AND HERE’S MODI
Rabbi Gavriel Bellino Returns (Pt. 1)
Episode 112 PT 1: Modi and Periel are joined by the one-and-only Rabbi Gavriel Bellino.
Modi's special "Know Your Audience" is available on YouTube now!
For all upcoming shows visit www.modilive.com.
Follow Modi on Instagram at @modi_live.
Episode 112 PT 1: Modi and Periel are joined by the one-and-only Rabbi Gavriel Bellino.
Modi's special "Know Your Audience" is available on YouTube now!
For all upcoming shows visit www.modilive.com.
Follow Modi on Instagram at @modi_live.
Welcome to and here's Modi. And welcome back to and here's Modi. We are hot off of Pesach Passover. We just finished. We landed, we had shows, we had shows, we had shows, we did Florida. Leo booked it that we did three Pesach programs, which we should talk about Pesach programs a little bit, even though we've spoken about it. I called it your non-Gebrauchstor. Your non Gebrauchstor, oh, so specific.
Periel:What is that?
Modi:Non-Gebrauchstor. It was amazing. We had the best time, the shows were great. I will tell you one thing it's a lot. So these Passover programs, over a thousand people in a hotel and they all eat in one room it is the loudest experience you can ever imagine. I will tell you all right now.
Modi:Leo is not Jewish and does not have to keep the laws of kosher for Passover and did not go to any of the meals and ordered Uber Eats into the room. Hilarious, leo could not. We went down the first night and these programs are amazing the Doral, the Doral Shgoyach and the Doral the Trump Doral they all have five names. It's like Doral Ram Glot, mart Kos kosher program. And then they send you a check from like congregation beth usherin. You know some like it's h1, but the dural, and then the one at the turnberry which is alaska. Oh, so beautiful, what a property, what an amazing in the food and uh and majestic. We just did the show there. But I'm just telling you it's so loud and so aggressive in the dining rooms and they're just coming and bringing in the waiters, giving everybody eight entrees and it's like the cats and leo can't take it. Leo couldn't. He's like I can't, I can't. It's like I'm. He couldn't catch his breath.
Gavriel:It's a never done it.
Modi:No, it's not you. You have a different Pesach journey. Is his mind close enough, yeah?
Periel:We have a guest.
Modi:No, but he had one minute.
Gavriel:We're just getting into it. A guest. It's the rabbi. I'm barely a guest. You know what I am? Remember on the Tonight Show when they wouldn't have a guest or someone would cancel in the last minute and they'd bring in al roker every time so I'm al roker, god forbid. By the way, you were the og guest I am look I finished my story.
Modi:Where was I? Paysock programs, so that's it. So leo stayed in the room and just ordered uh, uber eats, do you eat it? Do you eat this? No, I'm okay. I know how to handle a room. A thousand jews screaming at the top of their lungs. I sat with Dina's parents. I had a wonderful time, but for someone who's not Jewish and does not, 1,000 people in a room 1,000 people in a room. Each table is about 20 to 25.
Periel:No.
Modi:And they're like you end up screaming across so it wasn't for him. And then the buffet after it gets manhandled, it looks like you end up screaming across so it wasn't for him. And then the buffet, after it gets manhandled, it looks like you know it's as beautiful as it begins. At the end it looks like terror. So Leo's not for Leo.
Periel:It sounds like a lot. Yeah, it's a lot. Anyway, we are in the studio with Rabbi Gav Bellino.
Modi:Rabbi Gav Bellino, rabbi Gav Bellino.
Periel:Our first guest ever, our first guest only.
Modi:And here we are A hundred, over a hundred episodes later and you're back. So this is my third time. Third time. Yeah, he was back in the middle Third time's a charm, yeah.
Periel:I went to a very chic Passover Seder with Mr Jake Cohen. Oh Chef.
Modi:Jake Cohen.
Periel:It was amazing, very not that, not a thousand screaming.
Modi:No.
Periel:Who's tossing balls of gefilte fish at each other?
Gavriel:No, this is just he like threw four different sedar, like he did a whole sedar sedars to do him.
Modi:Yeah, okay, and so how was the? How was how was it it?
Periel:was amazing. It was um judy gold and deborah messing acted out the exodus oh they, they edited it like that.
Modi:That was cute.
Periel:It was the later Seder. That's a lot.
Modi:The later Seder. That's hysterical, it was amazing. That's fun it really was. We have yeah.
Periel:No, no, go ahead.
Modi:No, no, no, no. That's it. I'm giving you something else to have Jake happen.
Periel:You're going to so it was. Benj Pasek, alex Edelman and Jake Cohen, who I guess have been doing.
Modi:Oh, and our friend also. What's his name? Leo Page was there, and his husband, ben Probably. Yeah, he's like an oral surgeon or something. Do you know? Did you get to meet him, leo Page? He was there at the same state. Okay, it doesn't matter.
