The Nine Days in our Time (Ep. 289)

Hi, this is David Olowski and welcome to the Real Alosski Show. And whether you're watching with our friends over at Tony Time, our producers, or wherever you watch or listen to your podcast, as always, it's wonderful to have you along for the experience. And we have a sponsor this week. It's sponsored by anonymous sponsored all of my single cousins. They should get a shak a random fact. This is miser money for my wedding. Well, let me tell you, anyone who gave you money at your wedding and knows that the miser is going to be marbitt throughout Israel to tens of thousands of people should definitely consider that a special and you should write us back as all of these people get engaged and uh hopefully they will also be inspired to use their mis money from their wedding for all good things of haba satra. And I would like to announce that we have very few sponsorships left. Uh we still have some because we missed a bunch of weeks. But please, if you're considering sponsoring an episode, now would be a good time. Uh you can do it as a for someone, you can do it as a zikuron for somebody, you can do it just because you like somebody. And you could do it for somebody you don't like so that they change their ways and that's to be able to turn into wonderful people. Miracles happen here on the Rabbi Alaski show. So please, if you're considering sponsoring, this would be a good time to uh go to the website and uh hit that sponsor button. Okay. Obviously things are going to take a slightly mellow tone this week because we are dealing now with the nine days and uh the nine days of course is different by us Ashkanazim than it is for Spartim but we have a full nine days which uh is uh time of tragedy. So let's give it a historical uh perspective. On the shos of Tamuz on the 17th of Tamuz the Romans broke through the walls of Jerusalem. They went through the city slaughtering and killing until they came to the Harbayas. Now when you go to the Kisul today and you're standing there on that platform, you're in midair. the road was down at the bottom and you can see when you go to the Kaiso there are these little holes where you can look down and see where the street level was. Um you can see it also by the southern wall excavations which means there's as much of the western wall underground as there is above ground. So the Hierobias was basically this gigantic fortress and uh it took the Romans a long time to break into this fortress and they finally broke in on the first of Aav and they were slaughtering and desecrating for the next week on the harabas slaughtering kohanim and doing all of terrible things. on the 7th, 8th, and 9th, they defiled and did every terrible thing they could think of to uh to destroy and insult the bas mikdash and everything that went with it. And towards the end of the 9th, they set fire to it. It burned through the night of the 10th and into the day of the 10th until and burned down the B mikdash. So the nine days is this time when they were actually on the haras. You know the um Mishna and Caleb right at the beginning first last mission the first paric it says assur kaducas there are 10 different levels of kadusha the first is not kadosh there's no kadusha inlar it starts is the first level of kadusha that's the reason we hear over and over again how mosher wanted to get into for the kadusha to be able to do the mitzvah that all the things that go with that. Yeah. So, um that's to the first level. Second level are cities that had walls around them from the time of Yahosua bin Nun. It seems a little strange. And why is that? That's because what the Romans did with the bas mikdash the canananim already were doing inel because kaduca is not spread out evenly. There are certain places where kaduca is more concentrated. It seems that there are certain places in space where there is more of a sense of kaduca. And um and that's why uh they used to talk about the four holy cities of um I'm sure I mentioned this at some point Shapiro said that he spoke to an alvastasik you know he says today it's a crazy house but there was a time whenas there were people who really had a masuras and uh and said it's a very strange thing that Um the Arizal was born in he went to Egypt and when he came back to he came to but he didn't go in he continued north until he cameas and uh and he asked him why was that what was special about and he said because there has never been a church invas and the way I heard said over once is he says he was going to go into and he saw Yoshka standing on the Harabas. So he went to Tvas because it was the only city Taria obviously had churches obviously has churches other cities but he says never had any churches. um Sidor who's the head of the Tvas foundation uh he one time uh my mother would come in my mother as she became less and less mobile would still come for sukus it wasn't easy but she'd come for sukus and she wanted to do things and it's not that easy to program things for people who are not that mobile but we did a tour of the north with Sidor and he was explaining different things etc. And obviously we didn't do too many walking tours but whatever we could get to. Um so at one point he showed us the remains of the largest crusader castle in in Israel. I don't know if it's in Israel in the whole Middle East. And it was in SAS. It was uh right next to I think Malone. There's this