Latest / The Family Teams Podcast / Sabbath Ep 3. |What Does a Jewish Shabbat Look Like? (with Yoel & Orly Ganor)

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Sabbath Ep 3. |What Does a Jewish Shabbat Look Like? (with Yoel & Orly Ganor) · The Family Teams Podcast

• 0:01
  Hi, welcome to the Family Teams Podcast. Our goal here is to help your family become a multi-generational team on mission by providing you with biblically rooted concepts, tools, and rhythms. Your hosts are Jeremy Pryor and Jefferson Bethke, and this season is all about crafting a family-friendly day of rest.
• 0:19
  We'll talk about the biblical idea of Sabbath, hear testimonies from different families, and also discuss practical ways to do this with kids. Make sure you give us a follow so you don't miss out on future episodes.
• 0:35
  All right, guys, well, welcome to the Family Teams podcast. We are jumping in to seven weeks of talking about the Sabbath. And we are so excited to introduce you to Yoel and Orly Gnor, who are good friends of ours who live in Israel. Shalom, Yoel and Orly. Shalom.
• 0:55
  So this is a wonderful privilege. So our friendship with the Gnorris goes back. April, you want to describe where we first met real quick? Sure. Yes. I think it was 2011 or the end of 2010, maybe. Our family went to Israel for the first time for all of us to go. Jeremy and I had been there. We met there as students in 1997.
• 1:18
  And then we came back with all of our kids. When we were students in 97, I said, if I ever get to come back here, I want to study Hebrew. I had taken like one little class, and it just fascinated me.
• 1:33
  And so we knew we were heading back to Israel. We were so excited to bring all of our kids. And, um, I said, maybe this is one of those times we could try to find one of those schools. They call them an old pond or something. And so Jeremy did a bunch of research and, um,
• 1:51
  found open or where you can learn Hebrew at the speed of light. And, um, we were, that's how we decided where we were going to rent a house was the one that was within, within walking distance to where the open was at the time. And, um, we were so glad we made that decision. Open or is amazing. Um, you well, and Orly started it many years ago. I'll let them share their own story.
• 2:17
  But our experience there, they could teach all of our ages. Well, a lot of our kids were maybe...
• 2:26
  9 and 11 at the time, our oldest two took classes there and their method of one on one instruction, taking little field trips with the instructor and going out in public and kind of forcing you to use it was super helpful very memorable very like engaging all the senses.
• 2:49
  And it was a way to really move forward by leaps with the language and the culture and understanding the people and the city. We were in Jerusalem and it was all just very wonderful. We still have talk about it all the time. So that's how we met Yoel and Orly. They are the couple who founded that and they have they have cracked the code of how to hire really good teachers. Yes. Yes.
• 3:15
  We that's one thing we really admired was like we didn't have any bad experiences with any of the teachers. And they are all so great with the different levels. And yeah, so wonderful. So we'd love for you guys to introduce yourselves a little bit. And we're going to dive into a conversation about the Sabbath in a minute. But yeah, you will and Orly tell the audience just a little bit about who you are. OK, so we are Orly and Yoyle, as it was said, and we are married for more than.
• 3:43
  41 years. Wow. We have eight children, ages 41 to 23. And all but two are married.
• 3:57
  And we have a bunch of charming grandchildren. Excellent. I have a degree in education, Hebrew literature, Jewish philosophy. And I opened our company back in the 90s, 1993, something like that, when there was a big, big immigration from Russia.
• 4:23
  Story is kind of, you know, returning. Yes. After several years of research and investing, I designed our unique rapid language acquisition methodology, and you described it fantastically. Today we do a lot of digital courses, and we have lots of, you know, new innovations. So that's a little bit about us, about our plan. Yoel.
• 4:53
  So April, you mentioned Ulpan Or, this is the name of our company. Actually, Ulpan in Hebrew means a place for studying something. Study and or means light. So it actually means the study of light.
• 5:08
  But actually, it comes from the name of Orly. Orly, okay? In Hebrew, it means my light. She's a light to me. So this is the foundation of . I never made that connection before. That's amazing.
• 5:26
  Okay, about myself, I had about 25 years of experience in the high tech field before joining Orly because I wanted to be involved in something more spiritual than dealing with, you know, chips and technology. And I'm happy for this move that I made. It happened about 25 years ago also. And Orly and I believe that Hebrew is the language in which the world was created.
