Meaningful Interviews: Rabbi Yosef Abrahams #3

welcome back to the meaningful interviews program this is our third interview with arab rabbi yosef abraham from ashby and la baba to yeshiva in miami rabbi abrams i can't tell you what kind of positive feedback i've gotten so far and it's only the beginning from the first of the three interviews in mr shendus the third one tonight so um the islam the uh the the barbecues and others are very excited because uh you know they they think you're a knack bella caleb and maybe you are so concealed and private you are an ahmed kalam sitting over there between lud and and and miami all these years and you're a treasure a treasure house full of memories but of hashem at your young age your memory is working well and you know details so please know that what you're doing is a service and i'm serious i'm not saying this to flatter you to make you to give you khanifa but you're really doing a service and i'm sure that's why you're doing it because you wouldn't do it otherwise it's very much not your style so i want to ask some direct questions that the one of the one of the people one sec let me interrupt you for a second i have here a thing that's blocking your face this meeting is being recorded yeah it's fine how do i make that go away i i don't see you but i see you clearly okay this thing is one second okay you know okay so you'll see me and i can see you know so so i have some direct questions that one of our viewers wrote to me to ask me to for you to clarify and basically what what this person wanted to know and i also wanted to know this when i asked you this in the beginning the avira the environment that existed in in in bedford and dean and the 770 and in crown heights during the early years when you came to lubavitch and more particularly because you are yossen you told us and i thought it was very heartfelt when you spoke about the love you had for your father and i could sense the feeling so many years later and they're very deep and very profound uh nevertheless you know how who who raised you you know as a 12 13 14 year old boy you're bar mitzvah where did you have your bar mitzvah who would make your bar mitzvah for you you know talk a little bit about that please look at bar mitzvah i went i went home was the time in the summer time so in the yeshiva bachelor's very little boyfriend kids left it and and actually i went i used to go always in the summer like for a week or i two i went for a shabbos and in the summer i i didn't go young if i stayed young therefore was in in new york and uh but then i went to yeah i was so that that shabbos there was a lot there there and i said russian who who was with you which older hosted which was with you where in in in philadelphia no no no of course it was with me it was just your mother yeah it could be that's whatever what would they never mention because before he began he told me about saying the capital i an olive yes resign so i said in philadelphia by the moment and then after that is its own capital i know the design with the resign so it could be was connected to what i mentioned about being there what was was rabbi lieberman there at the time of philadelphia about lieberman was in chicago oh he left with the top already we left yeah we moved them i uh we moved right there right before the tissue when i went into this i don't know exactly which day but it was in that time that my mother moved back to philadelphia see her her brother and sister lived in philadelphia when my father came from hungary he came to chicago because he had two sisters they came before he batson ran away he was he was learning in the shivaji it's called the whites on the yeshiva and then they wanted to take him in the army so he ran away and he went to america and he went to his sisters then later the ralph and hitlemash wrote to my bobby she because she was a step-daughter she's a god of it by me he held her like own daughter he didn't make any differences between the children even though she was only a steve king with the zebuchini so he wrote her as to do a finer from hideo marshall the city there that's in the in chicago skiday to to get a connection there and find out if they can make a shidduch with my mother and then they say she wrote a letter there and then he came to the visit and they lived in the beginning of philadelphia he always my father always wanted to go back to chicago because he became a hot feeling there and he like he had his sisters there and everything and his craving were there mother screaming philadelphia now let me ask you no it came a time when you decided that we're going to move there i instead passed away now so now she came back the whole time how old was he when he passed away 50 years old 50. did your mother ever remarry she remarried that six years later seven years later now did you have brothers and sisters assistant and is she still alive no she basically and she lived all her years in is older than me she's older i'm not depressed she's older and she lived in philadelphia yeah yeah yeah yeah and there she had children yeah now your father came from yeah i don't know exactly look i was very young and i didn't know then i didn't ask him too many showers so when we were speaking then it was my first time i said joseph ah joseph abraham's the the becker he was a baker by a grandfather now okay so and this was a siddhis thought it was a they all went to the the the vibe and all the all the they they brought him from the hildemaster your mother came from europe as well yeah yeah yeah my brother came and my her brother came earlier but where did they come from where from they lived close to hideo marsh oh so your mother's