In this episode, we delve into the captivating journey of Rabbi Greene. Hailing from the vibrant city of Minneapolis, Rabbi Greene's background is marked by both academic excellence and a strong connection to his Jewish heritage.
Enjoying this podcast by theheadwrapsocialite….Like, follow and share! Comment below to keep the conversation going.
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In this episode, we delve into the captivating journey of Rabbi Greene. Hailing from the vibrant city of Minneapolis, Rabbi Greene's background is marked by both academic excellence and a strong connection to his Jewish heritage.
Enjoying this podcast by theheadwrapsocialite….Like, follow and share! Comment below to keep the conversation going.
IG: theheadwrapsocialite
Good afternoon and welcome to everybody. The podcast which shares stories that highlight people in life, that make the world an interesting place, which ultimately ties us all together in unique and wonderful ways. And who am I, you might ask. I would be the headwrapped socialite Weith mom, micro-influencer in the fashion and etiquette world, but on this podcast I will be introducing you to some people who I've had the opportunity to meet along my journey, who have helped enrich me in my life in beautiful ways and who I hope will do the same with you.
Speaker 2:The strength that we have from children Now as adults we can think about well, because it's important. So when they grow up, that's where it comes in, that spiritual, mystical, practical, but it's reality. We've seen the energy and effort that people make to capture the minds of the youth, but they're powerful in itself. There is actually a cute story with talking about the youth, what the youth can impact. I'll tell you about my daughter, who's presently in Israel.
Speaker 2:So as a young girl, two years old so we have a guest that lives in Rochester and he came over for the Sabbath so she's going to entertain the guests while we're finishing getting ready. So he had just gotten his car refinished, new paint job, and my two year old he says is that your car? And he says yeah, he thought she's admiring the paint job and whatever. And she says you shouldn't drive on Shabbos and he looks around, where's the adults? He told her to say that and she's not doing it in your terrible person. She's just saying here's the fact. And it struck him that you said children get it. This is what it is. Because of this, this gentleman actually eventually moved close by so he wouldn't have to drive on the Sabbath. He was open to hear it.
Speaker 2:The challenge we have very often with crazy our children we're not in an insular place and for sure, and many of my colleagues wherever they are the deeper lessons of teaching, of care and compassion. And it's about your response, to be able to encourage a person and give them the opportunity to observe, For sure, to be who they really are. That's it. You see, that goes in the mystical aspect. It's helpful to read the get-go, the scripture in the beginning. We are really good. I know there's other religious faiths that think a little bit differently or very differently, but that's how it is.
Speaker 1:On today's episode we have an extraordinary guest who has dedicated his life to faith, community and healing. Rabbi David Green's journey is as fascinating as it is inspiring. Boran, raised in the vibrant city of Minneapolis, he comes from a rich academic lineage, with his father teaching at the graduate school for public health at the University of Minnesota. David's educational path was equally exceptional he attended the very first Orthodox Jewish parochial school in Minnesota, setting the stage for what I would say an incredible journey. My family and I have known Rabbi Green and his family for over 15 years and I'm excited to have him on today's episode. Welcome, rabbi Green.
Speaker 2:Thank you, great to be here.
Speaker 1:Thank you for being here. Could you tell the listeners a little bit about who you are?
Speaker 2:So I was born in Minneapolis and actually point out that my great grandparents are interred in the Minneapolis Jewish cemetery, so that makes me come from a line of long suffering Vikings fans. That's something true, although I can't say anything about gophers because from when I was young my parents became more observant and so I never would engage with college sports because we were observing the Sabbath. So the television was off on Sabbath and so never got a taste, so never got hungry. So I grew up in Golden Valley. Great friends in the neighborhood and those closest friends were a family that were not Jewish, so, and the father was actually our family doctor. So when I would go over to the house on the Sabbath to play, the father would be sitting watching the college football and he wouldn't chase me out saying this is not for you, you should be playing with the kids, it's, you know, this is not for you. So growing up, chased to the room that, the room where the Christmas tree was, it's okay, but it's not, it's the Sabbath, there's not what you do, but it was. So definitely enjoyed sports, definitely played it, but never engaged in organized sports, okay.
