An interview with Rabbi Allen Schwartz on his book, ‘You, God and Me’

There are people in life who teach you and lead by example and I feel very grateful and fortunate to know Rabbi Allen Schwartz who I’ve known since I attended Yeshiva University. Rabbi Allen Schwartz is a prominent Orthodox rabbi, educator, and author who has served as the spiritual leader of Congregation Ohab Zedek (OZ) on Manhattan’s Upper West Side since 1988. He is widely recognized for his academic contributions to Bible studies and his long-standing tenure at Yeshiva University, where he has taught since 1983. As the senior rabbi of Ohab Zedek, he focuses on fostering a close-knit community among diverse age groups in New York City. He holds the Raymond J. Greenwald Chair in Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University and has taught over 3,000 students (including myself) and currently teaches at Manhattan Day School and in the Stern College Graduate Program. He is an alumnus of Yeshiva College and received his Master of Arts in Bible, Rabbinics, and Halacha from the Bernard Revel Graduate School. He received his Semicha (rabbinic ordination) from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS).

Rabbi Schwartz has authored several books that bridge traditional and modern biblical interpretation: These books include Conflict & Resolution in the Early Prophets (An exploration of seeming violations of Torah law in the books of Joshua, Judges, and Samuel), The Four Sons Haggadah (A unique Passover commentary providing four parallel approaches to the text), Parashah Sheleimah Series: (A series offering multi-faceted insights into the weekly Torah portions) and one of his most recent publications is “You, God and Me” (The divine importance of relationships). As a working professional and dedicated community member, I have had the honor of attending Rabbi Schwartz’s classes in Manhattan and was recently gifted his book “You, God and Me” with a beautiful dedication written in front that I will always cherish. I recently had the chance to sit down with Rabbi Schwartz at his Synagogue to discuss his new book and gain insights that we all can apply and aspire to in our everyday lives.

In his Book entitled “You, God and Me” (by the Mosaica Press and distributed by Feldheim) Rabbi Schwartz discusses that the paramount importance of mitzvos bein adam l’chaveiro stems from the fact that we are all created b’tselem Elokim, in the image of God. I thanked Rabbi Schwartz for the beautiful gift of his book which discusses that in a family setting, chores, curfews, and similar directives that parents require of children are parallel to mitzvos bein adam laMakom, commandments between man and God. I started our interview by asking Rabbi Schwartz that with all that is happening in today’s day and age, how can we others to shift their focus and develop (as the book states) that interpersonal relationship with Hashem? Rabbi Schwartz conveyed that “we know where the real power comes from, we know our history, we know that when Mordechai confronted Esther he didn’t tell her that you will be guilty of a serious crime if you don’t do something. No, he said you know that we are going to be saved, we are going to be saved from that Haman, we are going to be saved from any Haman that has tried to harm us.

There may be some terrible elements along the way but the Jewish people will survive, the promises that the Prophets made to us will take place and the question is Esther, will your name be on that long list of heroes along the way who made that possible? That’s what is going to happen in the end. Will the story be called Megillas Esther or will it be called something else? We are going to be saved, we know that we are going to outlast these Mullahs and all of those who tried to destroy us throughout History. Of course, there are great tragedies that befell the Jewish people over the past hundreds of years and throughout our history but we know that we will always survive them, we know that we are in the right, and we know that we now have the power in the first two millennia to fight back and defend ourselves and that’s a wonderful thing. The fact that we live in a time and we can just call a travel agent and be in Israel the next day, Be’Ezrat Hashem may we continuously be so fortunate. But the point is that we have to deserve it.

So when a parent looks down at children and raises children and looks down upon their growth and asks what am I putting out in this world, we see that God has children and He has many children. One child is his bachur and He says “Ani Bachurai Yisrael”, the Bachur makes his parents become a parent. Before he was born his parents weren’t parents. So God is God whether we believe in Him or not but we have a mission since Avraham Avinu to make God apparent to the rest of the World that He can be recognized. We are not interested at this moment that everyone keeps 613 Mitzvos but we want to teach the 7 Mitzvot and we have done a good job of that throughout our History. We want to teach the World morality, 2,000 years ago you were either Jewish or you believed in Avodah Zarah, and even the gods they depicted were not moral. We have a loving Father in Heaven who essentially needs us to teach the World what it means to be a Bachur.

A parent gives certain directives to his children just like Hashem gave certain directives to Adam and Chava, He gave seven Mitzvos Benei Noach, Seven cardinal principles to every human being in the world. Then He chose one Nation, revealed himself on a mountain and gave them the Torah. So a parent gives directives to their children, you mow the lawn on Thursdays, you keep the room clean, you can have the car but you have a curfew and when you give the children certain directives then that’s between the parent and the child. But then a parent also has expectations that if I have 8 children, if I have 4 children or whatever it may be that Cain and Hevel should get along, that my children should be good with each other, take care of each other and look after eachother. I know that there will always be certain sibling rivalries (as we read in sefer Bereishis) but when a parent wants their kids to get along then (as you can ask any parent) as the Prophets proved this with the time and space to this issue then we must ask what affects the parent more? That my kid missed curfew, didn’t mow the lawn on his day, that he didn’t take the dishes when he ate, that his room is a mess? What bothers the parent more?

The commands and directives that I give to the child directly or that my son was very cruel to his brother and he didn’t take him on his trip that I know that wanted to go on? Or their daughter embarrassed her younger sister at school and was rude to her younger friends? If I hear things like that it bothers me more, why are you behaving that way? What gives a parent considerable Nachas is when they see their children (even as young children) or when they grow older, that is the question. To tell you about personal Nachas, I just saw all of my children and their kids (all 16 of them) who made it in from Israel to come to my daughter’s oldest daughter’s wedding, a very special thanks to Michal and Mordy and all of them, the wedding was March 24th and they all came for 48 hours and they all made it back during everything that’s going on in Israel. Now the couple are already living in Arzei Habira in Jerusalem. It used to take 6 months to go to Israel and now today you can come in and be here right away.”

As I concluded the conversation with Rabbi Schwartz, I asked him, With all of the mass dissemination of negative information that we hear around the world today, how do we protect our kids? He said “it is what it is but we have to give God nachas and happiness. I am not saying Chas VeShalom that means diminishing the importance of connecting to God through His Holy mitzvahs and in prayers (everyone who knows me knows that) but what I do want to say is that if we want to deserve God’s protection at this precarious time, then we need to give Him the nachas of seeing that His kids are getting along. I don’t want to put that burden on one side, it’s a burden that everyone has to feel. Hashem’s children and Abraham’s descendents have to realize that the threat is Iran, not the infighting amongst Israel. If only they had gotten along in Iran and brought the Blessing that Israel brought to the middle east then they all could have received that Blessing and prosperity instead of blaming their problems on Israel. Just think of how different things could be or will be because I know that Israel is going to give Hashem that Nachas and happiness.