Podcasts about Eastern Parkway

In April, Israel's Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir toured the United States in his first-ever trip to the country as a government official. Many Jewish groups refused to meet with Ben-Gvir, a follower of Meir Kahane whose extremism stands out even in an Israeli political scene awash in anti-Palestinian racism. But Ben-Gvir was welcomed by Chabad rabbis at Yale in New Haven, in South Florida, as well as at 770 Eastern Parkway, the Chabad headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The latter appearance sparked protests outside 770, which were met with violence by Chabadniks. In particular, a mob chanting “Death to Arabs” chased a female passerby for several blocks, kicking, spitting, and throwing objects at her. Other videos showed Chabadniks lighting a keffiyeh on fire, shoving and kicking members of the Hasidic anti-Zionist group Neturei Karta, and bloodying a female protester (herself a Jewish Israeli). To discuss Chabad's alignment with Ben-Gvir, its long-standing antipathy to leftist movements, and its uneasy relations within Crown Heights, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel spoke with Jewish studies scholars Shaul Magid and Hadas Binyamini. They discuss Chabad's historic anti-Zionism, the quasi-Zionist cultural shifts that have solidified after October 7th, and the tensions the movement is currently navigating between its outreach orientation and its increasingly exclusionary politics.Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”Texts Mentioned and Further Resources:The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference, David Berger“Israel's Class War Conservatives,” Joshua Leifer, Jewish Currents “The three-decade saga that led to the Crown Heights tunnels,” Chananya Groner, The Guardian“The Happy-Go-Lucky Jewish Group That Connects Trump and Putin,” Ben Schreckinger, PoliticoLetter to Hitler from the German Free Association for the Interests of Orthodox Jewry, 1933“Lubavitcher Hassidim Oppose Public Demonstrations on Behalf of Soviet Jews,” JTA“The New Heimish Populism,” Joshua Leifer, Jewish CurrentsRace and Reli­gion Among the Cho­sen...

When Prospect Park was first opened to the public in the late 1860s, the City of Brooklyn was proud to claim a landmark as beautiful and as peaceful as New York's Central Park. But the superstar landscape designers — Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux — weren't finished.This park came with two grand pleasure drives, wide boulevards that emanated from the north and south ends of the park. Eastern Parkway, the first parkway in the United States, is the home of the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, its leafy pedestrian malls running through the neighborhood of Crown Heights. But it's Ocean Parkway that is the most unusual today, an almost six-mile stretch which takes drivers, bikers, runners and (at one point) horse riders all the way to Coney Island, at a time when people were just beginning to appreciate the beach's calming and restorative values.Due to its wide, straight surface, Ocean Parkway even became an active speedway for fast horses. When bicycles became all the rage in the late 1880s, they also took to the parkway and avid cyclists eventually got their first bike lane in 1894 — the first in the United States.FEATURING: A tale of two cemeteries — one that was demolished to make way for one parkway, and another which apparently (given its ‘no vacancy' status) thrives next to another.  Get your tickets for the Bowery Boys Evening Cruise of New York Harbor by visiting Like Minds TravelVisit the website for more information about other Bowery Boys episodes

Yahrtzeit Yomi #1276!! א כסלו The Rebbe Recovers (1977) Rosh Chodesh Kislev Niggun Rosh Chodesh Kislev marks the return of the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZTL to public life after suffering a major heart attack just 38 days earlier. During the celebrations of the evening of Simchas Torah in the year 1977 (5738), while dancing with the Torah in the main synagogue, the Rebbe's face suddenly turned pale. As he sat back in his chair, the chassidim knew that something was very wrong, and the synagogue was quickly cleared. Still, the Rebbe stoically completed the last dance together with his brother-in-law Rabbi Shmaryahu Gurary. Dr. Ira Weiss, who flew in from Chicago to treat the Rebbe, testified that “on a scale of one to ten, he had the full-ten-scale-heart attack……it involved such extensive cardiovascular damage that in anyone's normal medical experience, one would worry about the possibility of survival.” And then, on the First of Kislev, for the first time in five weeks, the Rebbe left his office in 770 Eastern Parkway and returned to his home, signaling his complete and miraculous recovery. Chassidim all over rejoiced at the good news. Rosh Chodesh Kislev marked the beginning of sixteen additional years of life and leadership for the Rebbe. During this period he revealed ever deeper Torah secrets, and inspired many thousands of people to transform themselves and the world for good. From that day forward, the Rebbe redoubled his efforts on behalf of the Jewish nation, and for the dissemination of Torah and chassidus. The first of Kislev has since been celebrated by Lubavitcher chassidim as a day of thanksgiving and rejoicing. The following Niggun, composed by Reb Feitel Levin at the time of the Rebbe's return, which would become known as the “Alef Kislev Niggun”, captures the great joy experienced by the Chassidim due to the Rebbe's miraculous recovery. ---------------------------------------------------- Share the Yahrtzeit Yomi link with your contacts!! https://chat.whatsapp.com/JimbwNtBaX31vmRDdnO3yk --------------------------------------------------- To dedicate or sponsor, please contact 917-841-5059, or email yahrtzeityomidaily@gmail.com. Sponsorships can be paid by Zelle to the same number. First come, first served. Monthly sponsorships are $540. Weekly sponsorships are $180. Daily sponsorships are as follows: Dedications (l'Zecher Nishmas, Zechus shidduch/refuah/yeshuah, etc.) are $50. Sponsorships (fliers, advertising, promotions, additional links, etc.) are $100.

My recollections of years spent engaging in mas celebrations in New York City, I have vivid memories of Eastern Parkway and the vibrant Miami Carnival.

Students at Laura Donovan Elementary School in Freehold, New Jersey will start the year scattered at other elementary schools after mold was discovered in school building classrooms. Also, New York City high school students taking the ferry to school can get a ticket for $3 less than the regular ticket price for a total of $1.35 per ride. In other news, a historic military building in Ft. Tilden in the Rockaways will soon be demolished. And lastly, Happy Labor Day! As the West Indian Day Parade takes over Brooklyn's Eastern Parkway, WNYC's Janae Pierre talks with content creator Nicolas Nuvan who has gained a major social media following by sharing stories, trying local dishes, and shining a spotlight on the vibrant traditions of Caribbean communities.

“The Jewish people don't really give up. They're fighters. … a vision of peace, and a vision of hope, and of empathy. I really, truly believe that that is at the core of who we are. And that is what we are actually fighting for.” Matisyahu's recent show in Chicago was canceled due to the threat of anti-Israel protests. The Jewish American singer's music has evolved alongside his Jewish identity. But one thing has always been clear: He believes in Israel's right to exist. Because of that, he has faced protests at almost every show on his current national tour, and some have even been canceled. Hear from Matisyahu on his musical and religious journey, especially since October 7, and what makes him Jewish and proud. *The views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views or position of AJC.  Episode Lineup:  (0:40) Matisyahu Show Notes: Song Credits, all by Matisyahu: One Day  Jerusalem Fireproof Listen – People of the Pod on the Israel-Hamas War: Unheard, Until Now: How Israeli Women Are Powering Israel's Resilience 152 Days Later: What the Mother of Hostage Edan Alexander Wants the World to Know What It's Like to Be Jewish at Harvard Among Antisemites and Hamas Supporters When Antisemites Target Local Businesses: How Communities Are Uniting in Response Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org If you've appreciated this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Transcript of Interview with Matisyahu: Manya Brachear Pashman:   Matisyahu is a Jewish American reggae singer, rapper and beatboxer, whose musical style and genre have evolved alongside how he practices and expresses his Jewish identity. But one thing has always been clear. He believes in Israel's right to exist, and he has expressed that repeatedly since the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel.  Since then, he has performed in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. He has performed for the families of hostages and for students at Columbia University as a show of solidarity for those who have faced a torrent of antisemitism there. But there are places where he has not performed, including Santa Fe, New Mexico, Tucson, Arizona and Chicago, but not for lack of trying.  Those shows were canceled by the venue's because of the threat of protests. Matisyahu is with us now to discuss these cancellations and what's behind them. Matis, welcome to People of the Pod. Matisyahu:   Hello, People of the Pod. Manya Brachear Pashman:   So first of all, I want to introduce you to those in our audience who might not be familiar with your music. And we'll start with the anthem that I associate most with you. And that is One Day. Can you tell us a little bit about how that song came about–when and why? Matisyahu:   Well, that song was written in around 2010, I want to say or nine, maybe 2008 or nine. And I was working on my second studio album. It's called Light. And we had turned in the album and the new record executives didn't feel like we had any hits on the album. The album had been based on this story of Reb Nachman of Breslov called The Seven Beggars. And it was a bit of a concept album.  So I went to LA and I worked with a couple of writers and tried to write a hit song. And that's what we came up with was One Day, and that song got used in the Olympics in 2010, Winter Olympics on the NBC commercials. So that's kind of what propelled that song into popularity. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Popular, yes. But what does One Day mean to you? Matisyahu:   A lot of my music is very positive and very much connected to this vision of a Messianic future of peace. You know, at the time, I was very religious. And in my particular group, Chabad Hasidism, the idea of a Messiah was very prevalent in the philosophy.  I was living in a space of a vision of a future where the wolf lies down with the lamb and people turn their weapons into plowshares. And that was the thing that I was praying for and trying to envision daily. And so that was the main message of that song at the time.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   It is certainly something we've always needed, especially now.  You grew up in White Plains, NY, in the Reconstructionist tradition, I believe. You found your way to Chabad. Can you talk a little bit about where you are in your spiritual journey now, these days. Matisyahu:   I went through a very, very intense relationship with Orthodox Judaism, Chassidus. I started from a home, from a Reconstructionist background, so not Chassidus, for anyone who doesn't know these terms. More of a reform kind of background. And I went to Israel when I was 16, on a Conservative trip where I spent three months there, which had a profound effect on me.  And then when I was in college, about 21, 20 years old or so, is when I started really exploring the more Orthodox side of Judaism, and started out with the Carlebach shul, on the Upper West Side, and his music and reading books about Shlomo Carlebach, and the type of person he was and what type of work he was doing. And then from there, I pretty much jumped into Chabad, and moved to Crown Heights and lived in the yeshiva there on Eastern Parkway for a couple of years. And all of that, sort of prior to Matisyahu the singer coming out.  And then I spent many years, within 10 years or so, sort of exploring Chabad and then Breslov and different types of Hasidism. Different types of Chassidus within that realm.  And I guess at some point, it started to feel a little bit, not constructive for me to be there and felt more claustrophobic. And I felt that I was not really connecting so much anymore with a lot of the ideas and a lot of the rules. And so I started to just kind of live more of like a normal life, I guess, or a non-religious life.  And I'm still doing my music and making my music and writing from a place of deep Jewish yearning, empathy, and hope, you know, and using lots of the canon of the Old Testament still, to use as metaphors in my lyric, writing, and stuff like that.  But more focused on more of a humanistic kind of approach to the world, less concerned with my religion, or God, or being Jewish and more concerned with, you know, writing about being a father or a husband, or dealing with addiction, or dealing with loneliness, or dealing with different ups and downs of life. So that for me was a process going through that over the last maybe 15 years or so.  And then after October 7, you know, I mean, I've had some issues before, in 2015, with the BDS. I was thrown off of a festival. And so there again, I felt a very strong sense of Jewish pride when that happened. And especially like, when I went to Israel, after that had happened, I felt this sort of new connection with Israelis in the sense that a lot of them, writers, singers, actors, whoever, get shut down when they go overseas to try to perform. And so I felt like I had a strong connection with them and understanding of what some of them go through. And I guess that only reinforced my connection with Israel.  Then after October 7 happened, it's been this very, very strong pull back towards feeling very Jewish and feeling like that is the center and the core of who I am, and especially right now, that's what feels the most powerful and authentic to me. Manya Brachear Pashman:   So you have been to Israel since October 7, performing for soldiers on bases, hospitals, visiting some of the kibbutzim targeted by Hamas, the Nova festival site. Did it scare you to walk those sites? Can you share how you felt or what you took away from that experience? Matisyahu:   I don't know that I was scared when I was there. I was obviously touched profoundly by the stories that I heard and what I saw firsthand, so it was more of a feeling of just destruction. And then just seeing these incredible human beings that had just survived and are just the most amazing people.  And then there was this feeling of hope and this feeling of wow, look how these people come together and how I'm a part of that, and that became a really strong place for me in terms of finding hope for my tour and going out into America. And dealing with cancellations and protesters and stuff like that.  So I really wanted to try to grab that feeling that I had when I was in Israel and sort of bottle it up and take it with me and sort of get drunk on it at my shows with everybody and make everyone feel like there's a place where they can feel comfortable to be Jewish, and they can feel okay with being a supporter of Israel. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Do you feel that your colleagues in the music industry understand that and understand where you're coming from?  Matisyahu:   Well, some people seem to silently understand it, and I'll get some texts and stuff from some people here and there. But no, I don't think people do. I think there's really for the most part, as you see, the mainstream art world and music world either doesn't know where they sit, or they're not supporters of Israel. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Do you think if they went to Israel, they would have a different perspective on that, that it would shift that mindset? Matisyahu:   Absolutely. I mean, any person like, in my band, who's ever come to Israel, been with me, who's not Jewish, or is Jewish, but has had no connection, like didn't have parents or grandparents that taught them about Israel. Or didn't have that experience of going to Israel, like I did when I was 16. I think anyone who goes to Israel feels a connection to this, and especially, especially now, you know, there's no way to deny it. I don't think. Manya Brachear Pashman:   So, is it important for Jewish celebrities in particular, or influencers, to speak out about the violence on October 7? Matisyahu:   See, I think it's important, because it's important to me, you know. But what I've learned is, there's no point in getting angry at people thinking that it should be important to them, if it's not important to them. And if they're not speaking out, and it's because of fear, then the fear is larger than how important it is to them.  And everyone has to deal with their own stuff, you know, but to me, it seems that the fact that there's such a lack of people speaking out is a symptom of a sickness that the Jewish people may have been carrying, that just seemed dormant for some time, which is that somehow that it wasn't important to to a lot of American Jews. So for me, it was just like, tapping into what is the feeling after October 7, and it was immediate, and it was in my bones and in the depth of the core of my being. And I feel very blessed that, on my journey in life, I was able to connect that deeply, to being Jewish, and to Israel, and realizing how those things are connected. And I went on a journey, like I didn't come necessarily from a place where that was instilled into me, you know, to some extent, it was, you know, but I went on my own journey, and I spent a lot of time you know, sifting through all of that and figuring those things out for myself. And so I feel blessed to be in the position that I'm in where I know kind of who I am and what I believe, and people can take strength from that. Manya Brachear Pashman:   So I lived in Chicago for 15 years so I'm very familiar with the House of Blues as a venue. I loved going to see shows there and was heartbroken to hear that The House of Blues canceled your recently scheduled show. I understand that they paid the contractual penalty, you're going to donate that to an organization that advocates for the return of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. But can you tell us a little bit about the conversations you had with them, or with Chicago police or anyone else prior to the cancellation, and what explanations were given? Matisyahu:   Well, I'll go into it a little bit. I mean, there's still some confusion as to exactly what happened. But I essentially got a call from someone high up at Live Nation saying that the show needed to be canceled because of a lack of police force. And then with a friend of mine, David Draiman, who's the lead singer for a band Disturb also from Chicago with a lot of his close friends, we were able to explore that. And it seemed as though the police department was aware there was going to be a protest, but that they were not concerned.  So then it became a mystery as to where's the concern coming from really, which then led us to this whole Alderman thing, and then we thought it might have been this one. But now then, you know, turns out maybe it was other Alderman that were putting pressure on the police force or on Live Nation. And so there's, there's some mystery and honestly, as much as it is important to find out where this is coming from. And so how we can try to stop it. It has not been my main focus in this past week. This past week, I was out on tour, I played four shows, there were protesters at all of them, except one, Salisbury, Massachusetts. And all four shows went on, and they all sold out. And they were all really powerful. So what happened in Chicago was pretty devastating for us. Because, you know, it's scary to think that people are making choices and being able to shut down huge organizations, and creative expression and artistic freedom. So it was devastating. But, you know, we bounced right back and jumped right back into tour. I got another big week of shows this week.  So that's basically all I know, to tell you the truth. And while I would love to point the finger and say it was this person or that person, what I'm learning is, as things start getting uncovered, you know, it's hard to know, I'm not an investigative reporter, but I'm sure that like, it's tricky finding out what the real story is a full time job probably. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Were there similarly mysterious circumstances surrounding Tucson and Santa Fe?  Matisyahu:   No, that was less mysterious. And in those cases, it was a little more clear as to what was going on. In Santa Fe, it was literally staff members that didn't want to come to the show. And for whatever reason, let the venue know at the last minute. There may have been someone at the venue behind that, we don't really know. And then in Arizona, it was, seemed like it was more from the promoter, or the buyer of the show where people were putting pressure on her to cancel the show.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   I asked you a bit ago, if it was important for Jewish celebrities or influencers to speak out about October 7 violence? I'll ask you instead, is it important for them to speak out about this kind of cancellation or censorship or limitation on creative expression?  Matisyahu:   I think so. You know, because it's like that old story, they came for, they came from me and these people, and I didn't say anything, they came for these people. And then they came from me. I mean, that's what we see out here. You know, that's what that's what artistic expression, creativity is about, it's about being able to express your views and your ideas through music. It's peaceful, you know. So, it's unfortunate. It's what we have to deal with.  There are people that realize how important it is. And those people like David are really  trying to help and trying to be outspoken and there are a lot of Jews out there that understand how important this is. I'm feeling support from most people, but not enough. For sure. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Speaking of creative expression, I am curious whether October 7 has influenced any of your musical creation, songwriting, how has that influenced the creative process for you?  Matisyahu:   One way, I have a song that's coming out it's called Ascent, and I wrote it before October 7, but after the Kanye antisemitic lash out and it's about antisemitism. So while I was in Israel, we shot the video at the site of the Nova festival and in some of the kibbutzim and with some of the survivors, so that is like one very obvious way in which I was influenced. And that video kind of takes footage from the Holocaust and World War Two and intermixes it with October 7 footage as well.  And then in terms of my own music, last year, I recorded about 40 songs, and started releasing them with this EP. But I kind of like right when all this began, right as I was starting touring, so it's sort of, for me a different creative hat, like a bit of a different place than writing. So I'm not writing new material, but I'm performing the new songs along with old songs.  And what I'm finding creatively is that a lot of the lyrics and a lot of the themes, even though over the years, some of them have been personal, they all kind of connect and tie into the greater story of the Jewish people, and the obstacles that we face. And our survival.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   That's one of the reasons why I brought up One Day, is I loved the song back when it came out. But it does take on a whole new meaning when you listen to it today. It's very powerful.  This is not the first time that your shows had been canceled due to anti Israel sentiments, I believe it was in 2015, there was a music festival in Spain that canceled your appearance, when you wouldn't promise to bring up Israeli politics on stage. Instead, you toured a dozen American college campuses that year. And I'm curious what you learned from that experience that you're applying to now? And also what you've learned on some of these college tours? Matisyahu:   Well, that's a great question. Because for a lot of people all this is like the first time they're experiencing it. And I feel like part of the blessing of my journey that I've had is that I have gone through this to a lesser version. Like you said in 2015. What they wanted me to do was to sign some kind of document saying that I was against the atrocities of Israel. So I wouldn't sign that and that was the same thing. It was like, No, I'm not going to do that. Like, that doesn't that doesn't line up with who I am. I mean, I don't care honestly, what this statement is, I'm not going to sign something, I'm not going to be singled out as the only artist out of hundreds. That's being forced to sign something, because I'm Jewish, or because of my belief system. So I just kind of played it cool. You know, I was just like, No, I won't do it, and they threw me off the festival. It was like this story of Purim, like, they were trying to hang Mordechai. But Haman got hung really. They were patting themselves on the back, like, we threw this guy off the festival. And then there was an uproar about it. There were backers that were pulling out of the festival.  And so they ended up having to apologize. And asked me to come back and still play the festival, all this happened within three or four days. And so I did go back, and I did play the festival. And, and then I went to Israel, you know, and then I went on this college tour, with Palestinian artists. And we went and performed together because we felt that was an important thing to do.  So I think from what I learned from that was sort of like this idea of sort of, like trying to just be like water. If I just sort of do what feels what the right thing is what I feel is the right thing, and just don't kind of lose my cool. And I'm able to just sort of move within it, then basically, it's going to come out in a way that hopefully, will be victorious. And that's been my strategy so far with this tour as well.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   So my last, my last question to you is, we talked about your journey, your faith journey and your musical journey. What makes you Jewish and proud today? Matisyahu:   You know, you see, the Jewish people don't really give up. They're fighters. And there's always, in my mind, I believe, a vision of peace, and a vision of hope, and of empathy. I really, truly believe that that is at the core of who we are. And that is what we are actually fighting for.  Even when the rest of the world is trying to say that we're the monsters, we won't let that stop us. Nothing will stop us. It's just who we are.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   Beautiful, thank you so much, Matis, for joining us.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   If you missed last week's episode, be sure to tune in for my conversation with Israeli filmmaker Shifra Soloveichik about her digital initiative Women of Valor: Women of War, portraits of individual Israeli women during this challenging moment in modern Jewish history.  

Join the Independent Cork Board Researchers Union to gain access to the complete catalog of #1 PPM paranoid hits, the Discord, & the full version of "Year of the Tunnel (Pt. II)", which is dropping soon. Your support helps to keep the PPM Office lights on: patreon.com/ParaPowerMapping Dropping a Caterpillar dump truck sized load of evidence for why tunnels are very much the vibe in 2024. We're talking the recent Chabad Lubavitch tunnel fracas in Crown Heights; the life & times of the 7th Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson; his coziness w/ Israeli heads of state & prophecy claiming that the Era of Moshiach/ Messiah will begin during B*b* Netanyahoo's reign as Prime Minister; the faction of "radical" Israeli Tzfatim (bochurim) who began digging the tunnels under Chabad HQ at 770 Eastern Parkway in a bid to realize their deceased Rabbi's grand renovation plans, who they maintain will be resurrected as the Messiah; we connect the covert tunnel digging project to Chabad doctrine regarding "Techiyas HaMeisim" (river of fire) and "gilgul mehilot" (the bone-tumbling tunnels that are believed to open up to ferry Tzaddikim or righteous ones to Israel during the end times); we began to piece together an alternative history of Chabad & some of its incredibly sus connections in recent years, including to Z****** mouthpieces & likely assets like Shmuley_Boteach, Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeff Epstein, & Jonathan Pollard (oooh, *correction* I'm just now worrying I may have accidentally called Jonathan Pollard "Robert Pollard"—I've been known to confuse my indie songwriters & Z****** dbl agents in the past); we unpack the rampant CSA that's been endemic to Chabad in the past few decades; we consider whether the antisemitic & blood libelous attacks that the tunnel imbroglio invited may be playing into the hands of the Isntraeli ethnostate & their desire to hoodwink the public into believing that they're embattled & that antisemitism is spiking, as it serves as an effective propaganda cudgel for keeping their allies in line; we talk Kabbalah; messichists; numerology; Shawshank Redemption-inspired heists; a litany of evidence for why this is indisputably the "Year of the Tunnel"; Chinese treasure dragons; wishing for a "Saturn Return" for the Imperial Core lol; recent Chabad philosophizing about the distinctions b/w artificial intelligence and golems; we discuss the 8th Wonder of the World, the subterranean metropolis known as Lower Gaza; we mention the nonpareil psyoperator Yahya S*nwar and the remarkable fact that he convinced the Israeli prison authorities to agree to give him a lifesaving operation during his incarceration, as well as a speculative wonderment whether he's programmed his Z****** opps to cave (calling back to the PTCave EP lol); we examine Netan-yahoo's admin's weaponization & subversion of the "tunnel" as a liberatory symbol and attempts to merge it w/ fear appeals, atrocity propaganda, and his craven disinfo shitcoating of Palestinians as Hitlerites; we tour the recent tunnel simulation at Hostages Sq. in Tel Aviv, an example of Israel's installation apARTheid scene's ideological instrumentality; we find time for a goofy riff on pervy deity Pan giving the nymph Syrinx the chthonICK; and we end w/ a celebration of the revolutionary ethos of Tunnel Resistance.  Songs:  | Lana Del Rey - "Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard?" |  | Tom Waits - "Fish in the Jailhouse" |  | Bruce Springsteen - "Tunnel of Love" | 

Talkline With Zev Brenner- The Courts Rule on Who Owns 770 Eastern Pkwy. Rabbi Chaim Dalfin author and lecturer on the latest court ruling and what impact it will have on the running of 770 Eastern Parkway. This follows the breach of the Shul walls and the sealing of the tunnels.