• 5:54
  And this is the language which our patriarchs and our prophets spoke. And that's what drove me to be part of Ulpanor, where we teach and spread the Hebrew language around the world. So this is something for both of us, a very spiritual relationship.
• 6:10
  enterprise, I would say. And we get so many letters and inquiries from people around the world about Hebrew and its meaning for people's spiritual entity. Those could be Christians, Jews, Muslims, or, you know, Buddhists, whatnot. People realize that Hebrew is a special language. And when they touch it a little bit or it touches them,
• 6:38
  sometimes very moving transformations occur. Yes. Yeah, so that is something that our family has really adopted and we've learned a lot from the good Norrs, is just the value of the Hebrew language and have encouraged a lot of our friends, especially the ones that do homeschool, to consider Hebrew as a potential language, to be able to study the Bible in Hebrew, to be able to understand
• 7:03
  um uh Hebrew and the way that kind of the that mind thinks and also to get to communicate directly with people in the modern day of Israel which is uh such a an incredible story about how Hebrew as a language um was was resurrected in in such a powerful way um and and brought into to become the the primary language in Israel so
• 7:27
  Yeah, we've been very influenced and believe in that. Not long ago, I actually discovered the emblem of Yale University.
• 7:37
  I don't know if you're familiar with this. Inside, there are Hebrew words, urin, betumin, written in Hebrew. It's a lux and veritas in Latin language, which means light and truth. And it comes actually from the garment of the high priest. So it was fascinating for me to discover that actually they have Hebrew letters inside their emblem. And the...
• 8:03
  Wow. That's very interesting. Yeah, you see it kind of emerging in different places, and it has a powerful, I think, resonance with people. It's spiritual. They don't really understand why the Hebrew language is significant, but you can feel there's depth there that's really bottomless. And that's part of the reason why our family has really...
• 8:24
  um you know trying to try to try to really go into that so um so one of the hebrew words we want to teach you guys today on this podcast is shabbat um and uh and so we we have noticed and i we're just telling um yoel and orly before this that there's been this a really explosion of interest in in keeping a sabbath um there's people that are more burnt out than ever there's so much busyness in life there's distractions
• 8:50
  And that people are feeling tired and they're not recovering and they're not enjoying family and faith in the deep way that a Sabbath day can really create for you. And so we're going to be talking to different people who have established practices of the Sabbath. But before we talk about those who have...
• 9:09
  recently discovered this tradition and have begun to practice it. I wanted to talk to you all on Orly, people who have practiced this for much longer and it goes back for them much further. So we're going to get into a little bit of history, but first I would just love for you guys to describe the typical Shabbat at the Ganor household. Like what is that like today?
• 9:35
  And then I'd love to kind of go back in time a little bit and start to talk about maybe how that is different in different seasons of life. But what does it look like today for you and for your family? Well, you know, Shabbat really is a special day in our family. I just want to point out a few facts about Shabbat. If one pays attention to time units, there are several natural units associated with the celestial bodies.
• 10:02
  For instance, if we take the unit of one day, it is related to the revolution of Earth around itself, right? We have 24 hours, but it's one revolution. So day has some kind of cosmic meaning. A month is related to the revolution of moon around the Earth. And the year is related to the revolution of Earth around the sun.
• 10:23
  So these are sort of natural units of time related to some cosmic phenomena. But if you take the seven-day week, it does not have any cosmic phenomena to relate to. So it merely attests for all human beings that the world was created by the Almighty in seven days. And the seventh day, the Shabbat, is the day on which God concluded the creation and put the world to rest.
• 10:51
  With this powerful message, actually, Orly and I, we accept Shabbat in our family. And what goes on in the family, Orly will tell you better than I. Okay, so the preparation for Shabbat, that's one of the things. You actually, the minute you finish with the Shabbat, the previous Shabbat, you start organizing the week towards the next Shabbat. And what do I mean?
• 11:20
  First of all, we usually invite guests as our family grew. So today the guests are mostly our kids, but people in the neighborhood are coming for Shabbat. And it's a feast kind of. So every week we have kind of a feast. Yes, students of ours who visit Jerusalem, they're always welcome to come to us for Shabbat. And people from the neighborhood invite each other for the meal of Shabbat. And it's a whole thing.
• 11:48
  Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Shabat Sh
• 12:01
  something that is involved, of course, with food. So I started kind of exercising the in my my head is, OK, who is coming next Shabbat? What do I need to prepare? If it's a family, it's you know, you prepare something that is special for them and so on. And then.