Speaker 2:So I grew up in at 15, after going through that Torah Academy, the Jewish Procurel School, I was sent to the LeBavitch Yeshiva which is in Canada, in Quebec. In Quebec it was Collège Rabanique du Canada, which is rabbinical college of Canada. So I matriculated there in Canadian history. That was a tough year because it's not that interesting. But it's interesting to learn history from a different perspective, for sure.
Speaker 1:Now, was it taught in French, or was it taught?
Speaker 2:Thank God I was one class ahead of that rule being applied in the school system because the class below me had to learn their secular subjects in in France. But anyway, the word Yeshiva is just, it's the word for high school. It was a high school and it continued to post high school studies and eventually the college portion, learning learning rabbinic ordination. The community in Quebec and Montreal specifically, is an old Jewish community and at the same time was a vibrant Jewish community. So the influx of meeting different people from different backgrounds, and not necessarily, I'm going to say in my classes, but the LeBavitch, which is a name of a town in White Russia, where the leaders of the Chabad School of Philosophy, of Hasidic philosophy, where the, the Reb is the, the, the, the leaders of these movement headquartered for 200 years. So hence it's, it's the name of the organization that we have is Chabad LeBavitch.
Speaker 2:The Chabad is three words in Hebrew Chokhma, Bina Das, knowledge, wisdom, understanding. The Chabad movement was, which was founded by Reb Shnerzal Mevladi, incorporated a systematic understanding. It's not just all heart, it's well. I got to use brain and to use the mind, to devote and dedicate how and direct. So I was sent to that institution.
Speaker 1:Would you mind sharing with the listeners how you do know that you were going to be a rabbi?
Speaker 2:Here's the personal story. So, after finishing high school and continuing on studies, I think the teacher had he was he's. I eventually found he's a great teacher for other things. But I just was where am I going? Where is this going? It's quote, unquote, the system. So my parents sent me over there as I continued. So the perpetual motion kind of starts to slow down. Where am I now? And a lot of my friends are going on and and so who am I? Where am I going with this? They I mean they transferred to other places because they were. Then they were sent.
Speaker 2:I have a lot of contemporaries in my class that were said to be to study in Caracas for a couple of years. But I was a matriarch and eventually I turned to my teacher that was taught me in in in 10th and an 11th grade and I just asked him a question. I said what, where am I with that, was he thinking? And he, he said well, he says what's wrong? You don't have to be, you don't have to make a career out of this. There's plenty of people that are good Jews, they're fine and dandy, they're wonderful. And he didn't want to get, he wasn't doing the psychological analysis. What is making you think this, that you have to do this. You don't have to, don't? You don't have to put that on yourself. However, I do recommend that you don't leave until you have that piece of paper, you, because then you will feel good about all the time you spent and you have a baby, have a diploma on the wall. So you have to. I said you know what sounds good, sounds good.
Speaker 2:So I I got into the program of learning and then, once I started doing that, I said it was. There was a couple of things that came at the same time. To be able, first of all, learning for a goal completely changed things for me. I was saying you just made the fist with both feet. And once you're doing this, there's another factor that the in this movement, in this and this system that that it was in they do not give you a test. Therefore, there's a number of tests that you have to go through of different subjects. As you go through them, you're not permitted to take a test unless you have a signed permission slip From what's called the mashbiyah in Yisheva.
Speaker 2:The mashbiyah of Yisheva is the spiritual counselor. Okay, so once I started attending, once I started, I came and going to attend and I realized I'd better do something with this time. So I went and worked with some others and developed a curriculum of what I'm going to learn in Hasidic. He's a young man, he's an elementary school teacher in Los Angeles and he used to say my mother loves you, so why is your mother like this? Because I would call the house early in the morning and say, when his name is Yorahmeel, I say did you wake up, yorahmeel? She says I said he'd tell him I'm expecting him here in 10 minutes.
Speaker 1:I'm here, right.
Speaker 2:Because he was going to go through this curriculum, we were just going to complete it. And when you start gaining information, gaining information, gaining information and it's the second paragraph of the Shema, which is the prayer that's recited twice daily by Jews, we hear oh Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. There's a couple other paragraphs. In the second paragraph it says and you shall place these words upon on your hearts, upon your plural hearts. You shall, you plural, how's this Yal should place these words on your hearts. I think that's where it works. It sounds better than you plural, anyway. So the question is it's not about you can't do anything to the heart. All you do is place the words on the heart and from time to time the heart opens up and some of these words fall in. Our job is keep on information, information, information. Not like that Charlie Brown thing they put the book under my pillow and it'll seep in. It's real infer-. You have to learn it, you have to read it, you have to review it, you have to look at it.
