[00:00:00] Speaker A: It my opening line at these shows, by the way, three shows sold out. Not important.
Standing ovations at each show. But who's counting? I'm not counting anything, but my opening line is, it is so good to be home with my fellow genocidal apartheid colonizers. And everyone laughs and cheers because they are fed up with Jews, genociding people. That's not what we do. If we wanted to commit a genocide, we would do it in about a half hour.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: And today we are going to be joined by comedian, television actor, writer, and producer, the hilarious Elon Gold, who is going to be teaching his Torah, al Regalachat, while standing on one leg. So without further ado, we let Elon do the talking today. So here is our conversation with Elon Gold, teaching us the Torah al Regalachat.
[00:01:15] Speaker C: We are very, very excited to be joined by Elon Gold, the one of two very famous jewish Elons at the moment, working to.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: That's so funny. That's Aylan.
[00:01:26] Speaker C: That's Aylon, but it's spelled the same.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: Aylan Levy. Yeah, that's E Y l o n.
[00:01:31] Speaker C: A l. Okay, fine.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: I thought you were saying Musk first.
[00:01:36] Speaker C: Oh, musk.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: I was going to say the real famous.
[00:01:38] Speaker C: He's the real famous one.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: We didn't even think about him. Yeah. By the way, no matter how well I do in show business, I will always be the poor Elon, because I'll never do that. Well, no one in entertainment has ever made, what is it, 300 billion he's up to now? Something like that.
[00:01:52] Speaker C: Something like that, yeah.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: But I'm doing okay. I have, like, at least three or 4 billion.
[00:01:56] Speaker C: Okay. Well, it's better than neither of us anyway. So we're very excited to be joined by Elon. Thank you. Good to be here.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: Big fan of yours. Not yours personally, but what you do here, and also a little collectively, we are.
[00:02:10] Speaker C: Corinne, by the way, I must tell.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: My story after you do your little intro here of my relationship with Corinne going back, I don't know, over a decade. And interesting story that happened.
[00:02:21] Speaker C: I know.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: I'm fascinated here in Israel. After a show.
[00:02:24] Speaker C: Go ahead. Let's move on.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: Yeah, you better stay tuned, people.
[00:02:28] Speaker C: So, gold, can you teach us the whole Torah standing on one leg?
[00:02:31] Speaker A: Absolutely. As long as I don't have to actually physically get up.
[00:02:35] Speaker C: We'll excuse you this time.
[00:02:36] Speaker D: Our listeners won't know either way.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Standing on one leg, the entire Torah.
Well, Hillel famously said, we know what he said, which know? Treat the others as you would want. To be treated, and that is the whole Torah and everything else's commentary. I'm with him on that.
There's also.
I'm standing on one leg. How many words do I get?
[00:02:59] Speaker C: It depends how good you are at Pilates.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: I think it's a combination of emunah, just faith and belief that God is real, that the Torah is real, and that we have this book of instructions. Like any toy you get as a kid, you don't know how to put it together. You don't know what to do with it. You don't know how to work it. It's literally just the book of instructions, of how to live life. And I think without it, people are lost. And most people in the world who are really lost, they have no spirituality, let alone religion or whatever. They have no faith.
I can't relate to that. But it's Tikun Olam. It's all those good things. It's just repair the world, heal. That's what we're put on this planet to do, right? Fix things. By the way, we're put on this planet to fix the world. But let's be honest. Jews really can't fix anything. We got to call the goyam to come to our house to fix it for the fridge. The air conditioning is broke, and yet we're supposed to repair the world. Now all of a sudden, we're the world's repair men? Nothing on that, Larry. I have a friend here, and he usually laughs when I say something funny. We're supposed to repair the world. Really? Jews. Fix it men. Come on.
Next. What are we, plumbers also, by the way, there are a lot of, you know, it's a good business. Yeah, but anyway. Yeah. I don't know. Is that a good answer? Tikun Olam Emuna, treating people well.
What do other people say when they come in here in this hot seat? I feel like I'm being interrogated by the Mossad over here.
[00:04:38] Speaker D: Maybe you are.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:39] Speaker C: What other people say? I mean, we have.
[00:04:41] Speaker A: What are the varied answers that you. From what to mean?
