The War - Aftermath (Ep. 285)

Hi, this is Don Olowski and welcome back to the Rabbi Alowski show. And whether you're watching with our friends over at Tory Time or wherever you watch or listen to your podcast, as always, it's so nice to have you back with us where we belong. And uh I know we have had a hiatus. We've had a you know little little few weeks here where we haven't anything really since. So, uh, it's been a few weeks, few episodes that we missed. But, uh, I always remember there was a country western song. I never heard it, but it was quoted to me. How can I miss you if you won't go away? So, this way it gave everybody a chance to rewatch some of their old favorite podcasts. Um and uh the fact is that uh we uh have had uh a lot of um people who recently told me they just discovered the podcast which to me is amazing because apparently people didn't know about it and they suddenly start binge watching six years of it and people tell me they watch them over and over again which I find absolutely uh amazing. Now, I can appreciate that because if you watch the highlight reels, which we put up uh and a shout out to, uh to a good friend who puts these together, uh we've do done three seasons so far. There's uh three more we're waiting for him to come up with, but uh I just watch he just takes a snippet from each show and I don't remember saying any of those things. So mama listening again can only be a worthwhile thing for people to do. So this gave you a chance for to go over everything and what can I tell you? Um you know producer Israel left us and I'm sure he's doing well and he'll do well in whatever he does and uh so it took us a while to try to find our bearings. And a special thank you to everybody who has reached out and different people and they said, "Look, uh, I don't really have any experience in this, but I'll come down and film you. You know, I'll do something just because, you know, we still want to get it back on." Um, I got a few calls from really unexpected people uh, who tell me, "Listen, I just want you to know we all missed the podcast, you know." And I said, "All right, that's good. That's good." you know, if nobody noticed, you know, that would have been a little more depressing. So, we're uh we're back and uh and the arrangement I'm going to do, I'm going to start with my uh with the um sponsorship this week. And this will just give you a perspective. All of you people who have sponsored episodes, don't worry, we still have your sponsorships. We will be using them, trust me. Uh, this week's episode is sponsored by Torney Time. What do I always say? And if you're watching with our friends over at Tony Time, this is sponsored by Tory Time. It was thanks to the volunteers at Tony and Time that the podcast is continuing. Tony Time just came out with their daily dose book which is drawn from the global daily dose delivered daily via WhatsApp, email, and app. Um, I would like to encourage everybody to go out and support uh to any time. You know, once a year they have a major fundraiser and uh I have my own uh little room and I'm given a certain amount of money that I'm supposed to raise and uh this past year I passed my quota because a lot of nice people listen to the Rabielowski show on to any time and they want to show their support. So, so this is what's happening. Tor any time basically reached out to me because uh I guess sometimes they actually watch the content that they put up. Go figure. And they said, "Hey uh how come there's no more shows?" I said, "Well, because we don't have any production." And Tor was like, "Hello, what do you think we do?" You know, we send people to film Shior and then we edit it and put it up. Right. So uh so Tory time is uh making that arrangement now and uh hopefully hopefully everything is going to go well. Yeah, we'll see right you know uh as the president of the United States said when he was the formerly the president of the United States and he would say it all the time. We'll see what happens. We'll try. We'll see what happens. Maybe it'll work. Maybe it won't. You know, he doesn't say that anymore. He just does it. It doesn't care. I don't care anymore. It's got to work, you know. So hopefully I'm I'm Trump first term 45 president 45. Yeah. We'll see what happens. I hope I hope uh I hope it works out and I hope that it uh it goes well. and uh mashem but I still have my mug and uh what happened is a lot of people who are expressing interest in trying to you know develop the podcast a little bit and get that merch out there that I've been promising for years and all that other wonderful stuff I haven't been promising but I have been saying that I'm going to work on it the same way that I've been working on that book that I started 30 years ago and I'm almost done with the introduction but anyway so uh I'm a botland I'm a botland and I'm an uh and the the the advantage I have is so are so many other people I used to give a shir and har every other mu shabas hundreds of people used to come now it's less so but um but every now and then people would say to me there were a couple different comments I would get a lot one was I love listening to your sham because you're so ordinary and And I feel like if you can do it, anyone can. And I took that in the spirit in which it was meant because I did actually have a Rebi uh who asked one of my bosses uh is he effective? He says, "Yeah." He goes, "I never thought he'd amount to anything." And that's what I'm going to haba with. I'm going to say, "My my rebi was surprised that I became anything that I did anything." Yeah, if you'll appreciate a literary reference um in uh in Harry Potter, the Weasley twins, so they have a mark that's called exceeds expectations. And he goes, I think we should get that just for showing up. So So uh so a lot of people like me, you know, um I I uh I haven't seen if it came out yet, but somebody was writing a book on dyslexia, and he wrote me an email. He says, "Can I quote you? I know you speak about this in public and I I heard it on your podcast. Can I quote that you have dyslexia?" And I said, "Yeah." He