also your mother was also happy she was a stepdaughter by the role of hitler and after she got married she lived in a okay so basically she was also hungarian yeah yeah yeah yeah okay now it's not hungry it's it's romania remember that part of of the hungary they had the in the gloom they spoke hungarian and they were like but the uh uh now it's in in on the after the world war it became yeah it became a romanian part of the mainland yeah well i'm gonna go hopefully to romania my father's romania we're gonna take my father there so maybe your son will take you maybe your son will take you to hiddle mush anyway anyway listen listen listen to this so who taught you for your bar mitzvah you'd russia you know who i don't i don't remember exactly the the rosh it could be that garfinkel they made it russian he gave it to me and i learned it and and trump i didn't know good so one of the boston taught me drop the half taylor and uh i mean one of the boxing there in bethlehem not not some seventy yeah you mean one of the blocking them in basically until like till 1718 they were in bedford right so now in the dormitory in bedford they're slept there was called two kittens when they started learning tasteless by uh garfinker and my wishbow that was the messenger and then it started to be samadhirish which they learned and before and then there was a shirt one year by casteraba castell and two years but okay after that then they went to 770. right so now how many how many laboratory boys were in your mesifta class classes uh you you mentioned you mentioned to me last time you got a detzky and josel zalmanov who else godetzky joshua zalmanov and then there was zeso picarski [Music] oh kanikov his father was alibaba and williamsburg yeah he came before the federal became yes yes were you ever in that show mr mogavette in that show no no no no no no no um who else is a poisoner uh that's that's a song harlequin his father was not a laboratory but he became a was in your class yeah yeah yeah okay so that's like six boys already yeah and then there was simon okay his father wasn't he lived in crown heights he was a little bit another not a host i know about yeah you're talking about mutton mutton or jerry jenny no jerry jerry jerry simon yeah yeah what was older yeah jerry stein was in our place his father was a girlfriend okay so most of your class will above at your boys not not to not other boys [Music] for shabbos you went to cronies and if you went to chronicles did you eat with balabatim at all or not bean is crown heights but it wasn't in the beginning i eat the sheryl up there slowly when they when they after tough shinyu your i know that but what i'm asking you is did you eat with balabate mikron heights and shabbos i remember the first time when i ate i was when that's tish today i ate by rimmler right i ate there he was a younger he was not he was older than me but he was uh like the first year of 770 i remember and then i also they're made by laska i was eating i don't know that year the second year i ate by balabatim and then when i got a little bit older and i decided that i started it's the last time study and she was used to go to the uh williamsburg they had it was his name the butcher shop from pinakorf oh light lange lange lam yeah we survived flesh and make a uh get pregnant and we had sardines also i like him after then later i from when which here was i think it's your base earlier i was i was invited the idaho i think it was i was invited to uh rosalmont because he also was in my kitten and he uh invited me to play for pesach no stop watching do you remember him singing singing here he's singing by the way yeah at home he's also singing but then he had did he i mean he he was wondering and and he he was close to there but did he did he talk about his relationship with our rapper at all or now i already talked maybe your kids young kids were 13 years old right i just don't remember if i started eating after that after that pace i started eating every shabbos or it was a year later you mean if you start eating your shiva in your shiver yeah yeah okay i remember sitting like this if a rimballer lived in in is this in brunsville yeah and then then later i ate by alaska yeah alaska lived in east new york yeah i was there like i don't know for two months or three months and they had again they made a lumbaristal minion and it does and [Music] okay did you ever see rabbi hoopner there rabbi hutner no no never said did you ever see him come to 770 no did you know that the way i understood he used to come a friday night i don't know if they're going to see us if he came on his mom's shoe i don't know exactly yes and again i was after the season friday night they're later than some seventies the so you would go back you would walk back to yeshiva to sleep from brownsville now i slept over there no i slept over there again that was like that was the day i was only there by him by two three months and then by alaska i think in top schmidt but like this i wasn't there in the middle of the week shabbos i used to be there and shabbos they they gave their leads like the time of the video everybody knows this the first shot is after you tried it what came out yo was this wait wait wait wait wait wait wait no no you're talking about tough i was not youth yeah yeah i'm speaking about the first yeah the first shabbos after cabela's on the series yes so they were they're going to call the rabbit to master yeah upstairs he got the but if you get him he got shishi but now they would they they the first thing you chew out he didn't have an upstairs he died downstairs i think the first okay maybe i make a mistake maybe my memory i don't remember exactly