[00:04:45] Speaker C: I think very. People are keen to argue with Hillel, but we've had lots of wonderful answers, ranging from things like Tikkun Alam and doing unto others right to having faith. I think one was two. Don't be a spectator.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: Don't be a spectator. Be a participant, and also be like the whole thing. We're in the middle of this war here. We're here in Israel. There's a war going on. People say to me, oh, well, you're going to go to Israel in the middle of the war. I'm like, you don't really feel it at the.
But, you know, although when you go to the omelet station, it is a bit of a war zone over there. But the whole thing about the differences of the two sides, and we'll just say, even Hamas versus Israelis, they're all about destruction.
They're all about just death and terror and tearing down and destruction. And we're all about building and everything from building bridges, which we try to do with all of our neighbors. We even try to do it with Hamas. We try to do it. All we want to do is build, but also be productive. Like, do not only good, but do something other than try to destroy. And my whole issue with the anti Israel movement is, and I always say there's no nobility in the anti Israel movement. You think you're being noble about, oh, you're protecting the Palestinians. You don't give a darn about the Palestinians because otherwise you'd be talking about the Palestinians in Jordan and in Egypt, and you'd be talking about Syrians who were half a million killed. You just care about vilifying and demonizing Israel. But the difference is there are one group of people who, again, made the desert bloom, who just want to be and be productive and to build, and then another group that just wants to tear down. So if you're on the other side, you're on the side of destruction.
Look at the two rallies. Anytime there's a pro Israel rally, it's Amisra al Khaidah. It's not death to the Palestinians. It's not even death to Hamas, which it should be. We should be chanting, death to Hamas. But our rallies are light. Theirs are darkness. Theirs are about destroying. Ours are about building. And any cynical person or some anti Israel dummy listening to this go, oh, you're destroying. No, no. But we don't want to destroy. We got out of Gaza. We wanted Gaza to flourish. We got out of there to give them a chance to have their own state and to make, like they all say, the Singapore, the Middle east, and now this is just war, a war we didn't want or start. So that's the point. It's like, just be productive. And the last thing I'll say on this topic is, someone just told me you just got out of Gaza. In almost every home in Gaza, there's a photo album, and you go to some normal person's house. Photo album is of a family event, a bar mitzvah or a wedding or this is a photo album. So many. Not all, obviously, but so many in Gaza, their photo albums and their pride is their children or their fathers, whatever, with the Kalishnikov rifles, with the Hamas bands on their head, with the. Yeah, we're going to commit jihad, and that's their source of pride. Your pride is to murder and to destroy. Because again, the hater will say, well, Israel's destroying and Israel's killing, but we don't want to. All we want to do is live in peace and coexistence. And if you don't get that. If you don't get that. Yeah, it's complicated. And there's so many.
Every period of history, through all the wars, there are complicated things. Like, for example, the 67 war. People go, oh, Israel started that. No, Israel didn't start it. It was a preemptive strike because they knew the war was imminent. What was it like? A day later? They were going to attack. So, yeah, there are complexities, and you have to look at the big picture. But overall, when you macro it, you see good versus evil. You see Hamas and what they do and what they're capable of doing and what they talk about doing every day. And then you see Israel that just wants to defend. There's a reason it's called the israeli defense forces. They just want to defend. They don't want to kill. They don't want to destroy buildings. They want to leave Gaza alone and leave you guys build and do your thing and flourish and live life, and we'll flourish, but no, one side won't allow that. Anyway, that's that for now.
[00:09:34] Speaker D: So, yeah, I want to hear more about your trip here, but I guess taking a step back before that, looking at your Torah on one leg, that idea of building of Tikunolam, of being productive, how did that get you here to where you are today, in terms of your life, your career, the choices you made?
[00:09:51] Speaker A: Well, it's just like on October eigth, I was like, I got to go there. I got to go there. But I'm the last thing they need right now, because really, all I can provide is laughs and support, and there's no laughing. First few weeks, I canceled gigs. I couldn't be funny. I just couldn't do it.
And I didn't think audiences would be able to laugh. How could you laugh at this time? Everything was so raw and horrific.
