Olami Shabbat Table -- May 14, 2020 -- with Guest, Rabbi Menachem Tendler

okay I'm very very excited this is such a wonderful program I don't know if you could hear it in my voice I think we're all excited just to be together even though we are alone in solitude and we're at home and this is for me this has become a quick quick highlight of my week I'm so happy to see all of you thank you all so much for being here before we start the program what we're starting to do now is every week every week we're putting the spotlight on one of you to share a little bit about your experiences with this whole coronavirus and with this program if you're enjoying the Shabbat table we're very fortunate to have with us a new friend David le aho from Great Neck David the floor is yours share with us a few ideas maybe a thought on the parsha anything at all thank you thank you so much hi everyone my name is David I'm from Great Neck New York and I'm really happy to be here and in order to talk about my Shabbat table experience I feel like I have to talk about my experience with Shabbat in general first so over the last two two years or so I was on the path about learning about more about myself and my Jewish identity for quite a while and I officially committed to being shawarma Shabbat after a few weeks after attending my first a young professional Shabbat table arrangement hosted by Rabbi Barth van and through this program he enabled us the opportunity to make meaningful connections with other like-minded Jews in the context of Shabbat during the pre corona days and I was able to see what the true beauty of Shabbat actually is so in my experience some often view the observance of Shabbat as something that makes them lose opportunities throughout the week but I feel like they also need to take time to consider the opportunities that it presents to them a Shem would never ask us to do anything that would not benefit us in the long term so moving on to the Shabbat table program having the opportunity to hear these wonderful speakers and meet so many new faces throughout through this program has inspired me to get into the Shabbat mood every week and has filled the void so to speak of not being able to physically attend Shabbat celebrate so patience with family and friends and whatnot so I want to just briefly move into top discussing a little bit about the partial so this week's part sure discusses the time of shemitah which is like the Shabbat of the land to discuss it briefly during the last seven years of during the last year of a seven-year cycle every Jewish farmer has to take a year off of working the land and giving the land of opportunity to rest so to speak and in doing so the Jews have to rely on the idea that Hashem will provide for them throughout the year that they can't find so I want to make a connection between this and my commitment when I began starting to keep Shabbat because this idea of having faith complete faith in Hashem came to life right before my eyes so I was originally struggling with keeping Shabbat because I was hesitant about giving up the job I had at the time which required me to work on Saturdays and eventually after going to more classes and learning more about my Jewish identity I decided to quit the job and have faith that Hashem wouldn't ask his people to do anything that would cause them harm thus having faith that he would provide and help me through this doubt that I was having and as a professional musician I also had to start giving up Saturday gigs and whatnot but I still had faith and in a few short weeks later after giving up those jobs I shouldn't lest me with an even better job and my dream job as a as a school orchestra teacher which does not interfere compromise my Shabbat commitment and I want to stress that this reward for taking up Shabbat is different for everyone because everyone has different tests in life but this is how it turned out for me and I hope everybody could find meaningful meaning in their Shabbat observance and I wanted to thank you all for the Shabbat table for allowing me the opportunity to speak free speak tonight and wishing everyone a shabbat shalom and peace and health then to you and your families thank you so much and now without further ado I would like to introduce our guest speaker and this is a very very special individual this is Rabbi Menachem Tendler of U City show who has a national reputation of really making Judaism exciting and engaging for people and we really appreciate his time thank you so much for being with us and the floor is yours rabbi thank you so so much thank you so much I appreciate it I didn't know why I was known all over the country but that's pretty cool I'm a little hermit over here so I just know what goes on here and say Lois first off hello everybody and now it's really nighttime stone Judaism it's Friday so happy Erev Shabbos I want to thank probably avi Roberts for asking me to do this and for this honor it's always frightening to me I'm not this big circuit speaker says frightening to like speak to people I'm not familiar with and truthfully so much of our personal growth comes through time that we actually spend