enormous um castle that's there. And since was high up, it was able to control the the heights. And I remembered whatever Mosha said and I said, "What kind of castle was this?" And he said, "The Knight's Templar." The Knights Templar were a religious Christian order of Knights. So I had to ask I said, "Did they find a chapel in the castle?" And he says, "You know, it's an amazing thing. They've dug up the whole castle and they can't they never found a chapel." Yeah. Which is pretty amazing. In a in a Templar castle. I told this over to Raasha. He wasn't impressed at all. He was like, "I told you already." So, uh, well, I thought it was fascinating, but was just gave me a look. He was like, "Yeah, okay." Like, I told you already. Now, I need your your tour guide to tell me, you know, but um but the idea that uh that there's certain inherent kaducas and that's the reason they did it. So when we came into the Canananim were able to identify the centers of Kadusha. They knew where the places were that had more of a sense of kaduca. They there's an old expression if you want to understand um the greatness of kayel always turn to your enemies because they understand us better than we understand ourselves. they were able to identify the centers of Kadusha in uh in built a wall around it in order to concentrate all the tuma that they could in those places in order to cancel it out. Vahavdil um Ellie Cohen, our man in Damascus, he had uh risen up until he was one of the top people in the Syrian government. He was a spy for Israel. He was eventually caught and hanged. But uh but he did a number of things. One is he anticipated that the six- day war was going to happen and we'd have to attack the Golan Heights. and the Syrians were entrenched heavily. Uh I read uh a book on the Golden Heights and from a military point of view it was considered uh unconquerable. There was no way that we could conquer it with what we had. I've told this story before. I was on the bus once speaking to one of the commanders who captured the Golan Heights and he said most of our tanks were so old they couldn't even get up the hill. I said anyone who's tight tanks come with me. That's how we captured it. But one of the advantages we had was that Ellie Cohen convinced them that it's going to be blistering hot in these bunkers. So you should plant uh trees for the people to be able to cover it up, you know, to protect them, give them some shade. And he suggested uh as I remember correctly, eucalyptus trees because they don't need a lot of water and and it's up there it'll be dry and you know this will be good and it'll provide shade. So when the Israeli army came up, wherever they saw a cluster of uh of uh you know eucalyptus trees, that's where they threw their her grenades to be able to uh to blow everything up. So the Kananim likewise when we came into wherever we saw a walled city, we knew that that was a place of extra kaduca. So the second level of kadusha are cities that had walls around it from the time of the third level of kadusha is right. The heavenly Jerusalem corresponds to lower Jerusalem has a special power. Yeah. And um and then the next level is the harabayas. And the harabayas is this special power and uh it keeps going from there within the harabayas till you reach the koshaka doshian but um the harabayas this was a place that aravina was always searching for and that's why when it came to the aada he was finally able to identify where this place was and that's where he brought as a it was Mala this mo and that's the place where uh Yakov was running away from his brother and was going to Lan and Akos who made the sun suddenly set so he would sleep over there uh in this mum and in the in the Harabas and he sees the ladder going up the Shmayam and he figures is out. This is Shah Shayim. This is the this special very very special place in the world. So when they broke into the Harbayas, this was that Jushim fell was a terrible tragedy, but that the Harabas fell and then of course it led to the destruction of the B mikdash. So Ashkanazim take the whole nine days and have a series of restrictions. We don't eat meat or drink wine during the nine days. Um we uh we don't wash clothes or wear freshly laundered clothes. This doesn't include children's clothes. According to some people, it doesn't include um undergarments. Um, according to some people, it doesn't include uh towels, but um but basically that's the that's the idea. We don't change our linen on our beds, change it before the nine days. We don't wash clothes. It's an interesting question in whether it's talking about laundered clothes like it came back from the laundry or from the dry cleaners. Whereas if we throw them in the machine and then toss them into a laundry basket, whether the same dinner applies or not. I still remember when I was in camp as a kid, you know, Resh, we would be putting on all of our clothes and wearing them for like a half an hour, walking around, taking them off, putting on the next bunch of them. So, um, so there was a there was a certain idea of preparation of not wearing uh newly laundered clothes. Um and uh already starting in the 3 weeks we don't get haircuts. We don't trim our beard. We don't buy new things. We don't do things of sima. Um we uh obviously we don't get married during the three weeks and uh etc. We don't listen to music and uh um and in general yeah we minimize