But then time went by, and life must continue. The cliche is, or the terrorists win. Well, life doesn't continue for so many, for the hostage families, for so many people for those that were lost. And it doesn't just continue, but for everyone else, life must continue. And part of life is laughing and eating and sleeping and just being. Trying to live your life. So I said, I can't go now because I can't do comedy. I cannot literally, emotionally or physically be funny, and I don't think an audience can. And then three weeks in, I got a call from jewish federation. I was doing a gig for them that was planned months before, and I'm like, are you calling to cancel? Because a bunch of gigs canceled? Like, we can't have comedy at this time. Like, I agree, and I can't do comedy. And he called to say, so we want you to MC it. Still. I'm like, still you really want me? Okay, so I'll just do it straight. Because I just did this other event for bulletproof Israel where I just MC'd it straight. I even cried up there. It was like a week after, and I told them, I'll come and mc your event to raise money for helmets and everything. By the way, that's another story where I don't know why we need to send helmets. Don't you guys have enough helmets here? It is insane that we, well, they were not prepared for this. Oh, are we not aware that we're surrounded by enemies? Did we not look at 48 and 67 and 73 and go, hey, we should be ready with helmets? I don't know why everyone was sending helmets in the first week. I appreciate it and love that, but I don't know why it was needed. That's another story. But anyway, I go there and I do this benefit, and I was just totally straight. I'm just making intros.
And then they go, so I said, I'll just do it. And he goes, no, we want you to be funny. I go, I don't think I can be funny. I cannot smile, let alone laugh or be goofy. And I don't think people are ready. He goes, I'm telling you, we need you to be funny. They need this. So it was the first time and just to go up on know, and the first thing I said was, listen, I'm well aware of what we're all going through right now, especially in Israel. And you start with some sweet, even just an Amusra Alchai. And then I said, but we do need to take a pause for a minute to have a drink, to have a nosh, to have a laugh, and then we'll get back to crying and get back to the horror show that is our new reality. And by the way, then I did 15 minutes, and it was just. They were laughing. I was having a good time, and it was a beautiful break. And then you went them and you cried.
So I knew I had to come back doing that.
[00:13:00] Speaker D: Are you finding comedy in the situation or.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:13:05] Speaker D: It's like a separate thing entirely.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: No, I'm making a lot of my comedy now about what's going on, but it's about mocking the haters, about making fun of all of the false narratives and the names that we're being like. My opening line at these shows, by the way, three shows sold out. Not important.
Standing ovations at each show. But who's counting? I'm not counting anything, but my opening line is, it is so good to be home with my fellow genocidal apartheid colonizers. And everyone laughs and cheers because they are fed up with Jews, genociding people. That's not what we do. If we wanted to commit a genocide, we would do it in about a half hour. I think it would take 20 to 30 minutes. Genocide done. But we don't want to. We're surgical and strategic so that we can save lives. We're losing our young men because we're trying to avoid their young men and women and children, but we get accused of colonizers. And my joke, I say the only place Jews ever colonized was the Catskills. We're bungalow colonizers. Other than that, this is a decolonization project. I don't know if you heard about the british and they're colonizing. We decolonized. So that's where the jokes. The jokes would never be on hostages or know, soldiers getting killed. There's nothing like, I've never made a holocaust joke in my life. There's nothing funny there. But I will make a joke about Nazis and make fun of them, just like Mel Brooks said. Mel Brooks said, my only weapon against Nazis is know, make fun of them. Ridicule them with humor and jokes.
That's what I could do. So, yeah, I will make fun of Nazis. I have this great, long bit about how when Angela Merkel, the former. She's not anymore, right, of Germany, she went to visit Yad Vashem. And it's a whole back and forth about how awkward the conversation between her and her chief of staff was when they went over the know. It's like, oh, we will go visit the prime minister. And she's like, and Zenvat, well, then we will go to. We have to go visit the museum. I'm sorry.
The Hollywood museum. No, not the Hollywood museum. Although, like that one. This one is also run by the Jews. No, we are going to the, you know, and then it just goes on. It's this whole long bit about this back and forth. I will make fun of what a conversation is.
Know, on their way to Israel, visiting the museum. I'll do museum jokes like what Jerry did with the Schindler's list episode. That's hilarious. That's not making fun of people killed in the Holocaust. That's not making fun of the camps. It's making fun of. Is it weird to make out in a movie theater that's playing Schindler's list? That's on you. I defended Larry David to Larry David. I said, I can't believe you got any. Let's say it's a very religious.
Any flak. Instead of any flak, I said over your SNL, your Saturday live monologue. Because while you were saying something about concentration camps, which, again, is something I couldn't even bring up, but he did it in a way where he was the punchline and he was sort of the victim, where he know he's so bad with women, he doesn't know how to. He's so bad with.
