#13 Being A Mensch with Rabbi Yakov Horowitz

BIO

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz is a global leader; a courageous voice of light and leadership, as an orthodox rabbi grounded in Jewish Torah wisdom. And like biblical Moses, he too shares the attribute of stuttering and being a leader and teacher.

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform. You can also watch the interview on YouTube.

HIGHLIGHTS

0:00 - 6:10 Intro

6:10 - 13:39 The covenant award

13:39 - 21:34 The First Rabbi Who Stuttered

21:34 - 22:07 The Jewish Stuttering Association

22:07 - 22:53 The National Stuttering Association

22:53 - 55:13 Transcending Stuttering

55:13 - 1:00:25 The Gift of Stuttering

MORE QUOTES

“If you're that young person who stutters and you are hiding and you're not talking about it, or you're silently feeling frustrated or not so silently feeling frustrated, there are people to talk to. They're role models and people that care, they're professionals, there are self-help communities and their books.” - Uri Schneider

“Bullying stops when the people in the middle go over and stand with the victim.” - Rabbi Yakov Horowitz

TRANSCRIPT

Uri Schneider: All right. So on Zoom, we are going live. We are live. Good morning. Good morning everybody. It is a big, big treat, so you might be watching this on my Facebook feed. Hopefully Rabbi Horowitz has been able with his team to share it on his feed. Um, it's a very special morning. I'm working on it. Special month

It's a new beginning. It's a new beginning in the Gregorian calendar of September. Um, for many people who know me, it's no secret that I'm a member of the tribe. Uh, the Jewish people, the people of the book, I proudly wear my Yaka conferences, whether it's. and, uh, southern states in America, the West coast, middle America, Croatia, um, even in Arab countries and cities.

And, uh, so it's a big treat today to kind of have the convergence of my personal space and community and my professional community and space and bring it together because there are many intersections and it's conversation worth having. And it's a tremendous privilege to have such a voice and such a person, an exemplary person.

This is not reading off of a bio. Um, rabbi Horowitz is an orthodox rabbi and he is a voice of leadership. He's a voice of sensitivity. He's a voice of, of wisdom. And more than being a voice, he also has his. to what's going on. He has his ear to what's current and what matters and what people are going through.

And, uh, although he'll tell you a thousand times up and down, he's not a therapist. He is certainly a healing force and a force of good, and a force of light in a time and in a world that needs so much of it. So, along with so many others to treat and a privilege, thank you for joining us,

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: or it's my greatest pleasure, really my greatest pleasure.

It's an honor to be here with you. And I, I hope that, you know, the time is helpful for the most important folks, the ones who are listening and the ones who are struggling with, uh, stuttering of any sorts, loved ones, friends, and just general. You know, I, I think perhaps most importantly, um, to some degree the people in the audience who don't have a loved one who's stuttering, who don't, who aren't personally affected by it, because those people are already.

in the game, as we say. But I think the vast majority of people, that's who I really would encourage to listen to this carefully and, and, and have takeaway lessons, uh, the people who aren't directly affected by it, but do come across from time to time. Someone who stutters. What do you do? What do you say?

Um, how can you be most supportive? Um, you know, I was at a golf outing yesterday, Ernie, and um, did you

Uri Schneider: get the hole in one? Oh, you saw the post ?

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: No, I didn't. I actually, I had a few really good mid, you know, approach shots that were seriously a foot or two away, but not in that hole. It was, it's, you know, it's like, it's like

Uri Schneider: stuttering.

I, I was rooting for you because I could only imagine how many more books you could publish if you had won the hole in $100,000 shot. Thank you.

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: We'll get to that a little bit later. Thank you. But it's interesting, you know, golf, I, I've always felt that golf was such a good lesson for so many areas of life.

And, and one of them is that when you, when you're playing by yourself and you don't care who's watching you, You usually do a lot better than when, when there's a hundred thousand dollars prize on. So the other holes on the average, I did much, I, I was hitting much, much more on the game than that hole. I think stuttering is, is a perfect example that, you know, when you think about it, it becomes more of an issue and the more people around you make you comfortable as you are, um, it, it, it enables you to, um, you know, to, to be able to, to function better.

And I think that's probably the most important takeaway message for the general population is, is, you know, to, to be accepting and encouraging and, and helping. You know, it, it's interesting. I I, of course we'll get to it. I, I did stutter as a child. Um, I had a,

Uri Schneider: let's just, let's just jump, let's just jump right into it.

Go for it, please. That I please for those that are commenting already, does my good friend Adam in upstate New York, he says, what did I miss? So I'll just do the intro because truly we have the privilege with someone here today who needs no introduction. And later this week at the privilege we have Dr.

Scott Yaris. My good friend also needs no introduction, but introductions are important for context. For those that don't know how special you are and what a privilege it is to hear what you have to say. Rabbi Horowitz is the founding Dean of Manzi, Shiva Noam, uh, he's a director of the Center for Jewish Family.

He conducts child abuse prevention and parenting workshops internationally. He's the author of two books, uh, I think that's incorrect and needs to be updated, but this was handed to me by his publicist. Um, I have those books here and I wanna show them to you because one of them is one of the most important books in my family library, and I'll tell you why.

It's for everybody. His landmark book on Children's Personal Safety is a picture book for children. Let's stay safe. Um, it's an incredible book. Here it is. And this is a book to talk to children about how to know about the different kinds of touch that are okay, different types of touch that are not okay, and everything in between.

And how to have those crucial conversations and not avoid the elephants in the room and keep all children safe wherever they may be. Uh, not wait for the problems to come, but really be proactive. , this is a, a, a cause that Rabbi Horowitz is a champion and really an advocate and ahead of his times and someone who we need to hear more from on this.

And this book is in Hebrew, it's in English, it's in Yiddish. He's also published most recently and actually sold out, if I'm not mistaken, on Amazon. Uh, a Bright Beginnings, a book on education in learning the Hummish, which is the Torah, uh, for children to have facilitating educational materials and for teachers and educators around the world, as well as something to facilitate educational material for learning the town, but learning the Gamara.

And so he's a person who's steeped in Torah wisdom and Torah education, but also, as I said, really has his head, his eyes, his ears, and his heart on the ground. Um, and he received a very prestigious award called The Covenant Award in 2008, which is a recognition for his contribution to Jewish education.