Speaker 2:And at the same time, very much got involved with that, going to people's businesses in Montreal on Friday and there was a statement from one of the Chabad leaders that when you do this type of work it improves your ability to understand a thousand times. So these gentlemen would come and visit them on a weekly basis. So they would come on the weekend. So one of these guys I'm fast friends with him now until this day, while he was here, I said, you know, there's somebody I'm going to, I'm going to go visit somebody in the hospital and he says, can I come with you? There's good old days. I said, sure, why not? So this is a guy. No matter how you see, if I'm the Sabbath I wear a longer coat, the formal coat, I wear fedora. This guy in that Hasidic group they wear the fur hat and he had. They look like I call them motorcycle boots.
Speaker 2:It looks like they look like motorcycle cops, have these leather boots that go up. That is their style of dress, plus the long coat. So sure, let's go. I walk in. So we come up, of course it's a little colder. So we go in to the closest entrance to where we live is in Damatilla. So we go up and we're going to be walking down the hallway down the Damatilla. So I walk with me. Fine, I usually start to get you know, I'm going to say game face on. I'm just thinking, okay, get my mind Just to center myself before I go see this person. So this guy, every single person in the hallway, he said hello, how are you Nice to see you. Hello, a nurse is at the same and every nurse was hi, nice, hello, how are you doing? Very nice, thank you very much for asking that. Every single person.
Speaker 2:I realized at that moment there's an aspect. He's doing what's called receiving every person with a cheerful countenance, which is a statement in the Talmud you should receive or greet or meet or encounter every person with a cheerful countenance. And he was doing it, he was living it. Me, the person that sees these people and the person that's going to do this, that is this frequency that he's exists at. He doesn't. What he does in his community himself is phenomenal. I know the other things he does. He does it. He's involved with a burial society, so most of the people he's dealing with are not even many people he deals with are not alive anymore. I said, note to self wow, I'm not just going to be impressed, I want to incorporate it, I want to do it. I got to get out of my introvert self and be present and you know, oh, but what about me? Yeah, but you know what? You'll be okay, because it's a little bit self talk of you're okay, you're good, you got it. Here's an opportunity. Do it Right.
Speaker 1:And that's it. I've always been taking that opportunity and making. I always go back to it make yourself a better version of yourself. And it's taking that opportunity to be a little bit better in this moment. And if there's one thing I think that children it's going back to. Like you know, little children, they are so innocent, they are so free. They will bring you such joy because they're able to live in the moment. And sometimes I have a question and maybe you can answer this question and maybe I've asked this question of you before but when do we lose that ability? Because I know when we're younger we have that ability to move through space, being so free, and at some point it seems like it stops and then we're kind of guarded and then later on it feels like we're able to move through that space a little bit more freer. But there's a huge span of time where it stops, or at least for me it has stopped and I'm like when did I lose?
Speaker 2:that. That's a good. I've listened to some lectures about this type of stuff and there's there's a lot of colleagues that are very good at analyzing this. That's a good. I have to. I'm curious to know as well. And as you bring it up, that's a great. I hate you know that's a great question.
Speaker 2:It is a question there and I remember a lecture that it says when kids get upset and they get upset and you say make up, and they can, five minutes later they're getting along, and but adults to make up it's not going to happen. Because and he, he used example he says because children would rather be happy than be right. So when did we stop becoming more important that we're right than we're happy? So that's what I think. I'm using that as a parameter. So it's the same question. I have an answer.
Speaker 2:Your question per se, but it's like I've assigned different value of a decision subconsciously somewhere. I don't know. It's interesting, and probably different people, and I'm sure child psychologists would be able to say when, when the kids do that from observation. But that kid is always within us, so we can always tap into it. We can always tap into our innocence, our curiosity and and, and it's that's what our, our ego gets in the way. Yeah, so I was speaking to a colleague and he was pointing out that well, he was saying some of your problem is that you don't realize that you're okay. Therefore, you super inflate yourself and now you're more sensitive. I've, I've been, I've been, I've been reflecting on it this morning, because they just told me on this morning, because they're talking about why and how making decisions says if you, if we. It's an interesting phenomenon that when do we realize we're okay, we're okay, you want to improve? I mean it's a whole thing about about the harshest critic that we have.
