I'm settled.

I I've arrived, I'm here in Israel and I'm not looking to go anywhere else.

The grass is not green or anywhere else.

It's right here in front of you and I have 00 thought of doing anything else.

Were you worried about your parnasa?

Yes, but you develop a an an extremely new sense of Vitafan and Namuna about Parnasa.

But I think the attitude where people are not taught that ultimately Arita Stroll is our final destination is where we get into problems.

Because if people understood that you don't have to get into all the goola talk and all the doomsday talk, and you don't have to get into any of that.

Everyone has to know that Aretisol is a place where a Jew belongs, and it's a gift that Hashem gave us.

Shalam Alaikum and welcome to Start Tank.

Start Tank is a podcast about the challenges and opportunities of being a mentor in the workforce.

This week we're being joined by Ellie Freeman.

He's the founder of Cork and Seller Wine Club.

We're going to get into all of that talk about his Al Yeah journey, a lot of other fascinating things about his life.

So welcome, Ellie.

Thank you for joining us.

Sholom Alaikum, thank you for having me.

So before we jump into it, we really have to start from the very beginning because we connected over LinkedIn and it turns out, small world, that we grew up maybe like 4 houses away from each other, also a few decades away from each other to an exactly overlap and playing basketball on the street with each other.

But they tell us about what life was like growing up in Boston and how that was for you.

Growing up in Boston, I guess I didn't know anything else at the time.

I went to Maimonides with your dad around when I got into ninth grade.

I went away to yeshiva in New York and there were no yeshivas in Boston at the time.

Now there are, so there's a bunch of nice options there, but I went away to yeshiva.

I spent four years in yeshiva in New York, and after that my parents wanted me to pursue a degree so that I could be successful, and I ended up going to yeshiva in Providence, RI, just a few minutes from Boston.

I went to yeshiva over there and I went to school at night time.

I did a finance and accounting degree and after that I went to Shahel Shiva in Farakaway, got married and moved on with life.

And so that finance and accounting degree, did it serve you?

Did you end up trying to start your career that way or no?

I wanted to be a financial analyst.

I ended up trading on Wall Street for a few years, but wasn't really the lifestyle that I was looking for.

I ended up moving to Canada, which I lived in Montreal.

My wife is Canadian, she's from Winnipeg.

I lived in Canada for over 20 years, raised most of our kids.

We have 7 kids can I Nahara and that's when we come to Aliyah.

About 3 years ago we moved from Montreal to Israel.

So I'm sure it must have been hard making Alia after living your whole life in various hockey towns before making Alia from Boston to Montreal.

Well, thank, thank God I'm not, I'm not a hockey fan.

And it was very exciting not to have to deal with snow and ice and -40 temperatures.

I was a marathon run.

I was a marathon runner for many years.

And I used to have to go out early in the morning and, you know, freeze, you know -30° out in the winter time, you know, training.

But I'm really happy to enjoy the warm weather in Hertz's role now.

Amazing.

And just you said that you, you tried out the financial analyst world and it wasn't working for you.

Can you tell us a bit more about how it wasn't lining up with who you want to be and what your life was going to be like?

Well, I'm kind of what they call ADHD plus plus plus and I kind of get tired of a certain career at a certain point and I like to move on to something else.

It was around the tech boom, the tech bubble busted and I kind of like relaxing at night time.

It was, it was stressful.

I don't really mind the stress, but it wasn't really what I was looking for long term.

And what I did get into it was day trading.

It wasn't really, you know, I, I was very successful at one point.

I was very not successful at one point and decided to move on from there.

You know, life as it may be.

We decided to search for for different pastors.

Amazing.

So maybe let's Fast forward to your aliyah.

But like the decision to make aliyah.

What was your life like?

How many kids did you have?

What were you doing professionally at that time before we get into the actual decision?

So I had 0 intention to make aliyah.

I had no, I had no, I did not want to make aliyah at all.

My wife did, but she didn't like bug me about it.

She she had an she had gone to all the nefesh bnefesh meetings.

I had my own, I had a glass company that we owned a house.

We have 7 kids and in the middle of COVID, I, our daughter got married.

She came back from seminary early because seminary closed because of COVID.

She came home very quickly, got engaged and married in the middle of COVID, moved to Eric T Stroll right after Chevre Brachas and we were kind of still stuck in lockdowns in Canada.

You know, almost a year later, she had her first child, our first grandchild.

And I guess things started itching me that I wasn't able to, you know, you raise your kids your whole life and then they have grandkids and then all of a sudden you only get to see them once or twice a year.

You kind of miss the whole point of life.

So I'm not sure what happened, but one day it was totally random.

I just, I finally decided that I want to make aliyah.

I, my mother-in-law, my father-in-law passed away.

He's buried in Montreal.

I went to her house before I came home and I said, listen, I finally decided that I want to move there to stroll.

Do you know, do you want to come along with us?

We're not going to go.

We don't want to leave you behind.

So she said, if you go, I go.

And I came home and I broke the wonderful news to my wife.

There were shouts of joy everywhere.

And from there, it's the rest is history.

She said that she already had a file with the nefesh Nefesh.

She just has to refresh it.

At that point, we went full force into selling my business, selling our house, doing all the absurd paperwork.

I would never make Alia again.

It's the amount of paperwork that they expect of you.