This Chabad excavation is a closed shop. Join the Independent Cork Board Researchers Union—once you've paid yr ICBRU dues, you can access the entirety of the Chabad tunnel fracas investigation & extended meditation on 2024 chthonic vibes: patreon.com/ParaPowerMapping Dropping a Caterpillar dump truck sized load of evidence for why tunnels are very much the vibe in 2024. We're talking the recent Chabad Lubavitch tunnel fracas in Crown Heights; the life & times of the 7th Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson; his coziness w/ Israeli heads of state & prophecy claiming that the Era of Moshiach/ Messiah will begin during B*b* Netanyahoo's reign as Prime Minister; the faction of "radical" Israeli Tzfatim (bochurim) who began digging the tunnels under Chabad HQ at 770 Eastern Parkway in a bid to realize their deceased Rabbi's grand renovation plans, who they maintain will be resurrected as the Messiah; we connect the covert tunnel digging project to Chabad doctrine regarding "Techiyas HaMeisim" (river of fire) and "gilgul mehilot" (the bone-tumbling tunnels that are believed to open up to ferry Tzaddikim or righteous ones to Israel during the end times); we began to piece together an alternative history of Chabad & some of its incredibly sus connections in recent years, including to Z****** mouthpieces & likely assets like Shmuley_Boteach, Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeff Epstein, & Jonathan Pollard (oooh, *correction* I'm just now worrying I may have accidentally called Jonathan Pollard "Robert Pollard"—I've been known to confuse my indie songwriters & Z****** dbl agents in the past); we unpack the rampant CSA that's been endemic to Chabad in the past few decades; we consider whether the antisemitic & blood libelous attacks that the tunnel imbroglio invited may be playing into the hands of the Isntraeli ethnostate & their desire to hoodwink the public into believing that they're embattled & that antisemitism is spiking, as it serves as an effective propaganda cudgel for keeping their allies in line; we talk Kabbalah; messichists; numerology; Shawshank Redemption-inspired heists; a litany of evidence for why this is indisputably the "Year of the Tunnel"; Chinese treasure dragons; wishing for a "Saturn Return" for the Imperial Core lol; recent Chabad philosophizing about the distinctions b/w artificial intelligence and golems; we discuss the 8th Wonder of the World, the subterranean metropolis known as Lower Gaza; we mention the nonpareil psyoperator Yahya S*nwar and the remarkable fact that he convinced the Israeli prison authorities to agree to give him a lifesaving operation during his incarceration, as well as a speculative wonderment whether he's programmed his Z****** opps to cave (calling back to the PTCave EP lol); we examine Netan-yahoo's admin's weaponization & subversion of the "tunnel" as a liberatory symbol and attempts to merge it w/ fear appeals, atrocity propaganda, and his craven disinfo shitcoating of Palestinians as Hitlerites; we tour the recent tunnel simulation at Hostages Sq. in Tel Aviv, an example of Israel's installation apARTheid scene's ideological instrumentality; we find time for a goofy riff on pervy deity Pan giving the nymph Syrinx the chthonICK; and we end w/ a celebration of the revolutionary ethos of Tunnel Resistance.  Songs:  | Lana Del Rey - "Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard?" |  | Tom Waits - "Fish in the Jailhouse" | 

What is 770 Eastern Parkway?

