Rabbi Mendel Zirkind & Maui Kosher Farm

Jason has the good fortune to have Rabbi Mendel Zirkind, who, with his wife Chana, own and run the Maui Kosher Farm, a Waiehu Maui based farm, where they share their Jewish lifestyle in maintaining and growing a beautiful working farm.

SUMMARY with Transcript

Highlights

• [00:06] ️ Introduction to Jason Schwartz and the Neutral Zone, Maui’s community-focused media platform.
• [03:00] Reflection on Maui’s West Maui fire and how diverse communities united in its aftermath.
• [13:00] Rabbi Mendel’s vision to reconnect Jewish tradition with farming and sustainable living on Maui.
• [17:30] Growth of the Jewish farm community on Maui, attracting hundreds for Shabbat and educational programs.
• [22:00] Spiritual interpretation of modern Middle Eastern conflicts and historical parallels in Jewish teachings.
• [38:50] The daily practice of Judaism as a way of life, integrating spirituality into everyday actions.
• [50:00] Rabbi Mendel’s core message: everyone has a unique mission to help others, making their life meaningful.

Key Insights

• [03:00] Community Resilience and Unity: The West Maui fire demonstrated the power of diverse communities coming together regardless of background, nationality, or legal status. This unity reflects an inclusive model that can be a blueprint for peace and cooperation beyond Maui. Rabbi Mendel highlights that peace begins with individual hearts and local communities, which can then influence broader societal harmony.
• [13:00] Reviving Agricultural Roots in Jewish Culture: Rabbi Mendel connects modern Jewish identity back to its agrarian roots, emphasizing that over half of the 613 Torah commandments relate to agriculture. His farm on Maui is not just about growing food but about restoring a lost cultural and spiritual practice, bridging religion with physical stewardship of the land. This approach challenges common stereotypes about Jewish professions and underscores the holistic integration of faith and daily life.
• [22:00] Historical and Spiritual Context of Conflict: The rabbi offers a nuanced view of current Middle Eastern conflicts, drawing parallels to the biblical story of Esther and the Persian Empire. He interprets seemingly coincidental historical events as divine providence, suggesting that spirituality and faith play hidden but decisive roles in world affairs. This perspective provides a hopeful narrative that despite chaos, peace and justice will eventually prevail through divine orchestration.
• [38:50] Judaism as a Daily Practice Beyond Worship: Rabbi Mendel stresses that true spirituality is tested outside the synagogue. Every small daily action, like refraining from littering or following ethical conduct, accumulates to create a ripple effect that impacts the world. This practical spirituality invites all to live consciously and ethically, reinforcing that religion is not just belief but active living.
• [42:00] Role of a Rabbi as a Community Leader: Beyond religious knowledge or certification, a rabbi’s role is defined by the community’s acceptance and trust. Rabbi Mendel views his leadership as leading by example, offering guidance, and supporting people in their life challenges. This relational and service-oriented model of leadership is vital for sustaining vibrant, connected communities.
• [50:00] Life’s Purpose is Helping Others: Inspired by the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Mendel articulates that each person’s existence serves a unique mission, often as simple yet profound as doing a favor for another person. This theological insight elevates everyday kindness and community service to a sacred duty, encouraging individuals to find meaning through altruism.
• [55:00] Adapting and Evolving Life Missions: Life missions can evolve; what one does now may change tomorrow. The rabbi uses the metaphor of the Jewish people’s 42 stops in the desert to illustrate that spiritual and personal growth is a journey with many stages. This flexibility invites openness to change and continual self-discovery, fostering resilience and purpose throughout life.

Summary Expanded

Rabbi Mendel Zurkin’s story is a testament to the power of faith, vision, and community engagement. Born into a family with deep Jewish roots in America and Israel, Mendel’s path was shaped by the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, a leader who revolutionized Jewish outreach by sending emissaries worldwide to build communities. After extensive study and rabbinical training, Mendel and his wife Kana were drawn to Maui almost serendipitously, answering a call to replace a departing rabbi and fulfill a dream of combining religious observance with farming — a lifestyle deeply embedded in Jewish tradition but often forgotten in contemporary society.

On Maui, they acquired nearly 12 acres of former macadamia farmland in West Maui, an area historically significant for Hawaiian agriculture. The farm quickly became a spiritual and cultural hub for Jewish residents and visitors alike, offering kosher food, Shabbat gatherings, educational programs, and a glimpse into sustainable farming practices. This farm-community model transcends mere agriculture; it’s a living experiment in integrating faith, environment, and communal life.

The rabbi’s reflections on peace, sustainability, and community echo throughout the interview. He acknowledges modern challenges such as environmental degradation, war, and cultural division but remains steadfast in the belief that transformation begins within individuals and local communities. The Maui fire’s aftermath, with people of all backgrounds cooperating, exemplifies this principle in action.

Rabbi Mendel also contextualizes global events, interpreting conflicts through a spiritual lens that sees God’s providence working behind the scenes. He draws lessons from Jewish history, particularly the story of Esther, to illustrate how seemingly random events can be part of a divine plan, inspiring hope and faith.

The conversation further explores what it means to live a spiritual life daily. Rabbi Mendel insists that religion is not confined to ritual or synagogue attendance but is about ethical choices made in everyday moments. This viewpoint democratizes spirituality, making it accessible and practical.

Lastly, Rabbi Mendel’s core teaching about life’s purpose resonates deeply: every person is a vital piece of a global puzzle, uniquely gifted to contribute. Recognizing and fulfilling this mission is essential to a meaningful life. He encourages listeners to seek their purpose, embrace change, and commit to helping others, thus fulfilling the divine plan.

This interview not only introduces Rabbi Mendel and his work on Maui but offers a profound meditation on faith, purpose, and community in the modern world.

Highlights

• [00:06] ️ Introduction of Jason Schwartz and the Neutral Zone, emphasizing Maui’s community media resources.
• [03:00] Maui’s West Maui fire as a catalyst for community unity and a lesson in inclusiveness.
• [13:00] Rabbi Mendel’s vision to reconnect Jewish spirituality with farming and sustainability in Maui’s tropical climate.
• [17:30] Growth of the Jewish farm community with large gatherings for Shabbat and educational programs.
• [22:00] Rabbi’s spiritual interpretation of Middle Eastern conflicts, connecting history with faith.
• [38:50] Judaism as a comprehensive way of life, with daily ethical acts influencing the world.
• [50:00] The essential teaching that everyone has a unique mission to help others, which fulfills their life’s purpose.