Speaker 2:I went to my father and father, my mother, were visiting. So I said I realized I'm my own harshest critic and my father said it's beautiful. He says yes, I used to believe and understand that about myself as well. And then I married your mother. My mother was there and she says yes, you weren't doing a good enough job. I said I discovered perpetual motion. But that is, but it's not. But we do have that's a. That is a question why don't we have a inner voice that says you're good? We have an inner voice saying but from what I understand, from the understanding, the acidic learning that I have, it's because there's this statement from the previous Rebbe in a, in a acidic discourse, he says all problems come from ego, all problems, so ego, there's a healthy, I mean when I I'm not talking about Freud, but I'm just using that word.
Speaker 2:But the idea for me it initially was like well, what about a person with an inferiority complex? How does that come from ego? So, thinking and analyzing and discussing, came up with the following that a person in inferiority complex what they're really saying to themselves is really I should be so much better who says you'll be, that's you see, that's, that's really ego. You should be so much better. How about being where you, who you are? You have an image of yourself that should be so much better. So you're, you figure a failure. But really. But why you figure a failure? It's coming from that self perception of yourself as me.
Speaker 2:Better, this is not sad, it is, and but but this come. This is where the, the again, it's like why did God create us with such machinations? See, that's a deeper question. So what do you want God? What do you want? He says I've put in with, with, when you, within you, you see, that's where comes in the, the idea of the original sin and Judaism eating for the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So then we we were no longer subjective, no, we're no longer objective, thank you, we're, we're, it's all subjective, we're all involved, it's all internal and it's a good luck. So look, but then again, don't the psychologists and therapists and psychiatrists deserve to make a living.
Speaker 1:I guess they do too. They do, yeah. I always say we're brothers and sisters in this wonderful world and called life. You know we're brothers and sisters and we're, we're called to be that towards one another. You know every single day, even if I don't know you per se, I do know you because we're all one of the same spirit.
Speaker 2:Divine Providence. God felt it's. It's pretty good reason for you, for us to be encountering one another.
Speaker 1:Ask you this question. I know that your work, you provide emotional support, you provide religious support, but you also provide like a healing and I had mentioned that earlier in the beginning. And I know last week was the end of the high holiday, Sukkot. How does one celebrate the high holiday in the midst of all of the tragic?
Speaker 2:I like to. I don't know. I don't know, I don't know if we celebrated, I don't know if we grieved. People were saying some people says unbelievable. One of the things that got me through it because we started hearing the news on the day that we're celebrating. So I had read a story in preparation for one of the marks at the end.
Speaker 2:One of the events, part of the rituals at the end of the holiday is what's called the Yizkor. Yizkor means remembrance. We talk about, we recite a prayer. Every individual does this and talks about what they got to remember, the remember of the people that our parents that have passed on and we actually commit to give charity in their memory. I mean, they're no longer able to give charity, so we do something and it's a benefit to that soul and it's attributed to that soul that something happened in this physical world. Remember, keep on emphasizing that. Okay, so I had a story which I didn't say, but it came up useful later, because the story was as follows that there was a group.
Speaker 2:You see, towards the end of World War II, in 1944, the transports of Jews to Auschwitz was coming a lot from Hungary. The half a million Jews from Hungary were sent to Auschwitz to die and they died. As they would say, the only way out from Auschwitz was through the chimneys. So, and it was later because at first they had their own organism when the Nazis took over the government the details I can't remember. The history per say so they came along, this group of teenage boys, and they were brought in. But when they came to Auschwitz they were sent into the camp. They were not immediately killed and they were there a few weeks. Then came a selection and all these, this group of boys, were taken to be able to the gas chambers to die. I think it was. I didn't even look up the date to be sure. I think it was October 9th, because this is recorded in people's diaries, so October 9th 1944. So it was the same holiday. It was the same holiday.
