Latest / Tribe and Tribulations With Julia Makowsky / Finding Hashem Everywhere: Faigy Blumstein on Purpose, Gratitude & the Thank You Hashem Movement

Transcript

Finding Hashem Everywhere: Faigy Blumstein on Purpose, Gratitude & the Thank You Hashem Movement · Tribe and Tribulations With Julia Makowsky

• 0:00
  If I'm not in this care world, like a kohal experience, and I'm just doing work, then what's my purpose here?
• 0:06
  When everything's lined up and everything's working, you don't need meaning.
• 0:10
  It's working, it's clicking, it's good.
• 0:12
  I almost felt like I didn't have an anchor, and I think that's where Fasida's grounded me, and it's like, Figi, you can find Hashem everywhere.
• 0:21
  He's with you when you're getting your kids off.
• 0:23
  He's with you when you're at work with your job that's not necessarily Torah-related.
• 0:26
  Yeah.
• 0:27
  And don't think because you're not sitting in front of a sefer and doing Kirib 24 hours a day and hosting Shabbatones and going to Poland and Prague and bringing people to concentration camps.
• 0:35
  Don't think for one second that you're less than because every single thing that you're doing is worthy of having Hashem sitting right next to you.
• 0:44
  Welcome back to Tribe and Tribal Relations.
• 0:46
  I am Julia Makowski, and I am so happy you are here.
• 0:49
  Today we are joined by Fagy Blumstein, who,
• 0:54
  You might know her from all of her incredible work with Thank You Hashem, but she is so much more than just the queen behind the mission.
• 1:05
  Feige has a full team behind her, but she is one of the many voices of our generation who are bringing Torah and Hasidus to the world.
• 1:16
  And we are so grateful you are here.
• 1:19
  Thank you so much for having me.
• 1:20
  This place is beautiful.
• 1:22
  It's my greatest pleasure.
• 1:23
  I could stay here all day.
• 1:24
  Good.
• 1:24
  Well, you can't because we only have a certain amount of time, but I'm so glad you are here.
• 1:29
  Fakie, tell me a little bit about yourself.
• 1:33
  Tell me about what people don't know.
• 1:36
  Whoa.
• 1:37
  Okay, so where do we start?
• 1:38
  Do we, like, go all the way back?
• 1:40
  So, for those of you that don't know, Figgy is not only a mother and runs parts of TYH...
• 1:50
  In general, she's also a school psychologist.
• 1:53
  She is also a mom.
• 1:56
  She is also a Tanya teacher, a Hasidus teacher.
• 2:00
  Like she has so many roles.
• 2:01
  So we're only going to focus on a few of them here because we could be here all day otherwise.
• 2:06
  Right.
• 2:07
  Right.
• 2:09
  So talk to me a little bit about how you first started in your journey to Hasidus, to Kirov, to all the things.
• 2:20
  Because honestly, I so align with a lot of the work you do.
• 2:24
  It's very moving for me.
• 2:26
  Oh, I'm so happy.
• 2:27
  I'm like so happy to hear when like people are aligned with it because I'm like sometimes I think like we're just doing this like in our basement and like putting out content.
• 2:34
  And then like when I hear from everybody like they're growing and they're learning with this, it's like like it feels so good.
• 2:40
  The best.
• 2:41
  So I would say like my whole like journey, I guess, like in the cure of outreach world first started when I got married.
• 2:48
  I always was like.
• 2:50
  I don't know, I just always say I was the mora.
• 2:52
  I was the ultimate teacher.
• 2:54
  I didn't take good notes, but I would get photocopy notes from my friends, and then I would call everybody over and be like, come over, I'm going to teach it to you.
• 3:01
  And that, I found, was the only way that I absorbed and integrated information was by me teaching it.
• 3:07
  So I would like...
• 3:08
  I could stay in the front of a mirror, but like, or I could just invite my friends over and we had like study parties.
• 3:12
  And then from there, when I met my husband and he, when we were dating and I like totally fell in love with his family.
• 3:19
  Like I joke sometimes that I married him for his family because like I have four brothers, no sisters, and he has six sisters.
• 3:25
  And I'm just like, I'm looking for sisters.
• 3:27
  You found them.
• 3:28
  I found them.
• 3:29
  They're amazing.
• 3:30
  And my father-in-law was, he's like amazing, Rabbi Blumstein.
• 3:34
  He was like very involved in Kyiv and he was like in gateways and going to these like programs.
• 3:38
  And like my husband was like, I think I'm kind of leading in this direction.
• 3:41
  I'm like, could you tell me more?
• 3:43
  This sounds amazing.
• 3:44
  And we got married and my husband was part of Rabbi Berkowitz's kolal, the Jerusalem kolal.
• 3:49
  And they basically like train you to like go out into like...
• 3:53
  Arba Kamposah, go all around and spread Torah.
• 3:56
  And it was kind of like a commitment.
• 3:57
  Like you had to work for three years in Kiruv.
• 3:59
  And I was loving it.
• 4:01
  They had programming for the women.
• 4:02
  They were teaching us kala classes.
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  And it was like a whole new experience.
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  Like I was living in Israel.
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  And at the same time, I was in college while I was in Israel.
• 4:10
  I came back a little bit, did my internship.
• 4:12
  And we got very lucky to be able to work in the city.
• 4:17
  And we didn't have to, like, go to Timbuktu.
• 4:19
  And we taught in the Jewish Enrichment Center, the JEC.
• 4:23
  And it was, like, it's funny because, like, back then we lived in Brooklyn.
• 4:26
  But, like, the whole, like, Hevra was, like, five towns.
• 4:29
  I don't know if you know them.
• 4:30
  Like, Zalman Mindel, Matt Mindel, Ari Sashin.
• 4:33
  Like, he has a shul now.
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  And it was just, yeah, I mean, like we worked with them.
• 4:39
  They were like the best people.
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  And it was a whole new world for me.
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  Like I had two little kids.
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  I was working alongside with my husband.
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  We were teaching in the city classes.
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  We would take the train together, drive in, do trips to Israel, Poland, Prague.
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  And I was 22 years old and I'm like teaching these girls.
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  But like it also felt like I was like gaining friends, gaining experience.
• 5:02
  And...
• 5:03
  It was very much, I would say, like...
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  I mean, those, by the way, became like my best friends.
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  Like those girls, the students, like they weren't like students.
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  They really became my friends.
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  We all became very close.
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  They used to come for Shabbos.
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  Our house was like open.
• 5:16
  It was like, you know, Avram Avinu's tent.
• 5:18
  Like it was like people would come Friday night, Shabbos day.
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  We would do Shabbatones, doing these trips.
• 5:25
  And I felt like I was like in my jam.
• 5:27
  I'm like, this is where I want to be.
• 5:28
  My mother and my father, they were so supportive.
• 5:31
  They were always babysitting, watching the kids because like we would have these like late nights and teaching.
• 5:34
  Yeah.
• 5:36
  And I felt like so comfortable, like for the first time, like in my own skin, I'm like, I think this is what I was here in this world for.
• 5:42
  Like I would have like I would like walk out of like a class and I would be like on such a high connecting to other people.
• 5:49
  But like totally not from like with the Hasidic lens, like at all.
• 5:52
  It was like Shabbos, kosher.
• 5:55
  Like I would like discover like Manus Freeman classes.
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  And I'm like, wait, who is this?
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  Like, this is amazing.
• 6:00
  Like I've never heard of it.
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  And like maybe back then like Chabad was taboo.
• 6:04
  Like I didn't know of it.
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  Like for me, it was like...
• 6:08
  The only association for me with Chabad was like the Rebbe.
• 6:13
  Right.
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  Or like Mashiach.
• 6:14
  Right.
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  That's how I also understood it.
• 6:17
  It's not... Yeah.
• 6:17
  Like I didn't fully understand it, but I was like, I'm loving these teachings.
• 6:21
  And I used to listen to Manus Freeman classes all the time and I had to prepare.
• 6:24
  But...
• 6:24
  It was kind of something like I was doing alongside my husband.
• 6:27
  And then at a certain point, like seven years in, my husband was like, OK, I'm not sure this is like sustainable for like a family with like four kids.
• 6:34
  You know, we used to go to the city for Shabbos, for Yontif, Rosh Hashanah.
• 6:38
  We like spent in the Carlton Hotel.
• 6:40
  Like it was like we were doing the high holy days, like all the services.
• 6:45
  Were you doing it with Gateways?
• 6:46
  Was that a Gateways program?
• 6:47
  No.
• 6:47
  So it was.
• 6:48
  So it was the Jewish Enrichment Center.
• 6:49
  It was the JC.
• 6:50
  Then it like changed into like Olami, Manhattan.
• 6:52
  There was like a few changes.
• 6:54
  It was Ma'ar, Manhattan, then Olami.
• 6:56
  Now it's officially Olami.
• 6:57
  It's like on 13th Street.
• 6:58
  It was like my home for 15 years.
• 7:00
  It was like I was there twice a week in the city.
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  And then like as life just got like a little bit more, you know, complicated and busy, I was always like every night, like the Monday nights became a little bit more stressful.
• 7:11
  And I'm like, I'm going to the city.
• 7:12
  This is a lot.
• 7:14
  And at the same time, my husband had like left and then he started his own company.
• 7:22
  Twillery in our backyard in North Wedmere, we were living.
• 7:25
  It all started there and with a few of his friends and they started like working.