Key Insights

• [03:00] Community Resilience in Crisis: The West Maui fire showed how diverse populations can unite in time of need, embodying peace and cooperation. This is a microcosm of how peace can be cultivated globally — through respect, shared purpose, and collective action.
• [13:00] Agricultural Heritage as Spiritual Practice: Rabbi Mendel’s farm reclaims Jewish agrarian traditions, reinforcing that spirituality is not separate from physical work but deeply intertwined. This challenges modern perceptions and offers a model for sustainable religious living.
• [22:00] Providence in Geopolitics: Viewing current conflicts through the lens of Jewish prophecy and history provides a narrative of hope and divine guidance, reminding listeners that spiritual forces shape worldly events beyond immediate visibility.
• [38:50] Ethical Living Beyond Ritual: True spirituality requires living one’s values consistently, whether in public worship or private life. Small acts, like not littering, contribute to a more compassionate and holy world, emphasizing responsibility at every moment.
• [42:00] Leadership as Service and Example: A rabbi’s authority comes not only from scholarship but from community trust and relational support. Rabbi Mendel’s approach highlights humility and accessibility as keys to effective spiritual leadership.
• [50:00] Unique Life Missions: Everyone has a divinely assigned mission, often centered on helping others in simple but meaningful ways. Recognizing this mission adds purpose and direction to life, making every action significant.
• [55:00] Evolving Purpose: Life’s mission is not static; it may evolve and change, much like the Jewish people’s journey through 42 desert stops. This fluidity encourages continuous growth, self-reflection, and adaptability in fulfilling one’s role in the world.

The interview stands as an inspiring testament to faith in action, the power of community, and the enduring relevance of spiritual teachings in addressing contemporary challenges. Rabbi Mendel Zurkin’s work on Maui reflects how ancient wisdom can harmonize with modern life to nurture a more compassionate, sustainable, and connected world.

Full Transcript with Timestamp

00:00:06 – 00:02:02[Music] Aloha everyone. My name is Jason Schwartz. I am the host here at the neutral zone. Maui neutralzone.com. We are on Ka Ku 88.5 FM the voice of Maui. Simulcast on Akaku Maui Community Media TV for old guys like me. Older guys like me. We have Maui Stream, which is Akaku’s three channels plus the radio station. That’s an app on your phones, both Android and uh Mac or however they describe the things. You can also find us on YouTube at Dream Maui and the number one. In other words, if you want00:01:08 – 00:02:38to hear our shows, you can find them. My guest is a few moments late. He is um on his way and we will have him walking in here just a few minutes. I hope everyone had a uh good week. Every time I listen to the headlines for the world, I am uh dismayed. I think the word is there’s somehow this talk of peace. You know, I have a friend Louise Lambert wrote a song about uh things. And one of the lines goes, “They talk about peace and they’re building bigger weapons in the land of the free and the home of

00:01:53 – 00:03:26the brave. Why do so many people need a gun? If it was just you and me, the world would be saved.” But deep inside we know for peace in our world, for peace in our country, for peace on our streets, peace in our house. It all starts with peace in our hearts. That was God knows it was a while ago. It won a festival Toronto uh music festival number of years ago. Great song. I hope to see us doing it again here from Maui. You know, it reminds me so much when I hear songs like that and I realize that it isn’t00:02:40 – 00:04:20even a a peace. They call it a resistance movement where it’s not a resistance. It’s more like peace is the standard. We all speak about talk about an inclusive model where we’re all one, where everyone’s a person. And we here in Maui, we had the August 2023 West Maui fire. And in that we saw that people large, small, blue, green, black, Chinese, American, Mexican, French, name them all. We got them all. And the people work together. People that were illegal aliens. What does that mean?00:03:30 – 00:05:07They came from France and they don’t have a card. And some are mamas, grandmas, all kinds of people. And so this is sort of like very reminiscent of what I think of as Nazi Germany before I guess and during the Second World War in the 30s and the 40s in the 19th 1900s 20th century. So here we are again. I know that if we all treat each other with a lot more personal respect and caring and sharing, we’re going to have a better world. And we start here in Maui. You know, I’ I’ve been holding out my

00:04:18 – 00:05:42flag a long time, not only for peace, but for self- sustainability and people working together, crossing what seemed like iron lines. You can’t put together art, music, culture, environment, and tourism. Well, if you don’t, then you don’t have a holistic system. You can’t. You can’t. You can’t. Someone just shared with me uh Tony Midnight, our man of He’s more than the man of the hour. Uh on Netflix there’s a special project I guess I’m going to listen to called By Now that shows us what an

00:05:00 – 00:06:19incredible waste society we are. The wrapping on your toilet paper. The plastic on this all gets either thrown out or burned or ends up in the ocean becomes microlastics. every fish, every thing that’s coming out of there, it affects things on the land affects everything. And we’re doing it to ourselves. So when someone tells you that the problems aren’t man-made, you can look them in the eye and tell them, “Oh, yeah. Well, uh, I don’t know what that’s going to do except make us more aware that we

00:05:40 – 00:07:01are the problems we’ve been searching to route out.” And we are also the solution. You know, when I talk to God, I’m often without a middleman. I talk to God as a Jewish kid. We learned that we have a direct connection with God. And now I’ve learned in my own growth through the years that we are all part of that God oneness. You know, we have different levels. We talk about physical, emotional, spiritual. I don’t know if I want to put them in an order like that, but everything

00:06:21 – 00:07:59integrates. And the more we understand that we all are part of a solution, we’re also part of the problem. And if we just live and love and be grateful for what we have and appreciate each other, war can go away because it’s won’t be relevant and peace will emerge. You know, I want to say reemerge. Yeah. Well, my guest who will be here very shortly is a a member of our community. I think he shared with me yesterday eight years ago. There’s something ringing. It might be my phone. Maybe. Let me look and see.

00:07:10 – 00:08:32Could be. We don’t know if it will be. Okay. They’re looking up. We’re good. Okay. So, he’ll be here soon. this member of community. It was more than eight years ago, maybe it was eight, that my friend Rabbi Scholam Schustman, beautiful wife Danit and their five kids, Dunit had written a cookbook, all kinds of really good recipes, and it was uh I remember that Scholam was getting ready. He was on his way back to New York and there was a new rabbi, a new rabbi coming in town named Mendel.