together that's really how we get to know each other developing together in life but perhaps since I believe Robin Roberts asked me because I do love life and I do love Shabbos Shabbat I'm Ashkenazi so I do say Shabbos so just bear with me as I talk perhaps there are some perspectives that can be shared which will allow for some further discussion following this talk so it's a funny thing when it comes to hearing people talk that you never met for some reason there's people who fit the perfect bill as a public speaker they're polished they figured everything out they know how to stand just right use their vocals properly everything looks phenomenal on paper and then when you show up to their speech it's like ain't nothing happened like what was that you know and there's other people they're totally not polished at all and the opposite of a public speaker and then we just listen in we're kind of connected there's something there that that draws us in and sometimes like a hit or miss you never know it's like a risk now that you're all sitting here listening to me you don't know what you get you know so I'm not sure what category I'm gonna fall into for everybody but my prayer is that the thoughts that I've put together to share here this evening are helpful and they can hopefully set the proper tone for this evening's topic which is owned in Chaves which means the enjoyment of shots so here we go about five years ago my soul on the rabbi in a show called you seduce all the congregation here in University City Missouri we had a brand new Torah scroll a brand new safer Torah written for our shul and in addition to the very high monetary value it's tens of thousands of dollars to have a Torah written it's years of work for a scribe but we also have the priceless value of the Torah to the Jewish people so when we approach a Torah scroll when I like oh my goodness the state was 60 grand holy cow it's this is the Torah the Jewish people it's much more than that it's if you can't put them on a price tag so I wanted this brand-new Torah brought it was written in Israel was sent to New York I had to get it from New York to st. Louis and I couldn't find anybody to personally bring it to st. Louis I wasn't comfortable having it shipped according to Jewish law there's no issue whatsoever I just felt I wanted somebody hugging it taking it with them to the shoulder shouldn't get lost you know in transit and I couldn't find anybody so I was like you know a big deal I'll hop on a flight st. Louis non-stop to Newark right near Manhattan and I'll take a two-hour flight rent-a-car pick up the Torah two-hour flight nonstop back to st. Louis we're good to go all right but the question was I was concerned that the airline would ask me to check the Torah in underneath I didn't want to do that once I'm checking underneath there's always a chance of things you know ending up in Hoboken so I didn't want to take that risk with the Torah I wanted to keep it with me so I didn't know what to do I knew it was too big to be a carry-on so I called up the airline and I asked them can I purchase a one-way ticket back from Newark to st. Louis for my toga so they told me sure no problem all you need to do is purchase a ticket under your name purchase then an additional ticket with your name and make up any middle initial okay so my name is Menachem Templar so I booked a ticket for me in Menachem town there I've booked another one I still remember what's been awesome each my age I don't know not sure why I chose that letter and this way we'll know it's really two separate seats that are needed it's not a double booking you'll explain to them one seats for you seats for whatever item you're bringing you're good to go fantastic this is amazing right no risk over here following portico I'm good to go so I'm flying to New York we pick up our the total for the show head back to Newark Airport I want to make sure I was there early in case there was any issues I would have ample time to work it out beforehand and it turns out this was a good idea to get there early because when I showed up at the terminal they had no clue what I was talking about they said there's no such thing the airline policy is only humans can purchases there's no such thing as buying a seat for your suitcase for a Torah no such thing so I explained to them I said listen I called up look I purchased the two one-way tickets well my name one with the the middle initial this is what he told me nothing doing so I asked to speak to the supervisor she comes to the desk very sweet woman very sweet woman she comes to desk and she explains to me that perhaps the person who I spoke to on originally on the phone didn't realize that the airline policy for allowing items to be ticketed is strictly limited to large musical instruments when bands were uncomfortable checking their things in is strictly limited to large musical instruments like a good Jew with the Talmudic mine what I do I took my took my children I turned it sideways I started banging on the wooden balls and I said hey the parchment is my music notes I got my poles semester let me take a woman so she says one minute let me go see if that