goes, "Because so far you're the only rabbi I can find who will admit it." And I suspect there are other rabbis who do as well, but they don't want to say anything. And I am just, what can I tell you? Extremely ordinary. I put everything out there. And so everybody's uh we're all struggling. We're all working together to try to uh to get things done. So, um we've been away for a long time and uh I have lots of stuff that I need to tell you. Just, you know, um housekeeping things that uh I have to I had a trip to America that uh it doesn't come up as often as it should. And I have to tell you, I should really plan these things more in advance and and organize it. But uh you know I I was planning it before Pesak and then Pesak came and the whole hotel experience which I'm going to talk about in a minute and all those kind of things and um uh it um uh I didn't really plan it that well but I had a few amazing things that took place. So my main uh purpose for going was a shabas that I did in Tarzana, California for every Horowitz and uh I had met him in the White Shaw when I was there when my daughter was having her operation and he says would you ever come you know to LA to speak and I said yeah sure you know so uh he says cuz my son is a big fan so I said oh of Rabbi Sed for those you not aware I'm also an animated character called Roy City. He goes, "Oh, no, no, no. He's nine. He listens to the podcast." Yeah. And by the way, he's not the only one. You know, I have a lot of uh I I I said actually that's my target audience. So, uh so he he says, "We'd love to bring you out." So, uh, you know, I gave him a shout out in in an earlier podcast, but I went out to Tarzana and it was just absolutely a delightful shabas and really very special community and uh I had the of staying with the Harowitz and just wonderful family and it it was just wonderful time. I was so thrilled to be able to have that opportunity. And uh while I was out there, I spoke for my friend Ravi Summers and Ane Ammeris, which I do all the time and whenever I'm in LA. Yeah. And uh and then my uh good friend Ari Edelman uh called up before I was leaving to ask if his son could come for Chabas. So I said, "Well, only if he can get to Tarzana because I'm going to be in California that Shabas." He goes, "You're coming in?" I said, "Yeah." He goes, "Why don't you tell me?" I said, I didn't tell anybody. I don't know. I'm not marketing. I'm not real good at that, you know. I really need to to develop it, you know. So, uh, so he says, are you available one night? I'll put together a shar. So, he arranged a shir in the Auda of Payic. There were hundreds of people there before. And it was such a I know again I'm only repeating what I hear. People said it was such a they got so much out of it. It was so wonderful. And of course, shout out to uh my friends in Kazak who, as I have pointed out many times, since I started a uh career uh of going around and speaking, becoming a a lecturer. Yeah. Whenever they introduce me and they say, "Oh, he's a world famous speaker." I said, "That's code for a man who has no job." But anyway, Kazak has has hired me more times than anybody else. So, uh, special shout out to, uh, to my friends of Kazak. I spoke in the five towns and, uh, it was I, I just feel bad that we didn't have more opportunity to be able to speak to more people and do more things. But, uh, Hashem, we'll plan a trip for next year. Uh it's been a little difficult traveling lately, which is one of the things people said to me, even if you don't have the podcast, just take your phone and do like a one of those hostage videos, you know, and you have to speak about the matzah that's going on, you know. So, uh, so we'll talk about that in a minute. But, uh, you know, I got back just before, um, this this all took place and, um, and it's just an amazing thing. Just the whole thing is is amazing. But before I get there, I I have to just give you a PES update. Um, for those of you who haven't been following what's been going on, um, we went to a uh, hotel. When I say we, I mean me and my, uh, family. Um, you know, my children said to me, "Look, you and Ima are getting too old to make pesak. You You just can't you can't you have to go away and uh and we have to go with you because who's going to take care of you, you know, in the hotel? So I was like fine, you know. So most of the places that people go to are were outside of my budget. Um and uh we um we uh ended up uh going to uh we found this hotel that it used to be known as the Bali in the old days. It's in Tavaria itself and uh it's gone through a couple of different owners and now it's uh it's no Kiner is what it's called and it has a stunning view probably the nicest view of of of a hotel that I've seen. Um and uh it's beautiful and it's a three-star solid three star. This is not a four-star. Yeah. It has a pool. Uh the rooms are nice. The food is fine, you know, but uh this is not the walled off, you understand? And uh it's uh it's more portion and it's smaller. It has 170 rooms total. Anyway, I mentioned on the podcast two times just I mentioned in passing that if anyone wants to come, we can hang out together. Well, we filled over 10 rooms just from those two announcements. And so I gave some shorim over over Pesak etc. And um and I really feel like this is the place I've been looking for. It's small enough that I know I can have a cash with everybody who comes. I mean when I went to gateways uh I gave uh I I I gave sometimes lectures that got 800 people but that's you know it's not as impressive as when you have 1,200 people there. So I got 800. Okay. It's a, you know, it wasn't like when I did a hotel in Ashkalon um 35 years ago and there was only 100 people in the hotel and they came to everything. Everybody came to everything that I did, you know. So um uh so it's 170 rooms and I figure we need 20 rooms for staff and all family and all that kind of stuff which means I only have 150 rooms. There have only been rumors that this is going to go off and almost half of them are not sold yet because we haven't put them on the market, but are