I can't never imagine trying to pick up women if I was there, if I was alive in Europe, in the camps.
Talk about awkward, how trying to pick up women in the camps. And then I said to him, I go, that joke was on you that you're so bad with women, then you put yourself in what is the most horrific, worst case scenario. Everything is heightened times a billion where you're trying to socialize and meet women. Oh, a concentration camp. So you're using that as a backdrop, which is questionable at all, but at least it's not on the victims. It's on. He put himself there and how he would just still be bad. So I said, if the joke is on, you, go for it. But I've heard disgusting holocaust jokes, and I stay away from that. But anyway, I came here. I figured it was the right time where it was like, everything's still going on. There's still 136. Although great news today about the two. Unbelievable news. What a beautiful story to wake up to. But I knew it was time to give them a break, even for an hour and a half and just take a moment and sit back and laugh and feel like people are with you. A guy flew in from Los Angeles just to make you laugh for a night and meeting with soldiers and meeting hostage families. I feel like now is the good time.
But it's been nice to see a few people like Seinfeld showing up here and Michael Rappaport and Deborah messing and all that. But there needs to be many more. There's way too much silence in Hollywood.
[00:18:42] Speaker C: I mean, for a long time, you've been using comedy as a way to combat, like, the anti Israel hate and anti Semitism. And I know that you did the, not the anti Semitic roast, but the anti Semitism roast.
[00:18:52] Speaker A: The roast of anti Semitism should be coming soon to a streamer near you. Yeah.
[00:18:55] Speaker C: Fantastic. And that was, what, six, seven months ago? It was before. All of this anti Semitism has been.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: Around for a bit.
[00:19:03] Speaker C: Really?
[00:19:04] Speaker A: I think it started, what was it, August? No, it's been around.
[00:19:08] Speaker C: So, yeah, so when you're here and you're meeting with the soldiers and I don't know if you've met with the families of the hostages and the people who are here, what's the process of working out a bit to make it, I guess, funny? How do you find the humor in these sort of spaces without crossing that line?
I guess a follow up to that as well is how do you, as a comedian, how do you approach the people who sort of say these outrageous, offensive, horrific things and just go, well, as a joke. It's a joke. It's a joke as a defense.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: Well, I do, by the way, forgive any comedian who says anything, including Holocaust jokes, which I would never personally do. And the reason I forgive that is because it is our job to make light of everything, no matter how dark, no matter how serious. That is our job. There are people who make fun of rape. Do I make rape jokes? No, I would never. It's just so depraved and not funny. But when you're making a joke about something that that's dark, it's literally, especially if you're on the right side. Like, for example, the perfect example is I say the n word in my first special. Now, I could get canceled. I did it ten years ago before they were canceling everyone.
If that was now, and if I was more known, famous, whatever, I would be canceled for saying the n word in my special. But I said it to make a point that this is a dehumanizing, deplorable word that should never be used. And then whatever the joke was, I'm not going to do it here. Well, no one's listening. Let's do it. No.
And if your heart is in the right place and you're making a point, if you're against the n word, you're against rape, you're against the Holocaust, then jokes are okay if you're against whatever you're talking about, if you're making a point, but if you're not on the right side of whatever you're talking about, then whatever, what's the point? So I forget all those, you know, the only thing that bothered me about Chappelle's jokes, because he did all this stuff on SNL, and I even tweeted defending those jokes because he was doing the Jews run Hollywood. We've heard those jokes. But he also would say things in between the jokes, like, you have to be delusional to believe there's a cabal of Jews. He used the word delusional running Hollywood. But then his joke is, but I do work in Hollywood, and there's a lot of Jews. And it's like, okay, there's a lot of Jews, but they're not running it. I mean, first of all, if the Jews. Let's just be honest right now here, if the Jews were really running Hollywood, do you think I'd be here doing this podcast? No, I'd be busy. Anyway, as a joke, I'm thrilled to be here. I'm honored to be here. And we got to get to the story, but we're really teeing it up. There might be an episode, too.
