Shavuos - Act On It (Ep. 284)

Hi, this is David Olowski and welcome to the Rabbi Olowski show. Whether you're watching with our friends over at Turning Time or wherever you watch or listen to your podcasts, as always, it's wonderful to be able to spend this time together. And do not forget to like, share, subscribe, and comment. Uh we have a sponsor for this episode, and as I've mentioned beforehand, we are just about out of sponsors. So, if you would like to uh help the Rabiolowski show keep going because I am definitely not a man of means to be able to uh support this habit. There is one fellow who has this uh sort of podcast that he does that he sponsors by himself because he has a lot of money but I don't. Uh in the words of Blanch Dubois have always depended on the kindness of strangers. Yeah. So this week, thank you so much. Sponsored by Elieza Fox. Hi Rabiolowski. Say thank you for your great podcast. I'm sponsoring in honor of my wife's birthday. Her name is Mina Raal. Well uh happy birthday to you and uh many happy returns of the day. And what can I tell you? your husband is just the best because there's no better gift you can give somebody than the gift of sponsoring the Rabowski show because then you get the for the thousands of people who watch the show and listen to the show and get from it. I get the most amazing emails. I I really have to read some of them out um of people who are sharing the that they get from this show that we all share together. I am just the voice of all of you. That's all. Very often the people who listen to the show say yeah I was thinking the same thing. And so uh I'm I'm just expressing how I hope a lot of us think. I have hopefully opened up some ideas that uh were probably latent inside of you and we're just waiting for the opportunity to express that I'm the little child who notices that the king has no clothes, you know, in the Hans Christian Anderson story. So, uh that's it. I'm I am the voice of the people and uh and thank you. Thank you for all the good that you do and uh very happy birthday and uh we'll uh we'll take this into account for everybody when you're doing this uh listening thinking of mine should be a happy birthday. Okay. It's a bit of a sweet podcast because this brings to an end uh the tenure of uh producer Israel who has been producing the Raviolski show since uh we went on a hiatus when producer M left us and uh we had a dry spell over there. Hopefully uh somebody else will come by and pick up uh the slack and if not we'll go through another hiatus. And make no mistake about it, I will sit here on this chair in front of the bookcase and talk for an hour every week, but nobody will know. It'll just be me and myself. But anyway, so uh uh so we wish him and all of his endeavors and uh and uh hopefully we'll welcome next producer uh before the next episode. Okay. So, sh is coming up. It's going to be Sunday night, Monday. And if you're inlar, it's also Tuesday. And you know this from of course the atbash of Pesak, the first night will correspond to Tishab. So since the first SA came out on Moz Shabas, we know Tishb will be on Mot Shabas this year. And the second night corresponds to Shvis. So the second night came out on Sunday night. is coming out on Sunday night. So it's coming up uh and um I wanted to share some shuous thoughts for you. Um those you have the min to stay up all night and learn and then davin. So uh you may not be aware that the ka satyra is um from parasro. You may not be aware of it because you might be sleeping. Yeah. Uh those people who stand for laning might still be sleeping. Yeah. Not everybody's at their best and their brightest after being up all night. Some people I remember I was teaching yeshiva once and I would give Shia normally at 11:30 from 11:30 to 1. A lot of the guys were sleeping through Shia but on sh night when I gave it at 1:30 in the morning everybody was crisp and awake and ready to go. Reminds me when I used to talk about uh you know speaking lash and har I would say you know there are people who take upon themselves I won't speak lash for two hours right from 2 to 4 in the morning and I used to say that as a joke and teenagers would be but that's my prime time but not everybody is when you reach to be my age group you know uh I usually try to be the one to volunteer to uh uh get a little bit of sleep so I could say everybody next morning but uh there's no question there I tell people I said there's times that I have fallen asleep during Davening never on anuous I never fall asleep I just blink and we're someplace else and this can be particularly challenging for me because I'm a cohane and when you get the cohen aliyah before you can start the aliyah they do this very long Aramaic cabalistic poem called Akdamus and I'm standing there for agamus before we get to the aliyah. So it's uh it's definitely a challenge. So uh so the laning is of course from paras the story of m tyra and um and the min certainly here in where we have one day is also to read migillas rus in the morning so right after and uh um the hal. So we then read McGillis Rus which through very poor planning was said to the tune of a lullaby. I don't know why this is [Music] so stay up for that. Yeah. Where you go I will go. Where you stay I will stay. Where you sleep, I am going to sleep. Yeah. But we tell the