Speaker 2:So they were brought in to the, they were taken and they knew by that time they weren't in the shock position of where it's going on. They already knew they're there a couple of weeks. They know, like they say, they were told that. So they were brought into the gas chamber and they one of the guys before they were going to put down the Zyklon B which turned into the gas. They were told. One of the guys said Hevre. I mean, guys, tonight is Simchastera. We do not. We're rejoicing with the Torah. That's the holiday. We do not have a Torah with which to celebrate, but we have our souls. So let's dance. That's because we, because that's what we do, that's the holiday, that's what Jews do. So they actually I mean they say they know the songs that they sang and they're singing and they're dancing.
Speaker 2:So before they pour them, the Nazis hear singing coming out of the gas chamber and they're that never. That's not what the usual sound is. You know, could imagine. The usual sounds are screams, whimpering, anguish, and they hear sounds of rejoicing. They open it up and say what's going on here? So the guy that called everybody to dance said we are celebrating the fact that we're leaving this world, which is run by vicious humans like you, and we're going to be reunited with our parents that you murdered. The Nazi said it's not enough to kill you, I'm going to take you out and we're going to torture you to death tomorrow. So they took them all out.
Speaker 2:The news came across within the system. There was a commandant of an armaments factory right nearby and he needed workers. He heard about these guys. He came and he took them and need them to work, so he commandeered this group. He needed slave labor, so he took them, so this group survived.
Speaker 2:So when you see, what do we do when we're faced with this, how do we rejoice? We rejoice. We have no choice. I have nephews in the army, in the Israeli Defense Forces, and videos coming back. They were asking people. Asking people because it lifts their morale. You say, lifts their morale. Yeah, they're facing. They're facing difficult things.
Speaker 2:My niece, my sister's daughters, husband's brother, my sister's daughters, brother-in-law, was at that festival, the music festival, to celebrate. He died, saving others. How did he save others? I've heard that, I read, I listened to the interview. He took a few days to identify his body but he kept everybody calm and he was directed them to safety. There were 1,250 at that place. There were hundreds, hundreds, to direct people to escape the hide. So the story is, what more could he want than people should celebrate life? That's the type of person he was, because that's how he gave up his life.
Speaker 2:I hope I haven't rationalized a thing, because God needs a good lawyer and I'm not going to be it for him. But I'm going to say, at the same time, people want to know. I get provocative. When you ask where people, where was God? I say you know, god was there 100%. God was giving those monsters freedom of choice and they chose not wisely it's an understatement. They chose rudely what words can we use? And people like my niece's brother-in-law chose very wisely, and so that's all. We tap into this because it's all about the moment. The moment says we are Jews and we're going to celebrate because we have a gift. What the alternative is to say I don't want to be. What kind of?
Speaker 2:I don't, not for the world. There was a story with a young man that would go to the story that there was a guy at a. There was a gentleman, he was speaking at a fundraiser thing for a Jewish organization a Jewish organization. They asked him how did you? What was his story? They brought him here. He says I'll tell you. It was a boy that would come, a Labaavich, a boy that would come to my business every week. What happened? He would ask me to come to my office and ask me to put on film. And I said no. Every week he came, I said no, every week I would tell him. I says you know how does it? How does it feel to be a failure? And the kid says what do you mean failure? He says you're coming and asking me to do something. It never happens. I said ah, you don't get it. You just don't get it. That's not a failure. I'm not a failure, I'm not failing at all. I come every week to let you know that I love you. Mission accomplished.
Speaker 1:To fuse everything with love.
Speaker 2:Right and that's, and we'll tell you this, if you was with love, I do like my favorite Catholic, jfk, you know, forgive your enemies but don't forget their names Is therefore the love I would say. Any this could other people may feel differently. For me, it's not about revenge, it's about doing the right thing.
Speaker 1:Thank you, you know, for your insight and thank you for sharing. I know, as a, as a mom, when I heard, you know, the stories start to come in and things on the news, I felt, you know, I felt a certain way, you know, heartbroken. Um, you know, I think about you know, my husband, I thought about you and your family. I thought about people that I went to high school with, um. The high school I went to was predominantly a Jewish, you know, community, um, I thought about Jay's grandparents, um, and, like I said, as a mom, to hear the stories come in how terrorists came and did awful things, my, my heart broke and it still breaks because, as a mom, you know, you think you see things from a different perspective and, like the overarching theme, like, even on our talk, you know, it's like what is your calling? Like, if you don't do everything for love, what are you doing it for?