And during COVID, it was doubly as hard because you have to pull out documents that are totally old and you have to rely on FedEx and offices that are only open once a week and so on and so forth.

But anyways, we got through that and here we are.

So this is like 2020-2021, this whole process this.

Is 2022 we got this is 2021 we got to Israel right before tish above in 2022.

And it's interesting how you describe sort of the, the backdrop, you know, COVID was a very intense time, challenging also with its, its, its blessings.

And we, we discussed a little bit on the podcast, basically you pointed out that you were in Canada.

So was that a significantly different experience going through COVID as a Canadian?

And, and how did that sort of influence and impact what your, what your mindset was like?

Well, I I became fed up with life in Canada mostly because of COVID.

Everything else was pretty nice.

I didn't really have a rub that I really connected with over the years.

I was a very nice part of the community.

We had a nice Shoal and COVID, the COVID restrictions where there was just basically no school for a year and a half.

There was lockdowns and curfews.

It was extremely oppressive.

The kids had to, you know, sneak around just to go outside, get fresh air, go to school.

Obviously the schools didn't follow all the rules, thank God.

So they had, you know, there was like under undercover school kind of sneaking in the back door and at some of the times the Rebbe's houses.

So we, you know, we just became more and more dis disenfranchised with life there.

Having no idea when I was going to stop and when I was going to start again.

Even if it did stop and we decided that, you know, we just have to go.

I don't know if an Israel was any easier.

From what I understand that they were pretty strict over here.

But anyways, I just, we just kind of, I guess it got to the point where I had to make a change in life.

I had to move on.

I had to, I had to get out.

I had to break out.

Right, interesting.

This this is a bit of a a gang, a little bit sidetracked, but you mentioned your your lack of a Rebbe at that point.

It's thing that actually came up in a recent episode, the the importance of having a Rebbe.

So you tell us like were you trying to speak to local about him and you felt that they weren't able to understand you or there was some other issue there that was preventing you from being able to access that resource?

Well, without getting into politics or whatever it may be, just over the years there were there were a bottom that I like to who I, you know, if I had a question I had to go to, but I didn't feel feel the spiritual connection with any robot in there.

They were they were robot in there that I trusted and that I enjoyed hearing their divertora.

But I never felt like, you know, it says a sailor Karav.

I just didn't feel that there was a I I feel like there has to be like a give and take between a Arabian Talmud and I didn't feel that connection.

So Fast forward, you know, when, when we, we didn't, we didn't really do a pilot trip.

We were allowed to come to Israel because we had a grandchild.

There were different allowances.

So when I was here, I sat down, you know, we, we finally decided on Beiche Hamesh and I sat down with a lot of ribbon in the area.

You know, we didn't decide you wouldn't buy a house yet and we didn't yet know which show we would belong to.

But after meeting Ravelli Mello Kornfeld, I knew right away it was love at first sights.

I felt that he cared about me.

I and I cared about him.

And I felt that he was very aligned with my entire journey of, you know, grew up in Boston to where I was today, really understanding me and really feeling who we are, who we who we, who we are as a family.

And I really felt that connection.

You know, there's a beautiful show there, a beautiful community.

The age group is also similar to us.

Obviously, I'm in my I'm almost 50 years old.

And likewise, it wasn't just a whole bunch of young guys who were, you know, serious about the happening and learning.

And I really found we, we we joined the key last Agra rebellion of cornfellows, the run of the show.

And I really to this day, I feel that he's there.

Everyone on the show, everyone has a SIM card.

They all they knew tragedy.

He's there for you.

And he's, he's just everything a Rav is meant to be.

And I'm so excited, you know, every day I'm excited about it.

And to know that he's my Rav and he's someone that I can depend on.

And he's really my connection to, I guess not Hashem, but in a way he is.

You know, he's, he's, he's everything.

You know, whenever we have a question, whether it's in halakh or Ashkafa or just need advice, he's just there for you.

You know, it's just there for us.

So I'm we're super happy about that.

I'm happy for you.

It's special to hear that transition between feeling a little bit lost and finding that connection and it's great.

So what are the takeaways for someone who wants to have find that Rebbe that's there for them that connects to them?

Or alternatively, if there are rabbis listening to this, they want to be there for the ball about them, but they maybe just feel like they're they're missing a little bit and and be able to afford that connection.

What are some of the takeaways that you would put your finger on Well.

I I would say that to encourage aliyah, there is every, you know, you go to, I don't want to compare it to an ice cream store, but you know, there's a flavor for everybody and especially a bit Shemesh.

It's extremely diverse from, you know, from one end to the other end of the spectrum.

There is, there is, there are Kilois that are available to people because obviously people aren't going to change and rabbis aren't going to change.

And if you understand, I mean, I, you know, I understand that the rabbis are not beholden to their Balabatan.

Balabatan are beholden to their Rav.

When you make, when you make yourself a Rav, you decide that you're listening to him.

And you don't get to pick and choose at that point, you know, whether you, whether you like or you don't like what he has to say, you, you make yourself a Rav and you don't have to think twice.

He's there for you.

Obviously no one's infallible, but you know, when you get to someone that you really trust, you don't have to second guess every single time, even if it's uncomfortable, you listen to your Rav because he's your Rav and you trust that he knows better than you and that's it.