story of Rus. I heard from somebody that um of a riseman who of course has been given a very famous Nvishir and Flappish for many many years. Um that on uh on Shvis what he does at some point is he gives a shir in a perk of Russim. He does a different one each year. It's got a four-year cycle obviously and it's very late at night and uh you have to get everyone to stay up. So he gives out I think they're marishino isises. The way it was described to me it's marishino isises as I remember them from growing up. It's a cup of frozen Italian ices and it comes with a little wooden spoon and you have to scrape it off in order to be able to eat it. And so he's giving Shir and people aren't falling asleep because the whole place is going scrape scrape little to stay up. Yeah. But uh we read Miguel's rose uh of which there are four proim and then we take out the toyra and we um call the cohen and we do agamus and then we do the laning which is of course from parasra. So I wanted uh this year beforehand to speak a little bit about the creasy and about migillas rus which uh put together and there are a number of reasons anytime we read a migilla there are a number of reasons uh where we're reading him except for migilla which is pretty straightforward and that is there was a taka that was made by to read it on uh on pur that's pretty straightforward a is also pretty obvious Right? Because uh it's lamentations about the destruction. But when you come to like why do we read cohelis on sukus or sherim on pes or migillis rus on shu there's a lot of reasons a lot of reasons. One of them is well um there are number of names for shuis. One of them is the harvest time when they would harvest the grain. and um and uh they would bring in the wheat harvest. That's the reason that in the basa mikdash we would bring two uh loaves of bread from the new wheat harvest. This would permit the use of the new grain in the basa mikdash. Um for regular people it's when we brought the omare on pes the barley offering because barley ripens first to allow the rest of kaira to eat kadesh but in the b mikdesh you had to wait till you brought the shim. So a big theme in um in Miguel's Russ is about the harvest. There's different things but there's one common denominator between Parius Yro and Miguel Rus and that is of course that Parius Yro begins with Yro coming to join the Jewish people. He is a g he is inspired by the nissim that took place has a beautiful insight. It says, it says, so what did he hear? What did he hear that made him come? And he says, um, Yamsu from Malik. Why those two things? Yeah. Why not the esamakos? Why not the man? Everything else. So the briskav says because those two nism everybody knew about. It says that in the battle of Amalik, the sun stood still just like it did for Yahushua. Yeah. Uh and so um there was this uh this miracle that everybody in the world knew about. The sun didn't set. So of course everyone knew about that. And Chris Yavasu, it says all the waters in the world split, you know. So if you were drinking a cup of tea, it's split in half. You know, drink one side. Yeah. So, so these two everybody knew about was localized man was localized says and mus he has a a very powerful thing he said you understand the question what did he hear that made him decide to become a Jew not but the combin nation of those two because by kus yamsu when every nation of the world was terrified. You know, as we say in Oashia, this one is frightened. This one is terrified. This one was in a panic. This one was melting. You know, the whole world, nobody would ever touch the Jewish people. Comes a mullik and attacks us as the kazal say, like someone who throws himself into a boiling bathtub knowing he's going to get scolded, but at least he'll cool it off for the next person. Then the impact of Krus Yamamsuf was suddenly dampened for the nations of the world. Not completely, but it wasn't as impressive. People felt it was open season. You could now attack Jews. We see that of course today. Um I went to America with my daughter and my two grandsons uh to register them as American citizens. Uh my daughter of course even though she was born in Israel was automatically an American citizen because me and my wife were both born in America. Her children even though both of her parents are American they were not born in America. So the only way become American citizens is to bring them to America. And uh so we got an appointment in Florida. We registered them as Americans. The woman in the office could not have been nicer. And then she says, "Listen, you know, at some point go to social security and uh get a social security card." So, I grew up out of Long Island, so I knew there was a social security office in Freeport. And I go there and I say, "We want to get social security cards." And the woman says, "No, you have to do it in Israel." And I said, "Excuse me?" Says, "Yeah, can I do it in Israel?" Now, I know it's not true because that's what the woman in Florida told me. You can go into any office. But I didn't know what to do. Now, when I first got there, there was a guard who tells you how to get your number and everything. So, I said, "I can't believe this. I know she's wrong." So, he says, "Well, you can ask to see your supervisor." So, I went back to the window and I said, "I'd like to see your