When was the last time you had your beliefs and faith deeply challenged? We're joined by Darren Glick, who shares his firsthand experiences of living in Jerusalem during the recent conflict. Darren's story is not just one of survival, but also of unity and resilience. From supporting soldiers and their families to witnessing an unexpected community unity, Darren gives us a deeply human perspective of the turmoil.
In a world where anti-Semitism and hate seem to be on the rise, it's time to understand the historical roots and confront these issues head-on. We navigate this complex terrain, from the recent conflict in Israel to the disturbing prevalence of misinformation on social media. Darren's insights into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict shine a light on the potential pathways towards peace, while the echoes of biblical teachings underscore the importance of unity and empathy in dealing with existential threats.
In the midst of adversity, we find Jerusalem, a city that stands as a symbol of unity and harmony. Our exploration takes us to the significant role Jerusalem holds in unitifying people, the profound influence it exerts on faith, and its unique resonance that seems to bridge heaven and earth. And as we uncover the struggles of communities near the Gaza board, Darren urges us to contribute towards their cause. It's a testament to the power of unity, faith, and the human spirit in times of hardship. Join us on this unforgettable journey through the lens of faith, conflict, and resilience.
When was the last time you had your beliefs and faith deeply challenged? We're joined by Darren Glick, who shares his firsthand experiences of living in Jerusalem during the recent conflict. Darren's story is not just one of survival, but also of unity and resilience. From supporting soldiers and their families to witnessing an unexpected community unity, Darren gives us a deeply human perspective of the turmoil.
In a world where anti-Semitism and hate seem to be on the rise, it's time to understand the historical roots and confront these issues head-on. We navigate this complex terrain, from the recent conflict in Israel to the disturbing prevalence of misinformation on social media. Darren's insights into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict shine a light on the potential pathways towards peace, while the echoes of biblical teachings underscore the importance of unity and empathy in dealing with existential threats.
In the midst of adversity, we find Jerusalem, a city that stands as a symbol of unity and harmony. Our exploration takes us to the significant role Jerusalem holds in unitifying people, the profound influence it exerts on faith, and its unique resonance that seems to bridge heaven and earth. And as we uncover the struggles of communities near the Gaza board, Darren urges us to contribute towards their cause. It's a testament to the power of unity, faith, and the human spirit in times of hardship. Join us on this unforgettable journey through the lens of faith, conflict, and resilience.
This is the Living in Clarity podcast. I'm Coach Ratner. Today we're at the studios of Face International in the Old City of Jerusalem. Face International is a non-profit organization that's helping out soldiers who need supplies at battle, and they're also helping out the families of soldiers and the displaced families here in Jerusalem. So please give Generously to this organization. Below there is a link where you can click and donate. But today we also have a special guest, Darren Glick, all the way from New York. Darren Glick, it's great to have you today. Nice to be, here.
Coach Ratner:Your story is quite amazing. You end up coming to Jerusalem before the war on vacation and now you're still here and you're helping out. Many ways that you can Tell us your story.
Darren Glick:Well, it took me three years to get here, and for whatever reason. And now that I'm here, I got here a week before the war with an open ticket. Not sure why I did it like that.
Coach Ratner:But you tried coming for three years right. They tried coming three years, so it just happened to be that you happened to come right before the war.
Darren Glick:Yes, yes, for a variety of reasons I could not come. I was sick and I finally got doctor's approval two weeks before the war. Yes, one week before the war. I bought an open ticket a few days before the flight.
Coach Ratner:Which most people don't do right.
Darren Glick:I don't think I've ever done it. Maybe I've done it once. I don't know why I did it like that, but for whatever reason I did it and the war started and I felt it was my obligation to stay.
Coach Ratner:Yes. So what have you been doing to help out with the war process? The whole idea, because everyone's doing something. My wife makes you know, she's making the seats and my kids have been going doing packages. Now, you know, actually everything here in Jerusalem is almost back to normal. It's seen because my kids are in school, they have their programs. It's almost like I feel like we're getting a little bubble here.
Darren Glick:Yeah, I called the eye of the storm.
Coach Ratner:That's a really good statement. Yeah, because it's true we are in the middle of a hurricane, but we're in the calm part of it.
Darren Glick:I feel like the eye wall is extremely strong and I pray that it expands every day.
Coach Ratner:Yes, I'll mean.
Darren Glick:To that I'll mean, and it does feel like you're in, almost like a slice of gun-aid into some extent, because the unity that you're experiencing, that I'm experiencing and participating in now, is an incredibly powerful feeling. So what am I doing? You asked. It happens to change every day. Yes, and just the same way that I met David and I met you and I met other people, David is our producer here in Jerusalem.
Darren Glick:It happens. It just happens and those that have been here for a while just accept it and understand that. You don't really have to even acknowledge it. Yeah, I have. As a musician, I remember writing a lyric to some extent In the blind spot. In the blind spot, you can see the heart of the city.
Coach Ratner:Yeah.
Darren Glick:But you don't stare, you don't dare, you don't care, you just let it be.
Coach Ratner:Oh, it's nice. I love rhyming. I'm beginning to rhyming.
Darren Glick:And that's how sometimes my day goes. Sometimes it's very set and sometimes it ends up ending up doing an interview for Faces.
Coach Ratner:International. Yeah, it's funny, because we had a podcast studio we were using pretty much the last four or five, six months and we lost it. The person's, you know whatever put on a business and so we don't have a podcast studio. And then Faces International called me. There you go and we wanted you to help us out to do some producing, some podcasts. And personally, you know, I don't know about the audience, but I've been in a very dark. You know I have not been okay People. You know, I came to the old city today and someone says how are?
Coach Ratner:you doing. I'm like I'm okay. I'm like, no, I was not okay. It's not. I'm not okay now, but I'm much better than I was. You know, a few weeks ago I was not okay. I don't think anyone who's Jewish in the world was okay. I think you wake up every single morning with a pit in your stomach and you, you know, for me, I'm just hoping to wake up in the morning, living in Jerusalem, and I want to hear a chauffeur's blowing that we've rescued at least some of the hot I mean obviously all of them on them but like it feels like that if you can, if the IDF can rescue some hostages, that they're making progress right, you know so and I haven't heard that yet. And it's like it's this pit in your stomach. And then you see, you know, five soldiers killed, two soldiers killed, which I know. In the scheme of things, it's not a lot, but this is, these are people, these are young men.