So, but I, I think that anyone else, I think that Chamish is extremely diverse.

There is, there's literally the the entire spectrum is available.

Amazing.

OK, so always happy to plug BHMS great, great town grew up there and it's really wonderful and a lot of only friends of mine now are making aliya having a great experience transitioning from coastal arts to BHMS.

So that's really wonderful to hear.

So let's go back to your Aliyah story.

You, you alluded to this before as we started to prepare back in Canada for your aliyah.

It was really about selling your house, selling your business, wrapping everything up.

So tell me about that decision Was that something that you considered maybe leaving some of your doors open to come back to Montreal things wouldn't work out How did you decide to go all in and and really burn all the bridges?

Well, there's.

This story, and I don't know if it's true or not, but there was a war and there was a general who came in and came to attack the country on a fleet of ships.

And when he saw that his his army was losing the battle on the coast, he set fire to his ships.

And when the soldiers on the ground saw behind them that their fleet was burned and sunk and that there was no heading home, they fought onwards and upwards and they were ultimately victorious.

And I feel that, you know, when people told me, why do you, why do you sell your house?

Why don't you just rent it out to someone else?

Why don't you, you know, why don't you keep your business and run it from a distance?

When I made the decision to move to Israel, I wanted to make sure that there was no coming back.

I wanted to make sure that I gave it my all.

So we sold our house and I sold my business and I said, that's it, I'm not coming back.

I know why I'm moving to Israel.

It's the place that I belong.

And once I get there and go through everything to get there, I'm not going to come back.

So for me, there was no question.

I didn't want to leave the door open.

Because when you get to Israel, you have to totally flip your way of looking at life.

You have to flip your understanding of what material wealth is.

You have to, it's a totally different culture.

You have to, you have to change everything about yourself.

And if you're, if you are, if you are even considering turning around and coming back and saying, hey, listen, if it doesn't work out, we can always come back.

I don't think you'll be able to give it your all.

It's just something that's something that doesn't work so you're worried about.

That I made.

I made sure that there was no coming back.

Were you worried about your Paranasa?

Yes.

But you develop a in in extremely new sense of be talking in a muna about Paranasa.

I think that you need to make a plan.

I don't think you can just show up here with empty pockets and expect things to work out.

It probably won't work out.

You need to make a plan.

Now whenever you invest in a new business or you start a new job, you don't know if it's going to work out.

So I guess you can call that worried.

So I formulated a business, I came up with a business plan.

I spoke to a bunch of people, I got some investors and I came with a plan.

Now, the plan that I made didn't exactly work out exactly how I intended to work out, but I would tell people that you need to make a plan.

You can't just come empty handed.

Now, if you're a professional and obviously if you can work remotely, you don't change anything about your life.

Nothing is gonna change for you if you're a professional, whether you're a doctor or a lawyer and you wanna get certified to come to Israel and work here in Israel as an Israeli, obviously you're going to have to have Hebrew for me.

I'm not a nine to five kind of guy.

I can't punch a clock.

I need to, I need to be my own boss.

I need to run a business.

The part that didn't work out is basically, and I went in the same direction, but I've had to pivot, especially in two months after I got my business open.

The war started and my entire business originally was totally dependent on tourism and tourism fell through a crack.

So obviously, you know, you got to survive, you got to you got to keep on moving.

But I think if you have the attitude that you understand that life is not smooth and there are bumps in life.

And if you have that attitude, I believe that you can make it, make it work anywhere.

But it's definitely, it's definitely worth to come armed with a plan.

You have to have you have direction.

Right.

So I do want to hear more about that plan and the cracks in the plan and the pivots, which we're going to get into in a moment.

But you did say something very interesting.

You spoke about how Elia is a complete mindset shift, whether it's your B Tahoe and your and your headspace.

So I like that a lot and I want to maybe challenge it a little bit because one of these stigmas about Bechammesh is that people come there, they can live in Israel, but not be Israeli.

They want to sort of retain so much of their American life while being physically on the land of Israel.

Whereas you're coming and saying you did move to Bechammesh, but you also had this seismic shift in, in, in, in your, in your outlook.

So you talk a little more how you've experienced that or how you've seen other people come to Beishamash.

And on the one hand, it's understandable to try to transition with the comforts of American life, but also understanding, no, no, there's something really deep here.

And if you're not ready to make that mindset shift, you're not doing all yeah properly.

Well, listen, people joke and say that there were no missile landings in Bechamash because Trump told Hamas that they can't attack any American targets.

So.

So if you want, if you really, really love America, so stay in America.

If you love America, but understand that you don't belong there, you belong in Israel.

So make aliyah.

Coming to Beit Shemesh, your transition will be easier because there are a lot of Americans.

If more people would make aliyah, the transition would be even better, easier.

There would be more financial opportunities, the schools would change and we can get into that later.

Everything would be different if a wholesome amount of people would come and move here.

It would change the flavor.

But you have to understand that even though you've come to Vechemish and there's a lot of Americans here, it's still Israel.

You're still going to have to deal with Hebrew, you're going to have to deal with schools, you're going to have to deal with the government.

You know, you want to get a driver's license or a passport, or you just want to go on a vacation somewhere.

Most people you're going to deal with really can't communicate in English.

You know, you have to understand that the attitude is that the driving is different, the attitude of, you know, whether you it's rude or not to block a street.