• 7:30
  And he was also like on his own journey because like.
• 7:33
  when you're in the Kyiv world, like full time, and like you're teaching and you're connected like to people, and then all of a sudden, like you're just doing everyday business.
• 7:39
  It's like, are you a second class citizen?
• 7:42
  Like, are you still a rabbi?
• 7:43
  Like, I remember, like, we would like apply our kids to school and it was like Rabbi Yelling Malach and Figi Blumstein.
• 7:48
  And it's like, but now he's doing this.
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  So I think that's kind of like where his journey to Hasidah started.
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  And he started like seeking out like,
• 7:56
  the Toe River of Moshe Weinberger and like he wrote Yossi Zakotinsky.
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  He would like go to Queens and he was like learning and growing.
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  And my husband was also is a composer and a songwriter.
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  And like he was doing that kind of like on the side as like business.
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  It was like kind of like his side hustle, but he loved everything about our house was always music.
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  And then like during this like Tukufa, I would say that like where he left the Kira world and was working,
• 8:21
  it was almost like there was like there was no music like written in our house.
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  And like I was used to like singing all the time, music, everything happening.
• 8:27
  And it like it almost like it's like stopped, like because it was like, wait, if I'm not in this cure world, if I'm not in this world of like learning Torah, like, you know, almost like a Kolel experience and I'm just doing work, then like what's my purpose here?
• 8:43
  Right.
• 8:43
  I think a lot of people can relate to that idea because, listen, I always thought that I was going to go into Kirif.
• 8:50
  Really?
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  I mean, like you're doing Kirif.
• 8:52
  Well, that's exactly how I feel is that I really thought when I was Shidduch dating that that was I wanted a learner earner, but I wanted an open home with a revolving door.
• 9:02
  And I do have that.
• 9:04
  I have an open home with a revolving door.
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  It just looks a little different.
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  And I think that when you change the lens and you like from what the definition is of what you thought key roof was going to be, a lot more can happen.
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  And I think that it's so powerful to recognize that, like, I had the foundation, you had the foundation of these years.
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  But then you're transitioning into something even bigger.
• 9:33
  Whoa, I kind of feel like that's what happened.
• 9:37
  Yeah, that's very, very cool.
• 9:39
  I think that, so then like my husband started like seeking out these like all of like, like I would say like neo-Hasidist classes and like learning and shiurim.
• 9:48
  And I was like, wait, what is this?
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  Like, where are you, what are you learning?
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  Where are you growing from?
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  And I was always, like, I always say this, like I was like four years behind and like he was going to shiurim and I was just like putting the kids to bed or like I was just doing my schoolwork and I was just like- You're in survival mode.
• 10:03
  Yeah.
• 10:03
  Oh, such survival mode.
• 10:05
  Whoa, like 10 years.
• 10:06
  Like my 20s was survival mode.
• 10:08
  It was amazing.
• 10:09
  But I was just like, yeah, it was like I had four kids by the time I was 28.
• 10:13
  I was like working full time.
• 10:14
  Twins, girl.
• 10:15
  You have twins?
• 10:16
  No, I said you and I are twins.
• 10:18
  Yeah, oh.
• 10:18
  Yeah.
• 10:20
  And then I'm like working full time for the Board of Ed.
• 10:23
  I'm teaching in the city two nights a week.
• 10:25
  But like I almost felt like I didn't have like an anchor.
• 10:29
  And I think that's where like Hasidus like grounded me.
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  And it's like, Figi, like you can find Hashem.
• 10:36
  everywhere.
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  It's not just in the hours of like seven to nine when you're teaching in the city, Hashem is with you everywhere.
• 10:42
  He's with you when you're getting your kids off.
• 10:44
  He's with you when you're at work with your job that's not necessarily Torah related.
• 10:48
  And that's kind of where like I fell into this.
• 10:51
  And it started, I would say, with like Brussels of Hasidus.
• 10:54
  Okay, so I am not as familiar with chasidas.
• 10:58
  I'm not going to lie.
• 10:59
  I'm not going to pretend that I know.
• 11:01
  I don't.
• 11:02
  I really don't because I grew up in like a very like Litvish environment where you just like followed what was told.
• 11:08
  And it's true.
• 11:10
  And I think that one of the things that really drew me to you, I met Fahy at a bar mitzvah recently actually.
• 11:17
  And I said, I'm like, but I feel like I know you.
• 11:20
  I feel like our city, I met you and back Lawrence one Shabbos.
• 11:23
  And I told my husband, I'm like, she's so cool.
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  I follow her.
• 11:27
  By the way.
• 11:27
  Thank you.
• 11:28
  I'm not as cool.
• 11:29
  It was like by Barrett.
• 11:29
  It was like over there.
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  We always do our Shabbos walks over there.
• 11:31
  Oh, I love that.
• 11:32
  By the way, I'm from out of town.
• 11:35
  And one of the things that I always tell people is like, you'll know I'm from out of town because I say hello and introduce myself to every person on the street.
• 11:42
  So you're just another example of me being so out of town.
• 11:45
  I love that.
• 11:47
  When you were in this sort of, I would like to call it the intermission.
• 11:54
  Yeah.
• 11:55
  There's like a gap.
• 11:56
  There's a gap.
• 11:57
  There's intermission.
• 11:58
  We actually like name it.
• 11:59
  We call it 781.
• 12:00
  That was our address of the house that we lived in during that time.
• 12:03
  And I'm always like, there was no music in 781.
• 12:07
  Oh my gosh.
• 12:08
  But it's the best house.
• 12:09
  Do you think that you were searching for meaning during that time or you were just trying to survive the day to day?
• 12:18
  I was really trying to survive the day to day.
• 12:20
  I think that that's what gets you to search.
• 12:24
  Like when everything, like when everything's lined up and everything's working, you don't need meaning.
• 12:29
  It just, it's working, it's clicking, it's good.
• 12:31
  But like I always say, like a good car cry will get you.
• 12:34
  So like I used to work in the Bronx and I was like, oh, I had like three hours in the car every single day.
• 12:39
  And I would just be like contemplating my life.
• 12:41
  I'm like, is this what I want for my life?
• 12:43
  Like,
• 12:44
  you know, and I would think about it and I would find meaning in that because I would be like, OK, let me listen to a share.
• 12:49
  Let me listen to a podcast.
• 12:50
  At least I have car time for that.
• 12:51
  Like I can learn.
• 12:53
  So like finding Hashem in empty spaces definitely brought me closer to this Hasidus.
• 12:58
  So I relate to that deeply because I say my my most important,
• 13:05
  Connective time is when I'm driving to and fro from basketball or for whatever.
• 13:11
  And I'm literally just – You're a big sports mom.
• 13:13
  I feel like you are.
• 13:13
  I am a huge sports mom.
• 13:15
  I spend my entire life basically like – I'm like I know I have a full-time job and I know that this also looks like a full-time job.
• 13:22
  But really my full-time job is basketball and hockey and football and all the other things that I – So good.
• 13:29
  It's great for them.
• 13:30
  It's great for me too.
• 13:31
  I love it.
• 13:32
  But I do think that they're –
• 13:34
  If you really believe that God is everywhere, he really is everywhere.
• 13:38
  And you can find him in the little moments and you could find him in the big moments.
• 13:42
  But I truly connect in those little quiet moments because there's so many things going on.
• 13:50
  that people tend to get pushed away by religion because it's so overwhelming.
• 13:56
  There's a thousand rules and there's, you have to do things at a certain time and you have to do things.
• 14:01
  And one of the things that resonates so deeply is this idea that if God is everywhere, he's in you, he's in the car, he's in the mall, he's wherever you want him to be.
• 14:13
  And I think that
• 14:16
  The movement, and it really is a movement that Thank You Hashem has created, is that in those moments where you – it might seem frivolous or it might seem like you're doing something else, you can bring God into everything you do.
• 14:33
  And that's really what it has at least connected to me.
• 14:37
  Literally like the balas Hashem Tov.
• 14:39
  Like you're teaching it right now.
• 14:40
  Everything that you're saying is so, so true.
• 14:43
  It's like a lot of times people will think like the Hasidist movement came just like for the simple people or for like the Pasht people or the people who couldn't necessarily like...
• 14:51
  you know, didn't have access to like all of like the Svarim and all the teachings.
• 14:56
  But the truth is that the Baal Shem Tov came to reveal and it came at a time where, like, if you look, I always say this, like, if you look at the time that we say, like, the world is going to exist for 6,000 years.
• 15:06
  I know sometimes I get a little scared from that because I'm like, is there an Armageddon happening at the end?
• 15:10
  Right.
• 15:10
  But I've recently learned that actually it's going to be 10,000 years.
• 15:13
  Yes, because there's an intermediate area where like Mashiach came, but it's not really.
• 15:20
  You know what I'm saying?
• 15:21
  Literally, my brother-in-law gave a full PowerPoint presentation on exactly this during the bris of his son.
• 15:28
  I'm not exaggerating.
• 15:29
  Is it recorded?
• 15:30
  It is recorded, and I can send it to you.
• 15:33
  I can send it to you.
• 15:33
  So like anybody else who would like it.
• 15:35
  So what what like I've learned when I first so when I first started trying to learn this, I was like grasping at straws.
• 15:41
  I was like, OK, you know, a lot of car cries.
• 15:43
  My husband is going off, like learning all the shirim.
• 15:46
  I'm like educated, but like I totally don't know this area.
