1 00:00:01,440 --> 00:00:05,560 Welcome to Judaism Demystified, a podcast for the perplexed. 2 00:00:06,080 --> 00:00:09,320 Join us as we explore some of the most fascinating Jewish and 3 00:00:09,320 --> 00:00:12,200 Torah related topics with our esteemed guests. 4 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:15,560 By tackling some of the biggest questions you likely won't find 5 00:00:15,560 --> 00:00:19,000 addressed elsewhere, we aim to shed light on important issues 6 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:21,600 and inspire a return to the fundamentals. 7 00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:27,040 Enjoy the show. Thank you for joining the 8 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:30,480 Judaism Demystified podcast. It is an absolute honor to have 9 00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:32,600 Adam Scott Bellows on. Thank you so much for joining. 10 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:34,600 Thank you, Thank you for having me. 11 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:38,480 I'm really happy to be here, especially given the prestigious 12 00:00:38,480 --> 00:00:40,120 guest that you've had on prior to me. 13 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:43,040 It's it's very humbling to have been asked to join you. 14 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:45,320 Thank you so much. So if you could just briefly 15 00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:47,680 tell our audience a little bit about yourself and what you do. 16 00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:51,200 Sure, I I grew up in the Midwest. 17 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:54,600 My whole family's from Chicago. I was a fifth generation born 18 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:58,600 American in Chicago and I was raised in Cincinnati, OH. 19 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:03,240 I made aliyah about 14 years ago, studied at the University 20 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:06,480 of Arizona and have a Judaic and Middle Eastern history degree. 21 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:09,280 And then I did my masters in Middle Eastern history at Tel 22 00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:13,320 Aviv University, served in the Army in Habronen Bedell in the 23 00:01:13,320 --> 00:01:16,760 Civil administration. And nine years ago I started the 24 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:20,760 Israel Innovation Fund. And the goal with creating the 25 00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:24,360 organization was to build and is to build a new type of Zionist 26 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:27,480 institution, I like to say the SpaceX to the Jewish world's 27 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:31,920 NASA. We focus on perpetuating Zionism 28 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:35,320 as a movement and as a National Liberation movement. 29 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:38,000 Our We have 4 projects right now. 30 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:40,400 Our flagship project that we've been working on for quite some 31 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:42,960 time is called Wine on the Bind where we allow people to plant 32 00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:46,520 grapevines instead of trees and vineyards instead of forests. 33 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:49,480 And then we have a Hebrew project and a self-defense 34 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:51,880 project. Our Hebrew project is called the 35 00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:56,040 Bot Yehuda project or the nickname for it is the Hebrew 36 00:01:56,040 --> 00:02:00,000 Nanny project where we are working to build an 37 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,840 infrastructure to send Hebrew speaking au pairs the Jewish 38 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:08,039 homes so that over the next 20 years we can create a bilingual 39 00:02:08,199 --> 00:02:11,960 Hebrew speaking diaspora. And then our self-defense 40 00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:16,280 project is called Shomrea AM, which is a self-defense project 41 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:20,720 where we are going to send, let's say 5 to 20 different Krav 42 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:25,240 Maga, Madrid, Krav Maga teachers to the diaspora in every city 43 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:28,600 that we have a concentrated Jewish community, utilize all 44 00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:31,120 the pipelines of schools, federations, Habad, synagogues, 45 00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:35,600 etcetera, to provide subsidized Krav Maga to the community. 46 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:40,800 Our goal is that self-defense in Hebrew literacy will be just as 47 00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:43,160 important for preparing for your bar mitzvah as learning 48 00:02:43,400 --> 00:02:46,320 Shakharit Marie of the Torah service and, and everything else 49 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:47,920 that you learn and, and reading the Torah. 50 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:51,120 And together those two projects, we're, we're going to be 51 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:53,720 rebranding them. And I, I like to call it project 52 00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:56,600 Maccabee really. And that's really kind of how I 53 00:02:56,600 --> 00:02:59,880 like to exploit it because we're trying to build Hebrew speaking, 54 00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:02,920 self defending Jews. And that has never existed 55 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:06,080 outside of the land of Israel ever in the diaspora. 56 00:03:06,440 --> 00:03:09,160 So, and then our, our final project is called Herzl AI. 57 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:12,960 We're working to bring Jewish figures to life, to be able to 58 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:15,840 interact with them and to get, get guidance and advice from 59 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:17,720 them. So we're working to create an 60 00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:22,000 interactive Herzl that is AAI Avatar based on all of his 61 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:26,360 writings, speeches, books and plays so that you can interact 62 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:30,040 with the founder of the Zionist movement and understand how he 63 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:32,960 would interpret things of today, but also to answer the questions 64 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:36,000 of where he was as he built the Zionist movement. 65 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:40,560 So we really are looking not to create something for Hazbara but 66 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:44,120 for Jewish education and to create a greater bond with the 67 00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:45,800 next generation in the Zionist movement. 68 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:48,240 Excellent. That's so interesting and 69 00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:50,880 amazing work, and I'm looking forward to seeing more and more 70 00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:54,720 growth. So I want to just get into some 71 00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:57,440 questions that I have for you. What do you see as the main 72 00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:00,240 causes of the disconnect between Jewish leadership and the 73 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:03,400 everyday Jewish community? And how does the culture of gala 74 00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:05,720 dinners and celebrity influencers taking money for 75 00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:07,440 advocacy play into that? Gap. 76 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:13,720 So I think that the culture of giving is a very cyclical one. 77 00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:16,560 It's done by the same families. You'll notice that a lot of, 78 00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:20,200 you'll notice that a lot of the influencers are related to these 79 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:24,240 big families. I, I think it's really just 80 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:26,080 comes down to class warfare in a way. 81 00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:27,840 I think it's a very elitist culture. 82 00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:31,160 I think that there's a huge disconnect between the I, you 83 00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:32,840 know, I don't think there's anything wrong with having a 84 00:04:32,840 --> 00:04:35,560 gala. OK, The the thing that I have, 85 00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:40,840 that's the problem that I think is visible, is that while we 86 00:04:40,840 --> 00:04:46,360 have hostages under the ground who have not been fed, while 87 00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:50,320 Israelis are living in a state of perpetual war where mortgage 88 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:53,720 payments have doubled and there is such a huge disconnect with 89 00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:56,440 what Israelis are going through. I just think it's very obnoxious 90 00:04:56,720 --> 00:05:00,160 to see American Jews dress up in tuxes and, and, and cocktail 91 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:03,160 gowns and acting like they're the heroes of the Jewish people 92 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:04,600 because they're attending these events. 93 00:05:04,760 --> 00:05:10,680 I think it's become more about being seen than actual result or 94 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:14,000 measurable results. And as you now know, and that 95 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:16,520 has been made public, many of these organizations that have 96 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:19,840 been hosting these ridiculous perpetual galas throughout, you 97 00:05:19,840 --> 00:05:22,160 know, the last couple of years since October 7th has happened, 98 00:05:22,360 --> 00:05:25,960 have all been exposed for major financial, you know, 99 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:28,480 misappropriation, so to speak, or irresponsibility. 100 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:34,800 So it, it is very disappointing. I, I, you know, I, I just find 101 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:42,720 that we're rewarding activism over thought and we're not 102 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:47,840 empowering thought leaders. And it's, it's really about how 103 00:05:47,840 --> 00:05:50,000 big of a check you can write or how many followers you have. 104 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:52,880 And I just think there's a very big difference between a 105 00:05:52,880 --> 00:05:57,120 following versus having a plan. And I don't find that any of the 106 00:05:57,120 --> 00:06:00,320 major influencers that are being propped up or being paid 10s of 107 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:02,880 thousands of dollars, as you know, which was exposed by 108 00:06:02,880 --> 00:06:06,080 Daniel L earlier was that, you know, the AJC gave over a half a 109 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:08,560 billion dollars to Zack, Sage, Fox to make videos. 110 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:10,680 OK, some of those videos are really great, but what have they 111 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:13,520 accomplished? The strategy isn't working. 112 00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:16,120 And I think that's the major disconnect. 113 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:21,560 What I don't understand is where is the plan to defend the Jewish 114 00:06:21,560 --> 00:06:24,320 people in the diaspora? I don't need to laugh anymore. 115 00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:26,440 I don't need to look at 92nd content. 116 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:29,320 I really don't care who's got a Birkin bag. 117 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:31,840 I don't care what gala you're going to. 118 00:06:32,160 --> 00:06:35,560 If these people are so brilliant and so great, why has there been 119 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:40,280 no plan that has been written to figure out the issues of Jewish 120 00:06:40,280 --> 00:06:43,920 education or the root problems that are causing the disconnect 121 00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:47,760 between Israel and the Diaspora? So I think at its core, it's 122 00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:50,400 just a very shallow idea of creating community because 123 00:06:50,400 --> 00:06:53,360 really it's just a community for those who can write those 500 124 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:57,120 dollars, $5000 checks when at the end of the day, the majority 125 00:06:57,120 --> 00:06:59,600 of the Jewish people are not the elites. 126 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:02,760 And, and we've never been that way, in my opinion. 