I Left Islam for Judaism

as a kid I was mentally tortured for wanting to be kind I was mentally tortured just for trying to be nice like I remember whenever I tried to be gentle uh well-mannered whatever you know family members or just people in my surrounding they would um they would interpret that as weakness since I was a kid all I've been seeing is guns people getting shot people getting killed weapons drugs uh terrorism on the streets all the all the time welcome back to an episode of inspiration for the nation that you've never heard before we've had people come here and say they've converted maybe they were an atheist before they used to be Christian they us to be a Buddhist you never heard this kind of interview on this show we interviewed teore who used to be a Muslim and practicing Islam and now he is a full-fledged Jew this episode breaks down the struggles and the choices he had to make in order to get to where he is today in this episode you will hear about our great friends at T any time and their Tim limited opportunity that you have so go ahead and check them out you'll also hear about how you could get rid of your clothes for a good cause the clothes that you're not wearing anymore with our friends at pck purple you'll also hear about the clothes that you should be bringing into your lives with our friends at twillery and the code off and you'll also hear about our friends at bipping and how they can take your company to the next level with smart software dedicated and created specifically for you this episode is a memory of shimak as well as M Yak mosha again stick around to the very end very big personal news for living without further Ado here is my conversation with tour I'm yakob ler and you're listening to inspiration for the Nation Tour thank you so much for taking your time to do this I have a lot to talk about with you but first could you take us all back to your childhood what was your childhood like growing up as a Muslim following Islam if I uh if I were to try and tell you my story I'm not sure what the correct order would be um I'm not sure if I could do that in a chronological order you know so much happened um my memory can stretch all the way back to when I was three and even then uh bad things were happening and I see them in my head still till this day like a movie uh one scene at a time from um from time to time it's just like a movie you know I watch one scene from the past when I dwell and it's it's almost never positive and I guess you know that those bad experiences as a kid they helped me deal with uh some of the things I've been going through in the past few years or maybe maybe even since forever and always which is like isolation and loneliness uh so since my childhood I just I I found it easier to be alone than be around people and I think in general because I I always felt uh vulnerable around people uh I feel much stronger uh when I'm by myself um I I constantly keep keep myself in check uh I stay grounded with my beliefs um I don't have a whispering bird in my ear to stop me whenever I want to do something or demotivate me so whether it's uh something that is meant to fail or you know a successful Endeavor it doesn't matter so every year i' I'd compare myself to the person I was the year prior you know I think it's very standard for human beings to do that um you know in growth and maturity every year you look back and they like oh I did that so um when I was mature enough to be able to question things I questioned things when I was mature enough to fight with words I discovered the might to come out to the public with my conversion life story uh I was very shy at first very scared very paranoid uh you know being an Arab and choosing to become Juda judaized you know to become a Jew uh and it's not just a faith thing you know it's not just the belief of course uh there's the uh religion aspect the religious aspect but it's not the only thing you also have uh the cultural aspect you or Judaism is a culture a Creed a nation so there are so many things that you have to accustom yourself to uh to adapt and feel like you belong H it's not enough to just practice Judaism you have to do many many many other things so it was never an easy thing um uh for me as many people view Arab identity and Jewish identity as mutually exclusive uh strictly deamus if you could say uh others just find it all weird all around um but I never let that get me uh I never let that get to me I I always you know I I accept everyone even the ones who find it hard to digest what I am uh most of my interactions have always been positive since I became a Jew uh could you and I want to get to to you know I guess your conversion and what life life has been like but I could you take us back to um I guess your your family life from what I understand you you didn't really know your father what was your relationship with your mother like what was your relationship with I guess your uncle and your cousins like H so I never met my father I mean I met my father only once but I did not know he was my father so it doesn't really count uh I met my father once it wasn't the best interaction uh he was asking me a bunch of questions I had no idea he was my dad uh when the police came knocking on my door um and they they came and they said you know well we need you to come your father passed away etc etc uh that was the first time I realized that it was my father and that I once met him uh you know years before he died and it's so Random uh my mother she she consumed Al jazer her whole life uh she's a Muslim a devoted Muslim uh devout um she she obviously does not accept uh my transformation she does not accept uh the life I chose uh to this day I reive very negative messages from her even though we have no relationship whatsoever but you know whenever there's a terrorist attack or whenever uh there is some Israeli aggression somewhere in uh Judea and Samaria like in Janine or something like that whenever we have to take out terrorists because all the time you know we have uh terror attack attempts and attacks as well uh so she would send me anti Israel stuff uh she would send me the to karta stuff she tell me these are the real Jews uh but she would also send me very anti-semitic things uh most of the time like uh you Jews your day your day is coming um and other other um anti-semitic tropes that she usually just I don't I don't even know how to explain my mother but like it's just very very violent with her messages and my uncles um they were it was a mix you know it was like a fusion they were somewhere between terrorists and criminals uh they did not really care so much about the state uh but they weren't uh they weren't against the state in their actions just in thought uh in their actions they were just criminals uh they were Thugs and they do what criminals do uh whether it's uh drugs guns um you know whatever ever Mafia people do I'm not a mafia expert I apologize but whatever they do uh yeah it was always there while at the same time they were holding a very Muslim Islamic um appearance um whether it was whether it's the robe they were wearing whether it was the Beards whether it was the Quran whether it was just uh you know just making Dua all the time and going to the mosque and giving charity and doing all these things pilgrimage so these are my family members more or less I have a question for you particularly when I see you know on the news you know God forbid there's like a