But then he crossed the line with me. And again, it's not that I'm offended, because jokes don't offend me. It's that Dave is such a truth teller, and comedy is all about truth. And he was lying in his space Jews joke, where he gave this analogy about how he weared from a group of aliens coming from outer space and then taking a land and then treating the people who were indigenous to the land worse than they were ever treated? So much of that is wrong. We're indigenous. We don't treat anyone worse than we were treated in the Holocaust. And again, it's all self defense. And anything that you see on the news is casualties of wars and tragedies, but not something we want to do, we're put in a position to do. So everything he said was wrong. So what was offensive was the dishonesty and that it wasn't that funny. But again, I still don't get offended. Nothing offends me. It just bothered me that he took that side and fed into the false narrative of us as these colonizing occupiers and all that. But what was the first part of your question again?
[00:23:13] Speaker C: What's the process of the process developing a bit.
[00:23:17] Speaker A: Anything that's going on, anyone I meet, just even doing a joke. Like, I'm doing these shows for Kobe Mandel foundation, and it's a great charity. And I thank the people on stage. And then I go, but at the beginning of the show, I go, I do have to make this quick. I'm doing a 10:00 p.m. Benefit for Unra. And it's just like, everyone knows. Again, I'm not really doing that, but it's just funny because it's silly and I would never do a benefit for them. But anyway, so the process is just keep thinking and writing and going over stuff and being aware of what's going on in the news. But again, when you tell the truth, when you make a point through jokes, that's the best point because you're so busy laughing that you don't realize you're being taught something. Like, literally, it's going into your brain and you're being educated and yet you're laughing. But then later it'll resonate and you'll say, oh, I didn't think of it that way. I guess he's right. If you can prove your points with comedy, that's the best. That's just the best.
[00:24:19] Speaker D: Have you seen that? Have you found that? Have you had people respond to you, send messages or come to speak to you afterwards? Be like, hey, I actually thought about that differently now.
[00:24:27] Speaker A: Yeah, in a positive and negative way. I mean, I'm getting hate.
Have I just saw today, again, you're the occupier, you're excusing genocide. And then I have to just spend my precious time, especially here in Israel, defending Israel against these absurd allegations. And I explain the difference between genocide and casualties of war, again, all of which are tragic and unavoidable and every single death on both sides, Hamas is solely responsible for. But when you're explaining all this to them, what I realize is I'm about to give up, by the way, not doing comedy. I'm about to give up with the Dming and the one by one individual, because they don't hear you, they don't understand you. And like, one of the guys just literally dm me, he goes, we Arabs welcomed you Jews into all of our countries and treated you so well. I go, are you aware that Jews were expelled and murdered out of every single arab and eastern european and european country and expelled and murdered? That was you treating us well. And now we have this one place that actually we are attached to and indigenous to by every measure of what's the word. Indigenous indigenuity.
[00:25:51] Speaker C: Indigenuity or indigenous indigenousness?
[00:25:54] Speaker A: It's definitely not indigenous.
[00:25:56] Speaker C: Okay, I've got a lot of things.
[00:25:57] Speaker A: Like by every measure, and yet they're trying to kick us out of there too. So don't tell me that you were good to our people over the years again. But it's such a waste of time. You try to convert everyone, but there's a few billion people out there that are completely misguided, that are to be against Israel. You're either truly ignorant or truly hateful.
You either don't get it, you don't know history, you don't know reality, you don't know facts. Or you just hate so much you're blinded by the hatred. You're just bigoted and prejudiced against Jews in the jewish state. I mean, that's so clearly what's happening in the world. It's always a blood libel that the world needs to glom to to start attacking Jews. They kill Jesus. Oh my God, let's kill them. But that's a blood libel. That's not true. They're drinking the blood of christian babies. Oh my God. Putting in the matzah. All right, let's go kill them. And now it's palestinian children are being killed by Jews. And it's like, okay, first of all, again, you cannot compare casualties to war. Second of all, what do you mean by Jews? There's an army in one tiny dot in the earth that is acting to rescue hostages and defend its country from October 7, happening every day as they promised it would.
That has nothing to do with Jews any more than when America goes into Iraq, Afghanistan, anywhere. And then you're going to an American on the street and going, you're killing babies in Afghanistan like me. I'm a guy going to work. That's the american army that I have. Maybe I didn't even vote for this president that made the directive to go in into Iraq and whatever. And why are, you know, blaming all people for the actions of a small army? That's again, just defending themselves. But even if they were wrong, let's say the IDF was wrong in their actions, what does that have to do with Jews in London and Jews in LA? Why are you attacking us? We have nothing to do with that any more than any Americans have to do with the actions of the United States military.