127 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:05,640 And the Zionist movement was about getting away from that 128 00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:08,800 hubris and embracing the humility of working the land. 129 00:07:09,080 --> 00:07:12,400 And, and that is really, you know, in my opinion, the great 130 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:15,520 thing about Israel is that it is a very humbling place. 131 00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:19,560 And it was built on the backs of those who took off their shirts 132 00:07:19,560 --> 00:07:20,920 and worked the land and got a tan. 133 00:07:22,200 --> 00:07:24,120 Right. And, and I even I'm, I'm always 134 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:26,880 disappointed when I see people have a platform and they, 135 00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:30,280 they'll be invited onto CNN and when they're accused of, you 136 00:07:30,280 --> 00:07:33,720 know, being Zionists, they won't actually, some of them do, but 137 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:35,960 they won't correct them or explain what Zionism really 138 00:07:35,960 --> 00:07:38,800 means you. Know I yeah, I, I think. 139 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:41,480 It's a problem. I think the biggest thing that 140 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:43,920 has become very clear is that just because you have a large 141 00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:46,040 Instagram following doesn't mean you're an expert in defending 142 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:50,320 the Jewish people. For me, I was very upset to see 143 00:07:50,320 --> 00:07:53,520 in the beginning of the war, you know, Emily Austin went on Piers 144 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:57,000 Morgan and she couldn't name the year the 1929 riots happened. 145 00:07:57,440 --> 00:08:02,160 And you know, I, I really give, you know, credit to everybody 146 00:08:02,160 --> 00:08:04,840 that's trying to defend the Jewish people. 147 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:08,520 But if you don't know the basic facts of the history of this 148 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:12,360 conflict or how and why things happened or what each building 149 00:08:12,360 --> 00:08:14,720 block was that has LED us to today, you need to keep your 150 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:16,000 mouth shut. And what the experts do the 151 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:21,160 talking and, and this, the problem with the Instagram 152 00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:24,120 generation is that it, there's this cycle of narcissism in this 153 00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:28,440 need for attention versus achievement, if that makes 154 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:30,400 sense. You know, I, I feel like it's 155 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:35,880 the DEI, so to speak, of this generation, which is not wanting 156 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:39,000 to earn the expertise and it's, and it's the elimination of 157 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:41,640 meritocracy. So, you know, if you're, if you 158 00:08:41,640 --> 00:08:45,240 build the following on being a fashion person, you can't all of 159 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:47,120 a sudden just become this expert in Israel. 160 00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:50,520 And it's how you get people to make contents about things that 161 00:08:50,520 --> 00:08:53,280 are really factually incorrect and in my opinion, create more 162 00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:56,400 anti-Semitism in many respects. And I, I want to go back to one 163 00:08:56,400 --> 00:08:59,240 of the things that you asked me about the the galas. 164 00:08:59,960 --> 00:09:02,400 If there is anything that perpetuates the idea of the 165 00:09:02,400 --> 00:09:07,160 wealthy Jewish conspiracy, it is the way people showcase the 166 00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:10,880 galas, in my opinion. And I, and I think it's a very 167 00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:14,600 irresponsible thing to have the same people all the time be 168 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:17,440 honored given these awards who really haven't achieved anything 169 00:09:17,440 --> 00:09:20,480 other than making an Instagram post, who are clearly flaunting 170 00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:23,040 their wealth in front of everybody publicly. 171 00:09:23,320 --> 00:09:25,440 And I just don't think that's a Jewish value. 172 00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:27,800 Well said. Absolutely. 173 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:31,880 So this ties into the next question because it has to do 174 00:09:31,880 --> 00:09:35,040 with, you know, influence. If it's treated as a money game, 175 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:37,960 that puts us at a permanent disadvantage, especially with 176 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:41,280 nations like Qatar can outspend us by billions. 177 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:44,600 So what alternative models of influence or leadership should 178 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:49,760 we be building? I think the, I guess you could 179 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:53,000 say that the most important thing which has been ignored is 180 00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:55,080 reinvesting in the infrastructure of Jewish 181 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:58,840 education and providing the opportunities for every single 182 00:09:58,840 --> 00:10:03,120 young Jew to be able to access 3500 years of tradition and the 183 00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:05,640 wealth of knowledge that's been given and handed down from 184 00:10:05,640 --> 00:10:09,760 generation to generation. We should not. 185 00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:14,760 How do I explain this? The whole point of advocacy is 186 00:10:14,760 --> 00:10:17,040 to be able to disarm somebody with your tongue. 187 00:10:17,680 --> 00:10:20,040 You shouldn't have to scream. You shouldn't have to raise your 188 00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:21,800 voice. And God knows I've been there. 189 00:10:21,960 --> 00:10:24,240 And sometimes there's an appropriate time and place for 190 00:10:24,240 --> 00:10:26,480 raising your voice and you missing emotion and bringing 191 00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:29,000 that energy. But at the end of the day, you 192 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:32,560 should be able to calmly take somebody down the line of sale 193 00:10:32,560 --> 00:10:34,440 of why the Jewish people have the right to the state of 194 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:36,840 Israel. Why, why and how the Jewish 195 00:10:36,840 --> 00:10:39,040 people are the indigenous people of the land of Israel. 196 00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:43,400 And if we look at the failure of Jewish education, I always like 197 00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:45,960 to say it comes down to this. You will know when Jewish 198 00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:49,480 education has succeeded whenever a young Jew can explain why 199 00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:51,600 they're not white. Right. 200 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:55,160 And if that ever becomes a reality, you know that Jewish 201 00:10:55,160 --> 00:10:58,160 education has totally succeeded because when every young Jew can 202 00:10:58,160 --> 00:11:00,640 explain that the Jewish people are the first victims of Western 203 00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:03,960 imperialism, were thrown into cages in Hebron and sold in the 204 00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:06,640 markets of Rome as slaves. And that's the beginning of the 205 00:11:06,640 --> 00:11:10,080 Ashkenazi story, OK, Which is, which is the group of Jews that 206 00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:13,280 are constantly being accused of being whites and colonizers and 207 00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:15,280 everything else. You know, those are the the 208 00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:18,960 basics that young Jews aren't able to connect in their mind 209 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:22,360 because they were never given the actual shores of the Roux 210 00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:25,200 and the essence of what our experience has been and what the 211 00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:28,360 story of our nation in exile is and was. 212 00:11:28,680 --> 00:11:33,360 So, you know, personally investing in our infrastructure, 213 00:11:33,840 --> 00:11:37,720 educationally, providing the tools that are necessary for 214 00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:41,200 Jews to engage in their texts, making Hebrew and specifically 215 00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:45,240 self-defense the main priority. Building modern Maccabees is the 216 00:11:45,240 --> 00:11:47,520 way to move forward in my opinion. 217 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:51,600 There is no greater gift that you can give a young Jew than 218 00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:54,280 the ability to be a Hebrew speaking, self defending modern 219 00:11:54,280 --> 00:11:57,160 day Jew. Absolutely. 220 00:11:57,200 --> 00:12:01,440 Absolutely. And how do you, How can Jewish 221 00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:05,200 communities protect themselves from rising hostility without 222 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:08,480 slipping into isolation? And at the same time, why is 223 00:12:08,480 --> 00:12:11,600 Israel losing the PR war so badly despite its resources and 224 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:12,920 talent? Because I would, I would imagine 225 00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:14,960 they say, you know, Jews run Hollywood, Jews run the media. 226 00:12:15,240 --> 00:12:17,120 If that's the case, then we're doing a terrible job. 227 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:19,880 But I don't think it is true. But but, but it's just, it's 228 00:12:19,880 --> 00:12:22,600 just kind of like upsetting when you see that we're, we're 229 00:12:22,800 --> 00:12:25,040 failing so miserably at getting our messaging across. 230 00:12:25,520 --> 00:12:28,560 I I think there were so many questions that you just asked 231 00:12:28,560 --> 00:12:29,640 me. Wow, give me the first one. 232 00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:31,200 We'll go down the line of questions. 233 00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:32,640 What was the first one? So. 234 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:36,520 So basically, how can the communities protect themselves 235 00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:40,000 from rising hostility without slipping into isolation? 236 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:46,560 So there's easy ways to do that because you're in America or 237 00:12:46,560 --> 00:12:48,880 you're in England or you're in Australia and you're obviously 238 00:12:48,880 --> 00:12:50,800 not in the Jewish state where you're totally isolated. 239 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:55,440 The records show that relying on outside sources for Jewish 240 00:12:55,440 --> 00:12:57,920 security never really pans out very well. 241 00:12:58,560 --> 00:13:02,520 I don't believe that taking care of your own security and 242 00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:07,160 education means isolationism, and there's no real need for 243 00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:09,000 that now. There are many Torah observant 244 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:11,760 communities that do believe in that and do live like that in 245 00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:13,240 different places in the diaspora. 246 00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:18,000 At the same time, most ethnic minority communities, which the 247 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:20,200 Jewish people fail to see themselves as, especially in 248 00:13:20,200 --> 00:13:23,400 North America, which is a huge reason for a lot of the problems 249 00:13:23,400 --> 00:13:26,680 in my opinion, that there are in the United States right now. 250 00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:31,440 I do believe in, in taking a step back right now and 251 00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:34,160 refocusing our energy inwards and not necessarily worrying 252 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:36,600 about what's going on with outside communities because at 253 00:13:36,600 --> 00:13:39,320 the end of the day, the Jewish community is extremely weak, 254 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:43,080 fragmented and, and unorganized at this time. 255 00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:46,240 I also believe that, you know, I think you had asked me about the 256 00:13:46,240 --> 00:13:48,400 PR and things like that. You know, one of the things 257 00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:50,440 that's come out recently is that the Tel Aviv Institute was 258 00:13:50,440 --> 00:13:53,160 taking money from the Tides Foundation, which is funded by 259 00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:56,240 George Soros. Like without giving any opinion 260 00:13:56,240 --> 00:13:58,680 on like the leadership of that organization or whatever. 