our our happiness is reduced and everything during this time we go around with a certain almost like a cloud over our head and it it's always a balance always a balance Um I I I told this story. Um I had Rabbi Gesler on the show. Uh he ran Benoskava for many years and uh he told me a story about his his his grandparents. his grandparents that he was his grandfather was a was a from the and they carried themselves with Malus and his mother told him he says one time they had a lot of guests it was Yantiff and he wasn't home from Shaw he says so she his his grandmother told his mother who was a young girl then goes I can't believe that he didn't come home right away he's going to get it when he comes home and she says says, "I was amazed cuz I never saw my parents ever fight. I never saw them ever raise their voice. I She's going to get it. I wonder what happens." So I came up was very apologetic. Somebody stopped to talk to me and she says, "I understand. Good yontiff." And he says, "Good yontiff." And they go to the table. He apologizes to the guests. They make kdish. They make kamotzi. When they're in the kitchen washing, she says to her mother, he says, "I thought you were going to give it to him." Goes, "Oh, you didn't. See, normally I say gyant like this. Now I said it like this. He knew I was upset. I mean there's still a there's still an idea of of having a certain sim etc. So um uh so this is needless to say um uh a challenge a challenge um so uh so okay but these are the nine days and then of course as we know becomes um more intense and then tab itself this year it's of course an unusual here because of tush is shabas and um and and it comes out on chabas. Normally on tishab we sit on the ground and have a sudamkis. We have a piece of bread with ashes and uh an egg and we sit alone. We drink water and you know that's that's the suda mafus. Here you can have a flesh shall you can serve roast beef. you have whatever you want. You're going you go into the into the uh going differently than you normally do. It poses a particular challenge for someone like me. Yeah. When I was first uh diagnosed with serious diabetes. Remember the guy by my shul called up a pisik and he said it's us for me to fast. So he said to me you're not allowed to fast. And I said, "Ah, please. I fasted my whole life." He says, "No, it's dangerous." I said, "It's dangerous if you're diabetic whose sugar shoots up and then shoots down. Mine only shoots up. It never comes down. If I fast, it can only help me." Anyway, he says, "You're going against the suck. You're not getting an aliyah." Anyway, after my heart attack and my bypass operation, so um uh the cardiologist, the professor, he said to me, "You can't fast anymore. Not on any fast, not on tishab and uh on yum kip, you drink shir." And I said, "I took an EKG, it was good. I took a stress test, it was good. I took an echo cardiogram, it was good. Why can't I fast?" And he said to me, "Because you are a very sick man. You have heart disease. This is not a joke. You can't fast." And I said, "Why?" And he says, "I'll see you in 6 months." That's it. He's a professor. He doesn't have to answer any questions. I spoke to a different doctor and he said, "Because since instead of arteries in your chest, you have veins. So if you don't drink, then your blood becomes thick and it'll put more pressure on it. So, like if the heavy pressure of the blood like pulls apart the vein and it starts spritzing inside of your chest, that's probably going to be a lot worse than you eating uh on a fast day. To which I could only say, "Yep, I could see that." I have another friend of mine who keeps getting kidney stones and the doctors told him, "If you fast, you're going to for sure get kidney stones. You have to keep drinking to wash out your system." So, he has no choice. He has to he has to also eat and drink. Yeah, he certainly has to drink. So I just find as I get older, the list of people sitting there with the little cups, you know, sitting there, it used to be just me, you know, the little cups every every 9 minutes on Yum Kipper is getting longer. More of us are there. Yeah. So um uh so for me this poses a problem. I just explained this a little side thing on Yamip. can drink shirum. Why? Because um if it's less than a shir, you're still considered fasting. But there is no den of shurum on a on a tiniest of a bunan. So if you're going to drink, you just ruin the whole fast. It doesn't matter if it's a little cup, a big cup, there's no den of shirum. So you might as well not fast because it doesn't doesn't help you. Yeah. You're you're not fasting anyway. on a dear rice you are but on the other ones you're not. So um so this year on tishab I have a problem because I have to eat and drink on tishav but I have to make which means that as shabas goes out I have to make before I can eat or drink on tishov. Strange. Yeah. Anyway, so uh so this is unusual year. Um if I'm correct, uh the theim who don't have the nine days, they only have which means that if Wednesday is tish, then all of the isum of the nine days only goes from Shabas to Wednesday. If Monday, it only goes from Shabas Monday. But if uh have a Sunday there is no because there's no week beforehand at all. So uh it's an unusual year right and um we go into the restrictions. I'm old enough to remember when tishov was a pretty serious thing. When you went into the nine days and