From Flipping Houses to an ArtScroll Bestseller: Elad Danino’s Shnayim Mikra Chumash

Welcome And Why Tonight Matters

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Tonight's a big night on the Motivation Congregation podcast. We have a very special guest with us. And as the new cycle of Torah is beginning, the Shabbos with Parshas Boracious, there's no better time to talk. My guest tonight, Ilad Danino, is the architect behind the new Schnai Miker of Echad Targum, Khumish from Art Scroll. There's also a big party that's coming up to mark the accomplishment and the completion, I think, of the Sefarim. So we brought in the architect of the work, Mr. and or do we call you Rabbi Danino? Is it Mr. Danino? What is it?

SPEAKER_01 2:19

It's not Rabbi.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

It's not Rabbi. So the way I wanted to meet you is I want to meet you with the audience. So I don't want it to be like a regular interview of can you tell us this and tell us that? More, I'll tell the audience that we're friends through a couple uh back and forth text messages. Um we spoke once or twice about your sephim, but I find it more enjoyable to learn about uh a guest on the motivation congregation together with the audience, because then everyone's intrigued to learn about the human experience of another person, especially that has the experience or the objective in life as

Ilad Danino’s Background And Day Job

SPEAKER_02 2:58

you do. So uh, Mr. Danina, where do you live? Tell us five minutes about where do you live and what do you do with your day and what brought you to this big, big undertaking.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Well, it was a pleasure to actually meet in person or as close as it's gonna be for now. Um hope to see you on Sunday. Yeah, I'm main. Uh yeah, so we've been talking a little bit about uh my I call it a hobby, but at this point it's kind of my mission, which is to push this special myth of Shinai Mikra Bechatargum as much as I can, as much as humanly possible. Um, and anyone and everyone that's able to help, um that's what I'm telling me, tell me, how old are you?

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Where do you live? Because I know you, I'm looking at you. How old are you? Where do you live? How'd you get there?

SPEAKER_00 3:52

So I'm 40 years old. I live in Brooklyn, New York. Um I was pretty much my whole life here in Brooklyn. Went to Taurus MS for elementary school, went to Tav, went to TJ in Israel, Ruffatora in Brooklyn, just like all over Brooklyn basically. And uh yeah, pretty much at this point I I hop around shules every week to to promote the Schneimiker to promote Schnei Myomi, um, which is a program that we'll talk about.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Uh totally. So you went to TJ, you went to Artisrell, you live in Brooklyn. What's your what's your day job? Your full-time uh promoter of your peddler of your work?

SPEAKER_00 4:37

So so work-wise, um we have a family business. We do uh structural steel and ironworks for yeah, new homes and new buildings.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

And it's great, we gotta connect afterwards. I'm a broker. We gotta find some uh some middle ground.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Let's do it. Actually, actually, for quite a few years, I was fixing flipping homes for quite a few years, and then about five years ago I kind of uh transferred over to work with my uh my family.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Interesting. Well, if you don't mind me asking,

Leaving House Flipping After Covid

SPEAKER_02 5:08

how come you transferred over? Is it because of the 7% interest rates or because the market's too competitive, or why do you think that's so I was fixing flipping homes for about 10 to 15 years.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Um, and then during COVID is really where things got complicated because uh I was buying homes which were vacant from directly for banks, and then what happened was uh there was um there was a stop, there was a stay on evicting tenants, I'm sure you know, especially in New York. So uh the my business had to adjust completely into now trying to get the tenants out and and then starting to renovate, the business just got a little bit uh tough, so quickly had to maneuver to something else.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

Meaning because you were meaning because when people were being kicked out of their homes because they couldn't pay, so that gave you an opportunity. But once that stopped happening, then the opportunity dried up.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Yeah, yeah. And and and again, things just got everything started taking longer, and obviously time is money. Totally, totally.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

It that is interesting to hear about. Uh, it's a lot it's some people actually I have a lot of clients that are jumping into it now because uh they're in the real estate world, but some of the standard ways to invest via cash flow or cap rates are even tougher. So uh the fix and flipping business seems to have, you know, so a lot of people seem to be involved in it. I know it's a highly in intense business, but so then how okay, so how does a uh Brooklyn-based TJ going um fix and flipper end up partnering with Art Scroll on a work here? You published a book that is called the Schnee Mikra Khumish. Did I get it right? What's the title of it? Yeah. And you're obsessed, that's not fair to say. Is that nice to say? You're obsessed with a mitzvah. You're obsessed with a mitzvah. Everybody's got a mitzvah. I love to meet people like this. Everyone's got a mitzvah. I know I met someone one time that's obsessed with like shooing away the mother bird. He has a whole business in Shalulahin, Shalulah Khaqan. He offers it asim. Someone else, I read an article about someone who saved the world from shatnis. People pick their own mitzvah. You picked the mitzvah that there is to say the Torah twice with the community, translate it, it's kind of a straightforward mitzvah, but yet you chose it to save the world in this area. Can you tell me take us back to the beginning? What made you feel that there's a need