bombing or a suicide bombing or a terrorist attack and and the the terrorist gets neutralized and they get killed um you see sometimes on the news like the especially the mother the mother of the terrorist celebrating and and being so happy and I guess from at least the Western culture or just you know I think any culture out of I guess that world it's like shocking because like usually the mother or the parents are always like okay what could I do to ensure my kid lives and lives a good life is that true is that like is that like fake stuff happening or is that like your experience with that as well um I think it's a little bit of column A a little bit of colum be um it really depends on the individual ual uh many many are very proud to raise their children to uh go kill and get killed uh While others sometimes you know they um I guess they're just riding the wagon you know they're uh they're trying to capitalize on a situation and they just do what they do so they can receive more money because they have uh big bonuses whenever they're able to kill a Jew um I have a friend who asked me multiple times to help him interrogate terrorists in Judea and Samaria because I'm fluent in Arabic and they didn't always have the manpower to do things they needed to do and they needed to know if they should let him go or not so they called me and they had me asking questions for about 30 minutes on the phone and it was his mother uh that gave him away you know he was a terrorist he was on his way to carry out a terror attack and his mother knew it was happening she called the police and she said uh my son is about to commit a terrorist attack stop him but she she didn't care about him uh because apparently she and him like they had their own issues uh she didn't care about him I guess she just cared about herself uh and I guess her home household people who live with her they didn't want to lose their house so it created some sort of uh deterrence for them you know the thought that maybe it's not just the person who's carrying out the attack that's going to uh face the punishment but there I met a terrorist from Janine once uh I went undercover that was about a year and a half ago and I was just pretending to be a tourist taking pictures and I met this guy and I was talking to him I was I was being very nice you know just trying to pick his brain and learn from him I asked him like do aren't people afraid AR aren't people scared to go out and commit Terror terrorist attacks and lose their you know you lose your home your family all these things no and he said to me so what if they lose their house we will build them in we will build them a castle so what if they're uh going to kick them out of the country wherever they're going you know we are going to make sure they have millions we'll make sure uh uh the term he used in Arabic is uh the crown on our heads we'll make sure that wherever they are in the world for what they did there will always be a crown on our heads and that's uh it's a very common standard belief among most Arabs that you know when you carry out a terrorist attack uh you should be praised you you're not a bad person uh we had one guy like that in Jaffa uh an Israeli Arab who carried out a ter attack uh I believe he done it maybe 40 years ago um because about 10 years ago he was released from prison and there was like uh massive parties celebrations all over Jaffa the streets but uh he killed a bunch of soldiers 40 years ago and that was here in yafo that was not in Judea Samaria or the West Bank it was not in Gaza it was not on a checkpoint was right here so I always felt like there's um there's what we see on the surface and then there's like the hidden truth which is uh something most people don't want to really touch or know what was your mother like was she more the type that's that and and obviously it sounds like you didn't have the best relationship but did she want you to be like okay just you know live your life and do whatever it is to whatever it is or was she like oh I'll be proud if you kill yourself in the name of Allah or whatever yeah no uh for me um she would always guilt me in growing up uh like look at the kids in Gaza look how they look at how they have nothing oh look at these kids in the duff duff means West Bank uh they have no shoes they have no this they have no that so she would always try to make me feel bad about having more than them but I don't know if that's true um she she never told me to go out and do something like that right but whenever something happened she would celebrate it and I guess she would try to educate me to be happy as well when it happened you know I was just 8 years old seven or 8 years old when uh 911 happened that we were at home and people were dancing and chanting and screaming and you know just a whistle uh whistle sounds um it it was it was a moment to celebrate that day for the Arabs I guess around the world Arabs and Muslims Israeli Arabs no exception so there was no radicalization on my behalf in terms of uh anything physical happening like you know what I mean it was just pure hatred anti-semitic indoctrination uh that we were breastfed but uh for us for me personally I did not get to go through the violent path mostly because my uncles were extremely violent they were all criminals and and growing up I always saw guns I always saw uh weapons uh grenades anything you know drugs um and these things were they made me feel uncomfortable before I even knew what they were I just growing up I never thought I was going to make it past 18 or so and I never thought I never thought that there's life for me other than either prison or uh death uh so I um yeah I had to fight for my life basically it's it's kind of scary because you know I guess continuing on the trajectory of a life that you know you were presented it's it just seems like it's very hard and and honestly not like a very long life but the flip side is to leave that life and I guess to even go down the path that you're you've taken is also I imagine very scary and and not so simple yeah I mean I want to say I'm brave but I don't think I am um I I did it I don't know what I I I don't even know what I was thinking man I I'm telling you like when I converted I I knew so many bad things were going to come right after but I told myself do it it's going to be worth it anyway I told myself like you can't afford to even leave your place you know like a family member of mine when I was 19 years old unfortunately he um he's a very bad person you know he scamed people uh probably you know worth millions um he's a con artist he uh that's his specialty he's a con artist unfortunately when I was 19 uh because we look alike he managed somehow to fake uh a piece of document where he made it seem like I bought fish uh fish uh in like 200,000 like 250,000 shekels worth of fish a quarter of a million and I was like uh that's a lot of fish yeah so I told the person when we showed up at my door and he was serving me that you know that notice and I was like hello I'm 19 years old I guarantee you I did not buy fish uh in 250,000 so that really really uh evil person unfortunately uh because of him uh I lost my life basically uh I just woke up one day I realized I cannot have a bank account I cannot do anything and you know thanks uh to him thanks to that incident um I'm not able to leave my place I've been living here for many many years I have no Jewish neighbors I'm the only Jew in the neighborhood