#11: Behind the Bima - Special Guest: R. Aaron Kotler

good evening ladies and gentlemen it's nine o'clock Wednesday night and you know what that means it's time to spend time with our friends I'm gonna buy Ephraim goldberg joined by esteemed panelists rabbi Philip Moskowitz and as well Keva from Cecil no that's our by Josh Brodie and we are going to take you beyond the Beema Beema welcome back to another incredible episode another incredible night great to be with our dear friends and great to not only be alive but thank God to hopefully be making some progress and heading in the right direction we hope and our shul certainly is doing that trying to safely incrementally not everyone is but nothing's are given these days any time you could be with friends and have a night that enjoy conversation inspiration it's not to be taken for granted what's new what do you have what do you guys have to say right Brody you look a little different this week I'm just trying to share this with the rest of the world but yes we have a very special guest tonight you know I'm coming from the yeshiva veldt so I want to make sure that you know we we have a good time tonight it's gonna be great I'm just saying rabbi Brody looks like he walked off the set of Shabaab and again that's all I'm saying tonight it was a great week first of all he called net he called Netflix for the for the for the designer I just tell you something we ended with the conversation last week and I don't think that conversation ended at the end of the show that conversation kept going and for me it's actually just ended you know when I turned on the computer nowaday literally hasn't stopped I'm with you first of all let's remind all of our all of our listeners that they can submit question conversation in the chat in the comments we welcome your input your feedback and your thought-provoking questions let's acknowledge and thank our sponsor I want to say what an incredible guy Mark black and there is is that he had paid off his sponsorship for the last time behind the Bema and he sent the second payment the invoices got confusing so when our bookkeeper reached out to me said you know what keep the second payment I'll sponsor another episode so our good friend Mark I know if he's listening yet tonight but Shabbos light Chaves like calm you want to order yours I've been using mine ever since we got the sponsorship money we did not get extra lights that's okay we don't need them he was already super generous but the Shabbos light is fantastic highly recommend it Travel the one that's for home Shabbos light comm so Brody reading my mind live right now by the way yeah it's very bright my son Ivan are you allowed to use it during the week or just shot was part of the home studio so but Brody you said the conversation we had last week didn't stop when the show and didn't you've been having it what does that mean fill us in a little bit well as soon as the show ended there were a lot of comments people were talking people were saying that you know I got a comment and I think one of you forwarded it to me they said this just look at this face I said babe Brody is anti Orthodox anti Orthodox there's no one that loves Orthodox more than me I love all old Jews I love the Orthodox I love every single Jew out there and then all of a sudden you take calls you get a lot of pushback I got pushed back a lot of people I want you a lot of people said you know why are you exposing all these problems in the Orthodox community I said listen I'm just calling it the way it is unfortunately there's a big problem and someone even mentioned to me they said oh you don't even know the Reform community or their conservative community it's just as bad or it's even worse in some places what someone said well I said this let's not use this topic let's not use this topic to divide us further I think the important thing for for our part is that is that it's an issue that exists we established that and it exists across the world let alone the segments of the Jewish community and it's not a competition where it exists more it's something that we got to work on across the board but forget forget having to defend your comments last week or your Orthodox bashing last week in terms of the conversation itself what it was dealing with the issues of racism and and what Marvel brought to our attention was that conversation did that keep going kept going and Marvel and I have actually been in touch we spoke yesterday had an amazing conversation about an hour about you know a little bit deeper into where he's coming from and also where he has a Jewish community are coming from and I say one of the the things that actually came out of the conversation say but where do we go from here and unfortunately the readings that we would like to coordinate it's actually not the time right now it's a little too hot to even touch and you're kind of just waiting see that's complicated that we don't wanna go back there not because there's not a lot more to talk about there is a lot more to talk about but perhaps on a future episode that's not tonight's we're getting a lot of comments are by Brody we got a comment from a woman who writes is that my son Josh not recognizing I got another text just now that says is that your guest or is that Rabbi Brody they're confused so maybe let people know that you actually once upon a time used to dress like this and that is not this is not this is my hat no no you're not dressing up it's not knocking anyone you used to dress like this no in fact when I first came to Boca I had a hat I would wear it every week to shul that's right first few weeks I think listen I'm just saying once upon a time every one of the Bema had a hat and then I was the last man standing of our rabbi emeritus in our youth director now outreach rabbi so one by one but you know the more less hair I have the bigger the hat or the hat stays on longer so yeah Brody what happened you used to used to dress like this I mean what is it in your background that well I went to yeshiva in Baltimore I'm very right-wing yeshiva called Nereus well I loved it I was there for five years and you know I've actually reconnected with some of the rabbi's over the last few months now that we've been in the state of corona and just to see one of the great great Jewish leaders of Lakewood coming on the show it's like it's bringing a little bit of excitement out of me when I reconnect intially it is a pin that is rocking you inspire yourself to inspire others to play today it's a great thing so you know one of the things that some people's mind during this pandemic not everybody realizes we're still in a pandemic or the quarantine which is a whole topic let me want to talk about that it's really it's old and it's difficult and frustrating and has no answers but a question Robin mascots and I was talking about earlier today is how much weight did you gain or lose during corona why do you tell people the average American rather go but how much weight did the average American gain over the last three months Robbie Brody you wanna take a guess cuz we know the answer to this the average American I'm gonna say put on 23 pounds no that's a lot that's a lot hate the average American put on five pounds well I've heard a lot more than the Orang team I beat the eye more than doubled the average that doesn't include Shabbos or cholent or anything like that so you got to raise that for the for the hey watch this it's always talking about the Orthodox community oh boy here we go again there we go let's start here come on I'll tell it's interesting though because I what I've seen you know just not anecdotally nothing official is that some people have lost weight they've used this time to try to get in shape watch what they're eating