• 15:49
  I'm like, what's happening here?
• 15:51
  And then I started learning and like just really understanding like what the Belshazzar came down to the world to do and that his neshama came down, obviously, at a moment.
• 15:59
  time where it's like what we refer to as like ikvisa de Mashiach, like we're mamish at the end.
• 16:04
  That's actually one of our songs, we're mamish at the end.
• 16:06
  And that as the world gets closer and closer to like through Yemosah Mashiach and gets closer to Mashiach, there's going to be this revelation of light that's going to remind us back what it was all the way in the beginning, when everything, and by the way, like I've learned this recently from Rabbi Yassi Zakatinsky, that like Hasidus comes to teach us that nothing has changed from the beginning of time.
• 16:25
  Like it looks like we have trains and it looks like we have cars, but like really everything is all like what you said, like Enomovado.
• 16:31
  It's all Hashem.
• 16:32
  Hashem is everywhere.
• 16:33
  Don't for one second think that Hashem is more removed because now we have trains and cars and, you know, self-driving cars and we could do everything on our own.
• 16:40
  No, really, everything is really from the beginning.
• 16:42
  And if you look at time, it's not linear.
• 16:44
  It's cyclical.
• 16:46
  We're coming back closer towards the end.
• 16:48
  And this is what the world needed.
• 16:49
  This light that the world needed, like the light of the Baal Shem Tov, came to reveal that Eino Malvado, Hashem is in everything.
• 16:56
  And don't think because you're not sitting in front of a sefer and doing Kirib 24 hours a day and hosting Shabbatons and going to Poland and Prague and bringing people to concentration camps.
• 17:05
  Don't think for one second that you're less than because every single thing that you're doing is worthy of having Hashem sitting right next to you.
• 17:12
  How do we bring somebody closer to,
• 17:16
  to Hashem without all of the other stuff, because I've also struggled with that.
• 17:24
  I've also been in a point, it was how it's your closeness to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and living every single moment, like for your purpose.
• 17:32
  That's really like what gives Hashem nachas, when you're fulfilling every single thing that you're doing, and when you're using all your talents and using all your co-hosts to make this world a better place and just more like reveal Hashem more and more.
• 17:44
  I think that one of the biggest markers for being a real chasid is that the more you learn, the more humble you become and the more obviously strong you have.
• 17:51
  So the more love for you is in.
• 17:52
  So if you find that you're learning and you're growing and you're teaching, but your chest is puffed up and you're like, I'm the best.
• 17:58
  I'm the cure of master.
• 17:58
  I'm the T.Y.H.
• 17:59
  queen or whatever it is, whatever you want to call it.
• 18:02
  Then.
• 18:03
  then you're not getting closer to our katech barjo.
• 18:07
  That's like a voodoo zara.
• 18:07
  That's like serving the other side when it's like I am the best.
• 18:10
  But the second that you realize that you can learn from every single person.
• 18:14
  And these people, these girls that I've met, and I had the best time learning, like working with them.
• 18:18
  I was like 22 years old.
• 18:20
  doing these like birthright trips, like with all these girls, like, oh, it was like amazing.
• 18:24
  But thinking that I'm better than them because I went to the Siaco system is so wrong.
• 18:28
  And realizing that I can learn so much more from them.
• 18:31
  And I think that having those two markers, and this was brought down from the Kamarna, that if you have these two markers, you know, you're doing something right.
• 18:38
  If you're becoming more humble, and you're loving more people, it's like you have such a love for other people.
• 18:43
  And then it's like, of course,
• 18:44
  of course I'm not going to worry if you do this and you do that.
• 18:47
  I do think that there's this interesting dichotomy because on the one hand, right, we are trying to spread light, right?
• 18:56
  We, we are trying to bring people closer to Hashem.
• 19:01
  On the other hand, there's a lot of people within the community who feel pushed away.
• 19:08
  Right?
• 19:09
  So we,
• 19:11
  The reason why I even started the podcast was to make sure that everybody feels seen.
• 19:17
  So whether I have somebody secular sitting in the chair or somebody who, like, values Klesitis, it doesn't make a difference.
• 19:23
  I really just feel like you are a Jewish neshama.
• 19:27
  Yes.
• 19:28
  And I love you because you're here.
• 19:30
  And I think that...
• 19:33
  You're right about the boxes and you're right about all of these things.
• 19:35
  But in society, we do have boxes and we have community standards and we have all these things and we can pretend we don't, but we do.
• 19:42
  So I always say that my one job is it doesn't matter what box you're in.
• 19:47
  My only job is to love you.
• 19:49
  Yeah.
• 19:50
  And that's it.
• 19:50
  And I think that... And you should know that, like, I feel like we live, like, thank you, Hashem, we live in a community, like, in the five towns.
• 19:56
  We're living in the community for, like, 15 years.
• 19:58
  And I'm like, I feel like almost...
• 20:02
  I don't know, maybe I can say this.
• 20:03
  There are no boxes.
• 20:04
  It's like everybody does their own thing.
• 20:06
  And there's such...
• 20:07
  There's, like, the community and the shuls and there...
• 20:12
  So I think that you are special and that you don't see the boxes.
• 20:16
  There are definitely boxes.
• 20:17
  And I know people will feel that there are.
• 20:20
  I don't because I've...
• 20:23
  I've stopped.
• 20:24
  See your chassid because you don't see the boxes.
• 20:26
  I don't see the boxes because I don't fall into one.
• 20:30
  Right.
• 20:30
  And I think because I don't fall into that one for a long time, that made me feel insecure and made me feel uncomfortable.
• 20:37
  But as time has gone on, I've realized I'm not going to fit into a box ever.
• 20:42
  There are boxes.
• 20:43
  But you know what?
• 20:44
  I'll be the lid.
• 20:44
  I'll be the lid.
• 20:45
  Oh, okay.
• 20:46
  I'll be the lid.
• 20:47
  You'll stop them.
• 20:48
  Meaning like you can be in the box if you choose to and I'll open it and close it.
• 20:54
  But the choice is to let the light in and the darkness out and that's it.
• 21:00
  And that's all I can do.
• 21:03
  I would love for you to tell me or take me a little bit on the journey of how Thank You Hashem really started.
• 21:10
  Because...
• 21:12
  Honestly, I did a lot.
• 21:13
  Do you know the story?
• 21:14
  No.
• 21:14
  Oh, my gosh.
• 21:15
  I really don't because I will say I went online to, like, do a little research.
• 21:20
  Can't find it.
• 21:21
  Cannot find how we went from two brothers, like, figuring out that they like Hasidus to, like, the movement we have now and clothing and songs and full record company and do all the things.
• 21:36
  Like, how did we get from there to here?
• 21:38
  Right.
• 21:38
  Okay.
• 21:38
  So, first of all, Hashem was, like...
• 21:41
  He like I feel very grateful to be part of like the T.Y.H.
• 21:45
  Like I don't see it for one second like egotistical or whatever.
• 21:49
  Yes, we have and like that's amazing.
• 21:51
  But like Hashem was like, I think we're ready.
• 21:54
  I think we're ready.
• 21:55
  So it started about, I would say, eight years ago.
• 21:59
  A little bit more, maybe like between eight, nine years ago in Svas.
• 22:03
  Okay.
• 22:03
  So like, remember, my husband's on this journey, like seeking out like Reb Yasi and Ramosh Weinberger and like all this Torah.
• 22:10
  And he's like trying to like, he's literally like grasping at it, like bringing people into it and like schlepping people.
• 22:16
  Like I remember like on Tisha B'Av, he's like, we're going to Queens to a share.
• 22:18
  And it's like, who does that?
• 22:20
  You're like, dude, it's Tisha B'Av.
• 22:21
  It's Tisha B'Av.
• 22:21
  Like, let's watch a Holocaust movie, you know, like.
• 22:23
  Yeah.
• 22:24
  Isn't that what you're supposed to do?
• 22:27
  Until I remember finding myself, like, at Aish, one Tish above, and I was like, wait, like, there was, like, most of my work was, like, playing music, and there was, like, songs, and it was connecting, and kumzites, I was like, I like this, like, this is something.
• 22:40
  So they ended up in Svas, which is, by the way, like, the hometown of the Arizal.
• 22:45
  Have you been to Svas?
• 22:46
  Yeah.
• 22:46
  Yes.
• 22:47
  Do you love it?
• 22:47
  You for sure love it.
• 22:48
  So I'll tell you, like, all of this is a little new to me.
• 22:51
  So, like, spot to me.
• 22:52
  And I'm going to do a little PSA.
• 22:55
  Okay.
• 22:55
  Chesitas to me seems a little woo-woo.
• 22:58
  Right.
• 22:58
  Okay?
• 22:59
  And as somebody who's, like, a little bit more, like, I take off my shoes to ground myself, the woo-woo is new for me.
• 23:08
  And it's intimidating for those of us who are, like, a little more...
• 23:11
  You know, like, so spot to me has always been like a little bit like trippy.
• 23:17
  Okay.
• 23:20
  but like the interesting brother that we don't necessarily talk about.
• 23:25
  Okay?
• 23:26
  And that's okay.
• 23:27
  The one who's wearing a scarf.
• 23:28
  Yes, and you're like, you're cool, but like I don't think I'm cool enough.
• 23:31
  Right.
• 23:31
  I don't think I'm cool enough to like, like I'm insecure.