works if that falls under our policy so she leaves for a couple minutes she comes back and she says well actually in our policy it only this was Southwest Airlines by the way FM boss check this up in our policy it only allows for purchasing the seat for a cello so that wasn't happening I could pray all I want I wasn't turning this thing I wasn't changing around no matter how hard I prayed I wasn't willing to check it in underneath they told me FedEx the FedEx headquarters just around then from Newark Airport you still have a couple hours till your flight you could probably drop it off I was like you know I flew and purposely to take from this leg of the trip that they go with me I didn't want to do so I said to the supervisor I said listen let me explain something to you I understand you need to do your job of following protocol let me explain where I'm coming from I said miss scroll is the holiest book for all the Jewish people I cannot bring myself to take the risk of checking it underneath and letting it out of my sight 3,300 years ago the entire Jewish nation stood at Mount Sinai we received the holy words of this Torah we gotta figure this out we gotta work together there's got to be a way around the airline policy so she sends to me again just one minute let me go check this out so she leaves she comes back and she says to me we figured it out don't worry the airline policy also allows for people to purchase additional seats for artifacts your scroll is 3,300 years old I'm taking my seat call the head to the gate to make sure I wouldn't have a function that's a rabbi showing up he's got this thing this artifact it's very important to the entire Jewish people make sure he goes smoothly for him I get to the gate I'm boarding before the pre borders I I put my seat belt on the other joke with the kids why do you why was the person traveling with the Torah put the seat belt to make it a safer color you don't make it it's a real safe return I'm getting all excited I haven't you know my keynote fantastic and as they say all's well that ends well all right cool fine that's my safer Torah one of my safer Torah stories on this journey but this got me thinking here I was um it was the it was in 2015 I was five years ago so I'm all excited I'm able to secure it brand spanking new safer Torah perfectly written an amazing for our community to be used in the Year 2015 and everybody at the terminal in Newark Airport is viewing it like an artifact so I got to think myself all right so we have a discrepancy whose correct or better yet a better question we can ask ourselves as which approach is true which approach to the torah is true is this a total of 2015 or is this a total of 3,300 years ago and let's bring this question into Shabbat what's true but so we say Oh shouts beginning of all creation ancient history God rested on the seventh day whatever that means all right was God out of breath was he tired cano so crazy week kick up my legs let me enjoy some pot the sages tell us that God created the world with ten uh Theresa's alright he he took a breath ten times whatever that means he wasn't that a breath that he needed her rest I can use the Shabbat after a long week it can just be that God rested from work however long ago and therefore forever we need to sit here and stop doing work too that's way too shallow too shallow that's history it's too ritualistic we don't do rituals and Judaism everything that we do there's a current message for 2020 and everything that our beloved Torah teaches us it's not ancient it's not at a touch we just need to delve to understand how does this apply to me in my life in my situation right now on this date in this time so let's start to scratch the surface of what we can accomplish with Shabbos and how to understand its current practicality so I want to explain it by quoting a piece of tongue when try to keep it not to I'm trying to not get too technical the fascinating piece of Talmud this Talmud tells of one of Judaism most famous conference okay one of Judaism most famous converts was a very very righteous man by the name of oakley's all right now if you open up many books of torah on the page you'll find the verse of torah and right on the side you'll find the commentary accomplice he was a person born non-jewish converted to Jew and became the sage the righteous Torah scholar we're obviously dealing with a man that's not only converted but brought the entire Jewish nation to very high levels of Torah understanding he himself came from a family of royalty so the Talmud tells us this is intractable bizarre at page 11a anybody wants to go through the entire story it's page on 11a and tract animal desert but here's what the Talmud relates it tells us that Emperor Hadrian found out that uncle is who was his nephew came from royalty Hadrian found out that okhla says nephew had accepted the Jewish religion and not only that he was one of the foremost scholars so the emperor agent was beside himself going on in my family pathetic can't happen and he sent a group of soldiers to arrest Uncas and bring him to Roman chains this is what the Talmud says the first group of soldiers arrived uncle