have a little more margin and space for some exercising and other people have just totally let themselves go and I wonder like what percentage have stayed the same it just seems like a lot of people have gone one direction or the other see it's funny I don't judge it based on weight I judge it based on quality of living right overall health and here's what I see when I go around the circle I see people that I never see outside walking with their families walking with their children being more active than they normally are I was with the guy yesterday he was riding bikes with his kids I said oh it's amazing you get to do that he said yeah rubbing muskets you understand I spent an hour in the day each in the car each day back and forth to work see cuz I gained two hours back in my life yeah so if I use it for 45 minutes of exercise a day it's a great thing so to me that's a greater barometer than how much weight you put on or about to eating it's the exercise to me it's about a lifestyle it's about a healthy lifestyle and I and again I using this as an opportunity to get out there with their kids did you gain weight or did you lose weight he's been trying to gain weight for 10 years exactly I know how'd you do that's a trick question I'm doing great I'm doing great yeah what I do I put on 11 pounds you have a skate I don't have a scale in my house I have a scale I didn't weigh myself for three months I lost I've been doing pretty well but let cuz I just got a text right now for someone who says three rabbis and you're talking about weight and dieting and and how you look it's what we don't understand I'm offended by that why can't many talk about weight and health and and and how they look it's possible that I'm married to the person who wrote the text but that's not the point they're wondering why we're talking about that talk about that too it's not just that isn't staying healthy and Jewish value absolutely yes absolutely yes which is actually factors in the equation to like I wonder I know in my case I've tried to take back my health a little bit and I've lost some weight and I've been trying exercise regularly and I think part of it is that we're constantly mindful about our well-being our health you know when you hear over and over again that one of the secondary indications or comorbidities or whatever the fancy terms are is obesity or diabetes high blood pressure you comparing all these terms you say to yourself why would I want to take on that extra risk this is a time to lower my risk factors not raise them well let me ask you a question how much of it grabbing over you and I go to a lot of sim because their days will literally have a bris followed by another brisk than a Bar Mitzvah then a luncheon then a dinner followed by another dinner and then a wedding how much of it is that we're just we're not in the normal environments where you're eating unhealthy right Shabbos morning kiddush Shabbos lunches which are over exorbitant simcoe's where you end up chilling at the SH morgue and then right right and also having Moshe kamenetsky and jr. prepare a little snack here and there on the side yeah it's everything in moderation how you doing with these masks because even with us going indoors tomorrow we put out a video today with instructions and guidance visual guidance exactly what we have to do we're going to extreme measures and extreme caution so we're able to please God hopefully the data will continue to support this move but we're doing it with masks how are you feeling with those masks yeah I mean I find it's stifling certainly outside it is miserable outside I was outside the other day for Mincha and I had to walk over the side and just remove it to get like one good breath in but I did see someone running with a mask the other day and that I thought was interesting because I don't know that I could do that I don't know that enough air would get into my system that way but I have to interrupt your to interrupt you all the haters texting right now we get into the heavy stuff we got a heavy weight guests coming on we got some serious topics this is gonna be worth your while this podcast is gonna be almost viral yet I got it one of our rabbinic colleagues one of my dear friends writes three rabbis talking about their weight next are they gonna talk about doing their nails everybody that's the same on you is it is that the same one he texts me that the Red Sox haven't lost a game yet the Red Sox haven't lost a game yet yeah we're not giving away anyone's identity but let's just say everybody relax we're gonna get to the heavy topics that my mom which I see your way we eased our way in here's the thought that I had at Menifee today when I was suffocating in my mask is I looked at the doctors who were at the minion outdoor spaced mask I looked at the doctors and and I've been envious of these doctors since I've been in Boca right we have over 200 doctors in our shul and every minion they come to in their pajamas called scrubs and I was looking I'm thinking these guys wear the pajamas all day they're wearing the most comfortable thing you could wear they're ready you know when you get home and you can finally take off that straightjacket called a tie and a suit and you can change it something more credible they change into something more comfortable to go to work so I've always been jealous but then I realized I was looking at them with the scrubs and wear masks they were that mask all a time we're just wearing it for this hopefully very finite period they're wearing these masks all the time so I'm not sure I don't think I would trade getting to wear scrubs for having to wear the mask we should wear scrubs to show sure I would do that I've been wearing shorts my minion on the block I would like I'm dreading now going back into the show I don't have pants that fit when I stand up Brody right now I don't have pants that fit there's the old scrubs domini jacket look that several where I take some scrubs if anyone's got a pair all right look I am everybody look I am to good health to happiness - wait - doing your nails - whatever makes you happy in a time where it's a complicated and difficult if I'm behind Brooklyn for a prayer Devin I mean I'm excited for our special guest is gonna join us any minute I'm excited he's a fascinating individual a real leader a forward thinker a visionary really incredible leadership that transformed the even lake we're gonna talk about that all with him but I'll tell you what else I'm excited about about him I'm excited about behind the Bema because look at our last four shows and look at the diversity we went from Modi Turner by Shosh after to Marvel from Aaron Cutler you never know what you're gonna get on behind the Bema from one week isn't that BRS this is gonna be isn't that BRS rabbi Goldberg that is a diversity text you forgot our slogan already celebrating oh my gosh I got you know what I'm saying we always say when we bring in our Scotland residences and we you know we're gonna have our planning meetings next week and maybe we'll get into that a little bit but when we plant bringing our skyline residences we always say not everyone's gonna be happy with every scholar residents some will speak more to one population some to another but you provide the diversity because that's what our show represents it resemble last week we mix it up you can learn from you can learn from so many different places it lists some way minyan last week we had a we'll get back to that welcome welcome hi I can yes I can hear you loud and clear fantastic well you're not wearing a hat then I'm gonna take my hat on no absolutely not it is wonderful to see you and welcome behind the Bema you know Rabbi Moskowitz and rabbi Brodie yes do my colleagues at the Boca Raton synagogue