• 12:21
  And we are working really hard at our work, but still kind of Wednesday, we're doing the shopping for Shabbat. It's usually something special each Shabbat. And the cooking is usually on Thursday. And the halot, the smell of the halot is kind of all over the house on Thursday. And there is a special thing with Shabbat that we're not cooking on Shabbat. So,
• 12:50
  We prepare everything in advance. And in the winter, during the winter, you weren't in our house during winter, but in the winter we have special dishes that are on the hot stove all through the Shabbat. So the smell is really, really good. It's kind of the smell of Shabbat.
• 13:10
  Shabbat has its own special smell Yeah So it's like You know the chicken soup And all kinds of special dishes That are for the Shabbat And of course You have special songs Like there is a song In the evening When the
• 13:32
  men come home from the synagogue. So there is a tradition, a Jewish tradition, that tells us that when people come back home from the synagogue on the eve of Shabbat,
• 13:43
  they are escorted by angels who want to support and participate in this meal, the Shabbat meal. And there's a special song welcoming these angels and then parting from the angels. So it's a very nice song. It's called Shalom Lechem. Many people in America sing it with this tune. Shalom Alei Feh, Malafi Asha. You can find it on YouTube. So this is... So the whole family singing it. If you know of Rabbi Carly Bach,
• 14:13
  you heard of him? very very famous rabbi that used to compose all kinds of tunes and he has he has a lot on Shabbat but he has special tunes for Shabbat and it's on the net you can find it on YouTube okay and the last song that Orly mentioned which is very important this is the song that the husband sings for his wife
• 14:42
  with admiration okay this actually is a song from solomon's proverbs about the woman who does everything it's all symbolic of course of course but you know when we do that when i say that i especially you know focus on my wife orly and tell how much i appreciate what she does not only for shabbat but every day and all the women in judaism and so on so it's kind of nice and it's a tradition
• 15:11
  you know, get from childhood. And there is also the priestly blessing that the parents bless their kids. You know, the priestly blessing that has the three verses there. So we usually recite it on Shabbat. We put our hands on the heads of our children and we bless them. And the nice thing is when they are getting married, the husband, the husband,
• 15:38
  Father is putting his hands on the wives, you know, the daughter-in-law or the son-in-law. So they're all our kids on the Shabbat eve. So it's really nice. And they're all coming and getting this blessing. Mm-hmm.
• 15:55
  All these things really, really make Shabbat really special. And symbolically, I just wanted to mention that when you take the Star of David, it has six corners, right? But in the middle, there is some kind of a space.
• 16:10
  And the six corners are related to the sixth day of creation. And the space inside, this is Shabbat. This is the seventh day that gives us energy to all the six weekdays. Oh, wow. It's like the energy source for, oh, that's really cool. I like that. Yes, that's a great symbol.
• 16:27
  That's very helpful. So and so that evening and one of things we noticed is that there's also just it seems so many families, so many kids are driving to their parents' houses like on Shabbat. You just see even even their 20s and 30s. How does how does it work in terms of when do families tend to start their own like Shabbat in their generation versus go to their parents' house? How did you work? How does that work out usually in Israel? Okay, usually
• 16:56
  at the beginning of the marriage, they want to be alone. They want to do Shabbat on their own. But again, like they come home in order to get some of the warmth and the things they remember. So they come from time to time and it's nice and the parents usually like it very much. And as the kids, when the kids are young, the grandchildren are young,
• 17:25
  They like coming to their grandparents because it helps, you know. Yes. They get those sleep. They have a lot of expense and cooking and all that. And then we are experiencing, we have a grandchild child who is 18 already. Oh, wow. So when the kids are under teens, and in Israel, they usually live, the families live in Israel.
• 17:52
  kind of it's not village but it's a settlement and there the life is very very attractive for young children for adolescents so then they are not so anxious to come to their parents because okay to their grandparents because they have their own life so those different stages are these stages and uh
• 18:20
  We accept whatever they tell us. For instance, this Shabbat, we are traveling to the States on Saturday night. But when the kids are calling and telling us, we want to come, we won't say no. So you have a few families this Shabbat. It's a bit of a stretch, but...
• 18:42
  And when the family expands, we also have what we call free shopping at the parents' house. They usually come on Thursday or Friday morning. They open the fridge. Mommy, can I take this? Can I have that? After Shabbat, they take all the meals that are cooked already so they'll have food for the rest of the week. Wow, that's great. That would be so helpful for those young families. Yes. Another custom is...