Darren Glick:I don't think any of us are okay. No, I don't think anyone's okay.
Coach Ratner:And, by the way, it's okay to not be. Okay, it's you have to be, you have to. You have to be happy with where you are, which is not okay. I'm not happy with it, but but you have to. That's.
Darren Glick:That's the reality and the difference between many people and ourselves at this moment is that the way we react to not being okay is what the reason I'm here?
Coach Ratner:Yeah.
Darren Glick:And that is the selflessness and the unity, the actus, the selflessness, the care. I've never experienced something like this, but I knew it was going to happen and that's one of the reasons I stayed Probably the main reason I stayed.
Coach Ratner:Because of the uni.
Darren Glick:I knew. I knew something special was going to happen, like this.
Coach Ratner:Yeah, and.
Darren Glick:I wanted to not just witness it, I wanted to participate.
Coach Ratner:Yeah, it does feel good to be here. In fact I have there's a number of unity trips that have come to Jerusalem last week and everyone in the comm says I don't want to leave. I really like being here.
Darren Glick:Yeah, everybody I know that's come here is upset that they left, yeah, and they're going to and some.
Coach Ratner:I know one of the trips went to went to Siderot and they had they had some missiles there this week, right and which is unfortunately like. It's like. It's like, I gotta say, it's almost like rain. It's like oh yeah, it's going to rain, we got to put a raincoat. It's like. It's like missiles, like rain there. It's like it's just a common thing that you live with, right, but these people from America, they're not used to it and they had to go to the bomb shelter and they still don't want to leave. You know, you mentioned before.
Darren Glick:we're not okay, and no, we're not. I have a friend of mine whose son is a hostage in Gaza, hirsh Ben-Paral Kana. If you can have him in mind in your prayers, his name. Can you repeat his name again? Hirsh Hirsh Ben-Paral.
Coach Ratner:Kana Hirsh Ben-Paral Kana yes.
Darren Glick:He had his. Unfortunately, he had his arm below the elbow blown off.
Coach Ratner:Oh.
Darren Glick:And apparently he tourniqueted himself, and they have a video of him being on one of the cars going into Gaza. Oh, so his, his mother, rachel, has been extremely strong and active throughout the entire world. She's been in the United Nations, she was talking in Washington and it's it's very important to just keep his name, as well as all the Khatufim, all the hostages names, in our mind, in our prayers, and vocally share them as well on social media.
Coach Ratner:I don't know about you, but I have had there's a name for it where you feel guilty that you're not a hostage and like why is?
Darren Glick:it, not me. This is something sort of syndrome.
Coach Ratner:I have remorse, I guilt like I'm guilty, that I'm not, like I'm not like I'm a month's house syndrome. But yeah, I feel guilty like that. Why is it not me? Why does they have, like you know, an eight year old girl? Like it's ridiculous if young girls and mothers like it's hard to even imagine to get into that psyche coach right now.
Darren Glick:Yeah, is deep and dark and I know that even when I'm praying for one specific hostage, I feel guilty that I'm not praying for all of them, and I have a list of all of them.
Darren Glick:I do try to go through all of them. So when I do post or when I do pray, I first pray. According to my rabbi, you should first pray for Kala Yisrael, then pray for the Khatufim, all of the hostages, and then you can go pray for specific individuals, which I do, and in that way it relieves a little bit of that psychological guilt to be praying for just one.
Coach Ratner:Yeah, excuse me, my wife said something to me which is, you know she's very spiritual and maybe something to get to meet her, but she said that it's not meant for you to be there. You know, god intended for those people to be there and that's a hard thing to understand. Why do bad things happen to good people? But it really has helped me a lot that my purpose for not being a hostage is to do something else, which may be to be filming these podcasts for Face International to raise money for them, to help the soldiers and help the families.
Coach Ratner:So, who knows, we don't know what the end game way is, what we're going to take us, but it's been really hard to get over that, that why am I here and they're not? And you know that's been kind of the big issue. But you know I'm coming out of that dark place and I'm hopefully other people are, and we do have to have a joy in our life and our weddings and our bar mitzvahs and we have to have some joy. It can be muted, you know it can be muted.
Coach Ratner:I know my wife's birthday is today actually, and like I don't feel like I'll take my wife to dinner and have a play. It's hard just to want to celebrate.
Darren Glick:You know, as a musician, I didn't even think of picking up the guitar for several weeks, and there came a time where somebody invited me to play for her family, as well as some of the Yeshiva students of her school, and it felt right.
Coach Ratner:Yeah.
Darren Glick:It wouldn't have felt right for me to just, you know, be jamming on Benyahuda Street. Sure, but when you said that, you know why aren't you a hostage and exactly what is your purpose right here, right now, and I've been thinking about that I think a lot of people have been thinking like that Every morning I pray. I found a little spot right by underneath the King David. Behind the King David is a beautiful little neighborhood called something.
Coach Ratner:Moshe, you mean Moshe?
Darren Glick:You mean there's a shul there, Right there's a shul.
Darren Glick:So above the shul there's a little spot where I can just pray with the old city in my view and you realize that, okay, three years it took me to get here, but every step we've taken, every action we've taken in our lives not just me and you, everybody has led to this moment. And what is it that we're supposed to do? So you're supposed to be here, you are, that's why you're here, and I'm supposed to be here, and David is supposed to be helping us, and everybody that's in New York, the United States and around the world. That's where they're supposed to be. And once you come to that realization, it becomes a little more comfortable with the path that you've been. Not, I didn't even choose, I chose everything up to this point and then going forward up to that point, every single step that I take, I feel is walking in that derrach. And that's how you and I met.
Coach Ratner:Yeah, so I think the two things I want to discuss that really cause a lot of this angst that we have is one, obviously, the war itself and the unfortunate people that died and all hostages, but one is the reactions from the world. I mean, like it is just crazy that you see people coming out immediately, not even like the first day, with pro-Hamas supporters, pro-palestinian Now we can separate the pro-Hamas Palestine, whatever two different things, but I mean it's really hard to imagine that can happen on the first day To not give our people the chance to mourn before we even buried our dead is unforgivable.