so you can imagine how difficult it is to go home sometimes with a kipon at sit seat and all these things um I recently just a few months ago I embraced the hat but I didn't embrace it because I have uh you know it's I'm not afraid of them or anything I just I started teaching because I'm a teacher uh so I started teaching in the morning um in some secular schools and I just I thought it would be maybe uh um you know more appropriate if I just keep my hat on just because I look a bit strange you know it's just like it's hard to digest me most of the time the kids I teach uh high school kids or just even you know third graders fourth uh they don't know my story they don't know who I am and I try to keep it quiet they mostly uh go through months and months without knowing I recently got exposed uh cuz one of the kids saw me on TV I was on the news and and uh he ran to his dad he's like I know him I know him that's my teacher and then his dad came to school to look at me and then like oh wow you know impressive nice story and then the next day everybody knows and they then so it's it's crazy it's uh it's it it comes with fear with pain with happiness joy sadness moments where you feel loneliness it comes with like just uh a melting uh you know it's it's just it's a Melting Pot of emotions I I can describe it but you know it's definitely never negative I think even when people are struggle to understand me or to understand what I am uh it's it doesn't feel negative here's a quick message from our friends at Tor anytime Shimon K Yakov here from Tor anytime and you're not going to believe what Tor anytime is doing for the first time ever for absolutely no char toor anytime is accepting names and Y site dates of your loved ones who have passed on and on the upcoming y site we will dedicate all the learning on Tor time which is over 30,000 hours a day in their in their memory and their honor we will put their 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creates custom software but what does that mean let's let's do some role play it okay your name is Jeff okay Jeff you have your name I'm Ellie I'm not changing I don't know if I see you as an Ellie okay fine Jeff je MH you work in the healthcare industry I have a mustache also specifically you've worked for healthcare companies and you have an understanding that nursing homes and assisted living facilities have a tremendous amount of billing right there's a lot of billing there they have patience billing needs to happen sometimes they Outsource that so you said hey I know how this business works I'm going to create my own business and help other facilities and bring on more clients and make more money build a business out so Jeff you have three clients you have 10 employees things are working great great now I have excellent news for you you just signed a big account now you have 25 clients I'm very excited but I'm also a little nervous so when it comes to billing there are uploads of documents faxed papers that have to come through tons of moving Parts you can already start to see that you're now going to have to higher and higher and higher and hire which is great you do need a core team but what if I told you that there was a way to save on not just employee salaries and hiring but also you can save on process I would ask you how do I do that bitban so you would speak with them they would understand the core pieces of your business how you're operating um communicating with um those facilities and then build a custom solution not just you telling them what to build but they have a good understanding of what softer you would need and you would literally literally literally save hundreds and hundreds of hours a month with clean process you'd be able to sleep at night and oh by the way you can go from 30 clients to 300 clients because the software works for you I love that that's great I actually got to meet the people at B Bean they're like yako I'm like please call me Jeff like what I'm like we're going to do an ad that it's a long story they are confused about that but everything else was great when I went there met with them um very smart intelligent and you mentioned this yeah kind yeah very nice very nice people to deal with so uh if you're ever in Lakewood and you want a tour I could give well my ultra ego Jeff could give you tour but more importantly go to bing.com to learn more about how they're going to take your business to the next level thank you Ellie and now back oh and now back to this week's episode got me there my question for you is why did you go to Judaism you know sometimes if someone has a negative uh experience when it comes to religion they basically just drop religion as a whole and especially because of the background that you I guess were fed of like how in quotes bad Jews are why would you then say like okay let me become Jewish yeah so first of all growing up I was raised to hate Jews I I I it's I I struggle you know to say those words I it's it's like hurts when I when I say those words um because because I am a g today so like I feel like okay so you hate yourself as a kid you hated what you've always been because I tell myself I've always been a Jew and when I converted that's what I told the diim and the bin the judges in the court I told them you know I've always been a Jew because when they asked me like what do you want to convert I said I have no idea but I know I've always been a Jew and what made me uh that's actually funny cuz uh later on after I finished my conversion I took a DNA test and I do have Jewish Heritage uh but that's not uh the point here so I I became a Jew because and not an atheist or a Christian because I had very very bad experiences with Muslims and Arabs my whole life and not always on a personal level so it might not be even related related to me it could be just an Arab Muslim who has issues with a Christian or with a Jew or a black person or that person or a white person it doesn't matter so growing up I always sense this hostility I always sense like I'm not part of these people and I was like as a kid I was mentally tortured for wanting to be kind I was mentally tortured just for trying to be nice like I remember whenever I tried to be gentle to well-mannered whatever you know family members or just people in my surrounding they would um they would interpret that as weakness since I was a kid all I've been seeing is guns people getting shot people getting killed weapons drugs uh terrorism on the streets all the all the time it was the Oslo Accord days so we had a terrorist attack almost every single day in Tel Aviv uh restaurants pubs on the buses and it was just a very traumatizing experience for me and as a kid you know I always felt this danger I felt this you know thing I can explain like this Dark Cloud that is just around my family and I remember I as a kid once I yelled at some of my uncles cuz I have 14 and I yelled at one of my uncles and I said which means uh there's no um H the word to translate that word it's more than good it's it's more is like there's no benefit not even pure it's like um um I could say there's nothing beneficent there's nothing there's nothing beneficient beneficial yeah beneficial uh there's nothing beneficial in you people you know that like there's no good in you there's nothing good about you so is something that brings peace something that brings peace to your home brings peace to your life brings peace to your palasa to your uh everything