• 19:12
  When Shabbat enters, all the little children are coming to the mother or the grandmother and are getting a candy for Shabbat.
• 19:23
  with this candy they go to the synagogue so it's like a shabbat candy and they know that they won't get it during the weekdays it's only for shabbat oh that's really special it helps them associate that the sabbath and going to the synagogue with something sweet and fun and exactly oh that's great now when they come on friday for dinner do they spend the night
• 19:50
  Some, the ones who are observant, yes, and the ones who are not, they are traveling back. Okay. Yeah, most of our kids are observant, so they stay for the whole 26 hours or whatever. Okay. Okay.
• 20:04
  So you see there's a and I know that when Kelsey was staying with you, you had an extra apartment and then every Shabbat or a lot of the Shabbats that it must be a big part of the tradition to have the families come and sleep and needing to accommodate like the grandchildren. Yeah, like a small hotel. Yeah, especially with eight children. Yes. Yeah.
• 20:30
  So let's talk a little bit about the day of rest. So, so Friday night, we've kicked off Shabbat. There's been a meal. And yeah, how have you learned over time to use the 24 hours, 26 hours to, to just experience rest? Like, what does that mean and how do you enter into that? Okay, already. Okay, so I'll start by, by the sheer fact of closing all
• 20:59
  the electronic devices. In some families, they cover like the TV. They have a special cover for the light switches. And it's Shabbat.
• 21:15
  So it's like Shabbat is something that is not connected to this hush and all these things that you are waking each morning to. You're not opening your iPhone. You're not opening the Internet. Nothing. It's interesting because in Israel...
• 21:36
  many of the wars were during Shabbat, or there were attacks during Shabbat, the Yom Kippur wars on Yom Kippur.
• 21:47
  And so if you live in a very religious neighborhood, you don't know anything. You don't know what's going on. So sometimes some people used to go to, not secular people to hear what was, you know, I heard the bomb. Was it an attack or what was it? But you don't open the radio. You don't open the TV. And it's very, very, you know, and I think it's very educational for the kids.
• 22:17
  Because there is a force that is stronger than the parents saying such a thing. It's not my father is saying, don't open the TV because you are watching too much.
• 22:33
  Yeah, it's beyond that. Beyond, right. So it's very, very special. It's like what I think Herschel talks about entering into kind of like this timeless space. And when you have all those devices, they're telling you, yeah, you're becoming extremely conscious of the passage of time. And yeah, when you cover all of that, you enter into like a different kind of time.
• 22:58
  Right. Yeah, talking about that, you know, in Judaism, we consider number six as representing the material reality. Because you have six, you know, directions. You have left, right, down, up, and forward and backward. So this is the sixth. And this represents this universe of space-time. But if you want to go above that, there's the seventh direction.
• 23:25
  element and this is okay so that's how we consider it so you know for orly actually she was brought in a religious family so for her it was very natural to observe shabbat because everybody in the family everybody in the neighborhood did that it was very natural for me i grew up in the soviet union
• 23:48
  And as you know, at that time, none of the religions were allowed to practice the rituals. And actually, whoever did that could be in big danger. So even people who knew about the Jewish customs and religion and the tradition,
• 24:07
  did not transfer to their children. So I was not aware of anything like that. So only after coming to Israel, did I start looking around me and see what's going on. And I was curious.
• 24:25
  why these customs were not observed in Russia. And of course my parents at that time explained to me, and I started just exploring for myself, what did it mean to
• 24:39
  keep Judaism, to keep Shabbat. And little by little, I came closer to that because I understood that it's something intrinsic for Jewish people to be with that. And after marrying Orly, I became even closer and learned a lot more about Shabbat. And now for us, Shabbat is something, as we mentioned earlier,
• 25:01
  to be connected to ourselves and to God, because in our daily life, we're connected to our smartphone, our internet, our computers, our whatnot. These devices just obstruct our focus from the real things. And Shabbat gives us this opportunity to dwell on real values, to get, as I said, connected to the universe, to the endless source of spiritualism.
• 25:31
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• 25:46
  Wow, that's really helpful. So, Yowal, you went through a transition where you really had to learn and recapture because of what was going on in the Soviet Union. And Orly, tell us a little bit about your background. Like, what was it like growing up for you and in your household? And how was Shabbat kept? Okay, so it's interesting because my grandfather came from the States and he built a house in a state.