Darren Glick:I can understand that somebody could be protesting for whatever reason, but there was no reason, reason, rationale behind their protest, given the fact that we hadn't even buried our dead yet and hadn't lifted a done piece of military to respond yet. So what we see going on in the entire world is pure Jew hatred, exactly. And if they had the same reaction to when Syria killed a half a million of their own people? I don't remember seeing protests. I don't remember seeing a peep and the silence of the people that should be supporting us, like our so-called friends. The silence is deafening. Yes, and listen. I think it's important, like Sun Tzu said, know your enemy. I've always felt it's very it's good to know who your enemy is. A lot of people have felt betrayed by people on the left. I have friends of mine that are liberal Democrats or liberal traditional liberals and they marched with. I'm not even going to name them, but pretty much everybody.
Darren Glick:They marched with and right now. They expected to have some support, some sympathy, and what they have is the opposite. They have hatred, vitriol and just pure anti Samathism, pure Jew hatred. But we know this.
Coach Ratner:Yeah, we know Well, anyone who knows who has clarity. This podcast is called Living in Clarity because I like to live in clarity and there is a tremendous which has, you know, lasted for thousands of years tremendous amount of Jew hatred. And then people, you know, I have a TikTok account and YouTube account and people say, well, how come they paid them for thousands of years? They don't give an answer. But you know, this is not a land issue, obviously Not a land. They've turned down lands they've turned down. They don't want us dead.
Darren Glick:The clarity that you're referring to is that Amalek, the way they describe it in the Torah, is that Amalek right. Amalek the way Amalek is described in the Torah that, despite knowing full well that their attack on us will eliminate them themselves, they will destroy themselves if they attack us, they will nonetheless attack us and try to kill us and try to weaken us and there's no reason for hatred. There's no reason, it's beyond reason and therefore you can't try to reason with these no you can't.
Darren Glick:There's no reason. That started it, so there's no reason that will finish it On the same extent. I looked at it. I remember going.
Darren Glick:This is somebody had said to me the equation for Jews around the world and understanding what happened has changed. The entire reality of how we have to look at the world has changed and I said actually, the equation has remained the same, it's just that we forgot the equation. The equation has always been that they will hate us, especially when we're not united, especially when we're not following Torah and Mitzvah, especially when what we were watching in our own country and I was watching it from afar, and then when I was here, I was still watching it you sensed there was a weakness and there is now information coming out that they actually used. They understood that we were weak and they were actually going to. They pushed up their attack because they understood that there was a weakness going on here. They were watching every Saturday night what was happening in television and you and I sensed it. So of course, our enemy is gonna be, of course, yes, but what they didn't expect was how strong they were gonna unite us.
Coach Ratner:I'm not sure. I mean, I don't wanna think for them, but I'm not sure that they expected the reaction.
Darren Glick:Not a chance that they expected.
Coach Ratner:I'm not sure they expected to kill 1400 people either. I don't think they. I'm not sure they expected to take 240 hostages. I'm not sure any of this was. I have no idea, as Hillel.
Darren Glick:Fould said, and I watched his video yes, there's also a way of positively looking at this, because, had they wanted to, they could have walked in with 20,000 people.
Coach Ratner:They could have.
Darren Glick:They could have killed God forbid Tens of thousands, Tens of thousands. They got caught up in some of the stupidity of what they do. I mean they're filming.
Coach Ratner:They're filming yeah, I'm raped and the murder and the atrocity.
Darren Glick:And I was talking to somebody who said to me that they're rabbi tried to explain why is it that kind of vitriol, that type of violence comes out? And he said something interesting and I'm still reverberating with me and maybe you can share after I tell you, maybe you can explain to me what you think he said that the rabbi was explaining and I don't remember which rabbi, otherwise I would quote him and source him that when we as Jews or people that are God fearing and believers in the Torah, see God or see his ways or witness something amazing even if it's devastatingly amazing or positively amazing we internalize it and then can bring it out in a good, positive way, because we have a Kayli to be able to accept and hold that vessel Right.
Darren Glick:They do not, so that, when they see it, they have no other way of expressing themselves other than through that hate, by violence.
Coach Ratner:By violence. Well, the funny thing, the word Hamas is in the Torah Right. It's used for the word. It means violence or, I think, thievery, or stealing or something. I think, both of them and, it's funny, they call themselves Hamas.
Darren Glick:Yeah, it's really it's really, and, of course, this week's parsha. We had two amazing things that were in the parsha. One was that Yakov should go to the White House, the House of Leban, leban right, and they mention Yehudit Bad-Beri, which is the hostage that whose body was unfortunately identified to be murdered by Hamas and they were recovered from underneath the hospital. That was her name, yehudit, and she was from the Berry Berry right, kibbutz. Yes, as well as going to the White House. And the second part of it was that that Yakov should go to House of Leban, the White House, and that the hostages should be returned the Hamas. It's quoted in there. We can put the quote perhaps underneath, but that the Hamas will have to return hostages within the same pasuk. And, yes, esau right.
Darren Glick:Esau took Yehudit. And it also says Esau took other people's wives as hostages and wives as wives and as slaves and hostages. This is the translation. So we're witnessing the actual Torah being repetitive.
Coach Ratner:We did a podcast. It's not out yet. We filmed last week about how, when Avraham and his nephew Loat, we're not getting along, they're In conflict.
Coach Ratner:They had a conflict between the what do you call the ones that did the sheep, the herders? The herders were having a conflict. It says okay, instead of saying you go east and I go west, did you go left and I go right, or you go right and I go left Right? Which was the main cause of problems here in Israel, was the left and right fighting each other? I mean, it was actually what is some fighting?
Darren Glick:A little bit of fighting. I didn't see that that's interesting.
Coach Ratner:Yeah, well, that's crazy. And then what's even more amazing is that you know, avraham was born in the year 1948 on the Jewish calendar, which is coincides with 1948, the founding of the state of Israel. Right, and he, god, told him to leave his land. He left and he came to Chiron in 75 years later, and that's the same year that this issue with Loat happened, and then Loat as Meethli, was kidnapped by four kings and Avraham had to go rescue him. And that year in the Jewish calendar was 2023. The parallels during I mean, that's pretty crazy From the beginning.
Darren Glick:Coach Ratner, the parallels have been amazing.
Coach Ratner:And I always have to be careful because, like, and I'm, you know, like, I'm not very spiritual, I'm a. I like statistics, I like reality.