The Train Moment That Lit The Fire

SPEAKER_02 7:48

for this and that there's a better way for people to do this mitzvah of Steinbecker Wachetargum?

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

So I'll tell you like this. I always believed in the importance of a mitzvah like this. I'm a very big fan of uh small change that has big impact, and usually the little things in life is really what creates greatness. Uh, instead of focusing on the larger than life and just you know, uh big tr you know, big type of accomplishments. What happened over here was um just a little less than seven years ago in the last scene of shaz, I was on the way to the Barclay Center in Brooklyn with a couple of friends from Yeshiva. And we went to Barclays, it was warmer. I didn't want to go to MetLife, it's too cold. So if you remember, it was January 1st. So we we were on the train, and there were quite a few Jews on the train as well. And um I wasn't making a scene, but I was going to, you know, like everyone else, just going to support. And I was I was actually doing Shnei mikra that day on the train, and somebody came over to me who I don't know who he is, and and he started telling me, introducing himself, and and then he started telling me, he's like, I realize that you're learning Khamish. I said, Yeah, I'm doing Shnei Mikra. So he said, It's pretty funny because everyone else on the train has a Gemara in their hand and they're learning Gemara. They're doing taf. So I said, I said, I know, but I have to catch up on today's Aliyah. So nothing really happened. I went back over to this guy maybe a couple minutes later, and I just out of curiosity, and I said, You know, you were pretty amazed that I was doing Shanaya Mikra. Like you came over to me. I'm just curious, you are you doing the are you doing a CM of Shas? Like, are you making a CM on the on the entire shas? He said, Yes. I said, Okay, what about Shneya Mikra? Do you do Shina Mikra? So he just very nonchalantly, not in a disrespectful way, but it just it was weird to me that he just looked at me in the face and said, I don't have any time to do Shai Mikra. And I was like, What? Like, what are you talking about? Like, like I I don't even know if he was realizing what he was saying, but it was just it came out so smooth that it was like there wasn't even a second thought to it. But in my head, it was like I don't understand. So I asked him, I said, How long do you spend the day on doing the daf? He says, minimum an hour, sometimes more, sometimes I do chazar. And I said, You don't have five, ten minutes to do Shinaya Mikra? And he said, No. And that's really what triggered this whole thing. And the entire time at the Seamashas, I was kind of cooking in my brain um ways of like mimicking the dafayomi for Shinaya Mikra, knowing that Shinaya Mikra is a khaiv. There's absolutely no question about it. And Dafayomi, obviously, it's a mitzvah to learn Torah, it's extremely important, but I don't think there's a khivat to it. And the fact that someone could so easily say, This is so much more important, that's how I interpreted it. That's really what triggered the fire in me. Kind of got offended, like for Hashem. And I was like, this can't be, we're gonna have to do something about this, and that's what happened.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

I love that. I love it. Every single great Torah architect has a moment that's like when uh I'm not a movie watcher, but it's like when when a villain, you know, gets infected with his powers, and all of a sudden they become the Sandman, the whatever they become. A lot of times Torah developers they get hit with this moment of how are we overlooking this? How this is a khiev. It is interesting that you're saying, right? Dafyomi is not a khaiev. It's an obligation to learn Torah in the morning, and it's an obligation, obligation to learn Torah in the evening, and but it's a straight up uh obligation, right, to learn Shnay Mikra ve echa targab. You were always someone that enjoyed learning chemish, I take it. Is that true?

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would say from Yeshiva in Israel, I was already pretty good with Shnai Mikra.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Mm-hmm. So you're on the way to enjoy the Dafha Yemi, and you came, you had this idea brewing in you. You're thinking about it on the train, and you're on the way to it, to the Daf Yemi Sum. Uh by the time you left the SEM, how uh prominently was the idea of authoring a safer on Shnei Mikra with Art Scroll, how far had it germinated in your mind?