American ideas and manners just don't apply here.

I don't think Israelis are rude.

I just think that they're totally different and America is a totally different animal.

So you have to understand, you know, if you've only come to Israel on vacation and you stayed at the Waldorf, you don't understand what Israel is at all because you had someone pick you up, you had someone drive.

You didn't have to deal with traffic or delays or, or complications or getting a flat tire.

You just never had to deal with that.

But once again, that's, that's regular daily life.

I mean, even if you live in New York, you know, you're going to have a flat tire, you're going to have to deal at one point with getting pulled over by the police or going to a government office or a doctor's office.

You know, it's just you have to understand it's different and you can't expect everything to stay the same.

You have to understand that.

I mean, my wife, since my kids were babies, she would always tell them that Aretisol is where we belong and where that's a place for us and we just don't live there yet.

So they understood when we came here.

Then I think that I think the only time that I have, I don't blame someone for growing up in America.

I did also.

But I think the attitude where people are not taught that ultimately Aretisol is our final destination is where we get into problems.

Because if people understood that and people understood that we have to get there to stroll, You know, you don't have to get into all the Gula talk and all the doomsday talk and you don't get into any of that.

Even if everything stays status quo, everyone has to know that everything strolls.

A place where a Jew belongs, where he has the best learning, the best doing the best mitzvahs.

And it's a gift that Hashem gave us.

We say it every single day in schma.

We say, didn't you know, it's, it's everywhere.

And just like people just, you know, kind of skip over that they don't learn Tanakh.

The Shiva system doesn't teach Anaka.

I mean, some, some parts of the school system do teach, but the Haredi system does not teach it at all.

And at minimum, they don't, they don't tell anyone that every TCR all is where we belongs.

The attitude and everyone's saying, wow, why don't, why don't more people make aliyah?

It's because no one ever told them.

It's it's it's like news.

It's it's a total news flash that anyone should make Aliyah and that that has to change.

But obviously you also have to understand that just helps you understand in your mind that there's a next step that has to be taken once you get here.

You have to realize it's a different country.

This country's only been around for 75 years and they haven't figured out everything that America's figured out.

You know, like I always say, like they, you know, you can't even like mail a letter without making an appointment at the post office.

I mean, this, they built this country.

You look at you look at the skyline of Tel Aviv and you see they've built skyscrapers out of the desert.

But why can't they just figure out how you know how to mail a letter without, without a problem?

Like, you know, I don't know, they just haven't figured it out.

You know, it's like an American mind who's fully American does doesn't understand Israel and will get very quickly frustrated and become angry.

And every time you get in your car and try to drive down the street, you're just going to be miserable all the time.

And you have to come here with an attitude that that Israel is a different country.

It's a place you're supposed to be.

Nothing is perfect.

And get with the program.

It's called adopting.

You know, where you join, you change careers, you have to get used to a new culture in your office.

So it's no different than that.

You can't say, well, how come you're not like my old job?

How come you're like my old, my old office didn't do it like that?

I don't know.

They, they don't do it like that.

These changes have to be made.

You're, you're literally going to the other side of the world, into the Middle East.

You know things.

Things are different over here.

So I really like that answer.

And towards the end you, you were talking about how like we're, we're younger, we're still developing, which is certainly true.

But in the beginning, when you start to describe the differences, you surprised me a little bit because you didn't say.

You know it's worse and after Charlotte and gets to be serum and you have to deal with it.

You said it's different and the manners are different and the life cycle, the the lifestyle is different and the culture is different.

You, you didn't say better or worse.

You just said different.

And then you continue to say it's just a mindset.

You know it's a mindset.

Is that a mindset you had to train yourself with or was it a mindset you always had to be able to be so flexible and adaptive?

Because it's very inspiring.

It's very refreshing to hear, but I'm wondering if you can go a little more to where that comes from.

No, the mindset that I have today is not the same mindset I had when I got here.

The mindset that I'm promoting right now is a mindset that will help someone survive because when I got here, Maya muna be talking we're nowhere near that now what everyone throws this line around as soon as you get here and you start having difficulties that they say, oh Eric T strolls Nic nabis surim.

You know, first of all, I really think that's Eriti souls Nic Nabekasif if you have money over here, that solves almost every issue.

You do observe that people get here and they start having issues.

And I believe very intensely that Hashem, when you get to Hashem's Holy Land, we know it's a land that spits out the people that don't belong here and absorbs the people that do belong here.

And I believe that there is a spiritual purification process that has to happen when a person gets to Eriti's role.

And whether you like it or not, you're put through the washing machine and you need to develop as a survival technique.

And Muna Vitakan, which we should have had all along, We should have had it from day one, even before we got here.

But the attitude of that everything that Hashem's in control of everything.

And you definitely feel it more over here.

You know, you need to have that.

You can't, you can't continue with an American mindset and come to Eric T Stroll because Eric T Stroll will teach you who's boss, Hashem's boss.

So you know, once again, everything that happens in a person's life is obviously meant to be, but the entire, your entire mental health is fully based on how you observe things around you.

Meaning you can a simple thing can ruin your day or a simple thing could make your day.

You know, you find a parking spot or you don't find a parking spot.

You know it's a difference between you know, it's, it's all about attitude and attitude is created through a moon and be taken the way you observe the world around you.