Darren Glick:I'd like to debate that, but okay, I'm not that spiritual.
Coach Ratner:So like when, like even today, I was wondering if my rabbi and he said something I go. You know we were talking today about. We're talking about the 14 years that Yaakov was in the, the Isheva, shaman Aver, and then the first four words of this week's Torah portion are the words you can find by mixing letters is, you know, shame Aver and Arba Ima Srim, right, arba, it's in there, right? So I said that's like you know taking an arrow, you know in hitting a tree and then and then making your making your bullseye around the arrow, and I think a lot of sometimes Torah sometimes is like that and that bothered.
Darren Glick:I'm not a big fan of that but this is not that we're not seeing, that we're not seeing this is like it's.
Coach Ratner:It's all matching. What's the Torah saying? Yes, you know, and the Torah says he will. The God would the world bless those that blessed. This is one of the main things that I love in the Torah God will bless those that bless the Jewish people, the Jewish nation, and God will curse those that curse the Jewish nation.
Coach Ratner:Now when you look at all the countries in the world that are Friendly and nice and vote for Israel, they are amazing countries. I mean you could accomplish a lot. Everyone wants to live there. They're high, high standards of living they could come up with. They're constantly innovating and growing. And the Countries that do not bless Israel, the ones that curse Israel, how are they doing?
Darren Glick:Some of them have, some of them have been deleted from history, like like a little, I mean think about all the Jewish people.
Coach Ratner:God said the Jewish people be around forever and and I don't know how our enemies do not see this when the police team and the Canaanites and the and the ancient Greeks and the Romans none of them are around anymore.
Darren Glick:Egypt, rome.
Coach Ratner:And and I and I one of the you know I was not raised an observant home. I was raised in a very secular Jewish home, like many Jews. And when I started thinking about that how the state of Israel formed and how Everything the Torah led up to, the state of and it says in the Torah You'll be burned, you'll be the Holocaust is in the Varian. I mean it's all written out in the Holocaust and You'll come back to me as a nation, which means we have the greatest Return of Jews to Torah in the history of the world. Ever. There's more Jews learning to her right now than any time in history, the world. I mean you have 7,000 people just in in the Mirish here in Jerusalem and you go to Lakewood, it's like the tens of thousands or hundreds thousand people learning to her.
Coach Ratner:So we're coming back to God and we took this country which was barren by any stretch of imagination. Nothing would grow here, nothing. And then suddenly, now we are exporters of fruit and vegetables and coming out with some of the greatest technology, not just in healthcare but in all sorts of innovation, and like how do you not see God's hand? How do you know, how do you not see that this is an absolute miracle, not at the same time that we live in the country where every Country we were stranded by wants to destroy us and kill us. Like how do you know, how do you, how does that? How do you not say and the population.
Darren Glick:How do I say okay, this is all random, like this is not random in the population of the Israel has increased by 3% since the start of the war.
Coach Ratner:Since the start of the war.
Darren Glick:Yes, yeah, so around the world, people have gone to a country where there's a war, where there was a mass murder, where there was atrocities, and there's there's rockets being fired every day, there's missiles from Lebanon, and this is where people feel safer. So what does that tell you? It's what? What other? Well, I that doesn't really tell a lot. I just what other country has a population increase? Right exactly, exactly. Usually they run. They're running from the, from the country. Yeah, I have to the country.
Coach Ratner:Yeah, people, my family, say are you coming back? I mean, you know, like I thought about it. I mean, like, should we go back? I'm not, I'm not, I'm gonna think about. I'm not like so hardcore, like I'm staying here no matter why. Like no, I have to protect my family, that's my job, to protect my family. And I think about where's the safest place for my family. And I started thinking about it and I discussed with my wife and she had no interest in going back anywhere. I'm like I think we just have to stay here. I think this is might be the safest place. I mean, like you know, we pray here, we live here. Jews have been in Jerusalem forever. I mean there was times that the air was to throw them out. Like I mean, this is so not about land, this is so not about that, but this is complete Jew hatred, that's all.
Coach Ratner:This is the night and there's good and there's evil, and you can see in the protest, I'm sorry. You can see in the protest around the world what's protests are like, about. Like they talked about the. You know, america, that the protests not a protest, a gathering around last week. It wasn't a protest, they weren't protesting in return the hostages and it was all about love and unity. It's all was yeah, but you don't see that anywhere in Europe or in America when they have these colleges, these evil exposes itself and there's evil, it is just pure evil and they want to genocide, genocide like our population has increased from 700,000, the Palestinian that's from 1948, 700,000 to 7 million.
Coach Ratner:That doesn't sound like that genocide to me, no there's no genocide here, there's no.
Darren Glick:There's no occupation either of Gaza.
Darren Glick:That's all you know what that is, coach? Coach, right now, that is a modern-day blood libel. Yeah, we're witnessing, yes, that we've been told about for thousands of years, I know so. So why, you know? I had to ask myself so why is this, why? Why would this happen? One of the things that I recognize that not why, but the how or the perhaps a spiritual reason behind it. We were told these stories by our ancestors in the Bible, as well as by our own ancestors, our grandparents, and it was seared into their brain, into their DNA, into their psyche, the, the stuff that they saw, whether it be in Germany or in Poland or different parts of Russia, anywhere.
Darren Glick:And it was passed down to us and had, if another 50 years had gone by. That DNA memory, that psychological memory.
Darren Glick:Yes, would have been gone and now this is now seared into our minds. Oh, I know we will absolutely be funded, be forwarding this Knowledge to the next generation. It's actually one of the you asked me what am I doing here? One of the things I'm doing is I work for a magazine called white rose magazine, which was started by Sophie Shaw, who was a university of Munich student, as a anti-nazi rag Okay, leaflet, I should say. She was handing them out to students while Hitler's rise was happening and she was hung for her activism. She was hung.
Darren Glick:We at white rose, the founder and editor, karen Lerman, block, took, took control of the name or was bought the name. And what we've been doing is putting together an extremely Deep understanding of what is Jihad and what is Jewish identity. And we're going to be going to the high schools, jewish and non-Jewish, public and private, all throughout New York City and hopefully beyond, into the tri-state area and the national and God-frail and God-willing world, as well as to the corporations, because it's necessary now, as my father had done with a program called Jewish public school youth gypsy back in the 80s. It's, it's a hundred percent necessary to teach those children Before they get to the university. The university system is. Is is for for Jewish people or for anybody there. It's. We've already lost that war.