supervisor." So, she goes in the back and she makes a phone call. I didn't know that. How did I know? Because the phone next to the guard rang and he picked up and he goes, "Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I didn't know. I didn't realize that." He was yelling at her. Why'd you tell them to ask for their supervisor? So, she prints out for me the directions to the embassy in Jerusalem. That's what she does for me. And I said, "I'd like to see a supervisor because you're not telling the truth." I looked it up online while I was waiting here and that's not So, she says, "Okay, uh, you know, uh, fine. You go away from the window. I'm only talking to your daughter." D whole thing. And she filled out whatever the forms were. And then it turns out that she either did not fill them out correctly or she did not submit them correctly because then we got a letter that said uh you're you have never submitted your request for a social security cut. And I remember thinking to myself this anti-semitism that I have to experience. I'm I'm an American crying out loud. I grew up in Long Island, you know. Here I am one town away. I was I was in North America. This is Freeport and and uh and I had admired people who have much worse experiences obviously but just the shock that's only because of Muhammad Malik otherwise nobody would ever start up with us the fact that that people can attack Jews. So uh so Yro said to himself, I saw how everybody was inspired and moved by Yamsu and then I saw by Malik how it all disappeared. I got to do something. If you don't do something, it's going to be gone. I heard a story with Dun Seel where he rented an apartment in Jerusalem for the summer and uh when the people came back he said do you appreciate this view? He says every morning I look out the window at this view and I say a because I know otherwise I'm going to take it for granted. So I look out and I go I say something so I remember it so it doesn't become ordinary because you can lose it. I've told this story over already. I heard this from Rabbi Olawwick. He said in public so I figure I can say it. He says when he was teaching in a he used to take a cab to you know uh into the into Sha Ashba over there and then he would walk up the steps to Aish. And he says, "And one time I'm walking up and I realized I didn't even turn to look at the kaisle." So how could the kaisle become ordinary to me that I just I just forget that it's there? Okay. Part of that is built in. Obviously, we we tend to take things for granted. Yeah. Um I uh I was a New Yorker. For the most part, New Yorkers don't go to the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building or any of these kind of things unless relatives come in from, you know, out of town and say, "Can we go see the big buildings?" I was like, "Yeah, sure. Let's go." You know, but uh New Yorkers themselves don't do these things. You know, we're we're not we're not tourists. And so very often people don't feel that drive and appreciation for the kaisil that they otherwise would. the I've had people come from America and I said, "So, what do you want to do here?" He goes, "I want to go to the Kais and Davin." I said, "What else?" "No, no, that's why I came to Israel." Now, every day they would go to the Kaisel and Davin. I don't have this where I come from. You know, you guys can hop on the bus anytime you want and go and see the Kaisle and go and Davin there. For me, I came to Israel. This is what's on my agenda. Everything else is secondary. This is what's important to me. So, uh yeah, we can tend to take things for granted. So here there was this tremendous inspiration. It disappeared and he says that's why Israel said if I don't become a yid if I don't become part of the Jewish people I'm going to lose it also because inspiration will take you only so far. I'm sure I've told this story in the past but it's an amazing story. I taught in uh Asia in discovery. Rabbi Kimi was teaching there and he told this story which is stayed with me all these years. Such a powerful powerful story. He said that he was in the Yam Kipa war and uh we had very old material and people don't understand how uh existential the threat that war was. Um, it came out later that Golden Mayor and her cabinet were carrying cyanide tablets to commit suicide because they thought they were going to get captured by the Arabs and they'd rather die than be tortured by the Arabs. It was we were running out. We were down to our last bullets. If Alexander Heg hadn't made an airlift to send us arms, we would have just run out. Um, everyone knows the story of Kahalani with four tanks holding off the entire Syrian tank divisions. It was amazing stories that Niss flows. Anyway, he says, "I was in a tank division and we had old tanks and uh and the Syrians had the modern Russian tanks and they had night vision. We didn't." So we stop for the night in a field and suddenly a shell comes over from another field and explodes and we realize the Syrians can see us but we can't see them. So the commander says evasive maneuvers and everybody start moving your tanks around. Then he says forget it. We're not going to get away. Hunker down and hope for the best. And he says, "For an hour, shells were raining down and they had armor-piercing shells. Any of those shells would hit us, there'd