Shtark Tank

What do you think was the most common question Rabbi Sacks got? It was not about Israel, halacha, or politics. It was “Do you remember me?”

As we approach Rabbi Sacks’s Yartzeit, Sivan Rahav-Meir joins Shtark Tank to talk about the Rabbi Sacks she came to know. It started with a phone call during COVID, a live Zoom event with Yishai Ribo, and the realization that you are never stuck. Sivan is a seventh-generation Israeli, a longtime journalist, and a baalat teshuva. She shares what Rabbi Sacks taught her about being a shaliach, wherever you are and whatever you do.

We talk about:

• Why Rabbi Sacks’s real legacy might be the families who sent their kids to Jewish schools because of him
• How being a baalat teshuva can keep Torah feeling like fire instead of habit
• Finding balance with technology, WhatsApp, and the pull of always being “there”
• Work, family, and why your own simcha is worth protecting
• Staying connected across Israel’s divides without compromising halacha
• The Jewish response to October 7th: more Shabbat, more Torah, more simcha

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:37 Welcome and Sivan’s background
• 04:45 How Sivan first connected with Rabbi Sacks
• 08:08 Torah in media, politics, and culture
• 10:53 Torah that lights up your day
• 15:10 Technology, balance, and “Do you remember me?”
• 20:52 Work, family, and renewal
• 25:33 Unity and breaking boundaries
• 28:55 Responding to October 7th
• 30:24 Closing

About Sivan

Sivan Rahav-Meir is a media personality and lecturer. She was voted by Globes newspaper as most popular female media personality in Israel and by the Jerusalem Post as one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world. She is Married to Yedidya, mother of five, lives in Jerusalem. To get her daily content search for "the daily thought".

If you like Sivan's content, subscribe here- https://did.li/TN7CN to receive the daily thought by WhatsApp.

For the book 'Shabat' [Hebrew] https://ybook.co.il/products/3627564

As Rabbi Sacks’ yahrzeit approaches, we’re finally releasing the full 2024 interview recorded for our documentary series.

Gilles Gade, founder and CEO of Cross River Bank, and Dr. Erica Brown, Vice Provost for Values and Leadership at Yeshiva University and Director of the Sacks-Herenstein Center, share how Rabbi Sacks shaped their lives and work.

Erica was Rabbi Sacks’ student and thesis advisee in London. Gilles never met him, but calls him his rebbe after 15 years of reading Covenant and Conversation. Together they get into how his Torah plays out in a boardroom, a bank, and a home.

In this episode:

• Why influence outlasts power, and what Avraham teaches us about selling
• Multipliers, diminishers, and why a bad boss is “graduate school”
• Simcha vs. sasson, and why consumerism can’t deliver salvation
• Shmita as an economic reset, and how Gilles applies it to consumer lending
• Rabbi Sacks’ weekly class for philanthropists
• Work and family: quality over quantity, and the hidden cost of mission-driven careers
• Tzedakah as tzedek, justice rather than charity
• Prioritizing mental health and healthcare after October 7
• Hope vs. optimism

Timestamps:

• 03:08 How Gilles and Erica found Rabbi Sacks
• 10:01 Power vs. influence
• 19:31 Consumerism, joy, and the American dream
• 22:41 Banking, credit, and shmita
• 31:02 Rabbi Sacks and the business world
• 33:52 Balancing work and family
• 44:08 Tzedakah as justice
• 52:03 Prioritizing after October 7
• 55:44 Closing thoughts on hope

Guests:
Gilles Gade is the founder and CEO of Cross River Bank.
Dr. Erica Brown is Vice Provost for Values and Leadership at Yeshiva University and Director of the Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center.

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What's harder, being the tzaddik of an entire generation, or being a good father?

A short idea on this week's parsha

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A Rabbi in rehab after being wounded on October 7th shared a Dvar Torah with me on why the angel quit fighting Yaakov Avinu. I also shared some personal news that means a lighter schedule for the show.

Let's get ready for sukkot, with three Divrei Torah from Bnei Torah in the workforce.

We cover daled minim, sitting in the sukka, shemini atzeret and more!

Our guests: Rav Zecharia Rosenthal, Betzalel Cohn, Ephraim Goldstein

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For more of Betzalel's Corporate Divrei Torah, click here

Key Topics

• The connection between Sukkah and mezuzah as a reminder of impermanence
• The concept of Diras Keva and its relation to mezuzah and Sukkah
• The idea of transition times in life, such as after Yom Kippur and Shemini Yatzeret
• The role of humility and acknowledgment of limitations in fulfilling mitzvot
• The importance of mindfulness and intentionality in everyday transitions
• The impact of Torah and mitzvot on personal and communal security
• The analogy of the Etrog and the concept of Hadar in mitzvah performance
• The significance of Shemini Yatzeret as a day to pause and reflect
• The parallels between military transition rituals and spiritual transition in life

Chapters

00:00 Intro

00:53 Rabbi Zechariah Rosenthal - Temporary or Permanent?

12:58 Betzalel Cohen - Beautiful or Messy?

25:01 Ephraim Goldstein - One More Day

Yosef Guedalia escaped his burning jeep, and ran straight at the terrorists position.

For the third year running, we mark the Aseret Yemei Teshuva with Yizkor 10.7, honoring the heroes of October 7th.

This years episode is about Yosef Guedalia Hy"d, who fell defending Kfar Azza. We are joined by David Guedalia, Yosef's father.

We spoke about:

- Yosef's packed Friday routine, the quiet happiness, the instinct to care for other.

- The heroic battle in Kfar Azza: the RPG that hit Yosef's jeep, the rescues under fire, and the charge through the gate that broke the terrorists' momentum and stopped the kidnappings.