\00:07:52 – 00:09:34And I didn’t know Rabbi Mendle. Obviously, um I looked forward to meeting him, but we never got around to it. And just in the last couple of days, I heard a story from another friend of mine, a doctor, a nice, I want to say retired doctor, beautiful man named Joseph. Well, suddenly he was visiting family was Mendle in Israel and the war broke out. Suddenly no planes and I thought well this here he comes right now. How terrific. Welcome. Aloha my friend. Come and enjoy. Well this is a terrific moment. I’m glad00:08:42 – 00:09:56we’re meeting. It’s a pleasure. Aloha. Okay everybody. You have a beautiful wonderful young man. Hope you don’t mind I call you a young man. As I’m getting older, the whole world looks younger. It was I was just telling our audience it was some you mentioned eight years ago. A friend of mine Scholm Rabbi Scholam Shustman said to me, “All right, you got to do go up and do a show on the rabbi do a show on this thing. You remember David Singer’s property there?” Oh, good. Good. Yeah. Oh, that’s a

00:09:20 – 00:10:38perfect thing. We are this camera right here. That’s you and that one’s me. But I I know they’re there and sometimes I look right into the camera and say hello, right? But I have a guest. This is Rabbi Mendel Zurkin. Now, Rabbi Mendel Zurkin. When I first heard I heard he’s up in David Singer’s place. That’s where Scholam had landed when way back when. Little did I realize when I first met Rabbi Scholam, he was here as an intern, if you will, a traveling rabbi who has gone through his00:09:59 – 00:11:19formal education, was now going out into the community. So, I was blessed to have met him years ago. We became friends. He even had a couple of uh young rabbis coming through. And I did a show in 2002 with a couple of rabbis. We did a show with Alan Arakawa. Well, no, it wasn’t. was Kimo Aana and we uh had the monora in the kamana center. So some of you are old enough to remember that. But now how did this come that Scholam said you have to meet this new young rabbi he is so dynamic and we never did

00:10:38 – 00:12:07do that but when Dr. Joe said, “Hey, this is what happened.” I immediately said, “Ah, we have a spot Monday.” Well, I’m very happy to meet you and look forward to So, tell me, uh, Rabbi, how did you happen upon Maui and landed such a beautiful spot? You’re up in what do we call? It’s not a is it? It is who? Okay. way and uh it’s a beautiful spot and I understand it’s a number of acres and you took this ground that used to be macadamia farms years ago and I’m sure

00:11:23 – 00:12:35there’s still some around you. Yeah. And uh so what’s happened there? We 2017, January 2017, we my wife and I got married in in Israel. And two weeks after we got married, this girl that my wife knew who lived on Maui told her, “Hey, the rabbi, Rabbi Shalom and Denit, they’re leaving the island and they’re looking for a replacement.” And my wife said, “What do you think?” And I was like, “Who wants to live on a teeny little island in the middle of the vast00:12:02 – 00:12:59Pacific Ocean like said Kana if you my wife’s name is Kana if you want to live on a beach town you know you’re from socal you can move anywhere in socal and you’ll have a beach town like it’s not so that was my first reaction and um nobody really wants to live in a teeny little the Pacific Ocean besides the people that do live in the teeny little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean right and the millions of people around the world who want to come to this tiny little Right. And and then00:12:30 – 00:13:35we went on a honeymoon to Patagonian in in Argentina. Wow. And the girl reached out to my wife again and said, “Hey, what’s going on? Do you think?” And I was on vacation. So I started what’s I was I’ve been to AW years ago for 5 days on a resort and was like, “Okay, it’s nice, but you know,” and I looked into it and I found out that Maui is 80% Aland. And one of my dreams or visions that I had since I was a little kid was to live on a farm and grow and raise the food00:13:02 – 00:14:15that I eat. and I have a program where um we could introduce I could introduce farming back to the Jewish uh community because if you think about the Jewish people um you know the land of Israel was the bedrock the foundation of modern farming back then that was that’s where everything started and our forefathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob what did they do they were farmers they raised they raised animals you know they were shepherds Um Moses was a shepherd before he went back to Egypt to bring the Jews out of00:13:39 – 00:14:42exile, right? King David, famous King David, what was he was also a shepherd. When when when when uh Samuel came to uh tell him he’s going to become a uh he’s going to come the king, where was he? He was in the field with his sheep, right? Plus, all all of our holidays, we have our major three holidays, Passover, Shàuot, Sukkot, all coincide with agricultural events, you know, when whether it’s the first fruit, the first harvest, the last harvest. And today, when you think of a Jew or Jews, you00:14:10 – 00:15:22think a doctor, a lawyer, a real estate broker, you know, uh I don’t know, money, banking. You don’t think of of Jews as farmers, but we have 613 commands. That’s the the the Torah, the Bible has 613 commands, and over half of them have to do with agricultural, not money and not banking and not being a doctor. It’s agricultural activities. So, I always had this vision that one day I’m going to have a farm where I could have Orthodox people, young or older, come and see what it’s like to be00:14:46 – 00:15:47a religious Jew and do farming. This was before the fab of farming and organic and all that. I’ve been having this since I was a little kid. So, I’m sitting there in a Patagonia and I’m like, “Oh, you know, maybe it’s not such a bad idea.” Maui is tropical. There’s no winter, which means you could farm growing time. We could farm 365 days a year. There’s no predator animals on these islands, which means if you have you have your own you raise grow animals, then raise animals. you don’t00:15:17 – 00:16:20have to worry about getting killed by coyotes, snakes, whatever it is. This is this is a a paradise for anybody who wants to do farming. I was like, you know what? Maybe we should go down there and check it out and see what it’s all about. If that’s one of us, you’re welcome to. Okay. So, said, “Yeah, we’ll check it out.” So, we went and came here. This was in February of 2017. And then we came out here in April, right after Passover. Maybe beginning of May, we came right after Passover. And I’m like,00:15:49 – 00:16:41you know, I could live here. It’s not so bad. H I’m not a water person, so water doesn’t I like to see the water. Everybody wants to see water, but I’m not I don’t feel like I need to go into the water or anything like that. So I’m like, my wife is a water person. Be okay, great. And that’s how we came out here. And Shalom Ra Shalom said, you know, I know this guy, David Singer, he has his property, has, you know, agriculture, whatever. And uh that’s that’s we ended up on his land and we00:16:15 – 00:17:28bought some over the years we bought a bunch of acres. We have about five different lots almost 12 acres of land. And you know this was always I never saw the farm as an attraction to the average Jewish person. It was for me going to be a program for religious people to come and see what it’s like to be a farmer and be religious and be Jewish and religious. Right. But then it turns out that for the Jewish community here, it was very attractive to see a guy who claims to be a rabbi, but he’s also a farmer.00:16:51 – 00:18:05And he actually works the land and raises his own meat and and it was very attractive to people. So before we knew it, we were seeing people more and more people come. Like we just had Shabot was in beginning of June and we had over 100 people to come listen to the uh ten commandments. um and our Khan parties have over 150 200 people. So it’s a big attraction and became we became a Jewish center on a farm and uh like wherever I go now people hear about us. It’s it’s it’s people that come here a lot of tourists that00:17:28 – 00:18:27come here they stop by. you know, you offer people to come have lunch and a farm tour and then they go back home and three months later they send me a text or an email and say, “Wow, this was the highlight of our trip and I don’t even remember who they are because I’ve seen 500 people after since then.” So, so it’s nice to see that we were able to put a little dent in, you know, and make a ripple from here from this little place in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. So I I we have we already have some people00:17:58 – 00:18:51that there’s a rabbi in upstate New York that bought a 25 acre ranch and has now also lots of programming. So he’s in upstate New York there’s a winter so the winter nothing happens but in the summer he has community uh projects they plant together. They harvest together and there’s a lot of things that he does now. And I just heard of a uh another young couple that’s went by us forgot where they’re going. And they’re also they bought a piece of land in Florida, I think, and they’re starting a farm.00:18:24 – 00:19:32And so it’s it’s nice to see that people, you know, are get connected to it. The fact that we are Jews and we are farmers and you’ve been able to find places to what I say you have enough people that want what you create to keep it a working productive farm. So we’re a nonprofit. So the farm is not a forprofit, which means we don’t really sell any produce from the farm. It’s all gets it’s a community thing. So everything that goes on the farm, like you come to our Shabbat table, you’ll

