Shtark Tank

One year ago, Alec Kremins got fired. Same week he found out his wife was pregnant with their first child. He had a choice: go find another stable job, or bet on himself.

He went all in.

Alec built his career at Ramp (now valued near $40B) before making Aliyah and eventually going out on his own. In this episode we get into why he tells most people not to start a company, even though it was the right call for him.

We cover:

• The day he got let go, and the decision that followed
• Why he thinks life is about meaning, not comfort, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe story about the "contract" nobody signed promising an easy life
• The Histadlus/Bitachon dance and why it gets a lot harder when you're working for yourself
• Whether your work should be part of your identity, or just what funds it
• A surprising parallel between starting a company and childbirth (his words, not ours)
• Why he actively discourages most people from starting their own thing
• Building a personal brand without losing your Shabbos, your learning, or your sanity to the algorithm
• Where AI actually fits in content creation, and where it doesn't touch the core at all

Alec Kremins is the founder of RallyUp. You can find him on LinkedIn.

Har HaBayit. Torah Im Derech Eretz. Searching for Meaning.

It's the summer mailbag episode! Yaakov opens up the inbox and brings on Rav Ari Koretzky (director of Meor Maryland, host of the Iyun podcast) to work through listener feedback together.

In this episode:

• Why Shtark Tank does pre-chag episodes, and whether they're on brand or just a scheduling excuse
• Is there such a thing as a distinct "baalabatish hashkafa" for guys balancing Torah and a career
• A listener's story of how the podcast changed how he networks and built real friendships through cold outreach to guests
• Rav Ari's day job in kiruv, and why baalei teshuva may find an unexpected home in Shtark Tank's world
• Pushback on the Har HaBayis episode, including the halachic and hashkafic case against ascending, and whether the debate got a fair hearing
• How to handle controversial topics without becoming a clickbait machine, and the cost of staying in your lane
• Why the Rav Rafi Dembovsky episode on Torah Im Derech Eretz struck such a nerve
• The "grass is greener" pull toward nonprofit work, and why it's not the meaning shortcut people think it is
• What 130+ episodes have taught Yaakov about mindset, and what's actually holding Shtark Tank back from growing bigger

What happens after the fire of yeshiva goes out?

This week I'm sharing an episode from Torat JLIC, a podcast I love, one that takes the complexity of modern life seriously instead of talking around it.

The guest for this episode is Rav Uri Lorkis, who just wrapped a few years as JLIC rabbi in Michigan and now works as a startup coach. We dig into the real transition every yeshiva guy faces: how do you carry that intensity into the next stage of life, when the schedule, the chavrusas, and the structure are gone?

Beyond the practical adjustments is a deeper crisis: Is it possible to live up to our values? Or will the daily grind dictate our agenda?

Rav Uri brings some sharp, honest insight.

Make sure to check out the Torat JLIC feed for more great content!

How do you mourn a Beis Hamikdash you never knew, in a generation that's watched Klal Yisrael return to Eretz Yisrael and rebuild a country? Rav Moshe Taragin returns to Shtark Tank to help us hold two truths at once: we are living through open miracles, and we are still so far from the finish line.

Rav Taragin unpacks why every question in Jewish life now splits into "before October 7th" and "after," why Tisha B'Av doesn't require manufactured grief but honest yearning, and how looking at Chazal's account of the Churban Bayis Sheni (zealotry, internal division, over-reliance on foreign powers) maps uncomfortably well onto Israeli society today.

He also addresses the tension around visiting Har Habayit as a means to an end versus an end in itself, and offers a clear-eyed, non-preachy take on Aliyah, achdut, and what it means to stay grounded when the news cycle wants you anxious and reactive.

In this episode:

• Why October 7th changed the answer to nearly every question in Jewish life
• The difference between authentic mourning (aveilus balev) and performing grief on cue
• The machlokes over changing Nusach HaTefillah to reflect our current reality
• What the internal strife of the Second Beis Hamikdash teaches us about achdut today
• The danger of turning Har Habayit visits into a photo op or political statement
• Why Aliyah advocacy can tip into preachiness, and how to hold the ideal without judging the complexity of other people's lives
• Practical advice for gaining perspective when you're drowning in headlines

Rav Taragin's new sefer, Reclaiming Redemption, HaGeula Volume 2: Faith, Identity, Peoplehood, and the Storms of War, is out now.