• 23:35
  I am not singing at the top of my lungs.
• 23:36
  What's your call when you like bring someone into like a sorority?
• 23:39
  Oh, recruitment.
• 23:40
  Yes.
• 23:41
  So like we'll recruit you.
• 23:42
  Okay.
• 23:42
  Okay.
• 23:42
  By the way, I really do think like Hashem is what I like.
• 23:45
  I mean, Thank You Hashem is like literally like Hasidus light.
• 23:47
  It's approachable.
• 23:48
  It's approachable.
• 23:49
  It's approachable, Chasitas.
• 23:51
  And it's like, okay, we're cool.
• 23:53
  We're the cool cousin, but we're not going to freak you out with the woo-woo too much.
• 23:59
  Right.
• 23:59
  Oh, my gosh.
• 24:00
  This is so funny.
• 24:01
  Because, like, my husband always has to remind me.
• 24:03
  He's like, Figgy, not everybody gets it.
• 24:05
  I'm like, they don't want to go to Repshila?
• 24:07
  Like, they want to go to the south of France?
• 24:08
  Like, why wouldn't you go to that?
• 24:09
  I did both.
• 24:10
  You did both.
• 24:11
  I'm not going to lie.
• 24:11
  Like, I enjoy a south of France, and I also enjoy going to a caver.
• 24:17
  Like, I did on Tishabov go to the Owella.
• 24:19
  Like, this is what I enjoy doing.
• 24:21
  Okay.
• 24:22
  And I think, like, balance is important.
• 24:24
  It's 100%.
• 24:25
  I'm like, what do you say to the people that say that thank you Hashem's a cult?
• 24:29
  Right.
• 24:29
  It's because it...
• 24:32
  It could be.
• 24:32
  It's a really beautiful...
• 24:33
  Right, it sounds like it's beautiful.
• 24:34
  But the whole...
• 24:35
  But here's, like, there are many, like, foundational teachings in Hasidus.
• 24:39
  Like, I should have come with, like, vocabulary words.
• 24:41
  Because, like, vocabulary cards.
• 24:42
  Because, like, so one of them is, for example, this idea of ratzavashov.
• 24:45
  That just, like...
• 24:47
  like a candle, right?
• 24:48
  It's always like reaching up.
• 24:49
  It's always flickering up.
• 24:50
  And it looks almost like if you would stare at a candle, you would think that like the flame just wants to go up.
• 24:56
  But if it would just go up, then it would be extinguished.
• 24:58
  So it has to remember as much as it wants to go up, it has to be tethered down here.
• 25:02
  So when it comes to learning any concepts in Hasidus, you have to know that there's like, you can go up or as you say, like the woo-woo, like you can have this like moment of elevation or like you can feel transcendent, but the ability to come back down and
• 25:15
  to this world is the most important because like the whole premise of Hasidahs, one of the big premises is like that Hashkot Shepar who wanted a dirbetachtonim.
• 25:23
  Like he wanted to be down here.
• 25:25
  He didn't want us just ascending and like meditating and monks and like people who are just transcendent, fasting, all of that.
• 25:32
  Like we, like Hasidah didn't do it right.
• 25:34
  Like they have meatboards, right?
• 25:36
  Like they have like food and platters and they also value Gashmias because when you value the Gashmias with God,
• 25:43
  Being able to go up, you bring it back down.
• 25:45
  So you appreciate it.
• 25:46
  So I understand.
• 25:48
  And by the way, that's why there's not just one element of tzvahs.
• 25:52
  You know there's this idea that there's four elements of the world and they're connected to four cities.
• 25:55
  So tzvahs is air.
• 25:56
  So if you spend too much time in tzvahs, and by the way, tzvahs is in the north connected to the air, it's too much up there.
• 26:02
  You also have to go down to Yerushalayim.
• 26:03
  You have to ground yourself.
• 26:04
  You have to go to Hebron.
• 26:05
  Hebron is earth and Tveria is water and Yerushalayim is fire.
• 26:09
  You can't just be one of the elements.
• 26:10
  You have to be of all four.
• 26:12
  So within our lives, like we have six days of the week and then we have Shabbos.
• 26:16
  Like the reason, like, right, we are like, oh, we wouldn't be able to survive without it.
• 26:20
  But Hashem is teaching us that like, and by the way, the neshamos on Shabbos, the neshamos when we're longer here in this physical world, could even transcend higher on Shabbos.
• 26:26
  So Shabbos is the greatest and the highest of elevation.
• 26:29
  But guess what?
• 26:30
  Sunday comes and you have to go back to work.
• 26:32
  So the balance in Hasidus is like very, very important.
• 26:37
  Does that help you understand Sfas also?
• 26:39
  Like, I want to be, I need a summer home in Sfas.
• 26:41
  Like, I don't think I could do Sfas all the time.
• 26:43
  But Sfas has unbelievable Shabbos energy.
• 26:46
  Like, that's where L'Chadodi was written.
• 26:48
  Like, in the 1500s.
• 26:49
  Like, mysticism started there.
• 26:51
  It really, really started before that with Sfas.
• 26:56
  in Meiron with Rabbi Shem Ravai Yochai, and he wrote the Zohar, and that was hidden.
• 27:00
  And it wasn't able to be interpreted or understood until the Arizal came out, and he kind of codified it with Rabbi Chaim Vital.
• 27:06
  So there was a whole codification of it, and then it started becoming practical.
• 27:10
  The Baal Shem Tov in the 1600s, and the 1700s and 1800s with Rabbi Nachman and the Alter Rebbe, they fleshed it out more to make it practical.
• 27:19
  So I'm going to equate this to therapy versus coaching in my world, because...
• 27:26
  Therapy, you understand the concepts and the feelings you're dealing with.
• 27:31
  And then coaching is the practical application of what you're doing.
• 27:37
  And that's why I've been shifting a little more towards coaching because you need both.
• 27:41
  You need the feelings and understanding, but you also need...
• 27:50
  goals and direction and things.
• 27:53
  And that's also how the movement, let's say, of Hasidists, the whole Hasidist movement actually happened because there was practicalities to take away from it.
• 28:01
  In order for any revolution to actually be groundbreaking, it has to have leaders.
• 28:07
  It has to have a system to follow it.
• 28:09
  So talk to me about your movement and your system.
• 28:12
  And I know it started in Svah, but what happened after that?
• 28:15
  So it started in Svah, obviously with the Kaver of the Arizal.
• 28:18
  My husband and his brother and like a whole Hevra, Mikey Moss, like great people, like really just like people who wanted to grow and learn, find themselves in Svah for Shabbos.
• 28:28
  None of the food that they ordered came out.
• 28:30
  I know this comes down to food.
• 28:32
  They ordered a bunch of food.
• 28:33
  A Jewish chef.
• 28:33
  The guy didn't, right?
• 28:34
  The guy delivered the wrong thing.
• 28:36
  He ended up having to pick up more food.
• 28:37
  And when they said, like, you know, the order is not right, his response was like, thank you, Hashem.
• 28:42
  And they're like, yeah, but, like, we don't have any schnitzel.
• 28:45
  And he's like, thank you, Hashem.
• 28:46
  And then whatever, they went and they got more food.
• 28:48
  You know, they went to the mikvah.
• 28:49
  They come back.
• 28:50
  They had the most incredible, incredible Shabbos.
• 28:52
  happens to be I was in Yerushalayim that Shabbos because I was still working for the Kirib organization and I was leading a trip.
• 28:58
  So I'm in Yerushalayim in the city of fire.
• 29:00
  He's in Yerushalayim in the city of air.
• 29:02
  He's in Svah, yeah.
• 29:02
  And they're having this unbelievable Shabbos.
• 29:05
  I mean, if you spend time in Svahs, like you have like the Ka'ubach Shul and you have just the Kedusha of the Mkubalim.
• 29:10
  Like that was the artist colony.
• 29:12
  So all of a sudden you have like my husband and his brothers who are very artistic and very creative feeding off that energy and they bring it home.
• 29:22
  Um, actually they went, they also had this experience.
• 29:24
  They went that Mata Shabbos to this like cave near Mehron and they heard like this song of like Shamati.
• 29:30
  Um, it ended up becoming one of our songs, like take us home, but it was just, it was a very, very uplifting Shabbos.
• 29:36
  They come home with like all this energy and they're just, you know, they're just, you
• 29:40
  thinking like we started like flinging around the phrase in our phrase in our family like anytime something happened we're like thank you Hashem thank you Hashem like when something went wrong but they saw Hashem in it it was just like thank you Hashem I drop a dozen eggs thank you Hashem but like we weren't sure like where it was heading um my husband sitting at work doodling making a logo a crown he knew he knew that this was going to be like something something um made a crown
• 30:11
  And the night of his breath was my sister-in-law's fourth child.
• 30:14
  And Leah said, Leah from the Torah, I'm like, Leah.
• 30:17
  Leah from the Torah, Leah Emenu, she said the words, hapama odes Hashem, after she had her fourth child.
• 30:23
  And all of a sudden, the music came back.
• 30:25
  Like, remember, 781, there's no music, it's quiet.
• 30:28
  And all of a sudden, with this baby being born, with the movement already, like, gaining traction, with, like, a little bit of Thank You Hashem comes the song.
• 30:38
  At the Brist, they debut it with My She Storage, comes out on a guitar.
• 30:42
  And then a few months later is COVID.
• 30:45
  And...
