I came to the Rebbe, I, I know-

44:07 Speaker 2 The voice, the voice went down, right?

44:09 Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah.

44:10 Speaker 2 The voice, it was harder to hear on Eesh Howes in Yamtef.

44:12 Speaker 3 Yeah.

44:13 Speaker 2 Were these things noticeable to you or you didn't, you didn't think about it?

44:17 Speaker 3 Not in that way. I mean, certain times the Rebbe, like the Rebbe said the famous you know, so there was certain times when-

44:24 Speaker 2 Right

44:25 Speaker 3 And, and it's inevitable that you, you, you, you, you see what, what's going on in front of you, uh, so-

44:31 Speaker 2 Is it? 'Cause a lot of people didn't.

44:34 Speaker 3 I mean, after Mem Base, for sure, right?

44:36 Speaker 2 Uh, even then, I think people-

44:39 Speaker 3 Y-y-

44:40 Speaker 2 But I, I'm, I'm not asking for what was the right thing to do. I'm just asking what your impression was, given that you-

44:46 Speaker 3 My impression was the Rebbe was getting older, but Moshiach was coming-

44:49 Speaker 2 Uh-huh

44:49 Speaker 3 So it's not a problem.

44:50 Speaker 2 Uh-huh. But, but you were cognizant of the Rebbe getting older?

44:53 Speaker 3 A-after the Rebbeson passed away, for sure.

44:56 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

44:56 Speaker 3 Yeah. And when, you know, you heard the Rebbe wrote a tuvah, whatever, like-

45:00 Speaker 2 You did hear that?

45:00 Speaker 3 Yeah. I remember hearing that.

45:02 Speaker 2 In London?

45:03 Speaker 3 Yeah.

45:03 Speaker 2 There was a discussion of it in London.

45:04 Speaker 3 Let me give you a g-- Let me give you a descri-- The farbrengens in London, Shabbos afternoon, like London Shabbos goes out late. You know, sometimes, like, it might be like the Didanatsach Shabbosim before or after. Shabbosim, farbrengens would go till six, seven o'clock sometimes from after davening.

45:21 Speaker 2 And whose farbrengen? Rabbi Tzadok?

45:23 Speaker 3 Tzadok, actually not as much. Yeah.

45:25 Speaker 2 Really? He kind of-

45:26 Speaker 3 I mean, he always started the farbrengen

45:27 Speaker 2 He kind of let people do their thing.

45:28 Speaker 3 Farish Fogel-

45:30 Speaker 2 So he would just sit there? Rabbi Tzadok would just sit there, or he'd leave?

45:32 Speaker 3 It definitely... I might-- When I-- My memories are more... He's not such a philosopher, uh, Rabbi Tzadok.

45:38 Speaker 2 Right.

45:39 Speaker 3 Rebbe Sichah, he'd say the Rebbe's word, and he would like Chaza Sichah every Shabbos, uh, by the farbrengen. It's not what the Rebbe is, and that's it.

45:45 Speaker 2 That was his job.

45:46 Speaker 3 I don't think he was such a farbrenger kind of thing.

45:48 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

45:48 Speaker 3 Like, uh, Farish Fogel was more philo- you know, philosophy and, uh-

45:53 Speaker 2 Ideas

45:53 Speaker 3 ... ideas, and the Rebbe's real, you know, like, you know, and bringing it down and gonna-- giving it more of a, more of a down-to-earth kind of, uh, way of, of, of unpacking what the Rebbe's-- what, what's going on in the Lubavitch. Tallon, Talshmul, Lu, and then there was Bibachim and Librovs, and I just, you know-

46:10 Speaker 2 That's a-- That's quite a mix

46:12 Speaker 3 Yeah, the whole thing. It, I mean, it wa-- That's what I'm saying. It was, it was, it was a chavia. It was, it was an experience. It was-- I was immersed. I was in love with it. It was... I, I wasn't in 770, but I wasn't far away, you know? I was getting, like, first-hand feeling of what, of what that feel is.