surely downstairs downstairs she means the first floor the basement yeah the first four yeah the first day with the show they did the small show when yeah that was the small school yeah upstairs i mean by the feeding rabbit yeah the second floor right yeah till till then they dive into the if i'm not mistaken the the first huge vat option he dive and downstairs i am not sure though okay but what did you want to say yeah the shabbos so they called shmulevitan to navy to what because they were to levy no yeah when it came to shishi the rebbe said that uh mr lam it should call yes so since he's doing the outside they should give him but the next job is already was they gave the rabbit after yeah you were there you remember that yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i remember that and then the next job is and then i don't know he went out the the shag left he went in another room he made his own minion in other words after he saw that they gave the rabbit mafia the second shabbos yeah the third trap is that was what was not at the minion yeah he went later he made his own minion and then the brokering they made they uh nobody don't have another bottom didn't go in it was dr ness you know dr man yeah yes sir the doctor ness and his son you sit down with him i think charlemagne and we had a few other people that would uh not like they succeeded or something where did the shark make his minions oh right next to the other other room yeah yeah right next there they made the i mean they were the window the window was closed then and yeah so he went in there then later but they didn't have like a minion that the people didn't come in or whatever and so he made that made the friday comes over to me that came over to me that shock is calling me he wants me to see me in the office so i was wondering mrs what does they need me what do they want from me it's he's calling me he says no he's going here because he wants us to go into dominion tomorrow don't worry don't worry about it don't be afraid don't go thank god i didn't go and uh and then it's he was a bottle the dominion after like i don't know if he did it for three shabbas my first shabbos and then the minion was but bottle the beginning when he sat in the show by mafta he put his hands over his ears not here you know as i typed i mean he used to maybe sit like that how do you put it on the ears not the ear okay okay hey did i hug up there was one shot that's also they was very serious then they they didn't look up to them he used to go tipsy with the shark and the uh they hid the secretary that he took they hit it and then she opened the order and they saw that the this safe potato was not there they started screaming you say scream loud who would you say retailer walks over looks insane sees to the side that it's there oh it he was with is finger ott is the same retainer and the rebel was very serious that he didn't look didn't look up in there you know in other words that was serious that that that machap right but later it was it does i don't remember it was a half a year later the first time he came with some hostile these things i don't remember exactly what she had exactly and that yeah look the first year was like special yeah so you remember this happened in that time i understand i understand but later you can get mixed with your base your gimbal but that first year you saw him dancing shoulder out shoulder with the rabbit yes yeah i caught this that was in the upstairs yeah yeah but if you indigo but that's really by defeating it everything is still all three i guess what do you mean all three what do you mean all three no what do you mean all three oh they have the fabric obviously okay let me go back now so so you you you you were you ate at balabatim um when you had your bar mitzvah it was later i became the kiwis by uh i just don't remember it was after the first the first peso at the beginning the exit came out spacers okay but one second and then later yeah i think a year later maybe then i became victorious yeah but but you but you said at a certain point you stopped you started you started to eating the israelites no i stopped when it was by protesting one time a few months by this person a few months by that person then later i stopped that okay i want to go i want to ask something else now were you the only yosem from all the babbage boys were you the only yosem in yeshiva i think so in the yeshiva the whole yeshiva i don't know in my class in your class so did you have a feeling and it's important today there are coming from all over yong bakr and to all the yeshivas i think they need to hear what you went through on your own as a you were by yourself basically you know your father passed away your mother was in philadelphia and you don't come from alabama background and here you are in this new so but i was very i was very i had the javelin i was very good with her i wasn't like separate like a lonely person or whatever academy when i the first time i went home i was crying at home i i felt like lonesome i felt now the family was the the yeshiva and they have him and here i'm alone with my mother and this i was 12 years old then and that's uh i get used to everything but uh i can't i got the i i was very i went together so you didn't feel in touch in your dialogue your page you didn't have any feeling of being alone no no i felt good with the hawaiian with all the the kids and the dogs yeshiva and it was the excitement going with it with the rabbit and going to the fabregas i didn't feel anything yeah now when there was a fabregan during the week and it ended late um you walked back with all the bahrain to bedford and dean that i don't remember i don't