Coach Ratner:We have to fight by, we have to fight the war for the next time the air country's money is fun with like 14 billion, billions, billions of dollars billion.
Darren Glick:So you know Jewish donors pulling their money out.
Coach Ratner:It's not really gonna make a difference.
Darren Glick:They're not gonna change the way. By the way, you know, harvard invited neo-nazis as well as Nazis to their campus pre-war, pre-world War two. They were, and we have an article coming out about that. They were in support. The Harvard review Supported Nazism, so it hasn't changed. Like I said, the equation hasn't changed, it's just that we forgot.
Coach Ratner:You know it's funny, David. I saw a talk last week by David Magerman. He worked for Renaissance technologies. It was a big hedge fund and he doesn't work for them anymore. And he was, he's one. He's one of the high-speed trading and quantated quant trading. He was the man behind it, he, he rose to the top of this field and big donor to Harvard. No, so the Harvard, harvard Law, I think.
Darren Glick:Was it.
Coach Ratner:Harvard I had one of the big schools and he said you know what A lot of these Jews are writing letters like if you don't fire this, spressarm's not giving you money and he goes. You know what? I can't change the way they think. You can't. When someone is hates Jews, you're not going to convince them to love Jews. It's not going to happen. There's nothing you can say they can convince. I don't waste my time.
Coach Ratner:You know you're just wasting time. So he wrote a letter to them saying you know, thank you for the education and we see things differently and I don't expect you to change. I'm not asking you to change. You've shown your true colors and I'm not giving you more money.
Darren Glick:I mean, like that's what you said, that's the good. And you have Bill Ackman who said thank you for exposing yourself. None of you are going to ever work for me. Or, and then a bunch of other leading corporations financial institutions that the same thing, that were run by Jews and said thank you, thank you for exposing your hatred, you will no longer be potentially having a job with me. And then they try to pull their names off of their list.
Coach Ratner:Of course the course when they see the videos.
Darren Glick:Shaming to some extent can help at least curb their enthusiasm. Right, yes, it's not going to change their minds. No, it's not going to change their minds?
Coach Ratner:It's not going to change their minds. You know that's again. That's one of the problems. Things was causing a lot of Jews angst around the world with the reactions to these schools and the and some, many of the governments, especially like Turkey, edragon, saying, you know, basically praising Hamas. It's really it's not. And we have, by the way, you know, ll, I just LL fly you Turkish Airlines has a lot of flights.
Darren Glick:I flew Turkish Airlines and it hurts. Great airline, great airline, great airline.
Coach Ratner:People like to fly them and I don't know what's going to happen with that relationship. I know I think Turkey's part of NATO too. It's really weird.
Darren Glick:Erdogan talks a lot.
Coach Ratner:Yeah.
Darren Glick:He doesn't do a lot, he talks a lot.
Coach Ratner:Yeah.
Darren Glick:So, but his talk is powerfully and dangerous, yeah, very dangerous.
Coach Ratner:It's very dangerous. So what's the end game Then? That's another thing that obviously causes a problem. What is the end game? What do we? What if the IDF goes in and kills every piece of Hamas, then you have 2.3 million people, palestinians or 2. Whatever it's going to be after the war Because there is going to be after the war, I think, what happens to them and no one, you know, like both. You know, egypt and Jordan have said that there's no way they're going to take any. Jordan can't take anyone, because they do, they're going to lose, it's going to become an ISIS country and it's already like on the edge with that, you know it's a king and Egypt doesn't want to take him in and you know Iran doesn't want no one's to take him in, no.
Darren Glick:Our throughout history, especially modern history, with the state of Israel, our ha-tikvah, our hope, which is our national anthem and our mercy, our ra-khamanas, is exploited by our enemies.
Coach Ratner:Yes.
Darren Glick:And it's time that we refocus our sympathies and our mercy for ourselves and later on, after the war, we can figure out what exactly is the process of trying to work out an established, feasible relationship. I know that after World War II it also would seem impossible to take a Nazi country. You know, I've read many books on the subject. It wasn't just the Nazis, it was complicit with most of the population, including the youth, including all the institutions and the judges, but they were able to denazify the people. Do I think that that same program can be applied here? I do not, but perhaps something similar you would have to have, which hasn't been the case the partnership of all the Arab countries, especially the ones that are friendly with us, like our allies, to Egypt, which still promotes the Muslim motherhood. Oh no, they don't promote it. Excuse me, but they help perpetuate the propaganda of the bloodline.
Coach Ratner:Well, I don't think any of them. The ones we have peace with, I don't think it's peace. There's definitely a difference. Peace means you're friendly, or peace means just lack of war. Peace for them is lack of war, it's as only as like war, it's an economic peace.
Darren Glick:Yeah, but what I remember reading many years ago, whether you agree with him or not, but I remember reading Benjamin Netanyahu's book on what is necessary for real peace and its economic peace. But it's also you have to change the curriculum in the schools. You have to stop teaching them hate, and if it was done 30 years ago, we wouldn't have had this problem. So not only did we have this problem now, but these same children that are six, seven, eight, 10 years old 10 years ago are the ones that actually committed the atrocities six weeks ago. Do you think?
Coach Ratner:that the potential peace with Saudi Arabia had any effect on what this happened, 100%. I mean, the palace teams were like, ok, we can't allow this to happen. So, by the way, I still believe there's any peace with Saudi Arabia.
Darren Glick:I think it's the best interest. I think it's just a delay.
Coach Ratner:I think there'll be more peace with Arab countries. Obviously it's just a delay, and I also think that not everyone can be this crazy. I mean it can be.
Darren Glick:Bahrain came out yesterday, or at least I read it yesterday.
Coach Ratner:Yeah, what they said.
Darren Glick:Hamas is a terrorist organization. What they did was similar to the Holocaust and there was atrocities, and they need to be eliminated by rain. So I think that Saudi Arabia has the same mindset. Maybe they don't want to actually expose it yet.
Coach Ratner:But they haven't said anything that's so bad against it. I mean, they haven't Listen they know?
Darren Glick:Yeah, they all know. I mean everyone's going to come out and say try to not kill palliants. If they didn't know Civilians.