46:31 Speaker 2 So maybe I'm, maybe I'm re-asking a question that I asked already, but I think this is a little bit different. You're talking about translating the Rebbe's, uh, you know, what the Rebbe wants. It's very interesting in general, I think. Something that I've, that I've, that I've thought about and discussed on this podcast with others as well, how as... I-in general, there's a lot of things in this world that changed with the rise of mass communication, right? You know. Even look in Lubavitch. First, the Sichas had to be sent by mail. So by the time it gets to the person, it's already a month behind. So it, it's more ideas that you're getting because the Palmamish is already farfallen in a way, right? The Rebbe said on Chanukah, Chanukah happened already. Um, but as it gets more and more immediate, as it, as, as the world shrinks-

47:21 Speaker 3 Real time. Real time

47:21 Speaker 2 ... yeah. So, like, for example, Simon Jacobson once described to me on the podcast how it went from, like, uh, the Sicha, uh, the, you know, the farbrengen, the, the farbrengen presented as Sichas to, to the farbrengen presented as, like, Rosh Hiprakim, to then presented as-

47:38 Speaker 3 A ran. Right on Shabbos, you got a ran.

47:39 Speaker 2 Yeah. And then it was presented as, like, the Ten Ir Yois. So you can see the, the, the, the path from more the world of ideas and take the ideas and figure it out on your own-

47:48 Speaker 3 Right

47:49 Speaker 2 ... to keeping up with, like, Pashut, like, do this, do this, do this, like, on a weekly basis, right?

47:54 Speaker 3 Yeah.

47:54 Speaker 2 So I think you see that in general in Lubavitch with time. You see it in the world. I mean, look at the world that we live in today. In one second, the whole world can turn on-

48:02 Speaker 3 I have a bit of a theory about it.

48:03 Speaker 2 Do you? Go ahead. Go ahead, please.

48:05 Speaker 3 I was actually farbrenging with my community about it on Simchas Torah. We see in the, in the past... I asked everyone to make a chالطة, uh, uh, for Limud Atora. So we have farbrengen, we dance to Shemoneh Esreh, we dance Simchas Torah by night, and then we have a little bit of Simchas Torah morning, and then we sit down farbrengen after the, after davening's over, Simchas Torah day.

48:22 Speaker 2 Right.

48:23 Speaker 3 So I said, "Now we're gonna take it tachlis. Like, we dance, we've gotta recommit ourselves to Limud Atora."

48:28 Speaker 2 Right. They say Rabbi Tzadok that after Chaf Chafis, he'd wipe, he'd wipe his head and sit down Chaf Mishpat, right?

48:33 Speaker 3 I hope the Rebbe would learn Gemara after-

48:35 Speaker 2 Uh-huh

48:37 Speaker 3 ... after far Chaf Chafis or after farbrengens, whatever, like-

48:40 Speaker 2 Yeah. You have to bring it down.

48:41 Speaker 3 Yeah. Well, actually, one of my teachers, Rabbi Kasem, would say the Rebbe walked into his room, he threw his hat onto the, onto the, onto the-

48:47 Speaker 2 After Chaf Chafis

48:49 Speaker 3 I think it's after Chaf Chafis.

48:50 Speaker 2 Yeah.

48:50 Speaker 3 And then a little Sanhedrin, Gemara, whatever it was.

48:53 Speaker 2 Yeah. I think-- So I think they say... I don't, I don't... I think I heard about the Tzadok study-

48:56 Speaker 3 Could be

48:56 Speaker 2 ... but I, it could be-

48:56 Speaker 3 It could be both

48:57 Speaker 2 I'm sure someone heard Bem on some level. Yeah.

49:00 Speaker 3 So it was, uh, this farbrengen about tachlis. You gotta take a chالطة in Limud Atora. So one person said he's gonna learn a little Gemara, and one person said a little, uh, five minutes of Torah. Whatever everyone, like, said. Ev-every people said different things. So I was explaining how in the past hundred years, approximately, there's been different campaigns. First Daf Yomi, then Amid Yomi, then Mishnah Berurah Day.

49:19 Speaker 2 Right

49:19 Speaker 3 Then the Rebbe came along with the, with Rambam Yomi.

49:22 Speaker 2 Right.

49:22 Speaker 3 And it's amazing that in the past hundred years, there's been, you know, Shami, whatever. There's everything Yomi. You know, the whole, the whole Yomi. And I was ex-- I was, I was just surmising that befo-before a hundred years ago, people needed a whole day just to provide for their own life.