so I I told them that and I got the living hell uh they beat me that day and these were adults these were uh people in their 30s and I was just like what 10 12 uh when I was 6 years old 7 years old I was forced to smuggle uh burners into uh prison cells uh because when I was that young uh for whatever reason security guards in prison and the you know uh Penitentiary they they wouldn't even like check me I don't know why and we're talking about like 1999 uh 2000 back then the security wasn't as good as today even CCTV back then they looked like potatoes so um I had many many many many many reasons to uh continue my spiritual moral old path uh which I always you know I always felt like it was intertwined with uh you know the Bible as well CU when I was five I did learn the Bible I went to a French School uh we had the tanak and they would teach us some stories so my mother went and bought me because I begged her to uh I I begged her to buy me um uh those uh what's it called those tapes video tapes uh we didn't have DVDs back then that was before before DVDs came out and I asked her if she could buy me some movies and she went and she got me uh which means the biblical Heroes the greatest biblical Heroes and it was just a movie series and it was just a Biblical movie series and I just loved it and I loved every single character and I had a tanak at home because we had that class at school even though it was just once a week so once a week you had one hour which was Tanaka hour so I ran I ran I went to uh the tanak I opened it and I began looking for the stories that I was just watching because I was so intrigued and I wanted to know more so that's I guess that was my first crush uh with the tanak that was the first time uh we basically touched Bas and it became like a very dear piece of document for me it was very dear to my heart and even though I was a practicing Muslim I always told myself like this book was true at one point you know CU that's what uh that's the Muslim belief uh the Islamic belief is that uh the book has been corrupted uh but at one point it was uh true so as a kid you know I kept uh I I believed in that notion so I I did not um I wasn't fully anti-judaism or anything of the sort it's just I was brainwashed to believe that for example they taught us as kids that the Jewish people are punished because they worshiped a golden Cal you know what I mean but then uh they don't you know they completely neglect the fact that so much happened since like after that point and uh it's it's and that's the thing about Islam is that there's no chronological order in the book uh the very first chapter can talk about the Messiah the second chapter can talk about Moses the third chapter can talk about Muhammad the fifth chapter can talk about uh Adam being born for the first time uh the 20th chapter can talk about um you know how God created the Quran before anything else but he would say like this God created the Quran and then taught the men and like he taught the Quran to the man but then you ask yourself like shouldn't he create man first and then teach him the Quran uh but they stole that from the Torah as well and I was just intrigued I I guess I just wanted to learn more and more and more about Islam I also had a hard time defending many accusations that people had against Islam while I was traveling the world when I was 17 years old I left Israel and I began my uh very very long journey abroad so many countries so many continents and the more I found out about Islam I you know the more disappointed I became uh it was a slap in my face for sure I um in the beginning I was so traumatized to I felt like uh Plato with the allegory uh of the cave uh like when he comes out of the cave and he's never seen sunlight before so he's just like blinded by the sunrays and he doesn't understand what's happening he's dizzy now so that's how I felt felt when I uh was researching and uh I found out that Islam is not a legitimate religion I realized how much uh they stole from the Jews I began uh you know this crazy obsession with just reading and researching and reading eventually I found out that there was a Jewish guy uh hated his community for whatever reason his name is Yakov B Shalom y b shalum was the a Jew he was alive during Muhammad's era uh y Shalom taught Muhammad and his gang pretty much everything they KN they needed to know about uh Judaism and even Muhammad where you know he he would go on he would tell the Jews Allah praise the way you purify yourselves why don't you show me and then they taught him how to do n you know in Arabic in Islam the action is called wo obviously in Islam they have to overdo everything so in Judaism it's uh in in Islam it's pretty much uh the same thing three times you wash except it's not just your hands uh you wash all the way to your elbow you wash your knees as well your kneecap uh your feet uh your ears your nose your mouth and if you think about yon kipur uh which by the way is my favorite day of the year and yum kipur uh Ramadan is just yum kipur times 30 you know it's uh it's a month of atonement it's a month where you fast uh a month where you know pretty much everything you're not supposed to do in y kipur for a whole month and just from uh Sunrise till sunset so I I I uh I was just baffled I guess uh by so many things uh whenever I asked I never received satisfactory uh answers I was never really happy with what they had to offer uh I decided to leave I was always a spiritual person I couldn't wrap my head around the idea that there is no God I told myself that that's impossible I know that there's God I don't know if God has a book I don't know if people just have their own beautiful experience where they they feel like they've been touched by God so they do whatever they do they either become hippies or they meditate or they do whatever it is they do uh for me personally I found a lot of uh passion uh in the Aramaic and Hebrew language uh I was I was just obsessed with both I I always felt power whenever I read or wrote or spoke Hebrew uh which was very difficult for me to explain and I always uh just L the sound of the Aramaic language so I found myself sitting down home long before I even contemplated becoming a Jew I um I'll just sit down and memorize uh uh like quotes uh and sayings in Aramaic uh religious ones and I would just love the sound of them and that's you know one thing led to another and somehow someday I found myself just calling the rabate in Israel um and telling them hey so one two three I want to become a Jew and they say why it's like oh well because I've always been a Jew that was literally my answer I didn't know what I didn't even know what else to say so the more Jews I met during my conversion uh Journey um the more they told me I remind them of like uh an authentic ancient Jew and so I was like okay that's a compliment I'll take it I would imagine that it's so scary to to be you especially you're like still living amongst you know I guess people that probably aren't happy with you what gives you the courage to even come on this podcast but i' I've obviously seen you um around um what gives you the courage to like I guess just speak up cuz you could have just gone and become Jewish and then live your life as a Jew and not really I guess promote your background and stuff like that um when I was converting I knew that this this is about to be a very very irregular uh conversion uh most people who convert they do it because