Periel:There were a lot of very cute gay guys.
Gavriel:Was there brisket?
Periel:No, I don't think there was brisket. What did he serve? There were like really chic, like gourmet little matzahs with cream cheese and Russ and Daughters Yum.
Modi:Yeah, yeah, and like singing Cute. Yeah.
Gavriel:Very cute. How long was it?
Periel:not that long. I mean, there was like a party too. It was really fun it was.
Modi:That's so fun. What a great seder.
Periel:And I had, yeah, and the night before I had gone to my family's, which is like riddled with mental illness, so this felt like a good seder ha, ha ha ha, ha ha.
Modi:Seder is really my only like Passover. For me it's the Seder and then there's the shows. So the Seder's in my house. We have my mother comes, we have the grandkids there. We have all in my house.
Periel:In your apartment.
Modi:Yeah, and I like I get a little spiritual and I just make sure everybody's focusing on what Seder they need Now, the Shabbat before the Sabbath, before the Seder before Passover, the special Shabbat. It's called Shabbat HaGadol and that the rabbi's speech is supposed to be a big thing on that, and I went. It's not during, like in the morning, they do it in the afternoon. That's how big it is. Now I went to Rabbi Bellino's Dvar Torah speech before that on the Shabbat Before the thing. It was unbelievable. You're really sweet. You really forget, you know, when he's your friend and you talk about fashion and you talk about working out and you're talking about current events and punchlines, you forget that this is a rabbi and he knows so much. He gave an hour and a half of of why we dip the the wine out of the cup my favorite part right so in in one line, the whole dvar torah.
Modi:It's just so that we don't, when we we're showing that we're not thrilled that our enemies are suffering. That's period. No, now he built up what? No, no, then you built. Then you built the case for it all the way back to like the rabbis. That's what?
Gavriel:500 no, everybody says that it's like the great. It's a ritual to show empathy, but it's kind of made up. It's actually like a revenge ritual that developed around the time of the crusades and it was really a way of like showing your anger at your neighbors, showing your anger at the people that are mistreating you.
Gavriel:And then at a certain point we turned it around and and listen, there are tropes. There are tropes in rabbinical literature about that that encourage empathy and not not. Not celebrating when your enemy falls is from Proverbs. But there's a give and take, there's a back and forth on it and it's sort of a complicated thing.
Modi:One of the options you left on the table was that this could be why you do this.
Gavriel:Yeah, of course.
Modi:And that's the one I took home. So that's the sweet thing. He built a few different cases. This is an hour and a half speech you're talking about. He built a few different cases. An hour and a half speech you're talking about. He built a few different cases of why we did it and then brought back all like to the Rishonim, to the first, to the like, and he goes how do we know that? This was said before this, because this was said at 580 and this was said at 420 and he's like all that deep and I'm like blown away and it's.
Gavriel:It was really nice to have you and it's nice to learn with you. We don't get to do that but when we do we do? We have lots of things every time you give a Shabbat sermon, it's a learning thing. He hits you with a Shabbat sermon again when you come to my shul girl, you're going to love it. You have to come to the shul girl you're going to love it.
Modi:You have to come to the shul. You have to those of you who are listening to this, by the way. Okay, come to the shul, you're all invited. It is the most open. It's an Orthodox synagogue. Men sit on one side, women on the other, and what defines men and women in that shul is another whole thing.
Modi:It's a vibe, it's a vibe, it's a vibe, it's a vibe and everyone's welcome. The services are done in an orthodox manner the nigonim. The songs are done carly buck style and regular, regular motif it doesn't, it doesn't take forever, it doesn't take forever. He is completely super conscious that everybody has a day after this event and we're out there sometimes by 8.30.
Gavriel:If I don't have tequila in my face by 11.15, I feel like a failure. What do you mean, 8.30?
Modi:in the morning. No, no, 11.30. We start at 9 in the morning.
Gavriel:Yeah, and we're done by 11.15.
Modi:So there's the service upstairs, there's the service upstairs, there's the service upstairs, and then you go downstairs and all of a sudden, the amount of people downstairs, into the Kiddush, into the lunch, all of a sudden it's double the amount of people. What do you call them JFK? Just for Kiddush. They come, just they don't even come to the synagogue. They all have a reason. They all have a stroller and a baby hanging off, but they go right downstairs. They're not looking for the, they're not there for the service, they're there to to see people and and be. This is their Shabbat, that's nice.
Modi:To come down to a to a Kiddush, that's right.
Periel:Now, it's a very interesting thing that you're talking about with the plagues and the blood and the empathy for the well, yeah, we didn't finish. Well, you know, I mean, it's a really Especially what's going on now.