[00:28:12] Speaker D: How does that work then? And the flip side, you have jewish communities in all the places you mentioned, who, October eigth straight away were sending helmets to soldiers and raising money. And how do you bridge those two things together where on the one hand you're saying, well, this is not to do with Jews. But on the other hand, obviously, naturally, almost every Jew in the world woke up that morning and we're like, we have to do something right now about this.
[00:28:32] Speaker A: Right? Well, listen, there's making everyone complicit in a negative way where it's like any Jew I see, I'm going to attack because they're a part of Israel and they're probably sending helmets and they're probably helping the israeli army. And then there's the common sensei that would just see that. Well, you just can't say that. But again, a normal person would say, well, I understand why some in the jewish community would support a country that just had 1200 murdered and 300, whatever. How many was the original number of hostages? 246 or something? I understand why they're trying to help. But again, you as the hater, you as the attacker, you don't know if this Jew gives a crap about Israel or not. And you're just, again, making us all, lumping us all. You know, a hater doesn't just, like, Hamas doesn't come here and go, oh, he was a peacenik. She used to bring Palestinians into Israel to treat them in the. Don't they just kill, kill, so it doesn't even matter. It's a fair question, what you're asking, but it's like they do see us all as complicit and all supportive of Israel when there are many Jews that are sadly not. But yeah, listen, there are no right answers to any of these questions, but we're definitely experiencing this level of hatred that we haven't seen in a while. And I was just thinking how my kids, my teenage kids, who were so innocent up until October 7, now are living in a world where they know, they're so hyper aware that the world hates them and also wants them dead, which is even crazier when they see the gas. The Jews in Australia, they see all these videos like, that's so crazy. See, there's two generations, my parents and my kids. My parents knew that the world wanted us dead because they saw my father's father's two brothers, two sisters, mother and father murdered in the Holocaust. So my father was very aware. They want us dead. And when they say they want us dead, they will kill us. I was brought up with no anti Semitism. Like, the level of anti Semitism that I experienced was like, hey, Jew bastard, you know, in the Bronx, it's like, all right, he's just an idiot. It's like, hey, fatso. He doesn't hate fat people. He just wants to name. He's a big bully. Stupid idiot going, hey, Jew. I've gotten that every now and then, but I didn't know. Everyone wants me dead, so my parents knew, and now my kids know. And it's, like, unbelievable to me that they lost their innocence and they're so hyper aware and they've gotten, like. They're not, like, angry kids or, like, the sweetest kids, but they've gotten angrier now, and they're all on social media and just fighting back and trying to do what I do, like just refuting and putting up the good fight online. But do you want to hear the greatest story ever?
[00:31:35] Speaker C: Of course.
[00:31:36] Speaker A: It's about this publishing. Okay, Corinne.
[00:31:39] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: This is the story, Korin. Which, by the way, how many Koran jokes do you get here?
The korean translation of the Quran. There couldn't have been a better name.
[00:31:50] Speaker D: I haven't been brave enough yet to do a press release on the Korean Quran for perim.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: That would be nice. A Koran.
[00:31:55] Speaker C: Now you spoiled it.
[00:31:57] Speaker A: We had. It's very confusing when they ask you to know. Listen, by the way, I love the know. The Quran says that Israel belongs to the jewish people. I'm all for the Quran. Right?
[00:32:09] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: Does it not say.
[00:32:10] Speaker C: I'm not going to argue with it.
[00:32:11] Speaker D: I'm not holding.