00:18:58 – 00:20:08have lamb that I raised and I harvested and you know and other whatever produce we have. Uh we have in the summer we have these programs for young adults that come while they’re while they’re not in school. They come be on the farm for a few weeks and just join us with whatever we do. Um, we also, you know, provide people with kosher food on the island and, um, it’s a nonprofit, so we get donations and it’s kind of that helps float float the the this project, the boat. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Well, I’ve00:19:33 – 00:20:40heard nothing but great things. Like you say, I might have met you eight years ago. We were talking about you what you thought you were going to kind of kind of do, but now you’re uh eight years in. That’s more than just a a fantasy. It’s now in reality. Beautiful. When when we got here, I remember the first week that we got here, we went to my wife and I went to a Torah class, a Bible study class, and there was this guy who lived there for a bunch of years before us. and he heard about my vision of having a far00:20:07 – 00:21:07community center on a farm. And he looks at him and he says, “Which world do you think you what are you smoking? Like this is this is Maui. Like you are just a a couple young couple, a dreaming, a dreamer couple from New York. Six months and you’re out of here.” And I said, “Okay, but you don’t know me.” And till today he comes and he’s just he marvels. She’s like, I’ve never never thought this is ever going to be a reality. And we had people that met us the first few months that we

00:20:37 – 00:21:25were here and then they disappeared off they disappeared from our radar and then one day we you meet them back and you say, “Hey, what what happened? Why did you stop connecting with them?” Like, you know, you have this nice dream, but it’s we know it’s not going to work and we don’t want to get too attached because in in a year or two you’re going to leave. So, why would I make friends with you? You’re anyways leaving. So, um, well, you know, it’s, you know, we I just spent, uh, two weeks00:21:01 – 00:21:55in Israel. I was now during the, uh, Iran, the 12-day war, whatever we want to call it. And is that what they’re calling it? A 12 day 12 day war. Anyways, we were there for the entire 12-day war. Took us three days to get back. We had to go back through Egypt because the the and I took with me three people from the community. Oh. Residents from here. Some of them are been here for, you know, one of the people that I took with me. He’s a therapist and he’s been here for 40 years and the last time00:21:27 – 00:22:46he was in Israel was in 1970. So he was expecting to see uh camels and donkeys taking us with with from from the airport to Jerusalem. But I was telling them that um when you wa when we watched or we didn’t watch we we we heard and saw we were living we were in Israel the miracles of a a 10 million people country going and taking over a country with 90 million people, the Iranian the the Persian, you know, the Persian Persian Empire. And you think about the story of Esther, the scroll of Esther back 2,00000:22:07 – 00:23:07years ago, Porum days, where, you know, the king has a fight with his wife and he kills her and then he gets married to Esther and years later Hmon comes along and decides to kill the Jews. And it’s like the whole scroll of Esther, not once is God mentioned in the scroll of Esther. God’s name is not mentioned in the scroll of Esther. It never says Hashem in the scroll of Esther. Not one time. And our sages tell us that the scroll of Esther is everything that happened was if you just want to read it00:22:37 – 00:23:35without God, you’ll see there just a coincidence. You know, he had a party. His wife didn’t want to come naked and and she killed her and then he needed a new wife and he liked Esther for some odd reason. and then Hmon and then Morai and all that. Then it was all just a coincidence and just a series of of of events that happened. And when you look at the war on Iran, the Persian Empire again, right, you know, if you look at the at the series of events that happened over the past few years that00:23:05 – 00:24:19led to this thing to happen, right? So the big empire in the region is the two empires, the Russians and the Americans, right? have been battling this for years now, right? And so the the Russians are all over Iran and Syria and then Hamas comes and attacks the Jews. But before that, the Russians get involved in a war in Ukraine. So now all of their attention is the war in Ukraine. So they lo lose a grip over Iran and Syria. Kamas kills 1,200 people in one day, 1,200 Jews. Israel goes to war. Gets involved for no reason. Israel00:23:43 – 00:24:46decides to eliminate. You know the whole beeper pager thing. We all know that story, right? And yeah, they they eliminate NARA and turns outbala is down to nothing. And then two months later, Assad, the most feared enemy that Israel has on its borders for 50 years. They’ve been seeing him being armed more and more from Russia, just falls apart. Assad runs to runs off to to to Moscow and now there’s nobody protecting Iran. So since since the 1980s when Iran was kept on saying we’re going to we’re00:24:15 – 00:25:16going to destroy the Jewish state. We’re going to destroy and then all of a sudden now Israel has the upper hand because there’s no enemies there to threaten them to get to Iran. So we have a a fairly free empty sky and if you look at it it’s just a series of of events but the truth is it all falls into place. You know God’s hands in isn’t everywhere. And when I look at this farm here, I keep on saying this is another miracle of God because when you hear the stories of how many people came00:24:45 – 00:25:39to Maui to start something. I’ve been here eight years. I could tell you I I met so many people that started doing farming here and two years later they’re gone. Whether they give give up on it, they get a regular job. I meet people that worked in Whole Foods and here and there and in in co in Costco. And I meet these people all the time. where I see them. I go to the stores all day long and I talk to people, right? People that started these projects and you’ve been here for how many years? Many years. So, you’ve00:25:11 – 00:26:14met Oh, I met many of them. I actually know a couple of that made it in for me. There’s a guy named Ryan who you may know. Ryan has this uh farm. I lived in Kula and my neighbor was this guy with a couple of acres who now has 40 acres. you know, cuz you can be successful, but you got to be diligent and know what you’re doing and you need to have God on your side and God on your side. So, I feel that that we do a lot of a lot of good things for the community and we’re a a place for God.00:25:43 – 00:26:58We’re a center for God. You know, our our mission is is to spread godliness and spirituality, but having it connected to the core, which is the earth, right? So, so in in in in Judaism’s view of the world, the physical world is not an enemy to the spiritual world. It’s not an adversary. They go hand by hand. So, in the Jewish world, the more holy you are, the more it means that you also are able to elevate the physicality of the world. You don’t separate from the world, but you elevate the world. So you know when00:26:21 – 00:27:20you’re a spiritual person it means that you’re connected with a lot of good deeds whether it’s charity whether it’s teaching whether it’s um uh you know being an ear for people like you know when you’re a rabbi you have many things that you do you’re a psychologist you’re you’re a therapist you’re