people have called me up already. I'm taking eight rooms, I'm taking 10 rooms, I'm taking six rooms, you know, and and people keep calling me and saying when are we going to have the official thing so we can do it? So I met with the manager and I told him originally I said um I will fill those 150 rooms by sukus. Most Pesak programs don't even begin advertising until like Thanksgiving, you know. I said, I will have them all filled by sukas and if I don't, you can take it back whatever you want. And I said afterwards, I made a mistake. They'll be filled by tissue. There so many people are waiting for this. And I am only going to advertise it through my podcast, my website. Only my people, my shurim. That's it. I only want Raviolski crazies coming to this program. I don't want any outsiders and it's just going to be us and and like I say 150 rooms is enough that I know that I can have a kesh with everybody and anyone who wants to join me for my seda will we'll do it uh we'll have a seda together and anyone we're going to have shiim and it's just activities and and it's just going to be so much fun. It's just going to be so unbelievable. And uh when I get to the official advertising, I already have my tagline, assuming I have any rooms left to sell at that point, but it's I don't want to give you the best vacation. I want to give you the best pes was I want you to say that this was even better than staying home from a point of view cuz really I'd like to invite everybody over my house but I just don't have the sleeping you know or frankly the the room for the uh for the meals you know so I want everyone to come and join me and my family for pes that's that's what we're going to do anyway I just sat down and wrote up the program and my children have given me different input and things and I've changed things around and um it is dynamite. That's all I can say. Everybody's looking at this saying this is a great program. So uh we have to now meet with the hotel and finalize everything and and get it up and running. And uh Hashem uh we will be announcing that in the few weeks to come. And uh anyone who my my goal is that even if you have to pay airfare from America, the hotel is reasonably enough priced. Priced reasonably enough. I don't know one of those is the correct way of saying it. and um uh that uh that it's still uh less expensive than going to a program in America and you get to be in there at and you get to be in Tavaria and it's just a it's a lot of fun. A lot of fun. Anyway, that's that's uh that's business. This is business been going on that I haven't uh been able to tell you about. Uh okay, so uh so let's get down to business. All this is just like I say just little bits of business that are left uh left over that I haven't had a chance to share with everybody here because somebody said to me I think already during the first year when we started this says I don't know why you call it the Rabbi Olowski show and some people were upset it should be a share it should be a show he goes that's not what bothers me he goes it's a community and there are people who really share what we do here together. And like I say, the fact that people invite me into their homes and into their lives and I feel like I get to be a part of it. I just saw somebody yesterday, you know, every now and then I get one of these uh, you know, emails. It's somebody's birthday, somebody's anniversary of mitzvah. Could you, you know, film a little clip for them? You know, and this woman's been telling everybody, "Oh, Rivowski sent me your birthday clip. It was so exciting." And, you know, yeah, it's a community. We're all in this together. We're doing we're doing good stuff. And uh and that's something that's really really very special. Okay. So, uh this would have been a lot better two weeks ago if I had a podcast and I could talk about the war that was going on with Iran, you know, and uh and uh somebody said Iran has to change their name to Iran. But uh but the point is that this is an unbelievable thing. Um I there is a fellow by the name of Victor Davis Hansen. He's a professor of classics. He's really really fascinating fellow. Um he's a farmer and he grew up on a farm and he went to university and studied Greek and ancient languages and history and uh you know the classical works etc. And he just seems to know everything about everything. It's just and he speaks it with such pashtas just talks mama. Yeah. And uh and he basically said three years ago Iran was bragging that they surrounded Israel with a ring of fire. Hamas in the south, Hisba in the north. Um the Houthis in Yemen, uh you know in Yehud and Shamron, the you know Kamas has cells over there ready to go out and attack. Yeah. and we're surrounded and of course they were working on a nuclear bomb and Natano has been saying for years that this is what we call an existentialistic threat. What's an existentialistic threat? It's a threat that threatens their very existence because it just takes one uh nuclear bomb to take out this country. Yeah. And it's been going more and more and more and Netanyahu brought in the documentation. He somehow went into Iran and stole all of their boxes and boxes of documents which he made available to everybody. And people said, "Oh, he was saying all the way back in whatever it was 2008, they're going to they're almost about to have a bomb." says, "Yeah, in the meantime, we keep blowing up their scientists and we put a virus into their computers so that it erased their material and we we are able to do certain stop cap measures to slow it down." But um but at this point, and this is Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State of the United States said, um there uranium was 70% enriched. If you want it for domestic use for a nuclear reactor, it only has to be enriched 5%. The only reason to enrich something 70% is to use it for a bomb. That's the only reason. And uh he says, "And they have a rocket program, a space program." He goes, "What do you think? They're going to the moon?" "No, they want to develop ballistic missiles to be able to deliver the nuclear