Gavriel:It's a really interesting thing, because to look at your enemy and to look at the downfall of your enemy and to be saddened to say my cup is not full because these horrible people have been punished, so it takes a great strength. Now, 2024, I don't think we have that strength. I don't think we have that strength. I don't think we have that. I think we're all too mad to really have the strength to feel empathy, and maybe so my point was maybe even more so. Maybe we need to correct that. Maybe we need to think that these are actual. We have to remind ourselves that these are actual people and we're so traumatized, we're so upset. I have you on pesach. I took a nap. I never, I never let these protests get to me. I'm so selective about what gets to me and like what my, what my inputs are. You are all.
Gavriel:You're very much like that very much yes and you know I had a little to drink at lunch on Monday and it was a warm day, so my window was open and I guess I was sleeping. But the protest started again at the new school and that's a couple of blocks away from where I live and you hear just like the drumming and the calls of genocide and the anti-Semitism, and you know that's why I'm sleeping and it wakes me up and it made me so panicky, it made me so upset. Maybe it was, it could have been the alcohol, it could have been that it hit me when I was like sleeping and I was like I felt so vulnerable in my own home. I was nowhere near, I was two blocks away on the 10th floor, but I don't know. It really got to me.
Gavriel:This holiday, this Yom Tov, and that's the contradiction we're celebrating the redemption of years ago in an unredeemed world and that's a really hard sell, I think, for a lot of people. How do you celebrate the Passover, how do you celebrate an exodus from Egypt when our siblings aren't free and our siblings are mourning? And this was a very difficult Pesach.
Modi:Yeah, yeah, it was the first Pesach from when the war began.
Gavriel:So then, what was the comedy about it? How do you handle that? We have similar jobs in that there's a lot of entertainment to my job.
Modi:Well, people coming to your synagogue. They want to hear what the rabbi's view of what's happening in the world is. In that there's a lot of entertainment to my job. Well, people are coming to your synagogue. They want to hear what the rabbi's view of what's happening in the world is. This is the vibe which I'm completely unqualified to give. That's not true at all. That's not true, that's not true at all, your vibe is always and you always.
Modi:Whenever you speak, you give. Here's the other option, here's where I'm at Right. You always give them. You can walk away with this with whatever you want. I walked away. Have passion for these, for the, and you built a case for five different ways you can walk away with this. I took the one that worked for me, brought it to my Seder, you know.
Periel:To what To have compassion for your enemy To have, it's not my enemy's, not my enemy.
Modi:The Hamas, a four-year-old child that was a part of a bomb that was hit.
Gavriel:Of course you have to have compassion for that, but I think the point is, even Hamas you then have to have compassion for, and that's a lot of all that. No, no, no, that's another reason.
Modi:Bin Fo'i Right, so he said are we all children of God and funny in our synagogue. You know where it says. On top of the ark it says know in front of who you are standing in front of when you're standing here. But on top of that it says Do we not all have one father?
Gavriel:Say it in Hebrew, do we not have? I don't remember, it's a quote from Malachi Right?
Modi:I think it was. Do we not all come from one father? Yeah, well, abraham, we come from Abraham, and there are cousins, these are cousins, and so, okay, that's a big, it's a big, it's a big, it's yeah. And this Pesach with those protests are I don't talk about that stuff usually in these protests, but the world sees, the world sees the Jewish protests. There's kids in the corner where they were told this is where you can protest from Holding the flag, chanting peace, peace. And the other kids are so unhinged. And that girl with the video that went viral about how they took over a building no Jews taking over a building. We might do a triple net lease, but no Jews taking over a building at a demonstration. And then these Arab kids not these Arab kids, these pro-Hamas kids took over a building at a demonstration. And then these Arab kids not these Arab kids, these pro-Hamas kids took over a building. And then they are saying we can't get food in. And they asked her did you try? Did you order?
Periel:Google Eats.
Modi:And they said we didn't try yet, but we are afraid that we will not be allowed and the Colombians should be sending them food. It's so good. And of course where does my head go? I go. If these were Jewish kids at an event they'd call Second Avenue Deli A&H Provisions Arthur would send them all sandwiches. You know what I'm saying? It would be catered. It's amazing. It would be catered and she's sitting there. We might not be able to get Uber Eats into the building that we've taken hostage. Are you insane?
Periel:First of all, she said that it was a humanitarian crisis.
Modi:They're in there for 14 hours. It's not a humanitarian crisis. It's, at best, intermittent fasting. What an idiot.
Periel:It's so goofy.
Modi:It's so goofy with their faces covered and they're just Also, you know.
Periel:And they're like half naked, wrapped in a keffiyeh oh God, and like a rainbow flag bag, like what are you doing? It hits me.
Gavriel:Listen, you know a lot of people say, well, like if you went to Gaza, you know you wouldn't be safe in Gaza. So I never really liked that argument because if you really hold that, it's oppression. So oppression is oppression. And you don't, you know, you don't just go, you don't just support places where you would be safe. So that always seemed like a cheap shot to me, but it's devastating. I'll tell you very personally, a community that I feel, that I've supported and that I've sacrificed for, that has absolutely turned on me and my people, is devastating and it really really gets me you mean the gay community.