you’re also an adviser you’re a financial adviser you’re everything right so I have many heads but I always remember that it’s not me but it’s God who enables me to00:26:50 – 00:27:49flourish in this in this place. And that’s that’s the thing that I get up every morning and realize that I am very lucky. I’m blessed to be able to live here, to be able to have this farm. And it’s funny because my farm ended up being in a place that I I didn’t know before, but it it was bedrock of of farming in in on Maui, the West Mai Mountains. That’s where they the the the whole mountain was just the low where they where their wines grew all of their food. So two weeks after I got here, I00:27:19 – 00:28:17met George Kamoko and we became good friends and he is the one who started me on the farming. Like he I had dream of being a farmer, but I never actually was a farmer. And George, you know, Uncle George as we call him, he he he took me through the steps. I remember the first two chickens I got from him and he one day came with a goat and sheep and said, “Rabbi, here you go. That’s it. No more talk. Start.” And so now now Uncle George left the island a few months ago, but you know, I’ve been we’ve been I’ve00:27:48 – 00:29:11been connected with him for a long time. And I feel like it’s just a divine providence that I end up on Maui, not in Koula, not in a more bougie white place, but really local a place of Maui where that’s where the Hawaiians used to grow all their food. Oh yeah, that area still controversial about all the land up there. But yeah, not I mean uh that is really a blessing and I really like that in your natural flow. You bring up how grateful to me that has been the the greatest gift to understand how grateful I am for every00:28:30 – 00:29:47day and the things around me. It it helps me be okay with things that I might speculate about because in the world that I live in, I I try to put out all the good things and uh I hear that and just your whole attitude. So were you will to become a rabbi man meant were you from New York rather than No. So, so my family has been in America for since the the early 1900s or even late. My great-grandfather was born in Lower East Side on 1900. So, my family came to America before the uh first even first world war. I you know,00:29:09 – 00:30:07the only relative I know that is a that is a Holocaust survivor is a third cousin of my mother who who we met in I met in Israel. You know, her name was Rift Jew. She just passed away a few years ago, but most of my family was in America and um we’re Kabad followers. The the Rabbi Schneerson was our is our leader who lived in Brooklyn. You know, yesterday was his uh yard site, his yearly um anniversary. And you know, one of the reasons why I said I’ll come on the show on Monday, even though I’m I’m very busy00:29:38 – 00:30:26today and tonight I’m flying to New York for a day and a half because I have a cousin’s wedding. You know, I always tell people tell me what’s the hardest thing about living on Maui. They said it’s that every time I want to sneeze, I got to go off violent. So, you know, I have a lot of family in New York and my wife has family in California and every time there’s a there’s a family event, a bar mitzvah, wedding or something, every time we means another five hours of flying. So,00:30:02 – 00:30:53um so but then I said, “One second, this is divine providence. The fact that you I’ve been here for eight years, right? you know about me for eight years but for some reason you never reached out and then all of a sudden yes when was you send me a text on a Saturday right then yesterday you called me like I want to interview and I was like is if that’s not divine providence that on the day after the passing of the lobavatur of the the rebi right the grand rebby as as uh some people call him that you called00:30:28 – 00:31:37me and say I said I don’t care how busy I am I’m going to come for I’m going to come so thank you um thank you yeah so you know we’re here because Rabbi Rabbi Shalom was here because of the rebi and we are here to replace him because of the rebi and my parents were sent by the rebi to live in Israel in 1978. So the rebi sent emissaries to so so the the rabbi rabish the rebi as as we say he was maybe uh one of the only only Jewish leaders that really changed um the view of what a leader’s position00:31:02 – 00:32:00is. So when you think about a leader of a community, right? What’s what’s his main what’s the main job of a leader of a community is to build a community. How do you build a community? You got more members, you get more attendance. You build you build your community. Whether it’s a church or you’re a pastor or a priest or whatever or you know a shake, whatever it is, you you build your community. The Rebi from when he took on the leadership of the Kabad movement in 1951, he took his best people and sent them00:31:32 – 00:32:38off. So his his thing was if you’re if you’re a talented young young uh scholarly Jewish scholar and you’re you’re you’re a good rabbi, I’m going to send you to a community that doesn’t have a rabbi and you’re going to go there and you’re going to become a lighthouse for Judaism in that place. So over over the years sent now it’s almost like 6,000 rabbis around the world. Wow. So um uh my parents were were my my great uncle for example Rabbi Barl Bumgarton was sent in00:32:04 – 00:33:031956 only five years after he became rabbi my my the rebi sent him to be a rabbi in Argentina benosyus now think about what bonar was right after right after second world war it was a hole in the ground right today the community there is 100 thousand Jews it’s a huge community and they represent emissaries all over the world so my my parents were lucky and there sent by the rebi 19778 to go live in Israel. And so I grew up in Israel. I grew up in Jerusalem for and I lived in Jerusalem. Then when I00:32:33 – 00:33:37was 18, I went to study in the Rebies uh at Yeshiva in Brooklyn in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York. And I lived there for for a long time, 20 years. And meanwhile, while I was there, I also took I I learned a few other things. I learned how to be a kosher slaughter, a as we call it. And I also spent a year in Australia where I did my rabbitical studies. So, but I never expected to be a rabbi. It was more, you know, as a curious. I love reading. I love learning. It was like, I’ll do whatever I can to learn what as much as00:33:05 – 00:34:06I can. So, I learned to be a shed. I learned to be a rabbi. Never expected to actually be a rabbi. It was Yeah. And you know, when my family heard that I’m going to Hawaii to Maui, they were like, never in our wildest dream would we think that Mendel is going to become a rabbi. That’s like was not nobody ever. But there’s a saying in Yiddish. There’s a saying, a man. You speak Yiddish a little bit? No, not that, but I speak a little bit. But all the swear words I learned when I was a kid. Well, so it00:33:36 – 00:34:41means a man also New York a man a man thinks or plans and God laughs. Meaning I’ve heard right. So we, you know, you have a we have a lot of plans and then God has other plans and God for some reason wanted me to end up on Maui and do this farming thing which I I was expecting. I I always wanted to go to a warm place. I didn’t want to have a winter where half the year I can’t do anything. So thinking like southern, you know, southern United States, Arizona, New Mexico, California was too expensive. So I never thought of00:34:09 – 00:35:16California, but I was thinking that area, you know, didn’t want to go to Texas. it’s a little too human