I mean I'm generalizing here I'm generalizing here it really depends on where they're converting from um I'll I'll just generalize uh Arab converts because I feel like I can because there are Arab Muslim converts to convert to Judaism uh from my experience uh meeting them uh 99.99% of the time uh they do it because they're in a relationship with a Jewish women and sometimes uh her parents or something like that they tell her that uh you know she can't do that because you know it's it's a very obvious thing that she can't do that but I told myself in the beginning a you don't have a Jewish woman so we don't have to worry about that b uh don't expect anyone to accept you so if anyone accepts you that's a big bonus luckily for me many many many accept me the vast majority do almost every single person I ever met accepted me I feel H but I told myself also just know that no matter what you are you're a strange strange chicken you're like uh you're like like a black wolf in your family and here you know don't don't expect things to be you know like sunshine and rainbows this is not what it's about a you just got closer uh to God you made the Covenant now you are Abraham now you did what he did you took abam and turned it into Abraham he took tamaru which is my birth name and you turned it into Teo it was just like that I took UD and VAV e o which are two letters from God's name and I just told myself now you are on a mission you are on a spiritual Quest you are going to talk to God every single day and you have to get this thoughts out there thoughts um beliefs opinions knowledge about the Arab world Arab culture and the Muslim World sometimes I feel like I was inclined to become this activist even before I converted but when I was converting I wasn't thinking about activism as much I was just I was just trying to live I was trying to find a reason to live I was trying to find happiness in the world I was trying to find answers you know just answers I believe every single person out there asks uh themselves why are we here who are we what's the point to all of this is there a point to all of this we have to uh we kind of have to make a point and eventually one day something just like just like just like that uh I grabbed the camera I told myself you know you have video skills take the camera sit in front of the camera and just share share what's on your mind so I sat down and I began sharing stories I sat down down and I talked about uh a group of uh Arabs that I met in Holland uh they were working in a restaurant I went and I bought a burger and um they obviously didn't know I could understand Arabic because I was the only client in the restaurant I was the only customer and they were just threatening to kill each other while I was having the burger I was just like I'm taking a bite and the very first bite the guy was telling the other person that he was going to slit his throat and that he was going to mop the floor with his blood the other guy told him you just wait uh you know wait till I go and I see your sister I know where she lives don't you forget that I'm going to do that as soon as this shift is over and I was just like sitting there I was like is this real cuz that did not stop for like minutes on minutes they were just like I thought they were going to kill each other on the spot and and where wherever I went it doesn't matter wherever I went I always saw this ugliness in these people when I was living in Thailand I was living in Thailand for years I would meet Arabs that would come and visit and they would sit at restaurants and I can understand them while everyone else can and they have this thing that I just I hate so much where they are disrespecting everyone that is sitting there they're mocking them because they don't understand the language and then in English they sound totally different and like I could I could spot the hypocrisy and one day this Arab guy just gets up um goes to this person and that person realized I guess uh he was a tie person that does not speak English but the other guy was speaking to him in Arabic and he was telling him you know awful things that he was going to do to know his wife etc etc uh the Tye person uh for whatever reason he knew what was happening uh and I was there and he just grabbed an axe he had like an Axe and he just he hit him with that axe you know he got him in the collar bone and the guy was rushed to the hospital he needed uh he needed surgery on the spot because he was going to die so I just began sharing these stories sharing my interactions with Arab Muslims here around the world uh talking about Israel talking about like Jewish people talking about the Arab Muslim culture upbringing and you know one thing led to another and and it became um a truth-telling storytelling uh Vibe my whole platform thing you know that's what it is I don't consider myself to be a hbar person even though on Israeli news channels they tend to call me like uh the Arab Muslim who became a Jew sh and uh now uh does uh wonderful advocacy for Israel ET but I I I just I feel like I feel like I'm a truth teller more than a person that's very powerful we'll be right back this week's episode but I am very excited to tell you all about pick purple primarily because I lived in a building in farra and I don't know every 3 weeks or something like that there would be a ton tons of garbage bags white garbage bags with the words written a marker pick purple and I was pretty confused I'm like what is this I went to my wife and she told me she's like oh we actually gave a bunch of our stuff to pick purple I'm like what's pick purple she's like it's very simple pick purple is a nonprofit organization that helps people in need and they take the clothing and sometimes they give it directly to them sometimes they sell it and like you could buy gorgeous suit for a dollar because someone's like hey I don't need this anymore and they help those in need who don't have clothes basically take your in quotes garbage or clothing that you're like I don't need thism of course don't like give them your like totally ripped up shirt but give them the clothes that you're not wearing anymore and those in need will get it at an incredible price again they're nonprofit and when they make money off anything that they sell or give to others well I should say sell then what happens is they take that money and all goes towards project baa which pick purple is under B essentially helps girls who are in high schools who are struggling who need to you know it's care of help them connect more to their Judaism and to their Jewish roots and it obviously helps those girls more than just in high school literally throughout their life B's beautiful project so pick purple is amazing because I think most importantly your clothing that you have that you're not going to wear anymore or it's just going to sit in your closet for another like five months to 10 years will actually be worn by people in need and those people in need will actually benefit and at really really great reduced prices and of course the proceeds from that all go directly to Bata to help those girls find their Jewish roots so it's a win win win and the process I kid you not I did this before because I literally have stuff to give pick purple because we've been using it for now I don't know like four years is so simple go to pick purple.or and you will literally follow it out they'll say the process is so simple they go they pick it up