Modi:Yeah, of course.
Gavriel:Yes, and I just don't know. It's hard for me to process even.
Periel:Can you talk a little bit more about that? I know you've talked about it on previous shows.
Modi:No, he supports LGBT.
Periel:Yeah listen.
Gavriel:I mean I've definitely got in trouble professionally for some of the work that I've done. I've definitely gone out to protest and I was. I thought of gay marriage as a civil right and I made that very, very clear and I I signed things that I put my name on on, on statements that have that. It's very difficult in this world, and especially in the religious community, to to take that position and for me it was. I grew up in the, I grew up in the West Village. It was never weird to me, it was never like it was not something that was definitionally offensive or it was just a different crowd and they need support. And when I was a kid, it was a crowd that needed support because they were dropping like flies and all my parents' friends were dying, and so it became like obvious that this is a community to support.
Gavriel:And now that I don't get it that I that I don't get it back, I had a friend. I had a friend I met in my coffee shop. You know, I I like at a certain point in my life I decided I was going to like proactively branch out and have more friends of people that are not like me. Okay, also because so many of people in my shul and associated with my shul are also my friends. I needed a time, I needed downtime, when I wasn't a professional, I wasn't acting as the rabbi Um, so I just I needed friends and my coffee shop was great for that and I made a lot of.
Gavriel:I know a lot of them have been very, very wonderful through all of this, but I lost some friends and even before October 7th I lost friends over this. People that had no problem eating at my Shabbat table, coming to Shabbat dinner, but then, you know, marching. That Israel was. Even before October 7th. This was a community that was accusing us of genocide, right, and these are my friends. You're eating my stupid challah and with that same mouth. You're accusing me of genocide, right, and I, you know, I ended the friendship. I ghosted her away. I just I didn't even want to talk about it. I mean, I tried to. I was like you don't understand that this is existential.
Modi:Yeah, you can't change their minds. You can't change their minds.
Gavriel:And it's so disappointing Because, if it, doesn't fit the narrative.
Periel:They're actually. We've learned that on the show over and over and over again, that if anything doesn't fit the narrative, they don't want to hear it right it could. Facts, facts from people who are not jewish, um, who live there, who are muslim, who are arab, who are telling them what, what is happening, and they don't want to hear it yep, yeah, but okay but how do we bring?
Modi:this into comedy um.
Gavriel:So how do you, how, how is comedy through this? So?
Modi:comedy at the Passover programs while everybody again it's and here's Morty. People are on their phones all day long. You know, after October 7th they were watching the war. Now, before Passover, they're watching protests at schools where their kids are. You know, yeah, and then I'm on stage. I addressed it, I I go and right into comedy. I joked about the programs, easy, like low-hanging fruit, talking about what's happening there, making, making all of the all of the son-in-laws I made I made every son-in-law turn to their, to their father-in-law, and say thank you for bringing me on this program. There's no way I would be able to be able to afford eight days at this resort, you know, and that kind of stuff.
Modi:And then at the end I spoke about again, about the missions to israel, which was amazing people laughing and then I sang a tikvah. We sing a tikvah at the end to remind ourselves where our hearts, our prayers, our souls are, and then we go back into our lives of looking at the news if that's what you choose to do and fighting and talking and arguing and you know, and all of that. But we'll just give it a few minutes of calmness. But I got to talk back more about the synagogue. It's for people who really don't have a place to go and you can and it's choose your journey. It does not need to be Mincha, shacharis and Meirev, it doesn't. It come with what works for you. If only there's people who come only Friday night, people that come only Saturday, people that come my father, I only come on Shabbat. They could be like only Shabbat, it's like it's just so funny, it's just it's such a and it's a.
Modi:I want to talk about the synagogue. So we have first of all the president of the synagogue. So much you can tell about a synagogue by the president of the synagogue. Anybody who's a president of the synagogue. Anybody who's a president of the synagogue. You're not well anybody who? Chooses to be the president of a synagogue is somebody who's not. Well, you can't, you can't, you can't, but I'm the president of the synagogue. Um, I got it. No, you're president of a jewish synagogue. Where did you even think this is going to?
Gavriel:go well.
Modi:It never goes.
Gavriel:well, I mean, there's something about, like the people that are active in synagogue who have, like you know, in their jobs. They get pushed around. At home they get pushed around and suddenly they come to shul and they're a ball of bus Right.
Modi:And now they're a man of rhetoric In their house. No one wants to hear from them.
Periel:Right, yeah, what is the job of the president?