261 00:13:58,880 --> 00:14:00,800 There is one thing that's very important is that we need to 262 00:14:00,800 --> 00:14:04,880 stop trying to blend Judaism or Zionism or Jewish life or Jewish 263 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:08,560 culture into every modern woke or right wing or left wing 264 00:14:08,560 --> 00:14:10,920 ideal. It can't be everything. 265 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:13,160 Zionism is the National Liberation movement of the 266 00:14:13,160 --> 00:14:15,000 Jewish people. That is something it doesn't 267 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:17,880 mean it, it's going to mean the same thing to everybody that's 268 00:14:17,880 --> 00:14:21,480 outside of the Jewish community. Staying, you know, concrete in 269 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:25,840 values and ideals is extremely important in my opinion. 270 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:29,480 So I, I, I, I don't necessarily. I'm not so worried about 271 00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:32,240 isolationism right now. That's the furthest thing from 272 00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:34,400 my mind. Well, I would say isolationism 273 00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:37,360 that we see happening in front of our eyes is, let's say on 274 00:14:37,360 --> 00:14:40,240 college campuses, these are future leaders of America, and 275 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:42,160 students will feel like I can't wear a keeper. 276 00:14:42,400 --> 00:14:43,200 I can't. Well, why? 277 00:14:43,280 --> 00:14:46,760 But, but I think the question really is why did that happen? 278 00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:50,680 And how did that happen? And what Jewish leadership has 279 00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:53,040 been in power for the last 20 years that ignored it? 280 00:14:53,920 --> 00:14:56,720 We look at the ADL, for instance, with the CEO that 281 00:14:56,720 --> 00:14:59,640 makes $1.2 million a year, who called the Biden 282 00:14:59,640 --> 00:15:02,960 administration's anti-Semitism policy a major breakthrough when 283 00:15:02,960 --> 00:15:05,640 it didn't say Israel, it didn't say Zionism and it didn't say 284 00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:07,960 anti Zionism. Is that it in it at all? 285 00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:10,280 But it said Islamophobia more than 15 times. 286 00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:15,600 We, we try to universalize our experience and universalizing 287 00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:19,920 the Jewish experience is, is really an assimilated way to try 288 00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:23,320 to get people to not hate us. When at the end of the day, 289 00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:26,680 every single generation that we have seen that has received 290 00:15:26,680 --> 00:15:29,400 violence every 100 years, there's always similarities like 291 00:15:29,400 --> 00:15:31,160 we're at the height of our power, we're at the height of 292 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:33,240 our assimilation into that community. 293 00:15:33,520 --> 00:15:36,040 Our separateness is what makes us, us. 294 00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:39,080 It doesn't mean that we have to be isolated, but it does mean 295 00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:41,920 that we have to have a strong enough identity to know the 296 00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:45,400 difference between US and the rest of the world if we truly 297 00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:47,560 believe in the destiny of the Jewish people, in my opinion. 298 00:15:48,040 --> 00:15:51,360 I think nationalism also just got a bad name just over the 299 00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:53,840 years and. If you look at the 26, if you 300 00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:56,520 look at the 2016 election, instead of saying fascism, they 301 00:15:56,520 --> 00:15:58,960 said nationalism. And I think that was a great 302 00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:01,920 disservice to the understanding of not only what nationalism is, 303 00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:05,080 what nationalism did for the world, moving it from monarchy 304 00:16:05,080 --> 00:16:08,920 to nation states, but also, I mean, when you it's like, it's 305 00:16:08,920 --> 00:16:10,760 the same thing what's happening right now when they say that 306 00:16:10,760 --> 00:16:14,920 Israel is committing A genocide. You can't just give a word a new 307 00:16:14,920 --> 00:16:17,680 definition. There's a reason why communism 308 00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:20,600 means communism and socialism means socialism, and capitalism 309 00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:24,240 is capitalism. Fascism is not nationalism. 310 00:16:24,240 --> 00:16:27,640 Fascism is extreme nationalism to a point where you're 311 00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:30,080 basically promoting the killing of everybody that's not a part 312 00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:32,920 of your nation. That's not nationalism. 313 00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:35,360 Nationalism is the right for everybody to have their own 314 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:39,200 nation, and the denial of people to have their own national 315 00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:42,960 affiliation is anti nationalism. Right. 316 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:45,280 And, and I would some people like to prefer to use the word 317 00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:48,960 patriotism instead because I guess it, it, it hits 318 00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:50,960 differently. But yeah. 319 00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:52,480 So you're patriotic to your nation. 320 00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:56,160 Yeah, I mean, we see also the failures of multiculturalism 321 00:16:56,160 --> 00:16:58,120 around the world. So some nations are actually 322 00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:01,760 like, like Poland, for example, are taking more steps towards 323 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:03,320 nationalism. Not it's not a bad thing. 324 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:05,960 It's, it's, you know, sometimes when it you, they go, they 325 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:08,760 overreach with the multiculturalism and then things 326 00:17:08,760 --> 00:17:10,680 go haywire and then you wonder why then they have to 327 00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:13,680 overcorrect. And I think that if people 328 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:18,359 really appreciate what, what Zionism really means, they, they 329 00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:19,960 would obviously have a different perspective. 330 00:17:19,960 --> 00:17:23,119 But they've, you know, the, the opposition to Israel has done an 331 00:17:23,119 --> 00:17:27,119 amazing job of just constantly, you know, mentioning that Israel 332 00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:30,600 is Nazism, not Zionism is Nazism and just keep repeating the same 333 00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:32,560 lie and eventually people will believe it. 334 00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:34,160 That's just like, that's exactly what happened. 335 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:38,160 And I don't, I haven't, I haven't seen enough push back 336 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:40,200 against that. The kind of language like the 337 00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:42,480 genesis, the genocide is constantly thrown out, the 338 00:17:42,480 --> 00:17:45,560 ethnic cleansing. And like a lot of times I get 339 00:17:45,560 --> 00:17:47,800 very frustrated because they'll just say you're an anti Semite. 340 00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:50,200 You know, that's their answer. And that doesn't work. 341 00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:51,800 Like that's not, that's kind of like a a. 342 00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:55,520 Bad anti anti-Semitism was a point is a term that was point 343 00:17:55,520 --> 00:17:57,600 specifically for anti Jewish hatred. 344 00:17:57,880 --> 00:18:00,960 You know, now because of the inability for people to defend 345 00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:03,480 themselves, they, you know, people like Jew hatred instead 346 00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:06,080 of anti-Semitism, which is I mean, it works. 347 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:09,440 It's a little bit more direct, I mean, but again, everything that 348 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:11,960 you're talking about comes down to a lack of education, a lack 349 00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:14,560 of understanding, a lack of historical context. 350 00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:20,320 And what I would say is a fear of non Orthodox communities to 351 00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:24,960 truly embrace certain things that maybe are hard for them to 352 00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:27,760 grapple with given the fact that they're not Torah observance. 353 00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:29,240 I grew up in one of those communities. 354 00:18:29,800 --> 00:18:32,800 I don't really see, you know, back in the day, it used to be 355 00:18:32,800 --> 00:18:35,200 you were so much about it. You're not OK. 356 00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:37,880 And I I still don't think there's anything wrong with 357 00:18:37,880 --> 00:18:39,320 that. People have the right to live 358 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:41,160 the Jewish life that they want to live. 359 00:18:41,360 --> 00:18:43,920 I have tattoos, OK? I have three tattoos. 360 00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:49,200 It doesn't mean that it's correct or holically 361 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:52,000 permissible. I just chose to do that. 362 00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:55,280 OK, You know, this is, I marked myself for October 7th. 363 00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:58,160 It was something that I felt and many other Israelis who lived 364 00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:00,280 through the experience, stuff that we needed to do to have a 365 00:19:00,280 --> 00:19:02,520 constant reminder of what we experienced on that day. 366 00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:06,880 OK, that doesn't mean it's holically permissible and 367 00:19:06,880 --> 00:19:09,280 there's not, in my opinion, in today's world, there's nothing 368 00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:11,200 wrong with choosing life that you want to choose. 369 00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:15,280 But when you don't have the education to be able to under 370 00:19:15,280 --> 00:19:17,960 it's like what Aharam said, you got to know the rules to break 371 00:19:17,960 --> 00:19:21,000 the rules. And if, if you don't give people 372 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:23,800 the opportunity to understand what they're choosing or what 373 00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:25,960 they're choosing against, then you, you hear all this 374 00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:29,800 Chikunalam this or Jewish value this or occupation Shabbat, 375 00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:33,800 Passover, you know, and all this code pink crap and, and, and you 376 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:35,920 start, you know, pink washing and whitewashing. 377 00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:40,000 What rabbinic Judaism was trying to give to the Jewish people 378 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:43,360 while they were in exile. And it's a, it's a very sad 379 00:19:43,360 --> 00:19:47,280 thing because you, you not only that, but people that don't grow 380 00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:52,040 up with Jewish literacy or how to do kiddish or what like the 381 00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:54,720 experiences of Shabbat and doing the blessings from handle to 382 00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:56,120 kiddish to hand washing to bread. 383 00:19:56,320 --> 00:19:58,440 And they're, and they're ignorant to the environments 384 00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:00,600 that they're in. You know, it makes them feel 385 00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:02,400 self-conscious. You know, I grew up in 386 00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:04,840 Cincinnati, OH. It's the center of Reform 387 00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:06,640 Judaism. I was very fortunate that my 388 00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:08,480 parents sent me to Jewish day school. 389 00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:10,000 It was a Conservative Jewish day school. 390 00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:13,280 And the one thing that this school wanted to make sure was 391 00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:15,520 that you could survive in any Jewish environment. 