oh how are you everyone great to see you - we want to thank you in advance for spending a few minutes with us this evening not not a simple time and everyone is a busy schedule but it's great we we had the pleasure of hosting rabbi Cutler early this year for Shabbos in our home and you so kindly reciprocated I know my wife stayed with you in your home when she went up for a simcard the Lakewood area so it's really been wonderful to forge this relationship and I don't know if I told this to you when you were here but our generation is not the beginning of our relationship my grandfather Sam Abe off my zeda all of our Shalom who worked tirelessly for the Jewish community Elizabeth New Jersey but also for totem essaouira apparently had a very cordial relationship with your grandfather with her of our own that's al and to work together on several projects so I'm happy to keep that relationship going weird so Jim for many generations and on I main I mean so I want to give our listeners a little bit perspective of who you are and why it's a meaningful significant that you were with us and and really at least some of the the framework and foundation for a conversation so so your grandfather of our Cutler your name's you created the yeshiva based measures guevara in lakewood in 1943 it was an incredibly visionary move Lakewood New Jersey obviously was not what it is today it was a barren Jewishly it was a wasteland um and that's partly why he shows it and move the eeschema there in order to create an isolated area where these yeshiva bokram limits Yanam the the excellent students the elite so to say could could emerge to carry on and build torah and today you fast forward and it's the second largest shiva in the world I don't know if there's like a healthy competition between the mir and lakewood i'm not suggesting a color war of sorts but i'm not sure which one has more according to wikipedia it's the second largest achieve in the world for whatever value wikipedia is the mirror is only larger as of 2019 wikipedia says BMG has six thousand seven hundred and fifteen students is that accurate we're a little bit over seven thousand today but wikipedia does have some lines in it that are accurate yes okay right has achieve ads for campuses on 35 acres in lakewood numerous academic facilities libraries residence halls the she was licensed by the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education accredited by the Association of advanced Rebennack into music schools authorizes a grant in bachelor's and master's degrees and Tom musics there's a lot about BMG that the person who's not so familiar with Lakewood much of our audience really doesn't know and there's not a better person on the planet to teach them about it obviously then than you so tell us when I mean feel free to tell us what you want about your background to start but when did you get reinforced and president of BMG and I know that in that capacity you brought a professionalism and excellence a sense of organization of vision instead of the usual Hamish kite the yeshiva often has you've really structured in a way of excellence that's helped propel it to where it is today and where it's going beyond so when did that first happen and where did you learn those business skills that you've brought and applied to a yeshiva setting first now I'm a little bit of an anomaly in that if you would have asked me even a year before I returned to Lakewood about whether I would go to Lakewood I would have said she was not even on my bucket list and I had a pretty big bucket list at the time so I'm a little bit of an anomaly and when we lived in Israel and my first two children were born in Israel I of course kept one day because I had no intention whatsoever of ever returning to the United States the dream of every Jew is to live in Eretz Yisroel and I got married I was out of here six weeks after my wife and I got married we left the United States we moved to Eretz Easter all we moved to what was then a little village called horn oaf some of you may have heard of it in those days it was one bust a day our street was a dirt dirt wasn't paved and we lived there and I certainly thought I would spend the rest of my life in our Chester all I was blessed to have an incredible relationship to be mentored by Reb Noah Weinberg's David Sonic faqatilu Rafa who carried nothing in his heart but a Hawaiian for the Jewish people nothing mattered to him except the Jewish people nothing pained him except seeing Jews detached from their heritage nothing made him happier than seeing someone reconnect to their heritage and run off legendary man a book was just written about him he was one of the fathers of the cure of movements I was very blessed to have that relationship with them and that was special for me because my father passed away when I was very when I was relatively young I was I just turned 18 and as a young post team growing up I didn't have that father figure and so I really had gained that inner of Noah the reason why I was so drawn to of Noah hawai Berg was because my father had that very same sense the same heart for the Jewish people that same sense of love for every year and my father carried the burdens of the Jewish people on his heart he felt every worry every pain of every Jew that he met and he lived his life for the Jewish people and after he passed away although I was young I was kind of missing that figure and Reuben or Weinberg yelled at me literally but I should start teaching at age 22 23 at Asia Torah now I don't know how many of your listeners know or understand the scope of educate in the Shiva world today but to teach very very smart college students from Harvard Yale Columbia coming into age from around the world from UPenn as a 23 year old would be quite daunting for anyone but especially for a yeshiva guy because we're trained to learn Gomorrah we know a lot of Gomorrah we don't know much of anything you talk to us about to knock klemish ha ha ha Rambam it gets we're really out of our league and I'm knock stood you're gonna start teaching and I said to have naw that's I I respect the passion and the need to do for the Jewish people however I know nothing but I can transmit or that I can share with the students because they incoming a student doesn't want to learn reply hymns and those who want to learn the brisker of and all that he just he wants to gain the foundations of Judaism but Rome north was merciless he said you're gonna do it and I accepted a position at that young age over at age and taught an Asia which lion for a number of years I would say they were the greatest years of my life but I can't because every year has been the greatest year of my life but in many ways they were to have such a Rebbe in a row via Bloomberg would come in every summer from near Israel so I would ask her of no off questions and then I would ask for Jack and Weinberg his brother the same exact questions what heady days of learning and growing and developing in Judaism but I felt that I was missing something I was missing that kollel experience because I had gone to work teaching Torah but teaching at age at such a young age I never had the benefit of the kollel years so I felt like I was a little bit of a fraud and I think that every yeshiva guide deep down who doesn't really know how to poss Kim doesn't know era Van Hollen need the Shabbos you feel like you're a little bit of a fraud consider yourself hasta pasta syndrome and a pastor you hope you hope that you know how to learn but you you don't know which sliders and Gomorrha to open up if you get to get more Shabbos Orbea or or all these other things so I felt like I was I wasn't real and I used to go to her of no and I'd say I really want the time to learn I was teaching 1012 hours a day