I'll tell you, everyone can notice a funny thing. You'll notice my pronunciation of things shifts. . As I have this conversation, I'm like a chameleon. And when I, when I talk to people in the tribe, I sometimes take on a more Jewish, New York pronunciation of things. And the funniest thing is I had a Hausa, a study partner from Montreal.

Yeah. After I would learn with him a, I would start talking like a Canadian and one of my best friends growing up, Seth Bronstein and one of my best friends today, Mo Meek, both people who stutter after I would hang out with them. My wife always knew I had had a conversation with them because in a, in my affinity for them in a complimentary way, I took on some of their, uh, stuttering, which is an interesting phenomenon that happens.

It's not that I started stuttering, but uh, whatever it is, however you wanna understand it, it wasn't a stuttering experience, but the rhythm and cadence of my speech took on. there. Cadence. So his most recent book, I just wanna say, is The Bright Beginnings Aias book. It's available on Amazon. Just wanna put that out there.

And with that, I'll make one plug for my friend Mo Meek's book, very special book called The Gift of Stuttering, also available, if not sold down Amazon. Unbelievable. And I see we have Stu Sni, uh, posting comments on the bottom of the live feed. So for anyone that just logged on, you're all caught up. So what most people don't know and is not on the bio, and there was a whole conversation behind the scenes, which I'll let Rabbi Horowitz reflect on, is, how to say.

Recently Rabbi Horowitz had some videos that he was preparing for very large audiences. He provides Torah lectures and inspiration for people literally around the world. And in recording the lecture, he had a stuttering moment, and rather than editing it out, he chose to put it out that very clip as a, as a token of his authenticity and as something that might be helpful to others.

So maybe that moment is what brought us together. Maybe you could just share about the journey from being a kid and what it was like as a kid to the, to the present day and, and the choice to share that little clip.

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: So I guess I'll start backwards. I'm a contrarian. So just, just, you know, from that, from that

Uri Schneider: moment.

It's a Jewish conversation. There you

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: go. So I was recording this, this, uh, Yeshiva Takota, a very large school in Israel, uh, with the world wide reach, um, had a, uh, the day before Shivu, one of the holiday when we celebrate the God giving us the, the Torah. Um, so during that time they, the Chi Hotel has a worldwide program.

They have about. 30, 40, 50 speakers, chief Rabbis, you know, of Israel and, uh, South Africa and John and I was on the program and I was recording this speech and I had a terrible stutter, honestly, probably the worst I've had in 10, 20 years. And it was part of a 27 minute video. Not only did I publish that clip, I put up that little 58 second clip of the stutter, but I left the stutter in the speech that went to everywhere.

Um, and I, I just thought of it because, you know, I had a flashback to a moment, uh, at teaching. I started my teaching career at age 22. Um, I volunteered because I was a school, was very difficult for me. And I was, uh, um, you know, I wasn't much of a student as a, as a pre-teen and teen. Uh, I volunteered for the weakest track of the school.

And one day during the lesson I was getting a tom of lesson. And I had a, a mild stuttering moment. And just off the cuff I said kids, I'm sorry. I was focusing on the TMA section of it. It was a difficult, intricate ti tma and I stuttered a bit and I, I just as a throwaway line, I, I had never said this before to any of my students.

It was the first or second year I was teaching. I said kids, sorry about that. Stutter. I started as a kid. I went to therapy. Um, you know, I got over it, thank God. But you'll see sometimes during the year when I get into tomorrow, I'll struggle for a word or two, as I'm sure you've noticed in the last little, you know, few minutes of my talk.

Um, and that was it. It's just 10 o'clock in the morning. My students got home from school about a quarter to six, and that's when my phone started ringing and parents were calling me, thanking me for sharing this with the kid. Wow. And it was such a transformational moment for me, first of all to realize.

the power of my words to my students, how careful I have to be with what I say, and how much encouragement you can give with this. And what numerous parents described probably got called from half the parents of the class. Wow. And what they described was the kids bursting through the door eight hours later saying, mom, mom, you know, dad re stuttered.

He went for therapy. And I was, you know, I said, oh my God. And then naturally I started accidentally mentioning it to every class. Of course, you know, after that. But that's what flashed to me when, when I did that stutter during, after the talking, I was listening to it. Edit, don't edit, edit. Don't edit. I said, what the heck?

Leave it in. Um, so I, you know, I was, I was, um, just by way of of background, I'm 61 years old. I was, I was born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. We moved to Bell Harbor. , uh, Queens when I was, um, about nine years old. Uh, my dad died when I was for my fourth birthday. My mom remarried two years later. Um, other than that, really unremarkable childhood.

Um, thank God my, my parents had, you know, my, my biological mom and my stepdad, we didn't use the word step in our house, had the most amazing marriage and, and just half tip to both of them. And, um, you know, this restless nature and the b energy that gets all those books published and stuff, you know, and thinking out of the box and speaking about child sex abuse to audiences that don't wanna naturally hear about it, you know, that whole package doesn't really do well.

11 and 12 years old in class,

Uri Schneider: and it, it manifests differently. You get yourself into other things. Correct.

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: I'm saying Right, right. You know, as if you, you don't care what people think about you. Right. And you speak your truth and you're, you have boundless energy, like, not really, you know, sitting in the tum of class for two hours.

So, you know, I always had, I had, um, I guess an understanding of, and, and a, a desire to help, um, students who were struggling. I was halfway through college, pre-med. I wanted to be an oral surgeon, sore subject with my mom till her dying day. . I was dating

Uri Schneider: my wife, but it was, it was a subliminal desire to fix mouths.

Yeah. . Very good.

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: Very good. Already. Very good. So, so, you know, um, I just, I fell in love with teaching and education and since then, you know, I've just tried. To reach people on an educational level and also to advocate for people with broken wings of any sort, you know, who needed support. And you know, it is remarkable.

You wrote in one of your posts story, you know, who's the first rabbi who stuttered, if you notice the Torah. Um, the Bible didn't airbrush out the weaknesses of our greatest leaders. Um, they could just as easily left that the fact that Moses stuttered, right? Snu and, and other, you know, that, that are our, our patriarchs and matriarchs that dealt with, uh, challenging kids and dealt with, with the suss of life and their own struggles.

I think that's the real world. That's what we should be doing. Um, the Torah gave us, our bible, gave us the, the roadmap of how we should conduct our lives, realized that we have stuff and great people aren't people who don't have stuff, it's, they would overcame their stuff. their issues and their, and the made them great.