392 00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:18,640 And the Conservative synagogue that we went to was so hardcore 393 00:20:18,640 --> 00:20:21,000 about bar and bat mitzvah practice, that it was about 394 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:23,720 making sure that once you were a bar of bat mitzvah, you could 395 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:26,880 daven in any Shoal around the world. 396 00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:30,240 And and that was a unique thing for for the conservative 397 00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:31,800 movement. I mean, it was more Conservadox, 398 00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:35,320 but, and obviously before the conservative movement started 399 00:20:35,320 --> 00:20:39,040 going left, but the goal was give the education and the roots 400 00:20:39,080 --> 00:20:41,560 of what you need to be able to survive as a Jew in any 401 00:20:41,560 --> 00:20:43,080 synagogue on a Friday or a Saturday. 402 00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:47,320 And I remember my first time in Poland, davening in an Orthodox 403 00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:49,360 Shoal. The kid sitting next to me who 404 00:20:49,360 --> 00:20:52,600 later became a Reform rabbi was, was freaking out because he 405 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:54,800 couldn't understand anything that was going on. 406 00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:55,880 He goes, this means nothing to me. 407 00:20:55,880 --> 00:21:00,680 And I, and I'm thinking, no, you were just never taught how to 408 00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:04,680 actually be literate in, you know, Kabbalah, Shabbat or a 409 00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:07,280 Torah service or, or anything of that kind. 410 00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:09,720 I mean, if you, if you're not taught moussaf, how are you 411 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:13,640 going to, you know, participate? It's just, it's a, it's a very 412 00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:18,280 real epidemic, in my opinion, in the Jewish community, the denial 413 00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:22,280 of the right to have every child be given their inheritance of, 414 00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:24,280 of tradition and knowledge and text. 415 00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:27,040 Yeah, one of the things that this Judaism Demystified podcast 416 00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:29,120 focuses on is getting back to the fundamentals. 417 00:21:29,120 --> 00:21:31,800 And one of the reasons why we wanted to start doing this is 418 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:34,720 like we noticed we were talking about this off camera, but we 419 00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:37,280 noticed that like even on Twitter, you know, they're 420 00:21:37,280 --> 00:21:39,760 constantly, there's these Jew haters who come out and start 421 00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:44,760 pulling out, you know, Agadot and, and, you know, site like 422 00:21:45,080 --> 00:21:46,920 verses from the Talmud and they'll just take it out of 423 00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:49,160 context and, and they'll throw it out there. 424 00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:52,480 And then the Jews, most of them are, are not able to respond. 425 00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:54,480 They're they're like, well, you know, most Jews don't study the 426 00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:55,840 Talmud. That's their answer instead of 427 00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:58,480 actually knowing what the context is and what is actually 428 00:21:58,480 --> 00:21:59,600 about. And it's not what they're saying 429 00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:02,600 it is. So, you know, I agree, I totally 430 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:05,520 agree. I think the lack of education is 431 00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:09,760 actually becoming very apparent. And in a way it's a blessing in 432 00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:13,320 disguise because it's forcing Jews now to become a lot more 433 00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:17,600 refined in their understanding of of Jewish text and being able 434 00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:19,360 to respond to these kind of accusations. 435 00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:25,400 So, you know, in a way it's, it kind of seems like, you know, it 436 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:27,560 feels like it's prophetic, almost like the Jews are coming 437 00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:29,800 back to the land of Israel, but also they're, they're being 438 00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:32,760 exposed to the texts again and it's being put in front of them 439 00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:34,800 whether they like it or not. And now you have to analyze this 440 00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:36,240 text. Now you have to understand what 441 00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:39,240 does this text mean to you and how do you defend your beliefs? 442 00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:42,400 I think it's a very unique time. It's a very unique opportunity 443 00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:44,760 for for Jews to educate our our own I. 444 00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:51,920 I mean, listen, I don't see enough being done. 445 00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:57,840 There is no, you know, when I spent the last 10 months in 446 00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:04,720 exile, I took the time to write about 70 pages of two plans 447 00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:07,040 that, you know, together, like I said, we call project McAfee. 448 00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:10,920 That was about diagnosing the problems that have led to the 449 00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:14,240 issues on campus in in the streets. 450 00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:18,640 So why Sarah and your own were gunned down to why there has 451 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:20,960 been violence and, and the steady increase of violence 452 00:23:20,960 --> 00:23:24,160 really since the Durban conference and, and if not the 453 00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:25,440 the beginning of the second in the bottom. 454 00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:32,440 Without us taking the time to step back and say what is the 455 00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:36,680 illness and what is the cure to that illness, we're bound to 456 00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:39,480 repeat these issues and we're bound to see more Jewish blood 457 00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:43,400 drench the streets of, of the diaspora and, and as well in the 458 00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:45,800 land of Israel. And Israel has its own problems 459 00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:48,040 compared to the diaspora. And one of the main problems 460 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:50,480 that the state of Israel has is not understanding the Diaspora 461 00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:53,520 because of who is put in those leadership positions. 462 00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:56,440 And also the same thing with the Diaspora, being that they're so 463 00:23:56,440 --> 00:23:58,680 disconnected not only by distance but by culture and 464 00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:03,880 language. With Israel, we have to diagnose 465 00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:08,120 the issue, which is that Jews do not know how to defend 466 00:24:08,120 --> 00:24:10,600 themselves because they are not given the basic tools. 467 00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:16,160 Jews are pushed around because physical security, OK, was not 468 00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:19,840 something that was necessarily needed for the majority of Jews 469 00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:23,240 in the Dyos right now. I grew up in a home where I was 470 00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:26,520 told all these stories of my father's experiences with 471 00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:30,720 anti-Semitism and the physical threat to his physical body and 472 00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:32,480 his need to physically defend himself. 473 00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:35,120 And the reason why we had guns in the house was because we were 474 00:24:35,120 --> 00:24:37,520 Jews and anybody could come to harm us at any time because 475 00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:40,960 we're Jews. So you know, though the value of 476 00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:44,520 physical security and you know what I I really call the the 477 00:24:44,520 --> 00:24:47,240 Hebrew speaking self defending Jew through magic project McAfee 478 00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:50,480 Hebraization OK. And, and, and the need for 479 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:56,440 Hebraization of the modern Jew and the Diaspora is what in my 480 00:24:56,440 --> 00:25:01,000 opinion is the is the is the cure to securing a safe and 481 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:03,200 prosperous diaspora. Because we have to ask 482 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:05,840 ourselves, is the diaspora always going to exist? 483 00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:07,560 Now? The answer is, you know, 99% 484 00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:09,920 yes. OK, well then you have to say, 485 00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:12,880 given the situation and the rise of anti-Semitism and the 486 00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:15,840 situation that we have now is, is it going to be a weak or a 487 00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:18,400 strong diaspora? Now obviously if it's going to 488 00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:21,760 exist, it needs to be strong. But then you have to define what 489 00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:25,160 is a strong diaspora because and then and then what is a strong 490 00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:27,360 diaspora? Well, it's filled with strong 491 00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:30,640 Diaspora Jews. What is a strong Diaspora Jew? 492 00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:32,920 Will the early Zionists define this? 493 00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:36,360 It's a Hebrew speaking, self defending Jew rooted in 494 00:25:36,360 --> 00:25:39,960 tradition who does not walk looking down but locks with his 495 00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:44,200 eyes up and forward. That is the answer to our 496 00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:45,800 problems. It is very simple. 497 00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:48,720 Every generation figures another thing out to benefit the next 498 00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:50,600 generation. It's like the Shema teaches us 499 00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:53,680 to hand it down to the next generation to teach this and 500 00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:55,320 impress this on to your children. 501 00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:59,320 Every generation added to the Talmud before it was compiled OK 502 00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:03,840 with with when we ignore the basic things of Jewish evolution 503 00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:07,960 and the evolution of the Jewish experience, we're bound to to 504 00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:10,000 lose quite a lot of people. Because if you really think 505 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:11,960 about it, and this is a very controversial thing for me to 506 00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:16,360 say, what is the reason that 6,000,000 Jews died in Europe? 507 00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:22,960 I'm scared to answer so. You know, in my opinion, yeah, I 508 00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:25,200 don't put all of the blame on this, but I think the rabbinic 509 00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:28,360 elite are extremely responsible in many respects. 510 00:26:28,360 --> 00:26:30,640 They were afraid to leave. They didn't want to encourage 511 00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:32,880 people to leave. They felt that there was a need 512 00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:35,400 to wait for redemption and wait for Mashiac instead of building 513 00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:38,160 it and bringing it themselves. And it doesn't matter what you 514 00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:40,200 think about redemption or Mashiac or if you're into the 515 00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:42,760 mystical or or or whatever. It doesn't matter. 