talking to students giving four or five classes a day I had an absolutely brutal schedule not as brutal as yours or a vet for him but I had a brutal schedule of of students and I was very young and it was all-consuming so I had this idyllic vision that I would go hide myself in some corner and I would go learn and call out and I'm happy made that decision I started to look around for some calls and I looked actually in so fast there was a call and some other places and I had once studied or spend some time in South Falls Maria Shiva and to me it represented a very idyllic time in my life and they were opening a call they were planning a learning : an air event I really wanted to learn whole in air even they were on my bucket list I said we're gonna move from you Rishel I am Iroquois - to the backwoods of the Catskills in middle of nowhere and I said and I learned I have no cure of responsibilities or anything like that so my wife a good loyal trooper we picked ourselves up with our kids we did a myth here ah they call it in Israel we sold our car sold all of our possessions that we had all our earthly possessions and we were gonna set off into the great big yonder to go learn and call by the way the day after we sold all of our possessions Rob Feldman or varn Feldman who was today the Russian Shiva near Israel called me he was in Yerushalayim then he said I am opening a call initial I'm and we'll be learning Arabic and Poland and this is the style of learning I said if there were she she would have called me a day before I would have stayed now that's how thin the line of hushka is in our lives if you literally would have called me one day before I'd still be living in Eretz you are right now but we'd already sold our stuff as you know what we're out we made that decision we are going so we moved to South Fallsburg unfortunately the Catskill Mountains are filled with secular Jews who identified themselves at the time as Orthodox the shools were mostly Orthodox but they were completely secular and somehow they gravitated to me and I ended up not only learning but also doing caravan and I ended up building with Rabbi Goodman Irving Goodman and some others we built a cure of organization in the Catskills and my life kind of became all-consuming again but I had no money because at least in Asia I drew a salary here I was in kollel I was going on five kids in living in a 800 square foot apartment and uh struggling to do my best and running a cure of organization so I started dabbling a little bit in business and ended up involved in an airline that never took off but the pardon the pun but involved in an airline trying to raise money for Ellen and I landed up on Wall Street while learning in yeshiva I was the jack of all trades master of none and ended up meeting some Bala bottom who knew that Lakewood was in distress at the time my father had passed away in 82 this was now 1995 ueshiba was growing rapidly my brother is an unbelievable Sadiq unbelievable running the achieve it but the sheba outgrown its administrative and social capacities and they said to my brother I think you should ask Orin to come in Lakewood and to take over the administration so my brother said no he's in kollel so this guy says to him I'm sorry he's not in Colo he just pitched me on a 200 million dollar airline deal which we had pitched warren buffett's team and george sources team on the same deal by the way the smart money never invests in Airlines so we were not able to launch but uh that was sort of how I landed up in life but so when they called I'm an anomaly I'm not I'm not mr. Lakewood I'm if I aspire to anything is to walk in my father's footsteps a very far be where he walked with that arise for Kali stroll I believe in my heart Torah as you do Torah is the strength and the beauty of the Jewish people and the greatest gift we can bring the Jews is bring Torah two of them so that's what we do that's amazing and I and I thank you for that because that history is fascinating and again people who just know your last name and attach your first name to your grandfather and may come to some conclusions that that don't include Wall Street and pitching an airline to George Soros so but I want to come back to you and I know the other rabbis have questions to is so much to talk to you about I want to come back to something that you said which was that you wanted to go learn in Cola you felt deprived the whole imposter syndrome and one of the things about Lakewood in the culture of Lakewood or the impression people out of the culture of Lakewood is a sense of entitlement to learn in Cola and to learn in Cola indefinitely and who pays for that and and does that fall upon the parents and the in-laws does that fall upon other segments of the Jewish community is that really a toe Rajesh cuff is that the right way to go and I'm not looking to do an analysis with you of our sources about how far back we go a shade that Lavy and there are all the different sources but I'm curious I'm going to pack a few questions in together to this one but um if your grandfather is at Soloff of iron came alive today and came back to Lakewood he recognized it what he recognized as the fulfillment of his dream of his aspiration of what he wanted Lakewood to be what do you want to yeshiva that large that many people learning that and definitely in kollel some of whom have the ability to be supported and therefore are living more moderate lives and some I have family and friends I know people in Lakewood old-school Lakewood that goes very far back who are really living bare-minimum very minimalist lives and one could argue in some degree of poverty and is that is that what your grandfather envisioned so maybe in answering that you could share some of the statistics I know when you told it to me I was blown away about how many are in Lakewood have many boys how many colo guys what the turnover is where they go when they come out of Lakewood I'm going to go to work and some of these things that can either correct or reinforce that perception of a cola life sure and I don't want to dodge any other questions but I want to answer a little bit more from the perspective of my father cuz although I carry my grandfather's name I never met him so I only know third hand but I witnessed my father and what he believed in what he fell I will never forget the time I was walking with them on a Shabbos morning or what not privately from our home to the yeshiva for chakras Shabbos morning and mr. Zagora no wonderful gentleman owned an oil company stopped and he saw my father he was an old Jewish man he says a rabbi good Shabbos it's so good to see you when they're talking and he says goodbye how many students do you have in the yeshiva at the time look today we have over 7,000 and 1,400 single Tamid him and thousands and thousands of coal families and all the stats that we'll get right back that's the time the schita probably had seven or eight hundred students and my father said to him gave him the number and I'll never forget this because I was a kid kids are impressionable he said to that by so many what you need so many for and my father stopped and he said to him Irving they were good friends Irving how many counts do you have in the gift in the business and Irving said whatever you had 400 accounts but I says you look shiny enough you have enough accounts you know you don't need more and Irving left because of course he knew in business it's never enough you you want more if you have a good thing you want as much as you can out of it Torah is the strength of the Jewish people and there are so many Jews who don't have a connection to Torah who don't understand it who don't appreciate it who don't relate to it so we need a lot more of it I joke and this is a joke