Speaker 2:It pains me to see that humanity has even stooped to this. It's a blight on all of us. And but the only, the only way to combat darkness is with light. You can't use the, the, the expression is you can't use rags and brooms are not going to get rid of darkness. So they, taking care of the dark, taking care, removing the cancer, is going to take surgical tools, that's for sure. I, like you, know it's kind of like the idea that you don't have the spill blood if you just turn off the water. But the the story is in our lives. Our response, our response here in Rochester is we are building. We're going to build more. It's going to be to make more opportunities to support people that are seeking health, because that's what we got to. You know, we both talk about football. I'm going to stay in my lane because when somebody, when you leave your lane, that's when all, when you miss your assignment, you're blocking assignment.
Speaker 2:That's what the I think that happened to very often, a lot, of, a lot of times, even for, even though they won, you know, they for the Vikings, if you heard, you know. But but so I was listening to the they they were talking about their assignments missed, because we everybody has to do their assignment and in our assignment we have, we have a list, you know, we know, we want, we know what to do and to be able to build, to be able to pay another look, this morning our meeting at Chabad was about okay, who's in town, who are we who? Okay, so update the list because people got got left town. So we're going to now we're going to focus on, we're going to this way we're not distracted, because we're going to focus our energies as people that are coming to town and people need kosher food and where, and people and things about places to stay and people and anticipating and how we're communicating with that and this.
Speaker 2:And then you have other events. We're going to be having an event and we're going to be having a chronic is coming up and we have the people to speak to because that's also bringing more light. And then at the same time, and then we actually have a building campaign that we're working on and we have fundraising that we have to do and people have other things and so we have to. That's about doing and bringing in more light and that's sticking with our assignment. And, as you know, if they call me up and they want my advice, I'll give my what do I know? But I'll give my, of course. But until I get that phone call I have my assignment for sure.
Speaker 2:And I have what we need to do. And, yeah, we get distracted and we hear when you hear such a news and and and hearing the news and it and it and it works us and it to the core. And there's a balance also with with with that, because it makes us depressed down and I always remember they broadcast it. So by consuming what they broadcast, you're, you're, you're doing what they want and I don't want to do anything that they want.
Speaker 1:Right, it's a good point. It's a good point, it's a good point.
Speaker 2:They have people of arguments. People of arguments. I've heard the arguments. They say well, you should know to understand. It's a good, you're an exception, right.
Speaker 1:Right, good for you.
Speaker 2:But I would say as a general agenda, so good. You're not going to get cancer if you smoke mouth off, but I but we suggest people don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because the statistics show that it's harmful for your health.
Speaker 1:For sure. I really appreciate. You know your perspective. I really appreciate your voice. You know you've given, I feel, a lot of clarity and peace to the conversation.
Speaker 1:And this is given not only for myself, I know, for the listeners who will listen to this podcast more food for thought. You know just different things that we can do within our daily life to be more light, be light, live in love. To do our part, you know, and whatever that part is, like you said, you're helping that person, you know, at the supermarket or holding that door, but whatever our part is in this big thing called life, only God knows, and we have to get up every day and put one foot in front of the other.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Knowing that, hopefully, we are contributing to the better good, not of something else.
Speaker 2:But if a person is looking for an opportunity, I would say waking up in the morning is an opportunity to say thank you God and that's just and I say doing it, not just thinking it, articulating it. Don't have to look in the mirror while you're doing it, but just say thank you God, and I submit that that will be a centering moment and a calibrating moment towards recognizing all the rest of your day. You'll be purposeful if we start with thanks for God.
Speaker 1:You have a way again of just having beautiful conversation in a way that is not only meaningful but enlightening and in terms that I can understand, and it will help me move better in the world. And, dear listeners, you can see why Rabbi Green and his family really means so much to my family, to my journey, to my husband's journey, to my kid's journey. It's this level of conversation that he engages us on and challenges us to think about the world differently. So I really appreciate that.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. Thank you and lots of success, happiness and all the blessings for you, your family and all your listeners.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Rabbi Green.