Modi:Every shul is different. Some of the presidents, let me tell you. Let me tell you, let me tell you the synagogues we've done, me and Leo, where we get to and it's like 1,200 people. These like conservative and reform synagogues. The president is usually a woman and she is on it. On it, she's got the lighting, the sound, the this. She knows the crowd control. Boom. She's a team. She knows how to delegate. Killing it. Orthodox synagogue. Hi, how are you Steve? Steve, I'm the president. I've been the president. I've been the president. I'm the president. I've been the president. I've been the president. I'm the president. I'm not the president. Our president is Yiddy Ellie. I'm sorry, ellie, ellie Yidowitz, Ellie Yidowitz, there's the dyslexia right there. First of all, he's always on a little something. No, he's not on nothing. He's not on nothing. He's not on nothing and always punchlines.
Gavriel:He's looking for punchlines 24-7 that are, by the way, that are amazing to him. That are sometimes are so funny.
Modi:What does he do? He's in publishing he's in advertising advertising he does like pharmaceutical advertising and sometimes he just he grows his beard out for the whole year, just so on Purim he can do a braided a chassid costume. Oh my God.
Gavriel:It'd be long stockings.
Modi:Beyond Ashkenazi, he's beyond. He's like Open up a book. What is Ashkenazi? That's Ashkenazi. Wife, moroccan, yeah, moroccan. That doesn't say a word, not a word, not a peep out of her mouth, unless she gets a cup of wine in there.
Gavriel:And then we've unleashed something.
Modi:Then you've it's so funny but it's like that's the vibe and it's the best, it's easy and it's laughing and it's a huge synagogue, so you really can.
Periel:I've been there. I feel like I've been there. Gav told me he also made like 500 chicken cutlets by himself.
Gavriel:Okay, so we have Seder you can literally choose your own journey.
Modi:Some people come in dressed in a full suit, like a full Shabbat, how they grew up. We're going to synagogue full suit, full, everything, tie, everything.
Gavriel:I want a coyote ugly to tie right off.
Modi:My father looks at them. What are you wearing? My father comes in his good jeans, this button-down shirt. That's only if my mother catches him on the way out.
Gavriel:Otherwise he's going to put on a… no, because if she doesn't, then he comes in and he tells me where he got it for free.
Modi:Yeah, costco, not Costco Castro Oil, or his A&H jacket and he sits there in the front and does a hug. But it's that vibe. Or you can be super religious. We have people that come that are Chabad people. They just sit there, they do their little Chabad thing and then they go. It's just an easy vibe and he created that. He really he created a Curated, curated and created.
Gavriel:Yes and no. People who?
Modi:throw the vibes off. He kind of lets them out. Really, People who unvibe a shul. There's people who can unvibe a shul. Yeah, there's people who can unvibe.
Gavriel:I'm good about it though.
Modi:You're very good about it. Do you get plenty of comeback?
Gavriel:I mean there was always. It was always a flexible place and there was always the chaos and the sweetness and the loveliness. I mean an early story of your father involved him like cursing at somebody on the BEMA. I mean it's like it was always a little weird.
Modi:What's that story? Oh my God, do weird. It was always a lot of fun. Oh my god, do you know this? Do you know this? I, I, yes, I know this is.
Gavriel:This is a guy, burt, and he's like a kind of playful, and so modi's father does hagba every week that's when you pick up the torah you, you pick up, you pick up that he does a hug. But every week this is my like second week in shul he does. I learned second week that he does hagba when he first became, became the rabbi.
Gavriel:So he does Chagba and you know, you tie the Torah up and then you wrap it with a belt. And so this guy was feeling playful. So he takes the belt and he hits your father in the face with a belt.
Modi:As he's tying the Torah. It's a belt, it's a little piece of velvet. It's a velvet.
Gavriel:It's a velvet, velvet carton, and your father.
Modi:My father takes it seriously.
Periel:My father goes there picks up the Torah holds, it comes, he's picking it up. He's very serious 87, 88 years old. I know your father.
Modi:I can't imagine that's his thing Stands up there, and then he goes and sits down, sits down, you close the Torah. And somebody you close the Torah and somebody, a random person, that's given the honor to put the cover. So this guy, bert, was there and he shows me he was trying to be people with my father. My father just do it already. So my father said to him what was that? I think it was go fuck yourself.
Gavriel:You fat fuck or something. It was something like that.
Modi:No, it was fuck you, you fucking fuck, or something. It was something like that. No, it was fuck you, you fucking fuck. He used fuck in every scene my father had no patience.
Gavriel:My father get this done. You do hot butt, you do glila, you move on. Everyone is singing the Zotatorah song.
Modi:Yeah, everybody's singing Zotatorah and he's having this interaction with this guy.
Gavriel:I knew that second second weekend to shore that it was going to be different.
Periel:It was going to be very, very different. And did you get rid of Bert? No, he's the best. No, bert's adorable, he was being playful.
