HOT OFF THE PRESS- JUST RECORDED!!!

This is just a clip of a very long discussion much more to come….. To help support the mission please let me know….. This clip is dedicated in memory of my beloved Mashpia Rabbi Fitche Itkin. When I was in 10th grade in Pittsburgh Yeshiva he elected me President of The Chassidus Club.

Check it out….to date “Our Hanging With Hasidics” YouTube video has over 1.3 million views and possibly even a show in the works (see email below)! Do you know why? I’ll tell you…mostly in part to the pearls of wisdom my wife Rivky Katz was dropping throughout the 13 minute clip.

And here at 11213.org we are pleased to announce that Rivky will be offering, for women and girls (through zoom and in person in Crown Heights), classes and workshops on dating, marriage, intimacy, parenting through the lens of Chassidus Teachings.

Please email us at 11213org@gmail.com as to which topic you would be interested in as well as a question you are thinking about and Rivky will make some sample video responses.

The classes will be for women and girls and there will be a nominal fee. Please indicate the time of day you think would work best for your schedule.

Yoni & Rivky

Our Story…

Over a decade ago, I started a mission right here in the zip code of 11213 to give our Lubavitch Youth access to the best of the best, the legendary Rabbi Manis Friedman. In a nonjudgemental  open forum setting, teens from all local schools were able to ask the big questions their usual class setting prohibited.

The truth is how many of us go through the Yeshiva system, and when it’s all said and done never have the opportunity to explore the basic questions of it all? Often God himself can be the most neglected topic in schools and that’s where 11213.org comes right in to answer questions on purpose, relationships and so much more.

Not only were our local Lubavitch Youth granted to access but viewers on YouTube from around the world were able to eavesdrop on to these real, raw, and uncensored conversations. 

This coming year we have been granted unprecedented access to Rabbi Manis but we need your dedication and devotion to make more classes and personal discussions happen. I’m not asking for much and the impact is global. If you have benefitted from these discussions and interviews please consider supporting this mission. Let’s Get To Know God Together!

To donate please click here https://givebutter.com/cR8vsJ

Rabbi Yoni Katz

RabbiYoniKatz@gmail.com

In conversation with Bentzi Avtzon producer of Homesick For Lubavitch…

Please help support Rabbi Manis continue doing his amazing work to donate https://raisethon.com/goodtoknow

Rabbi Manis Friedman and Rabbi Efrem Goldberg sit down for an EPIC conversation at Boca Raton Synagogue.

My imaginary interview with God, but then again isn’t the entire Torah an interview with God?

Godversation #1:

Yoni: Mind if I ask you a few personal questions?

God: Sure, fire away, I’m pretty good at multitasking 🙂

Yoni: Great, as I’m sure you know, because you are all knowing :), that  podcasts are very popular now. People seem to enjoy listening to straight forward very personal interviews.  

God: Go for it. I’ve pretty much been an open book since The Bal Shemtov revealed himself.  

Yoni: So recently, there has been a lot of controversy revolving around different Rabbis answers to one fundamental question about your purpose in creating the world. 

God: I know, I’ve heard everyone of them.

Yoni: So in that case, do you NEED our Mitzvos?

God: I can’t believe that’s even a question. It pains me to hear it. 

Yoni: So what are your thoughts on the all arguments back and forth?

God: It’s a cosmic slap in the face. I need the mitzvos more than you can imagine, I need them more than you do. After all, they are my mitzvos! For my sake, the very word mitzvah means connection, how would they connect me to you if they were not necessary? And on the contrary, that would not bring us closer but rather further apart!

Sorry for getting worked up but after revealing myself at Mt. Sinai 3,334 years ago I thought I was pretty clear by coming down to that mountain and all limitations were obliterated. Why would ask you to do things that are not necessary to me? That would be cruel and unusual punishment!

Yoni: Don’t mean to cut you off, but aren’t you perfect how could you need something?

God: That’s just it, I don’t need SOMETHING I need SOMEONE.

Yoni: I don’t get it.

God: It’s a little tricky, I know. But remember when I said in Chumash “make me a tabernacle and I will dwell in them” I should have said dwell in it, right? Who’s the them?

Yoni: Yes, I never quite understood that verse.

God: Here’s the deal. I’m not really into tabernacles or temples, as pretty and shiny as they are. I’m into YOU not buildings :).

God: Here’s how it works. When a couple get married, do they need a home? Not really, they need each other but they simply need a place to express the oneness and allow the relationship to flourish and develop. 

Same with me, I didn’t need a world I needed you and in order to have the oneness and relationship with you I created a world, but it’s you I’m after not tabernacles, temples, galaxies and worlds. 

God: All I ever essentially was about is you. I NEED you more than you NEED me I created you after all you didn’t create me 🙂

THERE I SAID IT!!!!!

Yoni: What? ….you need me more than I need you. Can’t be! It goes against everything I’ve ever learned. I’m just a tiny desperate human being and you need me? Aren’t you almighty? If so, sounds pretty humble on your part.