that there were more Jewish lawyers named Cohen in the United States and then there were guys learning in Lakewood I joked that there are more juice studying postmodern art in the United States than there were call the guys in language now the first one I know is true but I probably true but the second one is probably not true because no one studies postmodern art anymore but look Turner's our life some of the stats the average stay in Lakewood is about six years there are over 1200 Jewish institutions that are led by I were significantly staffed by alumni of Lakewood I look at us in a sense as having preceded Chabad because certainly my father started before Habad did I love cobot by the way but my father started before Chabad to build community Cole ELLs and which I know in Bocca you have a beautiful tough time call which you are is such an asset and in aid to the work that you all are doing that there are bottom are doing well my first started building community calls he built in Toronto in Los Angeles in Mexico City in Melbourne Australia in st. Louis and Scranton to Philadelphia um Boston Miami he went around there he was a world traveler going around the world building calls my grandfather did the same thing by though I have a letter from revoir in 1945 he travels to Egypt to pitch the rabbi's in Egypt about building yeshiva sin Egypt I have another letter from him in the end of 1945 my grandfather returns to Cairo this time schlepping the chief rabbi of then Palestine the chief for our first chief Robbie of Israel rabbi Hertzog he schlepped him they go back to Cairo to try to convince the Jews in Cairo that they need to build you Shiva's so this is the legacy that I grew up with whether it was from my grandfather my father my rebbe reb Noah my other rebellion is that we need a lot more Torah in the Jewish people and if we ever get to the day where there won't be a child from man to bear Sheva who can't who doesn't know a B and C the a B's and C's of Torah we can have a conversation do we have enough or not or what was the exact intent but we are so far from where we need to be as a people we need 10,000 more Colo families we need them not only in Lakewood we need them all over the world we need them in Boca as they are we need them in Houston as they are and in Dallas and in Phoenix and every other city in every other place so adult Jews can learn and that's what differentiates the yeshiva movement on the coulomb movement really from K to 12 education K to 12 says your children have to learn so that they can know how to function ueshiba sinkholes today no no no this is not just about functioning this is identity identity this is who we are this is what we we're in our hearts and what we wear is Torah that's that's it's so it's so well put it's so uh put and none of us will argue the three of us I think among our more most formidable years were when we got to learn in Colo I guess the question that could bring you back to the stats and then we'll let the other rabbis ask is is but for how long so someone gets married are having children there are costs that increase as their life goes on and of course Torah is game Calle know and of course talk but in main camera hain toh at the same time so for how long should they so I'm not asking that as an ideological question right now for you to answer but I guess the transition back to those stats of some have the impression that liquidus seven got thousand people learning till their 40s 50s and 60s and relying on the whole community to support them that's just not true right so what are the stats yes so as I mentioned before the average stay is six years in Lakewood we get a thousand new tall medium a year elephant if nacelle FeO say about a thousand leave every year so there's a tremendous amount of turnover but they're also in the stats or hidden patterns as in any statistical fact so there are those who want to learn from two or three years that's all they are able to do there are those who want to learn four or five years and there are those who want to learn a lifetime my framework for understanding the program is very simple the what we call the ischium assess the cycle which is the what would be the equivalent of an undergraduate program bava kamma bummin see above a basra condition get in that cycle is a seven-year approximately seven year cycle of learning I'm not talking about DAF Yomi we're talk about learning and be even and understanding the soleus and knowing really knowing how to learn and our program is built around that seven-year cycle in addition there's the post ueshiba schtum assess the cycle and this is historic goes back to europe shabbos era Van Hollen NIDA and a whole host of other programs and when we think of Lakewood it's inappropriate or inexact to describe it as a yeshiva because it's not a yeshiva it's a conglomeration of many many you shiva's where we have 240 different cavora programs and the talmud gets to choose what he wants to join in the post yeshiva Shama Sekulow part of the issue has jobs ever to : either that's about another 5 years so we like to think before a person gets to the strength of a sock if you want to cover collet or a cooler in Lakewood you're looking at a 12 year cycle if you want to become a die-in or a specialist it's gonna take more time and therefore the amount of time you will learn will depend on your own willingness for possible Mela total which is not just financial by the way possible Melek Touhou of your life and will depend on the resources that you can bring to the table and certainly depends to some degree on the resources that I and my team are able to bring to the table with the tremendous support of the Jewish people so where do those thousand people go the thousand who graduate where do they do all of the thousand illipe each year the first debt is the vast majority in recent years our staying in the Lakewood area so we have become against all odds this little economic engine for our region creating tens of thousands of new jobs over 5 billion dollars worth of new ratable x' construction ratable of residential rana bowls millions of square feet of commercial ratable x' and in some ways we are today the healthcare capital of the world so as the young family stayed here people left Geneva and a large percentage Libre Shiva and want to stay in Lakewood and go into business they've built up an unbelievable business economy here mostly in professional services so whether doctors lawyers financial professionals the counters and all those other all these other professions but it's a tremendously positive business environment here in just about every business from logistics the IT to everything else in between do they go into they get a further education a graduate degree that is simply easy to do because the local institutions of higher education they know that a yeshiva grad is committed is smart and it's gonna complete and it's going to get really good grades so the schools that take the BMG graduates for example F bu or Thomas Edison state they're in the top two to three to five percent in the country in scores because they're getting your Shiva guys who are they're not wasting any time if you have three kids and you're gonna go for a master's in finance at F bu for two months to the day after you walk out of the door BMG you're gonna have your masters in finance but you're also most likely going to score in the top percent in the country which means a pretty good job when you're out there so that ecosystem is here and as you mentioned when my grandfather came to Lake when Lake we was it was in a sense of mid bar it wasn't exactly as you described but in some ways it was a desert today it's an ecosystem for business and for furthering education for other things and the majority