Modi:He was being playful. My father do it already. No, we don't get rid of a Bert.
Periel:Bert's a character.
Modi:He's our next president. Why?
Periel:I don't know that's hysterical.
Gavriel:Anyway, I don't know that's hysterical.
Modi:Anyway, it's just an amazing environment that everybody should feel welcome to.
Gavriel:And that's I'll tell you. I made the first.
Modi:And comedians oh my. God, we have a lot of comedians. We have a lot of comedians.
Periel:Well, you're not not a comedian yourself, thank you.
Gavriel:We made. We have a lot we have to. We need to do a Friday night dinner. We need to do a Friday night dinner. We need to do like a funny person dinner. Okay, we should do that, we'll get, yeah.
Modi:And we have also in the synagogue. Now you know how I always joke about everybody in the synagogue there's always riffs a little bit. That's the one I don't talk to. Him I do talk to, I don't talk, we don't. In our synagogue we have Sandra Bernhardt. Comes to the synagogue and she sits right, third row up front and harmonizes with whoever's singing, loves it, loves it. I go up there. Whatever I'm singing, she does the harmony to it. Beautiful voice it's so nice.
Gavriel:They get along really nicely musically With who you and Sandra yeah she's wonderful.
Modi:She's wonderful, I love her. We've had dinner with her, Okay. Then she found out that I performed at the Republican Jewish Coalition and she lost her mind. She didn't lose her mind, she's like okay, I'm not, like this is not cute and she had to tell me about it and all that, and so like, that's like, that's like a new. The Zohar says if you go through life and everybody loves you and likes you, you've done something wrong. You have done something wrong and thank God that this is the little tiff I have in my life and I actually thank Sandra for it. I thank her for it.
Gavriel:You also understand. I get it she comes from a different world. Yeah, I mean, she's so committed to that world.
Periel:She doesn't come from a different world. No, she's so committed to that world she doesn't come from a different world.
Modi:No, she does. Sandra Bernhardt is an activist, pro-gay activist, Day one screaming against Republicans.
Periel:Yeah, you know who.
Modi:She is. But hold on, hold on, and so I do my work. I come, I'm in the party, I'm telling them look, look, this is what's happening. I'm performing in front of them and telling them it's okay to be gay and it's okay to be gay. Period is what I'm telling them. And you know, and so she's just. We did different approaches and it's just. But I just love that. That's my thing.
Periel:Okay, good, I'm glad that you love that. I don't want to hear about this bullshit, this pro-gay. Cynthia Nixon, rosie O'Donnell, I don't know, sandra Bernhardt, but this narrative is not real, okay.
Modi:What are you talking about?
Periel:This narrative of like all of the people who are screaming that we are committing genocide.
Modi:Sandra Berhardt, not committing. That's not what I'm talking about. That's not what I'm talking about at all. So what are you talking about?
Gavriel:No, no no, no, no, no, no, we have to cut that out of the podcast.
Modi:You didn't get this. Okay, start again. Sandra is very pro-Israel and very pro-gay.
Periel:Okay.
Gavriel:I don't know where you were going with that. She's an she's, she's an activist, and for her the republican agenda whether it's taking away a woman's right to choose or the anti-gay agenda, so is devastating. Okay, and so then, for modi to perform for them seems to her like selling out. Yeah, and you understand her passion in this area. That's a little bit different With Modi. He comes into this room and already he's sitting down with them and talking to them.
Modi:He's exposed to them With my husband Sitting, with my husband Sitting with them, and they're like okay, that's our comedian that we love and have a great time with, and that's our comedian that we love and have a great time with, and that's his husband done it's just, the world is a little bit more complicated than that, yes, but I understand that sometimes it's sometimes it's fun to simplify it for them.
Modi:Sometimes it's it's fun to just simplify it. We are watching a gay comedian at a republican show period. It's just, and then. Not that I'm with them or against them, I'm just. I was there, they saw a gay comedian and that was it. She's not okay with that, which is fine.
Gavriel:She loves Shul, she loves Hashem, she is thoughtful and lovely and such a soul and you guys need to get along.
Modi:We do. I'm going to broker this. I'm going to make a peace treaty in 2024. There's no peace. I just love it. I love that. That's your view, isn't that my view Of?
Gavriel:all of them.
Modi:Yeah, I know, by the way there was another person in the synagogue that didn't like me. Okay, there was a photo. There was a photo that was done.
Gavriel:Oh, this is so good.
Periel:Limor Garfinkel.
Modi:Garfinkel. Thank you, limor Garfinkel did this beautiful art project with comedians.
Gavriel:She did this picture of me, which is so beautiful. Wait, wait, wait, wait she did this picture of in shul in our synagogue.