[00:32:12] Speaker A: I think. I'm pretty sure it says that. I'm also pretty sure that Jerusalem isn't mentioned there, but it's mentioned, what, 800 times in our liturgy? All right, but anyway, here's the point. So I come off stage. This is over ten years ago. Wait, it's exactly ten years ago. Because it had been 30 years since I was in Israel. Because I went for my bar mitzvah when I was 13, and then 30 years later, I went for my son's bar mitzvah. Why didn't I go to Israel in between, you ask. Can't afford it. Oh, my God, these ll prices, these hotels are nuts. I always wanted to go to Israel, but I just had little kids, and then it really was an expense that I couldn't. And it's funny, you ask about what about all the Jews that are helping Israel. I hate to admit it, but I was one of those Jews until I hit around 30, my age, that I didn't really. I don't want to say I didn't care about Israel, but it was not my focus. It wasn't in my mind, in my prayers. Any more than what's in the sitter. But right now, I'm obsessed with praying for Israel and the IDF and hostages. But I was 30, and it wasn't a thought. My mother was born here. I was like, okay, that's nice. And it wasn't a thought any more than, like, my black friends think about Africa all the time. They don't. They're from Brooklyn. They don't think about Africa, and I don't think about Israel and didn't really, really care about Israel. And then all of a sudden, the first intefada happened. I just started seeing stories. Why are they blowing up buses and pizza stores? What is going on? It looks like a slow holocaust to me. What reason could you have for going in and blowing up a pizza place and a bus? And then I did a deep dive and became obsessed with Israel and the truth, and finding out what is the truth of this conflict. And then when you realize what the truth is, all I care about is Israel now. And for the last 20 something years, it's all I care about is Israel. But in my 20s, did I care about Israel? I think about, no, I did not care.
But anyway, so then I come back to Israel, and now I'm 43, my son's 13, and I go on stage. It was the first time back and my first time ever performing in Israel, which is a big deal. And I literally got emotional. I cried on stage, saying how it's so good to be performing with my people in our homeland. And I got so emotional, I cried. And then I did this bit about the Talmud, and again, my bits about when it comes to making jokes about Judaism, our rituals, our customs, or anything, I never make fun. I poke fun. And making fun is like, when you're, like, you're just mocking something and you're an outsider, and you're looking at something and you're mocking it, and you're making fun. Poking fun as an insider is different, because you're just finding the funny in whatever it is.
But it's still with, like, listen, I learn Gamora. I learn Talmud. I always love Talmud. But I will make fun of the intricacies and the debates and just the minutiae and how insane it gets at times. That's just. I have to make steady flow of material. Steady flow. My Christmas tree bit, it was a famous bit that was very talmudic. And this was another bit before the Christmas tree bit, specifically about the Talmud.
And these two lovely ladies came over to me after the show, and they said, we're from Corin. Publishing. I went, the said no. Korran publishing. And we love your Talmud bit so much that we want to gift you sort of a book of the month club. We're still printing the shots, the entire set, but we have a bunch that are done, and then every month, we're going to finish it and send it to you. I'm like, no, you're not. Oh, yes, we will. And what's this going to cost me? Nothing. Which is just. That's heaven on earth. When nothing costs something costs nothing. I'm feeding into stereotypes now. Anyway, so I was like, this is amazing. Just because of one bit that I did. It was inspiring. And we love that you're talking about the Talmud, and we see how you talk about it with love. And even though they're jokes, you see your love for the Talmud. We want you to get our. Every month, for years, I would get this giant book, and now I have a whole shelf of the complete shots. You finished, I think, right? Yeah, I stopped getting it. When did you stop?
[00:36:38] Speaker C: Just before COVID Yeah.
[00:36:40] Speaker A: What a great story that, huh? I want to hear another story about Talmuds.
Remember the sunsino Talmud?
[00:36:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:36:47] Speaker A: So when I was getting bar mitzvah, I remember my grandmother, my booby, asked me, what do you want for your bar mitzvah? And I was really fascinated with Talmud, but I also love the drums. And I was like, ooh, I want a drum set. I think I want a drum set. And then I realized I live in an apartment in the Bronx, and I don't think my upstairs or downstairs neighbor would appreciate all the banging. And also, I went, but there's something about getting a Talmud for your bar mitzvah that's more meaningful than a stupid drum set. So I opted for the Talmud. I got the sansina, the full shoss, from my grandmother.
Didn't get a drum set till three years ago in my house right before COVID It was perfect, because then all I did was play drums. But that's, like, my story with the Talmud goes back.
And then I got the shottenstein edition, and then who would have thought that I would then be doing Jay Shottenstein, who's, like, the most amazing philanthropist? Literally his name's on them. I'd be doing his 60th birthday party. I was like, I used to get by your gamuras and read, and now I'm performing for you. It's great. And then he just took me last Tuesday to bear witness in the south, which was very special with him and his wife and his kids, and that was a very special thing. So I have a long history, me in the Talmud, but you guys are a big part of it. And thank you.
[00:38:14] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:38:15] Speaker D: Pleasure.