Welcome to 'The Adams Archive,' where host Austin Adams takes you on an enlightening journey into the heart of global conspiracies, cultural enigmas, and political intrigue. This podcast series sheds light on the most thought-provoking and underreported stories, exploring the unseen forces shaping our society and global politics. Unravel the complex narrative of Taylor Swift's alleged involvement in psychological operations, diving into the blurred lines between celebrity influence and political media manipulation. Explore the mystery of underground tunnels beneath a New York synagogue, probing their origins and potential purposes. Analyze the intricate dynamics of recent U.S.-UK joint military operations, uncovering their geopolitical motivations and strategic implications on a global scale. Dive into the art of media manipulation, examining historical and contemporary methods used to control public perception. Discover the profound influence of music and arts in shaping cultural narratives, reflecting on how artistic expression has been employed for political messaging and propaganda. Join 'The Adams Archive' for episodes that challenge perceptions and reveal the hidden truths behind current events and historical narratives. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, follow our YouTube channel for engaging visual content, and get exclusive insights through our Substack newsletter. Participate in our dynamic social media community for ongoing discussions. Whether you're a conspiracy enthusiast, a curious observer, or a seeker of deeper understanding, this podcast is your portal to the untold stories of our world. Tune in, subscribe, and be part of our journey to uncover the hidden truths beneath the surface. All Links: https://linktr.ee/theaustinjadams Substack: https://austinadams.substack.com/   ----more----  Full Transcription Hello, you beautiful people and welcome to the Adams archive. My name is Austin Adams. And thank you so much for listening today. On today's episode, we have some wild topics to get through. And I'm excited for it. So the very first topic that we're going to talk about today is going to be that the Pentagon actually responded to the idea that Taylor Swift Is a PSYOP.  So we'll look at what the response was. And that will actually look at the history of this because the fundamental idea around that is that there's a, uh, forces that be within our government that want to manipulate the art within our culture in order to influence the culture itself. And so we'll look at the history of that, whether it be Operation Mockingbird by the CIA, whether it be the CIA teaming up with certain artists during the cold war era, we'll look at all of that together. Then.  We'll jump into the next topic, which is going to be that there was some pretty shady stuff found in New York, which actually ended up being an underground tunnel underneath a Jewish synagogue, I believe.  So. We'll look at that  and why it's pretty, pretty crazy stuff. So there's a couple of theories on it. We'll actually dive into the history of the specific group, because the specific group that we're talking about is a little bit different than your average, uh, Practicer of Judaism. Um, so we will look at that as well. And then we will dive into some breaking news here, which is that the United States. In hand in hand with the, uh,  with Britain have the UK have actually, uh, conducted operations overseas against Houthi rebels, which some believe may be the spark of a war against.  So we'll look at the history of that as well.  So all of that more, but first I need you to go ahead and subscribe. If this is your first time, I appreciate you from the bottom of my heart, subscribe. And if you are here for your second time, third time around. 100th time, whatever, because we're actually about to hit that 100th episode. I believe we're on episode 96 right now, which is pretty wild. But thank you for being here. I appreciate you. I love doing this for you guys. Uh, we'll have some cool stuff coming up. Some interviews, some really awesome things that I am working on in the background. So thank you for being here. Leave a five star review and let's jump  into it.    The Adams archive.    Alright, so the very first topic that we're going to discuss today is going to be that the Pentagon actually responded to the idea that Taylor Swift is a PSYOP.  Now personally. I think this probably couldn't be more accurate. And so the reason that I think this, I think this is actually a lot of a part of the public psyche today surrounding Taylor Swift. We see everything that's happening with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey and Pfizer and her recently saying that she believes that Joe Biden has done a great job and will continue to do a great job. And he's exactly what our country needs right now to stop the divisiveness like That the only way that you are saying such a thing,  even if you voted for Biden and you wholeheartedly believed in him at the very beginning of this, uh, I don't think there's a person out there who is not either  protecting their, their ego by, you know, not admitting that they are wrong or, uh, or Are being paid off  and the likelihood that you're being paid off if you're a multi whatever billionaire this Taylor Swift is at this time and a super famous actor, actress, musician, artist, whatever is probably pretty, pretty high if you're still sitting there banging the drum of Joe Biden, or you're just worried about not getting another job again. So you don't have to worry You go along with the, the river that is Hollywood.  So it's, it's, it's crazy to see how far these people can go. So here we go. Let's go ahead and read this article. This article comes from the Post Millennial  and it is titled, let me go ahead and pull it up here for you. It  is titled,  Pentagon Claims Taylor Swift PSYOP Speculation is a Conspiracy Theory. Hmm.  Okay,  you have my back. Attention.  All right. This article says after Jesse water show on Tuesday, where he said the government has been turning Taylor Swift into an asset through a Psy op Pentagon spokesperson, Sabrina sign has denied the claim. An idea that first came from human events, senior editor, Jack Posobiec  quoting from one of Swift songs and the statement to politics sign said, as for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off. Wow, catchy.  She continued to make other Taylor Swift puns in her statement, which stated, but that does highlight that we still need Congress to approve other supplemental budget requests as Swift Lee as possible so that we can be out of the woods with potential fiscal concerns. Haha. On December 6th, 2023. Right after Taylor Swift won the Time's Person of the Year award, Posobiec posted to Axe, the Taylor Swift girlboss psyop has been fully activated in her hand selected vaccine show boyfriend to dink lifestyle to her upcoming 2024 voter operation for Democrats on abortion rights. It's all coming.  Uh, and that was in response to the Time Person of the Year being  Taylor Swift.  And I'm pretty sure that used to be Man of the Year? And now it's person of the year.  I don't know. Pretty sure I heard that following the post ax Posobiec had Evita Duffy on his show, where they talked about why Swift could rally support for president Joe Biden in the 2024 election year. She's a girl boss. She has lots of failed relationships where she blames the man every time. Duffy then asked, why are we pushing Taylor Swift? Here comes a clip from Jack Posobiec.  Uh, and let's go ahead and watch it here.   Evita Duffy from the Federalists joins us now. Evita, they've just named Taylor Swift the, uh, you know, she's, that's basically her song that was used for that ad, which is a mix of Taylor Swift and Barbie, just named Taylor Swift times person of the year, uh, I  was out about a month ago. You had a great show where he talked about the Taylor Swift army coming online for the 2024 election. Is this at what we're seeing now? Are they activating  The Taylor Swift psyop.  Yeah, it's not. It's not just happening now. This has been happening for pretty much a year. They've been pushing Taylor Swift on us.  The corporate media has these articles fawning over her. She's like the greatest thing that's ever happened to humanity. Meanwhile, her music's pretty mid. Um, if you, it's actually something actually to break down of her music and, uh, the melodies, she has like the same melody progressions over 20, over 20 different songs. Um, she's always complaining about the same melodies. Okay, I'm going to have to question how old this girl is. If you're going to use the word mid, you better have been born pre or post  2000.  You better be under the age of 23. If you're going to use the word mid, I'll just leave it at that.  Anyways, I actually agree with it. So so if you understand what tick tock did when tick tock First started, TikTok artificially inflated the views, at least this is the idea that people have been talking about, is it took a few select amount of influencers and it artificially inflated the views that they were getting on the platform.  Those people then, who felt like they were a big deal, went and talked to people about it and told people how many views they were getting on TikTok. As a result, a bunch of people fled into TikTok.  And so. What they've and they cared about the original a few official people that got their views artificially inflated I think one of the names of the girls is I don't know There was one girl that started tick tock as like the tick tock girl and now nobody really cares about her, right? She just did like a dance and whatever and then all of a sudden she got like a billion views And so the way that they did that is they artificially inflated the views they artificially created celebrity And then they made those celebrities influence  Be valued by the mass public, right? And so I think that that's exactly what happens with Taylor Swift here, I believe, because Her music to be fair is pretty mid. Although I am cannot say that with a straight face and never will  But  Taylor Swift's music is garbage. It's terrible. She's a great  Performer and by performer, I mean she has a great team of people around her with fireworks and laser shows and All of that, but I did Taylor Swift is a very  Un  impressive musician, completely unimpressive to me in the fact that she is the single most. highest earning musician, music, musician of all musicians is astounding to me because she's just a performer.  Anyways, so that to me lends into the idea. The same way that we will look at this in a minute is they artificially inflate these people's viewership. They, they get the mainstream media, the mainstream radio stations, the mainstream award shows to all.  Pump these people up, pump them up, pump them up. Meanwhile, these people are just puppets for whatever they say, from the powers that be, goes. And so that's where this idea of it being a PSYOP comes from. So let's finish out this clip, if we can,  tolerate this girl's  vocabulary, and then we'll continue on.  In breakups over and over again, these songs, Jake Gyllenhaal, somebody who she wrote the song all too well about, which is like a 10 minute song where she complains  about a man that she dated for no joke, three months. This is not a musical mastermind. The media is pushing her on us constantly. And if you say anything negative about Taylor,  the media, the Swifties and Taylor Swift herself.  Okay. I think I know what she's going to say. A misogynist. And here's why I think that is. Taylor Swift is the perfect.   Okay, Taylor Swift's music is absolute trash. So the only way that she got into the position that she's in is if she's working with the government.  So here's the, here's the rest of the article. And it says, and this was December 6th that this conversation happened on Real America's Voice. But it says, uh, Waters posted a clip of his segment to Axe on Wednesday where he had, uh, he said an idea was floated at a NATO meeting in 2019 where Swift could combat online misinformation. So maybe here's some actual evidence of this potential Taylor Swift's the biggest star in the world. Sorry, Gutfeld.  She's been blanketed across the sports media entertainment atmosphere. The New York Times just speculated she's a lesbian. And last year's tour broke Ticketmaster, a tour that's revenue tops the GDP of 50 countries. Wow, I like her music. She's all right. But I mean, have you ever wondered why or how she blew up like this?  Well, around four years ago. The Pentagon's Psychological Operations Unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting. What kind of asset? A psy op for combating online misinformation. Listen. You came in here wanting to understand how you just go out there and counter an information operation. The idea is that social influence can help, uh, It can help, uh, encourage or, uh, promote behavior change, so potentially as like a peaceful information operation. I include Taylor Swift in here because she's, um, you know, she's a fairly influential online person. I don't know if you've heard of her.  Yeah, that's real.  The Pentagon's PSYOP unit pitched NATO on turning Taylor Swift into an asset for combating misinformation online.  This is nothing new. In the 1950s, the government strong armed Louis Armstrong into doing propaganda tours across Africa.  The CIA did the same thing with jazz singer Nina Simone, except they did it without her really knowing.  In the 70s, Nixon enlisted Elvis in his war on drugs. He gave the king a badge and named him a covert federal law enforcement agent.  Michael Jackson was tapped by Reagan, using his song Beat It and his public service campaigns against teen drinking and driving.  Michael Jackson persuading minors not to drink,  anyway.  So is Swift a front for a covert political agenda? Primetime obviously has no evidence. If we did, we'd share it.  But we're curious. Because the pop star who endorsed Biden is urging millions of her followers to vote. She's sharing links. And her boyfriend, Travis Kelty, sponsored by Pfizer? And their relationships boosted the NFL ratings this season, bringing in a whole new demographic. So how's the  PSYOP going?  Well, as usual, Biden's not calling the shots because he doesn't even know who Taylor Swift is. He's confused her with Britney Spears and Beyoncé.  You could say even this harder than getting a ticket to the renaissance tour or, or, or  Britney's tour. She's down in, it's kind of warm in Brazil right now. Former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan. Wow, that is brutal. Stuart, is this feasible?  Jesse, the deployment of a PSYOP in the United States in this day and age is still illegal. Um, the national security law prohibits the deployment of PSYOPs or using an operative for psychological warfare. However, if I was running Biden's management perception team, I would identify someone who would align themselves with my agenda, such 600 million followers. I would target her, I would engage her, and I would get her what, get her to do what we used to see as like public service announcements, and that type of enlistment, that type of solicitation is analogous to the old days of deployment of a PSYOP. And so in modern times, with these people having such influence and such,  you know, immeasurable amount of followers. She can potentially, single handedly, swing voters because of just the amount of followers that she potentially can influence. So the answer is yes, Jesse.  Wow.  And I completely agree, right? We see even back historically between Elvis and Louis Armstrong, this has been done before. This isn't a new tactic.  And so as we go on, we'll see. And I wanted to kind of Preempt this for you. And he talked about it a little bit with Travis Kelsey,  all of, and even behind that was the tick tock. There was a whole trend around the Travis Kelsey, Taylor Swift relationship situation  on tick tock, right? People were going crazy. Girls were making jokes to their, their husbands and their boyfriends. And those were going viral. And I talked about this last time is If anything is going  quote unquote viral and you think it's organic, the likelihood of that is probably low.  If it's the number one most,  most popular trend at the time, it's very likely that that was at least in some way, shape, or form even allowed, potentially, if that's the word you want to use, instead of being  stifled, they at least allow it to happen because it fits their agenda. And if it didn't fit their agenda, they would slap it with a big misinformation, disinformation, or at the very least, they would shadow ban the content. And so we know that at this point,  and as we start to look at more around this, I guess there's even more.  situations, but it says,  uh, and I wonder if we can look at the response, but that was crazy. The fact that the Pentagon PSYOP organization within the Pentagon actually  came and pitched the idea. They pitched the idea that they could use Taylor Swift to conduct a PSYOP against the American people. That's an, that's actual footage available right now.  I had no idea before watching that. And that is. Just crazy.  So as we go back in history, I wanted to start to have a discussion surrounding this and see historically what ways has art and Culture been manipulated by governmental forces to align their agenda with yours. And so we can go back and we can look at this in a few different ways.  And historically there has been not only Elvis and Louis Armstrong, but historically there's been many. Many governments that have done this from Nazi Germany. And I listed a few here after doing some research and under Adolf Hitler, the Nazi regime used music as a propaganda tool to reinforce its ideologies and suppress any opposing or non Germanic. cultural expressions. Jewish musicians and composers were not only banned from performing, but many were also persecuted and sent to concentration camps. The regime particularly promoted classical composers like Richard Wagner and Ludwig van van van Beethoven, who were seen as epitomizing Aryan and Germanic culture. Music played a pivotal role in Nazi rallies and events being used to evoke emotions of pride and nationalistic fervor among the masses. Hitler Youth was also heavily indoctrinated with music that promoted Nazi ideology.  So there's one.  The Soviet government, under Joseph Stalin, reinforced strict control over the arts, including music. Composers like, forgive me, Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev  faced severe restrictions and were often compelled to adapt their compositions to fit the state's demands for music that glorified socialism and the Soviet state.  The government established the Union of Soviet Composers, which played a key role in censoring music and ensuring it adhered to the principles of socialist realism.  Music that was considered formalist  or bourgeoisie  I don't know if I pronounced that right at all,  was condemned and composers risked persecution if their work did not align with state ideologies. You even go back to Footloose, right? If you eliminate music, it has an effect. There's a reason that we sing in church. There's a reason that every religion across every country, across every historical timeframe ever  incorporates music  because music influences. And so if you can make one person the most influential musician  in the world  and then utilize them as a puppet to parrot the  opinions that you want them to hold that align with your agenda, why wouldn't you do that?  The Cultural Revolution in China is another example. Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution sought to eradicate Chinese traditional culture, including its rich musical heritage. Western classical music was also banned. Instead, the government promoted revolutionary music, particularly the eight model operas that were sanctioned by Zhang Qing, Mao's wife. Those operas and revolutionary songs were designed to glorify the Communist Party, Mao Zedong's leadership, and the revolutionary spirit of the Chinese people. This was part of a broader attempt to reshape Chinese culture and align it with the Maoist ideology. In another example, people have talked about this before, I'm not sure if there's any evidence of this, just the same way that we can't say there's any evidence of the Taylor Swift Society,  but people have talked about how when it comes to black culture in the  Late 1980s talking about how rap music and not particularly any type of rap music, but well, I guess particularly a type of rap music, which was the, uh, you know, the violent and drug riddled gang, uh, promoting. type of rap that became popular. And we even see this today with the Travis Scotts, how much Satanism is incorporated into our music scene today. It's bizarre, but it's not bizarre because it's intentional.  And so when you go back to the 80s, even the times where the government was literally pushing crack cocaine into the ghetto areas, low income black communities, the very same time that rap music became what it was, and I love rap. I even love late 90s or early 90s rap about gangster shit and drugs and gang stuff. But like,  it, you can't deny the fact that it influences culture.  It influences how people act. It influences how people want to be when they grow up. How do, how, what makes them cool? What type of clothes should they wear?  What should they aspire to? Well  When all you hear about in music is selling drugs, making a bunch of money, how good they make you feel and the type of girls that you get when you do it.  What do you think you're going to do? Right? It goes hand in hand. Culture is music and music  creates culture.  And so, um, this goes on and on. I have other ones which talks about the apartheid South of South Africa. During the apartheid era, the South African government used music as a tool to support its racial segregation policies. Cambodia used it, Iran after the 1979 revolution, North Korea, and North Korea music is used as a tool of state propaganda to an extreme degree. All music in the country is strictly controlled by the government. Why? Why would they do that? They wouldn't. And of course they wouldn't do that here in the United States of America with us free people.  Right? Our government would never do that.  Songs are written in North Korea to glorify The Kim family, and the Workers Party of Korea, often incorporating themes of loyalty, patriotism, and devotion to the leaders. Music is used in schools, workplaces, and public events to instill loyalty to the regime and reinforce its ideologies. There is virtually no exposure at all to international music, and creating or listening to non state approved music can result in severe penalties. And when we talk about severe penalties in North Korea, we're talking about generational imprisonment.  Not just you go to jail.  Your sister, your brother, your mother, and your next three generations go to jail. Like, horrible, horrible stuff. And so Music has always been utilized as a weapon by governments, always, and to assume that we're just so far along that our government would never do that, they would never utilize our culture, our music, our art, our movies, against us in a way that would not be in our best interest? No, they just let us do whatever, and wherever our culture goes, they're perfectly okay with it.  Yeah,  okay.  And, and again, this is going to be an unraveling for everybody, and I think this is maybe a really good next one that we can get into as a society, as we've already unraveled the pharmaceutical industry, the medical industrial complex, the government, the politicians, the big money, the lobbying funds, all of that has happened. Now, as a society, I think it's time for us to realize that our culture has been infiltrated for decades. The music you listen to, the movies that you watch, the TV shows on Netflix, the articles that you read, the news media that you take in, every single piece of it, the art that you consume, the art on your walls, all of it.  The most famous artists  have historically, in some way, shape, or form, and we go back to even the, the,  the idea of post modernism. Post modernism is a somewhat new artistic theme, and we're seeing that artistic theme. Play out today in our own culture,  culture is shaped by art.  So that's where they start,  right? Postmodernism is the idea that there is no true reality. You have your truth. I have my truth and there's no two plus two equals five.  And so when you realize that  that's what they want to instill in your subconscious so that consciously you accept it when they tell you that a male is not a male. A male is a floating soul with no gender binary, and women are just women, and you can just declare it by standing on top of a desk and saying, I'm a woman now, even if you don't have ovaries or the ability to reproduce.  So that's postmodernism in action, and that's one way that they took art and implemented That subliminal idea into your subconscious so that later it can be activated and weaponized against you.  And so you could say, okay, I don't know any examples of that, Austin. I couldn't imagine our CIA working alongside artists. Well, let me clue you in, my friend.  For decades in art circles, it was either a rumor or a joke, but now it is confirmed as fact. The CIA used American modern art, including the works of such artists as such as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, William de Kooning, and Mark Rothko, right? Oh, a Rothko, right? You know, like the pretty sure that's like the square and a circle or whatever, as a weapon. In the Cold War.  Interesting. In the manner of a renaissance prince, except that it acted secretly, the CIA fostered and promoted American abstract expressionist paintings around the world for more than 20 years.  The connection is improbable. This was a period in the 1950s and 60s when the great majority of Americans disliked or even despised modern art. President Truman summed up a popular view when he said, If that's art, then I'm a  Hot, hot and taught. What  is a hot and taught as for the artists themselves, many were ex communists, barely acceptable in the American, in the America of the McCarthy era,  and certainly not the sort of people normally likely to receive us government backing. Why did the CIA support them? Because in the propaganda war with the Soviet union, this new artistic movement could be held up as proof of the creativity, the intellectual freedom, and the cultural power of the United States.  Russian art strapped into the communist ideological straitjacket could not compete.  So basically what the idea was that our artists, the way of capitalism is just so much better than everything else. This free expression, the environment of freedom and democracy and all of this stuff is so amazing that we just allow brains to thrive. And artistic expression is just so much better here in the United States. And so they took Upwards of 20, what are they? It's 20 million and purchased this art specifically to prop up. It's like if you, if they funneled money into us companies. Through shell companies so that they could say that, Oh, but look at our democracy. Our organizations, our shell companies are so much more successful than Russian companies, because look at how much money they have. Well, you gave them the money so you could make that argument. That's the whole point. The existence of the policy rumored and disputed for many years has now been confirmed by the, for the first time by former CIA officials, unknown to the artists, the new American art was secretly promoted under a policy known as the long. leash  arrangement, similar in some ways to the indirect CIA backing of the journal encounter edited by Steven Spender. The decision to include culture and art in the U S cold war arsenal was taken as soon as the CIA was founded in 1947. This made that the appeal communism still have for many intellectuals and artists in the West, the new agency set up a division, the propaganda assets. Inventory,  which at its peak could influence more than 800 newspapers, magazines, and public information organizations. They joked that it was like a Wurlitzer jukebox. When the CIA pushed a button, it could hear whatever tune it wanted to play across the entire.  The next key step came in 1950 when the international organizations division was set up under Tom Brayden. It was this office, which subsidized the animated version of George Orwell's Animal Farm, which sponsored American jazz artists. Opera recitals, the Boston symphonies, orchestra, international touring program.  It's agents were placed in the film industry in publishing houses, even as travel writers for the celebrated photo guides. And we now know it promoted the America's anarchic avant garde movement. Abstract. Expressionism.  Initially, more open attempts were made to support the new American art. In 1947, the State Department organized and paid for a touring international exhibition called Advancing American Art, which the aim of rebuting Soviet suggestions that America was a cultural desert. But the show caused outrage at home, prompting Truman to make his hot and taut remark in one bitter congressman to declare, I am just a dumb American who pays taxes. For this kind of trash,  the tour had to be canceled. The U S government now faced a dilemma. The fill in the fill Philistinism combined with Joseph McCarthy's hysterical denunciations of all that was avant garde or unorthodox was deeply embarrassing. It discredited the idea that America was sophisticated, culturally rich democracy. It also prevented the U S government from consolidating the shift in cultural supremacy from Paris to New York since the 1930s.  To resolve the CIA to resolve the dilemma. The CIA was brought in.  Hmm.  Very interesting Now this goes on and on and on. This is an article written by independent  Independent dot co dot UK and the title of it is modern art was CIA Weapon and it was written written  on Sunday the 22nd October of 1995  Super interesting article, I absolutely think that you could dive into more of the history of that, but I just want to give you that background. That's just one aspect of it, where our CIA has been a part of influencing culture through art.  Now we can go into the next part of this, which is called Operation Mockingbird.  And Operation Mockingbird was the hand in hand  CIA operation between journalists, news networks, and Hollywood.  And I myself need to do a deeper dive into this, but I had just recalled about this when talking about the Taylor Swift conversation and honestly, I didn't think this conversation would go that long. I usually have some warm up articles sometimes before I get into the deep stuff, but man, this is so interesting to me that I think we could probably sit here for five hours and talk about this.  But it really is a culture death. You go back and listen to music, go back and listen to Led Zeppelin, go listen to a CDC, go listen to any of the, the great musicians of the 1970s and early eighties before the, the, the, the fingertips of the CIA started to get into our music and. We have done nothing but go downhill as a society musically.  There's very few examples that you can give me that would even rival any of that. The very first, I'll give you a side story, go down the memory lane real quick. When I was maybe, oh, I don't know,  8 years old, 8 to 10 years old probably, my grandparents, Took me on a train ride to Chicago from Detroit to go see my cousins And I had just gotten for the train ride a new Walkman. I believe it was a gray Sony Walkman and  My dad took me to go get my very first CD for my Walkman and I ended up getting the Led Zeppelin discography So all I listened to for probably Six months was every Led Zeppelin song ever and  that is still to this day my favorite album I have the vinyl upstairs right now that I listen to  greatest band of all time in my opinion  anyways Trip down memory lane, so  We have had a cultural death an artistic death here in the United States that has been unfolding for decades you even want to talk about architecture and I would love to do an interview with somebody who could speak more on this because I'm not an architect and I don't know the history of architecture But to me you go back and you look at even go back and look at Roman times Greek times go back and look at  the Gothic eras and and go back and look at  Pyramids like there go back and look at any history of time in the last 2000 years, and you will see if you took a time machine every 100 years, you would see beautiful architecture, cathedrals, and and  political buildings and and  courthouses and schools and all of these things are so beautifully created because when people used to create architecture, they used to do it to, to please the gods. They used to do it because there's a frequency within the building that you're in. And when you walk up to it and go through that door, there's a feeling that should be associated with that. And that is dead in the United States. Go drive your car around and the only thing you're going to see is a box and a box and a bigger box and a taller box and a wider box and you drive your box by the boxes and you see the boxes and you walk home to your box and you open up the box door to get into your box room to go into your box kitchen to create something in your box oven and pull something out of the box fridge to It's an endless cycle of squares in, in our culture, in our architecture. And it's, it's so sad to me to see that we just, that that's what we live in today.  And so when we look at  whether it's Project Mockingbird, whether we look at  the CIA working hand in hand with the art within the Cold War, whether we talk about the, the historical aspects of music.  There has been  nothing but death of creativity in the United States.  Every piece of culture that has been brought here has slowly dwindled and died, and it seems to me like it died at the hands of the organizations that are being funded by our tax dollars so that they can diminish our creativity, and so that they can control You are subconscious, and I think bringing it full circle back around to Taylor Swift is that's exactly what has happened. Here  and now I do have a full article on the project Mockingbird.  Let's see how far into this Well, we did 38 minutes on Taylor Swift  So I think we can move on but I did find a substack article because it was actually a little bit interesting It's called a media manipulation the operation Mockingbird. It was written October 14th 2024 and it is from the reveal revealed. I Substack so revealed I dot substack. com and it looks like they do a pretty I don't know decent breakdown I haven't read through it all yet, but  I think 38 minutes on  on  Media manipulation and Taylor Swift is probably a good start. So  On your own time, feel free to go watch that. Here's a quick video on Project Mockingbird. Then we'll move on  real concern  That planted story is intended to serve a national purpose abroad  Came home  And were circulated here, and believed here.  Because, uh,  this would mean that  the CIA could manipulate the news in the United States by channeling it through some foreign country. And we're looking at that very carefully. Do you have any  people being paid  by the CIA  who are contributing  to a major circulation American journal? We do have people who submit pieces to other, to American journals. Do you have any people  paid by the CIA  who are working for  television networks?  This, I think, gets into the kind of, uh, getting into the details, Mr. Chairman, that I'd like to get into in an executive session.  Uh, at CBS, uh,  we, uh, Had been contacted by the CIA. As a matter of fact, by the time I became the head of the whole news and public affairs operation in 1954. Ships had been established and I was told about them and asked if I'd carry on with them. We have  quite a lot of detailed information,  uh, and we will  evaluate it and we will include any,  um,  evidence of wrongdoing  or any evidence of impropriety  in our final report and make recommendations.  Do you have any people  being paid by the CIA  who are contributing to the  National News Services, AP and UPI?  Well, again, I think we're getting into the kind of detail, Mr. Chairman, that I'd prefer to handle in an executive session.  Senator, do you think you named the new plan? So the answer is yes.  Uh, that remains to be decided. I think it was entirely in order for our correspondents at that time, uh, to make use of, uh, C. I. A. agent, uh, chiefs, uh, of station and other members of the executive staff of C. I. A. as source.  Alright, so there you have it. You can go, uh, read it through the article there, um, find it on Substack, uh, reveal. i. substack. com.  Alright, so, let's move on. on from that into the next topic, which is going to be  that in New York  over the past few days, there has been a A  bit of a debacle and one specifically between the Hasidic  Jewish community in New York and the New York police. So the New York police showed up  to a synagogue  in,  let's see here, let  me go ahead and pull it up.  All right.  Basically what happened is the police showed up and they decided that they needed to shut down a underground. Tunnel system  in New York, underneath a place of worship where these Hasidic Jews would go and  congregate.  And the idea behind this, the mainstream narrative is that the secret underground synagogue tunnels were causing destabilization  of the buildings that were surrounding it. So that's the mainstream narrative that's come out in the last day or so.  And nine of these Jews were arrested.  And now I do want to preempt this with.  Love my Jewish family.  I'm not Jewish, so I don't technically have Jewish family, but you know what I mean?  Love Jewish people. I love Christian people. I love Muslim people. I have no affinity towards any one class over the other. I have my own personal spiritual beliefs. I don't think that any religious beliefs in and of themselves make you a great or a bad person. I believe that there's Terrible people who are Jewish, and there's great people that are Jewish, there's terrible people who are Christians, there's great people that are Christians, there's terrible people who are Muslims, and there's great people who are Muslims. I've met them all.  Mostly good people across the board. I can't even look at one and be like, Hey, I've met a bunch of people in this. No, every religion has bad apples. Just like you can say, you know, there's a bunch of people who say, Oh, police are bad. No, they're not bad. There's bad people everywhere in every occupation, religion, uh,  country, uh, whatever it is.  There's bad people everywhere, in every type of thing, but mostly people are good, mostly people intend good, and I, so, there's your disclaimer,  as we go into this, because it's a very, um, very sensitive time, for this specific culture, and I get that, and so, I'm just going to preempt that. There's your disclaimer. All right. Now, everything from here forward is just me  talking, but, uh, understand it from that framework. Um, so just as we were discussing, there has been a Jewish synagogue. That was creating underground tunnels. They were digging, digging, digging underground tunnels. And so the idea from the Jewish community that was there, and this is a very specific Jewish community. It's the Hasidic Jews, the, uh, I can see if I can pull up the exact names of them here for you. Cause it, it does matter because the specific culture is known for having to deal with some very specific, uh,  um, pushback in certain situations in this small area. So this specific. Uh, Jewish culture, I believe is a, um, more Orthodox culture and I actually have a whole thing here, but  to me, it's of Russian descent and So here's the general idea is that they were digging these holes and they claim that they were digging these holes because they were six. They started digging these holes six months ago because of the COVID restrictions or they dug them during COVID because they wanted to Uh, congregate and practice their faith during a time where they were being told, no, you cannot do that.  Okay. Now there's a secondary theory, which is that they are digging these tunnels because the person that they, the, the,  the Messiah, I believe that they believe in  says that you have to consistently expand your place of worship. And maybe I'm getting that wrong because we'll get into a thread here in just a moment. Um, but let's, let's dive into the timeline of this. So on January 8th, videos circulated that showed a tunnel network under the Lubavitch, that's the specific one, the Lubavitch HQ in Crown Heights and several Jewish men being arrested. More videos show another Jewish man escaping through another tunnel and a group. resisting officers. The building was shut down afterwards.  Initially, the claim was that the tunnels were made to pray during COVID. This, according to this thread,  okay, and this thread is not, this is not CNN. This is not Fox. This is not, um, it's not a news organization. So  In, I guess, everything you hear from every organization because I'm talking about those two, too. I wouldn't believe Fox or CNN on everything either, but this is the individual account on X, so take it with a grain of salt, but this seemed to be the most, uh,  factually and organized article that I could find on this.  It says initially the claim was the tunnels were made to pray during COVID. This is most likely false. Neighbor with Mikva access, as of six months ago, no work on the tunnel had begun. Since renovation was the main reason the tunnels were noticed, they could have Um,  and now they add some receipts here, which says that the tunnel found burrowed under the women's section of 770, possibly destabilizing the building. And there's three, four other articles that are attached to this to back up the idea that they were just stating there.  And so the next thing that it states here as we go into that, and so that's the,  the general idea is that they were saying, Oh, we were doing this. During COVID because we weren't allowed to worship. Well, it seems to be that that was according to this false because these tunnels weren't started, but six months ago  now where it really started to get some fuel on the fire is during one of these videos, as these people are.  Resisting arrest. There was a, quite the scene. They're flipping over pews and creating these wall barriers as the police are grabbing them and they're pushing back and forth. And like this, this, the whole chaos ensuing inside of the synagogue.  And as that's happening, a guy is breaking down the walls and like a police officer is like, or is breaking down the walls and starting to pull people out of it.  And one of the, the, um, Jewish people that are there  pull out a mattress and on this mattress, this is a soiled mattress that looks to be whether it's old blood or,  uh, feces or something that's on this mattress. And it seems to be a small mattress. Um, Uh, that some people were saying was meant for, uh, a child and that's kind of what it looks like. Okay. But we won't make any assumptions yet, but that's, that's what's probably one of the biggest fuels of the fire. Now, the other thing that was very questionable about the situation is one of the people, one of the Jewish guys was escaping and he went through the tunnel system and he came up, right? Next to a child's museum.  Hmm. Now that's not to say that there's children in the museum, but it is to say that the museum is meant for children.  And so there has been  theories  that these individuals were using this for some sort of human trafficking.  Okay. Now again, unfounded, a couple of weird coincidences  and. Here's the side part. If these people were just digging tunnels so that they could pray during COVID, more power to them. That's awesome. You should do that. Fuck the government. They can't tell you what you can and cannot do, especially when it comes to your religious practices. So,  wholeheartedly believe that. If that's what they were doing, awesome. They should do it. Um, but, there's a lot of skepticism around maybe some more nefarious reasons why this was happening.  And so, as we go deeper into this thread and deeper into this article,  It starts to talk about some of those things. It talks about the mattress, talks about the, um, the pushing and shoving that ensued, I believe nine people total were arrested that were a part of this synagogue.    so the next portion of this says, The contents of the tunnel are very disturbing and don't seem like items extremists students would keep. A mattress with a dark stain was found. A baby high chair? Was found as well. So that's a weird one.  The crowd protecting the tunnels isn't small. They are also aren't of student age.  Here's the full video of the tunnel network that we have access to. The video shows passageways that extend that aren't explored. It's unclear whether the other passages might contain does this tunnel network look like something done in six months? So it's absolutely does not look like something done in six months. So let me share this with you here.  Um, this is.  It looks old, almost, to me. It looks like it's been used. There's, there's like, old chipped paint hanging off of door frames, and there's a big, uh, like, sand  Let me go ahead and  expand this for you here, but there's the, the high chair,  there's what looks like some wheel barrels,  a bunch of just stuff thrown around, cinder blocks thrown around some carved little tunnel doorways that they're crawling into now with a flashlight. And so as they walk back, it's just a crawl space now, essentially from the more.  Substantial part of it that is where  could have been where that person  came up into that right right outside of that Children's Museum. So that's bizarre. I don't think this was built six months ago. Again, I'm not a  archaeologist or whatever the hell you need to be to date that stuff. But it says where does the tunnel exit to using geomapping one of the tunnels exit near the local Children's Museum. It's also unclear how large the tunnel network is and where the other passages lead. As more information comes in, we will know how extensive the network is. And they show you the photos as to how they know this. This is where the video where the guy came out of it. This is the photo where they actually found that same portion of it. Um, discussion of the tunnels online has been avoided by many accounts. Some accounts claimed the tunnels were even fake. Israel War Room labeled such discussions of the tunnel anti Semitic. They claim that it's just a simple building code violation. Hmm, then why are we getting in, like, fights and arrested over  building code violations? You get a  fine for that. You don't get arrested. You don't get into pushing, shoving matches with the police over building codes. It says the label conspiracy theorist has been applied to people who believe tunnels could have been used to harm kids. No explanation has been given for the stained mattress and baby high chair in the tunnels. Is the conspiracy or is there more to the Brooklyn community?  Research reveals a dark history of sexual assault in the Brooklyn area. If you do speak out about it, you are shunned from the community and harassed. Disturbing testimony in the article speculates that the number of young boys sexually assaulted could be as high as 50%.  The community is, and there's four different articles that it attaches there. The community is very secretive and will oftentimes cover up or silence people who have been assaulted. The community is very religious and strict. If you go against the grain, the community turns against you.  Hmm. And they have a video  about this specific here with a religious look at the Satmar sect. John, good morning. Good morning. Fascinating case. And it's a case that's being watched closely Anthony, not just because of the allegation that a trusted community leader sexually abused a young girl. He was  assigned to help, but also because the trial has.  Hmm.  Okay.  So it sounded like maybe a different name of a different sect. That he was mentioning here, but within the Brooklyn area, a specific Jewish Pull back the veil, concealing the inner workings of a closed community.  The trial of the  Alright.  So, here's shuns those who have been traumatized. They send threats to the survivors, harass them, and have total control over their lives. Police confirm it is very tough to get convictions and to have victims.  While we wait for more information, here are some of the questions I and many others have about the tunnels. What was the liquid on the stained mattress? Why was there a baby high chair in the tunnel?  Has a full forensic analysis been performed in the area? Where does the tunnels lead?  Hmm. All good questions. Do any security cameras have clear view of entrances to the tunnels? If so, have they been subpoenaed? Have there been any people who reported this before the renovations in December 2023? Who anonymously  tipped off the fire department? Who used the tunnels?  How many minors entered the tunnels? Have any minors displayed behavior of a survivor upon exiting the tunnels? Okay, this is like, it's very specific. So, there's, there's the thread for you. Now, as we go into the  culture  surrounding this community that we are referencing here, which again is not just the normal Orthodox Judaism, it's not, um, it's a specific religious sect within Brooklyn. It's a very small, tight knit community, um, that are, uh, uh, uh, uh, Hasidic, uh, Yadkivik, right? Is that the name of it? So, very specific, uh, religious sect. So it says, okay. Once upon a time, it says, okay, for real. Once upon a time in Eastern Europe, a movement called Shabbat was founded. Its founder was Rabbi Schnur Zalman of Laity. This was in 1812. He was many things, among them a genius, Talmudist, and rabbi, the Kalbalist and mystic, and the rarest of things, a true original thinker. A Kabbalist, sorry, a Talmudist, meaning he follows the Talmud, um, and a rabbi and a Kabbalist and a mystic. So, there is a really interesting conversation surrounding the mystical Judaism, uh, there is a whole subsection of, of Judaism, uh, and historically much more prevalent. Back then, but that believed in mysticism and there is certain sections of this that still do, but like literal magic, um,  while a true original of, and one of, in my opinion, the greatest philosophers and theologians in the history of humankind, he was also profoundly devoted to his own teachers in the Hasidic tradition and saw himself as the natural successor. The Hasidic tradition was founded a couple of generations earlier, and one of the prophecies is connection and devotion to a master in Hasidic parlance above all. Hasidism love and devote themselves to their rabbi as the one who helps connect the soul of the Jew with godliness. Okay, sounds a little bit like Catholicism, right? The aspect of Hasidic Judaism made into a lesser extent continues to make some people nervous. However, it has also been extremely thoroughly defended and broadly accepted as a legitimate manifestation of Judaism, which always has its Moses, Rabbi Akiva, and Vilna.  And again, this is a single account. This isn't a religious text. This isn't a official person that is sitting here giving me this information, but it is, seems to be pretty legit to me. Um, but I haven't done a ton of research on the theology behind Hasidic mystic Judaism. Um, Rabbi, Rabbi Schnur Shabbat, uh, Rabbi Schnur Zalman Shabbat movement. So it's the Shabbat. Hasidic Judaism is one movement within a much broader Hasidic world full of dynasties of Rees, which each of their own rich traditions in ways, and it's R-E-B-B-E-S, not rabbis, although it is not a widely studied, they're al always emphasized point has has Hasidism  Hasidism as part of their devotion. Generally see their rabbi as a Masonic figure. The word is loaded and makes people extremely uncomfortable. It may worth pausing briefly to explain that Hasidism is seen by,  um, the founding of the movement as a redemptive revelation of Torah, a movement whose original Geist is to raise the Jewish people from the spiritual and physical malaise of exile and return them to their deepest soul and identity, a holy nation. with God.  The more that holiness and redemptive soul is brought into the world, the more the time of the general redemption, the macronism of that inner redemption draws near. The rabbi is a Torah of flesh and blood, that general reality in state instantiated in a holy and saintly individual.  Uh, so much for the brief explanation. They said fast forward to the 20th century, the descendant of Rabbi Schnur Zalman, Rabbi Joseph Yitzhak of Lubavitch  survives imprisonment. and near execution by the KGB in the Nazi bombing of Warsaw, and after much deliberation, moves to New York City. Wow, that's wild. the known reasons for this choice are varied. Some are spiritual, New York becoming a center of influence on world Jewry.  Not sure that's a word. Um, and some are very pragmatic. The Jews of the U. S. are already monetarily feeding most of the Eastern Bloc Jewry.  Thus, the sixth Lubavitcher rabbi, Lubavitch is a tiny town in Belarus that has the home of the longest surviving branch of the Shabbat movement, um, comes to Brooklyn and moves into 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights. The sixth rabbi passes away in 1950 and is succeeded by his son in law and distant cousin, Rabbi Menchem, Mendel Schneerson. In 1951, though he doesn't live in the building, 770 is where his office is located and remains the HQ of the Shabab movement.  Now you have to understand the Shabab movement in the U. S. in 1951 can practically fit into a single small room. It is a tiny poor immigrant community, remnants of a world for that the Nazis and Bolsheviks destroyed between them. They had nothing, no resources, no connections, barely any English, a tiny immigrant community in what was then a prestigious middle class Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. What they got in 1951, however, was capital L leadership. Not sure what that means.  The 7th Rebbi, henceforth the Rebbi, declares in his first official speech as Rebbi that this is the generation that will bring a final end to exile and usher in the messianic age. He declares this about a long room full of people.  He then sets about changing world Jewry.  Again, don't know if that's a word. Books could be written about the Rebbi and have been, but suffice to say the Rebbi creates from nothing a mass movement devoting to hunting down and love the Jews that Hitler hunted and hatred. I'm not going to read all of it. hunting down  in love, the Jews that hunter, that Hitler hunted in hatred with bringing Torah and mitzvoth, in love. The commandments to every single Jew. Shabbat centers, so it sounds like they're trying to just expand among all of the Jewish people. Shabbat centers with no central funding whatsoever, by the way, are opened all over the world. The rabbi pushes and pushes for a single Jew to perform a single commandment. He seeks to revive a broken and orphaned generation. He expands Shabbat and massive global movement.  All of this is just an atheist, know nothing  All of this is just what an atheist know nothing can appreciate about the Rebbe. He barely slept and was totally publicly devoted to other people for decades. Stories of Jews and non Jews meeting with him are countless, and always he emphases the imminent redemption and how to get there.  Okay, now it says we get to the sensitive part of the story, but I'm going to try to stick to simple public fact. The Rebbe's emphasis on, um, The Messiah grows greater and greater in his final years of leadership. The Rebbe passes away in 1994. The Rebbe's Hasidism very much believed, and believe, that if anyone in this generation was a candidate to become the final Redeemer according to Jewish law and tradition, it was and is the Lubavitcher Rebbe. However, following the Rebbe's passing, as the dust settles, there is a bit of a split.  Some hedonism fervently believe that spreading the awareness of the Rebbe as the Redeemer is a core part of bringing about the Redemption. They are the Masik, Mes, Mesh, Ikitism.  M E S H I C H I S T I M. Their flag is yellow and ubiquitous. The majority of Hasidism and ever growing consolidated core of Shabbat official organs believe that this is not the Rebbe's will. Okay. Um.  Now another issue, 770, the home and place, let's see if there's anything specific we want to get into here. Uh, now you know a lot about a certain subsection of Jewish culture that you probably never needed to know so much about. Um, another thing you should know is that even beyond the, by now, old distinction between, uh, the maschicatism  and the anti S, as they are known, Shabbat is highly decentralized and full of typical politics. Territorialism fights over money and all sorts of very human issues.  Okay,  uh, let's see what else.  Um, this person is very thorough in their study of this.  Um, and so, to the current contremps, you have a global, decentralized, massively successful organization that runs charities and synagogues and helps Jews with problems, physical and spiritual, all over the world  with an official HQ partially occupied by something like a street gang. Sounds like we missed that part, but I'm not going to go back for you. Um, and so, uh, This basically just says they're not above violence to claim their own turf. There's a big turf war between that split off between one subsection of this and the other subsection. In any case, this week, the actual ownership of 7770 called the cement trucks to repair this damage and stop the progress on the expansionism. Um  Interesting.  Uh, basically it says that as a result of this expansionism and taking over this territory, they wanted to, uh, start breaking into,  uh, the, the, so basically one portion of this subsection lives in the top floor and one portion lives on the bottom floor. And so, uh, you have a global decentralized, right? Like a streaking. This, uh, Fat Tim. have taken upon themselves in recent months unilaterally to expand 770. Their way was doing was starting to break into an adjoining basement. The main synagogue of 770 is in the basement and old decommissioned ritual bath. Or mitzvah.  770 is indeed, which a mikvah is basically where you're supposed to go bath, bathe yourselves. Women are supposed to go there before they have their period. Men are supposed to go there before and after they have sex. It's like a, it's like you cleanse yourself in this area. Um, 770 is, Uh, is indeed far too small for the massive number of people who wish to pray there, study there, or something that more and more Hasidism have been seeking a proper solution to for years. However, a bunch of teenagers breaking down walls in their free time, you be the judge. In any case, this week, the actual ownership of 770 called in the cement trucks to repair this damage and stop the progress on the expansion. Um, the Fatim responded territorially, the police became involved, and you have videos of Yeshiva students escaping arrest through sewer gates. I think that's most of the factual context. You're welcome.  Wow! Uh, okay. Super super interesting.  Uh, if you wish to read more about these topics, here are some good books. The Philosophy of Shabbat by Rabbi Nisan Mindel, The Rebbe's Army by Sue Fishcough, and Rebbe by Josef Tolskien. Hmmm.  Very interesting.  Uh, the broad interest in this story on Twitter and beyond is largely antisemitic with filth like this, uh, is a dime a dozen. Looks like something was, uh, deleted there. Um, interesting. Okay. So this makes much more sense to me and I think was probably. important to actually get into the details on, uh, then, uh, then  long term human trafficking under the streets of New York. Uh, so we have come to a conclusion and that is I vote. Not human trafficking. That is my, that is my conclusion here. I have debunked this, uh, maybe not completely, but it seems much more likely that that was the case, is that there's a bunch of territorial, uh, Jew fights going on and they're fighting over territory and expanding their territory and the landlord called on them and they were digging into the basement and now we see what we have. A little weird that there was a high chair.  There, so there's your competing threads, I guess, and one thread being these, uh, this Jewish sect is creating underground tunnels for human trafficking, the other one being this is a territory war between very  somewhat poor, um, and,  uh,  emotionally charged organizations for territory. Um, so that, that seems to make a lot more sense to me guys than, than underground human trafficking. Jewish rabbis.  I don't know. Um, but there is some articles out there of, of, you know, just as you can find for Christians and Catholics of wrongdoings, which if that's the, the  ruler that you measure everybody's affiliations by, then you can basically say that everybody is running a human trafficking organization then, I guess.  All right, so let's move on.  The last thing that we're going to talk about, and we're going to talk about this somewhat briefly, is the fact that, uh, and let me go ahead and actually just pull this article up, because I haven't been, I haven't had time to read through this completely yet, because this just happened. So, this is breaking news, is the fact that the United States and the UK coalition conducted a strike  on Houthi rebels. A joint strike, and So, as this article loads, we'll learn more and more, but I guess the, the, uh, the concern around this is that the reason that,  the concern around this is obviously that the Houthi rebels are backed by Iran. Right? So, this is, this comes from Fox News, and it says, hold  this over a little bit.  Alright, this comes from Fox News, where it says,  as it loaded and unloaded on me, um,  That the U. S. and U. K. coalition strike  Iran backed Houthi targets in Yemen after spat of ship attacks in the Red Sea. So you've been hearing this back and forth, right?  The drone strikes, and the aircraft carriers shooting down the drones, and all of this has been going on with these rebel militants that are backed by Iran. And so what I think is interesting is it's always Iran backed militants.  Is, is, are Ukraine, in every article by Russia, U. S. backed?  Ukrainian militants?  Do they? I'm sure they understand the proxy war just as much there as we do here, right? So if we're calling that every single thing, it's not it's not a war with Houthi rebels. It's a war with Iran. And that's what they're preempting for us. And that's that's what the priming that we're seeing here is before they put Houthi, they put Iran backed and that's for a reason. So Yemen's Iran backed Houthi militants have stepped up attacks or commercial on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and  It says the United States and Britain carried out a series of strikes on military organizations and locations belonging to Iran backed  Houthis in Yemen early Friday in response to militant groups ongoing attacks on vessels traveling through the Red Sea. Fox News is told that there were attacks on more than a dozen Houthi targets by air, surface, and subsurface platforms. The attacks were carried out with support from Australia, Netherlands, Iran and Canada, a U. S. defense official says the U. K. contributed aircraft.  President Biden said he'd authorize strikes in direct response to unprecedented  Houthi attacks against the International Maritime Vessels in the Red Sea, including the use of anti ship ballistic missiles for the very first time in history. These Houthi attacks, Biden said, have endangered U. S. personnel and its allies and have threatened freedom of navigation.  These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world's most critical commercial routes. I would love to hear President Biden say imperil freedom of navigation together. That would be impressive.  I will not hesitate. He said to direct further measurements to protect our people.  And the free flow of international commerce as necessary.  The strikes came shortly after the White House called a lid on President Biden's engagements for the evening as he was not expected to discuss the matter publicly. It follows news that the Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had not notified the President or other officials of his whereabouts for several days. Okay. A joint statement from the government