material once they have it." And this has been a sort of damocles hanging over the state of Israel for years and years and years. And Netanyahu has been telling anybody who would listen and it's been going on. Yeah. So this fellow Victor Davis Hansen he says so three years ago this is this was the picture in Israel, Hamas, the West Bank, the Houthis, Syria. Yeah. Um uh threatening us. Um, also Assad, the Assad regime, and of course the nuclear program going on in Iran, he says, "And when you look today, Kamas is not defeated, but they've been dealt a terrible blow. Hisba has been destroyed for the most part." Um, the Houthis, we keep blowing them up, but they keep pulling out more missiles, so we keep working at it. Um, Yehudin Shamron stayed calm. I mean I I want to put this into perspective. If onra when kamas attacked his bullah would have attacked the west bank would have attacked and the houthis would have sent their missiles and I Iran would have sent their missiles. That's it. There's nothing we could have done and kamas jumped the gun. They were supposed to coordinate all of this. That would have been the end of us. But they jumped the gun too early. Uh they say the reason was that they were afraid that Saudi Arabia was going to join the Abraham Accords and make peace with Israel. So they wanted to stop that right away with with this terrible terrible attack. So um it's a uh uh this ring of fire and in a relatively short period of time almost all of them were taken out. Now, Iraq themselves sent missiles and so we went in there and blew up a whole bunch of stuff and uh Iraq realized that this is uh it's not kadai to to get involved with them. So, they put all of their emphasis on their nuclear program. That's the best thing they could manage. And so, uh, Israel finally said, "Zoh, now Donald Trump, for whatever you want to say, I don't care what anybody says, you like him, you don't like him, he has been the best president for the state of Israel from and for the Jewish people in his first term and his second term. There's no question about it." So leading up to this attack, people said, "Oh, Trump is turning on Israel." And he was talking about, "I just want to make a deal with Iran, you know, like Obama did, you know, and get them to negotiate." And he understood that Mama, they weren't going to negotiate because he said, "You have to give up the program completely. No more nukes, no more nuclear program." And they started the same games that they played with Biden and with and with uh with Obama and we'll do this, we'll do that, this and that. You know, I listen to some of these people talk. I just don't know where they're coming from, what planet they're on. you know, it says uh um they um uh they uh they the the you know atomic energy uh commission examines and they didn't find anything. They don't have access to all of the locations and even then they can only come when Iran lets them come in and see what they let them. So I mean come on are you that stupid? You're that stupid that you would say something like that. I just don't know. It's just got to be that people hate Jews. I can't understand any other way that you would you would trust these people over everybody else, you know. Well, it's coming from Israeli intelligence. Yeah. Because they tell the story about this Mossad agent who was dressed as an Arab walking in Thran and he bumps into somebody and just out of habit he goes. And the Arab looks at him, his eyes open, and he goes, "Zebeda." You know, it was another MSD agent. You know what I mean? They're all over the place. They smuggled drones into Iran and and and took out all of the top people. They took out the nuclear people. They took out the heads of the army. They took down their air defenses. So, you think that you know what's going on in Iran better than we do? It's just absolutely ridiculous. and and you really think that Trump who does not want to get America into a war and he said this over and over again. Nonetheless, he says that um uh from the time from before he was president the first time he said Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb. It has to be stopped. And he and that's why in its first term he put on all these sanctions and he but they weren't so far along with the bomb then. So all of these economic sanctions were really having an effect on them. And he felt that if he had another term, he could have gotten them to negotiate. But he didn't. And the first thing Biden did was take off all of the sanctions on Iraq. For what? What? For on Iran for what? Why would you possibly do that? What could you gain from that? And uh right away they started getting all their money back and then they started funding everything and doing and fasttracking the nuclear bomb. So during Trump's years, yeah, it was slowed down. So yeah, Nathaniel was right. He was warning about this years beforehand. He didn't anticipate that we'd have a Trump administration. He didn't take into account that we were able to do this whole computer attack. We didn't uh didn't take into account other things. But now that they have all the money that they've been flushed with from the Biden administration, they've been fasttracking it. And so Trump says, "We got to got to go." And so he says, "I'm you." it's a 60-day deadline. Make a deal after 60 days or you know, anything can happen. So, the Iranians figured, I heard this before. And they just played around and played around and played around with the same usual nonsense. And uh on day 61, the Israelis went in and started blowing up all their nuclear facilities. And Trump said, "Yeah, I knew about it. I knew about it." And he told them, "Wait 60 days." And that's why when you listen to these people and Congress would say, I think we should give negotiations a chance. Negotiations a chance. We've been negotiating with them for 20 years. And he gave them 60 days. If they wanted to cut some kind of deal, they could have. So what what are you going to negotiate now? Wait until they have a nuclear bomb and then say, "Oh, well that's changed things." So we went in and and the one