Check out

https://www.mtaraginbooks.com/

You can also join Rav Taragin's Whatsapp Chizzuk Chat:

https://chat.whatsapp.com/HAER24G31VpJZW5zEXROYH for daily chizuk

To recieve a free copy of Light in the Darkness, about Shemirat HaEinayim in today's world, email [email protected] turns up the heat on shmiras einayim, and this episode isn't going to fix that. It's an honest conversation about the struggle, with returning guest Dr. Dan Jacobson offering real perspective instead of a quick fix.

We get into:

• Why the trigger itself was never the real issue, and what actually determines what happens next
• How mindfulness (yes, the same tools behind DBT and ACT) offers a different way to hold a hard moment, without pretending it isn't hard
• Why chasing a clean scorecard of "success" or "failure" in this area does more harm than good
• A sharp Taz on hespedim that reframes the whole question: who you are is what you value, not your track record
• Whether tznius really is "the battle of our generation," and what it means to sit with that honestly
• Practical thoughts on family vacations and beach trips, without easy answers

Dan mentions Palouse Mindfulness, a free 8-part course by a student of Jon Kabat-Zinn, for anyone who wants to go deeper on their own.

If this conversation was honest in a way you needed, leave a 5-star review. It helps more people find it.

The three weeks are here.

The time when we refocus on the fact that our lives are incomplete.

There is a gaping hole in our ruchniyus, located at the holiest spot in the world. Har HaBayit.

Some of us just think about the problem.

Others are actually doing something about it.

Rav Yehuda Levy is the latter.

He has spent countless hours learning the sugya, written articles, taught classes, and spoken to gedolei yisrael.

He also goes up regularly, was involved in starting Yeshivas Har HaBayis, and has played an active role in expanding tefillah rights at our holiest site.

All of this, in addition to his professional life as a video production manager and a United Hatzalah volunteer.

In this episode, we discuss:

• A quick overview of the sugya (it's simpler than you think)
• How an iPhone 11 with portrait mode led to easing restrictions for Jews on Har HaBayis
• Why the gedolim were opposed
• The pushback Rav Yehuda received (called an apikores and more)
• The right way to bring the geulah (surprising psak halacha)

The goal of this episode is not to change your mind. But this is a sugya that deserves to be taken seriously.

To learn more from Rav Yehuda Levi, check out beishashem.org

New beginnings are hard.

Shtark Tank went live at Yeshiva University Israel in Beit Vagan, recording in front of a room full of YU summer interns spending their summer working in Israel. The theme: new beginnings and transitions, and what it actually takes to navigate them.

Part 1 is a panel conversation with threeShtark Tank All-Stars, who have each made their own version of the leap from the beit midrash to the workforce.

Rabbi Reuven Berman is a rebbe, business owner, and CEO of Kobe IP. Zevi Reinitz is a founder, marketing executive, and author of 14 Sefarim. Moshe Rapps is a client advisor at Bernstein Private Wealth Management, an EMT, a podcaster, and a baseball coach.

Together they get into the unwritten rules of workplace communication that no one teaches you, how to stay true to your values without wearing them like armor, why relationships are the only career asset that compounds forever, and what it really means to reinvent yourself when the world is moving faster than your LinkedIn profile.

In Part 2, Shaun Regenbaum joins the conversation. Shaun is a PhD candidate at Hebrew University in bioengineering, founder and CEO of PropheX, and one of the more fascinating people you'll hear on this show. He built a Talmud lab in the middle of Georgia Tech, started his first company as an undergrad out of pure necessity, and has been quietly building one of the most interesting Torah and AI projects around at Talmud.dev.

Shaun talks about what entrepreneurship actually feels like from the inside, why he doesn't recommend it for everyone, how he navigated being the only shomer Shabbat Jew at a major research university, and where he sees Torah and technology heading.

Recorded live. Real audience. Real questions.

Teddy Berman grew up in the Syrian community in Flatbush, went to college, worked in finance — and then got the itch. Almost ten years of learning later, he's back in the driver's seat, building a family in Yerushalayim and trying to figure out what comes next.

In this bonus episode, Teddy reaches out with the questions a lot of guys have but don't always get to ask directly: How do I balance parnasa with a serious morning seder? Is the dream of American hours realistic? Does it matter if I'm a working person or a mashpia by the bima? And how do I even figure out what I'm cut out for?