• 30:46
  All of a sudden, like, the world shuts down, and we're hanging out with Joey Newcomb, and because he's just like, he was like a friend, he was part of that chevra, and they start concerts, you know, in the cars during COVID.
• 30:58
  Everybody's coming home, and they're singing, thank you, Hashem, and we're like, they're singing, our song.
• 31:02
  That's our song.
• 31:03
  And we're like, oh, that's so cute.
• 31:04
  And I remember thinking, we didn't see where this was going.
• 31:08
  And obviously, Yad HaShem plans everything.
• 31:10
  So then comes the song.
• 31:11
  And then comes another song.
• 31:12
  Actually, the next song was an Elos song with Pompadiza.
• 31:14
  And my husband was back in his swing of writing music.
• 31:19
  And also now we came back with a different thing.
• 31:22
  It wasn't music just to sell music because like he was selling music to Avram Fried and Benny Friedman, you know, like bum, bum, bum, I'm sure bum, bum, bum.
• 31:29
  So like my husband wrote those songs and like, but here it's like, no.
• 31:31
  So he sits down with his brother and he's like, if we're going to do this, we're not making any money off of this.
• 31:35
  This is our mission.
• 31:37
  This is our Olam Haba.
• 31:38
  We are gifted with kochos and talents, and we're going to give back to the world, but we're going to also teach something.
• 31:45
  So in order for Hasidus, for a revolution, to have a grounding, it needs to have leaders that are going to help and spread it.
• 31:54
  So if you think about when...
• 31:56
  the Baal Shem Tov, let's say, I don't know, I'm not saying like how he planned it, but when his neshamah came down to this world and he wanted to further and continue this, and by the way, it was the age of revolutions, if you think about it, talking like French Revolution, like everybody, all the world, like it was very, like historically, it was the time of revolutions, but for it to really take ground, he had five main students and from his five main students, they had 50 main students and that's where all
• 32:18
  all Hasidus came from.
• 32:19
  So everything could be traced back to the Baal Shem Tov.
• 32:22
  So we started with like the, like grounding ourselves and then being able to spread it through different channels.
• 32:29
  So all the, one of the biggest channels that we had was music.
• 32:32
  Cause like, we're like, we have this in our back pocket.
• 32:34
  Like we know what we're doing.
• 32:35
  We like music.
• 32:37
  Um, you probably already had the context of he, if you're already selling music to Avram Fried and Benny Friedman and all these.
• 32:43
  But it's funny because it was like so, it felt like a whole different lifetime.
• 32:47
  Like it was like pre-Hasidas and like post-Hasidas.
• 32:50
  And then the music was not just cute, catchy words.
• 32:53
  The music became Torahs.
• 32:55
  Like the Torahs that we were learning turned into songs.
• 32:58
  Like the most famous one is Chihuahua.
• 33:00
  Like everyone's like, what is Chihuahua?
• 33:02
  Like why is my kid singing it all day?
• 33:04
  And it's one of the teachings where Abiyasi was saying that like, if you think that the Yitzhar is going to get you, if you think these people coming after you or these...
• 33:11
  I don't know, like it's like scary or overwhelming, let's say Yiddishkeit, like or anything that seems like it's going to take you away from it.
• 33:18
  It's just a little chihuahua like nagging at your foot.
• 33:21
  And then it's like, ah, that became a song.
• 33:23
  So like people think like, oh, there's silliness to it, but it's all rooted in that.
• 33:28
  So it started with, I would say like post-COVID, the world needed something new.
• 33:34
  You know, like post-Holocaust was like animamin and like post-COVID was like, thank you, Hashem.
• 33:40
  this like age of gratitude of like coming back to like peeling off klipas and like seeing the yid inside of every single person.
• 33:47
  Because we were no longer in survival mode.
• 33:49
  I think now it's different because like maybe we are.
• 33:51
  But like back then, like pre-October 7th, it was very much like we have to see the good in every single yid.
• 33:59
  It was just another version of...
• 34:02
  Like rising from the ashes.
• 34:04
  We literally have done it so many times.
• 34:07
  And just like you said at the beginning where you were saying how like we think that we are like experiencing something for the first time.
• 34:13
  No, it's all just again and again and again, history repeating itself.
• 34:17
  But at the end of the day, Torah, Judaism...
• 34:22
  We rise up from the ashes and we continue the Masora.
• 34:26
  And that is why I feel so deeply about all of this is because it doesn't really matter what you're practicing or what you're holding or how you're holding or whatever it is.
• 34:36
  That is not for me to judge.
• 34:37
  Right.
• 34:38
  That is not for me to judge.
• 34:39
  My only tafkid, my only job is to make sure that I am doing what I believe.
• 34:46
  Exactly.
• 34:47
  Exactly.
• 34:47
  And it's very hard to like keep yourself in check because like it's easy to judge.
• 34:51
  And I think that like when I was in the cure of Rehokim and I was like in that world of like I'm better because I wear a shaito.
• 34:57
  Like, no, we're not.
• 34:58
  It's not like that.
• 34:59
  And realizing and seeing them seeing the Yid for who they are and connecting to them and bringing each other closer.
• 35:06
  Like it's like this concept of like the must be and the makabal.
• 35:10
  There's like the giver and the receiver.
• 35:11
  And I think in order for any intimacy or any relationship to happen, both people have to bring something to the table.
• 35:17
  So if there's just somebody lecturing, lecturing, lecturing and you're receiving it.
• 35:21
  then there's not going to be this real bond, but a real friendship and a real relationship, whether it's with your spouse or with your kids or with Hashem, has to be like, I bring something to the table also.
• 35:31
  So I think that's where, like, for me, the gaiva, like, slipped away.
• 35:34
  Like, don't ever think that you're better than anybody else because you can learn from every single person.
• 35:40
  I think that one of the reasons why, and please correct me if I'm wrong, why Thank You Hashem has basically attracted and connected to so many people across the world is less because it's preachy and more because it's accessible Judaism, where there is this idea where, you
• 36:02
  I always had a problem in the Kirov world, which is where my struggle worked, where we did a lot of outreach but not a lot of in-reach.
• 36:10
  And there were people within our community who were feeling ostracized or feeling pushed away or not connecting.
• 36:16
  And I think that the movement of Thank You Hashem has also brought people within the community in.
• 36:26
  And I think – Such a shift, right?
• 36:27
  It's such a shift where you're going, oh, okay –
• 36:31
  I might not have everything figured out.
• 36:32
  So you can connect to just the music.
• 36:35
  You could connect to the Torah, um, Shirem.
• 36:38
  You can connect to the cooking shows.
• 36:40
  You could connect to something.
• 36:42
  There is Gashmias and Ruchnias.
• 36:45
  And I think that that to me is what has changed my own perspective on Judaism.
• 36:52
  Not necessarily through Thank You Hashem, but through my own growth and through Thank You Hashem is this idea that it's not all or nothing.
• 37:00
  Right.
• 37:01
  Life is so much more.
• 37:02
  And if you connect.
• 37:03
  Not black and white.
• 37:04
  We're so not black and white.
• 37:05
  If you connect to one thing, great.
• 37:07
  If you connect to something else, even better.
• 37:09
  If you connect to multiple things, we are winning.
• 37:12
  We are winning.
• 37:12
  Well, like, that, so that's kind of me for me.
• 37:15
  Like, the shift happens.
• 37:16
  So I'm, like, teaching in the city.
• 37:18
  And, like, we're, thank you, Hashem is starting.
• 37:20
  And then my husband looks at me and he's, like, why are you not teaching, like, just regular five-towns moms?
• 37:24
  And I'm, like, because, like, I don't have source sheets.
• 37:27
  Like, I, like.
• 37:30
  I don't like a Zarsheed.
• 37:31
  I don't like a Zarsheed.
• 37:32
  I don't do Zarsheeds anymore.
• 37:33
  I only do playlists.
• 37:34
  So like if you want to learn, like you just listen to music.
• 37:37
  Did I send you the Karastir playlist?
• 37:38
  Yes, you did.
• 37:39
  Yeah.
• 37:39
  Okay, because when I went to Karastir, basically anytime I'm at a caver, I text, I text Fagy and I'm like, okay, where are you?
• 37:46
  Because I'm at, I'm at a caver.
• 37:48
  Right.
• 37:49
  So you actually pushed me to go to the Ribbit Store this week because you're like, I'm here and I was like, a little more cute.
• 37:54
  baby.
• 37:54
  They have the pre-COVID cookies, the ones that are just in the box, you know?
• 37:58
  Yeah, I know.
• 37:59
  I didn't get a cookie.
• 38:00
  I didn't get a cookie.
• 38:00
  I'm not going to lie, but I do like an owl cookie.
• 38:02
  I love an owl cookie.
• 38:03
  So for me, it's shifted.
• 38:05
  So like this, so teaching there, and like, maybe I'm a little bit better than everybody else.
• 38:09
  Maybe I understand more and I'm getting to teach them.
• 38:11
  So that's Kira Verhokim.
• 38:12
  It's like, oh, let's bring people in.
• 38:14
  And it was great.
• 38:14
  And it's amazing.
• 38:15
  And it's still amazing.
• 38:16
  But it was like,
• 38:17
  And realizing also like, wait, I'm right here.
• 38:20
  I'm here in the five towns, which I believe is like the panemius center of the world.
• 38:24
  Like I'm right now I'm so grateful for like where we live.
• 38:28
  I'm also very grateful for where we live.