We are exploring opportunities for the expansion of 770 Eastern Parkway and strategizing on how to ensure the success of this venture. https://www.expand770.com/

If you've ever wondered who should carry the blame in an explosive reality TV fight, you're not alone. We're slicing into the juicy drama of Love and Hip Hop Atlanta, trying to decipher who's fault it was for the fierce clash between Erica Mena and Spice. We've got all the sizzling details and our verdict is in: Erica, tighten up!Joining us in this drama, and much more, is our trusted guest Teddy, helping us navigate from a tantalizing tequila and taco festival in Jamaica to a Florida beach bursting with birthday chaos. We also tackle some lighter topics, including our favorite anime, Drake's hair (seriously, what's up with that?), and Young Thugs latest album. But don't worry, we never stray too far from the fiery discussion about, and the scandalous editing choices of, Love and Hip Hop Atlanta.Finally, we bring you some real-life adventurous tales from a raid in New York's Eastern Parkway to a wild party plan in Houston. And if that's not enough, we're diving back into the drama of Erica and Spice, analyzing the role of reality TV editing and Spice's penchant for heated arguments. You see, even amidst the fun and frolic, we never forget our duty to keep you in the loop of the most thrilling reality TV scandals! So tune in and let's get started.

If you've ever wondered who should carry the blame in an explosive reality TV fight, you're not alone. We're slicing into the juicy drama of Love and Hip Hop Atlanta, trying to decipher who's fault it was for the fierce clash between Erica Mena and Spice. We've got all the sizzling details and our verdict is in: Erica, tighten up!Joining us in this drama, and much more, is our trusted guest Teddy, helping us navigate from a tantalizing tequila and taco festival in Jamaica to a Florida beach bursting with birthday chaos. We also tackle some lighter topics, including our favorite anime, Drake's hair (seriously, what's up with that?), and Young Thugs latest album. But don't worry, we never stray too far from the fiery discussion about, and the scandalous editing choices of, Love and Hip Hop Atlanta.Finally, we bring you some real-life adventurous tales from a raid in New York's Eastern Parkway to a wild party plan in Houston. And if that's not enough, we're diving back into the drama of Erica and Spice, analyzing the role of reality TV editing and Spice's penchant for heated arguments. You see, even amidst the fun and frolic, we never forget our duty to keep you in the loop of the most thrilling reality TV scandals! So tune in and let's get started.

Speaking in Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway, Rabbi Shais Taub addresses the meaning of "Hakhel" which was revived as a custom in this generation by the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

Speaking in Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway, Rabbi Shais Taub addresses the meaning of "Hakhel" which was revived as a custom in this generation by the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

Get up and get informed! Here's all the local news you need to start your day: Several Democratic lawmakers met with state legislators yesterday to push for more aid to house migrants, The NYPD officer driving a van that hit and killed a man on Eastern Parkway last spring will not face criminal charges, and a new ranking by The Trust for Public Land puts New York City in tenth place when it comes to big city parks in the United States.

New York City's Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz is stepping down from her role overseeing the city's response to worsening homelessness and housing affordability. Plus, NYPD Officer Orkhan Mamedov will not face criminal charges for driving a van that hit and killed a man on Eastern Parkway last spring. And finally, WNYC's Elizabeth Kim reports on how New York City's migrant crisis is challenging Mayor Eric Adams.

To continue our Jewish American Heritage Month celebrations, guest host Laura Shaw Frank, AJC's director of William Petschek Contemporary Jewish Life, speaks with Chanie Apfelbaum, author of the popular food blog Busy in Brooklyn. Chanie joins us to discuss her new cookbook, "Totally Kosher," the intersection of Jewish culture and food, and the future of kosher cuisine. She also shares how the murder of her brother, Ari Halberstam, who was killed in a 1994 terrorist attack on the Brooklyn Bridge, has inspired her career. *The views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views or position of AJC.  ____ Episode Lineup:  (0:40) Chanie Apfelbaum ____ Show Notes: Take our quiz: Jewish American Heritage Month Quiz: Test your knowledge of the rich culture and heritage of the Jewish people and their many contributions to our nation! Start now. Read: What is Jewish American Heritage Month? Jewish American Heritage Month Resources Faces of American Jewry Amazing Jewish Americans Listen: 8 of the Best Jewish Podcasts Right Now AJC CEO Ted Deutch on the Importance of Jewish American Heritage Month From Israel: AJC's Avital Leibovich Breaks Down Latest Gaza Escalation Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, tag us on social media with #PeopleofthePod, and hop onto Apple Podcasts to rate us and write a review, to help more listeners find us. __ Transcript of Interview with Chanie Apfelbaum Manya Brachear Pashman: People of the Pod is celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month by devoting all our May episodes to what makes us Jewish and proud -- food, music, and our mission to repair the world. Last week you heard from AJC CEO Ted Deutch about why we should set aside a month to celebrate. This week nods to our obsession with food.  And for that, I'll turn it over to my guest co-host, Laura Shaw Frank, AJC's Director of Contemporary Jewish Life. Laura, the mic is yours. Laura Shaw Frank: Thanks, Manya. Happy Jewish American Heritage Month!  As we celebrate Jewish American culture and history this month, it feels like we would be quite remiss if we didn't spend some time talking about Jewish food. Food plays an enormous role in Jewish tradition and culture. Jews have foods linked to particular Jewish holidays and of course Shabbat, ethnic foods linked to particular places where Jews lived, and of course, lots of Jews, myself included, keep kosher, follow the laws of Kashrut, which deeply influences the way we cook and eat.  I think I'd be pretty safe in saying that Jewish food is really important in Jewish life. Not surprisingly, statistics bear this out. In the Pew Survey of Jewish Americans in 2020 over 70% of American Jews, young and old alike, reported cooking or eating traditional Jewish foods. Which is why I'm so excited to be joined by today's guest, Chanie Apfelbaum. Chanie is a food writer and photographer whose blog “Busy in Brooklyn” is chock full of delectable recipes and beautiful pictures of amazing Jewish foods. Her newest cookbook, Totally Kosher, hit bookstores in March 2023. Chanie, welcome to People of the Pod. Chanie Apfelbaum: Thanks so much for having me. Laura Shaw Frank: I'm thrilled to have you and really thrilled to talk to you about your new cookbook. So before we get into that, though, let's take a step backward. How did you get into kosher cooking?  Chanie Apfelbaum: Well, I was born Jewish. That's the first step, always. I always say– learning your way around the kitchen is just a rite of passage when you get married. And being a Jewish housewife, obviously, we have, you know, Shabbat dinner every week, and so many holidays, and Jews are always just celebrating around food. I actually never stepped foot in the kitchen before I got married, never really helped my mom, my older sister used to help with cooking. It just looked like a chore to me. I am a very creative soul, very artistic. And it just seemed like a whole lot of rules. And I just wasn't interested. And then I got married. And I would call my mother every Friday and like, how do I make gefilte fish and potato kugel, and chicken soup. And I started hosting a lot. And people started asking me for my recipes. And I realized that I kind of had a knack for presentation. Because I've always been artistic. And you know, like composition and things like that. And my food always was presented nicely and looked beautiful. So it kind of got me you know, a little bit interested, piqued my interest. And I realized that it could be a way for me to explore my creative side.  So I I started watching The Food Network a lot. And I subscribed to Bon Appetit Magazine, and started looking at cookbooks. And then when I had my third child, I didn't want to really work outside the house anymore. So I was like, What should I do with myself, I'm not the type of person that could just be a stay at home mom, I would lose my mind. So I was like, Okay, I'm gonna start a blog. And there really weren't any food blogs and no kosher food blogs.  This is back in 2011. There was Smitten Kitchen, there was Pioneer Woman, those are both pioneers in the blogging world, in general. And there definitely weren't any kosher blogs. And I just, you know, I started my blog. And like I said, I wasn't cooking, you know, the traditional Jewish, heimish Ashkenazi food that I grew up with. Talking a little about being a mom. I had my crochet projects on there. And it was just like my place to get creative and have an outlet. And then feedback really started pouring in, everything I was posting, people were so interested. It didn't exist in the kosher world.  And despite not being a big foodie, I just continued to just do my thing and taking terrible pictures in the yellow light of my kitchen island, on automatic, with my terrible camera. And over time, just my food started to evolve, my photography started to evolve.  And fast-forward a couple of years, I went to a kosher culinary school, which really helped me kind of opened my mind to new flavors, which I was I think stuck a little bit in the Ashkenazi palate of paprika and garlic powder, as I like to say, and just tried all these Indian food and Thai food and all these flavors that I literally never ever experienced. And it just blew my mind open in so many ways.  Being creative, a few of my friends kind of started blogs around the same time. And every time a holiday would come around, it was like who's going to come up with the coolest latke or the coolest humentasch, or the most creative donut. So it really pushed my competitive side and also my creative side. And I just started really thinking outside the box and doing a lot of these cool twists on tradition and fusion recipes and caught a lot of attention in mainstream media and everything went from there, I guess. Laura Shaw Frank: That's amazing. I want to pick up on one thing that you said. You said when you started blogging that so many people got in touch with you. And you were obviously bringing them content that they hadn't seen before. What do you think was missing from the conversations around kosher food before you entered the space? I mean, I'll just you know, tell you when I got married, everyone got the Spice and Spirit cookbook from Lubavitch. I still use it, by the way. It's a fantastic cookbook. It's a more traditional cookbook. And so tell us a little bit about what did you bring that was different to kosher cooking? Chanie Apfelbaum: You know what, there's one story that sticks out in my mind that really, because I've always been this person that picks up hobbies along the way, like every creative thing. I'm knitting, I'm  crocheting. I'm scrapbooking, kind of all these type of things. I pick up a hobby, I do it for a couple of months and then I kind of let it go. So I always asked myself, like, what was it about food blogging that really stuck for me, and I think that I realized the power of it.  One year, I made this recipe for the nine days when we don't eat meat, you know, between before Tisha B'Av, some people have accustomed not to eat any meat recipes, because it's a time of mourning, it's a serious time before the anniversary of the destruction of the Holy Temple. So wine and meat are more celebratory things that we eat. So those are restricted for nine days before Tisha B'av.  So I made this recipe for Chili Pie in Jars. And it was a vegetarian chili, a layer of cheddar cheese, and cornbread, and you bake it in a mason jar in the oven. So each person has basically their own pie. So I made this recipe and I put it in on my blog, and this is before Instagram, can't DM somebody a picture, it's before smartphones, you can't just take a picture on your smartphone. So somebody took out their digital camera, took a picture of their families sitting around the table, everyone's holding their own mason jar, and like, took the SD card out, put it in their laptop and sent me an email. This is early days of my blog. I get this picture. I see a whole family sitting around the table eating my recipe and I'm like, oh my god,  how powerful is this, that I have the opportunity to bring families around the table, it is so special.  And I think that that's something that really stuck with me through all my years of blogging and really at the core, for me, what keeps me going because I realize the power of food. Especially, as a proud Jew, to celebrate our traditions through food, because, thank God through my platform, I get messages from people–someone sent me a message from literally Zimbabwe making Challah for the first time. It's just so special to me.  So, obviously, as a mom of five, I'm always cooking dinner, and it can feel like a chore. I get cooking fatigue like everybody else. And cooking Shabbat dinner every week. I always say in the main world, they make this big deal about Thanksgiving, you know, you have to plan your menu from Sunday, and then your shopping list from Tuesday and all that but like we literally have Thanksgiving every Friday night. It's a three course or four course meal sometimes. So yeah, I get the cooking fatigue.  And for me, I want to show people how to bring the love back in the kitchen. You know, how food can be more than just a way of sustaining ourselves, it could be a way of celebrating our Jewishness, it could be a way of bringing our family around the table, it could be a way of getting pleasure out of life. Food can be so delicious, and it can open your eyes and experience global cuisine. That's so cool and amazing. So I had that aha moment for myself, and I want other people to have it too. Laura Shaw Frank: That's amazing. I love that. So what you're really saying is that food and culture are really intertwined with one another. And you gave this example of the nine days before the Jewish fast day of Tisha B'Av, which takes place in the summertime, when it's traditional among religious Jews to not eat meat and wine and talking about sort of adjusting recipes. Could you give us a couple of other examples of ways that you see sort of Jewish history, Jewish culture, Jewish tradition embedded in food? Chanie Apfelbaum: Look at the holidays, right, Rosh Hashanah, we have a lot of symbolic foods. Most people know of apple and honey, but there are actually a whole range of symbolic foods that we eat. The actual names and Hebrew of those foods, point to different things that we want for our year,like we eat a fish head because we want to be like a head and not a tail. For me that really helped me kind of zone in on what is my niche here, right? I am a kosher food blogger, but how do I define my skill or who I am because every blogger kind of has their thing. And for me a lot of it is centered around the holidays because first of all for me like I have so many beautiful memories growing up.  My mother is very much a traditional Ashkenazi cook, making kugel and gefilte fish and cholent and matza ball soup. She doesn't veer away from that. Those are the dishes that I grew up on and they're so nostalgic for me and there's a place for that. Our home was always open, we had so many guests. I actually grew up in Crown Heights. So I really zone in a lot on holiday foods, but putting my own spin on it, because I feel like people want something fresh and new and exciting. And I definitely think there's a place for the traditional foods. You want to mix it up and have a little bit something fresh and new and something old, that's great. We're lucky that we have that core of our heritage and our traditions throughout the year with so many Jewish holidays that allow us to get together, with family, with friends, and celebrate our Jewishness. Laura Shaw Frank: So, my husband and my three sons are all vegan.  Chanie Apfelbaum: Oh, wow. Laura Shaw Frank: My daughter and I are not – but my husband and my three sons are vegan. As I was thinking about interviewing you, I was thinking about how kosher cooking is always intertwined with the places that it's located in and the time in which it's occurring. Do you feel like your cooking has been influenced by the recent trends toward vegetarian and vegan and more plant based eating? Chanie Apfelbaum: I definitely, just as someone who grew up eating a lot of heavy Ashkenazi food. Being in the food world, seeing what's out there. Besides for the fact that it's trendy. I feel like after Shabbat, I want to break from meat and animal protein. I mean, we're eating fish, we're usually having three courses. We're having fish, we're having chicken soup or having some kind of meat or chicken. Sunday we're usually having leftovers because there's just so much food from Shabbat. So come Monday we do in my house–in my first cookbook, Millennial Kosher, which came out in 2018. I had a Meatless Meals chapter. And that was really new for any kosher cookbook. You don't find it, you find definitely very heavy meat chapters. But it was important to me because I instituted that in my house many years ago. And I have it in this book as well. And I got so much amazing feedback because there's a lot of people out there who don't eat meat. There's a lot of vegetarians. There's a lot of vegans. And they were so happy that I was bringing that to the kosher world, and of course wanted to bring it again. And also my kids love it. Like come Monday they know it's Meatless Monday in my house. God forbid I didn't have time to think of something and I bring chicken they're like, What, what's going on here? Ma, it's Meatless Monday. It's like a rule. So I include this in the book where I talk about the way I structure my week because it really helped me kind of take the guesswork out of what am I making for dinner. I have a loose framework, while still allowing me the possibility to be creative because I love you know, playing Chopped with my kids, with whatever's in my fridge or my pantry. I want the possibility to be creative but I still need a little bit of framework.  So Sunday's we'll have leftovers if there's no leftovers, we'll do a barbecue or sometimes a restaurant if we're out for the day. But Monday's Meatless, Tuesdays is beef. Wednesdays is chicken, Thursdays is dairy. Shabbos is Friday night, it's always a little bit different. And then, Saturday night is eggs. And it gives me the base protein, I know what I'm working off of and then from that I can kind of play around. And I think that really helps people that are like so overwhelmed with the idea of what am I making for dinner? You wake up on a Tuesday morning, you know, it's meat day, okay, I got to take out some kind of meat from the freezer. I'll figure out what I'm doing for later. Maybe I'll make tacos. Maybe I'll make spaghetti Bolognese maybe, you know, maybe I'll make burgers, but you took the meat out, you know. But going back to your question. So you know, Mondays is meatless in my house and we're a big bean family. My kids love beans. One of their favorite dinners are my refried bean tacos that are my first book. I have these amazing smashed falafel burgers in this book. Like I said, we love beans, I do curries I do, Falafel I do. Once in a while I'll try and play around with tofu. My kids don't love it too much. Tempe is something - I have tempe shawarma in the book which is really amazing.  Let's not forget to mention plant based beef which I think totally revolutionized the kosher experience because when can we ever make you know, meat and dairy together because that's one of the basic rules within the kosher kitchen. You can't mix meat and dairy together in the same dish. My kids love when I make smash burgers for dinner. And I always said like, I don't love vegan dairy products if you just don't get that cheese pull, but like with the vegan meat products, with the new plant based impossible beef, it's really close to the real thing. It really is.  Laura Shaw Frank: We love impossible burgers in our house and I want to try that tempe shawarma. Chanie Apfelbaum: Oh, it's really good. Laura Shaw Frank: What recipe would you say was kind of the biggest surprise for you? I mean, it seems to me like you often work from traditional Jewish recipes, but seems like you also are constantly innovating and making up your own recipes. So is there a recipe that just kind of surprised yourself and couldn't believe how it turned out? Chanie Apfelbaum: My favorite recipe in the book is my Pad Chai. And it's kind of a Middle Eastern spin on Pad Thai, where I use harissa and silan and lime and tamarind in the sauce. It almost feels like pad thai with just that little hint of Middle Eastern flavor. Pad thai is always finished with crushed peanuts, and I put crushed bamba over the top. And it's just so fun and playful. And I also love fun names. So I love just the name of it, but it's really a reflection of, first of all my favorite flavors, like I love middle eastern food, I love Thai food, marrying them together. And it's colorful and beautiful and so flavorful. Everything I love about food, and was really inspired by the pad thai made in culinary school. And it was one of the dishes that really, really transformed my palate completely. So it's kind of an ode to that. Laura Shaw Frank: You're getting me very excited to go home and make dinner for the next few nights.  Chanie Apfelbaum: You see right there. Laura Shaw Frank: So your latest cookbook, Totally Kosher, is being published by Random House. And that's a really interesting thing for a kosher kind of a niche cookbook to be published by a very mainstream publisher. So I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about how it came about that you got, first of all, that you got Random House to publish your cookbook, which is amazing. Second of all, why you left the more Jewish the more orthodox publishing world. Chanie Apfelbaum: I'm with Clarkson Potter, one of the imprints of Penguin Random House, that's an imprint. They haven't written a kosher book in many, many, many years. Thank God, I've been in this industry for 12 years. And I already wrote a very successful book. So my name is really out there. People know me as being the kosher cook. So they did approach me to write the book, which was really an honor. I had a very good experience the first time around working with Artscroll. Artscroll is like the main Jewish distributor of and publisher of Jewish books. My book was beautiful, and their distribution is really unmatched, but it's really only in the Jewish world. they'll get your book and every Judaica shop in the world, but not in Barnes and Nobles, and not in you know, in mainstream, indie booksellers.  I really wanted to reach a larger demographic of Jews. As a blogger, people have come to know me and my family. I wanted to put more lifestyle photos in and most Jewish publishers don't actually publish photos of women in their books, which is something that I definitely want to see change. And I put beautiful pictures of my family, me and my daughters lighting Shabbos candles which is something that like, the moment of my week that I look forward to and a special time for me that I really feel like I connect with my Jewishness. And you know, my book is dedicated and memory of my Bubbie and to my mother and to my daughters and for me, it's really about the Jewish family and Jewish pride–not just about food, but really about family and I wanted to be able to portray that through the photos in the book. So that was another of my reasons for moving mainstream. Laura Shaw Frank: I think it's just amazing. And I just think it's so wonderful that you are illustrating your cookbook, with pictures that are not just about Jewish pride, but also about the special pride of Jewish women and the special…you know, of course, not only women cook, you know, men cook too, I have to say, my husband cooks dinner a lot more than than I do. And kids cook and lots of different people find a lot of wonderful fulfillment in the kitchen. But, of course, we do have this very long tradition of women cooking for their families, even as we change it up today. And I just think it's beautiful that you actually intentionally use pictures of women, of your family, in your cookbook.  Chanie Apfelbaum: And my sons are there too. Laura Shaw Frank: Excellent. Let's make it a family experience.  Chanie Apfelbaum: Exactly, exactly. Laura Shaw Frank: Speaking about family experience, you've written about why it's so important to you to encourage family meals with everyone sitting around the table together, whether it's on Shabbat or holidays or even just a weekday dinner. Could you share with us why that's so important to you? Chanie Apfelbaum: Well, I grew up in a very open home. My mom always had guests for shabbat or holidays. I grew up on the block of 770 Eastern Parkway, Chabad Lubavitch headquarters, and our house was just always open to guests. It's something of value that was instilled in me from early on.  And I don't know if you know this, but my brother Ari Halbersham was actually killed in a terrorist attack on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1994. That's something that I feel like, I don't think people realize, when you lose a family member in that way, it's not like, OK, you just lost your brother. But it affects the whole family, really for generations. And I think that one of the things that I lost was having those experiences around the table. And especially so many memories with my brother at the table as well.  So for me, I find so much healing–first of all healing, but also just, I see the greatness and the power to bring families around the table. To create family memories. So many that I draw great comfort from, I want other people to be able to experience that. It's important for me to do that, also as a way to remember him and celebrate what he lived for and what he died for. Laura Shaw Frank: Ok, that's incredible. And it's an incredible message to all of us to be in the moment and treasure those moments around the table.  So the last thing I want to ask you is, so you have this cookbook that's being published by a mainstream publisher. And we know that not a lot of Jews keep kosher. The percentages are not that high. Do you think your cookbook appeals beyond just a kosher audience?  Chanie Apfelbaum: Well, I'll tell you that I have a lot of–forget about non- kosher keeping. I have a lot of non-Jewish followers on Instagram that buy my book, because they just like my style of cooking. I know it's called Totally Kosher. And obviously, it's a celebration of kosher and celebration of our Jewish heritage, and our customs and traditions, but at the same time, it's just good food, it's just good food, despite it being kosher, and really, I really want to break that stigma that there is about kosher food - that kosher food is brown, and it is brown. You know, like I can't take it away. Matzah ball soup is beige, and gefilte fish is beige, and potato kugel's beige, and brisket's brown. And you know, there's a reason for the stereotype.  Laura Shaw Frank: Cholent's brown too. Chanie Apfelbaum: It is. And if you look through my book, one thing that will pop out at you is how colorful the food is, and how beautiful the food is. And like I said earlier, I came to food by means of artistry. They say people eat with their eyes first. And it has changed and I think in the mainstream world, they haven't quite realized how kosher has evolved. I mean, there's so many different restaurants, kosher restaurants now, that celebrate different global cuisines. There's a Peruvian Japanese restaurant in the city, there's a Georgian restaurant in Queens. It's not just your Bubbie's stuffed cabbage anymore. And I want, like I said, the stigma to change and make waves in the mainstream world to see kosher a little bit differently. Laura Shaw Frank: Well, I'm for one very excited to start making some recipes from Totally Kosher. And I just want to thank you, Chanie, so much for coming to join us on People of the Pod. I think that you are bringing such a fresh take. And such a warmth, such a deep sense of Jewish culture and peoplehood, and family, and love to your work. And it's really more than just about kosher cooking. It's really about something much bigger. And I just want to thank you for that. So thanks so much for joining us today and I know we're gonna have a lot of listeners going to buy your cookbook.  Chanie Apfelbaum: Thank you for having me.  