Uri Schneider: Incredible, incredible. So growing up, uh, where you grew up and, and you talked about having boundless energy and. and I would say, I, I can share the story. It's funny, I was, I was on the phone with a parent this week and they told me about their husband. Started off in such and such school and then changed to this school.

I said, oh, I had the opposite path. I was in outside the principal's office a little too often these years. And then I had to switch to this school and then accidentally ended up in this high school. And I also had thoughts, maybe I would be a doctor, maybe I'd be a, a lawyer. And thankfully my father, a Mori Uhor, the giant of the generation in speech therapy, blazed the path and planted a seed in my head.

So when I chose to go for speech therapy, because I couldn't sit tight for the years of medical school, that speech therapy gave me a path which I couldn't be happier for. Uh, thankfully, you know, for a man, for Jewish man, it's not necessarily the most common path, but I encourage anyone that, that wants to go down and to go there.

And I wanna give a shout out to my favorite friend, uh, Michi Schwartz. Who I met, a young man who stutters from Flatbush, um, when he was 14, came to Queens and we met then I danced at his wedding, uh, just a few years ago. And, uh, and I've watched him go through and he's now having his virtual graduation from speech pathology school.

He's become a speech language pathologist. So whether you think it's, uh, something you can do, if it's in you and it feels like your path, you know, go for it. But what's interesting is you talked about the academic profile, but tell us a little bit, what was your stutter like? Was it a prominent part of your experience?

Did you experience either your own frustration inside, or did people make sure to remind you that you were stuttering and give you a hard time about it, or wasn't really a big deal?

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: So, so I would say, you know, on a scale of one to 10, it was probably a two or a three.

Uri Schneider: So you weren't very good at stuttering.

It was mild .

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: I was underachieving stutter. Right, right. No. So like, you know, . I started a bit from time to time. Um, and, you know, parents, I, I, I could just think of one brilliant thing that my mom did, um, that I really would encourage parents to think about. Um, she, she was very, um, she was casual about it.

Like she told me it again, it did not, it, you didn't notice it right away, and it, it, it didn't, it really didn't, uh, um, affect my ability to function. Uh, sitting still in class was harder than, you know, the stutter part. But she, she told me once, she said, and this was 50 years ago when therapy wasn't so therapy of any sort, and she said, listen, Yaki, um, if you wanna go for help, if it, if this becomes an issue to you and you'd like to deal with it, , I'll be glad to take you to a therapist.

I'll be glad to pay for it. You have to want to do it. So, wow. I'm sorry. Wow. So ahead of her times, you know, that was such an, I, I look back on it, you know, looking at the child in me, you know, I, I, I think it was, she handled it so wise and, and my age was, what age were

Uri Schneider: you? What age do you remember this happening?

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: 10, 11, I'd say probably. And then I wasn't ready and I said, okay, mom. And then all of a sudden, I guess, I assume I probably had a, I don't even re, I don't remember the details, but I assumed that I had a stuttering experience and I got fed up and I said, okay, mom, I'm ready. And it was not a few months after that.

It was a while after that, you know, and, and it just, I was ready and she said, okay. And she took me to. , she took me to a therapist. We, we, we did speech that way. I really, honestly, I don't remember the nuts and bolts of what I was told. Um, if you asked me how to help someone who stutters, even if I remember everything, I would never do that.

I, I'm so careful to stay in my lane. I think my lane as a rabbi, as a advocate for children, as an educator, it's, I, I, I see my role in child abuse education in, in, in stuttering. Anything dealing with people who have, uh, depression or other, other mental health issues is to say, number one, stuff is normal.

We all have our, our challenges. Number two, go to excellent professional, who's credentialed. I never do therapy even in the areas that I like, that I think I'm pretty knowledgeable about, right? Like dealing with abuse victims or other things like that. I coach them, I men to them as best they can. Try to give them good advice and I send them off.

I never, ever get in that lane and parents don't. I really, really, really encourage you. Don't go to people who are great at doing this. Make sure there's something on the wall that has a degree on it

Uri Schneider: because Jews, Jews love to talk and, and Jews tell other Jewish people, just as other people tell other people.

But because we're a tight community, word of mouth travels quickly, right? So someone has a great experience with this vitamin or this thing. People always ask me what do I say about hypnosis? Or what do I say about different, uh, supplements or different things? I say, look, I can't tell you to spend your dollars and your time.

I also can't argue with success. If it worked for you, then I'm not gonna tell you not to do it. But I would never tell someone to go when it comes to speech therapy. . On the one hand, there's a lot of frustration with the field because not everyone has a good experience. There are a lot of people that feel burnt out from bad experiences with speech therapy.

They feel like it's a bunch of old stuff, boring stuff that doesn't really translate into real life. And so I think based on that, people start looking at things which, if they were in their right mind, if they were in their best state, they wouldn't. , it wouldn't go to, uh, somebody who had a heart attack and got better and go to him to be their cardiologist.

So there is something I was just gonna say that right there is something to be said. So I guess, uh, that is an important point, especially in our community, but around the country. And that's where our field profession and the state licenses are important to make sure that the people doing services have the training and credentials to do that.

And those that put in the time for those credentials did it for a reason. And the Moishy Schwartz of the world and so many other colleagues of mine, uh, I don't wanna name some of them, but there are some exceptional women who stutter, who became speech pathologists. There are some exceptional men who stutter, became speech class in our community and, and all around.

And there are many places to catch good health. Wherever you are, you're not alone. And I also just wanna make a quick plug. Mahi Rosenberg, who now lives in Lakewood and is a very successful salesman. In, I'm gonna get it wrong, but I'm gonna try healthcare and nursing supplies. You can find them on LinkedIn.

Mighty Rosenberg, a couple years ago started the Jewish Stuttering Association, uh, which was yeah, a self-help community specifically for the cultural needs and cultural flavors of the Jewish community. Certainly we at Schneider's speech, try to be especially tuned in, uh, with all the therapists that work with us, those that are from the tribe and those that are allies of the tribe, um, just as we are allies to others, uh, to be sensitive to issues of, of gender and issues of modesty and so on and so forth.

But a shout out to him, but there's also, I just wanna share for everybody listening thing called the National Stuttering Association. It's a national organization and is actually a WhatsApp group of the Kosher. The kosher people, uh, within that community. So National Studying Association and so many others, you can look around, you're not alone.

Support is so important. And if you're looking for professional help, there is help out there. And we can be in touch after this. But, uh, that's a really good point. But I wanna go back to what you said about your mom. And you were saying you don't remember what you did in therapy. My father has conducted interviews with hundreds of people, and the best of those were the ones that we, we were forced to cut it down.