God: You see that just it. Me, the Jews, The Torah are all essentially and eternally connected. My beloved Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai started to reveal all of this in the Zohar.

Yoni: Wow this is mind blowing, this is a lot for my tiny human brain to absorb. But, wait a second I recall it saying in Kabbalah “Leis Machshava Tefisah Beth?” We can’t ever grasp you?

God: Yes, your mind can’t grasp unless I reveal and allow it. And you will never be able to grasp how desperate I am to have a relationship with you. 

You think only in human terms, which are of course very limited and finite.

“My thoughts are not your thoughts” when I desire, need, want it’s beyond your human comprehension….no offense 🙂

It took many millennia for me to show all my cards and allow myself to be fully seen. 

Even when I came down to the mountain and said “don’t mix wool and linen” or “no cheeseburgers” that wasn’t easy, but I asked you anyways. 

And remember I originally offered you the Torah after all the other nations said NO and you said “we will do and then we will hear what it says” it melts my heart 3,334 years later! I still can’t get over it. You heard me for who I was.

Yoni: I guess I never really looked at it from your point of view! I was told so much as a boy in Yeshiva about reward and punishment and getting great seats and rewards in Olam Haba.

God: I’m not an ATM 🙂

Yoni: My bad, I just thought at your core you are really above all this and completely removed from me the mitzvah and really can’t want or need anything….I guess.

God: You know who really understood me? The Alter Rebbe (CHABAD), you know the Bal Hatanya. Reb Zusha Anipoli put it so well. He fit such a big G-d into a small book…I appreciated that line, Reb Zusha nailed it.

Anyways, you remember The Alter Rebbe in the height of his ecstasy in prayer used to say:

“God, I don’t want your Garden of Eden, I don’t want your Olam Haba, I JUST WANT YOU!”

Oh ME, the deveikus….the oneness, the intimacy, the purpose of creation all in one phrase.

Yoni: Wait a second, and if were made in your image and we literally have a piece of you inside of us….then, let’s do the math…. All YOU WANT IS US……

God: Bingo!

Yoni: I think I need to take a walk. This is deep and very personal and mystical I may add. I guess that’s why you need to to learn Kabbalah?

God: Kabbalah no, Chassidus yes!

Yoni: Hmmm….I’m confused

Hey God, It’s Me Yoni

Yoni: Mind if I ask you a few personal questions?

God: Sure, fire away, I’m pretty good at multitasking 🙂

Yoni: Great, as I’m sure you know, because you are all knowing :), that  podcasts are very popular now. People seem to enjoy listening to straight forward very personal interviews.  

God: Go for it. I’ve pretty much been an open book since The Bal Shemtov revealed himself.  

Yoni: So recently, there has been a lot of controversy revolving around different Rabbis answers to one fundamental question about your purpose in creating the world. 

God: I know, I’ve heard everyone of them.

Yoni: So in that case, do you NEED our Mitzvos?

God: I can’t believe that’s even a question. It pains me to hear it. 

Yoni: So what are your thoughts on the all arguments back and forth?

God: It’s a cosmic slap in the face. I need the mitzvos more than you can imagine, I need them more than you do. After all, they are my mitzvos! For my sake, the very word mitzvah means connection, how would they connect me to you if they were not necessary? And on the contrary, that would not bring us closer but rather further apart!

Sorry for getting worked up but after revealing myself at Mt. Sinai 3,334 years ago I thought I was pretty clear by coming down to that mountain and all limitations were obliterated. Why would ask you to do things that are not necessary to me? That would be cruel and unusual punishment!

Yoni: Don’t mean to cut you off, but aren’t you perfect how could you need something?

God: That’s just it, I don’t need SOMETHING I need SOMEONE.

Yoni: I don’t get it.

God: It’s a little tricky, I know. But remember when I said in Chumash “make me a tabernacle and I will dwell in them” I should have said dwell in it, right? Who’s the them?

Yoni: Yes, I never quite understood that verse.

God: Here’s the deal. I’m not really into tabernacles or temples, as pretty and shiny as they are. I’m into YOU not buildings :).

God: Here’s how it works. When a couple get married, do they need a home? Not really, they need each other but they simply need a place to express the oneness and allow the relationship to flourish and develop. 

Same with me, I didn’t need a world I needed you and in order to have the oneness and relationship with you I created a world, but it’s you I’m after not tabernacles, temples, galaxies and worlds. 

God: All I ever essentially was about is you. I NEED you more than you NEED me I created you after all you didn’t create me 🙂

THERE I SAID IT!!!!!

Yoni: What? ….you need me more than I need you. Can’t be! It goes against everything I’ve ever learned. I’m just a tiny desperate human being and you need me? Aren’t you almighty? If so, sounds pretty humble on your part.

God: You see that just it. Me, the Jews, The Torah are all essentially and eternally connected. My beloved Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai started to reveal all of this in the Zohar.

Yoni: Wow this is mind blowing, this is a lot for my tiny human brain to absorb. But, wait a second I recall it saying in Kabbalah “Leis Machshava Tefisah Beth?” We can’t ever grasp you?