of told me they will leave every year are going into that when that time has come in their life for them to enter that those fields a large percentage go into a bonus I'm sitting here immediately to my right is the beautiful brochure from the shitty University showing the great rub on him of his Sheba University I'm sure you saw that new brochure of Ephraim that's out there I don't want to embarrass anybody but it's a big picture of Rabbi Goldberg that's why yes Millie a big beautiful picture of Rama my checks my checks are gonna be going to be mg going forward no wonder why you after that picture we look we need a lot more people like you like rabbi mosque was like rabbi Boyd and we need a lot more people like that Bartha Shem we're getting a few hundred a year make that commitment to going through a bonus to go into Kirov to go to community calls to help build call you sir all to become much gave him and show him and post him and all those other wonderful let's call them the the religious servants of Klaus well we need a lot more and when I see I get people call me all the time students call they say rabbi can you help me a revive and can you help me get into Harvard Columbia and why you yeah we know all the folks on the admission committees over there because they like you see the guys it's true they do it's a fact like they really like you Shiva guys and as as the president of Harvard once said to me former president Harvard Law she said it and this isn't a Harvard way of saying it understated way she says at Harvard Law being yeshiva Graduate is not a disadvantage so you think of yeshiva privileged but every Talmud who wants to go into law Hashem should bless them with the greatest success I still feel that little tinge because I know people we have to we want to Kleiser all has to be balanced but we really need rub on them we really need teachers we need to obey Him and the mostess who are committed or devoted and it's not easy a Rebbe salary look you know my own son was over at Davis Polk a graduate of Columbia you know my vain son and by his brother graduate of Harvard to to beautiful lawyers my son was an amazing Ventura he lives in Clifton New Jersey and his life is devoted to the Jewish people it's not a binary choice but certainly we need as many builders of the Jewish people as we can when I say I have a million more questions for you no mascots jumping ya know first of all this amazing and I have to say when we met you in Boca I was blown away by your charisma and your vision and the articulate way that you communicate that so thank you for joining us and for your partnership and friendship in general um I want to pivot a little bit you mentioned why you and that you're sitting next to a catalogue of why you and some people on here might find that I'm a little surprising certainly in the way it's perceived from the outside there is enormous bifurcation within the the Jewish community that they're worlds right you're in the yeshiva SH world or the Y u world or the modern world or this world or that world and people perceive that there's at least a little bit of territorial you nature to it or my understanding is that while that might be the appearance on the outside behind the scenes there's an enormous amount of cooperation between the different sects of Orthodoxy between the different movements because at the end of the day we're all in it for the same thing we're all in Lachey misha monument to grow torah so can you take our listeners behind the beam a little bit and share some of the experiences that you have that others might not be aware of of how institutions like why you like BMG like other yeshivas work together and collaborate for the betterment of Kali stro sure so first of all I have a new cure for anyone who doesn't understand how United the Jewish people are is taken to Boca Raton synagogue and you'll see your Shiva guys is she is far too much kannada casita you see everybody on the one roof with one commonality so that's my simple cure for anyone who doesn't really understand how the Jewish people operate and that really is is to your credit my malignant I joke all the time because my my foot and my vein is the president of the Orthodox Union and his father-in-law was a I don't know if chairman of the board or certain on the board of why you the beam in Feld's and being Marvin being what was also from the great supporters is to this day from the great supporters of light wedding you know it's really interesting because the Ebola bottom who built weiu and funded it are the very same names of those who built BMG and Lakewood so you'll walk around the hallowed halls of base message Kavala and you'll see the Foresti names and the ben-haim names and see all these same names and the Tenzer names at all and you know sometimes i get visitors they say wow we we didn't know that they had this connection she was like the irving beautimous of the world the Kleins of the world they had a vision for the jewish people look what what works for one person is not going to work for the other person and what works in one town might not work in the next town and every every family every individual every key Hilla is entitled to their uniqueness and what works in Phoenix might not work in Dallas it works in Dallas my no work in Houston so every place is is entitled and should have that as long as we share as we do such a common Ave Satara such a love of tor values and such a burning desire to strengthen the Jewish people we're always not going to be just friends or allies we're going to be partners and you know the the the person in the Navy and the person in the airforce they might be in different divisions but their partners they fighting one battle we have one battle and I always say to my team the battle is not even secularism today the battle is I don't want to offend anyone but it's the it's the Range Rover and the its if the materialism of society which is a necessary evil but we don't want it to become the purpose of society and that's yes approach it you think this approach is mainstream Lakewood and we began you said that you're unusual coming back to liquid you're not necessarily you're the anomaly the liquid so obviously it's beautiful to hear your description and we certainly share it and but do you think that the average Colo younger light do you think that the average Baccarin lake would you think the average family living in Lakewood also hears that message and embraces that message and realizes there's different units who are fighting in the same army I mean there's a sense of partnership I don't know that the average person thinks about it you know Lakewood has become very what they call in town so I don't know that the average person thinks in in in the grand scope of things but I think that when they do they understand that this is about bringing tauros of the world and they understand that they're not the only ones bringing Terra to the world and they understand that we need every Ally we can to bring as much of it as we can to the rest of the world and when they get out there they'll see it more so we'll go to a town where I was just spent Shabbos with my incredible son or album vein and my daughter but Sheva Leia I spent Shabbos with Rabbi Schulman and incredible must Mojave why you and cliff in New Jersey what a what a beautiful Tomica and I sat there and sure what a beautiful shul they have and my son was a very demanding guy he's not only a lawyer my son was also big Tom McLoughlin my son only gives a share and he works hard and easy he's an incredible person so to be a rub and that was not easy when you have all a bottom for such Dominica Hama and rabbi shtotelman quoted I don't even think you knew I was there because I tried not to make any announcement