So there's many on the cutting room floor, and that's my yia. There's all these cutting room floor videotapes and interviews. But in the hundreds of interviews, they ended up in two films. One is called Transcending Stuttering. The Inside Story Freely available on our website. You can go to schneider speech.com/movies and a second when the sequel is going with the flow.

The most important part of that is that in all these interviews, rabbi Har. . Nobody says as an adult, that made it. You know what did it? I met the right therapist, they gave me the right tip. And ever since then I put my tongue over here and my life changed forever. Everybody says, my mom, you got it here.

Really? Yeah. Some caring adult and I wanna jokes me up. That's what you're doing right now and that's what you did at 22 when a caring adult, and this is what I heard from other people who stutter in the conversation around Braden Harrington, who spoke at the DNC convention. You know when you, when you become open about something that other people are holding in and they think, oh, you're the teacher, you must have it all together.

Oh, you're the successful contractor, businessman, accountant, construction worker, plumber, whatever. You've got your stuff together. When you can be open for someone earlier on in a path younger in their years, it can change the entire world. And parents, you should know that as unprepared as you feel. Time and time again what Rabbi Harwood said about his mother ahead of her time.

She didn't need to learn anything. She didn't need to read a. She just listened to her hearts and to be loving, unconditionally loving and to try to open a line of communication around something. The only mistake we hosted, the baring, the Harrington's, the parents, Owen and Jess. On Sunday we had a parent meetup.

We'll have another one September 13th, that's a free meetup for parents. We hosted, uh, Braden, a teenager. And so parents asked what's the right thing to do to push for kids to go to therapy, not to push the kids? So you brought it up. So I just wanna share what they said, which was what your mother did. And it's not in any textbook.

They, they made it clear that they listened to their heart. And no matter what a therapist said, some therapist said, I don't know. We did the assessment. He didn't stutter. I don't think he stutters well, he stutters. We, he stutters. Didn't get stuck. We talk about it . I always tell people it's not an evaluation.

If you come for a stuttering eval, you know that you stutter because no one makes that up. It's already hadum, it's already clear, stamped and approved. The question is, what do we do now? What's the next chapter? How do we find our way through this to help you get what to say, what you wanna say? So they said, you know, they didn't pay attention to that speech therapist, and they went on to find the people that were good understanding people and supportive people.

But the idea was they let him lead and they made it clear that they would get behind him. But it was his choice and that power of choice. That's exactly what

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: You know? So when I said that I, when I said that, I saw you nodding. Now I know what the nod

Uri Schneider: was. I just, I'll, I, I can't, uh, I'll, I'll stop after this, but I just wanna share with everybody.

It says in the Torah, when God created man, he breathed into him the spirit, the wind, the, the power of, of rah and translates this. Uh, we say as this is the defining characteristic of a person. And I spoke to a mother just before our call. She's asking me, can you explain to me what's going on with the stuttering?

It's so confusing. It's so hard to understand that it is, it's so baffling because it's not always there. And, and maybe we can get to that rahar, what you said, like, so you do stutter or you don't stutter, you overcame stuttering. This is a conversation this mother wants to understand. I said, you know what?

Before we understand stuttering, let's take a moment to understand how complex speech is. There's no other creature on the planet, . It is the defining thing. There's two things that define us. This is what the Cabala tells us, right? And speech. Power of speech and the power of choice. Angels can't make choices.

People can make choices. Animals can't make choices. They work on instinct. You put a a thing of Ben and Jerry's in front of the right animal, they can't hold themselves back. Uh, and when it comes, I have a hard time with that too. , listen, we all have the animal inside of us, but absolutely, speech is a defining characteristic.

And uh, if anyone wants another Meyer, the Ramal, if you understand, uh, the Ramal is brilliant and he talks about Mosha and Moses and why, and how could it be that Moses, who was the penultimate teacher and leader, why someone who stutters, I'll hear from the rabbi, but beautiful essay there. But it's a delicate thing.

Speech, it's a very delicate thing because it's a sacred thing, it's a special thing. It's a defining thing and that's why, so it's so tender. So any

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: thoughts on that? Yeah, yeah. So, so I I, before the Torah thoughts, I.

until, you know, I spoke about life until 22 and now, and, and childhood. So I'll tell you what happened in between. So yeah, I, I taught eighth grade for 15 years. I taught tomorrow most of the years. Whenever the school tracked the eighth grade, I always volunteered to the weakest track. And then in 1996, I had a really, until then, I had a really, I had a nice quiet life like you see back there, you know, with just trees and, no, I, I just, you know, I worked in school.

I, I had an afternoon job as a general studies principal at a local school. Um, and then I wrote an article in the then Jewish observer there. I go to the Israel's paper called, uh, an Ounce of Preventions. It's the only thing I ever wrote in my life. First thing I ever wrote, I did this. Six months. I typed with 10 fingers, one at a time.

You know, , I just like this, punched out a very long piece. Basically saying, look, we're losing the percentage of our kids to religion. It doesn't need to be this way. Here are some of the things we could do. And overnight it just exploded. I, we got four or 500 phone calls, three, four, five hundred phone calls to our home.

The first month we got a hundred letters. Remember those, you know, it was 1996 and I went, ultimately I was invited to the Tara Asara Convention. I go to Israel's convention and we spoke about Teens Wish, which was nobody, you know, it was, it wasn't something you spoke about

Uri Schneider: following in your mother's footsteps ahead of

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: the time.

Yes. Well, yeah. You haven't talked about a polite company and one thing led to another I I. Eventually moved to preventing these issues. You know, I, I'm doing a new website now, so I was thinking in a old tagline. So I went through three or four iterations, and I j I came up with identify, advocate, prevent, because that's really what I've done in my life.

You know, identify, here's an issue, talk about it, it's real. We gotta deal with it. And then eventually, as other people got involved in doing stuff, you know, and getting, getting on board, thankfully, then I slid over to preventing, which is the books you showed, you know, preventing child abuse, preventing kids.

I, I think the number one reason, educational reason that children don't, um, actualize in Judaic studies is because they, they're not being, I think much more attention needs to be taught to how to teach skills-based. Thank you. That's the beginning. Alma

Uri Schneider: just came out for the very popular, popular chapter of the alma that, uh, is often the first chapter, but the rabbis put out many books about, uh, learning gamar.