So you know, it's, you ultimately have to get to that point of understanding that it's only Hashem that wrote that rules the world and it's not your bank account and it's not your people that you know, it's just you and Hashem and you have that relationship.

And every time you dive in, you understand that you're developing that relationship further.

And as far as I'm concerned, no matter where you are in life, you're not going to be happy unless your attitude aligns with those ideas of trusting in Hashem and believing in Hashem.

And that's the beginning and the end of everything.

So if you can work on that before you get here, Matova manayim.

But, you know, if you don't, if you just show up here and you expect things to work out because you're American or because, you know, you're paying for something or just because, hey, I have an American passport, no one really cares.

You know, it's just you become one of, you know, another 7 or 8 million people who live here and you need to make it work.

It boils down to your relationship between you and Hashem, whether when things work out or don't work out for you, whether you get upset about it or you say, hey, that's what Hashem wanted.

I'm so I'm, I'm fine with it, you know?

There's so many important points they're bringing up and and so much to talk about here.

But I do want to get back to your story.

You said that you came with a business plan that didn't really work because the war, but me just tell us about what where the idea came from, what the idea was, what the business, how it launched and what was the first iteration before October 2023 so.

So before I got here, I mean, I'm, I'm a, I'm a big wine guy.

I'm not, I don't have any official certifications or licenses to, you know, to comment on wine.

But wine was always a big thing was I was, I was a wine hobbyist.

I was always buying and selling wine in my house in Montreal.

And I guess one day I woke up and I came up with this idea called cork and seller where I saw that a lot of people come to Israel, they want to visit wineries and they want to bring wines back home with them.

And they're always coming to Israel and they don't necessarily own a house here.

So my concept originally was is that I build, I build a facility where there are private sellers, kind of like AU haul storage, but where people could who are always coming back to Israel and always plan on coming back to Israel, can keep the store their wine.

Because a lot of times, you know, you visit a winery, the wine that's released now is not really meant to be drunk right now.

It's really meant to have it be had in a few years from now.

And I mean, simply Simply put, having a wine cellar is an asset class for a lot of people besides there being a hobby.

And I said, let me create this idea where, you know, you can keep your wine cellar.

You can order from your part of wine clubs in Israel.

You can order from your wine clubs.

It'll come to my facility, I'll store it for you.

And you know, you have a secure wine cellar here in Israel whenever and it's available to you whenever you want.

And I spoke, I did my market research.

I spoke a lot of different people and they said that was amazing idea.

They'd love it.

You know, they pay a monthly fee and whenever they needed their wines, we would get it out to them.

It was a great idea.

It was it was super cool idea.

But by the time I built the facility, built up my inventory, it was October 7th.

So everything came my, my, my business plan came crashing down.

And I very quickly, you know, everyone who said that they were they were ready to sign up says they listen, even if I can get to Israel, no one's making, no one's throwing big parties.

No one's, you know, there are to film.

There are people being killed every day and no one's just in the mood to drink.

And it's just like, you know, I'll drink wine quietly, but I'm not going to, you know, I'll just go to the store and get it.

Like, you know, So all of a sudden I became very, I'm not going to say worthless, but I became very irrelevant as far as that entire concept was concerned.

So I very quickly had to figure out what to do because even though I came here with a bunch of money, I bought a house, I bought a car, I did renovations, I started living.

And you know, when you start a business, you're not really making money right away.

You know, the, the savings account was very quickly dwindling.

And I said, listen, I have to make money over here.

I built this whole thing.

It's beautiful.

I have tons of inventory, but I really have nothing to do with it.

So you know, I, I, you know, I just, I don't, I'm not getting into every single detail of where it went.

But I started focusing more on Israelis or Americans who are living here, getting them what they needed, advising them what to buy or what to invest in.

And then I had a breakthrough where I had a friend of mine who's a tour guide, brought someone, brought someone over from New Jersey and he said, listen, I love what you have here.

I want to buy a lot of it, but you need to ship it back to me to America.

And I said, hi, I've know how to do how to do that.

It sounds very complicated.

I just finished making all the up and paperwork's not my thing.

He said, listen, if you figure it out, let me know.

I'll send you the money and you'll ship it to me.

So thank God through a lot of Seattle dish Maya, I was able to figure it out very quickly.

I started shipping to United States, you know, private customers who wanted to buy bottles that weren't available in the States, you know, collectors, people who had big wine Cellars already in their houses, the United States.

And that kept me going for a while until I, until I met through Facebook, a fellow in Omaha, NE who's not Jewish.

And he said, listen, I, I see what you're doing.

I love Israel, I love wine.

Can you get me Israeli wine?

And you know, I see online it's, oh, I always buy the same stuff.

I love supporting Israel, but it's the same stuff over and over again.

And I feel like there's a lot of wine in Israel that I'm not able to get to, you know, can you help me?

Can you get me a box of wine every month at my house?

I'm happy to pay for it.

And through that idea, the the Cork and Seller Wine Club was born where, you know, I worked with Brian Wallace, who you said that you know him and we put together this whole concept of a Israeli boutique wine club for United States.

Basically, I only send wines that are not have sold in United States.

Any wine that I send, you can't buy United States.

If you're one of my members, you're the only one who has that bottle of wine in the United States.