but he spoke Shabbos and he said over a fart from my first cousin the Linkwood receiver would be roham Austrian which by the way rabbi rabbi from you had done the same when I was out in Boca and Yahoo my album and he said he loves you're my other it's one Torah and you're right not everybody's aware of it not everyone thinks about it most people are very busy with their daily lives but it's certainly our responsibility to ensure that everybody feels the artists that call you sir all relies on that underpins who we are for sure rabbi bro do you have a question I think we're running out of time but I know running at that first of all I feel like I'm a product of Lakewood because I went to jec and Elizabeth Elmira Bain were from from Lakewood rebek Haseman MAPE Arnaz my sister mrs. Kerr Pena much other crap Anya was not JC if I can also add that growing up because I miss child of Holocaust survivors so we had very few relatives from my mother's side and my mother's my mother is a tights my mother's grandfather was rebus tall tights were all nuts and tights is buried in Mehran Italy and he landed up there but so we're our cousins to the tightest that we always had a very close connection to JC from that side to me no the only other thing I just wanted to know and I think you kind of hit on it but I just wanted someone telling them or the Russia she was saying to all the buckram to all the kollel younger light are they saying listen there's a big Jewish world out there like you said you're coming from H you know you had that experience what it was like to teach others that don't know anything you've got the most excited enlightened powerful army 7,000 strong like go ahead and change the the Jewish world I mean you can do it and overnight I think they're saying it they might say in more yeshiva speak so you may need one of those your Sheba speak books so I may say it in my own format and tone that I am accustomed to they'll say it in theirs but the message is definitely they're very strongly we're living for the Jewish people we're not living for ourselves in mysterious nefesh for that greater cause is instilled daily more than daily every moment you know in Lakewood it's interesting because of the muster fights I don't want to go back and take up time to talk about the European you Shiva fights in the early 1900's at all but it's very much about the learning and there is hush kapha and there are some conversations about OSHA and guff is emphasized but it's certainly not emphasized to the degree that learning lumbus Halawa is emphasized and there's sort of an assumption because our tell me them are older they're they come in they're 22 23 and they're leaving when they're 29 30 or 40 or I hope they'll stay till they're 90 but the they're coming in pretty formed in terms of their hush goofus they certainly think they're formed by the time they walk in and most of the emphasis in the day of the in the day of the coal family in Lakewood is about it's about the learning itself and so there is messaging on Shabbos and yontiff and most of state or at all but the focus really is it's about the Torah learning in of itself yes III had so many other questions I wanted to ask I wanted to talk about the obviously coronavirus and Lakewood Lake what I know suffered some great losses my cousin was Amon Hill offend del Rocca and other is real real tragic losses wanted to talk to you about Lakewood and race relations and I know this past weekend my cousins in Lakewood told me they were instructed to leave their radios on and fear there could be writing not just rallies that borough Hashem to repent yeah we know a lot of other topics time but I want to ask you one last question you carry on your shoulders the responsibility 7,000 people learning Torah full-time it's an awesome impact on the world it's an awesome responsibility you bear and it's an extraordinary pressure how do you bear it what do you do I know that you enjoy skiing and hiking and have some other hobbies also one might not think that I know a couple of Lakewood would have but what what do you do when you need to try to decompress and when you're trying to be able to re-energize and rejuvenate to reapply yourself in order to keep that engine of Torah learn I'm burning so it's so bright tell us what what you do I really do a lot of things I'll share a secret that post coronavirus I snuck away to southern Utah for three days of solo hiking in the in the desert so I just did that I flew into Vegas the plane was 25% full social distancing took a 5-hour drive to the deserts and spend three days hiking there so there's plenty of opportunity even not during winter ski season to do something that helps you clear your mind but really I find for me writing learning thinking is the greatest greatest device to clear the mind so if you if you have stress and pressure if you open a safer I read a lot also if I hope a safer Lahab doe a book I'll be completely absorbed in it and you'll you forget the world and if you have a gash Macha finish all the problems of life really go away it's an amazing thing what Torah does for the tourists a Shem to Mima mushiya snuff us and I think that applies also to those who are involved in supporting Torah and in helping it grow and helping it flourish Rivard that you've given your time generously your insights we have so much more to talk about I hope you'll agree to come back on again up so great you you you had a big finish tonight because you told us it's post corona so we're happy to know that like what it is yeah but thank you so much I hope we can continue the discussion thank you for what you're doing for Claro for advancing Torah thank you for you refreshing beautiful ideas articulated so passionately and thank you for your friendships thanks for giving us some time tonight yes thank you very much everyone take care thank you thank you I'm sorry article in liquid you ready I tell you every week every week I get more and more excited by the guess that was fun I could have gone on for hours with him I agree and and it's not just us getting a ton of text messages that also would love to hear so much more there so much more to talk about and I think what what we try to do here I'll give you behind the Bema of behind the Bema is we're trying to be non cliche we're trying to be non predictable so you know that guest who you think is gonna fall out a certain way let's try to mix it up and and understand the different components and peel back the layers of who they are and realize life is complex and people are complex and people don't necessarily fit neatly into our preconceived notions of who they are or how they live I will say and I love revoir on that I'm not sure that mainstream Lakewood and all the Cutler's exactly resonate with the same messages and ideology but he's the CEO and president of BMJ and he's still in such a leadership role and to hear that perspective and he does I know that partnership I know that behind the scenes we know that I know that's why you brought it up her by mascots that we have friends who lead other more you'd call them Modern Orthodox organizations who work really closely with with Ravana and yes just that as we know you know stories of the Rob and his grandfather working together and and you know in the early in the middle of the 20th century so I think people misunderstand and they sometimes see externalities and differences that divide people and don't realize that at the core what unites us is so much stronger and that great individuals are able to put aside a lot of those externalities certainly in internal conversations and are able to really work for a greater good and and I think he did a great job of communicating that he is very impressive imagine where Lakewood would be today if n was