516 00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:45,240 It does matter because you should see prophecy as a call to 517 00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:46,560 action rather. Than you should. 518 00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:48,800 You should see prophecy as a call to action. 519 00:26:49,120 --> 00:26:55,880 At the end of the day, we are always worried about, I'm trying 520 00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:58,320 to, I'm trying to explain this in the most open Broadway 521 00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:02,080 possible without narrowing it, you know, excluding anybody. 522 00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:10,680 But my, my point is, is that you can't expect a people to survive 523 00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:13,920 if you don't embrace the new things that the next generation 524 00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:17,680 can teach you. And when people are knocking at 525 00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:21,000 your door with pitchforks, maybe it's time to leave. 526 00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:26,000 And if you look at, you know, one of the things that is 527 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:30,480 constantly repeated these days is now we understand how and why 528 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:33,640 Jewish community stayed before they were ultimately destroyed. 529 00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:36,120 Because a lot of people from Israel are seeing, you know, the 530 00:27:36,120 --> 00:27:39,440 rise of anti-Semitism in all, in all of Europe and England and 531 00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:43,240 America and Canada and Australia, the way that we read 532 00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:45,200 about what happened 100 years ago. 533 00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:48,440 And it's very sad. I mean, I mean, imagine if the 534 00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:52,000 rabbis in the 1920s, as you know, the programs happened and 535 00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:53,720 the Zionist movement was starting to pick up steam. 536 00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:55,720 If they weren't against the Zionist movement and they were 537 00:27:55,720 --> 00:27:58,080 four people packing up and moving to the land of Israel, 538 00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:00,200 you'd have a completely different experience in Israel. 539 00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:01,960 You'd have a completely different history of the Arab 540 00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:04,920 Israeli conflict, and you would have had less Jews die in 541 00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:06,520 Europe. I know that's an extremely. 542 00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:09,120 No, it's not. It's not. 543 00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:12,440 The rabbi of Arshua has made the same kind of comment that all 544 00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:15,040 the, the rabbis of many of the rabbis in Eastern Europe 545 00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:17,840 perished in the Shoah because they didn't, you know, they 546 00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:20,240 didn't see what was coming and they didn't take it seriously 547 00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:22,560 enough and they weren't into Zionism. 548 00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:24,720 But then. If you can't, if you can't 549 00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:27,800 respect the human aspects of what the Gula is supposed to be, 550 00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:32,640 Yeah, Like you can't interpret Torah correctly. 551 00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:35,480 You know, there's seventy faces to Torah we're supposed to be 552 00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:37,360 able to take. And I loved I, I'm just thinking 553 00:28:37,360 --> 00:28:39,960 about the, the episode that I had just listened to of yours, 554 00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:44,080 which was the questioning of believer and, and like he was 555 00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:46,840 hitting on so many things about when it's literal and when it's 556 00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:50,840 not and, and, and the complexity of the lessons. 557 00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:54,240 And it's, I was saying this to you earlier. 558 00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:56,640 You know, if you look at like the creation of the state of 559 00:28:56,640 --> 00:28:59,680 Israel in the last 75 years, you can compare it so well to shof 560 00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:04,160 team through, you know, Solomon. And if you look at, you know, 561 00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:07,280 every 100 years, you can always compare it to the next 100 562 00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:09,440 years, because we've constantly experienced this wave of 563 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:12,200 anti-Semitism that destroys a community or a community of 564 00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:14,440 roots itself to the land of Israel because of it. 565 00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:20,520 So it's, it's rather, I just think it's rather telling that 566 00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:26,560 in the name of observing Kashem's laws, people were 567 00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:29,560 forced to stay or told to stay, which ultimately led to their 568 00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:33,200 slaughter. And it's it's a very sad and 569 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:35,200 difficult thing to really discuss in my opinion. 570 00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:38,400 But what's actually amazing about our tradition is that if 571 00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:41,600 you notice, you know, even the, the Agada famous story in the 572 00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:44,760 Talmud about Kamzan Barkhamzan, just to make a Long story short, 573 00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:49,920 it this, this Jew was humiliated in front of all the elites. 574 00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:51,920 All the rabbis were sitting at the table and they stayed quiet. 575 00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:54,480 These are stories written by the rabbi's, whether or not it's a 576 00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:55,920 true story or not. They're trying to paint a 577 00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:58,360 picture of the kind of time that they're living in. 578 00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:00,640 And they were being, they're blaming themselves in a way and 579 00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:03,240 saying like the leadership didn't step up when they needed 580 00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:05,880 to. And even the the destruction of 581 00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:09,280 the the Baita Mikdash, you know, we're always only on to Shabba 582 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:11,480 of, you know, what did we do wrong And what did our lead? 583 00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:13,960 You know, like the leaders will say that the rabbi's were not 584 00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:16,000 getting along with each other. They, they, they were 585 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:19,720 sacrificing animals instead of feeding people during the siege 586 00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:21,920 of Jerusalem. You know, it's, it's just funny 587 00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:24,840 that you mentioned Kamasa Barkamasa, because I bring that 588 00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:28,040 story up all the time when talking about my own experience 589 00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:32,280 of trying to sound the alarm of what I saw happening over the 590 00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:34,400 last 20 years. And, you know, I've been 591 00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:37,520 blackballed by a lot of mainstream Jewish organizations. 592 00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:40,440 A lot of people take my professional criticism 593 00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:45,640 personally. You know, I, before I started my 594 00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:48,440 organization, I tried to bring to one small organization in 595 00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:51,160 Israel and one of the major legacy organizations together to 596 00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:53,640 start building the infrastructure for communities 597 00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:56,720 to be prepared for the coming anti-Semitism so that there 598 00:30:56,720 --> 00:31:00,120 would be infrastructure for new immigrants coming into Israel, 599 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:01,960 given the rise that was on its way out. 600 00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:06,440 And you know, this organization, they, they both went off. 601 00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:08,440 Both organizations went off and did their own thing. 602 00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:11,400 I was cut out of a partnership. One or you know, the bigger 603 00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:13,240 organization gave the other organization a quarter 604 00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:16,320 $1,000,000 and an $80,000 salary to somebody. 605 00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:18,880 And I'm the one who put everything together and was the 606 00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:21,600 one who said, I'm going to put it together to professionalize 607 00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:23,400 this organization. And it was my first professional 608 00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:27,280 win, but I got no credit for it. And it was very destructive. 609 00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:32,160 That person is dead, that Adam died when that happened. 610 00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:37,840 And it was because I was so idealistic, Zionistically and 611 00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:41,040 Judaically of thinking that no matter what, if my intentions 612 00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:44,040 were pure, you know, no one was going to try to destroy me. 613 00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:48,200 And it was, it was a very hard thing to learn and go through 614 00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:51,320 because it was so embarrassing. And there were so many things 615 00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:54,560 that were said about me to discredit my version of events 616 00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:57,520 after that. And it's the first time talking 617 00:31:57,520 --> 00:32:00,000 about it publicly, actually. I can't believe you got me to do 618 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:04,480 that. And it is a very real thing that 619 00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:07,840 we are experiencing. I see it all the time with what 620 00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:11,640 with what we do with tiff and wine on the vine and the excuses 621 00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:16,520 that rabbis and communities make to not buy Israeli wine and how 622 00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:19,480 they use nibhushal or this and that or this thing and this 623 00:32:19,480 --> 00:32:21,400 thing as an excuse to not purchase the product. 624 00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:25,720 When Israeli wine is literally the symbol of redemption. 625 00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:29,120 It is literally the tool that is the greatest thing to connect a 626 00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:31,920 young person to Israel. It is your history in a cup, our 627 00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:35,000 story in a bottle. It is, you know, the, the 628 00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:38,840 fulfillment of 2500 years of hopes and dreams fulfilled. 629 00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:45,640 And I, I see it so often because we are told not to question 630 00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:48,720 leadership anymore. We are told not to question the 631 00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:51,640 mistakes that are made. We are told that if you speak up 632 00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:55,040 against a person, not only is it personal, but, you know, I'm 633 00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:56,640 trying to say we want to save lives. 