its greets them in a very friendly manner they start talking about religion and the Talmud tells us the words that he spoke to them they were very impressed and they threw themselves at his feet and they begged him as a leading rabbi to allow them to become his students and they didn't return to Hadrian that's what the Talmud says okay let's keep going on in the story and then we'll ask the simple question says the Talmud Hadrian sends a second group of soldiers he sees the first ones ain't coming back he sends a second group of soldiers braver and he instructs them bring on close to me and chains this time he gave orders numerous discussions about religion arrest and bring him nothing bill hopeless welcomes them again very warmly and he says I know my uncle Adrian must have told you not to have any discussions of me and it's your responsibility to obey his command you don't have to talk to me but I want to ask you a question I'm allowed to talk to you in the Roman Court the common soldier carries the torch for the officer the officer carries the torch for the general and the general for the Emperor tell me who is the Emperor carry the torch for so they said the Emperor doesn't carry for anybody he's the Emperor buck stops here that's it he's not Karin Torche so this tells them yeah isn't that interesting you know the god of the Jewish people despite his greatness and being the manufacturer of everything snow beam that fit to hold the torch for every last Jew with a pillar of fire for 40 years while we're in the wilderness you know what the way it works by us is that instead of the lowers working for the hires the hires work for the lowers God actually works for us and the Talmud says these words left its lasting impact and they immediately gave up their mission and asked the study torah on their own okay so Hadrian's over to he's off until we're playing baseball he's got a no two-count so now he's got a third opportunities he takes a company of troops the highest officers don't talk to him don't listen bring him the messengers arrived they start to carry out the mess of the Emperor's orders without delay they leave inkless out of the house and as he leaves his house he reaches up and kisses the mezuzah these messengers are gazing has got no kissing your door what's wrong what's your problem all right who kisses their door so but they they're not going to talk to so Allah says you know usually an emperor sits inside the palace and the guards protect from outside you know what's strange by the Jewish people we sit inside and our leader sits outside and protects us to make sure nothing harms us inside our homes and the Talmud says they heard this and they also asked to become students of Torah okay fine there's a lot to talk about this but hey I want to ask a basic question and this question is actually asked by Rush Limbaugh was a friend of the brothel passed away about a decade ago one of the greatest thinkers lived in Israel and he asks you know something this Talmud sounds like absolute Jewish propaganda does it make any sense you're gonna have three groups of loyal troops they hear a few explanations about Torah and all of a sudden they gotta go ahead and turn everything over turn their lives around cool among us when hearing a DVAR Torah Torah thought you hear an explanation whatever am I gonna go ahead give up my role on the spot as a lead officer if I'm serving an army who dedicated my entire life to my king we're gonna assume that these soldiers were stable people we're gonna assume they had stuff going for them all right so what's up with that you can pull propaganda of anything you know you have to have these these all I find I'm gonna say it because you haven't all these religions you have on YouTube whatever there's people they they may put a video somebody it was a kid eight years old he died he went into the next world he comes back he knew things that was impossible it must be that Jesus is right because he saw Jesus and Muslims have the same thing and so do the Jews all right the mind is a powerful thing who's trying but everybody's gonna find the story and make themselves sound correct asteroids from the vulva he says on this Fellman is this propaganda or is there more to Talmud as we know there always is so I want to share with you how he explains this Talmud and I'm only going to discuss this evening the first group that came to that came to Oakland the second two groups and relief for now just for time all right let's cuss the first group what happened they show up here's what happened Adrienne sends them they show up and they start discussing with Oakland say start talking to him about religion what did they talk about here's what they spoke about Okla says to them you're good soldiers - Adrienne let me ask you a question do you have holy people in your life and they said certainly a lot of special people said who he said well the holiest people aren't priests you know those who lead us before God says what's holy about them what makes them holy so they responded well you know they're celibate they fast they stay off alcohol he says can all you be holy can you be a priest can you be holy so