Yeah,

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: it's all on Amazon if you search it. Yaku Horror with pride

Uri Schneider: beginnings. Shk has already put a comment, you can check it out. But if you go on Amazon and look for Rabbi Horowitz, but I wanna say the other prevention book is teaching kids about how to stay safe. There couldn't be a more important topic.

Is there, there it's also

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: about how to stay safe from people they know. It's, you mentioned, thankfully, thank you for mentioning the good touching, bad touching. It's also about, about identifying their personal space. How to, um, how to get the feeling of ownership over their personal space. Um, and feel that there's a sacred right that they have.

And notice when people, uh, impinge on that, and we know that abusers brilliantly and in a very evil way, slowly encroach, it's very rare that they just go abuse a child. They tend to break down that personal space over time. So we train. To notice when that happens and speak up. No secrets from parents, you know, training children to, to, if anybody tells you, keep this between us, immediately go to a parent.

And parents should encourage that. Um, like as you said, good touching, bad touching, and no one has the right to make you feel uncomfortable.

Uri Schneider: Um, but so you're back to your book and how you were your first day. So I found myself

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: when I started in 1996, here, I was a Yeshiva guy, you know, no professional training in therapy or anything like that.

And all of a sudden we were getting hundreds of people reaching out for help. And I'm very grateful. I was mentored by some really great people who, who I don't even know where they found the time, looking at their busy schedules. Now as an, you know, as Dr. Abraham Twersky, the prolific writer, uh, was, he mentored me.

time I called or emailed. He was immediately, I don't know how he did it. He was immediate. Dr. David Paltz. You know, uh,

Uri Schneider: something to it. I just wanted to suggest for people, if, if this is the first time you're hearing about this and you're in the community, you're outside the community, these are the names to turn into.

These are people who have two feet in the community and in the Jewish community and Jewish wisdom, but also two feet firmly planted in professional credential and, and experience and impact David pe. So when I went to, and Rabbi Har Rabbi by Toky Abraham Toky.

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: So one, one of the things that was so profound about Dr.

Toy's mentorship, um, was his humility and his candor, his bracing candor. Um, which I also thought of, by the way, when I stuttered there. Mm. When I started on that clip, um, I, I contacted Dr. Twersky and I said, Uh, Dr. Twist, I would love to start writing. I wrote this article and I see I never realized the power of the written word.

Um, you know, this is before internet and stuff, so I said like, what's your advice? . God bless, God bless him. Asham should give him many, many more decades of, I mean, good health and, and, and share his wisdom with all of us. He wrote 80 books. He wrote, I don't know if you ever see his books on cartoons, on Charlie Brown cartoons, psychoanalyzing He wrote together with

Uri Schneider: Schultz.

He wrote, he has books on recovery. He wrote with Schultz. He's written Jewish books. He, he's covered the gamut of personal Torah books, but also very, very well known books on sobriety and recovery and addiction. And, no, I said,

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: Dr. Whisky, what do I need to know? I'm, I'd like to get into writing on the spot.

He says, get used to rejection. get used to rejection. He said, my first manuscript was rejected by 37 publishers. And I said, oh my God. Like, here is the quinte, what you just said a few moments ago. Here's the quintessential success story. You know, just shake speeches out of his sleeve, right. And just effortlessly writes all these books and was able to do all of this stuff.

And he said, you know, most of the things you're gonna try aren't gonna work, but keep at it. He says, you know, you know you have something to write. Don't let anybody tell you no. And

Uri Schneider: took me a while to a young person still kind of finding your way, finding your voice, and that message of confidence that he put in you really opened you up to pursue.

Absolutely.

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: And, and I, I, it's funny, he was my, he's, he's well into his eighties now. Um, I just turned 61. . So, you know, he was probably my age when I spoke to him, and I was just some kid, some 35, 5 year old kid no one knew about. And I take that responsibility very seriously now. And when, when 30 year olds, 20 year olds, or 15 year olds, reach out, I really try to,

to pass this on.

Uri Schneider: Yeah, take it forward. I, I just want to tell everybody, if you're popping in now, what a treat it is. You'll got the replay, uh, here on Facebook, or you, you know, it'll be posted on our website, on the blog page, all these conversations. But, uh, rabbi Yakov Horowitz is with us and just to say how, how busy and involved in good things he is, I reached out immediately when he posted this video.

He was very open about posting a video where he was preparing a lecture, a Torah lecture for an international audience, and he stutter. And he said to himself, I'm not gonna white it out. I'm not gonna edit it out. Um, not gonna airbrush it out. And I reached it out and it took about a month for us to pull it together because he's such a, a person who's really so involved.

But I, I think the highlight there is not how busy he is. But for those of you out there that think that the big people, the leaders, the big names, the big writers, the big authors, the big politicians, what we see is they also have a heart. They also have a story. They've also overcome different challenges and things.

And uh, very often they have an open ear and an open heart. And especially now, I think in these times of covid 19 and different types of experiences we're going through many people feeling very socially isolated, uh, feeling very alone. And that's probably the the worst thing for anyone, and especially for people that have a tendency to go to go into low places, but for all of us to remember.

many people are stuck at home. Look at OB Horowitz. He's not in a shiva, he's not in his base mattress. He's on his porch. So reach out, send emails. Where can people reach you if they wanna reach out to your website or send a message? What's the best way to to, to get your books, to get your services and to contact you?

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: So, so it it, um, the bright beginnings.com, the T h e b r i g h t beginnings, plural, beginning with the

Uri Schneider: s@theend.com. Stu stu on Rabbi Yaakov's team. Can you, can you post that link, if you don't mind, in

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: Thet? Yes. And, and the books, the books are, are, are, are on Amazon. Um, I do have a very active Thank you.

That's the, the talent book, the, the book, the bible book. And, and by the way, folks, all of those educational books are really for beginners. The idea basically is that I think, you know, that we need to spend a lot more time preparing. Kids for discipline, studying the different discipline, you know, different, uh, uh, types of areas of genetic studies rather than just drop 'em into it.

Um, and you know, I have a very active social. I have a YouTube page that has a lot. I just did a whole series of, um, classes on, on an adolescent, anybody's raising teenagers or preteens. I just, the first time I ever did this at this level of death, I did seven videos on, it's called a Deep Dive into Raising Tweens and Teens.

And, um, did you see, uh, did you see them any chance? I

Uri Schneider: see everything. Okay. It was wonderful. It was transgenerational, wasn't it? Didn't you have someone as a special guest facilitating with

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: you? Yes. My daughter, AB Boy very good. Our daughter, yes. Um, beautiful. She.