• 38:30
  Good schools and good chevra and good shuls.
• 38:33
  And it's just open minded.
• 38:35
  Good restaurants.
• 38:36
  And like, it's good.
• 38:37
  Great running routes.
• 38:38
  We were right by the beach.
• 38:39
  And I'm like, wait.
• 38:40
  Like, I took a step back for a second.
• 38:41
  I'm like, where are we?
• 38:42
  So I got a hold.
• 38:45
  My husband bought me this book called The Story of Our Lives.
• 38:48
  It was written by Yaakov Klein.
• 38:49
  It's a phenomenal book.
• 38:50
  It's one of the stories of Rabbi Nachman.
• 38:53
  Rabbi Nachman, at the end of his life, after teaching, he lived very short.
• 38:57
  He only lived 38 years.
• 38:58
  But towards the end of his life, he started, he wrote a story.
• 39:00
  I had no idea.
• 39:02
  I know.
• 39:02
  I'm in the middle of reading a book about his life.
• 39:04
  And I'm just like... 38 years?
• 39:05
  And like to be able to be so...
• 39:07
  Influential.
• 39:08
  Influential.
• 39:09
  And like I always say, like he was the refuel of Nehamaqa.
• 39:11
  Like he understood our generation more.
• 39:13
  He would have been the best therapist ever.
• 39:16
  Enshim Yehish Ba'olam Kla.
• 39:17
  Like there's no such thing as despair.
• 39:19
  There's no such thing as like anxiety and stress and everything can be held, like dealt with with Simcha is...
• 39:25
  something that like all of a sudden I was reading this book and towards the end of his life he wrote a story book you know he says that Rabbi Nachman says that like the rest of the world tells stories to put their kids to sleep but we tell stories to wake you up to wake people up and his stories are like magical they're like Cinderella stories like the story the lost princess and there's like an ogre and a bad guy and like scary trees that talk and like unbelievable magical it like drew me in this story I'm like this story every single thing was so meaningful and I'm like this story I'm like
• 39:52
  And then I got on my phone.
• 39:54
  I had Yaakov Giusefi, who's also one of the Chavra, Make a Logo, Brestle Book Club.
• 39:58
  And I was like, I'm not just gonna do regular book club, which I was doing at the time, which was amazing, but I was always stressed out because I never read the book on time.
• 40:04
  And they almost kicked me out.
• 40:05
  They actually did kick me out, but I love them.
• 40:07
  They're like, Figi, you're too busy.
• 40:09
  Like, you can't do this.
• 40:10
  I was like, okay.
• 40:11
  So I'm doing this Brestle Book Club, and I'm learning Rabbi Nachman, and I'm teaching it just to women here in the Five Towns.
• 40:17
  And I was like, wait, like, there's so much cure of Christ.
• 40:20
  Like, we need to learn so much.
• 40:22
  Like, who needs this the most?
• 40:23
  Like, we're the from young moms in the five towns.
• 40:25
  Like, we need chazak.
• 40:26
  Like, yeah, maybe like we keep Shabbos and we go to the mikvah and we keep kosher.
• 40:31
  But like, don't we need that Yiddishkeit to be alive?
• 40:34
  That's exactly it.
• 40:35
  I felt like for a long time, there's a lot of people who go through the motions but aren't feeling connected.
• 40:42
  And I think that that loss of connection is really where...
• 40:48
  And there's such a disconnect.
• 40:49
  Right.
• 40:51
  And yeah, we're doing all the right things, but we're not feeling what it is.
• 40:57
  And that is so telling of the times we're in because it's all instant gratification and a relationship takes time to build.
• 41:06
  So are your relationship with your significant other, your relationship with your children, your relationship with God takes effort, takes work, takes time.
• 41:14
  And even though we are in the epicenter, OK, even though we pretend we're not, we're in the epicenter of a lot of Yiddishkeit and everything is at our fingertips.
• 41:23
  Sometimes we're just going through it and living it instead of feeling it.
• 41:28
  Right.
• 41:29
  And then like you'll end up presenting it.
• 41:32
  Like, you will.
• 41:34
  Really?
• 41:35
  I'm shocked.
• 41:35
  I'm going back to my 20s and I'm like thinking like, oh, like it was hard.
• 41:39
  I was like hustling but not understanding, doing mitzvot, not necessarily knowing why, teaching it but not knowing the meaning.
• 41:46
  And I'm like, Figgy, like use your brains and like start delving a little bit deeper.
• 41:51
  And that was like where I like started.
• 41:53
  I love that.
• 41:55
  Do you think that social media has exacerbated the movement or has diluted it?
• 42:03
  A hundred percent it's helped.
• 42:05
  And everything that Hashem puts down here into this world can be used for the good or for the bad.
• 42:09
  And like I love to see the beauty in social media because...
• 42:13
  it allows you.
• 42:13
  I remember like we were doing these live concerts.
• 42:16
  We were like when I remember like sitting in my brother-in-law's house, Joey Newcomb there with a guitar, 2020, going live, singing a song, having a fabring like online when nobody was able to see anybody.
• 42:26
  I'm like, how could we not see that this is a gift and how could we not utilize it?
• 42:30
  So put on my phone, Instagram live, teaching a class, not knowing who's listening.
• 42:34
  That later ended up leading to me learning Tanya and like
• 42:38
  totally transformed into a habura because I started on live.
• 42:41
  So I think social media is amazing.
• 42:43
  It allows us, it's such a, like what I refer to as like a channel or a cleat.
• 42:46
  It's like a, it's a vessel to be able to spread light.
• 42:50
  Do you feel a sense of responsibility because you're reaching so many people?
• 42:56
  Yeah.
• 42:57
  Yeah.
• 42:58
  And not only that, at this point, because of the following, we know that it's going to have an impact.
• 43:03
  So it's like we almost feel, first of all, like I always say this, like Asherino, like we're so lucky to be able to spread light.
• 43:12
  And every single one of us are lamplighters.
• 43:15
  Like as Yadin, that's our role here.
• 43:16
  That's what we're supposed to be doing.
• 43:18
  But understanding that you have a purpose in this world obviously is...
• 43:25
  It does not only does it feel good, it makes it does it comes with a sense of responsibility.
• 43:29
  Yeah.
• 43:30
  Only recently did I started realizing that a sense of responsibility.
• 43:33
  Like I one time looked at myself in the mirror and I was like getting dressed and I'm like,
• 43:37
  TYH Robinson?
• 43:38
  Like, is that a thing?
• 43:39
  Is that a role?
• 43:40
  Like, do I have to like, you know, and I realized like, yeah, it is.
• 43:44
  I'm very grateful for it.
• 43:45
  And, um, and I'm so grateful for like the team and being able to spread it and do it.
• 43:50
  It's like, also like now, like for example, like as it's spreading, let's say like with the TYH boys, I know like we didn't get yet into the actual music, but like,
• 43:58
  Knowing that we have a channel now to reach the kids, it's like responsibility.
• 44:03
  The music has to have meaning.
• 44:04
  We run it by our rav.
• 44:06
  Every single song is run through, making sure that it has the Torah, making sure it has the right people that they're dealing with, like the right chevra that each of the T.Y.
• 44:14
  boys should have, like somebody like watching over them.
• 44:16
  Like there's like they're my spin.
• 44:18
  We're Rudy fans.
• 44:19
  We're Rudy fans.
• 44:20
  You have to understand, like Rudy played basketball for me.
• 44:23
  Like I coached boys basketball.
• 44:25
  No way.
• 44:26
  Yeah, girl.
• 44:27
  And we love his family and we love the T.Y.H.
• 44:30
  boys in my house and we love all the music.
• 44:33
  And I really do think that through your music, you are reaching a
• 44:40
  Right.
• 44:40
  So music is like music is so like it's so connected to see this.
• 44:45
  Like, you know, they say that there was a period also like a Tkufa, like it was 781.
• 44:52
  There was like this Tkufa that there was no music, like from the time of destruction of the first base of Mekdash up until the Baal Shem Tov.
• 44:57
  There's no Mekunim.
• 44:59
  There's no music recorded.
• 45:00
  There's like Piyutim.
• 45:02
  There were like poems, but there was no music.
• 45:04
  Music is very, very deeply connected.
• 45:06
  Like there's this idea that when Mashiach comes, we're going to have like a new note of music, like the eighth note of music.
• 45:13
  Never heard that before.
• 45:14
  Yeah, because there's not all of the music is like revealed yet.
• 45:18
  But music we know is what we use to connect.
• 45:20
  Like you would walk into the base of Mekdash.
• 45:21
  Like I know like for us it feels so foreign.
• 45:24
  And like you go to Israel and you see like these like, you know, the columns, the coliseums and like...
• 45:29
  not the Colosseum, sorry, like, you know, like the columns, right?
• 45:32
  And you're like, oh, that was the Beis HaMikdash.
• 45:34
  Oh, I'm at the Kosal.
• 45:34
  But really what the Beis HaMikdash was, it was just like they were for bringing there.
• 45:38
  Like there was music and there was learning and there was Karbanos.
• 45:41
  Karbanos means like there was food, there were barbecues, there was, it was a place that you came to connect, to reconnect yourself.
• 45:48
  Like Shalosh Pemim B'Hashana, you have to go three times.
• 45:51
  Like Hashem's like, I want you to have a good time.
• 45:53
  And music.
• 45:54
  Like my family, I'm a Baslevy.