thing we could not get to was the underground complex. And so Trump sent in the B-52s and with bum bunker busters and blew them all up and brought all the people home safely. And uh it would appear that that is the end of Iran's nuclear uh facilities. We did the same thing in Iraq in the 1980s. Been now Saddam Hussein was trying to get a nuclear bomb and we blew it up and the world also condemned us. Of course, when the Iraq war started, everybody was very happy to know that Iraq didn't have any nuclear bombs. Now, Israel did. I don't know if anyone turned around and said, you know, uh it turns out we were wrong. It was a good thing that Israel went after them and blew up their nuclear facilities. Yeah. Well, what are we supposed to do? There's a story who was in Presburg. The city was being besieged by Napoleon and it looked like the city was going to fall. There was going to be a lot of casualties and terrible things. And all of a sudden, Napoleon packed up and left. And called everybody into the sh and said now we're in trouble because was giser on us something terrible and he said you know what I'll give you one more chance and when you get in one more chance and you don't take advantage of it that's going to be real bad that's bad. So um Rab left said that in 1967 gave us a tremendous hashbah. He gave us and bas and he gave us you know all kinds of different like the the holiest places in we didn't appreciate it and we didn't use it and one by one we lost and we lost and we lost we still have access to it but not it's not like we could just go there like we used My father came to it the first time in 1968, 6 months after the six- day war. And the tour buses used to go through Gaza. They knew it was dangerous, you know, so they just basically drove through. And my father says, "Stop the bus." And he gets out and goes to one of the little stores in the shook and starts huddling them over nuts. Wants to buy some nuts. and these negotiates and next thing you know pays them a price you know gets back on the bus da the show I'm not afraid during the inif um my parents came in cuz we had a baby and we had to go down to the American consulate the embassy was not in Jerusalem then it was in Tel Aiv the consulate was here had to go to the consulate the consulate then was in East Jerusalem Not now. It's near Talio. Back then it was in East Jerusalem. And um it was during the inif. So I said to my father, you know, we'll park around Oram. We'll take a cab. It's, you know, a very short ride. He says, we'll drive there. So I'm driving around over here in East Jerusalem. And I said, there's there's no parking. He goes, right over there. There was a gang of like 50 Arabs just hanging out. I said, "Dad, I don't think it's a good idea." He says, "It's okay. Park over there." My mother was there, too, you know. And I stopped the car. He goes, "Come on, mother." And my parents get out of the car and walk through the group of Arabs to get to the counsel. I came out expecting to be killed at any minute, you know. Um, but my father wanted to show, you know, you're not afraid, not afraid to be nice, not afraid of where we are. and very left said one by one we lost all these things because we didn't appreciate it. He goes I hope we start to appreciate at least the kaisle because we can lose that too. and some of the people working on different peace plans were ready to give control of the old city over to the Palestinians. They don't have a great track record when it comes to religious freedoms. But um but the situation that Israel had compared to where we are today, I I saw a writeup of everything that Hezbollah has done since its founding. how many people they killed, how many terrible things they did, how many attacks, and that we were able to take them out so quickly. It means that the Kushbar was giving us another chance. And and you know, unfortunately, we're still in Gaza. People are still getting killed left and right. I love it when they use the word genocide. That to me is great. You know, we have total air superiority. We could just go in and flatten the place. And we have our soldiers getting killed because they're going house to house and and and coming up against booby traps and our and our children are dying because we're trying to not kill civilians and they tell us genocide. I would say, listen, if that's the case, then just, you know, give them what they want, you know, just blow it up, you know, but I'm not in charge of anything, so it's probably better that way, you know. But bit by bit and America is behind us 100%. When you listen to Pete Heesg who's the secretary of defense and you listen to Marco Rubio the secretary of state, you listen to Trump talk you know the the halva in Israel the government was as pro- Israel as the American government is. And coach broke is giving us a chance. No, Aba Iben who was the first UN ambassador from Israel famously said the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. And I would argue we can say the same thing about CLA. Our history is filled with moments of opportunity. Now we came out of Mits. We came to Hari. We got the Torah and 40 days later we built the Ael which by the way is the period of time we're in now in the month of Tamuz counting down and KB forgave us and then a year later we sent out the Moragum and we cried and we gave up and we died in the midbar and time after time we found ourselves in situations where Kuru has shown us an opportunity I mentioned this that the firm community in particular were doing very well before the 2008 economic collapse. And I went that purim to Mosha Shapiro and I said to him, you know, people were asking me why did I lose all my money and says, no. I said and I want to tell them I asked this question to Moshu Shapiro and he said so he gave me a look and he said ask them if they asked that question when they made their money. If they asked when they made their money why did Hashem give us this money then they can ask why it was taken away. But if they made the money because they were smart investors and they figured out how to do this and they had