God: Yes, your mind can’t grasp unless I reveal and allow it. And you will never be able to grasp how desperate I am to have a relationship with you. 

You think only in human terms, which are of course very limited and finite.

“My thoughts are not your thoughts” when I desire, need, want it’s beyond your human comprehension….no offense 🙂

It took many millennia for me to show all my cards and allow myself to be fully seen. 

Even when I came down to the mountain and said “don’t mix wool and linen” or “no cheeseburgers” that wasn’t easy, but I asked you anyways. 

And remember I originally offered you the Torah after all the other nations said NO and you said “we will do and then we will hear what it says” it melts my heart 3,334 years later! I still can’t get over it. You heard me for who I was.

Yoni: I guess I never really looked at it from your point of view! I was told so much as a boy in Yeshiva about reward and punishment and getting great seats and rewards in Olam Haba.

God: I’m not an ATM 🙂

Yoni: My bad, I just thought at your core you are really above all this and completely removed from me the mitzvah and really can’t want or need anything….I guess.

God: You know who really understood me? The Alter Rebbe (CHABAD), you know the Bal Hatanya. Reb Zusha Anipoli put it so well. He fit such a big G-d into a small book…I appreciated that line, Reb Zusha nailed it.

Anyways, you remember The Alter Rebbe in the height of his ecstasy in prayer used to say:

“God, I don’t want your Garden of Eden, I don’t want your Olam Haba, I JUST WANT YOU!”

Oh ME, the deveikus….the oneness, the intimacy, the purpose of creation all in one phrase.

Yoni: Wait a second, and if were made in your image and we literally have a piece of you inside of us….then, let’s do the math…. All YOU WANT IS US……

God: Bingo!

Yoni: I think I need to take a walk. This is deep and very personal and mystical I may add. I guess that’s why you need to to learn Kabbalah?

God: Kabbalah no, Chassidus yes!

Yoni: Hmmm….I’m confused

God: You remember the second day of Rosh Hashana when the Bal Shem Tov came up to the Chamber of Moshiach and asked him when he’s coming? He said when your wellsprings of Chassidus spread everywhere.

At first the Bal Shemtov sobbed for he realized how long it would take but ever since he revealed himself on Chai Elul (which happens to be….wink wink,   The Alter Rebbe’s bday) there has been a concrete and practical system of getting to know me and appreciate my vulnerability in all of this.

I revealed my inner most intentions mainly through The 7 Rebbe’s of Chabad.  After that, it was an absolute watershed of personal intimate knowledge from there on out. 

Yoni: I guess luckily for me my parents became Chabad after my father was exposed to these teachings in the 1970’s.

God: Yes, Yoni and that’s just it you need to spread it ASAP. I want every Jew and every NON Jew, they have 7 Mitzvos to you know, how necessary they are to me to fulfill the whole purpose of why I created the vast galaxy in the first place.and like the Rambam says in the times of Moshiach everyone will be preoccupied in getting to know me and my deepest needs and that will create the unity we both essentially yearn for. 

Tomorrow, we will tackle the SOMEOME not SOMETHING in greater depth. It’s been a good first session, I know you’re tired and have bills I need you to pay.

Yoni: Which reminds me, rent is due next week 🙂

God: I got you covered, In Me You Trust 🙂

Yoni: Wait, God one more quick question?

God: Sure, I have all the time in the world.

Yoni: Is this what Achi Hashiloni taught the Bal Shemtov in the cave for 10 years before he revealed himself to the world?

God: To be continued…..

God: You remember the second day of Rosh Hashana when the Bal Shem Tov came up to the Chamber of Moshiach and asked him when he’s coming? He said when your wellsprings of Chassidus spread everywhere.

At first the Bal Shemtov sobbed for he realized how long it would take but ever since he revealed himself on Chai Elul (which happens to be….wink wink,   The Alter Rebbe’s bday) there has been a concrete and practical system of getting to know me and appreciate my vulnerability in all of this.

I revealed my inner most intentions mainly through The 7 Rebbe’s of Chabad.  After that, it was an absolute watershed of personal intimate knowledge from there on out. 

Yoni: I guess luckily for me my parents became Chabad after my father was exposed to these teachings in the 1970’s.

God: Yes, Yoni and that’s just it you need to spread it ASAP. I want every Jew and every NON Jew, they have 7 Mitzvos to you know, how necessary they are to me to fulfill the whole purpose of why I created the vast galaxy in the first place.and like the Rambam says in the times of Moshiach everyone will be preoccupied in getting to know me and my deepest needs and that will create the unity we both essentially yearn for. 

Tomorrow, we will tackle the SOMEOME not SOMETHING in greater depth. It’s been a good first session, I know you’re tired and have bills I need you to pay.

Yoni: Which reminds me, rent is due next week 🙂

God: I got you covered, In Me You Trust 🙂

Yoni: Wait, God one more quick question?

God: Sure, I have all the time in the world.

Yoni: Is this what Achi Hashiloni taught the Bal Shemtov in the cave for 10 years before he revealed himself to the world?

God: To be continued…..