Question: Who was your greatest influence?
Shmuley Boteach: I chose to become a rabbi because of one person who influenced me, believe it or not. Well first and foremost my mother influenced me. My mother is an incredibly courageous woman who raised five kids on her own. You never forget that kind of sacrifice. You never forget that kind of selflessness. I remember one night, for example, that at the height . . . in the throws of a bad marriage, sort of the last death throws of her marriage, my mother took us driving somewhere in a new car that her parents had bought for her. It was a red Chevy station wagon. And there was a hurricane outside. It was raining so bad. You had to swim. The car is sitting there treading water, and the car broke done. It was always breaking down, this car. And I’ll never forget this. My mother made us stay inside so we wouldn’t get wet. And she sat there putting her hand into the hood trying to open it, and she cut her hand open. And then she gave up on the car, and she was gonna flag another car in this torrential downpour, and she still wouldn’t let us get out of the car. We were just little kids. She just didn’t want us to get wet. Little vignettes like that were, you know . . . that’s my mother’s essence. She’s alive, thank God. She’s about 65. So she was the first one to influence me. She became a model of true selflessness, goodness, kindness, compassion, devotion, commitment, and she’s been my hero ‘til today.
Topic: A sturdier personality.
Shmuley Boteach: My father is a much more stronger, sturdier kind of personality. He was a bit emotionally detached because he didn’t have an easy life. He grew up in poverty stricken Iran – a Jewish family in Iran there. With the Muslim majority, you weren’t always treated like you were welcome or wanted. So I think he steeled himself against that. So it was more difficult for me to reach him, but I did learn to respect and to be inspired by his perseverance, his tenacity. He came as an immigrant to this country barely speaking the language. And just the determination that he showed – he built up a business. He, you know . . . Amidst several setbacks on the way he never gave up. So I learned tenacity from him. there was this one rabbinical student who took an interest in me. I don’t know, he saw something in me. First of all my parents divorced. My father wasn’t around. Again, this is at a time when in Orthodox Jewish families, divorce was really rare. So I didn’t have a father around. Everyone else did. And he became a surrogate father figure to me even though he was only four years older than me. He studied with me. He walked with me. He spoke to me. He visited me. It is only because of him that I became a Rabbi. He gave me my passion for Judaism. He gave me my passion for social service. He gave me my passion for commitment to social change. He gave me my love of studying the Torah and studying Jewish texts. And it was because of him at the age of 14 I decided . . . I took a very radical step. I got up from Miami, left my family to go to a rabbinical seminary at the age of 14. I see myself as an exponent of values. That’s how I most see myself. I . . . My passion is to make the world better by getting people to make choices based on values – on important values. Some people feed the hungry and clothe the naked and they’re great people – much greater than I am – but my contribution to the world is to get people to think in terms of values so that the decisions they make . . . the choices that they make, which will ultimately determine their character, their lives, what they become, what they do . . . those choices are based on something that’s grounded in eternity. Not ephemeral choices, not things that are about immediate gratification of the senses, but . . . not what we want, but what we really, really want. And here I am quoting the Spice Girls. That’s pretty sad. So something that caters to our innermost will. And I promote those values through a variety of mediums. Lectures to audiences is one. Books is another. I’ve authored 19 books now, thank God, on a variety of issues, mostly about human relationships because I think that’s the essence of values – how we relate to people, whether we keep our families intact, how we raise our children, the monogamy and passion we show to our wives and to our husbands. I also am a television host. I host a show called “Shalom in the Home”. I’m, I guess, a regular television commentator on political, social, relationship and religious issues. But everything I do comes under that rubric of values because I’m a rabbi. I mean I am a rabbi. That’s what I am. I make no apologies for being a rabbi, meaning even when it suited my purposes to maybe drop the title to be more accessible to a mainstream, non-Jewish American public – Jews are 2% of the American population – I never . . . Not only did I never think of dropping the title, I never thought of not using the title. My books are “Rabbi Shmuley”. On television on “Shalom in the Home” on TLC, I’m Rabbi Shmuley. If I’m a guest on FOX News, or CNN, or MSNBC, or the “Today Show”, I’m Rabbi Shmuley. On Oprah, I’m Rabbi Shmuley. I’m very proud of being a rabbi because a rabbi is a teacher. A rabbi teaches people values. So that’s what I do.