SPEAKER_00 12:24

So nothing about the Kumish was then. Um I'll t I'll tell you where the Hummish started, but I'll just add one thing. The second that guy looked me in the face and told me he doesn't have time to do Shnei Mikra, it was game over. My life changed, and I knew that moment that my life is not the same anymore.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

It's so it's uh I love it. It gave me chills to hear about it because it's like a moment of clarity when you know it connected with you, you know what God needs you to bring to the world.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Yeah. Exactly.

Building Shnei Yomi With Daily Reminders

SPEAKER_02 12:59

Okay. Where'd you go from there? You went to sleep that night uh like a regular person, or that night you were already up typing on a computer, calling people.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Oh, I started writing names, different names for my program. Maybe like 20 ideas that came to mind. You know, what were your ideas?

SPEAKER_02 13:16

What was the first idea? What was the first idea?

SPEAKER_00 13:18

2M12. Basically, what I wanted to do was create a group that's gonna learn Shimikra together, and I had many different ideas. Should we do in-person Shirim? Should we do Khapburas? Should we do just like a WhatsApp chat, something short, longer? It took it took quite a few months. And I I launched it, that that voracious, which gave me like a good nine months. But be surprised in nine months I probably had a hundred different types of ideas, you know, with this uh with this concept.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

So it was it was something from a WhatsApp group where every like meaning it's a this is what this is maybe what the audience would be wondering, is what I'm wondering. It's a commandment, everyone's somewhat doing it. How are you going to get people to do a commandment other than bringing awareness? I mean, what what exactly was it? How did you, you know?

SPEAKER_00 14:09

So, yeah, yeah, so I'll tell you. So actually, um the the basic concept was this. We have to mimic dafyomi, no doubt, is very popular. And it's much harder, if you ask me. So if it's so much harder.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

I don't know, but sorry to interrupt you. I don't know how people do it. I know how people learn a daff of Aramaic in in an hour, hour and a half. It's beyond me. I can hardly, you know, get through the the uh a one Mishnah in in an hour if you know you're learning it well. Anyway, but sorry, back to you. Sorry I interrupted you.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

No, no, it's okay. So so uh I had to mimic what's working. And um the idea was like this there's social. It has to be social. There has to be like a social aspect that people feel that they're doing this together, just like a hundred thousand people can go to MetLife Stadium and they know that seven years in advance. They know that, oh, one day we're gonna be part of this tremendous event. Um, and they want to be part of it. They don't just want to show up. You know, I showed up as a spectator, but they wanna they want to show up like they accomplish. So that's one group that's a group setting. Number two is that I had to break it down daily because at the end of the day, you could do it on Friday. I know that there is a sheet like that and it works for many, but I would say the majority of people, it's too hard, and that's probably why a lot of guys fall off. They say they'll push it to Friday, and then Friday comes and there's 240 seconds to do times two with the targo. So so you know, most guys don't have an hour and a half on Friday outside of their ready schedule. Totally. So so that that's the daily breakdown.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

Um and so essentially your idea was to I mean, essentially, it's interesting. Um, I remember learning about the opening up the uh opening up of the very first yeshiva, uh Valojan Yeshiva, after Rabhaim Valojenar got the advice of the Vilnagon after he slept on it for a year. Rabhaim Valojaner eventually opened up the yeshiva. And one of the novel ideas, the khidushim, in the opening up of Valojan Yeshiva was that previously people would just learn in their own homes or with the rabbi of the town, but Valojan said, let's come together as a group. Let's all sit in one room and let's all learn together. The the camaraderie, the the joining together to become Yachad, um, it is a big catalyst for sticking with it. It is interesting that many people set their mind to doing Schnei Mikra, but fall apart, I guess, as it is. The mitzvah itself, let's do take a minute here. We're a Torah and Musar podcast, so I do want to take a minute to explain. For those that are educated, those aren't that educated, it's a pretty explicit Gemara that anyone who learns Schnaiam mikra, oh, the everyone should learn Schnayamikrava echa targum. If you do, you merit long life, long length of days and years. It's an open Gemara. Brachos, Ahmad Alav, Ches, Amad Bez. Uh, I want to get a little bit more nitty-gritty now that you have this idea. I want to start talking about um how people do the mitzvah of Shneya Mikra, like actually doing it, reading it, and then the creation of the book that you have to how it actually helps them to do it, and then get into a little bit how you solve the problem of people maybe learning Rashi or maybe learning Uncleus or maybe learning it in English and get a little bit like that. So let's jump right into how had you work with the biggest Jewish pup book publisher? You just pitched to them and said, Hi, my name is Mr. Danino, and I want to save the world of and make sure everyone's learning Shinay Mikra. So do you hand them 50 grand? Like, what'd you do?

