Episode 42 - Rabbi G
Rabbi G - Episode 42
No matter what you're facing in your life, you can breathe in the light and blow out the darkness.
Today's episode of Martial Arts Radio is a bit different. You may have noticed that from the title - we haven't had a guest that uses a religious title over a martial arts one. However, today is special. We're joined by Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg who prefers to be called Rabbi G. We've mentioned the organization Kids Kicking Cancer on the show before, but this time we have the founder as our guest. Rabbi G is a martial artist, but he's taken his martial arts training in a very different direction.Rather than attempt to summarize his story, you should just listen. Rabbi G speaks at length about his past and the various occurrences that ultimately led to his founding of the Kids Kicking Cancer organization.[gallery type="slideshow" ids="687,688,689,690,691,692,693,694,695,696"]
Show Notes
whistlekick shiguards-sparring
Book: A Perfect God Created an Imperfect World Perfectly: 30 Life Lessons from Kids Kicking CancerThe Pfizer / Jonas Brothers video that Rabbi G mentionedkidskickingcancer.org - The organization that Rabbi G foundedYou can find Rabbi G on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Rabbi G's Bio
Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg (Rabbi G) holds a First Degree Black Belt in the Korean art of Choi Kwon Do. He first provided a therapeutic martial arts program when he was the Director at Camp Simcha from 1990 to 2002. Having lost his first child to leukemia at 2 years old, Rabbi Goldberg brings his personal experience and sensitivity to dealing with children and families facing life-threatening illness. His commitment to ease the pain of very sick children and his dream of bringing healing through the empowering focus of the martial arts resulted in the creation of the Kids Kicking Cancer organization in June, 1999. RabbiGoldberg was a recipient of the Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leader's Award (2004) and the McCarty Cancer Foundation's Humanitarian of the Year Award (2004). He is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Wayne State University School of Medicine. Rabbi Goldberg received his BA from Yeshiva University, summa cum laude. Ordination and graduate training were also at Yeshiva University.
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below or download here.
Hey there, everyone! It's episode 42 of whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, the only place to hear the best stories from the best martial artists like today's guest, Rabbi G. I'm your host, Jeremy Lesniak and I'm also whistlekick's founder. Here at whistlekick, we make the world's best sparring gear and some great apparel and accessories for traditional martial artists. I'd like to welcome our new listeners and thank all of you, returning fans. If you're not familiar with our products, you should check out everything we offer like our awesome no-twist double-layered shin guards. They're shaped so they stay in place and they're definitely more protective than the other foam guards on the market. You can learn more about our shin guards and all of our other gear and apparel at whistlekick.com. And all of our past podcast episodes, show notes for this one, and a whole bunch more are at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. And while you're on our website, why don't you sign up for our newsletter? We offer exclusive content to subscribers and it's the only place to find out about who's coming up on the show next. So now, onto today's episode.On episode 42, we're joined by Rabbi G. As you can tell from the title, this is not going to be a typical episode. Rabbi G is a martial artist but he's also the founder of the organization we've spoken about several times - Kids Kicking Cancer. What you're in-store for here is as close to the heart of martial arts radio as it really gets - deep, emotional, transformative stories about how the martial arts has impacted the life of Rabbi G and also the people around him including those children. Now, I want to confess that there were times during our conversation that I felt like I was struggling to do my job. Some of these stories are intense and I know that more than a few tears are going to show up because of them. But thankfully, Rabbi G is a pro and he kept the conversation going. I want to publicly acknowledge that and thank him. So with that, Rabbi G, welcome to whistlekick Martial Arts Radio.
Rabbi G:
Thank you. It's a great pleasure to be with you.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And it's a pleasure to have you here and of course, I'm welcoming you with a title that most people would probably not expect to hear in a martial arts circle. So, we're of course gonna get into that but you know, you are a martial artist, certainly, but you're more than that. That's why we have you on to talk today.