Recorded on: 09/05/2007
Discuss
Frances Smith on April 22, 2008, 10:08 AM
G-d bless you Rabbi Shumley. or as I like to call you, My Rabbi. You are an inspiration and a great leader. If I ever win the lottery I want to pay your children's school tuition.
Frances Smith on April 22, 2008, 2:08 PM
G-d bless you Rabbi Shumley. or as I like to call you, My Rabbi. You are an inspiration and a great leader. If I ever win the lottery I want to pay your children’s school tuition.
JOE BARUM on January 8, 2009, 3:31 PM
How can anybody pity the killers who once were victims of Nazi Germany?
Gaza of today is very much like Dresden-1945. And as Dresden was annihilated by the RAF toward the end of the Second World War, the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza are being decapitated and thoroughly terrorized by the Israeli army, the Wehrmacht of our time.
Breaking News : Such and such a number of palestinian children and women are killed in Gaza. It has become the daily menu of the press as if the victims are just numbers or even insects and above all they blame the victims for not running away from their houses to seek a shelter in a UNRWA school and when they do so, Israel kills them and gives the usual lie that there were hamas activists in or next to the school despite that fact that the red cross said that there were no hamas activists in or even near the school. oh my God! what happned to the world? Just watch CNN to see how it is siding with the killers by not showing the horrifying pictures of the dead people in Gaza, but when an Israeli civilian is killed or even wounded, they go on reporting this incidents for many days as if the Israelis are supposed to live unlike the people in Gaza whose death means a new number on the news. Who banned the media from entering into Gaza? It was Israel. Why? To hide the truth. But the whole world is watching and yet, nobody blames Israel for the systematic killing. Where is your humanity dear Americans when you support the killer and sypathise with him and blame the victims for defending themselves and crying aloud," We had better die fighting the occupation than to die of starvation". It seems that you forgot that the whole thing started because Israel’s blockade made the stuation in Gaza just like death and they had no way but to cry and tell Israel and the world to stop this inhuman blockade. Thousands of children died during the almost 4years of blockade and israel killed 6 hamas activists days before the end ot the truce, but the whole world accuses Hamas.
The virtual holocaust Israel is now waging against the Gaza Strip is taking its toll on innocent civilians. Today 8-1-2009 the total number is ( 650 killed and more than 4000 wounded and hundreds are still under the rubble of their demolished house.) The shocking scenes speak for themselves. The gruesomeness transcends reality; it exceeds by far the most eloquent of words.
Yes, Gaza now is very much like Dresden-1945. And as Dresden was annihilated by the RAF toward the end of the Second World War, the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza are being decapitated and thoroughly terrorized by the Israeli army, the Wehrmacht of our time.
But there is obviously a fundamental and conspicuous difference between Gaza and Dresden. Dresden was targeted by the allies as an act of sheer vengeance and revenge for what the Nazi war machine had done, including German attacks on London and other British cities.
But Gaza committed no crime against Israel. To be sure, the opposite is quite true. Have we forgotten that the bulk of the Gaza victims, who are being annihilated with the Zionist war machine, happen to be refugees and their children and grandchildren uprooted from their towns and villages across the borders inside Israel?
In 1948, Israel uprooted them in wave after wave of genocidal ethnic cleansing, and ever since has been trying to liquidate them by bombing their homes, killing their children, bulldozing their farms and lately by trying to starve them to death.
And now, the six-decade reign of terror and death is being culminated with an aerial holocaust, all for the purpose of displaying %u201CJewish power%u201D and %u201Cheroism.%u201D!!! Well, what heroism is there in having the state-of-the-art of the American machine of death rain missiles and bombs, including Bunker Busters, on unprotected apartment buildings, mosques, streets, pharmacies, college dormitories? This is not heroism; it is a sheer act of cowardice.
The Nazis ganged up on defenseless people more than six decades ago, but they at least didn%u2019t claim to be carrying out heroic acts as self-absorbed and gleeful Israeli leaders are doing now.
In truth, Gaza is being crucified because it refuses to succumb to the cruelty and supremacy of the %u201Choly tribe,%u201D because it refuses to die quietly and continues to cling to life and look forth for a better tomorrow, because Gaza is saying %u201Cgive me freedom or give me death.%u201D
The Nazis of our time want Gaza to die quietly, or at least as quietly as possible. Israeli behavior leaves no doubt as to the diabolical designs of the Judeo-Nazi entity.