Eastern Parkway, Buffalo Avenue, Public Tennis in Brooklyn, Prospect Park Tennis Center, Bridgeview Tennis Center, McCarren Park Tennis, Hard Court Tennis, Covid, Lefthandedness, John McEnroe, Serve and Volley Tennis, Flat Forehand, Alana Fishberg, Irwin Fishberg, College Tennis, Tennis Tournaments, Bronx Tennis, Mathematician, Tennis Volleying, 

This is the All Local morning update 12/15/2022

This is the All Local Morning for Monday, September 5th 2022

This is the afternoon All Local for September 5, 2022

Register for the panel, "What Really Happens in Shelter: Education & Mental Health" on: http://bit.ly/3csx8zf Housing Housing Connect (https://housingconnect.nyc.gov/PublicWeb/) Search Lottery (https://housingconnect.nyc.gov/PublicWeb/search-lotteries) Furniture Ashley Furniture program: twin mattress, a bedframe, bedding, and a pillow. https://www.ahopetodream.com/participating-homestores Find a furniture bank https://furniturebanks.org/furniture-banks/ Mental Health Talk It Out Mental Health Counseling PLLC Talkitoutcounselingservices@gmail.com Domestic Violence New Destiny Housing https://newdestinyhousing.org/ Resource Center: https://newdestinyhousing.org/housing-help/ Family Justice Centers: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/ocdv/programs/family-justice-centers.page (includes locations and phone numbers). 24-hour Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-621-HOPE (4673) Safe Horizon Crime Victims Hotline: 1-866-689-HELP SafeChat offer information, advocacy and support: https://www.safehorizon.org/safechat/ Other resources: https://www.safehorizon.org/am-i-being-abused/ Homelessness Prevention, Housing Services, Legal Services HELP USA https://www.helpusa.org Phone: 212-779-3350 718-922-7980 Catholic Charities https://catholiccharitiesny.org/find-help 888-744-7900 Riseboro Housing (Mainly in Brooklyn communities) 718-366-3800 https://riseboro.org/ Hotline for Rental Assistance: 718-547-2800 Email: erap@riseboro.org Coalition for the Homeless https://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/ CFTH Crisis Intervention Hotline: 1-888-358-2384 Get Help: https://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/get-help/ CFTH Resource Guide: https://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/resource-guide/ CAMBA https://camba.org/programs/ Homebase: CAMBAHomebase@camba.org or call the following Brooklyn and Staten Island locations: * 1117 Eastern Parkway, 718-622-7323 * 1958 Fulton Street, 718-408-5756 * 2244 Church Avenue, 718-408-5766 * 120 Stuyvesant Place, 718-282-6473 * 209 Bay Street, 718-226-0496 CAMBA Emergency Food and Shelter Program - 20 Snyder Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11226 (718) 287-0010 Nazareth Housing 519 East 11th Street, NY, NY 10009 info@nazarethhousingnyc.org (212) 777-1010 Education Advocates for Children Education specialist helpline, Monday - Thursday 10am-4pm 866-427-6033 or send a message: https://www.advocatesforchildren.org/get_help/helpline/send_us_a_message Students in Temporary Housing Tip Sheet: https://www.advocatesforchildren.org/sites/default/files/library/students_in_temporary_housing.pdf?pt=1 Spanish Version: https://www.advocatesforchildren.org/sites/default/files/library/students_in_temporary_housing_spanish.pdf?pt=1 Resources for Spanish-Speaking Families Committee for Hispanic Children and Families Programs for underserved, low- and moderate- income children and families throughout NYC and the home-based child care providers. 212-206-1090 Ext: 355 or Ext: 310 Coalition for Hispanic Family Services Preventive Family Support Services Franc Villalobos - fvillalobos@hispanicfamilyservicesny.org

A moving incident i witnessed on the very first Gimmel Tamuz while standing on Eastern Parkway along with tens of thousands of Jews from all walks of life

Rav Avigdor Miller assumed the rabbinate of Walnut Street Shul in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1939, and would remain there for six years. Seeking better educational opportunity for his children, he moved to East Flatbush, Brooklyn in 1945 and would remain there for the next three decades. He assumed a position as mashgiach in Yeshiva Chaim Berlin in Brownsville, and began educating his young charges with the values he had brought from Slabodka. At around the same time he was hired as congregational rabbi at the Young Israel of Rugby, where he would have a decisive impact on generations of congregants. Following his departure from Chaim Berlin in 1965, he expanded the scope of his activities with his involvement in other Brooklyn Yeshivos such as Netzach Yisroel, Mir and Eastern Parkway. In addition, he gave classes to the girls of Bais Yaakov in Williamsburg and Boro Park.   For sponsorship opportunities about your favorite topics of Jewish history contact Yehuda at:  yehuda@yehudageberer.com   Subscribe To Our Podcast on:    PodBean: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/   Follow us on Twitter or Instagram at @Jsoundbites You can email Yehuda at yehuda@yehudageberer.com

This week we hear more stories from the infamous house on Eastern Parkway from a new perspective. And it seems Erin isn't the only one who can't believe Meghann isn't a believer at heart. Our Fan Favorite this week is Anna.  If you would like to support their cause, go to canuckplace.org/healthandsafty/  Please remember to Rate, Review and Subscribe on Apple Podcast and Spotify.  If you would like to write in, find us on patreon, buy merch or find our social handles, go to our website, www.myskepticalsister.com

This class is the first installment in a lecture series by Rabbi Yoel Kahn on the Lubavitcher Rebbe's "Kuntres Inyana Shel Toras Hachassidus" or "On the Essence of Chassidus," an original discourse delivered on the 19th of Kislev 5726 (Dec 13, 1965). Rabbi Kahn gave this class in Yiddish to the senior students at the Central Chabad Lubavitch Yeshiva at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, and it covers Seif Alef through Zayin.

This class is the second installment in a lecture series by Rabbi Yoel Kahn on the Lubavitcher Rebbe's "Kuntres Inyana Shel Toras Hachassidus" or "On the Essence of Chassidus," an original discourse delivered on the 19th of Kislev 5726 (Dec 13, 1965). Rabbi Kahn gave this class in Yiddish to the senior students at the Central Chabad Lubavitch Yeshiva at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, and it covers Seif Zayin through Yud Gimmel.

770 Eastern Parkway - Part 7 Expressions

770 Eastern Parkway - Part 5 Its Titles

770 Eastern Parkway - Part 4 its Functions. 770 = Numerical value of Poratzto.

#772) 770 Eastern Parkway - Part III Paid up - Sichas RC Sivan 5710 (1950).

#771) 770 Eastern Parkway - Part II The Purchase and Preparations

770) 770 Eastern Parkway (1) The Background

Last night, hundreds of people occupied the amphitheatre area in front of the Brooklyn Museum to share stories and collectively mark the anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. At least 15 NYPD vehicles lurked on Eastern Parkway 100 yards away. The police presence included the large vans used to transport people who have been arrested as well as two vans for NYPD’s notorious Strategic Response Group, a “riot control” division which has violently arrested, pepper sprayed, and intimidated anti-racist and anti-fascist protestors consistently over the last year. SRG was established in 2015 and has an estimated yearly budget of $68 million. We know it doesn’t have to be this way. We can change our city for the better by redistributing the massive amount of resources NYPD uses to harass and intimidate New Yorkers and investing that money in healthcare, education, housing, parks, art, and other things that will actually improve our quality of life and keep our communities safe. Tonight on Revolutions per Minute, we hear from DSA-endorsed candidate for City Council District 22 Tiffany Cabán, a long time de-carceral activist, on why she was proud to sign on to DSA’s vision for real public safety and budget justice. We’ll also be taking your calls live with Kay Gabriel, an NYC-DSA member and Defund NYPD organizer. Learn more about Tiffany Cabán and her campaign at www.cabanforqueens.com.Has your City Council candidate signed on to the Real Public Safety pledge? Visit bit.ly/defundpressure2021 to find out and get involved. Revolutions per Minute looks forward to seeing you at the Defund NYPD week of action May 31 - June 6! View a full schedule and sign up at https://www.defundnypd.com/woa.

following the money in the city and in the state of New York means following are election Cycles here is part one of two or maybe three laundry list of elected officials and non elected officials running and jumping jacks like Mayor Bill de Blasio style like back in the day on Eastern Parkway. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thereallewdresky/message

One of the many Brooklyn neighborhoods that was a center of diverse Jewish life for decades, Crown Heights is also unique in many ways. From its pre war days and the first JCC in America, to the influx of Chassidic Jews in the post war, it boasted a variety of shuls, shtiebels and schools. Bobov, Skulen, Novominsk, Radzin, Yeshiva of Eastern Parkway and Kollel Gur Aryeh were just some of the many groups and institutions who had a presence in the bustling neighborhood. With the arrival of the Rayatz of Lubavitch in the United States in 1940, Chabad headquarters were eventually established at the legendary address of 770 Eastern Parkway. With the "white flight" of the 1960's in full swing, the Rebbe insisted that his Chassidim stay put. As the courageous holdouts, Chabad would come to dominate Jewish life in Crown Heights and eventually come to be synonymous with the neighborhood itself. Subscribe To Our Podcast on: Apple: tinyurl.com/yy8gaody Google Play: tinyurl.com/yxwv8tpc Spotify: tinyurl.com/y54wemxs Stitcher: bit.ly/2GxiKTJ Follow us on Twitter or Instagram at @Jsoundbites You can email Yehuda at YGebss@Gmail.com

EPISODE 108 is here and it's kind of scary, no big deal, wait come back. It's about CHILDHOOD FEARS – the irrational bogeymen that plagued us as wee little ones. The ghosts that hid beneath beds and the darkness at the edges of the room. The way a tree tapped the window as the wind blows. The wet kiss of a banshee on your neck, which at first surprises you but then you like it.   Plugs this week:   The Eastern Parkway renovation (Hao) Say Good Night to Insomnia (Jack) How to Grill Everything (Kate)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio on twitter

Charlie Buttons is a poet, spoken word performer and iconic mainstay at 770 Eastern Parkway - world headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