• 45:56
  Like we were Levian.
• 45:57
  Like they were playing music at the steps when you came in.
• 46:00
  Like, you know.
• 46:01
  It was like a real party.
• 46:02
  It was a real party.
• 46:03
  Like done by Birch.
• 46:04
  Like it was real.
• 46:05
  It was good.
• 46:05
  It was nice.
• 46:06
  There was food.
• 46:06
  There was music.
• 46:07
  But the music.
• 46:08
  got like shut off.
• 46:10
  Like the channel of music was shut off until the Baal Shem Tov came.
• 46:13
  And then is where Ngunim started again.
• 46:16
  So it's like music brings us alive.
• 46:18
  Music touches this part of your neshama that maybe it's the language of the neshama.
• 46:23
  The neshama doesn't talk, it sings.
• 46:25
  So music became like a was like probably our first channel for like spreading Hasidus.
• 46:31
  And that was through the songs.
• 46:33
  And every single one of the songs is either, like I said, connected back to a Torah.
• 46:37
  And then all of a sudden we have these like artists like reaching out and like we were able to like feature also like new faces and like bringing these people.
• 46:43
  I was like, Loki is like Simon Cowell.
• 46:46
  Like we have like American Idol here.
• 46:48
  Like for real.
• 46:50
  But like also in such a authentic way of like, I remember like what my husband's saying, like this is not, this is like nonprofit.
• 46:59
  Like this is just going out there to reach people, to spread light and having so many people coming in.
• 47:05
  Like Alex Clare, Matis Yao, Mandy Warsh, like all of them, like they became uplifted.
• 47:11
  They became part of the Hebra.
• 47:12
  And that's why the family just keeps growing and growing.
• 47:15
  I'm a DJ Fabring fan.
• 47:17
  Like, oh, I love house music.
• 47:19
  So like I'm like into it.
• 47:20
  We,
• 47:20
  Mandy Purnett put out a whole house music album.
• 47:22
  Oh, I know.
• 47:23
  I'm into it.
• 47:24
  So one of the things that I love about you is you talk about a Hashem-centered life.
• 47:31
  It's something that, like, it oozes out of you.
• 47:34
  It really oozes out.
• 47:35
  I can't get through a question here without it, like, being a lesson in Hasidus.
• 47:41
  So what does that mean when you say a Hashem-centered life?
• 47:47
  So, like, I have this feeling of, like,
• 47:51
  Not that like it's dark, but like I'm an only girl.
• 47:54
  I have four brothers.
• 47:54
  I love them.
• 47:55
  And I have amazing, amazing sister-in-laws.
• 47:57
  But like also there was like a lonely feeling of being an only girl.
• 48:00
  I like connect, by the way, to people who have only girls, only sisters.
• 48:03
  I know.
• 48:04
  So who have no sisters, right?
• 48:06
  I know.
• 48:07
  I know.
• 48:07
  Oh, no.
• 48:08
  Okay.
• 48:09
  So I just like growing up, it was like I was on the roller coaster by myself all the time, like my two older brother, I have one older brother and three younger, but like, it was like two of them, two of them was like me by myself.
• 48:18
  So like, there was always like, I always like go back to that, like, where does my loneliness come from?
• 48:22
  Like, if, if it's like, you know,
• 48:24
  And then like over time with Rabbi Nachman, which is like right now, like what we're very like, we're very much learning Rabbi Nachman and his bodzidas.
• 48:32
  We start realizing that there's another layer of Hashem.
• 48:35
  Like Hashem is not just like this king who like on Rosh Hashanah decides what we're going to have a whole year.
• 48:40
  And he's not just, you know, like somebody scary who gives punishments at the end of time.
• 48:46
  Sometimes we refer to Hashem as a Vinu, like our father.
• 48:48
  And that's like, oh, like also like since I lost my father two years ago, like his Neshama should have an Aliyah.
• 48:54
  He was my biggest fan.
• 48:56
  He's still my biggest fan.
• 48:56
  He's still Tzvib and Aaron David.
• 48:58
  My mother is my wingman.
• 48:59
  She comes to me.
• 49:00
  She comes with me for everything.
• 49:01
  But there was this feeling of like, wait, like, do I belong here?
• 49:05
  Like I had my best friends.
• 49:07
  But then like as I got older and I'm realizing like Hashem is not just a vinu or just a volcano.
• 49:11
  He could also be your best friend.
• 49:13
  So it's like bringing Hashem with me in everything so that I'm not feeling lonely.
• 49:19
  I don't know.
• 49:19
  Maybe we could do this in therapy or in coaching.
• 49:21
  Like I don't know where loneliness comes from and like me needing to feel attached to something.
• 49:25
  But maybe it's just our neshama saying like,
• 49:28
  Go back to where you came from.
• 49:29
  Like, we are a chilek alokami ma'amamish.
• 49:31
  We are a piece of Hashem.
• 49:32
  So, of course, we should be feeling him all the time.
• 49:35
  So the more you recognize that you're a piece of Hashem, the more you recognize that, like...
• 49:39
  you can't do this without him.
• 49:41
  Like the Zusha song, like, I can't, can't do this without you.
• 49:45
  Like that's Hashem speaking to us.
• 49:46
  That's not, oh, sorry.
• 49:47
  I just got closed.
• 49:48
  That's not, that's not us telling Hashem.
• 49:51
  Hashem says, I can't do this without you.
• 49:53
  So it's like, oh my gosh, like I feel so needed.
• 49:55
  So of course Hashem is going to be everywhere because A, I don't want to be lonely.
• 50:00
  And also I'm really just a part of him.
• 50:02
  If you were,
• 50:05
  to sit across from somebody who says, okay, I wanna feel close to Hashem, how do I start?
• 50:13
  So in different seasons of my life, it would be different things.
• 50:16
  I think right now I'm very in like Rabbi Nachman mode and I'm really learning how to do this.
• 50:22
  This is very new to me.
• 50:23
  Like I'm very vulnerable and I like tell a lot of people, but about eight weeks ago, I started learning how to like talk to Hashem.
• 50:30
  which I have to say I've never really done.
• 50:32
  Like I journal a lot and I write, but actually like sitting down in my backyard for five minutes and talking to somebody who's not here, you sing woo-woo like this is like.
• 50:42
  So then I guess I am woo-woo because that's the only way I connect.
• 50:45
  Really?
• 50:45
  It's the only way I connect.
• 50:46
  So that's.
• 50:47
  probably the deepest way, like the deepest, which for some people is hard.
• 50:51
  Some people, it's easy.
• 50:52
  Some people do it, preferably in nature.
• 50:55
  It's supposed to be.
• 50:56
  Rabbi Nachman says for one hour a day.
• 50:58
  I do like five to six minutes.
• 51:00
  I like catch up.
• 51:01
  I'm like, let me send a voice note to Hashem.
• 51:03
  Let me just like tell Hashem about Shabbos.
• 51:04
  Like, and that is...
• 51:08
  according to Rabbi Nachman, he's teaching now, that will transform your whole day.
• 51:11
  So if you want to get started, it could be with talking to Hashem.
• 51:13
  That's one way.
• 51:14
  Another season of my life is very much learning.
• 51:17
  Like I'm a forever student.
• 51:19
  Like I'll go back to school any day.
• 51:21
  Like, oh, no, you're not.
• 51:23
  We are not.
• 51:23
  We are not.
• 51:25
  You got me at first one.
• 51:26
  Wait, no rules, but I just want to go back to school.
• 51:28
  Like, no tests, but, like, I love to learn.
• 51:30
  So there's that aspect of, like, connecting.
• 51:32
  Like, when I started learning Tanya, it was, like, so cerebral.
• 51:36
  I was, like, learning new things, and my mind was so tickled, and I was like, oh, my gosh.
• 51:40
  Like, I could really, yeah, like, I could really connect to Ashem here.
• 51:44
  And, like, I had to also learn a whole new vocabulary when I was learning Tanya because it was not anything I've ever learned in my 12 years of teaching.
• 51:50
  B.C.
• 51:50
  Akov and seminary.
• 51:52
  Like I've never learned these ideas.
• 51:54
  So these new concepts were like so exciting for me.
• 51:57
  So if it's you want to learn.
• 51:58
  And like also with social media, like and with podcasts and learning, like you could put on, you could you have access to everything.
• 52:04
  Like there's no excuse to like say like, oh, I can't.
• 52:07
  I don't have time to go to a share.
• 52:08
  Like I used to say that all the time about workout classes.
• 52:11
  I'm like, I am at work.
• 52:12
  I have to sit, be at a desk at 8 a.m.
• 52:15
  But then I got the mirror and I work out at home.
• 52:17
  So it's like you could listen to any share on Spotify, podcasts.
• 52:21
  There's so much.
• 52:22
  And if you don't connect through a share, there's so many other avenues to connect.
• 52:26
  At least for me, I walk all day.
• 52:30
  It's my...
• 52:31
  Weighted vest.
• 52:31
  I'll be working.
• 52:32
  What?
• 52:32
  Weighted vest.
• 52:33
  So I used to, but like I have a bad back, so it was like getting a little bit problematic.
• 52:38
  But I walk all day.
• 52:40
  It's my favorite form of movement and living in New York, you don't get to do that so often.
• 52:45
  I like it, but whatever.
• 52:49
  And I put on an audio book.
• 52:51
  Oh, because I do think that a I can get through it on two times speed because who listens to anything at one time speed?