SPEAKER_00 18:03

I won't talk numbers, but uh what I what I'll say is this I uh my second year of Shinay Miomi, which which consists of me recording a different rabbi each week um to give a a daily two-minute uh fiddish on each day's aliyah. That's really what the program is.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

Wait, so that was the first thing. So I skipped that. I skipped that. That's the first thing you did. What's that? You had a WhatsApp group?

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Right. So the WhatsApp group is it's really simple. Concept is so, so simple. It's just we send that a daily reminder to Shinay Mikra. We send a PDF of that day's aliyah, plus we send a video, try to make it under two minutes, and that video gives a khidish on that day's aliyah, one kiddish.

SPEAKER_02 19:57

Amazing. Who did the khidish? Who who did a PDF?

SPEAKER_00 20:01

You did a PDF, you did the khiddish? So the PDF was done a while ago. I I actually purchased it from a publisher in Israel, and then the the um the videos, there's basically 54 parshits in the year, and every week I bring a different speaker.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

So for example, this this week is voracious for the entire week. Every morning you get a two-minute video of Rebbe Joey Haber. Next week is next week, I'm giving everybody uh uh telling them what's up. But basically next week is Rev Gal Friedman, right? So every week is a different Friedman.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

It's a different These are the the that's behind the scenes here. That's those are A-list names. Those are A-list celebrities. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

I'll tell you when I'll even tell you who's lachha this year, is Rev uh Rebbe Center from Israel.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

So this is a this is this is already uh a heavy hitting uh Jewish organization.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

I think it's just an easy when I call these rabbis, of course they're busy, but I never got like it's not so important. It's always been like, whoa, but yeah, I'm in. You know, like it's it's such an easy pitch. And when I saw how how important it's to the rabbis, right, who are the Tamir Khamib of the generation, then I knew it's real. You know, I didn't ask the regular guys, I asked I asked the rabbis who really, really know the depth of this mitzvah.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Wow. So so you have a WhatsApp chat. Uh where to how where'd it go from there? How did it get into the next stage?

SPEAKER_00 21:33

So, yeah, so we started with like 50 guys, really just my friends. I just posted it to a couple of guys. I think a lot of them just did me a favor by joining, some actually liked it, but sooner than later, bor Hashem, it's really just blowing up um from every angle, like really unreal.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

Did you open a website, social media?

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, so I try to keep it like, you know, I I'm

Growth Strategy And Community Momentum

SPEAKER_00 21:59

less on, you know, Facebook or Instagram, but I'm more on just a lot of WhatsApp, our website, tour anytime, all the plat all the podcast platforms, and and next year we this year actually, we uh we're joining with the old parsha, the OU. Wow, wow so they're gonna they're gonna put us on also. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

How'd you get all these connections? You just called them up and said, here I am?

SPEAKER_00 22:23

I think I think over the years they really realize the the importance of this, and and you it's there. It's there. You know what I'm saying? What I really love about this program, and I've heard this through some big social media guy in the in the Jewish world, he told me that usually with with programs and fads, they usually phase out. So you always have to be super dramatic, super heavy, you know, drama. And then you're always hoping that it doesn't fade phase out. With this, started six years ago and it's only growing. And I'm I'm pushing, but it's it's really growing on its own organically every year. You know, another thousand, another two thousand, another three thousand. It's just unbelievable.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

It's so it you almost you almost you get the Siata de Shmaya. It just goes by itself when it's something that the clouds are amazing. Okay. So what's so then what's so so I guess we already hit the big break. You know, you had your big break. I well, actually, no. When was your big break? When was something that just said, all right, this is legit? What did it already happen, you know, when you got the WhatsApp chat to thousands of people, or is it when was the big break?

SPEAKER_00 23:32

So so really last year, the launch of last year's cycle, um, voracious, we came out with the with the chemish, and I think the partnership with Art Scroll has taken us to extreme levels that I never dreamed. Um I just literally last year it blew up. Everything blew up last year.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

So are you are are you are you are you full-time in this now? Is it is it something or is it just you just do it in in between in between house flippings or iron and steel sales?