Uri Schneider: Yeah, it was, that was actually, so from your, from your mother to you, to your daughter, truly paying it forward, truly passing it on.

And she, and

she

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: just, you know, we did a segment on, um, I'm, I'm a very firm believer that parents would try to create the environment where kids are comfortable talking to them about anything. And I, I, I did a talk at Mariah, a very prestigious, uh, I don't know of the next Jewish school here, a few, a few months ago after there was a scandal in the New York area about a faculty member, not in that school, but a different school.

Not in that

Uri Schneider: school, but school that was broke. They're just like any other community. Someone was doing something

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: that I might know the school that had happened to handle it perfectly, but they, they asked me for Maria and Mariah to speak to the kids. So I said, look, uh, the parents, I mean, so I said, look, I think, I think the best thing parents can do is to teach their children to talk to them about anything.

That particular situation was resolved because a teenager came to their parents and he had to basically admit that he was sending. Naked pictures of himself to what he thought was a young lady. I imagine that conversation. Could you imagine a kid? Oh, by the way, uh, you know, I was sending, Hey mom. Hey dad.

Yeah. Hey. Yeah. So I, I said, so. I said, if you don't know what it's like, I brought our, a daughter to Mariah, uh, uh, our youngest child, our married daughter. And I said, look, if, I know it's hard, if you, if you haven't raised your children this way, it sounds kind of weird. They let your kids say anything you wanted.

What happens when they tell you they did something wrong? How does it work? And so I said, sorry, come on up. And she took questions. We took questions together. Oh yeah. It was, it was really, so that's why I did it here in the house. But that, that's the thing on teens, I did a number of talks on, on, but that was really like a deep dive into all areas of parenting.

It's all free. It's on my YouTube page, and I'm active in social media, Facebook, Twitter, uh, um, LinkedIn and, and Instagram. It's all Yahoo Horowitz.

Uri Schneider: Um, I, I just wanna make, it's, it's not promotional. This wasn't planned. I just wanna say that if you. Have a thought about the range and scope and being in touchness of, uh, Orthodox Rabbi, you'll be very refreshed to see the messages and the content, uh, that Rakka Har shares.

And if you're someone who grew up in the community and, and doesn't longer feel comfortable in the community because of different messages that you got that didn't make you feel welcome again, if you're listening, if you're in my network and you're picking this up, Repak Harz is a voice of, of a voice of listening, a voice of, of empathy, and a voice of connection for many people who might

otherwise

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: not feel welcome.

Can I, can I just share one, one thought before we go,

Uri Schneider: please. Yeah. We're not going anywhere. We're not going anywhere. We've got another 10 minutes. We're good. Oh, good. Oh, we got a lot more to cover. We got a lot to cover. Great.

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: So I, I know you sent me some questions. I'll be glad to take those, but yeah, I, I just wanna, I really wanna talk to the public at large, please.

Um, who I hope many are listening and, and trying to think like, how do, where do I fit in? Um, you know, , there's a lot of research on, on bullying prevention and, and how to stop cyber bullying and other forms of bullying. And, and the research shows that, programs that, you know, I looked into school programs that Theona Novi, by the way, for NHI University is a rockstar.

She, she, she has a fantastic and, uh, bullying prevention program. And I went for training and we were gonna institute it in our school. And I asked her, I said, what's the success rate? What does success look like? So she said, we hope that we can knock, knock it down 35%. I said, that's all you know. I said, I thought you're gonna tell me, you know, we'll bring it down to nothing or next to nothing.

So she said, the whole program is based on this. She said, A program will not stop a bully from bullying and it won't stop. Children who unfortunately, for one reason or another, are doing things that make them vulnerable to bullying. To change that what we address are the f the 95% of people in the middle, right?

She said bullying stops when the people in the middle go over and stand with the victim. That's when it stops. That's when child sexual abuse stops. That's when, and that I think to some smaller degree, um, stuttering is the same thing. So when, when this is the message folks to everybody who didn't experience stuttering, doesn't know anybody who's stuttering, you know, um, when you hear it happening, um, and you wonder like, do I say something?

Do I not say something? Do I do something? And, you know, good people don't know what to do. I lost the head cover for one of my, uh, drivers yesterday on the course, and I went back to look where it was, where it was. I left it, it wasn't there. And I was trying to be like, what would be the right thing to do for someone who found it?

You wouldn't know. Should I leave it there? Figuring the personal come, should I drop it in the office? Should I leave it at the golf cart station? So happened someone put it on a table in a reception area. Okay. So people, same thing like, you know, you're a human being, you're compassionate. You see someone who stuttered.

What do I do? Should I say something? Make it more obvious that they stuttered? What would I wanna do? So I'll tell you what I found. You know, the, in any area someone struggling with addiction or anything like that, you watch people at recovery. I've been doing a lot of, I've be volunteering my wife and I for a recovery retreats.

Sometimes it's just a silent put a hand on a shoulder, you know, just, it's okay. You know? Um, I, I, I think, I think if you hear somebody stuttering in some way just to convey a message of. people understand intuitively when something is genuine. I think it was so beautiful what Vice President Biden did. I, I stood up.

I, honest to goodness, I stood outta my chair when I saw that video. I stood up. Mm-hmm. and I, I applauded him for, for, for his humanity. And I think that what you mentioned about Moha, uh, um, asked for a to thought, and then I really would like to take the questions that some of the questions from the parents opposed.

Um, there's a beautiful verse from Rabbi Huttner Zal, who's, uh, the Shiva of Yeshiva in Berlin in flak for many years. And he said, the, the Paik says a righteous person falls seven times and gets up. So, um, rabbi Hiner explained that the traditional understanding, like one of the beauties of Jewish text is you can interpret it many different ways, right?

So . Righteous person falls seven times and he still gets up, which is wonderful. So Huna says no, he became a tactic. He became righteous because he fell seven times and he got up. That's what made him righteous. I think I, I think a prerequisite almost for great leadership is overcoming stuff because it makes you empathetic, hopefully to people in any area.

Mosha, um, understood his, you know, his, his challenge and that's what made him, I believe that's what made him a great person. I think that that's the, the ultimate leadership quality is getting in a room of people and this kid comes over and says, I stuttered as a kid that, you know, with, with, uh, vice President Biden, and you.