this and that. Okay. So the market changed. Now you lost your money. You got a bad you lost. I don't know what you're upset about. If when something good happens you say did this for me. 1967 was a miracle unlike anything that has been seen in recent years. I have recent decades, recent centuries. It was they tell a story. I've never tried to verify the story. I'm not Pron, but I heard the story that um they recreate all the major battles of history changing different kind of uh parameters and sometimes this side wins, sometimes that side wins. But they said, "No matter how many times we run the Six-Day War and what parameters we change, Israel never wins." It was impossible. From a military point of view, it was impossible. I uh was once on a bus sitting next to one of the tank commanders who captured the Golan Heights in 1967. He said, "Most of our tanks were so old they couldn't make it up the hill." So I said, "Anyone whose tank works come with me." The Golden Heights were considered impossible to capture. And we captured it. And all the most amazing things that we did, the beginning of what's known as the Baluva movement began with the Six-Day War. That was the that was the turning point. They had a big parade in with a big banner is now you know the right Israel trusts in the IDF. And uh I I've always felt that that led to the Yamkipa war where the great IDF was caught completely off guard and uh and we were only miraculously saved. No one appreciates how terrible the Mipa war was. Turned out later that gold mayier and her cabinet were carrying cyanide tablets to commit suicide rather than to be captured by the Arabs because they were sure that was it. it was over. And so we had an unbelievable miracle. We, you know, Kahalani on top of the Golan Heights with with with four tanks held off the entire Syrian army. I was just amazing things. And there was a period of time where Israel was a little more sober. And then the conclusion was Israel's army is so good that we can give you a two-day head start and we'll still win. Then we came to the Gulf War where Iraq just shot missiles at us and we did nothing. We hid in our rooms. My good friend Rever Grnowski, who's been on the podcast um when he came to Israel, so even if you were old, they didn't draft you in the army. They put you in haga civil defense and uh he would have to do his miluim, you know. And what was that? He was put in charge of the siren. His whole miluim was two days a year. Any zikaron and yaw. He would push the siren and that was it. And he thought it was so funny. And he was part of the army, etc. In the Gulf War, they did not call up the Air Force. They did not call up the Navy. They didn't call up the Marines. They didn't call up the paratroopers. The only people who were called up was the Siren Corps. And he had to stay in a room 24 hours a day. Apparently, these things were not automated back then. Yeah. So that when the they had eight hour shifts, three people, and something would happen, they would push the siren. That's that was the only people who were called up for that war and need some interflows. And so now where we were surrounded with a ring of fire Iran's words and we were able to take everything out so quickly, so amazing. And America backed us up instead of right away saying, "Oh, you're no good. you're this, you're that. They sent in their own planes to blow up the one thing that we couldn't get rid of. Have we had casualties? 100%. People have died. People have been injured. A terrible thing. But the it was nothing compared to a nuclear bomb. And uh and the fact that we went in and we're able to to stop this was just absolutely amazing. Yeshua Sashem. And now asam said, now what are we going to do now? What do you do? Are we appreciative? The Gmorra says Melik after his miraculous salvation from San who had this unbelievable army besieging Jerusalem. They had conquered everything the whole world. This was it the last battle. And he was wiped out that night was wiped out was on such a maj. And the only reason that he wasn't is because it says he didn't sing. I remember Shapiro speaking about this. What a threat this nuclear program is to us. We don't understand what it means. If they finish this nuclear bomb, it's that could be the end of of He was he was sick over it many times. He told me and the threat has been removed. So to give thanks to I don't know I'm not a big person I don't know how to do anything official but I think as a whole has to give a tremendous and I mean a public an unbeliev recognition that this has been removed this this sword on our neck Even if there's a sharp sword on your neck, don't give up. And it was so close and that we were able to take it out. And so many things were able to do. And the whole war is to the best of my knowledge all we lost in Iran was a drone that got shot down. Sorry. It's unbelievable that we should live in such a dora. So my son Yakov, who's my political commentator, he says, "How can anyone think now that we're not in Yosam Mashiach where we went from having everyone surrounding us to destroy us to us being able to destroy his bal was considered impossible to defeat the nuclear impossible to to do and Kushbar who gave us the to be able to do it. So we have to appreciate where we are. We have to know what's going on that this was something of such historical context of what this meant for us, what it meant for Clausro and everything that goes with it. It's just beyond belief. So uh that's what I wanted. That's what what now if it was at the beginning of the war, what would I have shared? I don't know. But uh there's nothing like hindsight. The dubda they asked him once how'd you come up with so many wonderful musham he says I'll give you a mush person comes to this uh noblemen and he sees that on different trees there are targets and the arrow is right in the bullseye and he says to him how do you do it? How do you how do you such a crack shot? He says I'll show you. and he goes to a tree and he shoots an arrow and hits the tree and then he draws the target. He says, "So I get the I get the target