• 26:12
  neighborhood called Mea Shearim in Jerusalem. It's like a very, very, very religious. Ultra Orthodox. Back then, he didn't know. It was just the house he found and he built. And so when I grew up, I had kids who spoke Yiddish around me. And we were considered a bit modern then.
• 26:39
  because you know how they, it's like Amish people. Okay. Yes, we Amish, yeah. So Shabbat there is really, really special. You see all the people are walking with, they have special gowns and special hats and it's really, really special. It's a different day. It's like you're going into a different world.
• 27:05
  And there's no transportation on the streets. People walk just on the streets, wherever. It's really... And there is like a street that is a... My father used to call it like the fashion street. All the women walking with their hats and, you know, all the things that are... Festive clothes. Yeah, for Shabbat. So they're like walking and...
• 27:30
  with the kids and carriages. So this was Shabbat for me. And another thing that was really interesting there, it was, there are special things that are, how would I say, this kiddush, I said that the kiddush is the ceremony of drinking the wine and all that. And we used to do it in the synagogue.
• 27:56
  And there are special kind of food, dishes that, again, as I said, are on the stove for the whole night, and the whole community is eating it.
• 28:12
  Big, big, big pots. It's kind of a kish, but a special kish. And when I was a child, there are stories about that. They had this house because they didn't have those hot stoves everywhere. So there was a house with...
• 28:31
  a hot stove and all the synagogues used to bring their food from there. So you saw people walking with carriages of this food, going to this synagogue and that synagogue. As children, we used to run after those people. It was a festive, especially. Yeah, like a festival. Wow. Every week. Every week. Talking about food, maybe elaborate a little bit on the special food because
• 28:59
  On Shabbat, we're not allowed to have fire, we're not allowed to cook on Shabbat. So traditionally, several kinds of food have developed. One of them, for instance, is this, we call it Cholant. This is the Yiddish Hebrew name. And what the
• 29:19
  people do is they put so much, so many ingredients, like it could be meat, meat and potatoes and rice and beans, and they're prepared before Shabbat, and it's all left on this hot plate, okay? And during the night, it stays and stays and absorbs all the juices and the smells, and the whole house is full of this smell. You're just smelling it, you become hungry, okay?
• 29:50
  Another, for instance, dish is what we call gefilte fish. This is stuffed fish. So how did that develop? On Shabbat, we're not allowed to sort out the bones from meat, from fish. So this is not allowed. This is a forbidden activity.
• 30:09
  So what they do, they grind the fish with the bones and make it like cutlets, you know. So that's how you feel the fish develop. Oh, I see. That makes sense. And the same thing for the, you know, what Orly mentioned, this is quiche, the noodle quiche, we call it the kugel. Again, this is something that...
• 30:28
  Before Shabbat, that left the whole night on this hot plate. And again, it is delicious. So this is about the culinary part of Shabbat. Wow. Very good. Well, I'd love to hear too, Orly, you talk about...
• 30:45
  So both of you, like with different stages of your kids, you know, when your kids are really little, we hear from a lot of young families that are like, I really want to keep a Sabbath. But, you know, there's a challenge when your kids are little and how do you do that? And so as Israelis or Jews have dealt with that challenge of the different stages or different ages of kids, how have mothers and fathers sort of dealt with, yeah, the challenge of trying to rest with the family?
• 31:15
  I think what you have to do is, and it's, you know, it's a child and think these days, because the parents are so much used to having a babysitter and
• 31:31
  with the iPhone, smartphone or iPad or whatever. And now on Shabbat they don't have a babysitter. So on Shabbat parents actually find themselves play games with the kids and are connecting with them much more. And
• 31:51
  We have a bunch of grandchildren and we have more boys than girls. So it's usually the time that if they come to us, it's the time for a basketball players and all kinds of ball plays and a lot of walking and field trips and all these things that,
• 32:13
  because you are not allowed to travel. So you do that. But all that is done between the meals and the going to synagogue. So it's kind of very, very special. I think kids like it because they understand it's special. It's a special time with their parents. They don't have any other time. But I see among my grandchildren different...
• 32:42
  attitude towards it. And I think it depends on how strong the parents
• 32:49
  are exercising or exercising their religion because the kids are the barometer of everything we think and we feel so if the kids feel that it's a bit of a nuisance to the parent so they will ask when is Shabbat over and so on they know they won't open the TV but
• 33:17
  It's hard for them. But if it's life, that's how it works, and it's a law that is above everything, so the kids just accept it. They will just do whatever is needed, and they understand everything.