פרשת פקודיPart I.A Fire is KindledTHE KING’S SCROLL-ROOMויהי בחודש הראשון בשנה השנית באחד לחודש הוקם המשכן – The greatest day in the history of the world had finally arrived. On the first day of Nissan the dwelling place for Hashem was established and the Presence of Hashem would now rest among His chosen people. The Mishkan was now going to betheplace for the revelation of Hashem in this world, the fulfillment of Hashem’s promise: ושכנתי בתוכם – “And I will dwell among them” (Shemos 25:8)And what was the first thing that Moshe did after spreading the roof over the Mishkan? He set up thekodesh kodoshim,the holiest space on the face of this earth, the room where the Presence of Hashem would dwell most intensely. Although the Shechinah was now going to dwell among the Bnei Yisroel, it would dwell even more intensely in the Mishkan. And where was the holiest place in the Mishkan, the place where Hashem chose to rest his Presence with the most intensity? Thekodesh hakodoshim. Now, if you would have asked me what I would have set up in that room where Hashem would now reside, so with my little head I would say, a throne, a big beautiful golden throne, something resplendent and ornate, placed in the middle of thekodesh kodoshim; and that would symbolize thekisei hakavod, the place where Hashem rests His Presence in this world.“Nothing doing,” said Hakodosh Boruch Hu, “I have other plans for My room, for thekodeshkodoshim”:ויתן את העדות אל הארון…ויבא את הארון אל המשכן…ויסך על ארון העדות כאשר צוה השם את משה – Hashem commanded that into this holiest part of the Mishkan, the room that symbolized His place in this world, should be placed the two stone tablets engraved by the Hand of Hashem, and afterward the Torah itself was put alongside theluchos(Devarim 31:26).A MOUNTAIN IN THE LITTLE ROOMAnd that’s what Dovid Hamelech said in Tehillim (68:18): השם בם – “Hashem has settled among the Am Yisroel.” And how did He do that? סיני בקודש – “Because Har Sinai is now in the Mishkan.” That great day of the Giving of the Torah at Har Sinai is now found in thekodesh kodoshim.The Sanctuary was the heart of the nation, and itwas the word of Hashem, the stoneluchosand the Torah, that were at the heart of the Mishkan.What we’re learning here is that preparing a home for Hashem to live among us, really meant preparing a homefor the Torahto reside among us. And the Mishkan in its entirety was actually an altar of devotion tothe word of Hashem. And so instead of a throne for Hashem to rest His presence on, the revelation of Hashem in this world came by means of His Torah. And the Am Yisroel in themidbarlived according to that revelation.WHAT DID THEY DO ALL DAY?I’ll explain that. Because really we have to ask ourselves: What were the Am Yisroel doing in themidbarfor forty years after all? It was at least two million people in themidbar, and they were there for forty years. And it was forty years without worries ofparnasa. They ate what fell from the clouds; they didn’t have to go to the factory to get a paycheck.Did they plow their fields? No, there were no fields for them to plow. And not only were there no worries about parnasa, but no enemies could touch them either; they were more secure during those forty years than at any subsequent time in history. So you’ll say, maybe they travelled. No, they only travelled together; nobody went away to the country and nobody vacationed in Florida. They were home on Pesach and in the summer too. Never again did we have such an ideal existence, so much time for leisure, as we had during those forty years.Ahh, leisure! So what did they do all day? What were they busy with for forty years? Did they go to the theatre? Maybe they played with a stick and a ball and tried to hit homeruns? It’s hard to imagine; forty years of nothing to do, forty years of vacation.FORTY YEARS IN KOLLELAnd so we have to understand that for forty years they had nothing to do except to study Torah. The entire nation actually became a one bigyeshivah. And it was ayeshivahwhere they studied day and night. They didn’t have newspapers to read, or radio to listen to. And even if they would have been able to get their hands on something; let’s say aben Yisroelwould try to pick up a newspaper from a neighboring tribe, from Midian; you couldn’t get away with such a thing in themachaneh Yisroel. You were in a kollel, and every kollel has amashgiach. And this kollel in themidbarhad more supervision that any kollel since then. Every nine men had amashgiachwho watched them, thesar asarah, and so they had to behave. And every forty nine men had a supermashgiach, thesar chamishim. Every ninety nine men had a super supermashgiach, thesar mei’ah. And every nine hundred and ninety nine had a super super supermashgiach,that was thesarei alafim. You couldn’t sneak anything past this army ofmashgichim. And Moshe Rabeinu with his watchful eye was overseeing the whole thing, the whole Yeshivas Hamidbar.But themashgichimdidn’t have a very difficult job, because they were seriousyungerleitin theyeshivah. They knew what their purpose was because they knew what was in thekodesh kodoshim. Never, in any subsequent era, was the Torah so supreme and so studied as under the forty year rule of Moshe Rabeinu, the Torah teacher par excellence. “And you should speak in the words of Torah when you sit in your house, and when you walk on the road, and when you lie down and when you arise” (Devarim 6:7) wasn’t only apossuk, amitzvah,oreven an aspiration to yearn for – it was their way of life! The sole occupation for thedor hamidbarwas Torah study. The nation functioned like a hugeyeshivah– what themidbarwas for the Am Yisroel was actually a forty year Kollel, a Torah Academy.THE‘MAIN DISH’ OF OUR PEOPLEAnd it was thatkollelthat would define what the Am Yisroel would be forever. In themidbarwe were transformed into amamleches kohanim, a nation of Torah learners, and that experience remained engraved for all time on the hearts of our people. And that explains for us agemarathat has confounded many. Thegemarain Sanhedrin (92a) says: אין שריד אלא תלמיד חכם, that the wordsarid, “leftover” or “the one who remains” refers to atalmid chochom. Now that’s a puzzle, why is atalmid chochomcalled a “leftover”? He’s not the leftover; he’s the main dish after all! There are variouspshatim, but the simplepshatis that originally the whole Klal Yisroel werechachomim; the entire Dor Hamidbar was a big kollel oftalmidei chachomim.And therefore, anyone who studies the Torah today is a leftover from those days in themidbar. Because it was then that the Am Yisroelin its entiretyrecognized the truth that the goal of every Jew is to be atalmid chochom.And from then on, the study of Torah becamethenational vocation and pastime. Never did the Am Yisroel, in all its subsequent history, ever use their leisure time for anything else but Torah. There was no telling stories of adventure and war, and no playing sports. There were no theatres or stadiums and no amusement parks either. And that’s because we found everything we wanted and everything we needed in the study of Torah and in the raising of families to beohavei Torah.The word entertainment doesn’t exist in the lexicon of our people. Who needs the fleeting and empty joy of circuses, carnivals, sports, hunting, races or any other pastime, when we find all of our fulfillment by means of theluchosand the Torah?WHY ARE WE STILL HERE?And that’s what Rav Saadia Gaon meant when he said (Sefer Emunos V’dayos 3:7) אין אומתינו אומה אלא בתורה, that we are a nation only as a Torah nation. It means the following: We have no right to exist. We should have long ago disappeared. Where is Edom? They disappeared! Where is Amon? They disappeared! It’s all gone! Where is Ancient Mitzrayim? All gone! Ancient Greece is all gone, everything is underground. You’re going to need a lot of shovels and you’ll have to sweat a lot before you can see all the ancient nations of the world.So why are we still here? We’re also one of the ancient nations, so why didn’t we also disappear along with all the others? And the answer is that we are only here because of the Torah. ThefrumJews study the Torah in its most minute details, and that’s why there is still an Am Yisroel. And that’s אין אומתינו אומה אלא בתורה. We are a Torah-nation and that’s the cause of our existence. Mitzvos, wonderful, wonderful! But it’s the study of Torah that defines the Am Yisroel; it’s our life-breath, our way of life. We are a nation of Torah learners and that’s why we are forever. Hashem is forever, His Torah is forever, and we who study His Torah will be forever.THE PAGEANT IN THE MESIVTAAnd that explains something queer that we notice when we study our history. You know that in Bavel there were great Mesivtos, greatyeshivoswhere thechachomimgathered to study and to teach. There was a Mesivta in Sura where Rav was, and there was another Mesivta in Naharda’eh where Shmuel lived; two big Mesivtos that were the center of the Am Yisroel. And there were other Mesivtos too that functioned in Bavel.But the Mesivta wasn’t a place where you just learned Torah and heardshiurim. It was a very interesting experience, the Mesivta. Everything was done with a procedure. They used to march in to the Beis Medrash in the beginning of the session; thechachomimmarched in first, and then thetalmidimmarched in behind them, and everyone took his place; each one of thechachomimhad his particular place. And there were designated people who would make the announcement, “Thechachomimare coming in now; they’re entering into the Mesivta.” It wasmamishlike a pageant; that’s how they opened up the Mesivta.BABYLONIAN STATE OF THE UNIONAnd not only in the beginning of thezman; every day was like that. It was done with a certain panoply, like in a royal tribunal, with certain procedures, formalities and announcements. Like in the Congressl’havdilor in a king’s palace; it was done with the greatest kind of ceremony. And we should ask ourselves: What was this for? Why all the fanfare?! Why couldn’t they just get busy with learning already? Isn’t that what they came for? It wasn’t the State of the Union address after all; it was ayeshivah! And they didn’t do this once a year; it wasevery day!And the answer is that this pomp and the ceremony was vital for an understanding of the place of the Torah in the Am Yisroel. In themidbar, where they all saw the Mishkan, and they all knew that hidden inside, in the room that Hashem chose to reside in, was theluchosand the Torah, so the entire nation lived with a tangible understanding that it was the study of the Torah that was the core function of our people – everybody was learning inkollel, and there was no question in anyone’s mind thatlimud Torahwas the function of our people. But in order to keep that fire ofkavod hatorahaliveforeverand to understand the centrality of the Torah to our nation, the nation had to see with their own eyes the glory of Torah. And so the Mesivta functioned with the prominence it deserved and the Am Yisroel learned that the aristocracy of our people were the ones who were studying the Toras Hashem in the Beis Medrash.THE AM YISROEL GETS FARHERREDAnd in Bavel they also established the Yarchei Kallah together with the Mesivta. Twice a year there was ayarchei kallah, akiddush Hashemof remarkable proportions. You know they were almost all farmers in Bavel, so when the farming season was over, two months a year, tens of thousands of people came to the Mesivta. The town was overflowing with Jews. They slept on the streets, on the roofs, and in cellars, and they were learning all the time. The entire month they were learning Torah. And thechachmei hatorahwere there to test them, to see if they knew it! If they hadkashasthey asked thekashas. Everybody was learning the same thing – it was a scene to behold – they were all learning the samemesichtaand thechachomimfarherredthem.And it wasn’t little children we’re talking about; these were adults, men in their forties and fifties, older than that too, men with families. From where did this fire of dedication to Torah come? How could a nation of so many different personalities: workers, wise men, simple folk, intellectuals, rich and poor alike all humbly submit themselves before thechachmei hatorah?WE REMAIN AT SINAI FOREVERAnd the answer is that it wasn’t something that began in Bavel; it was already engraved on our souls from theDorHamidbar. The same way theDor Hamidbarsubmitted themselves before Moshe Rabeinu, the Am Yisroel continued that practice always. And therefore there was always a tremendous outpouring of Torah learning, a tremendous demonstration that Torah iseverythingfor the Am Yisroel.In the days of old the fire of Torah burned hot because they were emulating theDor Hamidbarwhen Hashem had taught the nation that in the center of themachaneh, the focal point of the people, was theLuchosand the Torah. And that fire continued to burn on forever in the Am Yisroel. We live with Sinai and Bavel from now on. Our life is Bavel;Nehrada’e,Masa Mechasya,Pumbedisa, all the towns of Bavel are our learning today. We’re at Har Sinai forever because we live with theluchosand with the Talmud Bavli forever and ever. All of theyeshivosin our history, in Eretz Yisroel, in Bavel, Spain, North Africa, Europe, and America are all merely echoes of the great Yeshivas Hamidbar. We are always a nation of Torah learners.Part II.The Fire Burns OnNOTHINGBUT TORAHOnce upon a time Jewish men didn’t stay home at night. And they weren’t at the movies either; they were in the study halls, in theshuls. Of course, the ladies were home – they were raising children who as soon as they could toddle, would make their way to the study halls because that’s what mattered. And when fathers and sons would return home at night from thebeis medrashthey would bring all their baggage of Torah with them. Mothers and sisters would hear nothing but Torah. And therefore the Jewish street used to be a street of Torah. Even an enemy of the Torah – I won’t honor him by saying his name here – but when describing Cracow in the times of the Rama he said that the children in the street “babbled Torah.” And the truth is that it wasn’t only Cracow. That’s how it was in every Jewish community; every town was ayeshivahtown.I remember when I was a little boy in Baltimore, when the new immigrants arrived, they used to laugh when they saw that theshulswere locked during the day. Locked?! “Would you lock the Mishkan?! Aren’t there people learning all day in theshuls?” And it wasn’t thetalmidei chachomimwho laughed; it was the peddler, the poor working man trying to eke out a living. It was something impossible to them! Because in Europe, even a hundred years ago, they were still emulating the Dor Hamidbar, and still learning the lessons of the Mishkan. Some were there all day, some would come in for an hour here and there, but to close theshul?!Even in Baltimore the fire still burned.There was a shul in Baltimore’s East side, the Lloyds Street Shul. When I was maybe fourteen years old, I used to sit and learn in that shul in the evenings. There were about ten tables there and around each one people gathered to learn according to their level. They were poor European Jews, most of them with long beards andkashketlach. They made their living on a very poor level, but they admired the Torah learners and they themselves made sure to be from the Torah learners. There were tables and tables and each one was full of Jews sitting and learning separate subjects according to their level. Each table had a rebbe. At one table, they were learning gemara with Tosfos. One table over they were studying gemara without Tosfos. There was a Shulchan Aruch table and a chumash with Alshich table. It was a scene out of Europe, and out of Bavel. And actually it was a scene out of the Yeshivas Hamidbar encamped around the Torah in thekodeshkodoshim.NO SEATS AVAILABLE INSHUL!When I was in Lithuania I once visited ashulin a small town and an oldmelamed, a remnant from the old generation, said to me, “Before World War I there was a time when if you came a little bit late to this shul on Thursday night you couldn’t find a seat. It was filled with people learning late into the night.Every nightthe shul was filled with people learning.” He showed me a copy of theteshuvosRabbi Akiva Eiger that belonged to the shul. The pages were very worn out from use; they were loose and all the margins were so thumbed that they were falling apart. I was a bit surprised; after all theteshuvosof Rabbi Akiva Eiger is not asiddurthat people use every day. So I asked the old teacher, “How could this happen? Who wore this out? It’s not asiddur.” So thismelamedtold me that the seferhad been used every night by a regular working boy.“Every night, a working boy who lived here came to the shul and this was his favoritesefer; he wore it out from learning.”In Slabodka, abachurwhom I learned withb’chavrusaonce told me that in Beers, his hometown in Lithuania, there used to be achevrah mishmarim.This was a group of people who were peddlers all week; it was their bitter lot in life to put a pack of merchandise on their backs and trudge through the gentile hamlets and villages to peddle merchandise among non-jews. Now in those days a Jew still looked like a Jew, so the gentiles would set their dogs on the Jews as they passed through the town. It was a hard life, a wearisome week of work, and they finally came home to their families for Shabbos on a Thursday or Friday. And where did they go when they got home? They gathered in theshulin Beers where would spendallThursday night learning to make up for the time they missed during the week. That was thechevra mishmarim!And as a young man in New York, even before I went to Slabodka, I saw echoes of those great days. I once tried spending the whole night learning in achasidisheshtiebelon the Lower East Side on Montgomery street. I tried staying awake, but I kept dozing over thegemara.But I couldn’t sleep anyhow because thePoilisheh chassidimstarted coming in while it was still dark. They put on theirgartels, took down theirgemaras, and started learning before the morning came. Early in the morning when it was still dark, theshtiebelwas packed with Jews sitting and learning. And in theGerrer shtiebelI used to watch aLitvisheJew standing and learningmishnayosby heart all night. Once in a while he would look into the openMishnato refresh his memory. That’s a remnant of the older generation; once upon a time the Jewish nation studied Torah.THE GREATEST MITZVAHThere are twopesukimin Mishlei: One says כל חפציך לא ישוו בה – “All of the things that you desire cannot equal to the Torah” (Mishlei 3:15).All the things that people love in this world; people love wealth, they love honor, they love food and all types of pleasure, it’s nothing compared to the Torah. Everybody desires things in this world, all good things; health and happiness,nachas, long years, and wealth. But nothing compares to one word of the Torah.But there’s anotherpossuk, כל חפצים לא ישוו בה (ibid. 8:11). Here it doesn’t saychafatzecha,yourdesires; it sayschafatzim, all desirable things,even the things that Hashem desires,לא ישוו בה, cannot compare to the Torah.What does that mean?It means that even all themitzvosof the Torah cannot compare to the mitzvah of studying Torah (Moed Kattan 9b).Of course if you have to do amitzvah, and there’s no one else who can do it, you have to stop learning and do themitzvah; but themitzvosof the Torah are not as great a privilege as the onemitzvahof studying Torah. כל חפציך, all the things thatyouconsider important, וכל חפצי שמים, and even all the things that Hashem considers important, all themitzvos, אינם שווים לדבר אחד מן התורה, they don’t equal one thing of the Torah.One line of Torah is more important than all themitzvosput together.How can that be?! It’s astonishing!All themitzvostogether, thetefillinandmezuzosandtzitzisandmatzahandkorban pesach, all the obligations of the Torah cannot compare to one thing of the Torah.You sit down, open agemaraand learn one line, it’s such a tremendous happiness, such a great achievement, that it eclipses, it far outdoes all the good things together. If you can open thegemarafor one line, you should know what you’re doing for yourself in this world. I’m not saying you’re atalmid chochomalready; that takes work after all. But you’re already joining the aristocracy of the Am Yisroel; you’re emulating the upper class, the elite of our nation. You’re becoming a Torah Jew; because that’s the function of a Jew in this world.THEKOSELIN YOUR LIVING ROOMYou know it has become the style today to travel. People are busy traveling, going, doing, visiting, and there’s no time left for the most important function of our lives. Even to Eretz Yisroel, people are traveling back and forth, back and forth. For what? Who needs you there? You have time to travel, but not to sit in thekollelon Sundays? At least on Sunday you can enter thekodesh kodoshim! You know, someone asked me recently, if it’s OK for him to give up on some of his Torah learning in the evening, in order to work a little extra so that he couldsave up money for a trip to Eretz Yisroel. “No! Absolutely not,” I told him. What is the purpose ofEretz Yisroel? It’s only for you to make something out of yourself. You’re going to give up learning, even one line ofgemara, for travel?!Kol chafeitzim lo yishvu bah!If you want to go to theKosel Ma’aravi,then you should know that theShas Bavliis yourKosel Ma’aravi.Make theseforimshrankwith theShas Bavliin it, yourKosel Ma’aravi.That’s your success! The success of life is the transferring the contents of theShasinto your mind. So stand in front of that bigShason the shelves and makethatyourKosel Ma’aravi.You want to give that up to travel thousands of miles to Eretz Yisroel? If you want to, you can putkvitlach, prayer notes, in between thegemaroson your shelf and pray to Hashem for success in becoming aShas yid.THE RIGHT WAY TO FEATHER YOUR NESTThe Shas is our everything! That’s why theluchoswere the centerpiece of the Mishkan, because that’s everything. Since thechurban Beis Hamikdash,when thekodesh kodoshimand theluchoswent lost, there’s nothing more important to Hakodosh Boruch Hu than thearba amos shel halachah(Brachos 8a).There’s nothing in the world morekadosh,more special to Hakodosh Boruch Hu than the study of His Torah.You must haveseforimin your home and they should be your pride. It’s very important! Even if you don’t have the competition of a television set, nevertheless if you live within four walls without those important companions that every Jew must have then you’re not going to utilize your life. Every young couple that begins to feather its nest after marriage should have an ambition to line the walls of their home with bookshelves ofseforim.BUILDING YOUR DREAM HOUSEThat should be your dream house! If your wife wants drapes, OK, nothing wrong with drapes; you can buy her drapes at the five and ten too. Explain to her – first you’ll have to explain it to yourself – the beauty of a home where the walls are covered with shelves ofseforim. And even if you’ll dip into theseferonly once in your lifetime – you bought aseferand it cost you sometimes twenty dollars and you used it only once? It was worth it; it was a bargain. Sometimes you get a lift, get some inspiration from one line, and there’s no price you could put on it. So in case your wife tells you, “LookChaim, you used thisseferonly once, or maybe you never even used it yet. So why did we spend so much money on theseforim?” So tell her, “Chanalleh, wait; if I’ll ever look into itonceit’s going to be wortheverythingthat we paid for it.And the truth is that even if you never looked inside, it was worth it. Because just to haveseforimlining the walls of your house, it’s a demonstration of where your heart is. It should be the showcase of pride in your home. I always say that even if you’re never going to open it, it’s worth all the money in the world to have a big Shas – buy the biggest one you could find and display it in your home. The Shas, theseforim, should be placed in the most prominent place in the home. When you walk into a Jewish home, it shouldn’t be the chandelier or the curtains that you see. It should be a big Shas, shelves and shelves ofseforimshould be showcased in your living room. Theseforim shrank, that’s the glory of our nation, that’s what makes your house into a Mishkan.DEMONSTRATIONS IN THE BEIS MEDRASH“Once, abochurwho was leaving Brooklyn to go learn in an out-of-townyeshivahcame to say goodbye to Rav Miller. He told thebochurthat he should view everything in his newyeshivahas literallykodesh kodoshim.He added, “That’s how I perceived things when I was in Slabodka. Every brick, every square inch of even the physical structure was, in my eyes, the holiest thing in the world.” That attitude, Rav Miller told histalmid, is necessary in order to get the most benefit out of theyeshivah.” Rav Avigdor Miller – His Life and His Revolution p. 81And if the loyal Jewish home, withseforimlined shelves is the Mishkan, then the Beis Medrash, theyeshivahis thekodesh kodoshim. The atmosphere in the Beis Medrash ismamishkodesh kodoshim.I can tell you – I’ve been in the atmosphere for so many years. It has an effect on you. No matter how good you are, you become improved by breathing that air.You have to realize that תהילתו בקהל חסידים – “The praise of Hashem is when there is a great number ofchassidimcoming together” (Tehillim 149:1). Just that alone – when thechassidimcome together as akahal– that itself is atehillas Hashem. What are they all gathered in the Beis Medrash for? They’re all there for the purpose of demonstrating that learning Torah is important. Every day the Beis Medrash is full of demonstrators. Some are demonstrating by learninggemara. Some are demonstrating by learningMishnayis. Some are demonstrating by just sitting there. But they are all demonstrating that learning Torah is the foundation of the Am Yisroel.Do you realize what that demonstration means?! Walk out on the street and what do you see? Even afrumstreet. Money is important. Food is important. Clothing is important. Who knows what else is important?! So the Beis Medrash ismamisha Noach’steivah– especially today. Boys get married when they’re young, twenty maybe, twenty-one, twenty-two. You can’t go out into the world yet. A boy of twenty-two is very raw material. He’s not capable of dealing with the world. He has to be in the Kollel for some time. For years and years. Even if he’s not so serious about learning, it’s the best place for him to be. It’s ayeshuafor our nation becauselimud hatorahis our salvation.SUPPORTING THE SANE ASYLUMSI was once walking on Eastern Parkway and a man with a big beard approaches me – “Rabbi Miller,” he calls out. “Who are you?” I asked, and he tells me his name. Whoooo! He was in theyeshivahwith me years before. He was a nobody,mamish ahlo klum. It seemed hopeless. And now he has a big beard – afrumJew.And his grandchildren are learning in Yerushalayim, he tells me. That’s a result of the BeisMedrash. I can tell you stories like that without end. Again and again.Therefore, we have to support – we have to feel a debt of gratitude – to the Yeshivos. They’re bringing forth every day – every day – the future Torah families of Am Yisroel. And only because the environment is so good. Torah Vada’as. Chaim Berlin. Mirrer yeshivah. Lakewood. Other places too. Hakodosh Boruch Hu should give all of themhatzlachahand a lot of money. And theyeshivahleitshould have long lives, and their wives and their families. It’s a tremendous thing that they’re doing. Theyeshivosare doing a tremendous thing! You don’t realize the sanity we are getting from theyeshivos. The outside world is ameshugenehhouse, it’s crazy outside. And it’s those who are in theyeshivos, the ones learning Torah, they are the sane ones.Part III.Bearing the TorchYOU’LL NEED YOUR WIFE’S COOPERATION ON THISNow of course, even once you leave theyeshivahand you become involved in business you can remain sane. But it will require a great deal of cooperation from your wife, as well as a certain amount of heroism and dedication on your part. I’ll give you an example. Now listen carefully because it means you. And it means me too.We have people who come here Friday night. They come here about seven, seven-thirty and they sit here learning till almost eleven thirty at night. They’re working people, professionals. They sit here in the shul for four hours on Friday night. Some a little less. That’s the program for dedicated men with dedicated wives. The women of course have to understand that, in order that it should work. But the better ones want it and they encourage their husbands. OnMotzoei Shabboswe have the same thing again. People come here until late, until after eleven o’clock, and learn here in groups and as individuals. It’s a great phenomenon here in Brooklyn.On Shabbos afternoon people come to study here, and in the longer days they study all day long Shabbos afternoon. And some people study all day Sunday. There are about fourshiurimon Sunday here and people attend all of them, and then they sit until late and they study Torah. Now that’s an example how a person can continue to be ayeshivah maneven after he leaves theyeshivah. And in ancient times that was the Jewish way of life.A DEDICATED LIFEAyeshivah manwho leaves the Kollel and he begins a life of productivity ingashmius, must make sure that he remains dedicated to Torah learning as well. Now, a man like this, he can’t afford the luxury of wasting all those odd hours. Ayeshivah man, whether he’s still in theyeshivahor not, has to get up Shabbos morning early to learn. He has to spend Shabbos studying. Shabbos night he can’t go out tomelave malkaswith the family. He can’t visit Uncle Yossi on Sundays; he can’t go to every wedding, and he can’t stay late at the ones he goes to.I recall once –it was at amelave malkain the old building and I said over from the Rambam (Hilchos Talmud Torah 3:13): הרוצה לזכות בכתרה של תורה – “Anybody who wants to earn the crown of Torah,אל יאבד אחת מלילותיו –he shouldn’t waste even one of his nights.”You have to work by day, what could you do already; but you shouldn’t waste even one of your nights. You hear that?! The Rambam says that you shouldn’t even waste one of your nights! And there was a man who was sitting there and he heard that. I saw that it went into his ears and he changed his way of life. He became great subsequently. He was a working man and he became great in Torah. I remember once his wife had to attend a wedding in the Riverside Plaza, uptown, but that night was a shiur. So he took his wife by car to Riverside Plaza and left her there and he came back here attend theshiur. Then he went all the way back to the hall to bring her home. That’s dedication!And so, if you won’t waste any of your nights, you’ll be able to remain ayeshivah manforever. Forget about going to weddings. Forget about family parties. Now you’re wedded to the Torah. Now of course some women will say: “What kind of a life is that? What kind of a life is a kollel life? My husband is a businessman, not a kollel man.” I’ll tell you – it’s a dedicated life; it’s a life dedicated to success! If you want to be a nothing, so you do what everybody else does and you’ll succeed in becoming what you want to become. Nothing! But if you have some idealism, if the fire still burns in you, then this is the career of success for you in this world.WHEN WIVES DRIVE THEIR HUSBANDS AWAYNow you’ll ask me about the women. How do women do that? Women encourage their husbands to learn Torah.They say, “Chaim, go to theshiur”. “Chaim, go to theyeshivah”. They encourage them to go, so they havefull partnership in all the Torahof their men and that’s going to be their great happiness. That’s what the Jewish nation once did. In Europe of long ago everyshulused to be a place where people sat and learned. Some men worked part of the day, but others were forced by their wives to go and learnall day long.Their wives ran little businesses, they managed the family, and their husbands were expected to do nothing but learn for their entire lives.In Europe, before World War l, there were a lot of Jews who moved into theshulin the morning, and they didn’t move out till late at night. There was a whole population like that all over Eastern Europe. It stopped with World War l, it began to disintegrate little by little. But way back, throughout our history, all theshulshad a big populace of learners. Many men were driven away to the shuls by their wives. These dedicated women, thenashim tzidkoniyos, said “Don’t work; you sit and learn and I’ll take care of theparnasah.” All over Eastern Europe it was a frequent thing. Even when I came to Europe in 1932, when it was already ruined, I saw it. The wife stood in the the store and her husband sat in the Beis Hamedrash.SHEPPING NACHASFROM YOUR HUSBANDThe Zichron Yaakov tells us that when Friday night came – this was before the people spoiled – so all the townspeople slept until aroundchatzos. Then they started getting up to study Torah. He even describes how there were a lot of Jews who weren’t capable of studying Torah so a paidrebbewould come to their homes late Friday night or early Shabbos morning. A man would learn with hisrebbewhile his wife was still in bed behind the curtain; and she wassheppingnachas from her husband’s learning. To take the little money they had and use it for learning was a great sacrifice that the wife made. But she was encouraging him and was happy with what he was doing.And therefore if the wife cooperates and she doesn’t demand the husband’s presence at home; if she understands it’s her success as well, that it’s her partnership, that woman is from thenashim tzidkoniyosthat always preserved our nation. And the fact that he is making progress, that he’s forging ahead in learning, that’s herzechus. She is a full partner in all of his Torah; not a fifty percent partner, a one hundred percent partner!THE WIFE FINISHES SHAS MANY TIMESAnd not only is she learning Shas along with him, but she’s raisingShasimat home. Every child that a mother raises is like finishing Shas many times! So she’s at home learning her Shas and she’s encouraging him to finish his Shas in the Beis Medrash. And with such a great partner in life he can forge ahead, as long as he’s not lazy and he’s willing to carry the brunt of a career of study. And that’s what the Jewish nation once did; and that’s an ideal which many people are beginning to realize today.Right now in Gan Eden all the men and women are enjoying the great splendor of eternal happiness because of their portion in Torah – in addition to all the good things that they do. You’re all invited to go to Olam Haba.All those who pass away, even apashute Yehudi, is basking in happiness in the world to come.But those people who spend some time learning Torah are far, far more privileged, beyond all the rest of them.START SELLING PEANUTSSo here’s a man who asks me: “How can someone even begin to learn when there’s so much to learn; it looks so impossible?” But you have to know that those are the words of theyetzer haratalking. When it comes to making money you don’t say, “Why should I bother to start making money when there’s so much money to make?” No, you don’t say that; you start selling peanuts on the street corner, you hustle, you try to get whatever you can. And little by little you accomplish.So you see the whole Talmud Bavli and you say, “Oh, I can’t do that. It’s too much!” So what about it?! That’s ateirutz?! It’s a very silly excuse. Start hustling; learn one line ofgemara. You mean to say you’re going to leave this world and you won’t be able to say that you learned one line ofgemara? You can’t learn one line?! Are you such a dumbhead?! Ask somebody to help you! Say it over inside, ten times, fifty times. You know when you go to the next world, they’ll say, אשרי מי שבא לכאן ותלמודו בידו – “How fortunate you are if you arrive to here and you have Talmud in your hand.” They’ll ask you: “You have anygemara?” “I have one line,” you’ll say.“One line? Fine! Let’s hear it.” But to not even have one line?! “You didn’t come here with some Torah in your hand?! What were you doing down there for seventy, eighty years?!”“Oh, I was sayingchumash, I was praying every day.” And Hashem will say, “I’m very sorry, so very sorry. You had no time to learn one line of MyTorah Hakedosha, MyTalmud Bavli?!”Now the truth is you could learn more than one line. If you would learn one line a week, you know that in ten years you’d know something! One line a week, and you’d review it constantly. One line a week; who couldn’t do that?! And so, there won’t be any excuse to give on that great day when the question will be asked, “Osaktabatorah? Did you engage in the study of My Torah?” Everybody must study thegemara. And it’s not hard. It’s difficult to learna lotofgemara, the whole Shas, but one line?! You can’t learn one line?!“WHO WAS RAV HUNA?”Inshomayimthey’ll ask you, “Who was Rav Huna?” “Rav Huna? I think he lived in our neighborhood.” There are people like that; they think that Rav Huna was maybe the rav of the other shul in their neighborhood. No; we have to recognize ourTana’imandAmora’im. Not just recognize them but tolovethe names in thegemara. You should love the sound ofAbbayeandRava. OfRav PapaandRav Huna brei di’Rav Yehoshua. All of our great men. Love their names! The taste of their names should be on our tongues sweeter than honey. Because thatisthe honey of the Am Yisroel.And therefore we are not impressed by the fact that there’s so much to learn. Certainly we are impressed but we aren’t overwhelmed. It says לא עליך המלאכה לגמור, it’s not your job to learn the wholeShas. If you can, learn it. But at least learn a piece of it. You mean to say that you’re going to leave here and you’ll forget about what you heard here, about the great ideals of Torah learning? You’re not going to learngemarabecause it’s so much, so vast of a wisdom?! No, you have to learn, at least one line. And make it your business to repeat that line again and again and again.IT’S TIME TO LEAVE THE STABLEYou have to learn – otherwise the language of the Torah is meaningless to you; all the ideals and all thehalachosare vague. You go through the motions of being a frum Jew but it’s all very weak, very superficial. You must learn. And you must learngemara! Not like one man said to me, “Don’t bother us; we’re notgemarabuffs.”Gemarabuffs?! What?! Like you don’t collect old coins or you don’t collect stamps you also don’t learngemara?!Gemarais not a hobby; it’s our life breath. We learngemarabecause that is the air we breathe. If you don’t learnGemarayou know what you are? You’re an ox! (Pesachim 49b) That’s what you are withoutgemara. And don’t tell me about other things you learn, moral teachings. If you don’t learngemarathen you and your family are calledbeheimos. And anyone who marries your daughter it says about him “Arur shocheiv im beheimah.” It’s important to know that! Jews always knew this! You must breathegemara. That’s our life!And if you don’t learn, so thetalmid chochomcan’t even speak to you. If you’re abeheimah,then you don’t talk the language of Torah.How can he talk to you if you’re still in the stable? You’re eating oats and you’re braying. Atalmid chochomwill knock on the stable door and say, “Listen to this.” So you bray, and he talks. Totally different languages. I have experience in this. I’ve spoken to people and they don’t even begin to understand what you’re talking about. It’s only when you become familiar with Torah ideas, at least in thegemara, that you’re able to communicate with the Torah world and appreciate and understand what they’re telling you.THE PERFUMED YESHIVAH MANNow once a person understands these ideas, so the way he looks at the Am Yisroel is transformed. Because now he understands whoreallyare the aristocrats of the Am Yisroel. And so when you see ayeshivahman, atalmid chochom, you know that he is the one who is closest to thekodesh kodoshim, he’s closer to Hakodosh Boruch Hu than anyone else. And you admire him, you’re impressed by him. And that’s what thegemarasays: עתידין בחורי ישראל שיתנו ריח טוב כלבנון – “The young men of Israel will in the future emit a fragrance like the forest of Levanon” (Brachos 43b). The time will come when the youngtalmidei chachomim,the yeshivah men who spend their days and nights learning, will issue a sweet fragrance like the cedar trees of the Levanon. It means that one day the world will recognize the truth; the whole world will learn to look through the eyes of Hakodosh Boruch Hu. And everyone will see that it is the Torah learners who smell pleasant, that they are the ones who give off the sweetest of fragrances in this world.Butweare expected to recognize that truth even today. When you see ayeshivahman, you should imagine that he smells like sweet smelling roses. Let’s say you see a group ofyeshivahboys walking in the street. Now, there is nothing especially attractive about them. They’re all wearing the same uniform, white shirts, and black pants; nothing special. So what about it? What’s so important?But if you understand this lesson ofParshas Pekudei, so you understand that theseyeshivahmen are the aristocrats of our nation. Because it was in themidbarthat the Am Yisroel learned that our nation is only a Torah nation. That’s the lifeblood of our people; it’s what we are. אין אומתינו אומה אלא בתורה– “Our nation is a nation only because of the Torah.” And it’s those who keep pumping the blood of Torah through the veins of our nation, who are keeping us alive. And thereforeit’s the Torah learnerswho are the aristocrats of our nation, the ones whom we admire and emulate. And the more a person ismichaberhimself to the Torah, the greater of an aristocrat he is. Once you understand this, you have gained a new perspective on the Am Yisroel, and you’ve learned to see our nation the way Hashem sees them.HAVE A WONDERFUL SHABBOSGo Back See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