Gavriel:His photo it's triple exposed. It's like this amazing thing. And then she did that over the summer, over the summer years ago. And then that november it was the new york comedy festival and she did there was a fundraiser for like the adhd and d clint nick at mount sinai and she sold, she was auctioning off her her photographs. She was on there was that remembers? At the, at the roof of the public? Yeah, it was, it was acceptable. My god, wow, you really, you really. I remember everything.
Modi:I remember you don't remember everything why it was. First of all, it was at that that, it was at ian schrager hotel and we were there with um tracy tracy had. Just it wasn't at the public, it was at the public no, not the theater at the hotel.
Gavriel:Yeah, yeah okay, so, uh, so it was tracy's like first appearance after the after after the injury, like everyone was standing around. It was was amazing and she had all these pieces out. It was a silent auction, so I walked over. And the Modi one is amazing, so I walk over to the Modi one. No one has bid on it yet, so I put down my name and I had the starting whatever the starting bid, I put down my name.
Modi:And you know what? And you paid more and more and more and more, oh yeah.
Gavriel:There was a bidding, there was quite a bidding war. Because it's just a beautiful photograph and turns out that I won the Modi photo.
Modi:And it's on this beautiful metal. It's mad and it's amazing.
Gavriel:I went to her office to pick it up. It was amazing. And listen, I love Modi the most, but it's not going in my living room. So then I asked you I'm like do you want, would you like this? So he hangs it down no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Even before that, I asked you if you wanted it and you said what would I do with it? I said I don't know. It's beautiful. He said I don't need a picture of me like that. I don't want it. I said you know what? Offer it to my friends. I offer it to your father, your father, why would I want it? So then I put it downstairs and just like as a whole, just a whole place, and let people see it for a few weeks. And this woman called the woman who doesn't like you comes up to me and it's one of those you should know people. So please do it. She's just like. You should know I. I'm a big fan of comedy, but I'm really not a fan of modi's comedy, really yeah, it was something like that.
Modi:So talking about what's his name's wife? Yeah, wow, how do you remember?
Gavriel:I remember it's not like that. What happened? By the way, we all?
Modi:he hangs it wow, talk about landing. Basically, it's this beautiful picture of me as a chassid, as a chaz and as me with a black t-shirt pointing at the thing saying no, in front of who you stand. Amazing.
Periel:Amazing picture.
Modi:Listen, wait. So he hangs it downstairs. And he asks me are you okay with this hanging After he tells me that this one woman in the synagogue isn't a fan. She doesn't like me for a few reasons. It was whatever, whatever it was. And then I go, I go wait. So you mean, every time we have kiddish she has to see this.
Gavriel:I go leave it here. It's there forever now.
Modi:It's there, it's right where he puts underneath it. He puts the gefilte, the gefilte fish, not the gefilte fish, the, the herring, the smelly herring.
Gavriel:The herring right under it. Right underneath it. Well, tell her, in the shul, the condos, that picture will still be there.
Modi:Meanwhile, she and I are best friends, now what? Yeah, we're great friends now.
Periel:What was her problem? I don't know.
Modi:No, it was her and her husband had to introduce me once at a shul event and they thought they were going to be hysterical and try to roast me. But wow, were they wrong because I I came. It's funny, it was a. It was a shul dinner in his shul. In this, not in the shul. He actually took a place for it, yeah and and they went up there and they were like they were the mcs and because there's a comic coming on, they're gonna roast him, ha ha. Luckily sandra bernhardt performed before me and she was filthy. We have the worst show on the planet.
Gavriel:No one should come to my show.
Modi:F's and S's and C words just at the shul dinner.
Periel:You wouldn't let me and Alda do a show there because you said you guys would be filthy.
Gavriel:That was in the sanctuary.
Modi:You can't put that mouth on the sanctuary, the Torah's right there the. Torah's right there. The Torah's right there. You got to have some cover for that. You think you are Modi's father? Yeah, so listen to hilarious.
Periel:Good callback, good callback. Call that a callback. Wait.
Modi:So, no, so so. So I'm fine, I'm going to do the show. I'm going tohardt do 10 minutes. She was filthy, hysterical, funny. She was Sandra Bernhardt period. She did and that was it, and then she was more of a toast. She didn't do a set, she did a toast it was beautiful. And then this couple introduces me, which I'm very close with them now and I love them, them now, and I love them, and um and uh, and they thought it would be hysterical we're gonna roast. Modi as and like taking jabs and shots.
Gavriel:They do that thing. You know, when a couple gets up and like she has her line and he has his, yeah, like they're going back and forth. Super cute, so rehearsed. The worst, the worst couldn't get worse literally, literally and here's Modi and here's Modi and here's Modi.
Modi:Now I'm following, you know, heckle and jekyll, and here's Modi. And so I just started to rip into them Like hard and the S and F bombs were already out there. So I just took that too. I said do you two? Really, you know, do F. And it was really just. And that was it. So she then was like in shock that I destroyed them. So she didn't like me. So so then he told me I said it's going to be here. So, and once they still doesn't like me, he goes. Yup, I go. I want her to see that every Shabbat. I want every Shabbat for her to have to look at me when she's getting her herring.