SPEAKER_00 24:06

No, so so my wife's not crazy happy about this because she's been working more with me these days. Um, but I'm pretty much spending my days um just promoting Shine Yomi, Schnein Mikro, you know, different initiatives. Um I didn't tell you half of it, but there's I just we just launched a Shine Yomi Teens program for teenagers for high school boys, and like in a day we had over six hundred signups. It's just one day, like with Zebby Samet and Singer's, and I got the top topper bame across the country to to to buy in on it. It's just it's so much.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

You're a you're you're a promoter. That's also really what you are. You're you're you're an expert promoter here. I'm my my grandfather's uh or he invested in some some boxing ideas at the beginning. Down in Virginia. And I remember hearing him talk about the promoters and the producers of boxing matches, how essentially you need somebody to be the point man and understand, you know, this is the big the biggest match. This is a showdown, just to show the importance of it. Because actually, when the product is good, Schneimek of Echatargum, everyone knows that's an important, integral part of Judaism. Sometimes you just need somebody to slap you in the face and say, you're missing out on this huge opportunity. Just grab it. It's like free money, you know? I feel like that's pretty cool. Zebi Samet, he's a rock star. His jump shot's wick a good. Never seems to miss his shot. No, he doesn't.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Actually, I spotted him in YU. We did this uh this production, and I spotted the guy for like 33s in a row. I think he got like 28 out of out of 30. And it was like two feet behind the the college three-pointer. Yeah, not the regular, like two feet behind plus two feet.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

Well, he's a yeah, he's a and and and you know, somehow in this world, when you can put a a composite leather ball through a nylon net from 35 feet away, you become an idol. And and and and Hashem wants it that way. And and that means that it carries with it that you're a star and people look up to you. So credit to him for taking that platform and doing only good things and Kadesh Hashem's with it. So it really is. Shout out to Mr. Uh Zevi. Um, okay, so we're working with Art Scroll. We have the Humashim. You did the Khumashim. Did Rabbi did Rabbi Nusson um what's his name? Sherman. Did he take care of it? Did this did the Zlatowitzes take care of it? Did he write it? Who's the editor? Brander, Brander?

SPEAKER_00 26:38

No, no, I gotta get I have to give credit where credit is due. And everyone needs to know that the one who

Turning The Vision Into An ArtScroll Chumash

SPEAKER_00 26:44

thought about this was Rabbi Moshe Bamberger. He is the Mishgiach and Landers. You know Reb Moshe Bamberger?

SPEAKER_02 26:51

He's a Rebbe Ruchham guy. He talks about Rebbe Rucham Lovovitz all the time, and is and he's got the purple coffee table books that are $50, you know. I have I have the great Jewish letters, I have the great Jewish photography, whatever he's got. Yeah, it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Tell me what Rabbi Bamberger did. So so the second year of Shneim Yomi, I was recording him for Parsha's Vayera in in the yeshiva, and in the middle of Ravi, he stops me and he says, Ilad, you have to come out with uh Shnei Mikrachomish. There is none. There is no English Shnei Mikrachomish. Um I think it's perfect for your program. It's a perfect part, it's a perfect uh you know uh partnership collaboration. Collaboration. Yeah, and he's like, and your address is Artscrow. It should be no no question. So I took it from there. I took it to Artscroll, and it took a good two, three years to really, really cook the idea. What are we doing? How are we doing it? How are we how are we designing it? There was a there's a lot that went to it into it. It looks so simple, but the beauty is the simplicity, but the simplicity came with so much chachma.

SPEAKER_02 28:02

Oh, uh that's the that's the bit right there to cut out and use as the promo. Because first of all, that it's it took two to three years. It wasn't an overnight thing. Everyone sees it, it's you know, two to three years, and then the simplicity, you know, the the depth and the simplicity simplicity. So what was the idea? You said here's Shine Mikro make it work, or and they didn't?

SPEAKER_00 28:24

Yeah, or so no, so I went to them with the idea and they said, okay, cook it better, cook it better, cook it better. Every time I went back to them with different ideas, I have I literally have a spreadsheet of ideas that I went to them with. Um the the concept, so what we ended up coming out with was let's do Schneimikra designed chemish, which is posik, posik, unklus. Then we're gonna add rashi on the bottom forever wants to learn rashi. And now here's the kicker is that the English translation of this chemish is not of the posak, it's actually of the unklus. So yeah, yeah, that's a big one.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

Wait, so take it, take it to me. It's posuk, and then and then in a normal chemish, you would just go to the next pasuk, but this is it's the re reiteration of the pasik, so it's the posak twice in a row, right? Correct. And then and then right after that in the same paragraph, it's Uncleus's translation? Correct. In Aramaic. In Aramaic. Right. So you're doing Posak Posuk Aramaic translation, and then underneath that that's Rashi.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