And I, I saw it as a way also to support small wineries who aren't able to export.

And I saw it as a way to bridge the gap to customers who would love to try them.

And also, you know, scaled into tourism where these people would finally come to visit Israel.

Or, you know, some people join the club just to discover new wineries so that when they are planning to come, they know where they to visit.

It's not, you know, it's not the the classic big wineries that everyone's heard of that are very commercialized, whereas they can go to, you know, like I have AI have a friend in in H Kodesh Yaakov.

He has a winery called God Basela.

And the winery, you know, he dugout, he dug it out of the, you know, under the foundation of his house in the Yeshuv.

And he built this winery.

You know, he picks the grapes with his kids and they make the wine and it's fantastic wine up.

I've sent hundreds and hundreds of his bottles to the United States.

The people who started discovering him.

I'm actually heading there tonight.

We're going to, we're going to, we're going to open a few bottles tonight.

But he's a great guy.

And he's just an example of of of his greatness that if it weren't, you know, it weren't for me.

He would his bottles would never see the light in the United States.

And I'm so happy.

It's an honor for me to bring his wines to people who appreciate them so that, you know, that's, that's kind of where my business took me until now.

So it's very interesting because you weren't coming with any sort of grand idealistic plans of being a source of value to these small Israeli wine makers.

But here you are, right, a Kasparov who made it.

And so that you're you're sort of natural source for a partners that you could enjoy and be successful and LED you to this very valuable resource for our TCL for Yeshiva arts.

So have you seen that happen with others as well, where a Kasparov who allows them to, you know, start with their more modest goals but ends up bringing something a little more meaningful and valuable?

Well, I would, I would put it this way, whatever is supposed to happen will happen and in Aritis role it happens a lot quicker.

You definitely feel, I personally feel the connection to Hashem asking Hashem for something and seeing the answers.

I feel like Hashem, like we say, you know, his eyes are on, on, on the Lander itself from the beginning year to the end of the year.

Ultimately, you see people who come here with one career who end up with another career.

I just recently saw Robert Cronenberg.

He started a yeshiva called Usodius Trawl for Oldham, only in Bachemish.

It's his first year there.

My son is there.

And you know, if you go to these job fairs, you have people who come and say, listen, I was AI was a doctor and now I got involved in making chocolate and I love my life and I'm so happy and I don't have to work 18 hours a day anymore and it's delicious and I help people and I make people happy.

It's like as if you get here and you kind of have to let go.

You know, when you get to pull into a car wash, you kind of let go the steering wheel and it kind of guides you through so you get cleaned up everything.

So kind of like washes away all of the, you know, your old ideas and your attitudes.

And if you let go and you let Hashem kind of rinse you clean, you let you know, let things go where they, where they may.

And I think ultimately with the right attitude, everyone here ends up with happy.

Now, I, I think that the elephant in the room, you know, if you want to let go and become, you know, you know, if you're used to having a 2 car garage and eight bedrooms and a Shabbos table that seats 28 people, you'll have to obviously be ready to downsize.

I mean, obvious, there are opportunities where you can have such a property in every soul.

But if that's your acre of life and that's really what you need, once again, stay, stay in America.

Harry T Stroll teaches you through this car wash process that and you come to value the important things in life and you realize that you don't need all of that.

Of course, there are beautiful apartments you can get here.

You will not have the same SUV, you won't have the same, you know, options for vacations.

Obviously you can travel wherever you want.

But I think that really what you learn over here is to be happy with less and to actually be happy, not just to pretend that you are happy because you have a lot.

And I'm not just saying this because I don't have a lot.

I really believe that part of the cleansing process that happens here in this role is that you learn to appreciate the more important things in life and once again that enables you to still be happy with less.

And that is once again, the M1 and Vitachem.

It doesn't mean that anyone who comes here won't succeed.

There are countless peoples who exceed unbelievably financially.

But once again, you start seeing when you know, after you wake up every morning and you look at your window like I wake up and I see Harry Yahuda.

And if I look to my, I look to the West, I can see the coast of Ashton and Ashkelon and Tel Aviv from my, from my bedroom window.

You start your day differently when you walk outside on your way to shul and you're breathing a muna and you're surrounded by fruit trees, you just feel like you're being surrounded by Hashem and you feel a blessing.

You feel that life is more meaningful and the daily grind comes to a grinding halt and you start living your life on a more elevated level.

So I think that that has that's all the value.

That's I think that's everything, that's literally everything there is to life and coming there to soul helps you get there, but it doesn't come.

It's not, it's not pain free.

Obviously anything that's great in life is difficult.

Having a great marriage takes a lot of work.

You know, running a great business takes a lot of work.

It's not, it's not something that just comes easily.

It's, it definitely needs the understanding.

You have to come in with that same attitude I mentioned before.

You have to come in with the attitude that things will not be easy.

And then we're not just saying that they really won't be easy.

But when you understand that Hashem runs the world and you are letting go, things suddenly do become in your mind a lot easier and your entire reality is really on your mind.

All the peripherals are just distractions to what really has to happen.

And I think that the you know, just as a as a baller boss, as a father, as a husband, starting my day every morning instead of

running to the office for 9:00 AM when most of my customers are are still sleeping, It's the middle of the night.

I'm able to sit and learn and not just do that Fiona meet in 6 minutes or 30 minutes or 45 minutes.