634 00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:59,720 We want to stop Jews from dying. It should not be a problem to 635 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:02,520 say I don't agree with this policy, or maybe this might not 636 00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:07,640 be the right direction, or maybe placating to the left or to the 637 00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:11,000 far right or or whoever is not necessarily the right way to go 638 00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:14,280 about things, and instead we're vilifying those who are in 639 00:33:14,280 --> 00:33:19,840 dissent. And fortunately, since I've 640 00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:23,200 started speaking out about these things and about financial 641 00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:25,960 mismanagement and the ridiculous salaries that some of these 642 00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:28,600 organizations are taking without providing measurable results, 643 00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:31,960 now people are starting to be brave enough to speak up. 644 00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:36,280 And unfortunately, being a lone wolf in that area is very 645 00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:38,960 difficult and not a lot of people have the strength to just 646 00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:42,240 take the hit after hit after hit until you're not the crazy 647 00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:44,200 person outside of the castle banging alone. 648 00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:47,720 And it, and it's very true. We were very look what they did 649 00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:51,440 to Spinoza for asking questions. It, it, it makes somebody more 650 00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:53,320 extreme in many, in many respects. 651 00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:57,640 And you know, it's, it's very unfortunate. 652 00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:00,960 A great example is Kahana in Israel. 653 00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:04,200 You know, the only person that Menachem Begin ever so poorly 654 00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:07,200 about was Kahana. And Kahana acted very 655 00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:09,280 inappropriately at times. And he said very extreme things. 656 00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:13,320 And at the same time, instead of trying to work with him to 657 00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:16,719 mainstream him or de radicalize some of the things that he was 658 00:34:16,719 --> 00:34:19,360 doing, it made him more extreme, if that makes sense. 659 00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:23,520 You know, and I'm not a Kahanist by any means whatsoever, but my 660 00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:28,679 point is that when you shut out the conversation and you're told 661 00:34:28,679 --> 00:34:31,679 that people aren't allowed to question anything and you just 662 00:34:31,679 --> 00:34:33,679 have to go with the flow. One, that's just against the 663 00:34:33,679 --> 00:34:35,920 counterculturalism of what created the Jewish people. 664 00:34:36,239 --> 00:34:42,159 And two, it's just a great way to create dissent in the 665 00:34:42,159 --> 00:34:44,920 community, in my opinion. Well, sorry, that was a long 666 00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:45,480 run. I hope. 667 00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:48,600 I hope that was logical. That was absolutely logical and 668 00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:51,679 I see it even with these influencers today who are like 669 00:34:51,679 --> 00:34:53,800 kind of they sound like mouthpieces of the government, 670 00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:56,560 like it's OK to question certain things that these are doesn't 671 00:34:56,560 --> 00:34:58,120 mean you're. But again I. 672 00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:01,960 Just don't. I just don't see the point of 673 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:04,360 half of the things that the influencer doing because the 674 00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:06,880 influencers are doing, because it's the same thing. 675 00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:09,880 They're all followed by the same people and they're all making 676 00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:12,720 the same content or they're just trying to make something to 677 00:35:12,720 --> 00:35:14,240 continue their algorithm to go up. 678 00:35:14,240 --> 00:35:15,600 And they're, it's kind of ridiculous. 679 00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:19,320 It's just like, excuse my language has time to just sit 680 00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:22,640 around and go, hi, I'm from Israel and blah, blah, blah. 681 00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:25,440 And I'm sitting here. Let me tell you my opinion on 682 00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:26,600 this. Let me tell you my opinion on 683 00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:29,120 this. You know, I want to hear 684 00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:32,480 somebody's opinion that has studied this conflict for 20 685 00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:36,280 years. I, you know, I remember there 686 00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:40,400 was a feed that was created by an unknown woman and it was 687 00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:44,400 called Jewish Orgs and a lot of people thought it was me. 688 00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:48,000 And it when I read it, I was like, oh, started copying like 689 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:51,160 everything I'm saying like this is this is like verbatim what I 690 00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:52,920 talk about. And I found out that it was some 691 00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:55,320 woman that works in a legacy organization that was starting 692 00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:59,560 to expose things that she saw. And they did a thing on when 693 00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:03,320 they brought all the influencers to Israel to report on the 694 00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:05,440 trucks going into Gaza. I don't know if you remember 695 00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:08,760 this, all the influencers were making the same video. 696 00:36:09,160 --> 00:36:12,640 OK. And they took an now I'm a 697 00:36:12,640 --> 00:36:17,280 consultant for a high-ranking foreign ministry representative, 698 00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:20,800 so I couldn't collaborate on this post, even though I agreed 699 00:36:21,120 --> 00:36:23,560 with what they were saying. And they took all of the videos 700 00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:28,600 of everybody and put it like in one little box and it was 701 00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:29,680 everybody. And it was like, you know, one 702 00:36:29,680 --> 00:36:31,120 of those things where everybody's saying the exact 703 00:36:31,120 --> 00:36:33,040 same thing. And it's like the conspiracy of 704 00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:35,840 like the, you know, the the one minded, you know, there's a. 705 00:36:35,960 --> 00:36:36,920 Script. There's a script they're 706 00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:38,680 following. Yeah, you've seen the new the 707 00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:40,760 local news thing where they do it and everybody's saying it was 708 00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:41,960 exact. It was supposed to be exactly 709 00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:46,320 like that. And I was accused of doing it. 710 00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:48,640 I just shared it. And I even wrote, I did not do 711 00:36:48,640 --> 00:36:49,840 this. But I agree with what they're 712 00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:50,920 doing. And what they're pointing out 713 00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:54,120 needs to be seen like this strategy isn't working. 714 00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:55,400 OK? It's a bubble. 715 00:36:55,480 --> 00:36:58,720 That's it. And a lot of people accused me 716 00:36:58,720 --> 00:37:00,080 of doing something that I didn't do. 717 00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:04,800 And I finally said, you know, I, I made a reel and I, I go, I 718 00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:07,640 don't need to hide my face when I criticize people, you know, F 719 00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:09,400 off. Like I've been doing this for 20 720 00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:10,960 years. You're all new to the game. 721 00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:13,880 Like you've all woken up post October 7th or you just started 722 00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:16,560 doing this or you had feeds before and now you feel the need 723 00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:18,240 to do it even though you didn't do it before. 724 00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:21,760 When really we wouldn't be in this situation if people were 725 00:37:21,760 --> 00:37:24,000 recognizing the direction that we were going in. 726 00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:28,880 If if you couldn't see the writing on the wall by 2012 like 727 00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:33,120 you are late to the game as to why the Jews are in the 728 00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:35,400 situation that we are in around the world. 729 00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:38,080 Why our safety has come into question. 730 00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:43,240 And instead of us taking a step back and wanting to fix the 731 00:37:43,240 --> 00:37:47,120 situation at its root, we are perpetuating the same structure 732 00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:50,040 that was built for the 20th century and not for the 21st 733 00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:53,080 century. We are not answering the needs 734 00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:58,760 of 21st century Jews and and this influencer crap is this is 735 00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:03,920 exactly a a, a great example of how the establishment is buying 736 00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:08,120 off people in order to perpetuate their, their their 737 00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:12,120 demagogic hegemony over this community that is literally 738 00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:15,120 steering it directly into destruction in my opinion. 739 00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:17,120 And the other side, it's a losing battle because the other 740 00:38:17,120 --> 00:38:18,920 side has more money and more people. 741 00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:21,400 Forget the money. Think about this. 742 00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:24,840 The Maccabees took on Greece, OK. 743 00:38:24,840 --> 00:38:27,360 And and it's basically one of the reasons why the Greeks ended 744 00:38:27,360 --> 00:38:28,840 up falling. I mean, if you know the story, 745 00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:31,560 you know, we were we were committing guerrilla warfare. 746 00:38:31,560 --> 00:38:33,000 We were waging guerrilla warfare, committing guerrilla 747 00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:35,120 warfare, waging guerrilla warfare against the Greeks. 748 00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:36,960 Eventually things got really crazy. 749 00:38:37,120 --> 00:38:39,520 And then Judah Mcabee and the Hashmar Naeem, they they go to 750 00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:41,520 Rome and ask Rome to get involved in help. 751 00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:44,120 And that was ultimately the foreign policy decision that 752 00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:46,080 would lead to the destruction of the second temple, OK. 753 00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:48,640 You know, and it's very interesting because during the 754 00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:50,720 destruction of the first temple, we bet on Egypt instead of 755 00:38:50,720 --> 00:38:52,320 Assyria. And it was also a foreign policy 756 00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:54,520 decision, which is very interesting because the 757 00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:57,360 destruction of our sovereignty always comes from bad foreign 758 00:38:57,360 --> 00:39:00,520 policy decisions, which also affect our domestic policy and 759 00:39:00,520 --> 00:39:01,400 everything else. OK. 760 00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:10,080 So if you just look, it's if you can't question these things, you 761 00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:12,120 know, there's a weakness there, in my opinion. 