and all that, but and then I end up in a place that I could do farming 365, but I’ve never imagined of living on Maui. It wasn’t it’s on my bucket list or something. And um so my whole life I grew up on the notion that our purpose in this world is to help other people. And the Rebi used to say that the Reb said that you compared us the the humanity as a puzzle. So you buy a00:34:42 – 00:35:33puzzle with a thousand pieces, right? And you put the puzzle together, but then you miss one piece. Fell out of the box, you can’t find it. The puzzle is not complete. Even though it’s just one piece, the puzzle is not complete. You don’t say it’s, oh, it’s a complete puzzle, missing complete. No, it’s not complete. And the same as we’re eight billion people in the world, something like that. We are each every one of us is a piece of puzzle. If you were born, if you’re in this world, then you’re a00:35:07 – 00:36:07piece in the puzzle. And your job is every day to put your piece in the puzzle. And if you don’t, the puzzle is not complete. So when every time when I got every day I got up in the morning, I’m like, “Okay, what could I do today? How am I putting my piece of puzzle into the puzzle?” Right? And the easiest way that I know is to try to help somebody else. That means I’m doing something actively. I’m active doing something. So sometimes it also means taking care of my animals is also an active it’s it’s00:35:38 – 00:36:39going to help somebody not today, tomorrow, the next day. Right? So we’re like I said, it’s just, you know, when I go to sleep at night and I took helped of some people, I took care of the farm. I fed some people kosher food. I host the people on the farm and show them what it’s like to be a Jewish farmer on Maui from all places, right? You go to you feel like I put I put my piece of p puzzle today into into the puzzle. You know, that’s and um you know I just was in Israel and people00:36:08 – 00:37:13are like they can’t believe like this is the mendle that I went to school with in Jerusalem and now he lives you live where? 21 hours of flying time. Not I sat on a plane for 21 hours because it’s it’s it’s it’s the almost the furthest place from from Hawaii is is we we used to say you can drill through the earth and hit Israel. Yeah. Perfect. Just about. Yeah. Practically. Yeah. But and so you know I keep the beginning when I came here I was like ah it’s a nice place. Yeah this00:36:41 – 00:38:00that. But now I keep on thinking like if I have to leave here where am I going to go? Where where else am I going to have this this this opportunity? This this this blessing. I got here 37 years ago. Exactly half of my life. I realized, wow, I’ve been here longer than all the rest of it. Yeah. I It really feels like home. That’s a a very I I find very spiritual place. There were lots of people that speak in act of God in in lots of different covers to the same pot. Lots of religions here, lots of00:37:19 – 00:38:34beautiful people and uh you know what you’re doing is like I want to say you know it’s perfect. My mother used whatever was going on she’s everything’s perfect. It’s all perfect. And she was right. I’m really glad to finally meet you after all these years. My goodness. I’d heard, like I said, I heard about you, but I had confused. There’s a kabad, you know, for you guys. Kabad is the more orthodox Jewish practice. Should we call it religion? What do you call it? Ultraorththodox.00:37:57 – 00:38:53Practice. Uh, a Jewish way of living more than I think of it as a religion. I’ve kind of thought of it as more as what are the practices, the things that you do? My wife’s my wife my wife’s uncle’s name is Rabbi Manis Friedman. He’s a very famous you go on YouTube Rabbi Manis Friedman, you’ll see a lot of his talks. And he always says that Judaism is not a religion. Judaism is a way of life. Oh, there we go. Right. It’s it’s like from the minute you get up in the morning, the your whole day is00:38:26 – 00:39:17surrounded by tasks that you need to do in order to put your piece in the puzzle, right? So you get up in the morning, you thank God for coming back to this world. You wash your hands, you say a blessing for washing your hands cuz you slept. And then every time you want to eat something, you want to make a blessing that reminds you of God. You the prayers, your you you you uh you go to work, there’s a set of rules, you know, we have the the the you know Judea Christian laws, right? That’s that’s all00:38:52 – 00:39:44in the Bible in the Torah, right? That’s all that’s all we said. We set all those rules. Not we, but God said it. So, um, one of the things I always say is that it’s easy to be a religious person in in a in a house of worship. If you’re in the in the synagogue, you’re in the church, you’re in the mosque, it’s easy to be a religious person when you’re in there. The the the as we say, the the trick is to be a spiritual person when you’re outside, when you’re00:39:18 – 00:40:07conducting yourself in the world, like the rabbi said, go out there and do it, right? So, so that’s that’s something that I always like to tell people is that they look at me and say, well, you know, you you grew up religious. It’s easy for you. And I’m like, nothing is easy. Every day is a struggle. Every day is a battle. We have a good inclination. We all know we have a good inclination. We have a bad inclination, right? You drive down the street and you just finish your bottle of your bottle of00:39:42 – 00:40:21water or whatever and you you could make a choice whether do I just toast the bottle out of the car and nobody’s looking, nobody’s seeing, or I could say no. If I toss the bottle of the car, the next guy’s going to come. It’s going to see a dirty road. He’s going to be like, I’ll toast my garbage out because it’s already a dirty road. But if you keep the bottle in your car, put in the trash. The next guy drives down the road like, “God, this is a clean road. I’m00:40:02 – 00:41:08not going to put my” So, every act that we do is an act that has a ripple effect on the world. And you have to maintain that standard whether you’re in the synagogue or in any house of worship or you’re outside. And that’s that’s a struggle. We all know we we all have struggle, right? Do you find as a rabbi, you’re talking about having many hats that you wear? Uh I’ve met people that are rabbis that I don’t I guess you say aren’t practicing. So to me, I’ve always understood as uh00:40:35 – 00:41:41when I say I wasn’t practicing, they’re not uh they’re not doing the teaching. They’re not doing the things that are of God. Um I I don’t really mean that they were not doing things. They weren’t active. What does a rabbi do when they’re not actively with a congregation lives a good life, right? And shares that in the daily, right? So, so a rabbi is a there’s two things in rabbi. There’s a there’s the the the certificate the there’s I’m talking to those guys. They00:41:08 – 00:41:53listed close. The ra there’s the rabbi is he had a certificate. It’s like somebody who went to school, got himself a law degree, right? Somebody who went to to school is a doctor, right? That’s that’s a certificate. That’s something that you go to school, you learn, right? But then the next the next part of it is actually having people that looked up to you and say, “You’re my rabbi.” I’m saying if you if you know all the laws, you know all you know everything, but00:41:31 – 00:42:14nobody comes to you, then doesn’t matter what you know, you’re not a rabbi, right? You can’t you can’t be a mayor of a of a of a of the island if you didn’t get voted in. Like there’s people that said we want