• 33:36
  really, really little things. If parents help them to fill their time with meaningful activities, with learning the Torah, connecting through games, whatnot, they can understand and then appreciate and then even love something that they, at first they miss, you know, they miss their smartphone, the iPad, looking, you know, watching games, sports, whatnot. But if the parents are successful in,
• 34:03
  delivering the right message kids get it and then it develops within them it's it's not so easy it's not so easy there are a lot of temptations you know outside especially if they have friends who are not observant okay and then they would tell them okay now come on let's play let's do this let's travel there um it's hard but uh again as already mentioned if the parents are strong and uh
• 34:30
  meaningful enough for their kids the kids get it and and accept it and love it and you know what's interesting at different stages you asked when kids get married okay something interesting in our family happened because we come we are Ashkenazi Jews both Orly and I and many of our kids married Svaldik
• 34:52
  juice okay so new traditions came to us you know new dishes that we didn't know about those new songs new blessings new expressions new ways of learning the torah so it's all integrated into our tradition and it's it's really fascinating it's really fabulous
• 35:13
  That's neat. I like what you're saying, because I think a lot of what Americans or the people that we talk to a lot, that they struggle because in America, a Saturday is a day for all the sports games. It's a day to get housework done. It's the day to you're not at work. So you're getting everything done that you didn't get done throughout the week. And for them to think it's like the day people have birthday parties or baby showers and for them to think.
• 35:43
  have to stop doing that or to not go to that party or to, you know, all these things, it's very foreign to them, but many people are willing to try and they, they at least say, well, if it's this close to our family, we'll go to their birthday party, but we're not doing it for friends or for, they have different ways of dealing with that. But I like what you're saying about a lot of it's up to the parents. Right.
• 36:08
  You know, we live in a culture here where everything's open, the stores are open, everyone's driving their car. There's no outside influence saying this is a special day. We should all together close this down. And so I think it's, Yoel, what you were saying about the parents setting the tone and having the place to say this is worth fighting for. This is worth
• 36:38
  sticking we're going to stick by this and try and try to make it happen and the kids coming under that um yeah following that
• 36:46
  The Talmud gives an example. There used to be times and signs for Shabbat. For instance, there is a river, Sambathion mentioned in the Talmud, that it changed, on Shabbat, it changed the course of its flow. It would flow in the reverse. So there were signs of that. And it seems to us many like a legend, but I can tell from my personal experience, it was a few years ago, I visited my friend up in the Galilee.
• 37:15
  And at that time, his son was four years old. And he told me that this boy could sense coming of Shabbat.
• 37:28
  And he would behave differently just a few hours before Shabbat. He would sort of shine. He would feel the presence of Shabbat. And when I was there, it was Friday. I think it was about 1 or 2 p.m. And I saw the boy shining. He was four years old. Nobody told him about Shabbat. It was his internal feeling of presence of Shabbat. So spiritual people can feel that.
• 37:58
  can attest for Shabbat. Yeah. One of the things that's really surprised us in our kind of circles is that virtually everyone that we've seen start Shabbat started to practice it from Saturday night through Sunday. And then we watched as one by one as they...
• 38:18
  as they all independently started to shift to Friday night through Saturday, we just watched this happen. I remember one day with a bunch of our friends who were practicing Shabbat on Sunday and had shifted to Saturday. We all like realized we all had done it independently. And I started to believe that, yeah, is there something, you know, when it says God bless this day, I do think there's something in the presence of the Sabbath and that, that day does matter in some, in some, in some fashion. So that's really interesting. Yeah.
• 38:46
  So one of the questions I had for you guys too is about, so in American culture, there is maybe two multi-generational meals that we do on an annual basis, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. And some people it's just Thanksgiving. And it's a little bit of a joke in our culture because when you only meet once a year, you know, for dinner as a family, it can be a little rough.
• 39:12
  So people are not used to talking and sharing. But in Israel, it's this multigenerational pattern of doing this at least once a month, but sometimes every week, depending on which parts of the extended family come together. What do you think the practice of Shabbat is?