know it wasn't it wasn't too late that everything for playing hours then it was usually short for blankies i don't i don't remember exactly if it was uh two hours of her brain or whatever everybody was there all the bathrooms all the yeshiva and whatever how i got back there i don't remember right remember uh did you have did you have any question with abdul draskin did he was he a teacher of yours or not no but uh he started teaching tanya before yael came for yellowstone he got married earlier and he started teaching in tanya there i don't remember if i was learning by him and maybe if he was in it was after pace i have to go maybe for a few months i'm not sure i don't remember okay i have another question you told us you told us before in the previous interviews that you know you really developed uh uh um a respect and you learned to see this from the burial over the years but yet you said also like you never shared anything personal with him is that is that correct yeah why why not because i never shared with anybody yeah but it's valuable that a booker in yeshiva you know has has service has issues as we're not we're not subject and then who you would want to speak to someone no no okay i tried to sound look at you like on your own if your parents are someplace else you you get to be how to to to sound things on your nashville and maybe not yeah but then rabbi mentioned i felt like somebody older i guess it could be mixed with that also besides being a private right because i felt more like it's like and then you feel like you're a cover and i don't mean to to speak if it does but but but rabbi mentally probably asked you do you have clothing right he must have he could have been mentally it was more fatherly that's what i'm asking was anyone like more fatherly to you it could be he thought about me but in other words my mother you said my mother used to send me money every uh i don't know it was five dollars every week or every two weeks they pay for the laundry or this and that i never like to ask money from the it was like later in the year she was to give the money to bahrain but didn't and uh yeah i never went still up to a certain time i don't know somebody thought i'd be mentally okay he shouldn't be the only boy that's not getting money from the issue and whatever something like that and you didn't want to take the money from the yeshiva i didn't feel i needed it i didn't i asked whatever my mother sent me money that was enough for me i even had enough to save money i used to buy sweaty muscle and i had a locker and i made like at one time i mentally came and passed by somebody opened the lock thing and said there's like a whole library in the locker room i want to ask you a question besides you said that you know you saw you had a tiny little see this and that that really caught your attention i want to ask um not only the tiny guy he he was must be very good the husband the husband were good i understood i understood what he said but what about his siddhis kite his van kite his his you know what i'm saying the the culture the arum the avira look i wasn't with him a whole day sahaka we were we learned with him an hour and a half sometimes he used to speak with us and then you'll mr walked to 770 sometimes with him and yeah yesterday also with us oh so what would have happened well how did he for playing with you young boys i got to tell you truth i don't remember exactly i just remember i i was very very into everything that he that he said into the the learning into the vibraniums and probably english much it spoke like it spoke to me that it had a very strong effect did he take it with you them so um the the as you you you were i assume you by the night when that ever started to teach the goon yeah could you share some heregation from what you remember over the years from the night shameless you were there yeah touching your tests right you thank you sneaking yeah that was telling the whole story and when he's telling the whole story he was like spoke about the gaguy you heard look at certain things i don't remember the shame is i remember the the hair gives them i don't know because i took in you any more claustic what i mean i didn't so where did you get your where did you get your hadroche for avoid the satsvilla wasn't uh uh yes and then when i was in montreal i don't remember exactly if there ever when he said that we should write him or and then i started twice i had legends on the uh and then in letter in letters yeah but but yeah yeah you told me you told me you told me about that last time but but which hosted was it a pet it's much can i mean in other words it is not happening you can finish dabbing in 15-20 minutes but the idea of you know avika satsvilla in incorporating the the the tractor see this that was more than the ruach the the roof is more than montreal speak a lot of stories about the bombings and you had a cashier with green glass you had a a a a a keto with green glass or not i liked repellents yeah i felt very smart and he know how to speak with me and i think with him i spoke also the uh isaac schweig he was a elder he was older he's older than you yeah yeah so he wanted to speak with me and this and uh and uh later women are admitted that he should become there where you mean in bedford no no no no in montreal yeah yeah it was the elder broker and we were like speaking today that we would like to have him forever [Music] did you ever see or hear that he helped rap yoil in the beginning with seifer erkin and top shanghai touching your test do you remember such a thing no he had a very glitchy cop in the uh husband i liked him very much it was i felt very close to him i don't know see look