Rabbi G:
Well, it's a great pleasure to be here. And the truth of the matter is that Sensei is teacher, Rabbi means teacher. Same words, different language but ultimately, it's all about recognizing the power within to teach.
Jeremy Lesniak:
For sure. And of course, anyone that listens to the show or follows us on social media knows that we've been looking forward to having you on. You are the founder of Kids Kicking Cancer Organization.
Rabbi G:
Correct.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And that we reached out to you, and that's not something we do terribly often - is to reach out to a guest to have them on but I thought that the story and thee purpose behind that organization was worth sharing with people so we're still gonna ask you the same questions. We still wanna find out about who you are as an individual, as a martial artist, and what's taking you on your path. So why don't we get into that to start with? How did you get into the martial arts?
Rabbi G:
Even though I have, today, reached a towering height of about five-seven and a half, I wasn't tall growing up in the Bronx. So that was my first interest in martial arts, simply self-defense, then I actually took a synagogue after a number of years teaching in Los Angeles in the mid-west and felt that every clergymen had to know how to break his or her board. You know, the boards can be an issue in synagogues as well so I went into the martial arts. But the truth of matter is, rabbis, priests, there's extraordinary amount of stress. I was never the type of guy that disciplined myself to play racquetball. I already loved martial arts as a kid so I found an interesting school. Many of your listeners are probably familiar with Taekwondo. Master Choi was a student of the original General Choi who was the one who created Taekwondo.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure.
Rabbi G:
He was his chief trainer when the South Korean Army developed tremendous challenges with his joints - hips, knees, elbows, shoulders - and we designed the Taekwondo to be a little bit more fluid, more rounded, more like a little bit of amalgam of Kung Fu into Taekwondo and that seemed to be a lot healthier on the under-joints. I surround myself with a number of martial artists from all over the world and I can tell you, we're constantly having to wish people well for their hip surgery or their knee replacement or things of that sort. So it really actually seemed to be a good idea. It does not put the type of stress on the joints and the locking out that we find in several of the other styles.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh, that's interesting. So it sounds like there may have been a gap there. You trained a child and then came back to it?
Rabbi G:
Yeah, well...
Jeremy Lesniak:
There's some time between?
Rabbi G:
Yes, there really is. As a child, I was more kind of fooling around and had a few mentors but nothing serious. But then I began two times a week going to the studio located here when I moved to Southfield, Michigan. Went to a Taekwondo school, stayed with them for almost 13 years, found it to be very effective as a tool and it was in the midst of all of this and the prior to leaving Los Angeles, and this really is the odyssey of Kids Kicking Cancer, our oldest daughter, our first child, was diagnosed with Leukemia. It was a week before his first birthday. And our daughter is an amazing little girl, at two years old, had a bone marrow transplant at UCLA. She would tell the docs no medication, please. Until the five-year old's in the clinic, don't cry. Unfortunately, this was 34 years ago, not a time that Leukemia was a very treatable pediatric illness. It certainly is today. Our numbers today are almost 88% of cure from kids with Leukemia. But she was my first teacher in taking the art of being able to face down things in extraordinary manner and I found myself a number of years after she passed away, the director of a summer camp in New York. For those of your listeners who may not be familiar, New York is located very close to United States. And it was at this camp, I was director of this camp, and I came upon a five-year old child having his port accessed in his chest for his chemotherapy and this child was screaming. So today, I'm privileged to also be on the faculty of a medical school as a clinical assistant professor in pediatric so I teach the medicine of this as well. If an adult would scream in the middle of a procedure, usually the docs will stop and figure out a better way to do things. When children scream, they often just hold them down tighter. So I came upon this child and soon, nurses are holding him down and nurses are there and they try to distract him, absolutely nothing is working. And this kid is screaming his head off. And I walked in on the scene, I was a camp director, and it was so counter-intuitive to me, I just yelled, wait! And they all stopped, even the child stopped screaming, and they all looked at me. And frankly, I didn't have a clue what I