be nothing left." I spoke to somebody who was in the Rabin, and he said, "And my job in in the Yam Kipper war was to collect the dead. And if one of these shells hit the tank, there was nothing to collect. There was only ashes. And these shells are raining down. We're waiting for destruction at any minute. And finally it stops. Finally it stops towards morning and the commander gets on the radio and says casualties report in. Total silence and he says anyone who suffered any damage please report in. The radio crackles and someone says the door of our halftrack was blown off. Is anyone injured? No. And I don't hear anything. And I think I'm must be like the only surviving tank. And I slowly start to raise the turret and look around the field. And all around the field, every tank is raising their turret to look around. They missed us all all around the ground. It was all potarked. They didn't hit one tank. We fell out of the tanks laughing. We couldn't believe what an unbelievable nace this was. Not one. They didn't hit one. and all around us. And if we hadn't moved a little bit at the beginning, then we probably all got blown up. He said, "Well, you can imagine that morning I put on my fill and taven with a lot of kabona and someone tap I was in completely secular unit and someone tapped me in the shoulder and says, "No, Kimala." And I thought, "We're pulling out already." And the whole division was lined up to put on my fillin. I was the only pair of fillin of the division. And of course everyone asked what happened. Nothing. They were all moved. They put on fillain. They said then they went back to their regular lives. Yes said I realize you could have kus yamsu and the whole world is moved and comes a malik and poof it all disappears. And that's what's going to happen to me says Israel if I don't do something if I don't act on this. And so he came to be Maggaya Russo is married to this Jewish guy. Whether she had a conversion or not is of course but whatever it was it was apparently conditional. and she and Orpa uh marry the two sons of Elie Melik and Alime Melik dies. The two sons die and uh and Naomi says I have nothing for you. There's no children any there's nothing here. I don't have any money left. I'm a pariah among my own p people. Go back. Go back. Rus was a was a princess. go back. Go back to your family. Go back to Moab. And they both say tearfully, "No, we don't want to leave you." And she says, "Trust me, I have nothing for you. Go back." And after a few times, Orpa says, "Okay." And he says, "Goodbye." And she leaves. And Nomi says, "I ain't leaving. You could say anything you want. You can do whatever I want." By the way, this is the source where when somebody comes to be Maggaya, we try to talk them out of it. Yeah. The church, the Christian church used to give money to people who would convert. Yeah. Um the Muslims would give incentives for people to convert. Usually it was, you know, sword and fire. But I'll give you some kind of incentive to to convert. When a person comes to a Jew, I want to convert. He goes, why? Why would you want to do that? You know, are you crazy? It's uh it's from here you see Naomi says you you don't want to join the Jewish people unless you're really on board and Orpa turns away and R stays on and Orpa ends up becoming the mother of Gullus and uh and who becomes the mortal enemy of the Jewish people. And of course from Russ comes David Melik. And so their two children face off against each other uh in the future because at some point you got to make a choice. Am I going to be moved by this or not? Am I going to be uh distracted? Am I gonna be talked out of it? Or am I say I am here for the long run. I am your people. Where you go, I will go. Where you sleep, you will I will sleep. Where you eat, I will eat. I'm going to join your people. And she comes back having been a princess. And she's now um has the position of walking after the people who are harvesting the grain to pick up the few sheets that they dropped, which she's then going to thresh and make into uh kernels of wheat and grind up to make bread for her and her mother-in-law who are now living in abject poverty when they were powerful leaders. And she gave up everything to be able to come this an astounding concept that the person will do this because when we come to Hari and weabra we were all we were mabo and in fact we learn out the laws of gayas of conversion from hari because all of the men had to have a brisma. Everybody had to go to the mikvah and we had to be mab all of the mitzvah at our those are the three steps. If you want to become a Jew, you have to if you're a man have a circumcision. If you're anybody, you have to go to the mikvah and then you have to mabo upon yourself all of the mitzvah, not some of the mitzvah. We said, "Nasma, whatever you say, we're prepared to do." And so we all had a den of gaim. And so we read the story of two of the most famous gay in Jewish history, Yro and Russ, whose names obviously are also very close to each other. Yro and Russ, they share a lot of letters. Yeah. Israel Gamatria is 200 is uh 616 and uh Rus is um 606. So Rus and Yro the same one just with a a yud added into Yro's name. Um it's uh it's not a coincidence that to be able to come in and accept the entire Torah on ourselves, right? And why was Russia uh 66? Because