פרשת פקודיPart I. A Fire is KindledTHE KING’S SCROLL-ROOMויהי בחודש הראשון בשנה השנית באחד לחודש הוקם המשכן – The greatest day in the history of the world had finally arrived. On the first day of Nissan the dwelling place for Hashem was established and the Presence of Hashem would now rest among His chosen people. The Mishkan was now going to be the place for the revelation of Hashem in this world, the fulfillment of Hashem’s promise: ושכנתי בתוכם – “And I will dwell among them” (Shemos 25:8)And what was the first thing that Moshe did after spreading the roof over the Mishkan? He set up the kodesh kodoshim, the holiest space on the face of this earth, the room where the Presence of Hashem would dwell most intensely. Although the Shechinah was now going to dwell among the Bnei Yisroel, it would dwell even more intensely in the Mishkan. And where was the holiest place in the Mishkan, the place where Hashem chose to rest his Presence with the most intensity? The kodesh hakodoshim. Now, if you would have asked me what I would have set up in that room where Hashem would now reside, so with my little head I would say, a throne, a big beautiful golden throne, something resplendent and ornate, placed in the middle of the kodesh kodoshim; and that would symbolize the kisei hakavod, the place where Hashem rests His Presence in this world.“Nothing doing,” said Hakodosh Boruch Hu, “I have other plans for My room, for the kodeshkodoshim”:ויתן את העדות אל הארון…ויבא את הארון אל המשכן…ויסך על ארון העדות כאשר צוה השם את משה – Hashem commanded that into this holiest part of the Mishkan, the room that symbolized His place in this world, should be placed the two stone tablets engraved by the Hand of Hashem, and afterward the Torah itself was put alongside the luchos (Devarim 31:26).A MOUNTAIN IN THE LITTLE ROOMAnd that’s what Dovid Hamelech said in Tehillim (68:18): השם בם – “Hashem has settled among the Am Yisroel.” And how did He do that? סיני בקודש – “Because Har Sinai is now in the Mishkan.” That great day of the Giving of the Torah at Har Sinai is now found in the kodesh kodoshim. The Sanctuary was the heart of the nation, and it was the word of Hashem, the stone luchos and the Torah, that were at the heart of the Mishkan.What we’re learning here is that preparing a home for Hashem to live among us, really meant preparing a home for the Torahto reside among us. And the Mishkan in its entirety was actually an altar of devotion to the word of Hashem. And so instead of a throne for Hashem to rest His presence on, the revelation of Hashem in this world came by means of His Torah. And the Am Yisroel in the midbar lived according to that revelation.WHAT DID THEY DO ALL DAY?I’ll explain that. Because really we have to ask ourselves: What were the Am Yisroel doing in the midbar for forty years after all? It was at least two million people in the midbar, and they were there for forty years. And it was forty years without worries of parnasa. They ate what fell from the clouds; they didn’t have to go to the factory to get a paycheck.Did they plow their fields? No, there were no fields for them to plow. And not only were there no worries about parnasa, but no enemies could touch them either; they were more secure during those forty years than at any subsequent time in history. So you’ll say, maybe they travelled. No, they only travelled together; nobody went away to the country and nobody vacationed in Florida. They were home on Pesach and in the summer too. Never again did we have such an ideal existence, so much time for leisure, as we had during those forty years.Ahh, leisure! So what did they do all day? What were they busy with for forty years? Did they go to the theatre? Maybe they played with a stick and a ball and tried to hit homeruns? It’s hard to imagine; forty years of nothing to do, forty years of vacation.FORTY YEARS IN KOLLELAnd so we have to understand that for forty years they had nothing to do except to study Torah. The entire nation actually became a one big yeshivah. And it was a yeshivah where they studied day and night. They didn’t have newspapers to read, or radio to listen to. And even if they would have been able to get their hands on something; let’s say a ben Yisroel would try to pick up a newspaper from a neighboring tribe, from Midian; you couldn’t get away with such a thing in the machaneh Yisroel. You were in a kollel, and every kollel has a mashgiach. And this kollel in the midbar had more supervision that any kollel since then. Every nine men had a mashgiach who watched them, the sar asarah, and so they had to behave. And every forty nine men had a super mashgiach, the sar chamishim. Every ninety nine men had a super super mashgiach, the sar mei’ah. And every nine hundred and ninety nine had a super super super mashgiach,that was the sarei alafim. You couldn’t sneak anything past this army of mashgichim. And Moshe Rabeinu with his watchful eye was overseeing the whole thing, the whole Yeshivas Hamidbar.But the mashgichim didn’t have a very difficult job, because they were serious yungerleit in the yeshivah. They knew what their purpose was because they knew what was in the kodesh kodoshim. Never, in any subsequent era, was the Torah so supreme and so studied as under the forty year rule of Moshe Rabeinu, the Torah teacher par excellence. “And you should speak in the words of Torah when you sit in your house, and when you walk on the road, and when you lie down and when you arise” (Devarim 6:7) wasn’t only a possuk, a mitzvah, oreven an aspiration to yearn for – it was their way of life! The sole occupation for thedor hamidbar was Torah study. The nation functioned like a huge yeshivah – what the midbar was for the Am Yisroel was actually a forty year Kollel, a Torah Academy.THE ‘MAIN DISH’ OF OUR PEOPLEAnd it was that kollel that would define what the Am Yisroel would be forever. In the midbarwe were transformed into a mamleches kohanim, a nation of Torah learners, and that experience remained engraved for all time on the hearts of our people. And that explains for us a gemara that has confounded many. The gemara in Sanhedrin (92a) says: אין שריד אלא תלמיד חכם, that the word sarid, “leftover” or “the one who remains” refers to a talmid chochom. Now that’s a puzzle, why is a talmid chochom called a “leftover”? He’s not the leftover; he’s the main dish after all! There are various pshatim, but the simple pshat is that originally the whole Klal Yisroel were chachomim; the entire Dor Hamidbar was a big kollel of talmidei chachomim. And therefore, anyone who studies the Torah today is a leftover from those days in the midbar. Because it was then that the Am Yisroel in its entirety recognized the truth that the goal of every Jew is to be a talmid chochom.And from then on, the study of Torah became the national vocation and pastime. Never did the Am Yisroel, in all its subsequent history, ever use their leisure time for anything else but Torah. There was no telling stories of adventure and war, and no playing sports. There were no theatres or stadiums and no amusement parks either. And that’s because we found everything we wanted and everything we needed in the study of Torah and in the raising of families to be ohavei Torah.The word entertainment doesn’t exist in the lexicon of our people. Who needs the fleeting and empty joy of circuses, carnivals, sports, hunting, races or any other pastime, when we find all of our fulfillment by means of the luchos and the Torah?WHY ARE WE STILL HERE?And that’s what Rav Saadia Gaon meant when he said (Sefer Emunos V’dayos 3:7) אין אומתינו אומה אלא בתורה, that we are a nation only as a Torah nation. It means the following: We have no right to exist. We should have long ago disappeared. Where is Edom? They disappeared! Where is Amon? They disappeared! It’s all gone! Where is Ancient Mitzrayim? All gone! Ancient Greece is all gone, everything is underground. You’re going to need a lot of shovels and you’ll have to sweat a lot before you can see all the ancient nations of the world.So why are we still here? We’re also one of the ancient nations, so why didn’t we also disappear along with all the others? And the answer is that we are only here because of the Torah. The frum Jews study the Torah in its most minute details, and that’s why there is still an Am Yisroel. And that’s אין אומתינו אומה אלא בתורה. We are a Torah-nation and that’s the cause of our existence. Mitzvos, wonderful, wonderful! But it’s the study of Torah that defines the Am Yisroel; it’s our life-breath, our way of life. We are a nation of Torah learners and that’s why we are forever. Hashem is forever, His Torah is forever, and we who study His Torah will be forever.THE PAGEANT IN THE MESIVTAAnd that explains something queer that we notice when we study our history. You know that in Bavel there were great Mesivtos, great yeshivos where the chachomim gathered to study and to teach. There was a Mesivta in Sura where Rav was, and there was another Mesivta in Naharda’eh where Shmuel lived; two big Mesivtos that were the center of the Am Yisroel. And there were other Mesivtos too that functioned in Bavel.But the Mesivta wasn’t a place where you just learned Torah and heard shiurim. It was a very interesting experience, the Mesivta. Everything was done with a procedure. They used to march in to the Beis Medrash in the beginning of the session; the chachomim marched in first, and then the talmidim marched in behind them, and everyone took his place; each one of the chachomim had his particular place. And there were designated people who would make the announcement, “The chachomim are coming in now; they’re entering into the Mesivta.” It was mamish like a pageant; that’s how they opened up the Mesivta.BABYLONIAN STATE OF THE UNIONAnd not only in the beginning of the zman; every day was like that. It was done with a certain panoply, like in a royal tribunal, with certain procedures, formalities and announcements. Like in the Congress l’havdil or in a king’s palace; it was done with the greatest kind of ceremony. And we should ask ourselves: What was this for? Why all the fanfare?! Why couldn’t they just get busy with learning already? Isn’t that what they came for? It wasn’t the State of the Union address after all; it was a yeshivah! And they didn’t do this once a year; it was every day!And the answer is that this pomp and the ceremony was vital for an understanding of the place of the Torah in the Am Yisroel. In the midbar, where they all saw the Mishkan, and they all knew that hidden inside, in the room that Hashem chose to reside in, was the luchos and the Torah, so the entire nation lived with a tangible understanding that it was the study of the Torah that was the core function of our people – everybody was learning in kollel, and there was no question in anyone’s mind that limud Torah was the function of our people. But in order to keep that fire of kavod hatorah alive forever and to understand the centrality of the Torah to our nation, the nation had to see with their own eyes the glory of Torah. And so the Mesivta functioned with the prominence it deserved and the Am Yisroel learned that the aristocracy of our people were the ones who were studying the Toras Hashem in the Beis Medrash.THE AM YISROEL GETS FARHERREDAnd in Bavel they also established the Yarchei Kallah together with the Mesivta. Twice a year there was a yarchei kallah, a kiddush Hashem of remarkable proportions. You know they were almost all farmers in Bavel, so when the farming season was over, two months a year, tens of thousands of people came to the Mesivta. The town was overflowing with Jews. They slept on the streets, on the roofs, and in cellars, and they were learning all the time. The entire month they were learning Torah. And the chachmei hatorah were there to test them, to see if they knew it! If they had kashas they asked the kashas. Everybody was learning the same thing – it was a scene to behold – they were all learning the same mesichta and the chachomimfarherred them.And it wasn’t little children we’re talking about; these were adults, men in their forties and fifties, older than that too, men with families. From where did this fire of dedication to Torah come? How could a nation of so many different personalities: workers, wise men, simple folk, intellectuals, rich and poor alike all humbly submit themselves before the chachmei hatorah?WE REMAIN AT SINAI FOREVERAnd the answer is that it wasn’t something that began in Bavel; it was already engraved on our souls from the Dor Hamidbar. The same way the Dor Hamidbarsubmitted themselves before Moshe Rabeinu, the Am Yisroel continued that practice always. And therefore there was always a tremendous outpouring of Torah learning, a tremendous demonstration that Torah is everything for the Am Yisroel.In the days of old the fire of Torah burned hot because they were emulating the Dor Hamidbar when Hashem had taught the nation that in the center of the machaneh, the focal point of the people, was the Luchos and the Torah. And that fire continued to burn on forever in the Am Yisroel. We live with Sinai and Bavel from now on. Our life is Bavel; Nehrada’e, Masa Mechasya, Pumbedisa, all the towns of Bavel are our learning today. We’re at Har Sinai forever because we live with the luchos and with the Talmud Bavli forever and ever. All of the yeshivos in our history, in Eretz Yisroel, in Bavel, Spain, North Africa, Europe, and America are all merely echoes of the great Yeshivas Hamidbar. We are always a nation of Torah learners.Part II. The Fire Burns OnNOTHING BUT TORAHOnce upon a time Jewish men didn’t stay home at night. And they weren’t at the movies either; they were in the study halls, in the shuls. Of course, the ladies were home – they were raising children who as soon as they could toddle, would make their way to the study halls because that’s what mattered. And when fathers and sons would return home at night from the beis medrash they would bring all their baggage of Torah with them. Mothers and sisters would hear nothing but Torah. And therefore the Jewish street used to be a street of Torah. Even an enemy of the Torah – I won’t honor him by saying his name here – but when describing Cracow in the times of the Rama he said that the children in the street “babbled Torah.” And the truth is that it wasn’t only Cracow. That’s how it was in every Jewish community; every town was a yeshivah town.I remember when I was a little boy in Baltimore, when the new immigrants arrived, they used to laugh when they saw that the shuls were locked during the day. Locked?! “Would you lock the Mishkan?! Aren’t there people learning all day in the shuls?” And it wasn’t the talmidei chachomim who laughed; it was the peddler, the poor working man trying to eke out a living. It was something impossible to them! Because in Europe, even a hundred years ago, they were still emulating the Dor Hamidbar, and still learning the lessons of the Mishkan. Some were there all day, some would come in for an hour here and there, but to close the shul?!Even in Baltimore the fire still burned.There was a shul in Baltimore’s East side, the Lloyds Street Shul. When I was maybe fourteen years old, I used to sit and learn in that shul in the evenings. There were about ten tables there and around each one people gathered to learn according to their level. They were poor European Jews, most of them with long beards and kashketlach. They made their living on a very poor level, but they admired the Torah learners and they themselves made sure to be from the Torah learners. There were tables and tables and each one was full of Jews sitting and learning separate subjects according to their level. Each table had a rebbe. At one table, they were learning gemara with Tosfos. One table over they were studying gemara without Tosfos. There was a Shulchan Aruch table and a chumash with Alshich table. It was a scene out of Europe, and out of Bavel. And actually it was a scene out of the Yeshivas Hamidbar encamped around the Torah in the kodeshkodoshim.NO SEATS AVAILABLE IN SHUL!When I was in Lithuania I once visited a shul in a small town and an old melamed, a remnant from the old generation, said to me, “Before World War I there was a time when if you came a little bit late to this shul on Thursday night you couldn’t find a seat. It was filled with people learning late into the night. Every nightthe shul was filled with people learning.” He showed me a copy of the teshuvos Rabbi Akiva Eiger that belonged to the shul. The pages were very worn out from use; they were loose and all the margins were so thumbed that they were falling apart. I was a bit surprised; after all the teshuvos of Rabbi Akiva Eiger is not a siddur that people use every day. So I asked the old teacher, “How could this happen? Who wore this out? It’s not a siddur.” So this melamedtold me that the sefer had been used every night by a regular working boy. “Every night, a working boy who lived here came to the shul and this was his favorite sefer; he wore it out from learning.”In Slabodka, a bachur whom I learned with b’chavrusa once told me that in Beers, his hometown in Lithuania, there used to be a chevrah mishmarim. This was a group of people who were peddlers all week; it was their bitter lot in life to put a pack of merchandise on their backs and trudge through the gentile hamlets and villages to peddle merchandise among non-jews. Now in those days a Jew still looked like a Jew, so the gentiles would set their dogs on the Jews as they passed through the town. It was a hard life, a wearisome week of work, and they finally came home to their families for Shabbos on a Thursday or Friday. And where did they go when they got home? They gathered in the shul in Beers where would spend allThursday night learning to make up for the time they missed during the week. That was the chevra mishmarim!And as a young man in New York, even before I went to Slabodka, I saw echoes of those great days. I once tried spending the whole night learning in a chasidishe shtiebel on the Lower East Side on Montgomery street. I tried staying awake, but I kept dozing over the gemara. But I couldn’t sleep anyhow because the Poilisheh chassidim started coming in while it was still dark. They put on their gartels, took down their gemaras, and started learning before the morning came. Early in the morning when it was still dark, the shtiebel was packed with Jews sitting and learning. And in the Gerrer shtiebel I used to watch a Litvishe Jew standing and learning mishnayos by heart all night. Once in a while he would look into the open Mishna to refresh his memory. That’s a remnant of the older generation; once upon a time the Jewish nation studied Torah.THE GREATEST MITZVAHThere are two pesukim in Mishlei: One says כל חפציך לא ישוו בה – “All of the things that you desire cannot equal to the Torah” (Mishlei 3:15). All the things that people love in this world; people love wealth, they love honor, they love food and all types of pleasure, it’s nothing compared to the Torah. Everybody desires things in this world, all good things; health and happiness, nachas, long years, and wealth. But nothing compares to one word of the Torah.But there’s another possuk, כל חפצים לא ישוו בה (ibid. 8:11). Here it doesn’t say chafatzecha, your desires; it says chafatzim, all desirable things, even the things that Hashem desires, לא ישוו בה, cannot compare to the Torah. What does that mean? It means that even all the mitzvos of the Torah cannot compare to the mitzvah of studying Torah (Moed Kattan 9b). Of course if you have to do a mitzvah, and there’s no one else who can do it, you have to stop learning and do the mitzvah; but the mitzvos of the Torah are not as great a privilege as the one mitzvah of studying Torah. כל חפציך, all the things that you consider important, וכל חפצי שמים, and even all the things that Hashem considers important, all the mitzvos, אינם שווים לדבר אחד מן התורה, they don’t equal one thing of the Torah.One line of Torah is more important than all the mitzvos put together. How can that be?! It’s astonishing! All the mitzvostogether, the tefillin and mezuzosand tzitzis and matzah and korban pesach, all the obligations of the Torah cannot compare to one thing of the Torah. You sit down, open a gemara and learn one line, it’s such a tremendous happiness, such a great achievement, that it eclipses, it far outdoes all the good things together. If you can open the gemara for one line, you should know what you’re doing for yourself in this world. I’m not saying you’re a talmid chochom already; that takes work after all. But you’re already joining the aristocracy of the Am Yisroel; you’re emulating the upper class, the elite of our nation. You’re becoming a Torah Jew; because that’s the function of a Jew in this world.THE KOSEL IN YOUR LIVING ROOMYou know it has become the style today to travel. People are busy traveling, going, doing, visiting, and there’s no time left for the most important function of our lives. Even to Eretz Yisroel, people are traveling back and forth, back and forth. For what? Who needs you there? You have time to travel, but not to sit in the kollel on Sundays? At least on Sunday you can enter thekodesh kodoshim! You know, someone asked me recently, if it’s OK for him to give up on some of his Torah learning in the evening, in order to work a little extra so that he could save up money for a trip to Eretz Yisroel. “No! Absolutely not,” I told him. What is the purpose of Eretz Yisroel? It’s only for you to make something out of yourself. You’re going to give up learning, even one line of gemara, for travel?! Kol chafeitzim lo yishvu bah!If you want to go to the Kosel Ma’aravi, then you should know that the Shas Bavli is your Kosel Ma’aravi. Make the seforimshrank with the Shas Bavli in it, your Kosel Ma’aravi. That’s your success! The success of life is the transferring the contents of the Shas into your mind. So stand in front of that big Shas on the shelves and make that your Kosel Ma’aravi. You want to give that up to travel thousands of miles to Eretz Yisroel? If you want to, you can put kvitlach, prayer notes, in between the gemaros on your shelf and pray to Hashem for success in becoming a Shas yid.THE RIGHT WAY TO FEATHER YOUR NESTThe Shas is our everything! That’s why the luchos were the centerpiece of the Mishkan, because that’s everything. Since the churban Beis Hamikdash,when the kodesh kodoshim and the luchos went lost, there’s nothing more important to Hakodosh Boruch Hu than the arba amos shel halachah (Brachos 8a). There’s nothing in the world more kadosh, more special to Hakodosh Boruch Hu than the study of His Torah.You must have seforim in your home and they should be your pride. It’s very important! Even if you don’t have the competition of a television set, nevertheless if you live within four walls without those important companions that every Jew must have then you’re not going to utilize your life. Every young couple that begins to feather its nest after marriage should have an ambition to line the walls of their home with bookshelves of seforim.BUILDING YOUR DREAM HOUSEThat should be your dream house! If your wife wants drapes, OK, nothing wrong with drapes; you can buy her drapes at the five and ten too. Explain to her – first you’ll have to explain it to yourself – the beauty of a home where the walls are covered with shelves of seforim. And even if you’ll dip into the sefer only once in your lifetime – you bought a sefer and it cost you sometimes twenty dollars and you used it only once? It was worth it; it was a bargain. Sometimes you get a lift, get some inspiration from one line, and there’s no price you could put on it. So in case your wife tells you, “Look Chaim, you used this sefer only once, or maybe you never even used it yet. So why did we spend so much money on the seforim?” So tell her, “Chanalleh, wait; if I’ll ever look into it once it’s going to be worth everything that we paid for it.And the truth is that even if you never looked inside, it was worth it. Because just to have seforimlining the walls of your house, it’s a demonstration of where your heart is. It should be the showcase of pride in your home. I always say that even if you’re never going to open it, it’s worth all the money in the world to have a big Shas – buy the biggest one you could find and display it in your home. The Shas, the seforim, should be placed in the most prominent place in the home. When you walk into a Jewish home, it shouldn’t be the chandelier or the curtains that you see. It should be a big Shas, shelves and shelves of seforim should be showcased in your living room. The seforim shrank, that’s the glory of our nation, that’s what makes your house into a Mishkan.DEMONSTRATIONS IN THE BEIS MEDRASH “Once, a bochur who was leaving Brooklyn to go learn in an out-of-town yeshivah came to say goodbye to Rav Miller. He told the bochur that he should view everything in his new yeshivah as literally kodesh kodoshim. He added, “That’s how I perceived things when I was in Slabodka. Every brick, every square inch of even the physical structure was, in my eyes, the holiest thing in the world.” That attitude, Rav Miller told his talmid, is necessary in order to get the most benefit out of the yeshivah.” Rav Avigdor Miller – His Life and His Revolution p. 81And if the loyal Jewish home, with seforim lined shelves is the Mishkan, then the Beis Medrash, the yeshivah is the kodesh kodoshim. The atmosphere in the Beis Medrash is mamishkodesh kodoshim. I can tell you – I’ve been in the atmosphere for so many years. It has an effect on you. No matter how good you are, you become improved by breathing that air.You have to realize that תהילתו בקהל חסידים – “The praise of Hashem is when there is a great number of chassidim coming together” (Tehillim 149:1). Just that alone – when the chassidimcome together as a kahal – that itself is a tehillas Hashem. What are they all gathered in the Beis Medrash for? They’re all there for the purpose of demonstrating that learning Torah is important. Every day the Beis Medrash is full of demonstrators. Some are demonstrating by learning gemara. Some are demonstrating by learning Mishnayis. Some are demonstrating by just sitting there. But they are all demonstrating that learning Torah is the foundation of the Am Yisroel.Do you realize what that demonstration means?! Walk out on the street and what do you see? Even a frum street. Money is important. Food is important. Clothing is important. Who knows what else is important?! So the Beis Medrash is mamisha Noach’s teivah – especially today. Boys get married when they’re young, twenty maybe, twenty-one, twenty-two. You can’t go out into the world yet. A boy of twenty-two is very raw material. He’s not capable of dealing with the world. He has to be in the Kollel for some time. For years and years. Even if he’s not so serious about learning, it’s the best place for him to be. It’s a yeshua for our nation becauselimud hatorah is our salvation.SUPPORTING THE SANE ASYLUMSI was once walking on Eastern Parkway and a man with a big beard approaches me – “Rabbi Miller,” he calls out. “Who are you?” I asked, and he tells me his name. Whoooo! He was in the yeshivah with me years before. He was a nobody, mamish ah lo klum. It seemed hopeless. And now he has a big beard – a frum Jew. And his grandchildren are learning in Yerushalayim, he tells me. That’s a result of the Beis Medrash. I can tell you stories like that without end. Again and again.Therefore, we have to support – we have to feel a debt of gratitude – to the Yeshivos. They’re bringing forth every day – every day – the future Torah families of Am Yisroel. And only because the environment is so good. Torah Vada’as. Chaim Berlin. Mirrer yeshivah. Lakewood. Other places too. Hakodosh Boruch Hu should give all of them hatzlachah and a lot of money. And the yeshivahleit should have long lives, and their wives and their families. It’s a tremendous thing that they’re doing. The yeshivosare doing a tremendous thing! You don’t realize the sanity we are getting from the yeshivos. The outside world is a meshugeneh house, it’s crazy outside. And it’s those who are in the yeshivos, the ones learning Torah, they are the sane ones.Part III. Bearing the TorchYOU’LL NEED YOUR WIFE’S COOPERATION ON THISNow of course, even once you leave the yeshivah and you become involved in business you can remain sane. But it will require a great deal of cooperation from your wife, as well as a certain amount of heroism and dedication on your part. I’ll give you an example. Now listen carefully because it means you. And it means me too.We have people who come here Friday night. They come here about seven, seven-thirty and they sit here learning till almost eleven thirty at night. They’re working people, professionals. They sit here in the shul for four hours on Friday night. Some a little less. That’s the program for dedicated men with dedicated wives. The women of course have to understand that, in order that it should work. But the better ones want it and they encourage their husbands. On Motzoei Shabbos we have the same thing again. People come here until late, until after eleven o’clock, and learn here in groups and as individuals. It’s a great phenomenon here in Brooklyn.On Shabbos afternoon people come to study here, and in the longer days they study all day long Shabbos afternoon. And some people study all day Sunday. There are about four shiurim on Sunday here and people attend all of them, and then they sit until late and they study Torah. Now that’s an example how a person can continue to be a yeshivah maneven after he leaves the yeshivah. And in ancient times that was the Jewish way of life.A DEDICATED LIFEA yeshivah man who leaves the Kollel and he begins a life of productivity in gashmius, must make sure that he remains dedicated to Torah learning as well. Now, a man like this, he can’t afford the luxury of wasting all those odd hours. A yeshivah man, whether he’s still in the yeshivah or not, has to get up Shabbos morning early to learn. He has to spend Shabbos studying. Shabbos night he can’t go out to melave malkas with the family. He can’t visit Uncle Yossi on Sundays; he can’t go to every wedding, and he can’t stay late at the ones he goes to.I recall once – it was at a melave malka in the old building and I said over from the Rambam (Hilchos Talmud Torah 3:13): הרוצה לזכות בכתרה של תורה – “Anybody who wants to earn the crown of Torah, אל יאבד אחת מלילותיו – he shouldn’t waste even one of his nights.” You have to work by day, what could you do already; but you shouldn’t waste even one of your nights. You hear that?! The Rambam says that you shouldn’t even waste one of your nights! And there was a man who was sitting there and he heard that. I saw that it went into his ears and he changed his way of life. He became great subsequently. He was a working man and he became great in Torah. I remember once his wife had to attend a wedding in the Riverside Plaza, uptown, but that night was a shiur. So he took his wife by car to Riverside Plaza and left her there and he came back here attend the shiur. Then he went all the way back to the hall to bring her home. That’s dedication!And so, if you won’t waste any of your nights, you’ll be able to remain a yeshivah man forever. Forget about going to weddings. Forget about family parties. Now you’re wedded to the Torah. Now of course some women will say: “What kind of a life is that? What kind of a life is a kollel life? My husband is a businessman, not a kollel man.” I’ll tell you – it’s a dedicated life; it’s a life dedicated to success! If you want to be a nothing, so you do what everybody else does and you’ll succeed in becoming what you want to become. Nothing! But if you have some idealism, if the fire still burns in you, then this is the career of success for you in this world.WHEN WIVES DRIVE THEIR HUSBANDS AWAYNow you’ll ask me about the women. How do women do that? Women encourage their husbands to learn Torah. They say, “Chaim, go to the shiur”. “Chaim, go to the yeshivah”. They encourage them to go, so they have full partnership in all the Torah of their men and that’s going to be their great happiness. That’s what the Jewish nation once did. In Europe of long ago every shul used to be a place where people sat and learned. Some men worked part of the day, but others were forced by their wives to go and learn all day long. Their wives ran little businesses, they managed the family, and their husbands were expected to do nothing but learn for their entire lives.In Europe, before World War l, there were a lot of Jews who moved into the shul in the morning, and they didn’t move out till late at night. There was a whole population like that all over Eastern Europe. It stopped with World War l, it began to disintegrate little by little. But way back, throughout our history, all the shuls had a big populace of learners. Many men were driven away to the shuls by their wives. These dedicated women, the nashim tzidkoniyos, said “Don’t work; you sit and learn and I’ll take care of the parnasah.” All over Eastern Europe it was a frequent thing. Even when I came to Europe in 1932, when it was already ruined, I saw it. The wife stood in the the store and her husband sat in the Beis Hamedrash.SHEPPING NACHAS FROM YOUR HUSBANDThe Zichron Yaakov tells us that when Friday night came – this was before the people spoiled – so all the townspeople slept until around chatzos. Then they started getting up to study Torah. He even describes how there were a lot of Jews who weren’t capable of studying Torah so a paid rebbe would come to their homes late Friday night or early Shabbos morning. A man would learn with his rebbe while his wife was still in bed behind the curtain; and she was shepping nachas from her husband’s learning. To take the little money they had and use it for learning was a great sacrifice that the wife made. But she was encouraging him and was happy with what he was doing.And therefore if the wife cooperates and she doesn’t demand the husband’s presence at home; if she understands it’s her success as well, that it’s her partnership, that woman is from the nashim tzidkoniyos that always preserved our nation. And the fact that he is making progress, that he’s forging ahead in learning, that’s her zechus. She is a full partner in all of his Torah; not a fifty percent partner, a one hundred percent partner!THE WIFE FINISHES SHAS MANY TIMESAnd not only is she learning Shas along with him, but she’s raising Shasim at home. Every child that a mother raises is like finishing Shas many times! So she’s at home learning her Shas and she’s encouraging him to finish his Shas in the Beis Medrash. And with such a great partner in life he can forge ahead, as long as he’s not lazy and he’s willing to carry the brunt of a career of study. And that’s what the Jewish nation once did; and that’s an ideal which many people are beginning to realize today.Right now in Gan Eden all the men and women are enjoying the great splendor of eternal happiness because of their portion in Torah – in addition to all the good things that they do. You’re all invited to go to Olam Haba. All those who pass away, even a pashute Yehudi, is basking in happiness in the world to come. But those people who spend some time learning Torah are far, far more privileged, beyond all the rest of them. START SELLING PEANUTSSo here’s a man who asks me: “How can someone even begin to learn when there’s so much to learn; it looks so impossible?” But you have to know that those are the words of the yetzer hara talking. When it comes to making money you don’t say, “Why should I bother to start making money when there’s so much money to make?” No, you don’t say that; you start selling peanuts on the street corner, you hustle, you try to get whatever you can. And little by little you accomplish.So you see the whole Talmud Bavli and you say, “Oh, I can’t do that. It’s too much!” So what about it?! That’s a teirutz?! It’s a very silly excuse. Start hustling; learn one line of gemara. You mean to say you’re going to leave this world and you won’t be able to say that you learned one line of gemara? You can’t learn one line?! Are you such a dumbhead?! Ask somebody to help you! Say it over inside, ten times, fifty times. You know when you go to the next world, they’ll say, אשרי מי שבא לכאן ותלמודו בידו – “How fortunate you are if you arrive to here and you have Talmud in your hand.” They’ll ask you: “You have any gemara?” “I have one line,” you’ll say. “One line? Fine! Let’s hear it.” But to not even have one line?! “You didn’t come here with some Torah in your hand?! What were you doing down there for seventy, eighty years?!” “Oh, I was saying chumash, I was praying every day.” And Hashem will say, “I’m very sorry, so very sorry. You had no time to learn one line of My Torah Hakedosha, My Talmud Bavli?!”Now the truth is you could learn more than one line. If you would learn one line a week, you know that in ten years you’d know something! One line a week, and you’d review it constantly. One line a week; who couldn’t do that?! And so, there won’t be any excuse to give on that great day when the question will be asked, “Osakta batorah? Did you engage in the study of My Torah?” Everybody must study the gemara. And it’s not hard. It’s difficult to learn a lot of gemara, the whole Shas, but one line?! You can’t learn one line?!“WHO WAS RAV HUNA?”In shomayim they’ll ask you, “Who was Rav Huna?” “Rav Huna? I think he lived in our neighborhood.” There are people like that; they think that Rav Huna was maybe the rav of the other shul in their neighborhood. No; we have to recognize ourTana’im and Amora’im. Not just recognize them but to love the names in the gemara. You should love the sound of Abbayeand Rava. Of Rav Papa and Rav Huna brei di’Rav Yehoshua. All of our great men. Love their names! The taste of their names should be on our tongues sweeter than honey. Because that is the honey of the Am Yisroel.And therefore we are not impressed by the fact that there’s so much to learn. Certainly we are impressed but we aren’t overwhelmed. It says לא עליך המלאכה לגמור, it’s not your job to learn the whole Shas. If you can, learn it. But at least learn a piece of it. You mean to say that you’re going to leave here and you’ll forget about what you heard here, about the great ideals of Torah learning? You’re not going to learn gemarabecause it’s so much, so vast of a wisdom?! No, you have to learn, at least one line. And make it your business to repeat that line again and again and again.IT’S TIME TO LEAVE THE STABLEYou have to learn – otherwise the language of the Torah is meaningless to you; all the ideals and all the halachos are vague. You go through the motions of being a frum Jew but it’s all very weak, very superficial. You must learn. And you must learn gemara! Not like one man said to me, “Don’t bother us; we’re not gemarabuffs.” Gemara buffs?! What?! Like you don’t collect old coins or you don’t collect stamps you also don’t learn gemara?! Gemara is not a hobby; it’s our life breath. We learn gemara because that is the air we breathe. If you don’t learn Gemara you know what you are? You’re an ox! (Pesachim 49b) That’s what you are without gemara. And don’t tell me about other things you learn, moral teachings. If you don’t learn gemara then you and your family are called beheimos. And anyone who marries your daughter it says about him “Arur shocheiv im beheimah.” It’s important to know that! Jews always knew this! You must breathe gemara. That’s our life!And if you don’t learn, so the talmid chochom can’t even speak to you. If you’re a beheimah, then you don’t talk the language of Torah. How can he talk to you if you’re still in the stable? You’re eating oats and you’re braying. A talmid chochom will knock on the stable door and say, “Listen to this.” So you bray, and he talks. Totally different languages. I have experience in this. I’ve spoken to people and they don’t even begin to understand what you’re talking about. It’s only when you become familiar with Torah ideas, at least in the gemara, that you’re able to communicate with the Torah world and appreciate and understand what they’re telling you.THE PERFUMED YESHIVAH MANNow once a person understands these ideas, so the way he looks at the Am Yisroel is transformed. Because now he understands who really are the aristocrats of the Am Yisroel. And so when you see a yeshivah man, a talmid chochom, you know that he is the one who is closest to the kodesh kodoshim, he’s closer to Hakodosh Boruch Hu than anyone else. And you admire him, you’re impressed by him. And that’s what the gemara says: עתידין בחורי ישראל שיתנו ריח טוב כלבנון – “The young men of Israel will in the future emit a fragrance like the forest of Levanon” (Brachos 43b). The time will come when the young talmidei chachomim, the yeshivah men who spend their days and nights learning, will issue a sweet fragrance like the cedar trees of the Levanon. It means that one day the world will recognize the truth; the whole world will learn to look through the eyes of Hakodosh Boruch Hu. And everyone will see that it is the Torah learners who smell pleasant, that they are the ones who give off the sweetest of fragrances in this world.But we are expected to recognize that truth even today. When you see a yeshivah man, you should imagine that he smells like sweet smelling roses. Let’s say you see a group of yeshivah boys walking in the street. Now, there is nothing especially attractive about them. They’re all wearing the same uniform, white shirts, and black pants; nothing special. So what about it? What’s so important?But if you understand this lesson of Parshas Pekudei, so you understand that these yeshivah men are the aristocrats of our nation. Because it was in the midbar that the Am Yisroel learned that our nation is only a Torah nation. That’s the lifeblood of our people; it’s what we are. אין אומתינו אומה אלא בתורה – “Our nation is a nation only because of the Torah.” And it’s those who keep pumping the blood of Torah through the veins of our nation, who are keeping us alive. And therefore it’s the Torah learnerswho are the aristocrats of our nation, the ones whom we admire and emulate. And the more a person is michaberhimself to the Torah, the greater of an aristocrat he is. Once you understand this, you have gained a new perspective on the Am Yisroel, and you’ve learned to see our nation the way Hashem sees them.HAVE A WONDERFUL SHABBOSGo Back See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A symbol of the closure of Summer is usually Labor Day. For all my West Indians, the Labor Day Parade on Eastern Parkway is a time to be around your people, wine to Soca, drink nutcrackers, and eat your favorite foods from the islands. Black Seinfeld went on the parkway to represent our station WBAI. We share our experience. Also, we talk about AfroPunk 2018, and Colin Kaepernick! Enjoy!