• 52:58
  No.
• 52:58
  Who has time for that?
• 52:59
  I feel like my actual voice is on two time speed.
• 53:01
  So then when I listen to myself, I'm like, wait, wait, slow down, slow down.
• 53:05
  But I do think that there's like an aspect of we're always learning and it could be it could be nonsense.
• 53:12
  It could be a self health book.
• 53:13
  It could be whatever you want it to be.
• 53:15
  As long as you're learning and growing like I'm into it.
• 53:18
  So I like this idea.
• 53:20
  I'm going to end off with you because I know we feel like we just started, but like you and I could hang out all day.
• 53:25
  Stay tuned for part two.
• 53:28
  No, but I wanted to end with a little rapid fire.
• 53:31
  Okay.
• 53:31
  Because I do think like you think on your feet, girl.
• 53:34
  Okay.
• 53:35
  What's one Thank You Hashem song that you'll never get tired of?
• 53:39
  Yiden.
• 53:41
  That has a whole other story on its own.
• 53:43
  I'm going to cry.
• 53:44
  Yeah.
• 53:45
  Because like peel off the klipas, like there's a neshama in every single one of us.
• 53:51
  And it makes you like, it makes you love other people.
• 53:54
  And it also became like, it became like the next, like, thank you, Hashem.
• 53:58
  Like it became, oh my gosh, are you really getting into tears?
• 54:00
  Because it's really important to me that every neshama feels seen.
• 54:05
  Yeah.
• 54:06
  Yeah.
• 54:06
  And and it's important that that throughout whatever avenue you get to do that.
• 54:11
  Right.
• 54:12
  And it's like the the whole premise of the song.
• 54:15
  And like also like as I was learning Tanya and like the concept of clipa is that really everything is good.
• 54:20
  You just have to peel it off.
• 54:21
  And like, trust me, I've had relationships with people that came into my life or.
• 54:25
  hardships that have happened to me and if I could just like peel off the clip of it and see the good in it and the peeling off clip is work.
• 54:31
  It's like hard work.
• 54:32
  It's not necessarily always easy.
• 54:34
  But knowing that we're inherently good is like.
• 54:37
  So I believe that.
• 54:38
  Oh my gosh, I cannot believe the boy uses his ears.
• 54:40
  Do you listen to it?
• 54:42
  I listen to all of it.
• 54:43
  I think that like real...
• 54:46
  I spend my entire day trying to make the world a little bit better.
• 54:49
  And I think that if we saw the good.
• 54:52
  I'm so excited by the way to be friends.
• 54:54
  Like, I think that if we saw the good in people, it's so much easier to connect.
• 54:59
  Yeah.
• 54:59
  Because, like, I so desperately want everyone to see the good in each other.
• 55:06
  And I spent, I literally spend my entire life trying to help people see the good in themselves.
• 55:11
  Wow.
• 55:11
  So it's very meaningful to me.
• 55:12
  Yeah.
• 55:13
  It's a crazy song.
• 55:14
  Okay.
• 55:14
  One Safer Everyone Should Own.
• 55:18
  I mean, easy.
• 55:19
  Tanya.
• 55:19
  Okay.
• 55:20
  Yeah.
• 55:20
  I don't own that, so I'm going to go get one.
• 55:22
  Okay, get the green one.
• 55:22
  It's so pretty by Chaya Miller, the cover.
• 55:25
  But, like, is it in English?
• 55:26
  Because I read everything in English.
• 55:28
  Transliterated.
• 55:28
  Okay.
• 55:28
  And, yeah, learn it with Chase Taub or Tanya with Fagey, either one.
• 55:32
  Got it.
• 55:32
  One lesson from the Balsham Tov everyone needs today.
• 55:42
  I'm going to say in Omovado, that there's nothing that exists that is not.
• 55:48
  Anything that exists has it only.
• 55:50
  Sorry.
• 55:51
  Anything only exists because Hashem is pumping life into it.
• 55:54
  So if it exists, that means that Hashem is within it.
• 55:59
  A moment recently where you clearly felt Hashem guiding you.
• 56:13
  How recently does it have to be?
• 56:14
  It doesn't have to be so recently.
• 56:15
  Okay.
• 56:16
  So a few years ago, we decided to move.
• 56:19
  It was like a pilgrimage for us.
• 56:21
  Like we were living in one, within the five towns.
• 56:25
  711 or whatever.
• 56:27
  Yes.
• 56:28
  781.
• 56:28
  We name everything by our whole house's address.
• 56:31
  Like our whole family talks about addresses.
• 56:33
  Like, where's the Fabring?
• 56:34
  Where's the Sharabachos?
• 56:36
  45, 25, 10, 14.
• 56:39
  We moved to be closer to our Rav, to our Reba, to our Shul.
• 56:44
  and the many different ways that Hashem opened it up for us to be able to move there and to be there and recognizing the change that it had on me and my husband and my family, and it's still happening and affecting the whole TYH movement, that was totally guided by Hashem.
• 57:00
  And I know Hashem wrote the story, and I was just walking it.
• 57:03
  I love it.
• 57:04
  I love it.
• 57:05
  Complete this sentence.
• 57:07
  Okay.
• 57:08
  The biggest thing people misunderstand about faith is...
• 57:17
  That like it's universally accepted.
• 57:19
  I think every single person's interpretation of faith and what they feel is faith and how they feel Hashem is unique to each person.
• 57:26
  I love that.
• 57:29
  Looking back, if Hashem had shown you 10 years ago exactly where you'd be today, would you have believed him?
• 57:35
  Oh my gosh, I think about this all the time.
• 57:40
  All the time.
• 57:40
  I'm like a huge Facebook memory person.
• 57:42
  Oh, me too.
• 57:42
  Me too.
• 57:43
  Yeah.
• 57:45
  It's my first thing I do in the morning.
• 57:46
  I say good morning to Hashem and Hashem responds to me and says, Tov Shabbat.
• 57:50
  He's so happy that I came.
• 57:51
  And then I open up my Facebook memories because I was like a big Facebook person.
• 57:55
  And I look back at those pictures and I'm like, oh, my goodness, if I only knew where I would be.
• 58:00
  And it's like 13 years ago.
• 58:01
  I'm like 13 years ago I was doing this or like 16 years ago.
• 58:05
  So I would have been flabbergasted.
• 58:06
  I just like I also turned 40 this year and I can't wait for like...
• 58:10
  Even more.
• 58:10
  I know.
• 58:11
  I also feel like with age is so much beauty.
• 58:15
  Like I used to be, I used to cry on my birthday every year.
• 58:19
  Not anymore.
• 58:20
  No.
• 58:20
  Not anymore.
• 58:21
  I'm like, what a gift.
• 58:22
  Such a gift.
• 58:23
  What a gift.
• 58:23
  I get to change every single day and figure out my life.
• 58:25
  Like, thank you, Hashem.
• 58:27
  Thank you, Hashem.
• 58:27
  Okay.
• 58:28
  One last question.
• 58:32
  Did you have to live every chapter before you can understand what mattered?
• 58:40
  Now I'm going to cry.
• 58:41
  Yeah.
• 58:43
  Yeah, you have to.
• 58:45
  You can't just get to the light and the party and the fabring and, like, all the glory without having to, like, really, really go through it.
• 58:54
  And, like, the hardships.
• 58:56
  And I don't want to say hardships or challenges because, like, I always, like, I'm at the point in my life where I kind of look forward.
• 59:00
  I'm like, oh, this is where Hashem put me.
• 59:02
  Let me figure this one out.
• 59:04
  But really, yes, very much.
• 59:06
  And I think that's a deep lesson also, like in Hasidus, like Shavei pulled Tzadik the come.
• 59:10
  Like the Tzadik didn't get to the place where he needed to be without falling seven times.
• 59:15
  So like sometimes I count how many times I fell and then I'm like, was it seven yet?
• 59:19
  Like, are we there yet?
• 59:20
  Or this idea that like everybody has to travel 42 muscles, 42 journeys before they get to Eretz Yisrael.
• 59:27
  And I feel like that's my goal.
• 59:28
  Like my goal is to be in Eretz Yisrael very soon.
• 59:31
  I had a five year plan.
• 59:32
  I have like six months left for it.
• 59:33
  So like I'm really like rushing.
• 59:35
  I don't know how I'm going to get there.
• 59:36
  But having like my father used to always say like a piece of the rock, like to get there, you have to live it.
• 59:40
  You get to live it.
• 59:41
  But if you live it with Hashem and you live it with the right intentions and with the right...
• 59:46
  and the right music and surrounding yourself with people who are growing.
• 59:50
  Like, that's like my tagline.
• 59:51
  Go where you grow.
• 59:52
  Like, someone told us that when we were moving.
• 59:54
  And it's like, oh, like, I just want to keep growing.
• 59:57
  So if you ever feel yourself stagnant, you're like, hey, we're.
• 1:00:00
  I don't ask for troubles or hardships or whatever.
• 1:00:02
  But seeing everything as a challenge and to climb it, it's like, yeah.
• 1:00:06
  I love it.
• 1:00:07
  Figi, thank you so much for being here.
• 1:00:09
  I really appreciate it.
• 1:00:09
  I'm like, sad this is over.
• 1:00:11
  I know, me too.
• 1:00:11
  Thank you.
• 1:00:12
  Thank you.
• 1:00:12
  I appreciate it.