you already had the mitzvah Noah, the seven Noahide laws. You add that in, you come to 613. Yeah. So um um why uh Israel would be 616? I heard once because according to the view that the three mitzvah of Mora that were given were a separate thing. So he took those three on as well. However you want to look at it but it means that these are the people who set the standard for what it means to become a Jew. When we walk the we can't walk into it with a sense of entitlement. I was born Jewish. I'm a Jew. Rather every one of us has to look at ourselves standing at hari saying I am going to be upon myself. I am going to start that journey that so many people had to start. I would uh suggest that you go back and listen to my interview with Nissen Black and listen to his journey to become a Jew and what it meant and um and the difficulties that he has adjusting to uh a from lifestyle. when you come being a black rapper, you know, it's not as easy as one might imagine. And if if you listen to the to the episodes, he tells a story about a friend of who has dreadlocks who also decided to uh convert. And someone said to him, you know, you should really cut off the dreadlocks. You'd fit in better. And he says, my friend said to him, and you think if I cut off the dreadlocks, I'm going to fit in? I thought that was a great line. But he was so deep and so spiritual. It was calling to him. I had a couple uh who came to me once for some advice. He came from uh she came from Texas, he came from Alaska, the two biggest states geographically in the United States. And they were both gay. And each one told a similar story. They just felt themselves drawn to Yiddish kite. The girl from Texas said it was around uh Christmas time and I see the neighbors across the street didn't put up a tree or any decorations. And I said, "Mama, they must be poor. They can't afford a tree." She says, "No, no, no. They're Jewish. They don't h celebrate Christmas." says, 'What do they do? I don't know. So, one night I see them in the window light a candle. And I don't know why. I could not look away from that candle. I was just staring at the candle. And the next night it was two candles and then three candles. And I just knew I knew that this was calling out to me. I had a girl in my house. She came from rural Arkansas. Her father was a pastor. And uh she suddenly decided that Judaism was the real thing. Her family threw her out, you know, threw her out of the house, disowned her, and she she was going to become no matter what the challenges that stood in her way. Becoming a Bouva is tough. It's tough. hard becoming a gear. It was a fellow who's a RV. I didn't even know he was a ge, but we're talking one time and he says to me, "Ah, all those ga anti-semit take my mother. She's the worst." And I remember thinking, "What did that what what does [Laughter] that and you don't you don't even realize?" and the decision to become part of the Jewish people, right? We know the story of Uncle the G, what he had to do in order to become a G. We know the story of the Gedic of VNA where he was um somebody told me they went to Europe and they saw one of his family's palaces, you know, castle. They had a whole bunch of them. is fabulously wealthy and power powerful and he gave it up to become a yid and become a plain poor ordinary Jew and to take on uh that role when you when you look at people who've decided to do it now there are people who take it on and are not serious about it um I don't know if she's still around anymore I haven't really heard of her anymore used to be this woman She wasn't even a psychologist. Um but uh she was called Dr. Laura, Dr. Laura Slesinger. She her doctorate wasn't something else completely. It wasn't psychology, but she would do a call-in show and she'd give psychological advice etc. And at some point she decided to be Maggayer Orthodox and she was the poster girl for all the curve organization. and she'd come to the dinners and she'd speak and uh you know and it was talk about her Judaism, how important her Judaism is to her and everything. And at some point she made an announcement that she's going back to Christianity because the Jewish community is not supporting her and her show. So she's giving up being Jewish. I remember at the time I was just astounded. That's how much your Judaism means to you. If I don't get the support of people to listen to my radio show, then forget it. I had I'm out. Astounding concept. Yeah. the the the hallmark of a Jew is that well I' I've told this over I'm sure many times that Rashak asked the brisker of says amuna anybody can figure out amuna any anybody with a brain can figure out that there's a god and he gave the Torah says that every 13-year-old boy one of the is to reject uh a vodara and accept God. That means you have to be able to figure out that there's a God. The evidence is there for anybody who's honest and is looking. So he says, "Amuna, what's the big deal?" And the brisk says, "You're right. Amuna starts when it doesn't make sense. When when it becomes hard, that's when you you see who's serious about it or not." And throughout history, many Jews have dropped out. They converted, they assimilated, they disappeared from history. Um, I heard a statistic once. I didn't check into this, not pes, just say it over. But I heard that at the time of the