I never did a rope line like that. You know, I know a hundredth a thousandth of that when I make the speech and some people come over and wanna talk, right? I can't even imagine what it's like running from event to event like that and to stop and say, here's my number. I wanna get in touch with you. .

Uri Schneider: And I just would say this is not, this is nothing to do with politics.

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: This is nothing, nothing to do.

Uri Schneider: This is a successful adult who, who took the time, uh, to reach out. And I can tell you personally, we know three teenagers that regularly get phone calls, not from his press office, not from someone else, but from Joe Biden himself. Um, and I, I I, I'm not taking that to, to, to only say go Joe.

I wanna, and I think he would appreciate if we all said, what, what can we do for someone who may be isolated, whether it's with Covid, isolation, elderly, uh, those who are fragile, those who don't have a network, or people who stutter, you know, the value of what Harit did at 22 to be open. Um, what that does for people is just unbelievable.

And it's a shining moment of humanity and we need to have more moments like that. So there are a bunch of questions, please. Um, and I thought it would be wonderful. Um, so it's, it's a known thing. Let's say Bar Mitzvahs. We have a lot of parents of a Bar Mitzvah. Boy, you said you grew up in Crown Heights.

Um, crown Heights, uh, very close to our heart. First time I put on Fillin was sort Krinsky in seven 70. There's a story there, which anyone that knows what I'm hinting to knows, but I'm not gonna go there now, but, uh, in their community at the Bar Mitzvah, the boy is expected to rehearse the mir that he, that he knows in other Bar Mitzvah's, uh, people give up shuttle.

And even in, in, in communities that are not doing those things, there's the idea, the Bar mitzvah speech or the Bat mitzvah speech, your, your 12 year old kid has a stutter. You don't wanna put them through an unnecessary, uh, experience of pressure. And on the other hand, you don't wanna pass the buck and kind of like teach them that they can always bow out and avoid thoughts.

What would you tell that parents? My

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: first thought is if they're going to a therapist, ask the therapist. . That would be my first thought. Always go to professional. Doesn't mean you have to listen to every, doesn't mean you have Listen, second thought. Second thought is ask your kid. Hmm. Ask the stutterer.

Uri Schneider: How would you, how would you suggest a parent have that comment? It's such a tender as you said, it's so tender. You talked about other sensitive topics. How do you suggest

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: word? I I would say, I would say the parents. In other, in other words, I, I would suggest, uh, again, I don't really have a frame of reference for this.

This is my gut. I would say that the parents should say, what would you like to do? Would you, and give them choices, would you like? And sometimes when you give an open-ended question like that, the kids don't even know what to say, but give them choices. Would you like to pre-record something? Mm-hmm. . Um, and, and that you can, they can do what I didn't do and edit it out, you know?

Um, give them some choices. Would you like to not give a speech? Would you like to, would you like to, um, I had a, a student, not a stutterer, but. One of my students in Yeshiva did a PowerPoint presentation that his bar mitzvah, his bar mitzvah talk. Yeah. I thought it was adorable. Nothing to do with kid didn't stutter, but he just wanted, he wanted every

Uri Schneider: May.

Maybe he got the idea for my client. I'll give a shout out to Lazare. Uh, you know, he was a boy like you and me that couldn't sit still in his seat. And he also had a beautiful stutter. And, uh, when it came time for his bar mitzvah, this was the question. And I said, well, first of all, there aren't only two rails.

There's a third rail, uh, that's number one. It's not do or don't. And involved him and give him the options. And he chose, he was, at the time, YouTube had just come out, so he was doing vlogging. I had him talking video game tips. and then he'd come in the next week and he'd say, I got a bunch of likes. I said, how many?

He said, like, 20. I said, good. I did a good job clicking over and over, you know, . Uh, but, but finding a way for a kid to feel good about themselves, to feel like they're getting, uh, acknowledgement in whatever format that can be. Obviously it's best if it's in a primary way, but secondary is not bad either.

Anyway, he chose to make, cuz at the time he knew how before Charlie Harra had Charlie Harari videos with the montage and the speaking and the sliding pictures. Right. He did that for his Bar Mitzvah speech. Now nobody said, wow, so good of you to like, not have to give a speech. What people said was, now that was interesting.

There you go. Now that's, it was memorable. So sometimes when you get creative and you have that conversation, great things come out of it. But I think what the, what Rabbi Har said, the idea of having the conversation and I went through something in our family, a health issue, the importance of, of being okay with both outcomes.

That it's not, this is good and this is bad. Exactly. Give the speech as a win. This is a loss, but there's choice A this, choice B, and and their upsides and downsides to both. And having that conversation as parents, if you can prepare yourself for both eventualities being

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: right and let and let the children know, say at the beginning, it's your show, it's not about us.

We don't care. Whatever you beautiful choose, we're perfectly comfortable with. That's what, that's what I would say. You know, they could print up whatever. There are so many

Uri Schneider: different ideas that, yeah. So many ideas. Beautiful. Another question, uh, and this is a common one in our community, coming from Williamsburg, Brooklyn from a, from a Hasidish girl, 19 years old.

She's in the, in being set up to be married and, and in that portion of life at Parak, uh, very concerned how the matchmakers shahan are told about her and should they be told that she stutters. And then how should they transmit that to the potential, uh, suitor. Um, any thoughts on, on that delicate matter?

Well,

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: um, common practice among, um, I'm not, I'm not that familiar with the Hasids world because truthfully the Hasids world has a different timetable in terms of, you know, how many, what's car, like, how many dates or whatever meeting do they have fully engaged. But in the non-class world, um, if there are underlying medical issues or anything like that, um, typical, um, you know, the typical.

Approach to this is to inform after the second date. I, I know stuttering is different cuz they might stutter on the date. But I'm saying in typically if someone has diabetes,

Uri Schneider: certainly certainly not waiting to get married. Oh for sure. The cat of

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: the back. Right. In other words, the idea is like this, that sometimes, um, you know, we do believe in basher, which means that, you know, God's

Uri Schneider: divine province Match made in heaven.

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: Match made in heaven. Thank you. Um, so, so we don't wanna crimp that out, uh, yet. It's not fair to wait on, you know, as the couples about to get engaged, let's say the 10 dates are the standard, or 15, let's say the, is between eight and 20 dates before a couple decides to get, again, it's not fair that they should get romantically involved ser in a serious way and then say, spring this on them.

So typically that is the general practice is that after two dates, sometimes the parents. will say something to the parents or the girl, you know, boy, um, or the kids will say themselves. Um, so they get a chance to, you know, to uh, to, to develop a, a, some sort of relationship, know that compatible. And then, um, so I don't know how this word stuttering is different because you do get it right upfront.