Coach Ratner:Of course everyone's going to say that and they get no one the idea of not trying to kill civilians. You know how we?
Darren Glick:know. They know Because they would have brought them into their country to help them if they didn't think that they were atrocious and terrorist and just going to cause problems in their own country. So of course they know, and for many years. We know that the propaganda is that they use them to cause problems for Israel. So they use their pawn in the game of the Arab countries.
Coach Ratner:Let's talk about pawn for a second. I have heard somewhere in the news that Israel is a pawn of the United States. That the only reason in fact. Nixon came. I saw a short. Nixon talked about that. There's really no. He said that the United States is going to support Israel forever. He said there's no reason why they're not, like there's oil here. He goes. Obviously they came out of the Holocaust, but he says it is just a moral right for America to protect Israel. And is it because, just to give, just so, they have a base here. It's funny United States had a base in Turkey or a slick Turkey, and they have a base in.
Darren Glick:Several bases in.
Coach Ratner:Turkey and Qatar. I think they went to Qatar also Could be, but they don't have a base here and they're more than welcome, like if I have that.
Darren Glick:They have more than a base here. They have their administration sitting in on military conversations here.
Coach Ratner:Yes, that's true.
Darren Glick:So they're actually helping make decisions which is problematic from a lot of people's perspective that they've ingrained themselves within the military establishment and their decisions. I tend to disagree with ex-President Nixon. I think at the time he would be correct in asserting that well, the United States would always support Israel.
Darren Glick:I think you'd have to question that today. And I remember asking my father, who passed away a year and a half ago, who's actually buried here in Beit Shamash. So I actually did get here for a week between these three years. I was let in for that week during the shift.
Coach Ratner:Oh for a shiva, for a burial.
Darren Glick:Amazingly, amazingly, Coach Ratner, my vertigo and all my problems went away. All the problems For those two weeks came here, went back. Problems happened again. So it was like a window of opportunity I was able to get here. So I used to ask my father well, how could the United States prevent something like Nazi Germany happening?
Darren Glick:So, because it's a democracy, I go well in a democracy if you have the majority of people not wanting to support Israel, then you're going to have no support of Israel, and that is a potential threat and we see it. It's not at 51% yet, but it's definitely moving towards that on the actually left, from the left and from the far right. So could we see in Israel not being supported by the United States 100%? And do I believe that the United States' goals and motivations or interests are aligned with Israel? Not at all. There are certain things that are aligned and luckily Hamas is one of them right now. But how far are they willing to accept the alignment and the same?
Coach Ratner:I think there's also economic. I mean maybe not with America, but I think with the other countries.
Darren Glick:Why think the BPs and?
Coach Ratner:it's a different reason. I think there's a huge economic boost to these countries. I know with the UAE, just have a big piece and there's like non-stop. There was not until the war Tons of people flying back and forth. In fact, I think there's a lot of kosher restaurants now in the UAE, yeah, which is more than some of the places in America.
Darren Glick:There's a rabbi of the UAE, I think, rabbi's son. Yeah, yeah, there's a whole thing.
Coach Ratner:They have pay stop programs going on, so there's a lot of, and they can come here and they can go visit wherever they want to go visit. So I don't know, I think there's a lot of positive things with the peace, with having countries.
Darren Glick:So do you think that the Nazification or D Islamification I don't know.
Coach Ratner:I think that it's going to be a long time. I think it's going to be a great societies to hate the Jews. I think that it would take some time. I think you have to change. Obviously, you have to change the curriculum in schools. That's start with. That Should have been started.
Coach Ratner:And again, it's still not. It's still not, it's never been started. So what would you think like? The question was raised when this war started is this an existential threat to Israel? And one of the worries we had was Hezbollah getting involved, iran getting involved, syria getting involved. Now Yemen has gotten involved. Is this an existential? And it can be. I mean, it can be an existential. How do you say existential, existential, existential In the?
Darren Glick:sense that the true nature of world hatred. It's not just from Hamas, it's worldwide. And what you're recognizing is, if you don't have a deterrence to this type of hatred, which apparently our what's called Modegrass strategy over the last 50 years of when Hamas or Hezbollah or any of these terrorist organizations got too strong with Modegrass just weakened them. It doesn't work. We have to have a stronger deterrence. So if you don't deter with extreme proactiveness and offensive military, you're never going to be able to prevent something like this from happening again quickly.
Coach Ratner:It's a shame that now Israel is going to have to ramp up its advancement technology. Obviously they're probably one of the most advanced technologies as far as war goes now, but they're going to have to ramp it up again because of this. And there's a we have nowhere else to go. You know that's what I think all of my heirs is when are we gonna go? We have no. We have no where else to go.
Darren Glick:Just keep on strengthening the eye and the bubble.
Coach Ratner:Yeah, that's all you can do, yeah.
Darren Glick:And as long as we continue to remain united, God will watch over us.
Coach Ratner:Yes.
Darren Glick:That's our hope, that's the Unally, without you know and we don't. That's also the tic-fo.
Coach Ratner:Yeah, unally, without uniformity, as my Revison says, right.
Darren Glick:We all have to be the same. Shouldn't be uniform, huh.
Coach Ratner:No, you have some people who doven, like this, and some people who don't doven and some people who detrape whatever I was walking around.
Darren Glick:I was walking around the old city with my Tsitsis on and sometimes I forget to wear Yamaka because I'm not so much of a Yamaka and somebody said where's the Yamaka? I go, I got my Tsitsis, yeah. So, yeah, everybody's different. Yeah, Everybody's different. We shouldn't you know? I'll say this, Coach Ratman, I remember learning about Yona and the reason he was punished. One perspective is that he didn't act the way God expects his prophets to act. So what's? How does God expect his prophets to act? Well, Abraham begged God and negotiated for an entire two towns of Sodom and Gomorrah. Yes, From 50 to 30. Down to 10. Down to 10. He didn't go below that Right, but he negotiated. For even though we all knew he knew how evil Sodom and Gomorrah was, he still negotiated. If there was 10 righteous people, please save the entire nation, or the entire two towns. You also see it with Noach.
Darren Glick:And oh, I'm sorry, Noach, as well, was punished to some extent, or at least his surviving, or the survival of our country, of our planet, wasn't based on Noah being Rahmanus and showing the people to do Truva. It wasn't, he also didn't follow in the right path.