We get into all of it — including the recruiter who laughed in my face, why Rav Yonasan Sacks's career advice puzzled me as a bochur in KBY, and why knowing yourself is the most underrated job search tool there is.

Also: what Aliyah really means for your community, your nusach, and your kids — and why "choosing a box" might be the wrong frame entirely.

If you're somewhere between the beis medrash and the boardroom, this one's for you.

Topics covered:

• Hishtadlus, bitachon, and the Ramban on going to war
• Ahavat melacha — what Chazal actually say about loving your work
• Soft skills vs. marketable skills: the honest breakdown
• Using AI for career self-reflection (Teddy's been doing it)
• Building community in Eretz Yisrael as an Anglo oleh
• Dati Leumi vs. Haredi — more nuance than you think

What happens when you have a good job, mentors you trust, and a clear path forward — and you walk away anyway?

Shlomo Ashkanazy (Co-Director, WashU JLIC) and Ami Yunger (COO, Mizrachi Canada) both built careers in the Israeli tech world before pressing pause to go on shlichut in North America. Neither choice was obvious. Neither was painless. And neither of them regrets it — mostly.

In this conversation, they unpack the real calculus behind leaving stability for something harder to define. From their shared roots at Yeshivat HaKotel and OurCrowd, to navigating anti-Semitism on a college campus and in Toronto's streets, to Shlomo's gut-wrenching decision on Simchat Torah 2023 about whether to board a plane back to Israel — this episode doesn't stay on the surface.

What we talk about:

• Why both of them credit OurCrowd — and its mission-driven culture — as the bridge between tech and shlichut
• The nonlinear career path: real talk about professional anxiety, histadlus, and bitachon
• Ami on being COO of a Jewish nonprofit and why "COO" isn't just a fancy title for a shaliach
• Shlomo on starting WashU JLIC from scratch — and what happened when 50 students showed up to his empty house on October 9th, 2023
• The anti-Semitism reality in Canada: bullets through shul windows, hiding event locations until 10 minutes before showtime, and how you maintain Zionist pride when it's being weaponized against you

• Shlomo's still-unresolved guilt about not getting on a plane after October 7th
• The 40-year test: how do you make a decision when the downside isn't catastrophic, but the stakes feel enormous?

Guests:Shlomo Ashkanazy is Co-Director of JLIC at Washington University in St. Louis, which he and his wife founded as the inaugural couple. Ami Yunger is COO of Mizrachi Canada, where he supports the organization's growth across programming, operations, and community.

Ami Tobin was faced with a descision: He had a week full of 8 hour shifts, guarding an outpost in miluim.

How was he going to use that time?

Watch the NBA Finals? Or something more meaningful?

He pulled out his notes. And by the end of that week, his sefer — Amech Dodi — was fully edited. Both Hebrew and English.

That story is a window into who Ami Tobin is. A Beit Shemesh kid who grew up watching his mother trade a PhD in psychology for a life of teaching Torah. A Givati soldier. A HiBob customer success manager. A husband of a wife who finished medical school during wartime.

And a young man who lost his mother, Dodi Tobin z"l, to cancer — and turned years of Friday-afternoon Divrei Torah into a published sefer in her memory.

In this episode, we talk about what nearly 300 days of Milluim actually costs you professionally, how Torah identity survives the grind of the tech world, and what it looked like to watch his mother face illness with a level of emunah that only grew stronger as things got harder.

Her message: Torah isn't just practice. It's the lens everything else passes through.

Topics covered:

• Growing up in Beit Shemesh with parents who were growing alongside him
• Yeshiva Ma'alot, Givati, and finding a Torah identity worth keeping
• Stumbling into tech via HiBob — right place, right time
• ~300 days of Milluim and what it does to a career (and a person)
• His wife finishing medical school during wartime — the real superstar
• Dodi Tobin z"l: her pivot from psychology to Torah, her emunah under pressure, and the Shabbat-vs-client-call story
• Writing Amech Dodi — Divrei Torah collected since yeshiva, edited on guard duty, published l'ilui nishmatah
• The women's Beit Midrash being built in Beit Shemesh in her memory

Links:

• Amech Dodi on Amazon: link
• Beit Midrash building fund: link