from you they take it from your house you put it in like a garbage bag you mark it as Pi purple they drop it all put it outside your house from 9:00 a.m. till I don't know 5:00 p.m. someone will come pick it up bada bing bada boom you don't need to do anything better service in the garbage man they actually come to your door and actually it goes to people in need so go to pick purple.or we know pesa's coming up so you probably are cleaning up and that tells me why we should talk about twiy now because pck purple is for complimentary cuz you might be thinking hey I need an update to my wardrobe I want to get clothing that's actually going to last that I don't need to throw out or give away and that's why I love twillery and personally I have been I have like 20 pairs of pants not from Tillery that they're great pairs of pants and I'm like but I'm not wearing I haven't worn them since I started advertising for Tillery that's I gave them pick purple but twi's Pants last I've said this before I have pants that lasted me for over five years I'm right now um the shabas and rocking their ear suit which is This brilliant technology just makes this suit breathable I kid you not you probably will not want to wear other suits after that um so go ahead and check that out but you're thinking hey do I still get that discount yes you do you get $18 off with the code word inspire get their ear suit get their pants we're going to talk about their other incredible items their shirts their polos so much more next week now back to our conversation since October 7th uh there's been a tremendous amount of anti-Semitism going on that maybe it's been there in the background but now it's at the Forefront I'm seeing myself so many lies being told so much Distortion uh what are you seeing on your end yeah the word distortion is definitely spoton they are so good at this they're they've become so sophisticated at distorting things taking things uh out of context and blowing things out of proportionality I've I've felt that since the very first day uh when my mother sent me um she sent me an Al jazer piece I'm not sure if it was Al jazer or maybe something else but uh they were trying to say that there were no rapes and that uh innocent civilians weren't murdered only soldiers and that the civilians were murdered by the soldiers some ridiculous stuff so Distortion that's the word I'm seeing it everywhere for sure from you know even even we have some unfortunately we have some awful awful journalists within Israel we don't even know what they're talking about we had that one journalist from haat who went and said that the helicopter Israeli helicopter uh was shooting uh the people at the festival that turned out uh to be not true but it took him a week to correct himself and you know that cost us many anti-semitic uh uh pieces out there from Al jazer and their friends and not just them I think we had Riv drer a journalist that is a major star uh in Al jazer right now aiv du Riv drer is a channel 13 journalist uh for whatever reason he said what he said you know I don't want to even repeat what he said but anyone can Google his name uh it has millions of views on Al jazer as well so unfortunately we have sometimes we don't have the best ambassadors and I guess they kind of f but we don't it doesn't it doesn't even need to be that uh you know uh when we mess up they just take advantage they capitalize uh but the world is you know inherently anti-semitic uh even the ones who pretend like they're not they are uh I felt that traveling the world uh I felt that here after October 7th um when I was seeing the celebrations you know the Arabs here were celebrating and whenever there was like a rocket that went off a siren uh my neighbors I even have phone record like I have recordings on my phone video video recordings of my neighbors uh celebrating just chanting clapping uh being extremely happy this it's not unusual you know growing up I've seen this I've seen this at school I've seen this everywhere when gilad Shalit was kidnapped and everyone danced and clapped and celebr bra 911 the Iraq War even though Iraq was losing uh but you know they they were happy they thought you know the Iraq was going to win um it's it's the culture of uh not Culture The Cult of death the this uh thing listen I I I I mean I I understand how we see it as evil but I'm sure in their heads they're not looking at it like they're evil like what what what how do they justify well first of all you the Jew and I you know I'm very proud to be your brother right now but uh you the Jew uh you're a liar uh you're uh a master of deception um you're a thief you're this you're that that's what you're fed uh from the day you're born so they inherently victimize themselves and what you're uh seeing is you know you're just witnessing the evolution ution of uh a a a product that just victimized itself for so long where they always feel for themselves but see you as the enemy and they don't uh they don't think that they're bad people for killing you they think they're going to heaven they think uh they're doing uh their social um Circle great Justice uh by taking you out definitely that's it's very scary as we wrap up cuz I I feel like I could talk to you for like literally 5 hours and be fascinated um if there was one person in history could be from the Kish from the Bible it could be you know from 50 years ago that if you could sit down with for an hour who would it be wow you're tackling me here uh so many so many wow you get one I get one okay I will take uh M I will [Music] take um I think the r my is I think he's an exceptional character uh to me he's almost a prophet really um I just I enjoy reading his OT his his Epistles uh the Yemen epistle especially that one I memor I memorized parts of it just because it's so beautiful and so relevant to this day you know um it has to be him um on account of our sins God has cast us into the midst of this people the nation of Ishmael and as in Hebrew it's who always devis ways to harm us and to debase us and no nation has ever done more more harm to Israel than Ishmael so I um I I definitely recommend to anyone who's never uh read uh the Yemen epistle to read it by theam if you know Hebrew read it in Hebrew because he wrote it like a song So at the end of every uh sentence it actually Rhymes and if it doesn't rhyme then it's going to rhyme in two or three sentences so it's just uh the rambam is someone I I dreamt about the rambam a lot that's why I say I wish I could talk to him because I talk to him in my dreams but I don't know if in my dreams it was him or is just my subconscious looking like him talking like him so what does he say in your dreams tips help uh sometimes I because I have his books here I have U I have The KES here a mini one um I think about his ideas a lot I think about even like the uh guy to the perplexed um I remember I met this Jew who was trying to talk me out of Judaism a Jew yeah he was trying to talk me out of Judaism and he was telling look this is a good book you should read this this is good book and I read it and then he was trying to like summarize it for me he was trying to give me the gist I'm like I think you don't understand it and I think you forgot that this book was written in Arabic basically any Arabic speaker could read this book and I think he was trying to do something good here but you're you know you're misinterpreting his words and in my dreams I I I don't want to go into