And on the very bottom of the of the page is Rashi. And across from the yeah, and across from the No, you say across from across from the Pasuk, yeah. Is the English translation of Uncleus. Why did they do that? Why didn't they just do a regular translation? Uh, so so most guys have what's the problem? The problem is that the guy wants to do shenanigans. He has to read the pasik twice. Okay, there is a shita that you can do it once and then read the second time at the bap, or it's but the guy has to read the pasik twice, then he has to do targum. Targum's in Aramaic. So the guy says, Okay, not only do I not understand the psukim, I now need to do the Targum Unklus, which is in Aramaic, which I also don't understand. So you so if I translate the Pusuk in English, how does that doesn't really take care of my Schneimikrecha Targum part? Because really we're supposed to learn Targum and Unklus. Umplus, right? The unklus translus the commentary of unklus. So now we came up with a thing. Let's put the translation of unklus over there, so that if a guy wants to do the posik twice, and then instead of the English, he wants to do the it's instead of the Aramaic, he wants to do English, he could be Yotzig.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

Wow, that's it right there. So you could essentially do Hebrew, Hebrew, English, and you've done Shine Mikara. Correct. With this, with this khumsh. Because you're ta you're capitalizing on the fact that we're translating the Targum, right? And that by doing so, as the Gemara

The Layout That Solves Targum Problems

SPEAKER_02 31:10

says, I have it here, Megillah, Gimelamad Aleph, the Khazal read the Poslik from the Chemia by Yikra uba sefer mefoirush, mefoyerish is targum. It's not a translation, it's from Harsinai Unclus, the Gare's translation. I always love that he was a gear, by the way. I think it's super cool that right? He's a Gare. Unculus is a Gare, a prosteolite, or however they say it in art scroll terms, proselyte, and he's Titus's uh, right, Git in 55A. He's he's Titus's nephew, right?

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Correct, from what I remember.

SPEAKER_02 31:43

Yes. Right. I think that's remarkable that he's the one in the ultimate um godly humor. He was the one who uh authors the um used accessible and practical translation. So what about so so I guess you had to have a fair amount of halocha guidance in this, correct?

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Yes, yes, yes. So basically, um ArtScroll had already had a sock from Shmuel Kamanetsky that if a person does an English translation of Unculus, they can be Yotseh, the Targum part of Shinaimekracha Targo. Wow. So they already had Yeah, it's it is huge, and because they had that, I they asked me to also go to Sfari uh Posik. I ran to Israel, I went to Rabbi Tchak Yosef, Ravad Yosef San, and I showed it to him, showed him the draft, and he actually tested, he tested me. He op he asked his gabai to open up to like a bunch of different psukim. He like literally just read it off by heart and he asked the gobai to read it to explain how Arts World translated the Posak in English, the uncles in English, and he kind of tested them, and then he gave his psa, then he said it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

Wow, that's an awesome story. I take it that you put that in the in the preface and introduction of the book.

SPEAKER_00 33:03

Yes, they did, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 33:05

Wow. That is very cool. You you're a man on a mission. You have a you have a you have a psac from Rab Schmuel, and now Archgirl sends you to give a psac, get a psac from Rabah Rabbah Yosif. That's that's uh um shluche mitzvah. You definitely would have been put there from Sukkah. You're definitely on a on a on a mission there. That is incredible. Um so where does Rashi fit into all this? They're kind of the Khamish is not geared towards a Rashi uh Targum, or it is, it's there.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

Rashi is there in Hebrew. They didn't translate Rashi, they have they have uh two separate Rashi Hamashim. Right, there's the regular Rashi and there's the Rashi elucidated. Um so if guys want to really d delve into Rashi deeper, they can do that. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

That's that yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Sorry, there is something really, really amazing about this Khamish. Each Aaliyah has a summary in the beginning of each Aaliyah. And that I went I went back to Moshe Banberger because I really did have a Kartof to him, and I said, Rabbi, you have to be the author for this. So he took on this project, and uh he wrote a summary of each Aaliyah, which is incredible. It's like not too long, not too short, hits all the right spots, it's perfect.

SPEAKER_02 34:22

Oh my goodness. He did that for every so we have 54 times seven. Yes. And then he sends in his messages or his text to Art Scroll, and then they edit it and make it look pretty.

SPEAKER_00 34:35

They yeah, you know what? They barely edited it. It was that good.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

Wow. Wow, shout out Rebbe Bamberger. Oh, yeah, that is big time. Gosh.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

Very cool. Um, the halachos probably they probably also put the halachos at the beginning of the safer, how you could beotse, right?