• 39:33
  has done for the Jewish or Israeli family? Like how important is that? How has that impacted the family culture, do you think? It's interesting to ask that in the light of the pandemic that we went through, because
• 39:52
  it was really, really rough for many families, especially with the elderly people, because usually the elderly people are invited to the middle generation, not the younger, but the middle. And for two years that didn't happen. So they didn't have the grandmother or the grandfather in the, around because the family,
• 40:20
  Actually, what happens during the holidays in Israel and Shabbat is that the family is uniting really, really frequently. We get to know each other better, and the cousins and nephews are getting involved, and it's really, really nice, because I don't think that they get this chance in any other situation.
• 40:50
  As we said, they are not coming and sitting across to the TV. They come and they speak or they come or they play together. And during the meal, they are singing together. So it's a whole different culture, as I said.
• 41:08
  Yes, and now in Israel, we have observing Jews. We have like light-observing Jews or non-observing Jews. But what's interesting that even for non-observing Jews, Shabbat is the day they would...
• 41:25
  come to the synagogue, listen and recite the Torah portion on that Shabbat, and they would make Kiddush. Then they can go and watch the football game and whatnot. But still, it gives this opportunity for everyone to feel around Shabbat
• 41:46
  part of our people okay and we even have a saying more than jewish people kept shabbat shabbat kept them as a people so so really it is a social activity it is a unifying day it is a day where we can uh you know become stronger as a family and as people as well
• 42:11
  And a very common question people ask each other, where are you in Shabbat? Or where are you eating on this Shabbat? It's kind of, it's, it resembles the way you approach this Shabbat. Are you alone with your wife or are you going out? Are you going to your parents? It's.
• 42:31
  There's an example I can give you. When I worked in the high-tech industry, I had to travel and meet with the vice president of technology of 3M.
• 42:42
  OK, in Minnesota. So we had some conversations and discussions. It was, you know, to I had to be able to sign a contract with them. And we were supposed to end our meetings on on a Thursday. I had time to fly back to Israel.
• 43:03
  But it was a pretty rough negotiation at that time. So we continued until the very late Thursday, and we decided to meet again on Friday. So what did I do? I tried to find the Rectory of Jewish People. I called Chabad Rabbi and invited me to stay on Shabbat.
• 43:24
  So when I told my colleagues from 3M that I was invited to stay on Shabbat with their family, so they asked me, are they your relatives? I said, no. Did you know them from Israel? I said, no. So they said, how can a stranger invite someone for Shabbat the whole 26 hours to stay in the house?
• 43:47
  And it wasn't strange, but then I realized, yeah, it could appear strange to others, but that's the way we act towards each other. So in Anshadag we also host lonely soldiers or some people who don't have to stay anywhere. So this is very common. And it again demonstrates how it unites us as people.
• 44:07
  It seems like it really cements the the culture of hospitality because I've been in Israel before and I'll be having lunch with somebody I've never met. And, you know, at the end, they'll say, hey, come on over for Shabbat. You know, I've had that experience multiple times. And it is it is an amazing thing to to be inviting people that you don't know or barely know to have this shared experience. And it creates a different kind of culture. That's really beautiful. Nice.
• 44:35
  This is great. Thank you so much for all these insights. This has been really helpful. I don't know if there's anything else that sort of bubbles, bubbling to the surface about the Sabbath that has made it particularly meaningful or any practices you guys want to share before we close up. Well, you know, already mentioned the challah bread as something, again, that smells so, so nicely. And I remember just something, you know, many people in Israel during the pandemic.
• 45:05
  I think the last two or three decades or even more, who were totally, you know, far away from being observed, if you will. So as you spoke about the movement of keeping Shabbat among the Christians in America, so we have movement again of people who didn't know who were distant from that tradition. They're trying now to also keep Shabbat and then, you know, becoming fully religious.
• 45:32
  So one of the rabbis, he used to host many people when he was in India. So, you know, many Israelis, they travel all around the world. And then on Shabbat, they gather, again, even totally unreligious people together with the rabbi.
• 45:50
  And after a couple of such meetings, one person came to this rabbi and told him, okay, I want to become religious. So the rabbi was very happy. So he told him, you think it was your sermons or your talks about the Torah? Yes, they're important. But the most important thing for me was the challah bread of your wife that she baked.
• 46:17
  It was something that moved me so much. That's great.
• 46:23
  Yes. Yeah. There's a special taste of Shabbat that brings you, helps you have that spiritual experience. You know, one of the things that we've really enjoyed and have experienced more as we've kind of reconnected to more Hebrew roots of our faith is everything feels more like, like it's tangible, like smells and food and family and like grounded in the beautiful environment.