49:39 Speaker 2 Right.

49:39 Speaker 3 In order to, to eat lunch, you needed to go to the, go to the grocery and buy, buy... G-go to the market and buy the carrots.

49:45 Speaker 2 There's no grocery

49:46 Speaker 3 Whatever. Go, go to the market and buy the carrots and, and then do the work in the field and-

49:49 Speaker 2 Right

49:49 Speaker 3 ... you wouldn't have time. But in-- since the Industrial Revolution, since technology has advanced, we'll suddenly we push it half time.

49:56 Speaker 2 Right.

49:56 Speaker 3 And therefore, the, the achrayus and the hiy of Limud Atora is elevated.

50:00 Speaker 2 Hmm. Interesting.

50:02 Speaker 3 And, and I think to me, I think that's what the Rebbe was trying to do with Rambam. The Rebbe saw that we're, we're heading into a technology age that-

50:09 Speaker 2 And now we're in San Francisco

50:11 Speaker 3 We need, we, we need to keep these guys busy. They, they... I think, I think the Rebbe was, was pushit seeing T- YouTube time-wasting going on and saying-

50:20 Speaker 2 Fair

50:20 Speaker 3 ... "You need, you need to be, you need to do Ramam." Since when does the Ramam-

50:23 Speaker 2 He, he didn't need to see YouTube. If you see any video of seven seventy from those years that isn't Gem, I've seen videos. Like there were, there's videos from the TV crews of the riots, for example. There's a video that they have trained on the front of seven seventy. The amount of Lady Gaga sitting outside seven seventy-

50:39 Speaker 3 Yeah, for sure

50:39 Speaker 2 ... sitting there.

50:40 Speaker 3 That bothered the Rebbe immensely-

50:42 Speaker 2 To Lady Gaga-

50:43 Speaker 3 ... 'cause

50:44 Speaker 2 Right

50:44 Speaker 3 It's one thing for the Rebbe to demand limited data.

50:46 Speaker 2 Right.

50:46 Speaker 3 That's, that's what the Rebbe does.

50:48 Speaker 2 Right.

50:48 Speaker 3 But for, for the Rebbe of Nasi Chabad to say limit Ramam

50:53 Speaker 2 Right

50:54 Speaker 3 The Rebbe, it was an expectation that he could only demand an immersion limit data in a way that's gonna give you very little time for-

51:01 Speaker 2 Uh-huh

51:01 Speaker 3 ... for, for Narishkeitn.

51:03 Speaker 2 You're saying he saw the amount of time on my phone that I waste on my phone.

51:06 Speaker 3 I don't know. That's my, that's like my objection. But I, I, I just feel-

51:07 Speaker 2 Interesting

51:07 Speaker 3 ... the Rebbe was giving us-

51:09 Speaker 2 Can, can I... Yeah, go ahead.

51:10 Speaker 3 There's another Likud, like they came to a point where, where the Rebbe was saying to make Sima Ramam. I was actually by the first Sima Ramam in Manhattan. I was, I happened to be there that year-

51:20 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm

51:20 Speaker 3 ... that time. And, um, then the Rebbe was saying make a Sium on, uh, on every, every, on, uh, every, uh, set of Halakhahs. So the Rebbe was saying make a Sium on, on every Halakha.

51:29 Speaker 2 Uh.

51:29 Speaker 3 And I went like, "What do you mean a Sium on every Halakha?" And it just dawned on me this, this past on Hasara. I said, from technology, you can maybe appreciate what the Rebbe meant. When you get a video through WhatsApp, oh, some cool thing happened. It goes viral in twenty seconds, and everyone's like, "Oh, did you see this thing?" That's called making a Sium and celebrating this video.

51:49 Speaker 2 Ah, interesting.

51:50 Speaker 3 The Rebbe's saying celebrate every Halakha. Everything is, is, it has immense levels of, of data, of herdraka, of, of the Likus. That, that, that to me, it all suddenly clicked. That's what it means make a Sium on every Halakha. Every Halakha shines. Every Halakha is, is, is, is, uh, hurrah in hurrah bachayim.