you to be mayor. Right? So you could be a lawyer and you may not have clients, but you’re a lawyer. You could be a doctor, you don’t have clients, you’re a doctor. But to be a rabbi, besides having the paper, you need to have people who say, “You’re my00:41:52 – 00:42:44rabbi. I’m I look up to you. I’m going to call you for advice. I’m going to call you to ask you. You know, being a rabbi is not just a religious thing. It’s also people that see a person who has a different view on the world because he studied a little bit more and he knows other just a different outlook on the world and then they come and say you know there’s some people that get calls are like rabbi should I buy this house or not what does a rabbi have to do with buying the house it’s just00:42:18 – 00:43:18people feel like he’s a more of a spiritual person maybe has a inside feeling or something you know we we every rabbi has a rabbi and so when I came here. I couldn’t say I’m a rabbi. I said I came here to be a rabbi, but I wasn’t the rabbi. Well, now that I have people that come, I have a Shabbat table and there’s 50 people on my Shabbat table every week, right? Like, oh, now I have people that say, “You are my rabbi.” Then you’re a rabbi, right? So, that’s, you know, it’s I there’s I’m a00:42:48 – 00:43:37rabbi who’s easygoing because I don’t have people that call me and ask me questions and all kinds of sophisticated Jewish law questions, right? There’s rabbis who they get these calls, right? When I have when I have a question that I don’t know the answer, I call my rabbi in California. And there was one time where I needed to go through five different rabbis to get an answer to my question. Something that have to do with raising animals in in uh you know and and that rabbi didn’t know and I went to00:43:13 – 00:44:08the next rabbi. I had to go to five different rabbis. Finally, I found a rabbi in my New York from all places that answered my question. Right. So, um for me it’s easy. I I don’t have anybody most people don’t ask me these sophisticated questions. you know, I maybe get some every once in a while I get like a maybe philosophical a good a good philosophical question, but um I find that being a rabbi here is more I lead by example. Um and then when people come to visit and they see me and they see what we do,00:43:40 – 00:44:38they’re like, “Oh, maybe I could do this too. Maybe I could go back to where I am from and try to start the homestead something.” And and so like I said, we have a few people. There was this lady who I think she’s in Virginia now who started a whole community. She bought a piece of land. She set up these different lots and she has a whole farming community just from coming to us and she read about us and said it’s too good to be true. So she came to Maui. She was on vacation in a fancy hotel and then she00:44:09 – 00:45:01called up and says could I come sleep a night behind your farm? I said sure we have these cottages. So come sleep. She slept there the morning. She said, “You know, you don’t your presence on the internet is not good enough.” So I said, “What do you mean? I’m not I’m not a tech I’m not a social media kind of guy.” He says, “I saw this some of your videos. I saw read the website.” I’m like, “They’re making this up. It’s too too good to be true.”00:44:35 – 00:45:21Then I came and then she said, “I spent the night here. If I would have known this is real, I would have spent my entire week two weeks of here.” And I said, “Look, one of the things about Maui is no matter how many pictures you take and how many videos you take, it can never tell the story of the beauty of of this place, right? You people come here like you can’t you can’t you take pictures, take video, doesn’t I said I’m not looking to sell myself. I all I wrote on the website is00:44:58 – 00:45:48I exist.” You know, that’s basically what I wrote. I’m not I’m not looking to sell myself. It’s not if not a it’s not. But she went and she’s like, “Wow, if he could do I want to do it, too.” And she went I think she’s in Virginia now and she has she bought this piece of land. And so that’s what I hope. I hope that the Rebi taught us that a true leader, a good leader is somebody who creates more leaders. It’s not somebody who holds everything inside but teaches everybody00:45:23 – 00:46:33and makes people more and more leaders. And that’s what I my vision here is whether it’s being a leader in terms of being more connected to Judaism or being a leader in terms of opening up a farm right somewhere else. That’s that’s that’s what I want. Uhhuh. Well, you know, you’re as I’m listening to you talk, you sound like me. I don’t have religion as I, you know, I grew up Jewish and I was uh I guess you’d say conservative. I really never knew. I was born in00:46:00 – 00:47:21Brooklyn, New York in a New York, New Jersey area. And uh I never I went to my bar mitzvah and that was my date of you know okay you don’t have to go to Hebrew school anymore uh you know but um somehow I guess based on my life and values I embraced the things that you talk about I hope to every day and I really didn’t know you know I didn’t itemize them and say oh that’s that’s godly that’s a good path, but you talk like I do. It’s about being living and being an example of the00:46:40 – 00:47:43things that you talk about and uh building leaders and our future is based on there’s a group called mankind project. Have you heard about these guys here? Is that is that um Dr. Joseph? What does he have? Yeah. Yeah. Dr. Joe, in fact, I was sitting talking to his wife and about I was trying to get people involved in my organization and he said, “No, you should come to Mankind project.” So, we had what they call a new warrior training adventure weekend, but it’s men who believe that to have a00:47:12 – 00:48:28future, they have to build from who and where we are. And so, it was a beautiful experience and they have weekly groups and such. Yeah. But the the philosophy of living by example and uh being supportive of a community like I say I think I before you came today I was talking about peace we don’t try to go to get peace we are we create the peace and let that be the good example that’s why I always talk about Maui can be self- sustaining right like that just a change of attitude and here we are it’s an amazing00:47:50 – 00:49:05place this Maui wow No, I’m just looking to see the time. I want to make sure that I don’t run off the scale here. Let’s see. 11:48 minutes, which is enough time to to go all around the world. What if you were coming on to a show like this, like you say, a day off from celebrating uh what do you the passing the passing the passing of the Labavaji? the passing of the Lubaves rebi right what’s the most important message that you think you want to deliver now and we’ll get to other stuff but right00:48:29 – 00:49:46what’s a big the message that you really would like the world to know well you know my message I I I grew up in the in the teachings of the lobabari right and so the the the the kabad movement is a sect of theidic movement movement. There was a a rabbi, his name was Rabbi Israel Balshm, the Balm of about 300 years ago and um he created this this new idea where until then in the Jewish world and it’s it was also in the non-Jewish world there’s the scholar people right the the aristocrats the the the the better00:49:08 – 00:50:16people right and then there’s the the the people the farmers the the water the water slappers all people that are just and they don’t never meet and the the Alshand said, “No, there’s no this separation can’t can’t can’t happen anymore.” And he went down