afterwards, you understand? I start with the story and then I figure out what to do with it." Yeah. So it's not that I suddenly come up with the this great mush, you know? Yeah. You collect them, you hold on to them and you try to figure out where it goes. Um I remember reading uh an essay by some science fiction writer and he was talking about his process etc. And he says sometimes I just come up with a title and I don't know what to do with it. And he gave an example. He says I have this great title the leaser of two evils but I have no idea what the story is. I don't have the title. So um um so hindsight is is terrific. It's very easy afterwards to be able to to say but Bashas Misa what would I have said? I don't even know. Not that it's no G because uh I have the I have the the gift of hindsight to see where we are. And uh this much I know you know don't we should not be foolish asam said right don't miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity as Abi even said this is our chance now and we should take full advantage of it okay and that brings us to the question and answer portion of our program by Yehuda Zimberg. Hi Rebi, I'm writing to seek your guidance in understanding the nuances between Musa and from my current perspective it appears that emphasizes finding contentment with one's spiritual state while Musa focuses on striving to raise the bar and not settling for complacency. Could you please shed some light on this distinction for me? Your insights would be greatly greatly appreciated as I navigate these concepts. Thank you for your time and guidance. Let's talk about Musa first. Yeah. Salanta started the Musa movement as he explains in Israel because people were losing the purpose of what Torah and mitzvah were all about. They were focusing on the form and the performance. They weren't focusing on the meaning and the understanding. And uh he he writes and one of the things that inspired him it was a Sarah made chuva and he had to talk to somebody and the person was so upset that you know he just ded and he was doing chuva and his face was a mask of pain and said I just have to ask you something. He's like, and he walked away. So said, first I thought to myself, wow, what a firm guy. And then I said, if he's doing chuba, why do I have to suffer by seeing this? That's he has an obligation to to the rest of Mabo called himself. three people with a pleasant face. As he said a different time, your face is a rasha rabbit and everybody is being affected by it. So at first glance, you'd think, wow, this guy is diving to cha so beautiful. Where at whose expense? At what expense? There's always a price to pay. And that's why there was a story where I had this to hear from Shapiro. I would never have the to call myself a Talmet. Um this and uh and everyone says you didn't know him when he was when he was younger. He was mamish fire. I thought he was pretty fiery as as it is, but they say he was mish says but he was never the same since his daughter died. His daughter got sick and he stormed the heavens to try to save his life. And they say after she died, he was never the same. He's coming back from the Kura having just buried his daughter. And he's broken physically, emotionally, mentally. He's bent over and he's walking to the car and he sees somebody out of the corner of his eyes, someone standing off to the side. and he picks himself up and he puts on a pleasant face and he exchanges a few words with this fellow and then he turns back to get in the car and someone said, "What was that all about?" He says, "He's a he's getting married today. I didn't want him to think I wasn't happy for him." That's what Salanto was saying. And that's why his famous example that he brings is why do we cover the bread Friday night? One of the reasons is because you're supposed to make the brah on the bread before the brah on the wine. But because of kd we make the brah on the wine. So we cover the kal so that the bread shouldn't be insulted. Says so what happens? A husband comes home from Shaw, sees the kalas aren't covered, and he yells at his wife because you're so worried for the covet of the bread that you uh don't focus on the cover of an actual person that you're supposed to learn from how to treat people. And David Labitz, the founder of took it a step further. He says, "If I saw the kalas weren't covered, I wouldn't even cover them because then my wife would realize she forgot to cover them and she'd feel bad." So, so Mer is to to take the intellect of Judaism and take the emotion and put it together to to to connect it to yourself. And there are three different schools of Musa. Each one focuses on a different level. Narik worked on bitesh because if you don't take yourself seriously then nothing ever bothers you. Why do people get angry? Because how could that person do that to me? But if you spent your whole life saying ah I'm nothing. I'm nobody. Nothing's going to get you upset. And that was what nardic and that's why very interesting they narcis were the happiest people in the world because nothing ever got them upset because they spent their whole time being mat themselves. Slabatka was the opposite. Slabatka worked on Godless Adam. Look at how great you are. Look at who you are. Look at this. You know, if you understood how great you are, then you couldn't possibly do something that lowly. Kelm is more about a focus on a person's sense of time, responsibility, you know, taking responsibility for yourself, you for the things around you, etc. Um, it's hard it's hard to give a pigeon hole definition of kel, but the other two are obviously to the extremes. I had this to learn in which uh was founded by David Leitz who learned in Slabatka as did Rabi Rudman who founded Narel as did Rey Jakob Kamki. Um uh as did um you know a number of famous yeshivas. They all had their founding in Slabatka. Labatka Mosa was much more very few Nardika yes after the war which followed in the real Mahalik of Nardik. Now because of that the message of Sabatka Mosa of God and how great you are etc. So I'll tell you an amazing story. The first time I went