[00:38:15] Speaker C: I think just before we wrap up, we've got a couple of minutes left.
[00:38:17] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:38:18] Speaker C: You spoke about the difficulty of defending Israel and being in the public eye and so vocally pro Israel and pro jewish.
Can you share with us maybe just a success story, a time that either you have changed someone's mind, if that's ever happened.
[00:38:35] Speaker A: Perfect example of. There was this comedian who's pretty well known, she's pretty famous, like, has specials on Netflix, and she's known, we'll leave her name out of it because who wants to give her the publicity? And she put out, again, a blood libel, that the IDF is spraying white phosphorus gas, which is like, literally the ultimate war crime, which is literally like just attacking and murdering civilians, which is the antithesis of truth and how the idf operates. And I dm'd her. It was 3 hours on a Friday afternoon, back and forth, explaining to her that this is a blood libel. So it's not just a lie. You're not just telling something that's not true. That's fine. You're telling a blood libel, which means it's a lie that will cause blood to spill. You are going to cause. Listen, if I read that, I don't know how I wouldn't attack the people that are just spraying a people with white phosphorus. I get that anger.
So I said, you have to take this down because it's not true. And you are going to have jewish blood on your hands. Jewish blood will be spilled because the people read this. It incites them and it emboldens them to go. If they're killing people, I'm going to go kill them. You must take this down. 3 hours later, she took it down.
That being said, the next day, it was another blood libel and another thing, and another post, another thing. And you can't stop these nutballs. But I would then, just like, I just kept dming her going, you're doing more damage. You're causing more Jews to get attacked. You're da da da. But these people are possessed. They're possessed and obsessed. They're obsessed with Israel. As if Gaza is the only place on earth where there's people suffering. It's like the only cause that anyone is speaking up against. They don't talk about Assad actually committing genocide against half a million Syrians. They don't talk about Ukraine anymore. What happened to, it's. It's the Gazins. It's like, I wonder why they care about the Gazans so much. Well, I'll leave you two to figure that out.
[00:40:44] Speaker C: We'll do that.
[00:40:47] Speaker A: Thank you. This is Larry, my gynecologist, by the way. He's a gynecologist. That's true. He's not necessarily my gynecologist, but he's my good friend. And he's a gynecologist. But it's true. It is a lot of the mainstream media, but it's also the people's willingness to, again, accept anything that can enrage them against Jews. Like, give me something. They're waiting.
It's like the shark in the water just waiting to bite.
And the second that a little fish comes by, they're just waiting to attack. They're not sitting back and going, the Jews are. They're just like, oh, the Jews. What are they doing next? What are they, pedophiles? What is it? Give me Epstein. You know, and then you get one bad Jew and, oh, they're all pedophile. It's like they're waiting for everything. Speaking of waiting, we should be waiting for our car.
[00:41:34] Speaker C: You should be. Thank you so much, Adam, for joining us on the ground podcast. I think just to wrap, guess you know, the best way to annoy them is to keep laughing, keep smiling, keep making people laugh.
[00:41:46] Speaker A: And that's the best way also to get your point across. It's like, make your points through comedy and also. Yeah, and then heal. But we're back to Tikun. I am healing with my little jokes, and people are really healing from feeling good and having a respite and a moment of laughter and just enjoying themselves for a minute. So that's the healing I could do. I don't do much, believe me, but that's my little.
[00:42:08] Speaker C: It definitely makes all the difference.
[00:42:09] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:42:09] Speaker C: Thank you for joining us. People can find you anywhere.
[00:42:13] Speaker A: Follow me on Instagram.
[00:42:14] Speaker C: Definitely do okay at Elon Musk and Elon Musk. One of them is funnier than the other. We'll definitely try and have you back again soon.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: I would love.
[00:42:23] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:42:24] Speaker A: Thank you so much.
[00:42:25] Speaker B: Well, that's it for this episode of the Quran podcast. Thank you so much, Elon gold again for joining us in the studio in the Quran offices in Jerusalem for this episode and teaching us his Torah, Al Rangalachat. It's probably too late by the time you listen to this to order your books in Taipapurin, but it's never too early to order your hagadot for Pesach, and you can get 10% off your order using promo code podcast at checkout. You can reach us on all the socials as well as by email at
[email protected] and we will see you next time on the phone podcast.