Um,

Uri Schneider: I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll put in 2 cents please. I please think similar to it's the start of a new school year. So do you go up front and tell the teacher about whether it's stuttering or other things that are worthy to know, or you let the other person size up the relationship on their own and then inform them along the way?

I don't think there's a right and a wrong, right. I think it really depends case by case, but I would. And I would love to continue the conversation after today. What are some ways we can get proactive about, for, for the God buys in the shul, to know who to give an a ali to and how to approach that and asking d Davin to lead the services and fork for matchmaking.

I think it's very important how we tell the story. If we tell the story. Look, listen, give my son a break. You know, did you notice he's, he's gotta stutter the poor kid. That's a really bad introduction. Right? Uh, let me tell the following story and then I'll le give you a chance to finish with a thought and then top of the hour, I wanna let everybody get back to whatever they're doing.

This is delicious and we should continue this

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: story to me, a standing offer. Anytime you want me back, I'm on,

Uri Schneider: we're on. Okay. Tomorrow. Um, but we'll find the time that fits in your schedule. This story is gonna, is gonna really touch you. And I think a lot of people, and I think what Rabbi Horowitz demonstrates and exemplifies is if you're that kid, Who stutters.

If you're that young person who stutters and you are hiding and you're not talking about it, or you're silently feeling frustrated or not so silently feeling frustrated, there are people to talk to. They're role models and people that care, they're professionals, there are self-help communities and their books.

Just wanna make another plug for my friend Mo Meek's book, the Gift of Stuttering, written as a memoir of a, of a Jewish man, and it's really something that the entire world could benefit from his journey. I'll tell you this story. Guy comes to my father Hasidic fellow, and the parents come and it's after Passover and he hasn't been there for two months, and they say, so, doctor, do you think he's ready?

My father says, ready for what? And this is like a, this is like a cultural way of talking. Do you think he's ready? Ready for what? Well, ready for Ready for the matchmaking. Ready for getting serious about marriage. My father said, I don't know. I'm a speech therapist. I'm not a matchmaker, I'm not a shot. How would I know?

So they said, you know, but with the speech, it's very important that everything be tucked in Shik should be. My father said, I don't know. Have you asked him? Turns to the boy. He says, listen, I haven't seen you. How are you feeling? He says, pretty good. Are you ready to enter that stage of life? To get seriously involved and to, to go ahead into marriage?

I'm not any more ready or less ready than my friends. I mean, I'm interested. I'm ready. I also think I have some trepidation like anyone else. My father says, all right, he, he says He is ready. They said, no, but doctor, you don't understand. There's a very special family we're talking to, and their daughter, she is.

She's like a princess. They say about her. It's as if she's waiting for Moses to come down from Mount Sinai and sweet off her feet. So my dad says, Hey, Moses. I don't know much. I don't know much. I'm not from the FTA community, but sounds like a match made in heaven. She's waiting for Moses. His name's Mahi Mo Mosha, Moses Mosha Rapino.

Moses great stutter leader, had a stutter. Your son has a stutter. Sounds good. They said, no, you don't understand. My father said, listen, I think I do understand turns to the boy. He says, listen, do you wanna do you stutter all the time? No. Just sometimes it pops up here and there. Yeah. But you stutter sometimes, right?

Yeah, sometimes. But not all the time. Would you wanna be in a marriage with a woman that didn't know that you had this thing happen, that you had to hide it all the time? No way. Would you wanna be in a marriage where your wife didn't tolerate it and give you a hard time? No. Would you wanna be married to a family that the family didn't know and you had to hide it or they didn't?

No. So my father said, look, I'm not Hasidic, but why don't you go, this was on Friday. The meeting was set up for Saturday night. My father said, why don't you go in? This sounds crazy. Why don't you go in there and just put it on the table? And this is what I'm saying about how you tell the story can change everything.

Why don't you go in there Michi and you tell the girl and the in-laws, whatever future perspective, potential in-laws look. Um, , you might notice that sometimes I get, I get stuck in a word or two. It's not, it's not a problem over here, uh, it's not a problem. Over here. I'm ready to be a great husband, a great father, a great learner, a great earner.

Um, if you have any questions, just ask me. Take it from there. And it seems like such a radical idea. And the parents weren't unsure and they go home. This boy never picked up the telephone. But on Sunday morning my dad goes to the office, he has a voicemail and it's mahi. And he says, mazeltov Ma, Dr. Phil, you're invited.

You're invited to the tonight. And there he went to the Tonight with the Reba and he didn't exactly have his strel out, but, uh, as in many parties and Simpla, he found himself being pulled in by the family because ultimately, Whether you're Jewish, whether you're Hasidic or you're not Hasidic, the hat bends this way, the hat bends that way, or you're not Jewish.

We are all one fabric of humanity. Each of us have a different color and a different stripe and a different role to play. But there are certain things that are special to our community, and that's why it was special to have Rabbi Horowitz. But the lessons of stuttering are, it's an equal opportunity provider.

So, um, it touches people from every walk of life, from every place in the world and every socioeconomic class. And we all have what to learn from each other, mostly by listening. So I wanna thank Rabbi Horowitz for this very sacred conversation. Should be the first of, of a few, and we'll talk offline. But if you wanna reach her by Horowitz again, the website is

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: the Bright beginnings dot.

So

Uri Schneider: that's plural. The bright beginnings do com.

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: Sometimes it's really hard to get me, so please apologize. Trying in

Uri Schneider: advance, be persistent, just like stuttering. That's the lesson. That's it. And, uh, keep going. And if you wanna reach us@schneiderspeech.com. And this will be available for replay on our website later this week.

Dr. Scott Yaris on Thursday morning and some very exciting over the weekend. Carl Coffey, board member of the nsa, he was on television with Braden Harrington, and we'll be putting out some of the videos we recorded of the meetings this weekend with Braden and his family. And of course, my good friend Cody Packer from New Zealand.

Can't wait to keep the conversation going. Thank you for the time, rabbi Horowitz.

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz: Have a beautiful day. Really delightful. Pleasure. Thank you so much. It was very inspiring.

Uri Schneider: Not so to everybody. Be written, sealed, signed and delivered for a year of good news, good health, wealth, happiness, togetherness, and good news for a year.

We never needed it more than now. Yep. Thank you very much. Be well Tata.