I'm, I'm actually able to spend some time in base matters and appreciate life.

So I, I think that, you know, all around, you know, just to sum it up, it's not easy.

You're going to have to deal with, you're going to have to deal with less gashmias as it's called.

But the, your quality of life is far beyond any quality of life that's possible in United States.

But once again, you can't, I'm not judging quality of life by bank balance or by assets.

I'm judging quality of life by actual spiritual benefits and actual enjoyment that you have.

So that's where I, that's where I get off that, that, that's really where I, that's really right.

Where like when every time things are rough over here, you remember and you refocus and you say that you you remind yourself why you're here.

So I want to follow up about the Goshmus point and also about your learning, which we're going to get to in a moment before that, I do want to appreciate and say thank you for that muscle of the car wash, which I really enjoy, especially because every time I go to a car wash, I'm absolutely terrified of taking my foot off the brake and me hand off the wheel.

It's a very scary experience for someone like me.

I certainly appreciate the muscle and the point is very much well taken.

So about the, the, the downgrade in Goshmus, I, I want to talk about that a little bit more because you specifically, you know, mentioned that your business is about fine wines and people enjoy that and that's fine.

I'm not, I'm not against that, but there is sort of a nuance here which has to be had, which is that on the one hand, you're shifting your focus and your gosh is not everything in life.

On the other hand, you can still enjoy a nice wine.

You can still enjoy some of the fire things in life.

So talk a little bit about making sure that we have that nuanced perspective of what's really important, what's not important.

But also, yeah, it's OK to be a wine con.

Start to enjoy those things, even though it is officially under the rubric of goshmius.

Yeah, I, I, I, I don't think, I just think there needs to be a, a, a transfer of what Goshmius is.

I think there's a tremendous amount of goshmus over here.

But ultimately, as Jews, as we bridge between the Eastern and Western religions of the world, when we're, when we believe that every bit of goshmus is meant to be elevated and intrinsically is ruchmus.

I think that when you sip a wine in Cedarhurst, it's different than when you sip a wine overlooking a sunset over the Golan.

I feel that.

Just why do we, I mean, everyone's obsessed with sunset pictures.

I mean, everywhere you go, there is just like beautiful mountains and trees and, and you start realizing that goshmius is not, it's not, it's not a brand name that's on your clothing or on your car or on your watch.

It's just totally different.

It's just a whole different idea.

No one's saying that you have to come over here and become a St.

and and swear off goshmius and just be totally spiritual.

I think that I think that the simple things in life that are so much more accessible are become what is exciting.

I mean, like for a kid growing up in the Five Towns or in Lakewood, no, a holomoyed trip is going to a massive amusement park or having a concert.

You know, I think that I think that kids over here, after being an artist for a few years, you know, getting some ice creams, taking a a trip and then doing a BBQ by the side of a river and going swimming is so much more exciting and wholesome and fulfilling.

You know, no one's, no one's saying don't have a fun time, don't enjoy yourself.

But life in Israel is not your two weeks in Israel during circus in your Shalayim.

That's not reality.

That's that's Six Flags for adults, real life over here.

We enjoy all the time sitting outside, you know, in my backyard, seeing palm trees and having supper with my family.

I think it's far more valuable than going out to eat in Manhattan at a steakhouse.

OK.

It just is.

And I don't, you know, if someone wants to tell me that it's not, I'll argue with them.

It just is.

And it's readily available.

And when you are back down to the basics, more of your life becomes wholesome.

And when you are busy, if you're not a part of the elite, then you're busy.

You know, spend all that on comparing, keeping up with the Joneses.

That's kind of depressing and that doesn't really lead to a happy lifestyle.

It doesn't lead to happy parenting or, you know, in that message that you give up to your kids when you say you walk outside, you say August schmuck, what a beautiful night.

Look at that sunset and you know, say, alright, it's all so beautiful.

And I reach over and we pick a fruit from our fruit tree and we do have freshest Trumas and Maestris and we enjoy a fresh fruit that we grew in our backyard.

I don't think there's anything to compare to that.

I think that's priceless.

I don't think that experience can be matched anywhere.

You know, it's just, it's just, you know, you don't.

I'm not saying you cut down on goshmis.

I'm saying you, you shift what your view of Goshmis is.

So overall, I think that's very much true.

I, I, I agree for the most part that that the, the whole scuff around goshmis is, is different here.

I think that the nuance that you're around this conversation is very important because oftentimes it can become the sort of mudslinging between like the Americans are all goshmis, the Israelis are all poor beggars and coal.

And I appreciate the, the, the more nuance take that you have.

I do want to put it on the record that I have a lot of friends in America with a very healthy sense of values and spirituality and goshmis and have a nice balance take.

But I do certainly understand how Artist Charl forces you into a little bit different mindset.

So thank you for that as well.

You mentioned your learning schedule, so I want you to listen to that because we're getting a little bit low on time.

So something about how Artist Charlotte is conducive to that learning schedule in the mornings and how you have found yourself with me, Falsadarm and Limudim throughout your career.

Well.

I didn't.

I have to be honest, when I lived in Montreal for many years, I wasn't learning at all what I was supposed to be.

A friend of mine founded a new Dafyumi Shir, the definition of his brother who passed away in Gibraltar.