in 1995 he didn't take over what a story it's true today if you got to cut you forgot the call from her arm Feldman one day earlier it's an amazing thing about life what a story I'm saying there might not be a lake with today might have bloated it might have what a story my backstory yeah that was really great if you're enjoying tonight know that you can forward this on podcasts our show is not only on YouTube and Facebook and zoom but it's produced actually as a podcast and sound is cleaned up and intro and a next row and you could find us on Apple podcasts where I think we're moving up the ranks boys gotta rate us and comment on us we hit number ten under Judaism in Apple podcasts but a PRS number 10 you might as well be number 10,000 number 10 I guess number 10 are we going where are we going on number one go to number and go on and just give us a rating Ellis yeah how much you love your watching if you're watching and you enjoy just just take out your device go on Apple podcast whatever podcast play you listen to and just the more people my so my son was very smart he goes daddy I need a device I said why I said you know 12 years old unit device for he goes I gotta reach you on a podcast one of my kids where my kids just texted I'm a little desperate we're not saying rate us because we make money off of this by the way all the sponsorship money doesn't go to us we haven't taken one penny we got a couple Shabbos lights it's like actually I thought it goes no I didn't know that we you get one in another week we spent on your new black hat but we don't keep any of the money that comes in the money that's coming in is helping good things why are we saying help us get the message out because could you imagine we could change the world if more people hear of Shai Schechter talked about his father change the world if more people here in Marvel will hear them change the world and people here remain in color will change the world that people here mote what will make people smile of the here Modi I'm gonna I'm just joking we love Modi too but if we can get that message out we can have a bigger impact that's why we're asking for your help so take a moment to that we got a couple minutes left what else is our agenda tonight gentlemen Brody you had a lot of questions you were you were hiding furiously beforehand you know what I kept thinking to myself which was so you know brought me back 20 years and I left near you swell I left those you Shiva's which he was referring to you know Revilla cough Weinberg was my Russia Shiva and I still remember coming the first week and meeting the guys from the weiu kollel which I didn't have any you know that I didn't think to do with why you when I came down here and I remember the first poem we had and it was for the the clay kodesh of BRS there used to be a thing here you remember and I remember I walked in with Simone and we said what do you mean it's we're sitting at the same table it's not separate seating Wow yeah and now you're on a service that's not separate sitting okay anyway so you come a long way to have head Brody shows you that anyone can understand a different side I get all the sides now yeah so can you all of you people out there don't be so judgmental listen I think it's important it's what we stand for we had a big discussion in our home I think it was over Pesach about this with our children that you become better when you expose yourself to a broader sense of the Jewish people and you take the best from all so you know there's so much from Lakewood so much passion so much devotion to Torah so much self-sacrifice for Torah you take the best from why you near Israel from the caseta show or the safari world to take my new world the live the show world every every world the secular world ii of jewish world there's what to learn and grow and extract and you know i gotta be careful how to filter and create boundaries but the composite you become the best when you take a little bit from everywhere and and and when we expose ourselves too many people are locked into their their little mold and they're only in their echo chamber of the people exactly like them and they line up in teams i think you said that earlier in moscow it's near question right am i under the eyu team or the liquid team of the high in berlin team and my on the karlon stolen team the vision esteem the garret a like and where as a team we got to put down the logo and realize were on team claro and take the best from everything and mix it up you know this when when when people come to BRS and they say you know are you a modern orthodox show Lori you what's your response you say we're an orthodox all right knows we represent a devotion to a sham a commitment to Lima doctora we happen to love arataura BRS right I mean but but there are certain commonalities that we share with the rest of the world that you know and everything else is just a dividing factor yeah but I want to tell you I saw a video this week some guy criticizing the whole Modern Orthodox this guy wasn't I don't wanna say his name right now because he's really a maniac but just going off and saying how you know criticizing the rabbi he's saying that they're not well you know they're not doing their job really really intense and I think you know some of these people but I don't want to get into that right now well it's easy to hate it's a lot harder to love but you changed the world with love not with hate so you'll get a lot of followers if you grab a microphone and instead of taking an hour to talk about the beauty of the Jewish world and the beauty of Torah instead you start naming Nate you have a bunch of books spread out in front of you you don't really quote them you can barely even read them or not which way I don't think I can read Hebrew I never heard him quote Hebrew woman all English right I'm saying so you get your gain a lot of followers and you again a lot of reposts but that's not the Jewish way so hopefully we shared a little bit love tonight and I love both of you guys can I just say one thing with you before you hang up cuz I'm gonna say this before you know last week we had on chopped this morning we had a minyan I was gonna say under a like the figurative tent but it actually was intent we actually had about 10 guys but we got all tents a very tall tent it's like 30 feet high this tent and every guy in was dressed differently you had one guy literally in a Becka show yet another guy wearing ass tryin well you know the guy in a black hat which is different for the world out there they know that it's different one guy wearing shorts another guy wearing scrubs another guy wearing a suit every type of yarmulke all under one tent at once I don't know more question the guy wearing scrubs was he on call that day no yeah I think a lot of doctors wear this gross because again I don't get that I don't get scrubs isn't the whole point of scrubs is that you stay in a clean fashion if you start wearing it to show aren't the scrubs no longer clean yes I don't know I don't know but I suspect some doctors wear the scrubs even when they're not on call because if you can wear your pajamas in public why not that's flexing and that's a great place to end so gentlemen another beautiful night I hope people will share every post only think mark luckner our great friend and Shabbos light for sponsoring again Shabbos light comm order yours today it's fantastic you don't want to miss it and special thanks to our friends or our own Cutler but Aaron Kotler the great business man don't invest in his airline but invest in his community and his Torah he's doing really incredible things so for me or am i from Goldberg Moscow it's and Rabbi Brodie thank you for joining us tonight stay happy stay healthy and stay holy have a great night