details but uh I had incidents where I was going through massive massive dilemas and in my dream he popped and I was just asking for advice and it was very painful uh topics and moments in my life when when I spoke to him about these things so that's why I I found it that's why I found it extremely difficult to believe uh I'm like is this him or is this me is this what is this or am I imagining this I mean it's a dream but dreams can be tricky they can be extremely tricky and I as someone who unfortunately grew up with night terrors and night terrors are are a Paras peris uh what is it forgot the name of that thing condition uh it's just like nightmares but worse uh it's when you don't know if you're awake or not and you're dreaming and it's always a bad dream and you're always going to die in that dream so these are nighters but he wasn't in my nighters he he was never in any my night terrist no right I can imagine it uh out of the 600 113 Mitzvah there's a lot yeah is there one in particular that means a little more to you than the rest H I think uh the one that means the most is uh and you shall love to yourself uh you should love for your neighbor what you love for yourself something you know somewhere along these lines uh I unfortunately in the beginning when I uh was converting um I feel like I did not understand this aspect enough uh unfortunately the Jewish people only after traumas uh come together and remember who they are and remember that people time after time they've been trying to kill them us and now it's you know the time to hug it out and you know uh be together again so when I converted I did not take this whole uh very seriously and I have been now I guess since the War uh just you know to love and accept unconditionally and hug and uh be okay even with those who disagree with you it doesn't matter what they believe in or if they don't believe in anything secular Safar asazi kidi yite Orthodox reform like I just you know I woke up one day I'm like you know we should just we should love a little more we should love everyone a little more and that was day I just I think I took that mitvah and I began really applying it uh just to be more understanding of others and understand that sometimes when people behave in a certain way it's because they feel pain that you can't see and that's why they're reacting the way they're reacting but the same way you can't control the way you react sometimes I feel like others can do that as well so we should just show more love um to everyone and that's a great commandment I think to live by that's really mature and uh really beautiful answer so I'm the last question for you is it's more of advice for someone who's watching this and you know actually before we get to that before we get to that what's what's like where's your future where do you see your future like do are you looking to move out of the the community that you're in do you want to move to more Jewish community do you want to move to America do you want to uh get married I don't even know I assume you're single I'm not even sure so just I guess tell us about like what your hopes are yeah I I I am single um in terms of my future I guess what I'm doing right now is I'm just trying to build myself and I guess when I'll feel ready and uh I feel mature enough to get married but at the same time I feel like I'm not because part of that maturity comes with uh you need money to have uh a family you got to take care of your wife you got to take care of your kids you got to take care of everyone and sometimes it's not just your wife when you get married you marry your wife's family all of a sudden you're married with her parents as well and her family and uh and it's tough uh so when that does you know when that day does come I just want to be prepared I want to be already I don't want to be caught with my uh guard down uh I want to do it the way it should be done so it's just a matter of time and in terms of leaving I don't know you know sometimes I feel like I want to leave but most of the time I don't um when do I want to leave when I guess you know I come across Arabs were extremely negative or I get into like a verbal uh uh you know verbal conflict with people because of my decisions to convert etc etc or sometimes you know just when I express my political opinion and or I just share you know some political insights given money upbringing uh sometimes Jews get extremely offended and when they get offended I feel like it hurts them and then like I guess that hurts and at that moment I kind of don't want to be around because I feel ashamed and I feel like oh maybe I should have now maybe I should have said something else maybe it should have been different words y y y uh so yeah but it's a learning process you know sometimes I go hard on myself I am my own worst critic but I tell myself look it's a learning process today you spoke to that person and you maybe you came off you know as two rightwing and next time try again try to appear less right-wing uh just because you know I believe in certain values you I believe in I believe that you know if non-jews want to be here they are welcome to stay but they should understand what this place is not fight it not resist and just live a good life you know they don't need political aspirations to live a good life I just don't understand why they need that so you know sometimes some Jews don't really like my answers uh because they're you know they're just brought up in a certain way to believe in certain set of values you know and what do you do like for like shabus do you walk over to people for meals you do your own thing so for shabis uh most of the time I do it by myself but um whenever I don't do it by myself I go to the RAB the RAB is uh the rovid N um it's an askanazi Hungarian sh no which is like cidic I really enjoy going there I've been going there for like two three years now I think about three years uh I've done many many holidays with them I have some you know American and uh um British acquaintances that I've met during the past couple of years and they invite me sometimes during the holidays you know in rosha Shai I spent it with a British family uh last piss off again I spent it with a British family so I do get invited from time to time to you know they I get hosted in holidays and you know yeah but most of the time I just go to a nearby sh and I saw in a different interview you're you you're practicing yemenite correct is that accur correct why do you flock towards uh being a yemenite as opposed to ashkanazi or sari well yemenites are a minority uh their culture and ritual is all uh mysterious uh I wanted to be in you know I wanted to be let in on a secret I wanted uh I was looking for the most authentic oldest uh nosak um how do you say nosak in English I'm curious It's a um that's a good question huh yeah I'm not the worthiest person but Noak would be like a prayer text prayer rendition I'm not exactly sure there's one word yeah so I I just love there like a Style style of prayer a style of prayer yeah we could say a style of prayer uh I heard their kadish the first time before I heard any Jewish prayer ever I heard the emonite kadish I cried uh for three days straight uh it really it really felt like it was speaking to my soul it was like directly speaking to my soul and the yemenite kadish is just so like no offense but it's so much more powerful uh than every other kadish out there uh I even spoke to the rebe about it and