you felt the nine days, people took it much more seriously than they do today. But you have to understand, as I spoke about last week when I talked about how technology is changing everything, our society has changed. Um, when my father was growing up, you never showered every day. Never bathed every day, you know. They used to the the the the minute was Saturday night, you took a bath. They have a big bathtub that they would fill up. You'd go in the bathtub, you know, and uh you'd soak and that was it. So, this older fellow wrote an article once. He says he says, "You didn't have any air conditioning?" He says, "No." says, "What'd you do?" He says, "We would sweat." He says, "Really?" He goes, "Well, we would take a bath once a week." That was it. And uh and otherwise uh you would presspire a lot. Um one of the reasons uh that the French developed all these perfumes was because of the body odor from the unwashed people over there. and uh uh and to clean clothes was a major major uh undertaking. I feel like I spoke about this recently and if I did then just feel free to tune out. But um the uh Robert Carrow who's um who's written four of the five books of the biography of Lind Lyndon Johnson. He's just up now to his presidency and he dealt with a lot of other things. So he talked about how one of the first things he did is brought electrification to rural Texas where he came from. And he says, "Let me explain to you what that means." Says, "In order to do laundry, you had to go down to the pump and pump a lot of water. And then you had to boil it up until you filled up a large basin. Then you put the clothes in the basin and you had to scrub them with a with a uh a washboard. And then you would ring them out, the dirty water as best as you could. And then you had to fill up another basin, a big large basin, like a trough with clean water to rinse it out. And then you would ring that out. And you would hang it up to dry. And then you would have to you would have to iron the clothing. So you would have to take wood and heat up the oven and then heat up an iron. And an iron was not like today we have an iron. It was literally a piece of iron. And then you would have to press the clothing and then fold them. And this was this was what it was to do laundry. It took several days to do. It was a major undertaking. And he says, "When he brought an electrification and a person get a washing machine and throw their clothing into a washing machine, it was unbelievable. What a what a what a massive change this was. Um everything was like that. You know, if you wanted to make popcorn, you filled up a pot with oil and you put the popcorn in and it would pop. You know, tried to keep the cover on cuz it would pop all over the kitchen. you try to keep it on. They came up with this technological advancement called Jify Pop where you got your kernels in this little frying pan and it was wrapped up in a in a like a balloon of aluminum foil and as it popped it filled up the aluminum foil. Kids have no idea what I'm talking about today because they just take a bag and stick it in the in the microwave and boom, it's all there. Just cut it open. It's all set for you. So um so things change. For example, listening to music um until Thomas Edison, listening to music meant you had an a band that would play music for you. There was no other way to get music. There was no recording. Yeah. Thomas Edison involved finally discovered and invented a recording machine. Um, it was funny that uh sometimes um when they say to do a sound check for my podcast, I would say Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow and everywhere and finally what every now and then what a producer would ask me why are you doing that and I said it's a mig for a sound check because the very first thing that was recorded was Thomas Edison saying Mary had a little lamb and that was recorded put it on this little tube for posterity. Yeah. So now the concept of putting on uh a recording but you understand there was a time when nobody did this. There was no there was no such a thing. You couldn't hear recorded music. When they finally came out with a phongraph you could put on a record and you know and and listen to music. This was it's only a hundred years old about the that otherwise there was such a thing as recorded music. So when you come to the three weeks and you say well we don't listen to music. It's the tako was made of live music. When it comes to recorded music it becomes a much more complicated issue. I'm not a poek but Ruvi Goldstein was a po. And I'll share with you what Rabbi Oruritz uh told me is his rebi was Goldstein and he he says I asked Ratu Goldstein can you listen to recorded music during the spher and he said nope he says what about a housewife who's doing housework and it helps her to listen to music? Yes. What about a bachim who wants to relax? Can he listen to music? Yes. What about someone who's feeling down and he wants to listen to music? Yes. And he says I gave him about four or five different examples. So finally I said then who can't listen? He said everyone else but obviously there's there's more leeway. I don't think he would say let's listen to live music. So u it changes just like music has changed and laundry has changed so washing has changed, bathing has changed. It's not like you fill up the bathtub and uh you know with buckets and heat up the water and