- Torah perspectives on grief, loss, and fatherhood. We examine the Akeida, the famous story of the 4 who entered the Pardes, and a drasha that went very wrong.

To support the Mechina in Kfar Azza click here

For videos about Yosef click here

Chapters

00:00 — Intro

06:09 — Yosef’s Life: Joy, Discipline, and Service

34:23 — October 7: The Battle at Kfar Aza

59:28 — Grief, Trauma, and Finding Meaning

78:47 — Peoplehood, Connection, and Carrying Yosef’s Legacy Forward

For Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, we wanted to do something special. Eight voices from around the world, eight perspectives on the Yamim Noraim. Here's the lineup:

1. Ezra Meyer — car salesman and global chazzan, on how he prepares to lead tefilla on the Yamim Noraim
2. Dr. Herman Weiss — OBGYN and baal tokeah, on his path to becoming a baal tokeah and one of his most memorable mistakes
3. Rabbi Yossi Katz — Rav in Linden, NJ and partner in a recruiting firm, on Akeidat Yitzchak and how Avraham Avinu reframes how we approach being Bnei Torah in the workforce
4. Rav Tzvi Sinensky — director of the Lamm Legacy, sharing a Rosh Hashana drasha Rav Lamm gave his kehilla on integrating business success with religious success
5. Rav David Aron — co-Rosh Yeshiva of Orayta and founder of Isralight, on the proper attitude toward Yom HaDin
6. Rav Mitch Berger — computer programmer and author on Rav Shimon Shkop's hashkafa in his hakdama to Shaarei Yosher
7. Yitzi Lowe — combat soldier in the IDF, on Yodei Terua
8. Bonus: Yaakov Wolff on Headlines — audio from an interview on the Headlines podcast, hosted by Rav Ari Wasserman, on the phrase "Shivti B'veis Hashem"

A lot of work went into this one. Special thanks to Shlomo Price for extra editing help.

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Resources Mentioned:

• Bshir Yaron, website for Chazzanim
• The Revelation of Man, Drasha by Rav Norman Lamm
• 'Widen Your Tent' by Rav Micha Berger

Chapter list:

• 0:00 — Intro
• 2:26 — Ezra Meyer: Preparing to Lead the High Holiday Prayers
• 21:49 — Dr. Herman Weiss: The Responsibility of Blowing the Shofar
• 35:21 — Rabbi Yossi Katz: Avraham Avinu and Finding Meaning in the Journey
• 45:00 — Rabbi Tzvi Sinensky: Rabbi Norman Lamm on Potential and Purpose
• 58:01 — Rabbi David Aaron: Rethinking Judgment on Rosh Hashanah
• 1:09:57 — Rav Micha Berger: Rav Shimon Shkop’s Vision of Responsibility
• 1:29:15 — Yitzy Loew: The Shofar’s Call to Enlist
• 1:45:29 — Headlines Appearance: Building a Torah-Centered Life in the Workforce

Jeremy Rovinsky is a full time United States immigration judge, an associate justice for multiple Native American courts of appeals, a law professor at Crest Point University, and Dean of Teachers for the Tikvah Foundation's Millstone Scholars Program. He's also a baal teshuva who took his judicial oath on the Chovos HaLevavos.

Jeremy spends his days behind the bench. This week he brings that lens to the Yamim Noraim: what din really means, why teshuva is recalibration and not erasure, and what it's like to approach Hakadosh Baruch Hu as the ultimate judge when you know exactly what it feels like to sit in the chair.

In this episode:

• Going from philosophy major to talmid of Rav Gershenfeld at Machon Shlomo
• Why his Rebbe told him to stay in law, not switch to kiruv
• The Zohar's read on Lech Lecha: bring your past with you, don't leave it behind
• Why the Sanhedrin required judges to have children (and what that teaches about rachmanus)
• Justice as love, not just din, and why that changed how he saw his own docket
• What Jeremy says to the God of Israel these days, now that he's not the prosecutor anymore

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Emotional support at the end of life. Thorny halachic questions about scientific medical breakthoughs. AI and the end of work.

These are all part of the Rabbi Jason Weiner's daily routine.

Rabbi Weiner is the senior rabbi and executive director of spiritual care at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles. In this episode we cover:

• What a healthcare chaplain actually does, and how Rabbi Weiner fell into the role with almost no training
• The hardest moments of sitting with grieving families, including an uplifting story that took nearly 20 years to find its ending
• How Torah sources think about medical breakthroughs like CRISPR and GLP-1 drugs
• His essay on AI and the end of work: if a machine takes your job, does it take your identity too?

To read the full Tradition Online essay about AI and the end of work, click here

Find more from Rabbi Weiner at rabbiweiner.com, on YUTorah, on LinkedIn, or on Instagram at @rabbi_JW.

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Rav Hershel Schachter addresses one of the most persistent tensions in the frum professional world: does the ben Torah at work matter as much as the one in the beis medrash?

Recorded live in partnership with the OU Israel Business Professionals Network, this episode includes the full shiur plus a Q&A.

What's covered:

• Why Klal Yisrael needs doctors, lawyers, engineers, and businessmen just as much as it needs roshei yeshiva, and why the "learning is more important" mindset is a distortion, not a Torah value
• The little-known letter from Rav Elya Meir Bloch on why the religious world can't afford to run from Zionism, Tanach, or Ivrit
• A Q&A covering how much work is enough, whether a rabbi should be wealthy, balancing communal obligations against raising your own children, and a practical seder for using limited learning time (starting with Kitzur Shulchan Aruch)
• Why Rav Schachter has spent 30 years teaching high schoolers at NCSY Kollel, and what he sees in that generation