and spent time with the simple people. And he he once he one of his one of the statements that he made that that took me for for a life a life mission was that sometimes a person is created for 70 a person comes00:49:42 – 00:50:46down to this world and lives for 70 80 years just to do another favor for another person. Meaning we were born and as as the laby once wrote to somebody says the day you were born is the day God decided that the world can’t exist without you. Right? So you come down to this world and you think to yourself, I’m going to be a rocket scientist. I’m going to create I’m going to bring discover the cure for cancer. I’m going to do this all these great things. You know kids, you want to00:50:14 – 00:51:13be a fireman or policeman, whatever it is, right? And then you get older. You have other and sometimes that BT says sometimes the only reason why you come to this world for 70 80 years is to do a favor for another person that’s one favor not not cancer research cancer not getting to this to the moon to Mars whatever now if that’s your purpose and you miss it then your whole being in this world was wasted because you that that that that interaction with another person that you could have done good for00:50:44 – 00:51:34him and you didn’t you you lost it so your whole being is wasted. So the point is is that when you get up in the morning every day, you have to say yourself, how can I be that mission that I have to to help somebody else? You know, some people they help somebody else by discovering cure for cancer, right? Some people help somebody else by helping an old lady cross the road with her bags from the grocery store and and for another person it’s to it’s to give a little piece of advice for for for a00:51:09 – 00:52:17kid, right? So the Rebi spent his life trying, not trying, but helping other people. He sent emissaries. I just I just heard the story last night of this this guy who ended up in Indonesia after the World War II and and this he had a daughter and his daughter married. She was no Jews in Indonesia and she married a Muslim and she had this kid and she called this kid David. So he knows that he’s Jewish. And when he turned 13, she said, “What am I going to do about David? I I I you know, I’m in in00:51:43 – 00:52:31Indonesia. There’s no Jews, nothing.” So, she started to go to the synagogue there. There’s an old synagogue there. She had the key. She goes in there and she goes, “Pear to God and says, “God, what do I do?” This was years ago. This was in the in the 60s, right? She comes out of the synagogue. She opens up the door and in front of her there’s a rabbi standing there. A guy with a white beard. Now, you ask what a rabbi is, right? Most people they see a Jewish guy with a beard, they’re like he’s a rabbi.00:52:07 – 00:52:49It means there was a religious person, everybody who has a white a beard or a white beard is a rabbi. This rabbi said, “What are you doing here?” So she he says to her, “How can I help you?” She says, “What do you mean how could you help me?” Who said, “I need help.” So he said, “Look, the Rebi taught me, I’m a businessman. I fly all over the world. I do business and I’m here in Indonesia.” And the Rebi said, “Whenever you go somewhere, try to see if you can help00:52:28 – 00:53:14somebody else.” So I come here to Indonesia. I know there’s a synagogue. I said, “I’ll go to the synagogue. Maybe I’ll meet a Jew. Maybe I’ll say maybe I could help him out with something. And you’re standing in front of me and she she was she was like divine providence. So she tells him the story. I have this kid. He’s turning 13. She said no worries. You have I have money. I’ll take him with me and I’ll you know I’ll tell him to Jewish school. And of course00:52:50 – 00:53:49he took the kid. But that idea of always trying to help somebody else is the idea that wherever you are whenever you are somewhere you you didn’t end up being here for no reason. If you if you’re if you’re here, what am I doing here? And and that that is the mission that the Rebi always pushed very strongly that every person has his very own mission in the world because if you could do what somebody else could do, then what do you need both two of you? Then he could do it and you’re going to have to be here.00:53:20 – 00:54:09So if you’re here, you have a mission and you’re and that’s the most confusing thing because you have to figure out what is my mission? What did God want for me? Why did he bring me down to this world? Did he just bring me down here to go party in clubs and have lots of money and spend it? Or did God bring me down this world because I have a certain mission, right? So, if you’re a wealthy person, you know what your mission is. If God bless you with wealth, it means God wants you to do good things with00:53:45 – 00:54:41your money. God’s not looking for you to spend it on on on a bigger yacht or this and that, right? It’s God. And if you don’t have money, but you’re you have certain you have compassion. Use that everything you whatever you do. Like I came here to Maui. Before I came here, I didn’t know what my mission was. I had an idea of what I have a farm. But now that I came here, I know what my mission is. I feel it on a daily basis. I feel so I feel that’s why I feel so lucky. I feel so blessed because when I got up in00:54:13 – 00:55:10the morning, I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. Many people, they’re lost their entire life, right? But I feel like at least I hope for now. And I always tell people people say bud I said also you know just because you have a mission right now doesn’t mean you still got two minutes it says 54 55 yeah that means that’s one side then that’s how much is left right so so you know just because you have a mission that you’re doing right now doesn’t mean00:54:42 – 00:55:30that it’s your life mission you could you could change you know the Jewish people when they left Egypt they had 42 stops 42 stops before they got to the to the promised land. I see. Right. So, you know, you’re a radio host, but you have done something else before and you may and you may do something else after and it doesn’t mean what you’re doing now is going to be forever. Some people are like, “What? That’s going to be the same thing I do my whole life?” No. You know,00:55:06 – 00:56:07you could be a doctor for 20 years and then you go and you do something else. You could be a you how many people change their their their life mission in mid midlife or late in life even, right? So, and how many never take the time to discover in themselves their life mission? That’s why we’re that’s what wants us to remember that if you’re here in this world, there’s a reason why you’re here. It means you have a very unique mission. And if you have that mission also means you have the ability00:55:36 – 00:56:40to do it. It’s not you could say, “Oh, I want to be I want to do ABC, but I don’t I don’t have the talents. I don’t No. If if you have a mission, then God gave you the tools to complete that mission. You have to find your mission and you have to find it in in yourself to find the the way to complete the mission. Aren’t you glad I brought Rabbi Mendel Zurkin here to the show? Kosher Farmers, do you have a website? How what’s the kosher farm? Maui kosher.com. So you guys, if you know what’s good for00:56:08 – 00:56:38you, you’re going to appreciate going. Thank you for coming. I hope you’ll come again and I hope I can come to your place. It’s a pleasure. Now after 8 years, I hope you you make it make it over. It’s not so far. Blessings to you. And thank you all for joining us. We are out of here.