you know take a bath once a week. So a woman in one of my shirm told me that she heard the following sock. I didn't check it out. I'm not pesak but this is what she told me. She said what you should do during the nine days is bathe less than normal. So if you normally bathe every day, you should bathe every other day. If you normally bathe every other day, you should bathe bathe every third day. If you normally bathe every third day, you should bathe more often. Now, that's very interesting. Um, it's clear in you're allowed to bathe for hygiene, but this is very tricky. So, ideally, uh, it's brought down. If you have to bathe for hygiene, you use cold water, you don't use soap, you don't use shampoo. But uh today people's hair gets very greasy or they get very uh oily and sweaty without soap or anything. It's going to be difficult to do. Yeah. So I'm not posing. Ask your local post what to go about. But I found this interesting. What it's saying is it changed. Now when I was a kid, you didn't shower for 9 days and it was during the summer which was definitely poor planning. You should come out in the winter. You don't notice so much if people aren't bathing. Come out in the summer. Oh, people are sweating, persspiring. And uh so even when I was in camp, so when I was a kid, I'm going back 50 years, 55 years. So you would take as cold a shower as you could. You'd add a little hot water so that you weren't going, you know, and uh you would use minimum amount and you'd stay there. Somebody asked me, "How do you know whether you're bathing uh just for cleanliness or for pleasure?" I said, "Here's how you know that it's for pleasure." When you do that, then you know you're bathing for pleasure. You're just taking it in. When I first came there itself and water was a premium. It's less so now. I mean I remember when I first came here uh they kept talking about the kerat you know was was getting down to the red line. And then when it got under the red line you weren't supposed to take out any more water. So what' they do? They drew another red line. And then when it got under that, they said, "Well, if it hits the black line, then we're, you know, and uh and then they built all these desalination plants and there's a lot more water available, you know. When I came here, water was mama premium." So, an Israeli shower, it didn't have a shower. It had a hose with a spritzer and you would spritz yourself up till you're wet and then you would soak yourself soap yourself up and then you'd rinse it off and that was it. In fact, uh when I first got married and we had a rental, it was a um it was a half bathtub cuz what what do you need a whole bathtub for? You know, took a bath, you know. So, um that was the uh that was the way that Israelis showered when they showered. But, um but during the nine days, yeah, I had a lot of real Yurish Shimay. Yeah. Often they would sit next to me on the bus and it was gel. Yeah. The only thing worse than a really bad smelling person is one who then adds cologne on top of it. So you get that sort of sickly sweet smell with the pungent odor. It's basically comes out smelling like vomit. It's just terrible. It's terrible. Better if they just had the extreme body odor, you know. But um there were people when I was a kid wouldn't change their undergarments, you know, for all the nine days. Yeah. There were there was this concept. But today people will very often even during the nine days change their undergarments. They will uh change their shirt every few days you know. Um in the old days it wasn't like that. Um uh my nephew who learned by Ravina uh he said when he was in Punovich we could tell the day of the week by how many egg stains there were on Rashak's shirt. You count the egg stains you could tell what day it was. Yeah. Um I the says that um is not supposed to go out with a stain. So I remember once in Shir Misha Shapiro was talking about the Gamarra with Yeshua and why he was so ugly and you know that whole approach and he stopped and he says you know that briska held that it was only to go out with a ketam when it was wet not when it was dry. I didn't know why he introduced that and someone told me because in the book the making of the guttle the he he writes that would wipe his nose on his sleeve. So was trying to explain that's because there's a concept of being matal your gashmas right they talk about building up who you are as a co and obviously right that's the supposed to be the concept like I told you of the but there are certain there's a certain approach of of pushing down the gashmas but uh but he just threw that out so I guess he he The person who I asked told me he was responding to that. Okay. But um uh so back then people did not launder their clothes that often and people did not um bathe that often. Today the situation has changed. Um that's part of it. And part of it is that for a lot of people the nine days don't mean anything to them anymore. How many times have I heard people say to me, "I don't mind the nine days. I like Milks when uh my wife gets basically all the Jewish publications." So, I've said this more than once. So, I go to the Hamodia to read that's an idea to be able to get some um helpful hints. I just read one last week that I think I really have to try. says if you're this this woman said my daughter daughter daughter-in-law is a nurse and she said that when you're nauseous if you sniff