I said no I mean if we'd all be holy then the religion wouldn't continue right the world can't contain everybody celibate no children no parties nothing so Uncas opens up a Torah scroll and he says let me show you a verse God tells Moses to tell the Jewish people Kadosh until you all of you are supposed to be equally holy how is that possible because in Judaism holiness is different in our current world Uncas was saying holiness is a person to you who rises above the world something separate from nature a person who separates from family a person who doesn't work doesn't sleep doesn't eat yet by the Jewish people holiness is just the opposite it's a person who takes nature everything that you enjoy and you live it to its fullest one who's involved in the world builds the world works hard lives life to its fullest it understands there's boundaries to it one who respects their parents owns a field yet leaves works for land but leaves over for the poor for the unfortunate one who walks around the streets and make sure to speak properly without gossip without slandered doesn't hurt people's feelings one who deals with mistakes of others on an hourly basis no separate from others one who has to put up with an annoying parent sibling collie whatever it is yet still not beer a grudge or take revenge that is holiness our matriarch sand patriarchs Abraham Isaac Jacob Sarah Rebecca Rachel Leah they were rabbis they were incredible people who were accomplishing truth in life there were shepherds vocalists told them he said you know what Judaism is rabbis are in Holy rabbis don't just cuz you're colder rabbi does make your holier-than-thou lenez's when I'm put into a situation and I take that I take this nature this reality that I'm in and I used it with beauty I use it properly an average Jew is just as holy as a rabbi when we act properly and when this group heard this concept from Oakland said you mean an average dude does the right thing as just as a holy as a famous rabbi this was a powerful truth that they had to figure out beneath it's a lot more about it's not a nation of rabbis we are a nation where every individual has equal ability to achieve the highest levels I just need to be the perfect to me that's a pretty darn good ROI that's a good return on investment and they realized they're not gonna be offered this anywhere else I want to find out as a side point you ever wonder why Jews always I was wondering why he was always danced in a circle so always holding hands you know always holding hands and dancing the circles right you go to a wedding go to bar mitzvahs dance in a circle what's up what's up with Jews in circles okay so somebody wants explain to me they said that if you walk into a club so some are in front summer and back you know some people get more attention others some people don't even notice they're dancing right when they're in a circle however everyone is equidistant from the center from the core nobody's any closer to the core of reality than anybody else and this is why Jews dance in a circle I'm not in front of you you're not in front of me we're all equidistant to that core to that Reed to that truth to that reality some of us have a stronger magnetic pull to it than others but it doesn't matter we never fall far from truth never fall far from a ship and this is the phenomenal creative power of shots as well each of us from the story of Uncas understand that we are me you are in an equal position to utilize Shabbos and take from it all of the gifts the joys the blessings that Shabbos have to offer none of us own shop is more than anybody else what Joy's what blessings are we talking about every joy and blessing in the world is wrapped up in two shops God Himself says this the Talmud's face God tells Moses tells motion go and form the Jewish people I've got one present that's going to blow them away go tell them I have a special gift in my storehouse waiting just for them this Shabbat the Shabbos Chimel it's name is chaves chaves leaves the most precious gift now let me tell you something okay rabbi captain Spain when we started said that I'm a pretty good power for maybe a maybe no when I taught younger grades ever hasn't already Tunde what a fantastic ballplayer all these eleven and twelve year olds or offering them a thousand dollars they can beat me in a one-on-one think I'm phenomenal I'm playing at eleven and twelve year old and I'm six foot three okay it doesn't mean I'm necessarily good doesn't mean I could shoot a ball but you have Steph Curry you got some good shooters Super Bowl players hey this time to do it's pretty good alright so now you take a second look something I want to find out about maybe this guy could make this guy could go shoot some we're talk about the creator of the world God there's not like some random person's like hey go try out Shabbat you know it's pretty cool this is God telling us the most precious thing I put into the world is called Shabbos that makes it a whole nother statement and God says wrapped up into the Shabbos is every blessing and every joy that you can imagine in this world and I want you to enjoy that's the whole purpose of it the whole