SPEAKER_00 34:54

Yes, yes. There's some halachas, the Rebbe Bamberger has a beautiful overview on the myths of Shneimakra. More of like uh Shkafa, it's some mahshava, as opposed to the halachas. But it's beautiful. Uh definitely recommend people to read the introduction.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

I'll tell you, I'm I'm uh I'm a chemish I'm a Schneimaker guy because I'm good at it and I'm not so good at Gemara learning. I try really hard at Gemara, and it takes me an hour and a half to get the question and then the answer, and then the qu and if I get the question and the answer, I'm very proud of myself. And if I could even, you know, say I don't get in and delve deeper and see what Tosos' question is from his Gemara in a different place and then try to answer that contradiction, I'll feel really good about myself. But Schnai Mikra, you could jump right in, right? What does this word mean? What does it mean? Most people ask that. What does it mean? Boracious bara elokim?

Halachic Backing Rashi And Aliyah Summaries

SPEAKER_02 35:45

That's already hard to translate. It sounds like you're saying that baracious created Elohim. You need to have Targumunculus for that, right? For the very first busek. Boracious bar elokim. You need to know that what actually happened and how the word baracious is actually translated. For sure. Rabbi Rukham Lavavich, the great spiritual dean of the Shiva Samir during the roaring twenties, says that doing Shnaim Mikrav Echa Targum gives you organization in your life. That you have, I don't know if you could speak to that. That you have where are like you ask a person, where are you in life? What do you mean? It's it's today is shiny of Paris Yitzhrow. And that's what we're working on today. And where are we going to be next week? Well, it's kind of a delay in schedule because it's such. We're not doing braces until later. So we're in the yuntiv season. You kind of become part of the Jewish, you know, calendar and schedule. I wonder if you've seen that.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Yeah, I mean, I think you're alluding to, you know, like Mars says Yashlam Adam Parshiasavim at Tsibur, right? So I think a big part of this mitzvah is being part of the tzibor.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

So I was I was I was putting my my children to sleep. Uh family time is between 5 and 7 p.m. And I was, and as I was putting them to sleep, I was thinking about what the the chazal say about the interview that we're gonna do tonight, what the what they say about the mitzvah of Yaslan Parish Yosov in Matzibor. And that stuck out to me. That I was gonna try to bring that up with you. That it doesn't just say learn Schnai mikra, it says finish each week the weekly parasha with the tzibor. So you you're making a big uh dugish in that. Why do you think why do you think I didn't uh we'll we'll we'll finish up here in a little bit because the the interview is going, I'm having a good time with uh asking you questions and hearing about this, but just off the cuff, why do you think why every mitzvah I I mean has reward in Olamhaba? Why do you think specifically Shnai Mikra, you get long life? Like it's it's just a weird reward. I guess some mitzvahs you get ashiros, right? You give me certain, you get wealth. Why do you think it is that when you learn Shnai Mikra, the Torah says that you get long days and long life?

SPEAKER_00 38:03

It's a question that I always have, and I'm curious if you have an idea because it's your your eyes are rolling. So if you do, I would love to hear it first.

SPEAKER_02 38:11

I was gonna truth be told, I was gonna do our interview was at 8 o'clock, and and and I didn't have a chance to look it up, but I'm thinking for sure the Maharau and Kedushi Agados or the Ben Yeho Yada, uh the Benish Kai for sure has something I'll have to get back to you. Okay, so let's let's let's finish it up. And and I do want to hear, is there one final roadblock that you had to overcome to get this out? Anything that's a good project, the Yetzer Haga gets involved? Was there like one final thing that you had to crush and just finally push it through when you thought it was gonna collapse, but you actually took care of it?

SPEAKER_00 38:44

Um no. There was never like there was never a moment where I might drop this.

SPEAKER_02 38:52

It did no matter what came up, you knew that it was gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 38:55

Remember, I told you in the beginning of the interview, I um the second that guy looked me in the face and told me he didn't have time to do Shine Mikro, uh, it was game over. It's just I knew I I knew Hashem gave me gold, and Hashem said, Here, take it. I'm giving you a mission. And now it's just a matter of, okay, who's gonna join? How are we gonna get them to join? So, okay, so we need to get Zebi Samet, and we need to get Rebbe Haber, and we need to get Revenue Feinstein to come to the event, and we need to get Benny Friedman and get a Jakob Shwaki. We need to do everything we need to do to get this done.