52:07 Speaker 2 That's a, that's a beautiful part. That, I mean, it's a very San Francisco part, but it's a beautiful-

52:12 Speaker 3 We're, we're in San Francisco

52:12 Speaker 2 ... exactly, but it's a beautiful part.

52:15 Speaker 3 Is, is definitely in San Francisco.

52:16 Speaker 2 It's a beautiful part. I mean, I, I wanted to s- I wanted to play a riff a little bit on what you're saying because you, you, you were coming to it originally from the more kind of musadika place of we're wasting so much time, you know, like we need to learn to so that we don't kind of waste our time more. But I, I, I, I wanted to riff more what, what you got to later, which is that, like the Industrial Revolution basically gave us... I, I think you said this. It gave us time back, and like Sus talks at length, you know, Babayamim, the idea of, of, of days, the idea of every day has its own idea, its own purpose, its own, uh, potential. And it's not just to repeat what you did yesterday, but it's its own thing 'cause otherwise why would you be here?

53:05 Speaker 3 Right.

53:06 Speaker 2 Um, you know,

53:06 Speaker 3 Yeah

53:07 Speaker 2 ... and so on.

53:11 Speaker 3 Yeah.

53:12 Speaker 2 But, uh, it's all over the place. I mean, it's, uh, I'm pretty sure we learned it in Likudeter just the past few weeks also, but, um, or somewhere else, wherever.

53:20 Speaker 3 Right. I mean, to tie, tie this Likud in a little bit, I have a habit of like finding the little Ramaz in Ramam.

53:26 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

53:27 Speaker 3 So, you know, to what the ve- technology gives us all this free time. It's a shiny technology is also a tool.

53:33 Speaker 2 Right.

53:35 Speaker 3 So whatever. There, there's different things in Ramam that I look for. There was a part that I just thought of a few weeks ago when doing Herkes Pesula Mikdashi. So it talks about piggle, that if you, if you're in the business of Mikdashi and you have Machsheves Chutz-

53:48 Speaker 2 Right

53:48 Speaker 3 ... or Machsheves Chutz Zman or Chutz Mokeme-

53:50 Speaker 2 Right

53:50 Speaker 3 ... so the whole carbon becomes Basel.

53:51 Speaker 2 Right.

53:52 Speaker 3 So I was just thinking in terms of, you know, after Gimel Tammuz, you know, what's piggle? You, you think that a mole is gram beser.

53:59 Speaker 2 Yeah.

54:00 Speaker 3 If you think, if only I lived in times after Rebbe, if only I lived before Gimel Tammuz, anything. This is Machsheves piggle.

54:06 Speaker 2 Yeah.

54:06 Speaker 3 It's Machsheves Chutz. We're, we're here. We're now. This is we've got to use the technology of what it's meant to be, but at the same time not get caught up in, in, uh, letting it being a distraction.

54:14 Speaker 2 That's it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Beautiful. This year marks seventy-five years since Yutzfat and the first Basse Legane. If you're looking for an event that is memorable, meaningful, and affordable, let me recommend This World Is a Garden, a film and live concert production created by us here at Uvlam Media, inspired by Basse Legane, the first Mimer, the Rebbe said. If you're a regular here at HFL, you know that Basse Legane is something that we think about and talk about a lot. And in this production, we use the power of cinematic filmmaking and a live concert by String Quartet to bring the beauty of Basse Legane to your community and your audience in a way that they've never seen, heard, or experienced it before. The production has already been hosted by Chabad houses around the country and has drawn wonderful reviews. Our package comes with everything that you need to put on the production, the film's original arrangements for String Quartet, publicity materials, everything besides the String Quartet, which we recommend that you hire locally to save on travel costs. To find out more about this production, please visit thisworldisagarden.com. Again, thisworldisagarden.com. And now, back to the show. Yeah. So I think, I think that's a beautiful part that, that we have, we have been given back the ability to, to, to, to embrace the moment, to really le- you know, leverage the moment, leverage time.

55:41 Speaker 3 Right.