762 00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:16,280 And we can't continue to perpetuate the same mistakes 763 00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:18,400 that we're making. And we can't continue to 764 00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:22,880 perpetuate a type of leadership that is afraid of being 765 00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:26,600 authentically Judean and standing up for the, the, the 766 00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:29,320 rights of the Jewish people around the world in a way that 767 00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:32,960 it may make them uncomfortable. I remember, and this is a great 768 00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:37,760 example, in December of 2023, I, I started to get the concept of 769 00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:39,280 what I wanted to do for Shomreahan. 770 00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:43,800 And I sat with Natan Sharansky, who is a hero of mine. 771 00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:45,440 And I explained to him what I wanted to do. 772 00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:48,600 And he said to me that Jewish people, especially in America, 773 00:39:48,640 --> 00:39:52,160 want the police to protect them. And he then he goes, what would 774 00:39:52,160 --> 00:39:54,160 Black Lives Matter think and this and that and this and that. 775 00:39:54,560 --> 00:39:56,600 And I looked at him and this is one of the hardest things I've 776 00:39:56,600 --> 00:40:01,440 ever done. And I said, Nathan, we need 777 00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:04,640 Jewish leaders who don't give a fuck about what other people 778 00:40:04,640 --> 00:40:06,240 think. Excuse my language. 779 00:40:06,240 --> 00:40:08,560 I'm sorry to the listeners. Bleep, bleep me out, OK. 780 00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:10,440 You're not the first one. It's OK. 781 00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:13,440 And, and it didn't go. I mean, obviously the meeting 782 00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:15,000 ended, you know, shortly after that. 783 00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:18,520 But my point is that we're always afraid to change. 784 00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:22,480 We're afraid to evolve. We're afraid, you know, the idea 785 00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:24,960 of the new Jew, the muscular Jew, you know that Noordao 786 00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:29,200 Jabotinsky, Akata and and Herzl began to really articulate all 787 00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:31,360 those identities together. Even if you put a little Rob 788 00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:35,080 Cook in there, you know what, what all these ideals that came 789 00:40:35,080 --> 00:40:37,600 from the Zionist movement that was to create this modern 790 00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:40,880 spiritually connected, hard working, land oriented, you 791 00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:43,360 know, Jew connected to the land of Israel was very much 792 00:40:43,360 --> 00:40:45,640 rejected. And it took a very long time for 793 00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:48,160 mainstream, you know, the mainstream of the Jewish people 794 00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:50,080 to accept this is the direction that we needed to go in. 795 00:40:50,720 --> 00:40:54,680 And it's a, it's a very hard thing, you know, to to go from 796 00:40:54,680 --> 00:40:57,080 the height of an assimilated community to realizing that 797 00:40:57,080 --> 00:41:00,000 you're an ethnic minority and that you're not part of the 798 00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:03,360 mainstream and that you need to go internally to redefine what 799 00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:06,280 the community is, because that's the opposite of what these 800 00:41:06,280 --> 00:41:09,400 Jewish organizations want. At the same time I want to say 801 00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:14,400 this, there's one main reason why creating modern day fully 802 00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:18,640 authentic Jews is not in the priority of anything from the 803 00:41:18,640 --> 00:41:20,920 progressive to the ultra Orthodox. 804 00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:24,800 It's because ultimately, either the generation that you're 805 00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:27,040 educating or the children of that generation will move to 806 00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:30,720 Israel, which means less money for those institutions and less 807 00:41:30,720 --> 00:41:32,600 donations. Because there's only One 808 00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:35,360 Direction that you ultimately go in when you totally feel a 809 00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:38,000 complete and visceral Jewish identity through and through. 810 00:41:38,600 --> 00:41:41,120 And that is a deep connection to the land of Israel. 811 00:41:41,120 --> 00:41:43,000 And sometimes it's one that you can't be without. 812 00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:47,760 Am I? You know, I, I, I'm. 813 00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:49,480 Sorry for the rant. No, please. 814 00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:51,080 I love it. It's so passionate. 815 00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:53,960 I, I think that, you know, you mentioned one thing that, you 816 00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:56,600 know, you want people who have been experts, who've been 817 00:41:56,600 --> 00:41:59,440 studying this stuff for 20 years and so on and have nuanced views 818 00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:02,760 and criticize when, whenever our leadership deserves to be 819 00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:04,800 criticized. But at the same time, like I 820 00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:07,720 think of someone like Havi Vereti Gore, who somebody will 821 00:42:07,720 --> 00:42:09,560 like, I appreciate, you know, his content. 822 00:42:10,240 --> 00:42:12,200 Yeah. Aviva's Aviva's Aviva's 823 00:42:12,320 --> 00:42:14,760 brilliant. He was an advisor to Schransky. 824 00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:17,280 I, I, I actually the first time I met Aviv was when I first 825 00:42:18,200 --> 00:42:20,960 moved to Israel and I made aliyah and he was working for 826 00:42:20,960 --> 00:42:23,480 Schransky. He's a brilliant thinker and 827 00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:26,000 articulator. But The thing is we live in a 828 00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:30,000 time where people want sound bites, people want in your face 829 00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:32,840 kind of content. We have to compete with TikTok. 830 00:42:33,040 --> 00:42:35,360 That's where As for most young people are getting their 831 00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:39,080 information. So at the same time do like, is 832 00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:43,200 there is there room for you know the the influencers or maybe do 833 00:42:43,200 --> 00:42:45,440 we have to kind of change their approach? 834 00:42:46,360 --> 00:42:48,240 I don't, I don't, I wouldn't have any problem with 835 00:42:48,240 --> 00:42:51,960 influencers if their content was deep. 836 00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:55,520 You know, if you look at the type of content that I make, 837 00:42:55,760 --> 00:42:58,680 first of all, not a lot. I, I don't usually put my face 838 00:42:58,680 --> 00:43:01,360 on a lot of stuff. I, I did before, you know, one 839 00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:04,080 of the things that I used to do that, you know, kind of, I would 840 00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:06,200 do these rants and I would be kind of animated, but they were 841 00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:09,040 very, you know, Bah, Bah Bah like filled with facts. 842 00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:11,200 And that was kind of like, my thing is that I don't need a 843 00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:12,720 script. And I have a lot of this off the 844 00:43:12,720 --> 00:43:14,440 top of my head. But one of the things that I 845 00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:18,880 would do is I would walk with my dog every morning with my coffee 846 00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:21,480 and I would do my take on the things, you know, that were 847 00:43:21,480 --> 00:43:24,320 complex issues or whatever. When my dog died, I went 848 00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:26,360 through, you know, that was when I left the country for a little 849 00:43:26,360 --> 00:43:29,640 while and I had to, it was a lot of things over five years in the 850 00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:32,800 war and actually there's been two wars and many things that 851 00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:34,560 I've gone through over the last couple years or I just needed a 852 00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:36,360 break. And it was really important 853 00:43:36,360 --> 00:43:38,320 because I was able to reconnect to my roots. 854 00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:40,760 I went back to the diaspora to understand the problems or 855 00:43:40,760 --> 00:43:44,800 whatever. It all goes back to education, 856 00:43:45,800 --> 00:43:48,480 OK? It all goes back to education 857 00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:49,720 and you don't want to know something. 858 00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:53,080 There's no reason why you can't become an expert through 32nd 859 00:43:53,080 --> 00:43:55,680 videos. At the same time, we're not 860 00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:58,880 creating alternative methods of learning for the different types 861 00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:01,760 of learning methods. OK, you know how I love to study 862 00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:06,200 Torah now and it is my favorite way to study Torah is Aleph Beta 863 00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:10,840 the cartoons. It is one of it is one of my 864 00:44:11,000 --> 00:44:13,200 favorite ways. I don't know if anybody has seen 865 00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:16,480 the video that Rabbi Foreman did on, on on the face of God. 866 00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:20,080 Did you did you see that? And it was the and it was the 867 00:44:20,080 --> 00:44:24,400 Mishkan specifically and that and that when you understand 868 00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:27,920 that the layout of the Mishkan represented this face, but it 869 00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:30,880 was the emanation of the like the spirituality. 870 00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:32,960 Your listeners can't see what I'm doing with my hands, but if 871 00:44:32,960 --> 00:44:34,640 they could, they would totally get what I'm. 872 00:44:34,680 --> 00:44:37,320 Trying to I've given a class. I've given a class based. 873 00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:44,760 I, I love to talk about that and you know, you can become such an 874 00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:48,400 expert when you study the texts and the grammar and the syntax 875 00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:50,960 and the importance of the Hebrew itself. 876 00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:54,440 And, and that's why I feel that Hebrew is such an important 877 00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:58,600 piece of the puzzle and that we, we can't deny the next 878 00:44:58,600 --> 00:45:02,080 generation the right to be Hebrew speaking, self defending 879 00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:05,640 diaspora Jews, because those are the nuances that were missing. 880 00:45:05,760 --> 00:45:09,560 When you realize that when the 1st time the, the, the 881 00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:12,680 Burkhadako anem was given and they say, may the face of God 882 00:45:12,680 --> 00:45:17,080 shrine upon you, they mean something very specific. 883 00:45:17,520 --> 00:45:19,560 And when you understand that this is it. 884 00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:24,320 It that's not you can't, you can't get that just from reading 885 00:45:24,320 --> 00:45:26,560 the literal words. You can only get that by drawing 886 00:45:26,720 --> 00:45:30,080 the, the, the Mishkan and looking at it from a specific 887 00:45:30,120 --> 00:45:32,320 view. And once it's pointed out to 888 00:45:32,320 --> 00:45:35,240 you, you can't, you can't ever Unsee it. 889 00:45:35,600 --> 00:45:38,440 You know, it's, it's just like how in Star Wars when Luke 890 00:45:38,440 --> 00:45:40,840 Skywalker turns on his lightsaber for the very first 891 00:45:40,840 --> 00:45:44,240 time and Obi Wan Kenobi's Hut. OK, now I am a huge Star Wars 892 00:45:44,280 --> 00:45:46,720 fan. My feed on Instagram and YouTube 893 00:45:46,720 --> 00:45:51,680 is like 3 or 4 things, the comic books, OK, Star Wars and juice 894 00:45:51,680 --> 00:45:54,360 stuff and movie stuff. OK, so you know, I'm very big in 895 00:45:54,360 --> 00:45:56,480 the pop culture and content, but you know, whatever. 