rubbing alcohol the nausea goes away. She says nurses know this trick. I didn't try it but um but uh she says I tried it and sure enough it worked. Amazing. Yeah, that's kind of helpful hints that I get from that's an idea. Yeah. I'm giving them a little shout out and I read the kicks and uh and um and then I read all the recipe sections just to reassure myself that I'm normal and the rest of the world has gone crazy. So when you have an entire issue dedicated to raw fish and how to prepare it, I say, "Okay, there's a problem here." you know, uh, when they have a whole issue dedicated to all kinds of different, uh, taco things or poke bowls or Come on. What are you doing? Real people don't eat this food. I'm I I don't mean to take away from anybody, but you know, I saw this uh you know, the one time they were talking about chopped liver. You know, they're so complicated. They make everything so complicated. I saw once recipes for for chicken soup. So complicated. Everybody comments on how wonderful my chicken soup is. And it's not this kind of a crazy patchka, you know. But uh but when you see the recipe sections, it comes out. It says great recipe ideas for the nine days. And they show you the table setting and all the different milking things, etc. And I'm like, okay, I don't think it's supposed to be this much fun. I don't think that's the purpose of eating milks on the nine days. It's not supposed to be like, oh, clever, clever pasta dishes and fish dishes and wonderful things so that your kids will really enjoy the nine days. Uh, I'm pretty sure I told this story before, but um, I used to go with Rabbi Margolan to Moshav Matyahu to hear a left on Tishb on Tishab would speak in between the kiness and explain the kinis. Apparently, this was a minigan tells um, I'm guessing because I was once foyer and he also did the same thing and it was packed. I mean it was there was no room. Eventually they set up speakers outside on the lawn and people would come and because people were desperate for for this to make their tish more meaningful and uh so Maggolan after a few years said look there's no room here we have enough talent in Harnov let's do it in Harnov. So we started to put it together in Harnov. We'd pick out certain kinos to say and we'd ask different people to speak on each kina. I was involved with this for a number of years. After a while, I I stopped because there were certain people who instead decided to say drushes. And there are people who say, listen, it's not this minig even though it might have been intellig. And other people say, listen, I understand that you know certain camps do this, sleepaway camps and things. I understand that it's a positive thing for people, but not just to get up and say a drussa on some other topic even if it's related to dishov. That's that's not it's supposed to be explained to kina. So I stopped going even though I was one of the founders because I felt like if you can't speak about the kenna then I I don't think this is a positive thing. So for a number of years uh there's a camp that here and gave me the gave me tish of morning that I can do it. So I speak about the kiny yeah and back when I used to run the old program and on this program too more often than one would imagine people come over to me and say thank you rabbi that was the most meaningful tishabove I ever had. I can't wait till next year. We're We're missing the thread. Kenus when I was a kid were these offset copied uh paper kenis that were on the cheapest possible paper because the mig was at the end of tish you'd leave it in shul because you're not going to need it for next year. Today I see people have hard co hard cover kinis with their name on it. You know what I mean? It's like oh beautiful you know cuz we're going to use it for many years and uh we've lost the thread. We we we forgot what the uh is and what a destruction is and this has gone away. So part of it is the nature of the beast obviously that we're a door that is so far from understanding anything and appreciating anything that that's that's a terrible terrible tragedy. But uh we're also searching searching for meaning. uh in uh in Israel in the secular media they have a nickname for Yum Kipper Yomaim because there are still a lot of Israelis who have enough sensitivity that they don't drive their car on Yam Kipra. I hope it's still true. I don't know. But uh there I once read this op-ed piece in the Jerusalem Post where this guy said, "I went out to the Tel Aviv highway on Yamkipper and sat in the middle of the road just to prove the point that there were no cars coming." Um so so what do the kids do who don't go to Shaw and and don't appreciate? They ride their bicycles. So bicycles of yanim. So I told somebody the nickname for tish of today is yumha video. So many organizations put out videos. It started with the heritage foundation where they would have videos of a couple of speakers speaking about salash and they used to be showings and now there's many many organizations who make tisha videos. Um I I make my own modest contribution but I do what I usually do. I take a kina and I talk about it because that's what tissu should be. It should be a focus on the kinus. But um why? Because people are looking for something to be able to relate to the day. When I was a kid, we would say kinus in the gym all morning when we were in camp. In the afternoon, we play Monopoly. A