Every September, millions of people celebrate Carnival in Brooklyn. From the pre-dawn J’ouvert bacchanal in the streets, to the intense Panorama steel pan competition, to the massive Labor Day Parade on Eastern Parkway, central Brooklyn is transformed into a Caribbean cultural haven. But before the fun comes months of preparation and centuries of history. We follow Caribbean steel pan groups, masquerade bands and Haitian rara groups through their preparations and celebrations and we hear how members of these Caribbean communities keep their cultural activities alive and thriving despite considerable challenges: violence and political backlash associated with Carnival, and soaring rents and cultural changes in Brooklyn due to gentrification. Produced by Morgan Greenstreet, Saxon Baird and Sebastian Bouknight. Follow Afropop Worldwide on Facebook at www.facebook.com/afropop, on Instagram @afropopworldwide and on Twitter @afropopww. Subscribe to the Afropop Worldwide newsletter at www.afropop.org/newsletter/ APWW PGM #739 [Distributed 2/16/2017]

Today’s guest on the show is documentary photographer Jamel Shabazz. Jamel’s contributions to documentary photography are applauded the all over the world and in my humble opinion Brother Shabazz the is the Gordon Parks of my generation. I marveled at his work way before I knew his name. You have no idea how happy it made me feel to sit at a chess table in the middle of Brooklyn and kick it with some who has and still inspires me to do my best with my skill set every single day. We met up in Dr. Ronald McNair Park across from the Brooklyn Museum to talk about growing up in Brooklyn, self publishing vs traditional publishing, his experience in the military, the summer of 1980, striving to capture images that say something profound, the importance of empathy, the crack era, giving back to the community and much much more. As you are listening to this conversation, I highly recommend you pull up Jamel’s Instagram, website or flip through one of his many photography books as you listen. It will be a great reference to what we are talking about. I’ve provided links to it all at NewYorkSaid.com  Side note, we are in the middle of Brooklyn. So, there will be sirens, there will be interruptions and that’s what you get when you record outside in New York, it tends to want to be present right there with you. That’s enough intro for one show, please enjoy. More About Jamel Shabazz Official Site - http://www.jamelshabazz.com Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jamelshabazz/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Jamel-Shabazz-16841597946/ Shop for Books by Jamel Shabazz Back in the Days - http://amzn.to/2f2MxIc The Last Sunday June - http://amzn.to/2gcrRJJ A Time Before Crack - http://amzn.to/2fNVx2W Seconds of my Life - http://amzn.to/2gy0i1I Pieces of a Man: Photography of Jamel Shabazz: 1980-2015 - http://www.artvoicesartbooks.com/shop/51k7s88fwm6869fxpfenq2lmkhj9yd Links to the Stuff they Talked About West Indian Parade - http://wiadcacarnival.org Eastern Parkway - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Parkway Brooklyn Museum - https://www.brooklynmuseum.org Brooklyn Botanical Gardens - http://www.bbg.org Powerhouse Books - http://www.powerhousebooks.com Black In White America, a book by photojournalist Leonard Freed - http://n.pr/2fBF0fK Alex Haley: The Playboy Interviews - http://amzn.to/2fBzdXB Platoon (1986) - Rotten Tomatoes - http://bit.ly/2flyJna Marvin Gaye (Song) - What's Happening Brother - http://bit.ly/2gi63Oe Luke Cage - http://bit.ly/2fZ2Jal Puma - http://bit.ly/2fBArBT Delancey Street - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delancey_Street Riders Island - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delancey_Street Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson - http://bit.ly/2gi5R1x Short Eyes (Film) - http://bit.ly/2fnwIKR Attica Correctional Facility - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attica_Correctional_Facility Crack Cocaine - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_cocaine Self Destruction (Song) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxyYP_bS_6s The Central Park Five - http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/centralparkfive/ Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come (Official Lyric Video) - http://bit.ly/2fnInZN Book of Eli - http://bit.ly/2ge0xyl Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture - https://nmaahc.si.edu This episode is sponsored by Gorilla Coffee.

Not only is he a talented filmmaker and director, Raafi Rivero is also a killer tour guide. Close your eyes and let this guy take you down Eastern Parkway. Bonus: you'll learn a ton about filmmaking and storytelling! Also, Haele & Maura are there. Listen, like, subscribe! We love you! Links: Raafi: raafirivero.com/film/ Twitter - @raffirivero The Film - abrooklynlovestory.com/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/HandfulofWheel/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/Handfulofwheel Twitter: @handful_wheel Instagram: @handfulofwheel Tumblr: handfulofwheelpc.tumblr.com/ Theme: brokeforfree.com/ Feel Good - Broke For Free Music: 1. Forever - Roger Singh Kahlon

Every September, millions of people celebrate Carnival in Brooklyn. From the pre-dawn J'ouvert bacchanal in the streets, to the intense Panorama steel pan competition, to the massive Labor Day Parade on Eastern Parkway, Central Brooklyn is transformed into a Caribbean cultural haven. But before the fun comes months of preparation and centuries of history. We follow Caribbean steel pan groups, masquerade bands and Haitian rara groups through their preparations and celebrations and we hear how members of these Caribbean communities keep their cultural activities alive and thriving despite facing considerable challenges: violence and political backlash associated with Carnival, and soaring rents and cultural changes in Brooklyn due to gentrification. Produced by Morgan Greenstreet, Saxon Baird, & Sebastian Bouknight [APWW #739] [Air date: 9/29/2016]

In the 1920s, immigrants from Trinidad and other Caribbean islands with a carnival tradition began celebrating Carnival in private spaces in Harlem. These celebrations took place during the traditional pre-Lenten period. In the mid-1940s, Trinidadian Jesse and Brother Palmer Lampkin other family members and friends organized a street festival held on Labor Day, on 7th Avenue in Harlem. The parade permit for Harlem was revoked in 1964 following a disturbance. Five years later, a committee headed by Carlos Lezama obtained permission to parade on Eastern Parkway. That committee became the West Indian-American Day Carnival Association, now a well-established organization. Lezama headed the organization through many years of growth, retiring at the age of 78 in 2001. His daughter, Yolanda Lezama-Clark, was subsequently elected President. Events are held every year from the Thursday before Labor Day through the weekend, culminating in the parade on Labor Day itself. The parade now proceeds from Utica Avenue along Eastern Parkway to Grand Army Plaza. Highlights include a steel band competition, a Dimanche Gras (Fat Sunday) extravaganza and a special Kiddie Carnival which runs from President Street to the grounds of the Brooklyn Museum of Art. We will discuss what has happened since the original founders first thought of the having this event and the subsequent negative changes that have taken place..such as the recent shootings and injuries that seem to be acepted as part of this yearly ritual.

In what may be their most Brooklyn-centric interview yet, Haele & Maura talk about how they first met before being joined by filmmaker Raafi Rivero, who escorts them on an unforgettable night-ride along Eastern Parkway, the set of his debut feature film, '72 Hours: A Brooklyn Love Story'. For all you native New Yorkers, don't miss the NYC premiere of Raafi's film THIS WEEKEND, 9/24/16, at Urbanworld Festival. Links below! Links: Tickets to Urbanworld: http://www.urbanworld.org/2016/72-hours-a-brooklyn-love-story Raafi: http://raafirivero.com/film/ Twitter - @raffirivero The Film - http://abrooklynlovestory.com/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/HandfulofWheel/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/Handfulofwheel Twitter: @handful_wheel Instagram: @handfulofwheel Tumblr: handfulofwheelpc.tumblr.com/ Theme: brokeforfree.com/ Feel Good - Broke For Free Music: 1. Believe- Roger Singh Kahlon 2. Forever - Roger Singh Kahlon

Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue, Brooklyn Many slaves brought the tradition of African outdoor ceremonies to the Caribbean. However, once enslaved, they were prohibited from holding public celebrations despite their slaveholders' engagement in street parades like Mardi Gras.The Harlem permit was revoked in 1964 due to a violent riot. Five years later, a committee organized by Trinidadian Carlos Lezama obtained another permit for a parade on Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn. The parade has been held there ever since, beginning at Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue and ending at Grand Army Plaza.

Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue, Brooklyn Many slaves brought the tradition of African outdoor ceremonies to the Caribbean. However, once enslaved, they were prohibited from holding public celebrations despite their slaveholders' engagement in street parades like Mardi Gras.The Harlem permit was revoked in 1964 due to a violent riot. Five years later, a committee organized by Trinidadian Carlos Lezama obtained another permit for a parade on Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn. The parade has been held there ever since, beginning at Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue and ending at Grand Army Plaza.