SPEAKER_02 39:27

It's amazing. There it is, right there. You just gave away the secret to Jewish success. What you do is no matter what your goal in for Hashem is, if you pull in Joey Haber, Jakob Shweki, Zebi Samet, and Benny Friedman, you know, Rav Gav, and and you know, we're gonna make things work, it'll end up eventually it's gonna work out if you have the right uh promoter.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

And I think that's part of the Tibor. I think that's part of that Tibor thing, is is it's not it's not an individual thing, it's not an individual mission. I'm here just to really collect everyone together and and do this as a unit.

SPEAKER_02 39:59

Love it. I love it. Like all good leaders, spoken hum humbly like all good leaders. What about tell me, is the how's the response from the safest production? Is it is it selling nicely? Wild.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

It was the top seller this year at Art Scroll.

SPEAKER_02 40:17

Really? Yes. What'd you overtake? What'd you overtake? What was there before you?

SPEAKER_00 40:22

Well, I don't know who was there before me,

Sales Milestones Pep Talk And Live Event Invite

SPEAKER_00 40:24

which I just I kind of get like uh analytics from them all the time. Uh uh, the stats. And uh I also I mean uh just from the just from the people that I sent, the different guys that wanted to give it out to their whole community, and guys, some guy in LA that called me, he bought 12, he bought 1,200 copies of each safer, and a guy in Boca bought 500 copies, and a guy my friend in Chicago bought 800 copies. And I mean, just the guys that I know, and plus myself, and you're talking about 15,000 copies, just us. And that's before I went out to the stores and online and to their you know, the yeshivas that they sell to and the shoes that they sell to exactly.

SPEAKER_02 41:05

Wow. Okay, so tell me, so tell me, it's um it's amazing. I'm I'm flabbergasted. It's it's tell me, tell me for somebody as we close here, Khazakhzak, Vinis Chazaig, we're starting safer bracious this week. Tell me it, what would you say to somebody that's tried Schnee Mikra before and always falls apart and never finishes it? What would you give me a 30-second pep talk for that person to jump in?

SPEAKER_00 41:34

Yeah, so it's you're not alone. No one is alone anymore. We're doing this together. And whether you want to be part of the Schnee Miomi program or not, um, you should just know that there's a tremendous wave of Jews all over the world that are taking this missile seriously, and you will be part of that CBOR. And whenever you're ready, we're waiting.

SPEAKER_02 42:00

That's that's I got chills. We have October 11th, you have something. October 11th, we have something. What's happening on October 11th? I have a big completion of a monumental project with famous people showing up in Brooklyn. Is there a big event?

SPEAKER_00 42:16

Huge. Huge, huge, huge. Um everyone here, everyone's invited to come. It's it's a what is it? Who's there?

SPEAKER_02 42:23

Let me tell me if I forget anybody. This is the Schnei Mikra event Sunday, October 11th. We have Rabbi Ephraim Goldberg, Rabbi Moshe Bamberger, Rabbi Gadalia Zlatovich, Rabbi Joey Haber, Hagaina Rav Ruven Feinstein. It's a free event for men, women, and children that also has Ellie Marcus, the Chemyakat, Shimon Derry, Nehorai A'railey, and it's totally free, marking the celebration of the monumental Schnee Mikra Khamish.

SPEAKER_00 42:51

Yes. And there's gonna be around 20 other um organizations and programs that that have partial learning. We're doing our first ever Parsha expo before the event at 6 30. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 43:03

Wow. Okay, so I'm gonna put the the show in the show notes the link for people to subscribe to to RSVP for that event. And I will say that even if with your permission, even if they are just curious but not sure if they're to take the leap, they can still RSVP. Does that work? Absolutely. Everyone is welcome. Okay. And also, if they use the code TMC at Artroll, they'll get a 50% discount. No, and assigned, end assigned copy. Um, Mr. Danino, I should call you Rabbi Danino. This was incredible. You made a you made an important thing in Kalystral much more achievable. You've created not just a safer, I believe that you've created a real sader and give structure to the week. And you've done something beautiful, Yashak, on the behalf of every listener who will open your chomish the Shabbos and start the new, the new Taira Shnaya Miker V echatargum, starting from Parshus Bracious. It should be a schus for you and your family. And I thank you for spending these 50 minutes with me this evening.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

My absolute pleasure, Michal. It was really a pleasure to sit down, get to know you a little bit, and I hope to dance with you on Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 44:24

Amay, Namir Tashem.

SPEAKER_00 44:26

Okay, thank you.