bunch of kids. We needed some way to pass the time. Instead, now people go and they watch videos all day. So, um, why? Because hard for us to relate to. It's hard for us not to listen to recorded music because we go addicted to it cuz you don't need a band to listen to music. It's hard for us not to change our clothes because we have washing machines and we don't do laundry once a week and uh we have a lot of different clothes. The Phil Zach used to fill up shot glasses with olive oil for his manura. So someone said to him, you know, your grandfather, he used to use wax candles and he would blow them out after, you know, after half an hour. He says, "I know, but you know, my grandfather only had one jacket. I have a lot of jackets, so I can afford to fill up my a lot of olive oil to light my manura. If I if if I'm not living on the level of gashm is, then I don't have to do that when it comes to my performance of mitzvah." Yeah. So uh um so now people would have one jacket. When uh they captured the old city in 1967, everyone was waiting for the stipler to go to the kaisel and he wouldn't go. And finally he said, "Vrebby, why why aren't you going to the kaisle?" He says, "Cuz I only have one frock and if I rip it, I have nothing to wear." So someone gave him an old frock to wear so he could tear a career. But uh that's what it used to be like. I had to ask a shila once to Kanye. Um so he was meeting with somebody in his dining room. So the the guy put me and the fellow I was coming with in his bedroom. Two snnut beds peeling paint on the wall. Said mom is so simple. I went a number of times to rebel Yoshu. It's one room. They say that his children used to learn in shifts. Some people would learn all night and then they would come back and the kids who were sleeping during the day during the night would go and learn and they would take their beds because there weren't enough beds for everybody. There was no room. So, uh, so, okay. So, I understand why people wouldn't be wearing freshly laundered clothing because there wasn't anything to wear. But today when we have so many clothes and you tell people wear the same clothes for nine days it's trust me it's hard enough when people were sitting shiva you know but at least people can relate to Shiva usually you know not always but usually the nine days it's not to bathe and like I say during the summer so it becomes very difficult for hygiene And how you um square that circle of how much is for hygiene and how much becomes pleasure. I don't know. Speak to your Pik see what it is. But I can tell you that if it's this uh that's for sure pleasure. There's no question about it. But uh if you're somebody like me who uh on doctor's orders I have to exercise even though it goes against everything that I stand for. You know I have a neighbor who's had several operations from uh playing sports and uh operation on his foot and operation on his knee and operation on uh you know all kinds of things from from playing sports. I have another neighbor, you know, who was coming out of the pool and tripped and now has to have another operation. And that's why I say sports kills you. Stay away from that stuff. I' I've avoided it my whole life. You know, only operation I had to have was because my heart stopped working, but otherwise, you know, exercise will kill you. So, um uh I um uh so I have to walk. I have to I have to do it. So on a hot day, you walk, you know, you're three and a half kilometers, you come back, you know, so uh you're you're dripping. So how you take a shower that's cold and that's only for hygiene is a challenge. I won't tell you what I do, but uh but you should definitely ask um the Russia says Loco Orthodox rabbi how exactly to uh to to do it in a way that's going to be acceptable. Some are more malle some are more mach um but I found that particular psych interesting. So that's uh that's what we understand times have changed and and with the changing situation someone told uh when they wanted to put in a potbellied stove to heat the shaw which by the way was uh if I recall correctly was invented by Tom by Benjamin Franklin and they wanted to put it in. So one of the mispalum said our fathers never had a pot belly soap. He says so because our for because our fathers froze we have to freeze. That doesn't make any sense. Why should we do that? And so um they uh uh you you make innovation. You put things in. I've been asked this question many times. Uh, is there going to be air conditioning in the base of Mikdash? I said, I don't see how. It's all outside. There's no roof on it. What's the air conditioning going to do? So, someone said, well, there'll be under floor heating cuz it says the Kohan used to go around and bare feet on the stone and they would get sick from the cold. Says it'll be under underground heating, you know. And will there be escalators, you know, to get up there? Will there be monitors so everybody can watch what's going on? You know, I don't know. But I can tell you that um as these changes take place in society, you you find this in the garra every now and then where it says the person's an istanus and person's an istanis. So he's allowed to bathe, the person's an istanus, he's allowed to do certain things. So um so uh again I'm not posing but I've heard pin said today where is this because nobody ever bathed like this. Nobody ever changed their clothes like this. It was