he mentioned a crazy story about how he got emotional many many years ago when he and his father you know his father was the the older uh rebi but when he passed uh his son became the rebi um his father had a yemenite friend and he told me it's crazy how the yemenites are so dark and we are so white but we are so similar and he was tell like we are so similar we are like he's referring to ashkenazim and yanites because they pronounce words very we pronounce words very similarly uh for example we say Dono you know I'm not saying the ah at the beginning but like we say Dono and say the same don't they say different and uh just en I guess you know many many things and he mentioned the um the kadish as well they have a very very very long kadish like maybe four minutes long there are extra paragraphs there and the k for Shabbat is a bit longer too so I remember the first time I I went and I uh I had to do kadou because I showed a plate to the Shabbat table and they already started eating so I did kou on the table and they all stared at me they all stared at me they understand but it was a yite kadou and you know it's like so it's like they're looking at me like what where is that coming from like you do not have a yemenite accent when you speak but that's a yeminite accent when you when you pray like yeah I got used to it so yeah I just fell in love with the yemenite culture yite prayer everything yemenite all day I love that I love that okay so I want to ask you for advice for anyone who's watching that's going through a a troubling time they're not exactly sure how to navigate their life what what advice do you have for them to take it to the next level uh first of all uh that too shall pass uh it's not going to be reigning forever eventually that storm is gonna wear out um I think the best advice I could give is people should really understand that relationships are probably the most valuable thing you have in your life so it doesn't matter who you meet uh try to be nice to everyone try to be loving and caring and kind uh you never know where you will meet that person when you'll meet that person and when you do meet again you know the tides might might turn and I don't I don't even know how to explain it but it's it's just it's always it's better to bond with people and build a really strong relationship with them than just you know make them strangers and it's not it's not going to last forever whatever pain you're going through sometimes you just got to get up and look at life and be like hey look you hit like a bee uh I'm not going to stay down I'm not going to be on my knees I will uh I will fight back it's hard it's difficult but Hashem helps he helps everyone as the says for all of his Creations so I think uh if you feel down don't it's it's just a matter of time we all go through that it's not just you really powerful timore if someone wants to follow along your Journey where are the best places that they could see you the best place to find me right now is definitely on Instagram I get a lot of hits there and a lot of people message me all the time and I think that's the place Instagram and YouTube teor aklan t i m o r a k l i n timour aen that's my name it's everywhere all over social media Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube all same name okay amazing tear thank you so much thank you for opening up about your journey thank you and um yeah anyone who's watching or listening I I I got to tell them all to go follow you that's where I first got introduced to you and um yeah you're putting out good stuff and you're changing the world so thanks again for doing this um thank you I I will humbly accept your or a kind compliment I don't know if I'm changing the world I just know I'm I'm sharing my truth and the truth well thank you thank you thank you so much for watching this week's episode the word that I want you to type on YouTube or Spotify if you're still watching or listening is the word brave b r a e Brave teore is someone who is brave whether he feels it or not I saw it I'm sure you see it and feel it what a person what a yid and um yeah people like him are are so big in my eyes and he you know these are the kind of episodes where I'm like this is someone who's an inspiration for the nation as cliche as that sounds big news that I'm going to announce that you may already kind of know if you're watching this but before that I just want to remind you to go to freed. with our friends at tour anytime to get that free dedication go ahead check it out and if you have any clothes that you want to just get rid of Hit the link in the bottom with pick purple you will be able to get it picked up so easy so simple I use it I love it if you haven't yet picked up anything from twillery go ahead check them out you will be buying clothing that will last you for a long time and that's why I love that investment also you're going to look good and feel good um and last F I obviously use a code word inspire last and not least go ahead and check out our friends at bipping even if you're not sure if your company can use them give them a call they're very easy to talk to but you'll be shocked you'll be surprised and I want to say something here this is why I love bipping because I'm transitioning into our our setup we have been at this in this studio where I'm recording this right now um for for at least for the podcast for like 3 years and we never really invested in a crazy setup because we always said like let's make sure the system works the problem is I personally have to hit record on a few cameras on a mixer the lights then unloading it and then then plugging it in and then loading everything it's just been a mess and people like bipping the company like bipping what they do is they go and they they understand what's going on with your company right right now I'm talking about a podcast but they understand what's going on with your company and they say let's how do we solve all those issues that's going to cost you a lot of time and energy and why don't we fix that system so we took that idea from bipping and we hired an incredible team to help us turn what we feel living Kim is this has been literally since the summer um and we actually started working on it in September the brand new living liim Studios which um we definitely have a few episodes still in the bag that you'll see you'll see the studio still but sadly the studio is going away you'll see our brand new gorgeous Studio that like this mentality from Bing of like we are I am wasting so much time on on the process of uploading and the mistakes that are happening and then then just getting it all in and looking as great as possible if you watch this interview did a little test run over here with just the zoom camera um there's a lot more coming and uh if if you have a company that you're like hey I would love it to be called the XYZ Studio you could be on every single podcast of living theim so you definitely can reach out there'll be a link in the show notes to our WhatsApp but I'm very excited for the conversations ideas and messages that will be spread from the brand new studio thank you so much for watching we have some unbelievable guest coming up from the old studio and um and from the new studio until next time inspiration is everywhere living l

Channel: Living Lchaim

Views: 51,522

Keywords: jewishpodcast

Id: c0kZwcLQSnQ

Length: 73min 7sec (4387 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 09 2024