But the Israeli military and political establishments don%u2019t want to appear before the world as they really are, as Nazis par excellence who think, behave and act like the Nazis. This is why they are trying to cover up their crimes with a frantic campaign of fabricated lies.
But Nazis are Nazis even if they have Jewish names and pretend to be the victims. In the final analysis it doesn%u2019t matter if Nazis call themselves %u201Cchosenites%u201D or %u201Cmaster race%u201D or %u201Cubermenschen,%u201D or even %u201Cvictims.%u201D
Sowing hatred
Israel is not only wreaking death, terror and havoc on defenseless Gazans. It is also sowing hatred, a lot of hatred, in the hearts and minds of millions of people who are watching Israel decapitate Gaza.
This is undoubtedly going to be one of the lasting aftereffects of this madness.
The gruesome and phantasmagoric images which hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims and others around the world are watching on their TV screens around the clock are a sure prescription for decades of hatred and sullen enmity toward Jews throughout the Muslim world.
Arab and Muslim children won%u2019t have to read about Israeli Nazism in their textbooks. They are watching it live on their TV screens.
Let it be clear to all and sundry. Israel is telling an entire generation of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims that they either surrender to the Jewish Third Reich or become %u201Cterrorists.%u201D
They will become %u201Cterrorists%u201D and be it as it may.
Surely, the pornographic slaughter will eventually boomerang on Israel and regretfully on Jews. Unfortunately, many innocent Jews will pay the price just as mostly innocent Palestinians are paying the price, with their lives and the lives of their children and beloved ones, for the brutal ugliness of the Zionist mindset. In the final analysis, anti-Semitism is manufactured in Israel, not in Damascus or Cairo or even Gaza.
Hamas
Israel says its aim is to destroy Hamas. Well, there is no doubt that Israel possesses the military ability to destroy the Hamas government. Israel, after all, is a military superpower which also happens to be more or less in control of the politics and policies of the United States and to a lesser extent the governments of Europe.
However, destroying Hamas%u2019s government is one thing, and destroying Hamas the movement, is quite another.
Hamas has hundreds of thousands of supporters in occupied Palestine as well as tens of millions of sympathizers across the Arab and Muslim world. These will not disappear even if the Gaza government does.
The ongoing huge demonstrations in solidarity with Hamas, now flooding the Arab world, shows that Hamas is more, much more, than a local nationalist-Islamic movement that can be eradicated by Israeli firepower.
Yes, Hamas has obviously been hit hard. But the movement is by no means about to die or even get weaker. In fact, there are many indications that Hamas will get stronger, at least in terms of popularity and stature.
The American puppet regimes in the Arab world may not like Hamas. Some of them may even be gloating over the Gaza calamity.
However, Hamas is definitely winning the hearts and minds of the Arab masses from Casablanca to Bahrain. This may not yield tangible benefits immediately, but the long-term gains are absolutely certain, and this is exactly what Hamas is seeking.
Well, let us suppose for the sake of argument that Israel succeeds in %u201Cterminating%u201D the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip as Israeli leaders have been saying. Would this end the Islamic resistance to the Israeli occupation? Would this allow Israel to liquidate the Palestinian cause by imposing a %u201Cpeace settlement%u201D on the weak Palestinian Authority?
Nay, this won%u2019t happen at all, because Hamas, whether we like or not, represents and encapsulates the spiritual essence of the Palestinian people and their yearning for freedom and justice.
More to the point, the contemplated elimination of the Hamas government by Israel would eventually be proven to be one of the stupidest Israeli misdeeds ever.
First of all, it would free the resistance group from the burden of government and allow it anew to carry out more ferocious attacks against Israel without having to worry about the bombing by Israel of buildings and security headquarters and hospitals.
In fact, Hamas had never wanted to be in government let alone form one. Hamas all along had wanted to be in a position to influence any Palestinian government, but not to be in the driver%u2019s seat itself.
However, the outcome of the 2006 elections imposed the burden of government on Hamas especially after Fatah refused to join Hamas in forming a government of national unity.
So, in a certain sense, the disappearance of the Hamas government in Gaza would be a bless in disguise for Hamas.
Remember these words very well. Because the conflict with Israel is not going to end in ten years or twenty or even fifty years
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