he was in montreal i doubted very much it was at descartes i remember when he came to uh look here he said he had a schwager against ellie katzman i know they were close together and then i think with jayla also saw him speaking there when they were in new york and this is what i wanted to ask you mentioned zelic katzman i'm curious um what what was his schnitz he was in more about neglect what was his yeah what i saw look i wasn't in the shiva learning in the same time when he was learning in yeshiva when did he get married which year i guess when i was in montreal i got married so i didn't see him in the issue it wasn't that it wasn't in some time when he was learning us but i saw him i saw him by even the uh my fabregas and then then when he came to eat in the 77 even in bedford at night i saw him but you told you told me that he made a big impression on you you told me yeah the way he was it's like again or whatever and the time when you're standing by the fabric it's just again the only question of divorce and it was a different type you said not a regular standard box now did you have a question with rabbi tenenbaum mendel tenerbaum mendel tandem when was the malamid in philadelphia before he became in those he was in philadelphia yeah him and it's a groaner him and it's a groaner this message is but he wasn't there a long time he was in the beginning when i first came he's also he make out of me whatever but uh yeah yeah he didn't stay long there i guess he went to another place no no no no he went he went back to he went to bedford he went right went to bedford no i'm speaking about ichigorona went to buffalo oh yeah but yeah but tannenbaum was there and i learned by him also yeah yeah yeah i'm asking did you have episode did you learn from him he wasn't they skipped me in a higher kitten okay so now you know we have a little time left i want to ask you what what do you see the difference you've seen the babbage in the 1950s when you yourself were growing up as a young boy as a booker then you went into the 1960s and you got married and you went there at israel and then the 70s the 80s you've seen mamish the development of chabad all the years what do you say about that what's your feelings i'll put it another way i'll put it another way do you think la babbage the way it was in the 1950s was a better laboratory than it is in tough shin pepe in 2022. what do you mean a better lubavitch you mean the talmidhim they tell me they were better everything together everything everything now i i understand look that you have the they're there and the the uh don't forget this is like a hamster to the day of shishi in the uh it was the different uh in other words like this if you had it your way if you had a choice would you have would you be mechanic like nichole there was mifsa lulov that was then also used to go out in the street and there does there was mesibi shabbos and the uh forgivers yeah but it was it was so small until that episode okay okay okay no no yeah i mean don't forget the midwest i know that might close down in that time when the just left only maybe a few very few above him in this right wednesday hour right the shallow program on the rabbit house yeah yeah yeah yeah used to go to the middle okay but but i'm asking you you're not answering the question i'm asking you which do you feel give me an honest answer because i want the book of them to hear this which if you had a choice what would you say should the should should was it better the yeshiva and the environment like it was 1950s or in 2022 it matters also see in that time goofy look and forget look there there was that kofi before thompson youth then was mostly american ballroom and i don't know exactly what was that other than there was i think there was abdi most of them and this and then they they came deborah from russia they were nothing from [Music] it's a different a different environment than the the american border and you had also the israelis the israelis came there was a difference between the ashley oren i guess and then the top she hope it was a different and also a then later i don't know i wasn't sm they just came look there's a big truth until the first time i came after i got married was in the that's what changed it could be later but you went back against change different but there was like a uder a little bit in the matsui but then it could be became better yet than when the alabama and uh but i wasn't there then i didn't i didn't live that in you know but what i was living there was the first tears and the in 770 goofy you had they again slowly became like two types of boyfriend more days they were like americanized and i mean they were americans and then yeah yeah i mean each has its smiles and pullers and this but again later i think it changed back it became more see in my time also the last years that i was in 770 it started the uh foreign [Music] yeah i read i read your your pill pulling me in the temple tell me then there from the top you test no you you wrote it here it started your test you started your test yeah yeah you were one of the condiments it is right in eagle in england yeah look he took then i don't want to speak about regardless or anything but he took like the best boss he didn't know it's going to be awesome to see this like he didn't pick up barton this is more mature citizens he picked up the the best ball for him and uh and then later they took and it was a second level like that was the first skit of that we learned courtroom in the afternoon they learned coaching and then no more today and they had to learn at night also from from after the stage cities we started the night okay the mice okay thank you very much