second bas, the population of the Jews in Israel was the same as the population of China. which means all things being equal, there should be as many Jews in the world today as there are Chinese. And there's not. Okay? So, some of it's from uh from the anti-semitism and the and the destruction, but some of it is just Jews vanish because it's too hard. Too hard. When uh when you're confronted with a situation, I I I I I have trouble thinking about these things. I'll be perfectly honest. When I read stories about the Holocaust and what people did and what people went through, I say to myself, I probably wouldn't have made it to the train. They would have shot me before I got to the train because I don't have that kind of strength and power to to be able to withstand this this amount of suffering. How do these people do it? And you go back in history, for most of Jewish history, your life was mamash al-Hassaf. It was on it was on edge. And suddenly they might decide to exile all the Jews, kick everybody out, find someplace else to stay and then find your way back. Now take away all of your money. Just just, you know, force everybody to convert. You could do anything you want. what Jewish life was like for thousands of years. So incredibly difficult and uh and Jews managed. They they kept it going for all of these years. It's it's what we've gone through the sacrifices and today hashem for the most part most of us don't have to face those kind of um nonos some of us do the people who are still captive in Gaza they still have to face these kind of nonos but most of us it's inconvenient Uh in my father's generation, people used to come to America. They would change their name and uh do the best they could to fit in because it uh it was easier. There were more opportunities. You Jew life was hard. Not as hard as in Europe for the most part. They weren't pagrums. But uh it it's easy to be successful if I'm not Jewish in in the world. So the sacrifice that we have is nothing compared to the sacrifice of past generations. And it's nothing compared to the sacrifice of gaim of people who decide to give up their family and give up everything they know to be able to come and join the Jewish people. And there are some people who convert just, you know, Elizabeth Taylor wanted to um marry uh Eddie Fischer, a Jewish guy. So she converted. I don't know what conversion she had. She never took on Toran mitzvah obviously, but uh she went through some kind of conversion. She still felt kind of Jewish, but then you have people like Dr. Laura, they had mamisha from conversion and then said, "Nah, I'm not interested anymore." People go off. That's why the Gamarra presents Gayim as something of a mixed bag. If you have people who are joining just because uh it's it's an advantage or I want to marry somebody or something like that. These are not usually a benefit to the Jewish people the way it's presented. But people who come in because they really want to that's the story of Uncle the G as it's described in the Gar. He brings up from the dead. Bam, Titos, Yoshka, and they all tell them in the next world the Jews have a good. Now at the this time the Romans had a rule that if you convert to Judaism, you get killed. And he was the nephew of the emperor. So he decides he's going to convert to Judaism. And he writes to the emperor and he says, "I want to convert. I I want to go into business. Can you give me some advice?" He says, "Buy low, sell high." Fine. And then he converts to Judaism. And when the the emperor finds out, he says to his nephew, "How could you do something like that?" He says, "I took your advice. I couldn't find anything more devalued in the world than Judaism. And it's going to be the most precious thing where Mashiah comes and in the world to come. So I bought low. I'm selling high." Well, like most Roman emperors, he had no sense of humor. So he sent a group of soldiers to come and arrest him and he does kira on them and they all convert. And then the next group comes and he does the same thing and with the third group. So he's running out of soldiers. Yeah. So he finally just disinherits him. Yeah. And that's why his name was Uncle Les. But anyway, so uh um he he decides to become a Jew and what did he give up like Rus Hamo who was a princess gave up everything to join the Jewish people and there have been people throughout history came from Gim Schmina Napalian came from Gaim Rabby Mayor came from Gaim some of the some of The greatest uh people in Clay came from Grim and some of them were descended from some of the worst characters in history and the enemies of the Jewish people. Says the descendants of H sitting and learning Tyra, you know, descendants are learning Tyra. the the the ability for people to come around. Abraine tells the story where he sees this uh fellow who seems to be with these two little kids, blonde, blue-eyed, beautiful little blind. They don't look Jewish. Now remember, wine's faster on the uptake than I am. I once had this girl at my shabas table from Nevada, blonde, blue-eyed Texan, and I said, "So, nobody's of course born in Texas. You all moved there from someplace, you know." I said, "Where was your family uh from originally?" Goes, "We've been in Texas since the 1840s." I said, "No way. There were Jews in Texas in the 1840s." And everyone around the