to Project Inspire, and by the way, I'm going to be doing a Project Inspire Shabas in England coming up. So, uh, for all my English friends, uh, be watching for that. I'll give you more details. But anyway, um, the, uh, there is a group called the traveling. There's a group of that go from small community to small community and make aid of shabas for the people to see them. And they came over to me at my first project inspire convention and they said we're yourim. Now I said you know I have people who say they're myim but I never had actual say they're myim. And he they said to me something that was traumatic and that is you are the only person still teaching today. And I was like I don't I call I I I I teach I don't teach you knowis he goes no because what is the after and after was broken. So the wholeida movement was designed to make people feel good about themselves again. That's why they would wear the garb which was the garb of the nobility. If you ever saw a picture of the zar, he wore striml. That was his crown. And the silk capans was what the nobility in Eastern Europe wore. So dress like you're somebody act like you're that was the message and he this is what they said. I don't know they said and now in the yeshivas it's the same thing like uh you know every place else by the you know it's and he says but that love of and that love of that that's what you're giving over that's realus and I was amazed by that I was I was I was amazed by that but I understand the message theas always follow focused on positivism. Musa Sabatka Musa did also. Yeah. I'll never forget one time I was speaking someplace and I did what I usually do and it was I said some inspiring ideas and some jokes, some funny stories and Bulman Zatal comes over to me and goes, "You're not fooling me. You're just an old Slabatka nick. I remember the original. The the originals, they used to do the same thing. They'd come in, they'd tell some jokes, tell some stories, give you some mus, help you build, become a better person. You're just doing a slabka, you know, approach. This is not you. I said, Rabbi, that's probably the nicest thing anyone ever said to me. Yeah. And and that was the idea is that it's supposed to be positive. Of course, Musa at the end has the message of like you said, uh, who you are is not enough. You have to be better than you are. You have to strive, you have to grow, you have to change. Yeah, I would like to believe that teaches that as well. Certainly when I look at the writings of the and I mean you know these ideas definitely come across. So you know there are differences between and and mus but on this nuda when and like I say when I say mus I mean musa listen very hard to find a good psychologist because there's only so much you can learn in a book and at the end of the day you have to have an ability you have to have a hush and talent then you can learn what to do with it but people who don't get people that can read all the books they want they're not going to be able to manage Yeah. And the same thing is true by a mash to be a ala ofk or aim or a um or these kind of people you need you need gifts that you can develop. And at some point uh people were drawn to the field as the masil sham says in his introduction because they didn't really have what it takes to become uh you know uh a ramen yeshiva so they went to muser as a as a fallback but they don't have that gift and so basically they become a policeman. So that in the vernacular he gave me muser it meant he yelled at me when it should be he gave me muser he empowered me to go on and become a better person and realize my potential. So that's what mus is supposed to be in its best sense and uh you know so uh so if is doing that then it overlaps and that's what they said to me it overlaps with you know there's a story um with yakabinberg where someone brought him to labavba And said, "You have to learn." And he said, "Why?" He says, "So you can learn of of to get close to that." He says, "That's not that's tora." I heard this story from I don't know if he wants me to say it over, but I heard it from somebody who heard it from the rash of Jacob. So he says, "Since the bostov, you can only get it through. You can't get it anywhere else." So the way the story goes said that's all Judaism should be focused on you know um all of these things are foundational to Yiddish it should not be limited to any group and uh and that's the message you know um I used to have people would come to my shirim and they would say I come here because it's the only place where I walk out feeling good that I'm a firm Jew. Other shirm I go to I feel like I'm getting beaten up. I feel like people are putting me down. And I feel like you know he says here you walk out inspired and that's what I got from my and that's what I've Shapiro would always say is that you have you know have to build yourself and you have to make yourself somebody great and take responsibility and uh and if that is the message of like I say there are areas of divergence but that's more in philosophy I don't think necessarily in this particular product. And that's it for this episode. Welcome back everybody. If you want to find out more about the show, you can go to my website rabbi.com and uh you can leave a comment, you can submit a question, you can um sign up for one of our online sharim. Um I have a ladies masarim, I have a tila shir, and I have a daffi. And uh if you want to sign up for any of those um you can uh download articles and uh other other shurim you can sponsor an episode sponsor a uh question and answer sponsor a paran five we weren't able to do bidbar so uh we will start again in darim and that's it for this episode again thanks to our friends over at any time And uh that's it for now. Until next time, I am David Olowski and this has been the Rabbi Olowski show. It's the Rabbi Orlowski Show. Torah and Sima, ready to go. The Rabbi Orlovski 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 orski show on rabbi orki.com to anytime you and more. It's the Rabbi orski show. 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