Coach Ratner:No, he said, similar to Jonah, he's supposed to open the first Habbah.
Darren Glick:Orishatoura. He didn't do it. He was supposed to get the people to do Truva, which is why 40 years I believe it was 40 years before the flood would happen he was building the ark, he was supposed to getting the people to Truva and Jonah was told to go to an invay and have the people to Truva, this is a country of non-Jews.
Coach Ratner:And what did he say?
Darren Glick:They deserve it, and he was punished for it severely. The reason is is because, ultimately, din judgment is to be left with God. God, of course, expects us to have some din Our universe, our world, was created with din but he expects our prophets to be sympathetic first and to beg for our people to be forgiven. Moshe-ur-bene I'm sorry so, the other one was Moshe-ur-Bene and Avraham Moshe-ur-Bene, when God said that I'm going to wipe these people from the Torah because of the Iglazahav Moshe himself said if you take these people out, take me out from the book as well.
Darren Glick:So he went up and God loves that. And I always use the example and Babylon. And one more example, coach Ratan, in the story of the Tower of Babylon, it's a perfect example. Why didn't God destroy the world for the people who rose up and tried to build a tower to fight God? Because, on one level, god was actually proud of the people, not that they were trying to debate or to have a war with.
Coach Ratner:They were unified. They were unified, you were unified. That's why you destroy them.
Darren Glick:That's why you're in the story and I always use this example. I say to my friends who have a lot of their kids running around doing a lot of stuff I go if your kids, all five of them, how many kids do you have?
Coach Ratner:Coach Ratan Five. You have all five of them.
Darren Glick:Okay, one of them is never getting along with the other. There's always something. If all five of them got together and pulled a little prank on you, you may be upset about the prank, but you beat having nachos for the fact that they all got together to do something.
Coach Ratner:I actually did one of the most amazing things in raising a family and I think it helps to have children that are close and aged together, because I know I've seen families that but they're far apart and they don't have a great relationship, and my kids, thank God, have a great relationship and they're all friends and they all support each other.
Darren Glick:That's not so. There's no better feeling. It's nice.
Coach Ratner:It is. There's no better feeling than having kids who are unified yeah and get along yeah.
Darren Glick:So, what is God? God, just like a father and his children just wants to see us unified. He loves those that love him, Even if we're unified against him.
Coach Ratner:he was okay with it. Yeah, it's funny the word tower babble and I don't know I haven't asked any rabbis or bayon about this but when you have a child who's going from one to two and they start to speak and you say, oh, they're babbling and it's funny because the word babbling it definitely probably comes from the tower of babble, because what God did is he took these 70 nations and it's not probably, and he probably, and he gave each a separate language so they couldn't communicate to each other.
Darren Glick:There is somebody then you can look it up. It's called Edenics and I've looked into it. Who is creating a science or a academia of proving that there actually was one language and that the entire 70 languages all originated from Hebrew?
Coach Ratner:Yeah, it's funny. When I took I don't really speak Hebrew very well and I got to Israel four years ago I started taking an Ulpan class, which is how to learn and speak Hebrew, but more Torah based, and I was blown away because when you learn, when someone comes to America and they learn a language they know someone comes from Mexico and they want to learn you're taking the language they say, oh, this word came from Latin, this word came from this way. And when you go to Hebrew, they don't come from anywhere and they're all interrelated and the words have meaning Well, they come from their essence.
Coach Ratner:They come from the essence, right, they come from the essence and they're like this is really cool. This is not like it doesn't come from anywhere else.
Darren Glick:God brought the animals in front of Adam. He saw almost like in a matrix level essence of them. So, for instance, the easiest one is the dog was kelev. Because a dog has so much love and loyalty, they called it kelev, like a heart, like a heart right, and every animal was named by its essence. So every word that was created by God, the letters, were actually what created the universe, according to the Zohar.
Coach Ratner:But they said that. I think Rashi said that, hey, and the yud was spiritual and physical world, which is by the yud, and hey, it's the name of God. Right, right, yeah. So the answer we have going on here in our podcast is that, basically, you bring God into your life, you follow the word. I try to live my life through the lens of God. What would God make when I, you know, when I yell at someone or judge someone, I'm like what would God do? And I think that's how I make my decisions in life. I'm not sure. Like you know, the Quran says you should go and rape. I mean, I don't know, like it's it does not, it does not.
Darren Glick:no, I've studied the Quran.
Coach Ratner:Oh you have. I was a religion minor in college.
Darren Glick:Yeah, it does not.
Coach Ratner:And, by the way, the word Jerusalem is not anywhere in front. It's nothing. It's not even mentioned in the Quran.
Darren Glick:We say, I believe, over five to seven times, just when we say Bikrata mazon yeah, I know, yeah, yeah. They don't say it once in the entire Quran Right.
Coach Ratner:We face Jerusalem, we pray Everything, everything about Jerusalem, everything is about Jerusalem. I will tell you the center of the world.
Coach Ratner:You know, this is where heaven and earth meet. Right here People say when they come to the hotel which we're, you know, two hundred yards in front of that, I just feel as something I feel here. It's because this is where God resides, this is where heaven and earth meet, this is where you know God is everywhere and you can be in St Louis and God's there. But it's almost like listen to an AM radio at night when you hear the radio station, but it's coming in staticky, but here it's Dolby Digital 4D surround sound. The frequency is perfect. It's perfect here. And this is why people, when they come to Jerusalem, they're like, oh man, there's something about it. They go to Tel Aviv oh, it's a nice city. But Jerusalem, oh man, something special about Jerusalem.
Darren Glick:The frequency is very different and by the way every religion knows. That also that's why they want a piece of it.
Coach Ratner:Of course they know the Christians want it. Everyone wants a piece of it.
Darren Glick:You know, I've been thinking through my mind. What is it that has helped perpetuate us as a people? And it's what we were describing throughout the entire podcast, but something that you touched, it's for the last 43, 44 days. Well, for the first 30, we were going through Shloshim. We were mourning. This is the heart of the country.