Gavriel:Your performance at that show dinner. It was hilarious. It provoked a special board meeting where you were the topic where there were more conservative voices that were like this is terrible, we can't have this. And then it was everyone else that said Not because of me, because of Sandra. You were the. They overlooked Sandra. Really she prepared your own shul dinner.
Periel:Why?
Gavriel:Because he was cursing yeah, because of that. Yeah, but then some of the younger- Because it took a shot at them. But then the younger leadership was like this is actually the funniest thing. This is everything Like our shul cannot be like a regular shul. We're not.
Modi:We don't have anything in us. This is who we are. This is a while ago where our synagogue had old people in it.
Periel:Not anymore. They had these people. Covid. They all died when Rabbi.
Modi:Poznan. When Rabbi Gavriel took over, it was like the average age was literally deceased, and they were on the board. Still Now the old people that come to our shul just come to be like, hey, isn't this nice, we can sit, have lunch and go home. Back then the old people tried to control.
Gavriel:There was controlling. It was whatever we would have this. Who's going Back then the?
Modi:old people tried to control. There was controlling, it was whatever.
Gavriel:We could have who's going to make the hamotsi. I'm like everyone I don't know who cares that kind of nonsense.
Modi:Anyway, it was just a moment and that was it. It was fine. Everyone loves each other now.
Gavriel:It's a very loving environment you know why?
Modi:Because the rabbi's in charge. By the way those of you who don't know shuls work better when the rabbi is in charge.
Gavriel:Who else would be in charge.
Modi:Every member. It's a mixed bag, because if the rabbi's crazy, Chabad houses are amazing because the rabbi's in charge, but it also means that the rabbi has to be there when the air conditioner gets repaired.
Gavriel:That's also a thing.
Periel:Yes, has to be there when the air conditioner gets repaired.
Gavriel:That's also a thing. Yes, yes, yes. Why does the rabbi have to be there when the air conditioner? Well, I mean you delegate, but it means it's ultimately your responsibility. It's not like you have some kind of board of people that are involved that are now responsible for, like building maintenance and making sure that that's off of the rabbi's plate. And now we come, it's on my plate.
Periel:The air conditioning's on your plate.
Gavriel:The air conditioning.
Modi:Oh God, we had a thing. Should we cut into the next show?
Periel:Well, we could cut into the next show.
Gavriel:I mean fascinating and riveting. As the air conditioning is, I found these amazing urinal cakes. Oh, I heard about the urinal cakes.
Periel:Okay, we're going to do the next show. Yeah, let's cut out.
Modi:You want to cut? Yeah, oh, thank you. This is fun. We're going to. There's going to be another episode with different stuff that I want to talk about. Um and um, those of you listening till now, uh, thank you. Oh, my God, let's talk, let's discuss the shows. Well, first of all, do you have anything to plug?
Periel:Um I. You can just find me on instagram at perriel everything you change it to perriel no, it's still my last name, but if you put in perriel, I need leo to tell me how to change it.
Modi:No, you have to hire someone to do it full time, and that's no no just to how to change the handle.
Gavriel:Yeah, rabbit can do that too he's amazing.
Modi:He runs the instagram for the synagogue, which is six street synagogue. Six street synagogue. It's follow and and say hi and figure out when you want to come. You're all welcome. The kiddushes are great and you can even sponsor one. Be the friend who sponsors the kiddush for all the other people. Um, it's so good, um, and so that, and what's your anything else?
Gavriel:That's good.
Modi:That's the handle and your thing and me, modi. Hi, everybody. By the time this is out, the tickets are on sale for Atlantic City, west Hampton. By now they're probably all sold out. By the time this airs they will all, god God willing, be sold out. Jerusalem shall have the Shana Horshet the shell. Oh, I'm coming June 16th to do a show. Okay, june 16th, jerusalem theater I will be there. Tell all of your friends you're a Shalai am, the Hasidim. Jerusalem for the Americans and Yerushalayim for the Israelis. I will be there.
Modi:Melbourne is selling out. We sold out two shows. We added one more. Make sure you get your tickets. Sydney, we're adding another show, probably, and the one, and so Australia and then anything else and that's it for now. That's it. That's a lot ModiLivecom for all of your Modi needs. And make sure you are laughing and pause for laughter and say hi and tell us everything that you're thinking. And those of you who are on the Pesach programs that told me that you listen, and when you listen, I am so happy that we are above from people's day and people would tell me like they're not listening to us, like a Ben Shapiro. They listen to us because they don't want to hear dead air while they're driving, when they're walking their dog. They want something in the background that just helps them, just, ah, and that's what we are, and thank you very much for listening.