55:42 Speaker 2 Um, that, you know, it's not like you said, it, it's we, we've been given our life back, essentially. We've been, we've been given our lives back. Uh, we, we don't have, we don't have to, uh, worry the way people used to worry. Uh, you could tie in that there's a different kind of worry, and it gets to people in a different way. And, you know, the dag of Parnasa was never about- The literal amount of money, it was just the, the, the obsession with, with having more. You could go... But you're right that soft call soft tech- technology has given us an abundance of time that we don't know what to do with. And instead of looking at in a such a mus- in a more musar-dik way of what are you doing with your time? It's more look at the opportunity that you have. Like you're saying, the, the ye- the, the Daf Yomi, the, the, the, the different, the different shiurim that, uh, the Lubavitchers have. This idea of Seum is a beautiful idea. That every-- 'Cause on one hand, what technology has fragmented everything, right? It's fragmented time also. We, we can't only talk the, the maayanos.

56:43 Speaker 3 Right.

56:44 Speaker 2 The chosrenes are that on one hand we have an abundance of time, but we're also... We have an abundance of moments, but every moment can be also an, a deeply impoverished moment, right? It becomes like a fragment that is nothing. We're distracted. It becomes meaningless.

56:59 Speaker 3 Right.

57:00 Speaker 2 It's, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a curse, right?

57:02 Speaker 3 For sure.

57:03 Speaker 2 Uh, it could be a curse if-

57:05 Speaker 3 If you don't have that connection, if you don't have that-

57:06 Speaker 2 Right

57:07 Speaker 3 ... higher, the executive purpose of what it's all for.

57:09 Speaker 2 Right.

57:10 Speaker 3 I remember having that thought, actually. Bechal when in the-- From when I was bar mitzvah, like it was a fantastic, uh, from bar mitzvah fantastic. We would learn the Rebbe's Sichos every week. So there was Farbrengens every Shabbos, so-

57:22 Speaker 2 You were still in London, yes.

57:23 Speaker 3 Still in London.

57:23 Speaker 2 Yeah. Machane, yeah.

57:24 Speaker 3 Machane. Exactly. And so get the Mesichos is from the sh- the past Shabbos, and then there will be a Likutei, a Likut for the coming Shabbos. But basically, every w- every week there was two, there was two things to learn from the Rebbe in, in real time. The Rebbe was just Magiya or the Rebbe just Farbrengen.

57:39 Speaker 2 The, the, the, the Farbrengen-

57:40 Speaker 3 The Sichos was the Farbrengen for the past Shabbos.

57:42 Speaker 2 Right.

57:42 Speaker 3 And we would get through it usually by Thursday.

57:44 Speaker 2 And you... And this-

57:46 Speaker 3 That's what we'd learn that Thursday night. And then on Shabbos, we would learn the, the Likut.

57:48 Speaker 2 The Likut that came from earlier years. The Likutei Sichos. That, that was published in Likutei Sichos. The li-

57:53 Speaker 3 Well, the, the Rebbe was Magiya for that time.

57:55 Speaker 2 Right. The Likutei Sichos and Sefer HaSichos we're talking about.

57:58 Speaker 3 Exactly. Exactly.

57:58 Speaker 2 Yeah.

57:59 Speaker 3 But, but it was, it was Mug in real time.

58:01 Speaker 2 I understand. It was, it was this week's Likut.

58:03 Speaker 3 Exactly.

58:03 Speaker 2 I understand.

58:04 Speaker 3 Exactly. So I just remember one, uh... First of all, I was on every single one of those-

58:08 Speaker 2 Which one did you enjoy more?

58:10 Speaker 3 Sichos. Sichos for sure. The, the Farbrengen from the previous Shabbos. The whole style-

58:14 Speaker 2 It felt more-

58:15 Speaker 3 Well, the Likut was more learnedish. It was, I mean, I enjoyed learning, but, uh, I remember just being on a high every Thursday night. I would learn with the Charusa.

58:23 Speaker 2 So you were about five weeks, five days behind.

58:25 Speaker 3 Yeah, but you got the riad by fax on a Sunday or Monday, and then the Manichean, whatever the Vaad would work on it and give it in to the Rebbe, go back and forth, and it wouldn't come out in a, in a, in a printed with Mamakemis Mug, ba- semi Mug basically until, till, uh, Thursday we would get it in, in London, I remember.

58:42 Speaker 2 So it'd be faxed you probably.