Darren Glick:we were mourning, as I described it, there was a mix of horror, sorrow and unbelievable unity and beauty, and it was all mixed together as one, and you'd go to synagogue and sometimes you'd have one person saying Kaddash, or two, there'd be a bunch, because a family has decided to come to Jerusalem to have Shiva and the entire family is saying Kaddash, and then maybe there's another family and you'd have a terrible amount of people saying Kaddash and a tremendous amount of people coming who don't know them, to pay a Shiva call. Thousands of people went to the woman that was murdered by the East Jerusalem 16 year old.
Darren Glick:Thousands, including myself, went to the funeral and the Shiva was down the block from me, so I went to Minhamar of there. Almost I tried to go every day. So what perpetuates us as a people? And I think it's three things? Well, it's all based on the Torah. And what are those three things within the Torah? We have to fight together, we have to mourn together and we celebrate together, because we're more than neighbors.
Coach Ratner:I was in we're family.
Darren Glick:I was in New York City exactly, I was in New York City during 9-11.
Coach Ratner:And so was I.
Darren Glick:There was a unity there. You remember I was there and it was a beautiful unity and it was ephemeral. It only lasted a few weeks or a few months. And I said to somebody this is a slice of 9-11, but you have to take it to an exponent, because the difference is that this isn't neighborly, this is mishpacha, this is family, and the difference between that is felt. You can feel it when you look at somebody in the eyes. When I met you for the first time this morning, an hour ago, we're brothers.
Coach Ratner:Yes, we are Probably Fifth Cousins or something somehow. So I always view Jerusalem talking about Jerusalem as a city for the world. You know, when you come to the hotel, the Western Wall, it's a place for people to pray. My reverend Lori Polotnik had met with the leaders of the Western Wall Plaza and has said that they should have prayer books for every single language. When you come here and you're an Albanian and you speak Portuguese, they should have prayer books for every single person, because this really is a place for the world.
Darren Glick:It's a great idea.
Coach Ratner:When the first temple stood, all the nations brought sacrifices here. They all brought animals here. They all came here, they all prayed and it's really not a place, which is funny, because Jews are not allowed to go in the Temple Mount, which is the top where the temple was. We can't even drop a quarter and bend it over because they say we're praying here. It's crazy that this exists here in Jerusalem. We're not out of the grave.
Coach Ratner:We've gone three times since I got here, yeah, but really this is a place for the world. I think what's Golden Maier said if Arabs dropped their weapons, they'd be peace, and if Jews dropped their weapons, they'd be dead. They'd be eliminated. So what side are you on? Are you on the side of good? Are you on the side of evil? You? Have to make a choice in life. What side am I?
Darren Glick:on. There are no fence sitters in this battle.
Coach Ratner:I mean no, this is good and evil as we decided to remain silent.
Darren Glick:it's complicit in the other side, and I hold to that, because if you choose not to speak out when you see evil, eventually evil will get to you. You're also complicit in not speaking out the old adages when the Nazis came for so and so. I didn't speak out, or when the Nazis came for those people, I didn't speak out, and then, when they came for me, there was nobody left to speak out. If you don't speak out now, then you will be forever holding your peace, unfortunately, right.
Coach Ratner:Well, we hope in the recovery not recovery that we see soon Hirsch Ben Peruchana. Amen. We hope he's covering, god willing, they're taking care of him and, you know, maybe when he comes back to, quickly, safely quickly they can put in a new name. They have these new arms. They can give God willing.
Darren Glick:Amen.
Coach Ratner:And we hope that there's peace in the world and we hope that the world stands on, you know, on on chesed and kindness, truth and justice, and that we see justice done in the world and that we all see how to live in clarity. That's why I want to say all the living clarity on that note just before we end this podcast. Yes.
Darren Glick:I was told something again, I don't remember who because, as you know, we're hearing a lot of good devartoras. Yeah, but when the Nazis committed their atrocities, they hid them, and when Hamas did what they did, they exposed them and were proud.
Coach Ratner:Yes.
Darren Glick:When you have an evil like the equation the equation that I said is not new, but when it's revealed again, yeah, when you have an evil that takes it even further to the extent because we thought the Holocaust was the pent, ultimate evil. It's not. We're now exposed to what we today is a pentaltime evil.
Darren Glick:But when it's exposed to that level and they're proud of it and people are marching in support of it, on the other side has to come an exposure of good as well. Oh, it's going to come. And the difference between the exposure from the evil to the to the good is that from the good there is no limit. There is limit to the evil because it will destroy itself. Yes, so what we will, what we're all looking and waiting for and feeling right now, coach Ratner, is the moment when there is going to be an unbl and this is going to happen. I don't know exactly when. I just pray that it'll happen quickly.
Coach Ratner:It's funny when I talk about investing which I don't do that much anymore that when you invest in a company, what's the most you can lose if you buy a stock, it's what you put in. You buy a thousand dollars in stock, you lose that, but the limit to what?
Darren Glick:you can make is unlimited, it's unlimited.
Coach Ratner:There are people that put a thousand dollars into monster beverage or Amazon or unlimited Apple and they've made tens of millions of dollars.
Coach Ratner:It's unlimited and the good in the world is unlimited. You have to be able to see that. But you have to choose your side. Am I living on the side of good? Am I living on the side of evil? And an organization that's doing goodness world is FACE International, here, based in New York City, jerusalem, and they are helping to find out. They don't just like bring, like I know some people are bringing brownies to the soul. They don't need any more. I'd say crap, but they don't need any more. Like junk food, right, but they say we need bulletproof vests, we need to get Shabbat dinner for this day. We need a barbecue, we need to use a barbecue for this day. We need, you know, certain supplies, like you know when.
Darren Glick:I walked in here that first time and David walked me in here a couple of days ago and. I saw all the different goods being put together in different tables and being put into boxes. I knew I found a spot.
Coach Ratner:They're taking orders from what they need and delivering and they're helping the families lots of displaced families, not just ones that were that the government made leave because they're too close to the borders. There are many communities that are close to the Board of Gaza that are within. They're not within that limit, but they hear the bombs constantly going off and they can't stay there. I know we have a family in our building, I think in the T-Vote they came from and they don't have to leave, but they left because they just can't live there.
Coach Ratner:No the same and they're not getting support from the government, so we have to support them. So please be generous, give to Space International. There'll be a link below in this podcast and I want to thank you so much, darren. It was great to interview, great to have you in this talk today, and we'll hope to maybe see you again. And this is the Living with Criterion podcast. I'm Coach Ratner and we'll see you next time.