• 46:48
  Elements of reality. So I think the Sabbath can really help people experience that. So thank you guys so much for this. I wanted to just take a second and hear about if there's anything that you think our audience might be interested in that you guys are working on. April mentioned with Olpan Orr.
• 47:07
  There's a lot of families we know that do homeschool and that would love to teach their kids Hebrew. I know that, Yoel, you also publish like Torah portion and news. There are all kinds of ways for people to engage with Hebrew at every kind of level and also in meaningful ways. So, yeah, anything that you could let us know about about that?
• 47:30
  Well, there are a couple of things, a couple of new projects that we are doing. One of them is with the ILTV. This is the Israeli International Channel. They broadcast it in America for Jewish people, non-Jewish people. Many Christians are subscribed to their channel. And what we're doing now is we're producing every week a Torah portion that we'll discuss, and we'll bring the insights of that Torah portion
• 47:59
  related to the roots of Hebrew words, the traditions, and various aspects of that. We discuss it in their studio. So they have it on their channel, the IELTS channel, as this Torah portion. So I think it could be interesting for the audience. Then we have... Okay, so you said about people who are homeschooling and teaching their kids.
• 48:27
  So we're actually doing the last 10 years. If you want, we can share the screen and show you. We have lots of e-books. E-books, meaning books that you can get on your computer and open them and study with your kids. And recently, in the last two years, we designed books for little kids. Kindergarten. Kindergarten. Wow.
• 48:55
  and first grade. And it was really amazing because during the pandemic, we got so many letters from parents who said that it saved their kids' education. Oh, wow. Yes. You can really, I think, we think, we did,
• 49:14
  Yeah, we have many letters from parents who, you know, their kids study, let's say, in Jewish school, okay, but the parents don't know Hebrew at all. But with these books, especially with the kindergarten level books, the parents were able to study together with the kids.
• 49:31
  And they actually were able to study the Hebrew alphabet, the initial vocabulary and whatnot. So this is really, for us, fascinating. And as already mentioned, during the COVID time, they were able to learn with the kids, both school teachers and parents. And now we have actually our curricula expands and encompasses the,
• 49:59
  from age four to age 18 for schools in kindergarten. And another thing we kind of understood during those two years, because people didn't come to Israel and they,
• 50:11
  all our courses in Israel were shut off. Actually, our offices in Tel Aviv are closed. Yeah, we had closed those. But we designed courses that a person can take the course and have the teacher with him. It's like a digital course. You know, there are lots of digital courses, but what we did is we have teachers who teach it and study with you.
• 50:39
  and show you the videos. We have lots of videos. So they show you the video and you speak with the teacher and then you exercise and then you record yourself. It's a whole, you all found out a platform to do it on. So we have that from the total beginner level to a very high. And recently what happened is that many, there is probably a movement among schools that,
• 51:07
  try to teach Hebrew to their kids, but they don't find a teacher. They don't. So, so what we had suggested is take this course, put a teacher in class. The teacher doesn't have to know any Hebrew.
• 51:25
  They just have to open the computer and the kids will work with it because it's very structured. So it's really cute. We wanted them to film it because the whole class is watching the teacher, our teacher. Oh, yeah.
• 51:42
  speak with her and they do it's like like you came to Israel and did it here so it's bringing the teacher there to class and they have all kinds of exercise to do it's hybrid kind of a way of reaching out to people all over the world through a
• 52:02
  a hybrid courses. Yeah, we realized that unlike many other subjects where people nowadays are able to study on their own, with languages, you need to have a partner, you need to speak, you need to listen, so that's what we did. We combined the self-study, you know, course or portion with the guided portion from our teachers. And then they have to record themselves or to video themselves,
• 52:26
  at the end of each session. So it's really nice. They feel engaged. They feel as if they are, and it's really, it's one of the newest things.
• 52:38
  Oh, that's great. That sounds really neat. Yes. Well, I love that you guys are always on the cutting edge of where technology meets language acquisition. And so I can't recommend enough to you guys that if you're interested in learning Hebrew or seeing your kids learn Hebrew, check out Olpan Or and what Yoel and Orly are doing. So thank you guys so much for taking the time tonight. Thank you for hosting us and Mazalto on the wedding, on the coming wedding. Thank you very much.
• 53:09
  Thank you for listening to the Family Teams podcast. If you're enjoying this content or have learned something new, please make sure to leave a rating and review and share with a friend. To stay up to date with our events, new content and products, you can follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Family Teams.