purpose is to enjoy the entire thing so what is Shabbos what is it it's a gift by definition that's what it is on Shabbos every single one of us are in a very special place where everything becomes okay everything's okay on jobs it's just a different reality on Shabbos everything is okay and when you everything is okay when we have a gift you know what we do we enjoy we celebrated own exam is really on a job is the enjoyment of Shabbos is really defining for us what each of our Shaba souls should look like it's an all-out celebration it's exactly what it is it's a party and when we attend the celebration there's good food is relaxation there's excitement there's joy there's anxiety that leads up to celebration sometimes right preparing the party there could be anxiety is everything ready are we doing it right but once the party starts we're we're celebrating that's what it is that own accomplice is something that were this is only chalice is something that we're celebrating to end off each of us perhaps can think to ourselves how can I personalize this gift how can I personalize this opportunity of Oneg Shabbos the celebration of Shabbos and perhaps this can be the discussion in the breakout rooms following this talk sharing ideas what works personally for me that can help me increase my joy of Shabbos is there a way we can spread the joy of Shabbos and bring it to others on board so they can join in our celebration perhaps it's a special food special cocktails special drink quality time with somebody else whatever it is Shabbos is when we take nature like our forefathers our matriarchs and our patriarchs the Shepherd's just like them we're also working they took their unique worlds they channeled it they walked in it they were joyous with it and they attained perfection when ownage Shabbos does it allows us to be present in the present of Shabbos and I want to end off by extending to you each of you the greatest blessing that I ever received I lost my dad seven years ago and my mom a little over two years ago in my last conversation with my mother it was a day before she passed I flown in from st. Louis to Baltimore that's where my parents resided and I went to visit her we knew that and wasn't here and I was leading back to st. Louis this is the day she passed the next day I was even back to st. Louis and I walked in to tell my mother that I'm heading back to the airport now in the tender family we don't say goodbye we never say goodbye you don't really say goodbye to each other it's too hard to say goodbye but we say to each other in Yiddish is it-- Kazan go in health stay healthy stay well okay so I said I walked into my mother's room I said mom side doesn't be well and instead of her responding to me with her usual words of zagged isn't she tells me says menachem May every day of your life be shots and I said I'm in this for sure was the greatest blessing anybody has ever given me and I would like to extend that blessing to all of you may the joy the pleasure and the excitement of the gift of Shabbos accompany us every day of our lives thank you so much for listening and ziege zones stay well thank you so much all right temblor that was incredible I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did you definitely have that gift of public speaking so before we break you out into breakout rooms and I'm gonna explain how that's gonna work I just wanted to share with you if everybody could please quickly look at your chat box I'm going to share with you a new Facebook group that we have created just for this group okay it's gonna be a closed group and I'm gonna share it again just in case you missed it okay this is just for you your rabbis will also share this link with you and you'll be approved if you don't get approved immediately that's fine so this is gonna be a nice way for us to share information to share maybe some pictures of how we're doing with the Shabbat table and and how great it is to have this connection even though we are on lockdown and quarantine okay we now move to the breakout rooms and the breakout rooms is a great way for us to get a little bit more intimate with each other and to have an opportunity for everybody to engage in the conversation obviously it's hard to do that with a hundred people on at the same time and so the question that Rabbi Tendler Chen challenged us to address is how can I or how do I personalize the celebration and gift of Shabbat we want to be enjoying it we want it to be special what is it that we can do or what is it that we are already doing okay to contribute to the celebration of Shabbat to the celebration of Oneg Shabbat okay so we got some feedback that you all would like a little bit more time with the breakout rooms it's not going to be too long but in the coming few minutes you are going to have the opportunity to engage with fellow young professionals from around the country and to discuss this idea and we will circle back and close after the breakout rooms so without further ado we're gonna ask our technician over here to help us out and just follow the link and click the button to join your breakout room we will see you back in a couple minutes you