it's it's a different situation. So you ask your own pricing. But um but what it means is that um we have to in spite of any innovations that we might make in personal uh behaviors and the avail of the nine days. We still have to struggle that the nine days should be the nine days and tishb should be tishb and you know just to watch videos that will distract us is not a good idea. But if we watch things that focus and that's why some of these tishov programs they broadcast the people speaking about the kinis themselves which is the ikar of the of the day of of tishov. That's definitely a positive thing. Um, Torah anytime usually has a full day of shirm and speakers and and kenos and explanations for tishov. Definitely check them out uh to see what's going on. And uh very good. And now we come to the question and answer portion of our program by anonymous. What is the importance of minhagim? They're not. So why do we keep them? Well, I'm sure you're aware of the concept that uh minadinhoo the concept of min to understand it is I think best explained by a line that nober once said that made a deep impression on me. He says the Jews have been accused of everything. We kill non-Jewish babies for their blood to bake our matas. Um, communists cause capitalists, capitalists cause communists. Uh, we're accused of everything. Anything that we could be accused of, we're accused of. There's only one thing that they never accuse Jews of, and that's being stupid. And that's why there's a general principle. The Jewish people are holy and so if they take upon themselves a particular behavior, it usually makes sense. Um they tell a story with the Ramo that when he became Rav and Krakow, so he found uh that the Gabi would go around to certain people in the morning and give them a mazle. So finally Ramos said, "What's that all about?" He says, "Well, their wife went to mikvah yesterday." He says, "You don't advertise that." He says, "Yeah, but I open up the mikvah and I see who comes and then I I give them a mazle in the morning." You know, they're blur eyed. You know what I mean? I give them a mazle. He says, "You can't do that. That's not SNES. We're stopping it." Okay. The next day during Daring a guy comes over to the Gabby and says, "Nope, I'll come in and give me a masletov." He says, "First of all, because the rub said yesterday, we don't do that anymore." And second of all, what for? Your wife wasn't at mikvah yesterday. And he said, "What?" And he goes home and his wife said, "Yeah, it was really cold. I didn't want to walk all the way to the mikvah. I went to the bath house." So the Ram understood that this Minug had been established here because there was a problem with women not going to the mikvah. So they establish this Minug as a as a fail safe. And so if there's a mig that has a reason, they tell the story about the schul in Europe where these, you know, two yeshiva guys come and they take out the Torah and everyone turns around. They don't turn your back on the safer Torah. Says, "Why do you do that?" He says, "That's what our fathers did." And they ask around, "What happened?" It turns out there used to be a Brime sign hanging on the balcony by the Ezra Noshim. So people would turn around to say Bishme and then they remodeled the Shaw and they took it down. But everyone remembers that their father used to turn around, you know, uh when they opened up the Auron. So everyone turns around. So that's a minikus. That's not based on anything. But the general principle is that if the Jewish people have a minig, whatever that minig is, that's usually based on something real and uh and therefore we honor menhugim because the menhagim almost always have a basis in reality and a reason for them. And if we look into them, we can very often find why they were established and what they're about. I found in at least three places in the where he explains why we eat certain foods on certain days and that the foods that we eat the minute to eat this food or that food has significance. So everyone knows this one. It's brought down in hala and that is to eat a apple dipped in honey on rash shana. People eat more foods than that but that's when I when I was growing up that's what we had. We had an apple dipped in honey. There's a reason why we use honey and not sugar. There's a reason why we use an apple and not a peach you know or pear. You reasons for everything. It's not stumb that we do something. Go. You have to go back to my first year. I talked about this, you know, the apple one and honey, but um uh when when has a min default assumption is that we have a reason for it. It makes sense and it uh it you you break that min at your uh at your risk and that's why it says and that's it for this week. If you want to find out more about the show, you can go to my website reloski.com where you can ask a question, sponsor an episode, please sponsor par5. Um, sponsor question and answer. You can sponsor that separately. Um, you can uh make a comment. Uh, you can sign up for one of my online shorim. 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 Simra 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, though we hope. It's the Rabbi orski show on Rabbi.com. Torah anytime, YouTube, and more. It's Rabbi Olowski show. Torah and ready to go. It's the Rabbi orski show. Till next time till we meet again. The Rabbi show. It's the Rabbi show. It's the Rabbi orski show.