table's going, "No." I said, "That's so interesting. Were there schuls there with this?" She's like, "Uh, uh, uh." Anyway, after my wife kicked me enough time under the table, I go, "Oh, oh, okay, never mind." But Ry Wine could see right away that these people look Germanic. It could be also the accent. Yeah, they're not German. So, he tells him the story. My father was an SS officer in World War II and I didn't know. And uh I grew up in post-war Germany. And at some point I found out who my father was and what he had done. And I I left home and I converted to Judaism. I moved to and I turned my back on my family. And then I get a call from my mother. Your father's dying. He really wants to see you before he dies. And I thought to myself, my father's a Nazi. I'm going to go take him with my two little Jewish children, let him see his grandchildren that he tried to kill. And so I go to visit this Nazi father of mine who's dying. And and I said, um, you must have some that you were za to have two from Jewish grandchildren. What did you do? And he said, "One time I was rounding everybody up and I found these two little children in a house hiding and I don't know why I something moved inside of me and I said, "Run away." And I didn't I didn't kill them. I didn't deport them. And I said to my father, "Too bad. If you had saved a few more, maybe I would have had some more children." Do do you understand what it takes for somebody who's a black rapper, you know, and he's got a his career was just taking off to say, I'm going to give this up and become a Jew and not everybody appreciates the sacrifices. Listen, I'm an American and moved to I'm here 36 years. Almost no Israelis appreciate the fact that I gave up everything to come and join the Jewish people in it. Nobody cares. You know who needs you people? Go back to America. You know how many times I've been told that over my 36 years? There's no appreciation for the sacrifice. There are many baluva people don't appreciate the sacrifices that they've made to join Judaism. And there are many gayim a guy had a went to and says it sounds like she's a good girl but she's a gayer and said yeah says I don't know do I want to marry guaras you know he says why then every day when you love your wife you also get the mitzvah of oh takes the mind of a god to be able to look at from that point of view. Yeah. So we go into sh and we have to look at ourselves all as gaim right everyone knows the famous story where someone went to the grebba and he was asking a shi goes don't get me wrong I'm not a balchuva and he said to him why not and he says we made a mistake he says in 1948 the gates of gula opened and only the the zionist decided to walk in and the from Jews didn't otherwise we could have brought Msiah now the gates of Chuva are opening up and only the Balich Chuva are taking advantage of it. Why aren't we why don't we do Chuva and take advantage of the fact that the gates of Chuva are now open. So uh so the fact that we come into uh and we're going to stand there morning and read and we're not going to read those words. They're really mishb but we're going to say and see ourselves standing at and being the Torah on ourselves each time where we all become gaim. we all start over again and we're accepting it upon ourselves. We have to look at the people who who have made the hardest decisions to be able to come and join the Jewish people or to rejoin the Jewish people and have a special level of appreciation for them because that's what is. That's why we read McGillis Rus to hear the story about this princess who gave it up to follow his her widowed mother-in-law and walk through the fields all the other beggars to pick up the few sheav of wheat that were left behind. We read about Yro who turned his back on his people and joined the Jewish people. You know, not everybody appreciates this. The Anunnia surrounded the mach is and the M is set up in the middle was the Mishkan around them went ley shy around them on each side went threevatim and their non where was he was outside of the mach where were the people who joined in they were outside of the mak they weren't able to be within And that's what drove the Mal to the point that he curses because he wants to set up his tent in D and they say no no your father was an Egyptian you go says but my mother was from Don he goes I know but it doesn't go by your mother it goes by your father you go out there and he was so upset about this but Gabram joined and they understand. Yeah. Um I'm coming in and I I don't have that advantage of saying Yet we had some of the greatest Torah minds ever that came because they came from Gimb the people who decided you know or as somebody once put it there are two groups there are Jews from birth and Jews from choice everybody's born a Jew if your if your mother was Jewish and then there are people who say I decided to join the Jewish people that is a very very powerful thing so as we go in on Let's keep in mind the fact that all of us are becoming gay. All of us are becoming baluva like the Grebba said. All of us are joining with and when we read the story of Israel who decided to become a yid and we read the story of Russ who decided to become a Jew. All of us have to have that inside of ourselves the we want to become Jews by choice. And that brings us to the question and answer portion of our program. And the question and answers are sponsored by Jeff Jeffrey Oslander. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. Lemash and Miken Ar. And uh I hope uh that it'll be an aliyah for the nama because there are a lot of people who uh gain a lot from these question answers. People tell me that uh they don't always have a forum to be able to ask their questions. So, I do the best I can. I don't get to a lot of them. I sometimes get emails and said, "Why haven't you answered my question?" Because there's only so many we can get to in an episode. And like I say, hopefully we'll start that course question and answer. We'll go through all of them as much as we can by anonymous. Hi, Rabbi. I love the show and want to know if you believe in astrology. My friends always talk about zodiac signs, times of the year, which combos make for good marriages, etc. Is it real? My birthday is January 12th, so if you look it up, that would make me a Capricorn. And I had friends who were into astrology, and they used to say to me, "It makes sense. You're such a Capricorn." And then at some point, I realized that my birthday is gimlvat. the masle forvat is in fact Aquarius. So I said to these friends at some point, I'm not really a Capricorn. I'm an Aquarius. And they said, well, that makes sense. You're such an Aquarius. Okay, fine. So that sort of astrology where they write in the newspaper, you're going to meet somebody today, something going to happen to you, etc. That's not real, right? But is there a real sense of astrology and that power being able to affect us? And the answer is yes. And that's why although uh we may not realize it when we say maztov it's usually translated as good luck, mazle actually means may you have a good zodiac sign. The mazolus are the signs of the zodiac. And it pops up a lot when you say uh gash and trillis tal there's a period over there that goes according to all of the mazolos the if you will zodiac signs of the year um when you uh say the ka um tish of night there's a kina going through all the mazos discussing how each mazle was crying on the um you can find in the where it discusses why each mazle is there. The cleucker says that Nissan which is in the secular calendar Aries by us it's called the yeah the sheep says the power of the sheep is there and the masle because we go by the lunar months is the most powerful on the 14th and the 15th and since they worshiped the that's why we sh it on the 14th and eat it on the 15th to cancel out to show that the power of the month of doesn't have that power of a vazar but the we spoke about in past years discusses the power of the in we came out like sheep took us out of mitz so yeah the fact that libra the scales mo naim is the sign of tish when we have rashashana and yum kipra and hashana are the days of judgment. All of these things are significant. There's definitely a power to each month that the mazle represents. And if you're born in a particular month, so then definitely that mazle has an effect on you. So does the day of the week when you were born. So does the effect of whichever planet was rising at that time. Digar and Chabas discusses that these things can all influence who you are. It's not that you're stuck in that. It's just you have a natural natia. So it says if you were born under Mars, which is the red planet because it represents dam, so you'll have a tendency towards blood. So if you're evil, you'll become a murderer. If you're average, you'll become a doctor or If you're sadic, you'll become a mile. If you're like me and you were not born under it, then you will stay far away from blood because you cannot handle it. Yeah. Um if uh you're born and discusses if you're born under a water sign or an earth sign or a fire sign, you'll have tendencies in that direction. So none of these are absolute because at the end of the day, we can rise above all these things. on when it says Moshe told Yahosu choose people says people who were born in Ad because Ad doesn't have a mazle and therefore the a malik which has uh the power of kish they could use your mazle to affect you has no power so yeah you find this idea mentioned quite a lot. Um, so do we use this? No, of course. We Aquariuses don't really believe in that stuff. But uh, but is there a power that's built into the Bria under the mazes? 100%. And that's it for this week. If you want to find out more about the show, you can go to my website raolsi.com. We have more material. You can sign up for one of our online shirum. You could sponsor an episode, please. We're out of sponsors. You could sponsor a question and answer. Thank you so much. Uh you could sponsor a paran and uh you can help to keep this going and uh you could submit a question, you can make a comment. And that's it. Until next time, I am David Olowski and this has been the Rabbi Olowski show. It's the Rabbi Orski Show. Torah and Sima ready to go. The Rabbi Olavski show. Knowledge and wisdom will help you grow. Lots of fun in every episode. And we don't have to rhyme. No, we don't. It's the Rabbi Orlavski show on Rabbi Olowski.com. Torah anytime you and more. It's Rabbi Olowski show. Torah and sim ready to go. It's the Rabbi orski show. Till next time till we meet again. It's the Rabbi show. It's the Rabbi Olowski show. It's the Rabbi Olowski show.