He put up a sign everywhere saying you got a free Gemara if you join the daffy AMI.

And I said, hey, listen, if I stick to it for 7 1/2 years, I'll have a whole three shots and art school gemaras.

I said I was very excited about it.

I joined this year and after about, I don't know, 30-5 days, I said to him, I said, you know, remember to bring the new Gemaras tomorrow because we're starting a new volume in the art scroll.

And he says, what are you talking about?

You know, I, I, it was only one freak Amar.

I said, I only joined this stuff.

You Amy, so that so that I get all the freak Amaras.

He's like, no, you only get the first one for free.

I said, Oh my gosh.

OK, so you know, the sunken cost theory, I applied it and I said, OK, I'll stick to it.

And I started buying them and I was OK to finish us when I was still in Montreal.

And you know, the right was right for COVID and I realized that, you know, this was it was such a high.

It was an unbelievable feeling to finish shots.

And I said, I don't want to wait another 7 1/2 years for that.

So I started doing I had a friend who was doing something called daf the O DAF where basically we started at the safest bravas in the beginning.

And I had a Carusa for we started at Gitin kind of basically in the middle of Shas.

And every day we did the daf yomi daf and one daf starting at the center point.

And as we went through shots, we kind of moved.

Like that and when the rest of the world of Dafiyomi got to the center, I was making my for and at that point I went back to the beginning to brachas and then I continued with the rest, you know, hazarding from the center point towards the end and then once again made another CM.

So I'm thank God I'm holding on my third cycle now of finishing shots.

And about a year and a half ago after I started meeting people, I didn't know really know anyone when I got here.

So I got a Carusa and we learned in a cola every single morning, as soon as the kids are off to school, I head over there and I don't have to leave a certain time.

When we finish, we finish.

We do the Dafiyomi, but the EU and we do with, you know, Rashi and Tysvis and parshim and I really enjoy it.

And you know, there's an, there's an unbelievable coffee machine there.

So I have total gashmias.

I got my, my, get my, my Cafe latte with two pumps of soy milk and pumpkin spice.

And I sit there in Kailo and we, we, we, we learn And do you know, I have the, the spiritual Starbucks experience and over here.

And obviously we start when you Start learning more about Hashem in the mood and be talking, you get involved in the panemias attire up, which really we would call Hasidos, but everyone's a little bit nervous.

You know, you're going to start dancing on top of a van and singing and things like that.

No, you know, there's a lot more, there's a lot more to Yiddish kite than I learned in the yeshiva world.

And there's a lot more out there and it's rarely available.

And I mean, you just bump into plumbers and electricians and cabinet makers and bitch Hamesh.

And these are guys who are just, they're just huge Tommy.

They're common.

And your average Joe walking around with the paint on his, you know, pants because he's painting a wall.

This is a guy who spends his spare time learning because everything's all is different.

And the spirituality that's that, that that lives here is totally different.

You know, you can be stopped at a bus stop and just talk and learning with somebody.

It's just, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a different, it's a different experience here.

And I hope I never get used to it because every day I, it's so exciting and I hope it never, you know, gets, you know, everyday kind of experience.

You know, every day I look out my window and I see these mountains.

You know, I don't want to ever get used to that.

I, I, every single day I say what thank you, Hashem, just when I wake up, you know, it's just, it's just a tremendous experience.

I I think that living here is just the best.

You got, you got, you got to get, you got to get over here.

But change your attitude before you get here, otherwise it won't be the best.

OK, so we are out of time.

It's been a fantastic conversation with so much inspiration and insights and I, I really appreciate it really gives, gives me personally a boost.

I'm sure the listeners are going to enjoy it as well.

So let's go to our lightning round.

3 short questions, three hopefully short answers.

We're in the winter, we have these nice long Friday nights.

What do you like to do at that time?

I like to get my favorite book that I that I bought and whether it's a moon and be talking or great stories and I read the stories and I cry along with them and I get a big physique from that.

I do not waste my time going to sleep if I get a chance to learn with my kids, but we enjoy a good Jewish book that we're waiting to read.

OK, amazing.

And when you come to Parcel Shavua, you want to learn something that inspires you, that soaks you up or what type of safe from the partial are you looking towards I.

I spend most of my partial time on Shneimon Karika Targum.

I stick to Rashi and I love the balaturim.

A lot of inspiration for the balaturam, all the gamatrias.

And that he was able to do that without AI, that he actually knew everything and every gamatri and every rosha tevas and sabi tevas.

And I'm just always blown away by that, that that the the Khazal had AI before AI had AI.

And if you're forced to leave your current role, your business, your position, and choose some other job, business career, saying you've never done before may say your dream of doing as a kid.

What would that be?

Astronaut.

I don't know.

You got me there on the third question.

I'm just happy with what I'm doing right now and I'm not looking for anything else.

I'm settled, I've arrived, I'm here in Israel and I'm not looking to go anywhere else.

The grass is not greener anywhere else.

It's right here in front of you and I have 00 thought of going, going or doing anything else.

All right, you're not the first one to get tripped up by that question.

But Ellie Friedman, thank you so much for joining us.

People can find you at LinkedIn or online.

The Cork and Cellar, a wine club.

And so thank you so much for coming on today, and we look forward to being in touch in the future.

All the best, Cultiv.

Thank you.

Thank you.