896 00:45:56,480 --> 00:45:58,800 It's probably one of the reasons why I love Hall of Beta, but I 897 00:45:58,800 --> 00:46:04,640 never noticed that the cord to turn on the blade, you can see 898 00:46:04,640 --> 00:46:08,800 it hanging in his shirt. OK, now I've watched Star Wars 899 00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:11,400 thousands of times and once that was pointed out to me, I can 900 00:46:11,400 --> 00:46:14,320 never Unsee it and it has ruined that city. 901 00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:17,360 But I it's, you know, you have a good point about the, the 902 00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:18,920 contents and the sound bites and this and that. 903 00:46:19,120 --> 00:46:21,480 What sound bites are they? What sound bites are they? 904 00:46:21,480 --> 00:46:24,160 Who's making the sound bites? You know what, why? 905 00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:27,840 Why are we not concerned with figuring out a way to teach 906 00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:31,800 every Jew Torah in the way that they can learn it? 907 00:46:32,560 --> 00:46:35,360 You know, didn't the La Pubature ready say that people with Down 908 00:46:35,360 --> 00:46:38,280 syndrome were on like a higher spiritual level and there was a 909 00:46:38,280 --> 00:46:41,000 need to be able to, you know, they connected to specific 910 00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:43,840 things like seat, seat and other things and that the need to 911 00:46:43,840 --> 00:46:47,720 appreciate like them as intellectuals and Torah scholars 912 00:46:47,720 --> 00:46:50,320 and their love of it. It's, it's like that you have to 913 00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:54,880 find, you have to bring Torah. You can't, how do I say you got 914 00:46:54,880 --> 00:46:57,400 to bring the mountain to Mohabbin, that Mohamed to the 915 00:46:57,440 --> 00:47:00,120 mountain, so to speak. And that mountain of Torah has 916 00:47:00,120 --> 00:47:03,840 to be figured out in a way that can be articulated to every 917 00:47:04,040 --> 00:47:07,800 generation, to every type of student, to every type of child, 918 00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:10,480 whether they have trouble learning or not, whether they're 919 00:47:10,480 --> 00:47:15,080 auditorial or visual learners. It is what you know, I 920 00:47:15,080 --> 00:47:17,600 personally, I hate to read. OK, I mean, I love to read. 921 00:47:17,600 --> 00:47:19,680 I read quite a lot, I'm sure you can tell. 922 00:47:19,840 --> 00:47:24,120 But I listen to all of my books on tape before I read the visual 923 00:47:24,120 --> 00:47:25,640 book and then I'll listen to it again. 924 00:47:25,920 --> 00:47:29,280 You know, I have to visually see it and hear it and, and get it 925 00:47:29,280 --> 00:47:31,720 in three different ways for me to really internalize it. 926 00:47:31,720 --> 00:47:34,280 It took almost 30 years for me to learn that. 927 00:47:34,880 --> 00:47:37,200 You know, I didn't become a student until I did my masters. 928 00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:40,480 And I think, you know, that's my answer to the sound bite issue. 929 00:47:41,080 --> 00:47:42,760 Sound bites are great. Sound bites are important. 930 00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:45,520 And yes. But when you have to reduce 931 00:47:45,520 --> 00:47:50,080 everything you say to a sound bite, or you judge people on 932 00:47:50,080 --> 00:47:52,960 their expertise based on making a 92nd video, I think you're 933 00:47:52,960 --> 00:47:55,720 doing a disservice to what has always been considered expertise 934 00:47:55,920 --> 00:47:58,880 or scholarship. I think you just, you gave an 935 00:47:58,880 --> 00:48:02,120 idea to some listener here who's going to realize that we need an 936 00:48:02,240 --> 00:48:06,640 Aleph beta for like Jewish history and Zionism. 100 a 100% 937 00:48:06,640 --> 00:48:09,720 we do it's one of the reasons why we're trying to do the, the, 938 00:48:09,720 --> 00:48:12,720 the AI project that we're doing. And, you know, hopefully we'll 939 00:48:12,720 --> 00:48:16,760 launch Ask Personal very soon and in conjunction with work 940 00:48:16,760 --> 00:48:19,080 with the Zionist archives. And we're obviously going to do. 941 00:48:22,280 --> 00:48:23,840 I mean, I came up with it because somebody was like, you 942 00:48:23,840 --> 00:48:26,080 know, Herzl had a playbook. Can you help me with a playbook 943 00:48:26,080 --> 00:48:28,080 with what you're asking? And I was like, God, I just wish 944 00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:32,880 I could ask Herzl. You know, we have to find every 945 00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:37,680 single way that we can to give Torah, to give history, to give 946 00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:43,720 Zionism, to give, I mean, to any kid that we can't, you know, 947 00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:47,000 history, especially. I always like to say this and 948 00:48:47,080 --> 00:48:49,600 it's one of my favorite things to talk about when I talk about 949 00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:53,880 Jewish education and, and where my understanding of God and 950 00:48:53,880 --> 00:48:55,880 Zionism and Torah all fit together. 951 00:48:55,880 --> 00:48:59,840 And I, I love this saying the God of history is the God of 952 00:48:59,840 --> 00:49:05,960 Israel and the God of Israel is the God of history, because that 953 00:49:05,960 --> 00:49:10,040 was how I found my Amuna, you know, my Amuna. 954 00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:13,480 Like it was really through the study of our history and seeing 955 00:49:13,480 --> 00:49:16,480 the building blocks of history and how they come together and 956 00:49:16,480 --> 00:49:20,480 how the 100 year cycle of our people constantly is repeated. 957 00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:24,520 And I, I mean, I, I, I think it's fascinating, like I was 958 00:49:24,520 --> 00:49:26,520 saying earlier, if you really look at the building of the 959 00:49:26,520 --> 00:49:29,440 States and the Zionist movement until today, it very much 960 00:49:29,440 --> 00:49:34,400 mirrors similar things that happened in between shoftim and 961 00:49:34,400 --> 00:49:38,520 the death of Solomon. And I, I, I really, you know, 962 00:49:38,520 --> 00:49:42,560 understanding our history and the context of our history in 963 00:49:42,560 --> 00:49:47,280 the context of where we are now in a 3500 year history is 964 00:49:47,280 --> 00:49:52,160 extremely, extremely important to the strength and the identity 965 00:49:52,680 --> 00:49:56,000 of, of who will inherit tomorrow when it comes to the next 966 00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:58,120 generation of our people. Absolutely. 967 00:49:58,160 --> 00:49:59,640 I'm so happy you brought up brother Foreman. 968 00:49:59,640 --> 00:50:02,880 We've had him on the podcast as well as IMA Shalev and I'm. 969 00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:04,480 A huge I'm a huge fan. Huge. 970 00:50:05,040 --> 00:50:07,160 They're fantastic, but in general, like one of the things 971 00:50:07,160 --> 00:50:09,840 that we've my Co host and I Benzi, what we've fallen in love 972 00:50:09,840 --> 00:50:11,800 with is the goose. I'm so sorry that I didn't get 973 00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:14,480 to meet Benzi today. Yeah, everything's OK. 974 00:50:14,560 --> 00:50:16,400 Hopefully we'll have you on again one day and we can, we can 975 00:50:16,400 --> 00:50:20,320 do it all together. But you know, we, we, with, with 976 00:50:22,080 --> 00:50:26,360 Aleph Beta, but in general, we, we, we really celebrate the, the 977 00:50:26,360 --> 00:50:28,480 Tanakh study that's happening in Israel right now, specifically 978 00:50:28,480 --> 00:50:30,920 the Gush Tanakh method, you know, the focus on, on the 979 00:50:30,920 --> 00:50:34,280 language and intertextuality and chiasms and, and going into the 980 00:50:34,280 --> 00:50:37,720 history and, and, you know, we've had a bunch of episodes on 981 00:50:37,720 --> 00:50:40,320 this topic because if, like you said, if you learn the 982 00:50:40,320 --> 00:50:43,640 fundamentals, you can't Unsee it and, and it changes everything. 983 00:50:43,960 --> 00:50:45,760 So it's something that we really advocate for. 984 00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:49,320 And before we go, I just wanted to ask you, you know. 985 00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:51,480 Wait, I I want to, I want to, I want to comment on what you just 986 00:50:51,480 --> 00:50:53,440 said, but don't, don't forget what you want to ask me. 987 00:50:53,960 --> 00:50:56,320 I was, I was telling you off camera about a friend of mine 988 00:50:56,720 --> 00:50:58,920 who I think you should have on your program at some point. 989 00:50:59,320 --> 00:51:02,360 And he was arguing with somebody that I thought was a total waste 990 00:51:02,360 --> 00:51:04,000 of time. And it was a typical Nakla Oak 991 00:51:04,480 --> 00:51:06,240 type of discussion. OK, I don't know if you've spent 992 00:51:06,240 --> 00:51:08,880 time in Nakla Oak, but it's the area where all the hippies live 993 00:51:08,880 --> 00:51:11,040 in Jerusalem. I always used to say I thought 994 00:51:11,040 --> 00:51:13,120 San Francisco was the weirdest place in the world until I 995 00:51:13,120 --> 00:51:18,480 discovered Nakla Oak. OK, so and we were having this 996 00:51:18,480 --> 00:51:21,160 argument about national burden and this and that and Torah 997 00:51:21,160 --> 00:51:23,240 study. And it was like, you know, this 998 00:51:23,240 --> 00:51:26,920 guy really, you know, he had the yeshiva lingo and he could drop 999 00:51:26,920 --> 00:51:30,400 all this and that, but he didn't have the fundamentals that you 1000 00:51:30,400 --> 00:51:33,560 couldn't Unsee. It was exactly what you, you 1001 00:51:34,000 --> 00:51:37,000 guys kind of try to get at, which is the dogma of the 1002 00:51:37,000 --> 00:51:41,440 yeshiva world that doesn't allow you to, to open your eyes to the 1003 00:51:41,440 --> 00:51:43,160 deeper meanings of certain things. 1004 00:51:43,480 --> 00:51:46,320 And I, it just what you said just really reminded me of that 1005 00:51:46,520 --> 00:51:50,640 and how important it is to have those historical, 1006 00:51:50,640 --> 00:51:54,040 archaeological, you know, and anthropological understandings 1007 00:51:54,040 --> 00:51:56,000 of the history of the Jewish people and Tanakh. 1008 00:51:56,000 --> 00:52:00,240 I mean, it's just like how for years we always considered Mount 1009 00:52:00,240 --> 00:52:01,560 Sinai to be in the Sinai Peninsula. 1010 00:52:01,560 --> 00:52:03,640 And really it's most likely in Saudi Arabia. 1011 00:52:03,640 --> 00:52:07,560 It's things like that, you know, it's, it's a little nuances. 1012 00:52:07,600 --> 00:52:08,760 I'm sorry I interrupted you. You. 1013 00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:11,320 No. Of course, I just wanted to say 1014 00:52:11,720 --> 00:52:14,400 before we go, I wanted to know, I wanted to let our audience 1015 00:52:14,720 --> 00:52:17,080 know where they can find you, how they can reach you. 1016 00:52:17,600 --> 00:52:21,760 So you you can follow me on Instagram at Adam Scott Bellows 1017 00:52:22,120 --> 00:52:26,280 BEBELLOS. We have a you know, I would love 1018 00:52:26,280 --> 00:52:29,000 it if all of your listeners would order Israeli wine for the 1019 00:52:29,000 --> 00:52:30,720 upcoming high holidays. You can go to wine on 1020 00:52:30,720 --> 00:52:34,600 thevine.com to do that. We deliver in the States. 1021 00:52:34,600 --> 00:52:38,640 If you order a case of wine, which is 12 bottles, it's free 1022 00:52:38,640 --> 00:52:41,320 shipping. You usually order. 1023 00:52:41,320 --> 00:52:43,760 If you order it, it gets there within three to four days. 1024 00:52:43,920 --> 00:52:46,600 Sometimes, depending on the day that you order, it could be 5. 1025 00:52:46,760 --> 00:52:49,120 So I always suggest just ordering your wine a full week 1026 00:52:49,120 --> 00:52:51,200 in advance, but it usually only takes three days. 1027 00:52:51,640 --> 00:52:53,680 If you'd like to plant a vine and support the Israel 1028 00:52:53,680 --> 00:52:55,960 Innovation Fund and help us build, you can do that at 1029 00:52:55,960 --> 00:52:59,280 plantivine.org. And you know, we're going to be 1030 00:52:59,280 --> 00:53:02,720 launching a large crowdfunding campaign soon for our pilot for 1031 00:53:02,720 --> 00:53:05,720 Project Maccabee for the Hebrew language and the self-defense 1032 00:53:05,720 --> 00:53:09,040 project. And you could go to I write for 1033 00:53:09,520 --> 00:53:11,880 Wynet, and I'm going to be starting a new column with the 1034 00:53:11,880 --> 00:53:14,600 Jerusalem Post soon, so you can engage me there. 1035 00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:18,520 Just better to WhatsApp me. But you got to get in touch with 1036 00:53:18,520 --> 00:53:20,640 me in some way before I hand out my number. 1037 00:53:21,120 --> 00:53:23,360 And I always like to say, if you have a problem with me and you 1038 00:53:23,360 --> 00:53:25,320 don't have my WhatsApp, then you probably don't know me well 1039 00:53:25,320 --> 00:53:27,280 enough to have a problem with me. 1040 00:53:28,200 --> 00:53:29,320 That's great. That's great. 1041 00:53:29,720 --> 00:53:31,080 All right. Well, I want to thank you so 1042 00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:31,960 much for joining. Us. 1043 00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:36,960 I just want to say I'm so honored and humbled that you 1044 00:53:36,960 --> 00:53:38,280 asked me to come out of your program. 1045 00:53:38,280 --> 00:53:43,000 I mean, you've had some Torah giants, some, some, some real 1046 00:53:43,000 --> 00:53:48,160 giants on your this podcast. So it's extremely flattering and 1047 00:53:48,160 --> 00:53:51,040 and again, humbling to have even been asked to join you. 1048 00:53:51,240 --> 00:53:54,560 I hope I did an OK job. I've been very, I've been very 1049 00:53:54,560 --> 00:53:57,120 nervous the entire. Time you did an amazing job. 1050 00:53:57,120 --> 00:54:00,840 Well, I appreciate that and really all the best of luck to 1051 00:54:00,840 --> 00:54:02,840 you with all you're doing it's it's really amazing. 1052 00:54:02,840 --> 00:54:05,520 Kazako Baru, keep staying strong and thank. 1053 00:54:05,720 --> 00:54:06,280 You. Thank you. 1054 00:54:06,760 --> 00:54:07,840 And thank you so much.