was gonna say next. And I just asked the nurses, could you give me five minutes for this child? And the nurses were happy to leave and the little boy looked at me like I was the governor, I just stated his execution. And I walked over to this child and I said, you know I'm a black belt which, frankly, you know, doesn't mean that much but to a kid, it's a wow. And I looked at him and I said, do you want me to teach you some Karate? And he almost jumped off the table. I explained to this boy, in the martial arts you learn that pain is a message you do not have to listen to. You can breathe in this amazing chi, this energy, this power, this light, and push out the darkness. And five minutes later, we're doing a simple Tai Chi breathing technique, 20 minutes later, the nurse took out the needle and he looked up at the nurse and he said, did you do it yet? And that's when Kids Kicking Cancer was born. It began with a group of 10 children in Children's Hospital, Michigan as a pilot and that was in 1999. And last year, we sort 2600 children in 4 countries. But the key is the martial arts because the children believed in the power of martial arts. They believe in Karate, whatever they see in television. And they think, you know, you can just punch and everybody falls down. That doesn't really work like that since we're talking to more seasoned martial artists. But they believe in this power and the diagnosis gives them anything but power so we train the children that you are powerful; you're very powerful. And when you breathe in this light and push out the darkness, that's what gives you the ability to take control. We explained to them, the martial arts, if you're distracted or you know, somebody hits you and go ouch and oh my gosh that really hurts, you're finished. That half a second about dwelling on your pain, just makes the differencing potential life and death in a fight. So the ability to continue with the flow no matter what's going on around you, ability to focus and bring in this energy and - Jeremy it doesn't matter if you call it qi, chi, tenaga dalam, prana, neshama, light, spirit - the ability to bring that power in and blow out pain, fear, and anger, is really the essence of martial arts. So we train black belts. We find black belts in the 42 locations, we are across the world, and we train them how to become therapists. We have a written curriculum, we teach people who have lived and breathe martial arts who generally really know this essence of a martial artist. It's not just about kicking and punching and blocking; it's really about being. And that when we do breathe in this chi, we do breathe in this energy, it gives us such an extraordinary power and it gives the children an opportunity to say not only do I want it, I could be that. So every child that we work with becomes a martial artist. We walk around in our gis in hospitals, again, all over the world and it's amazing. But the mantra of Kids Kicking Cancer, when we bow out, there's three words that we say: power, peace, purpose. That no matter what we're facing in our lives, we can breathe in this energy and create this sense of power and push out pain, fear, anger, stress and create a sense of peace. And we have thousands of children with work with, what's your purpose to yell out to teach the world. So every one of our kids becomes a teacher from the get-go. They're all Senseis.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wow. Pardon me, for a second and listeners, pardon me for a second as I bring myself back in and grasp the ability to talk to you more. That was probably the most powerful opening we've had to an episode, yet. And hopefully no one heard it, I had to mute the microphone a couple of times. Certainly, what you're doing is powerful; it's amazing. And I have no doubt of the effectiveness and I doubt anyone listening to this right now is going to doubt that. Because just about everyone listening is a martial artist and we have experienced this cultivation of power, this reclamation of energy and I think that's absolutely fantastic. But I'd like to go back a little bit to that moment when the boy was on the table, when you said wait. And you said you didn't know what you were going to say next. What was it, what do you think it was about you that prompted you to go down your martial arts path? Because you had other paths you could've gone down.
Rabbi G:
The martial arts - and again I have spoken to and been together with some of the great martial artists across the globe - the martial arts, really, is centering and a focus of self. One of my great mentors early on is a Jensen by the name of Harvey Sober. Sifu was an extraordinary martial artist who used martial arts as well-decorated black belts involved in many competitions when he was younger and he was facing various GI ailments, some of which could have killed him. And it just so happened that there was a Chinese doctor in the hospital as he went through surgeries and just was not doing well, who told him, you're a martial artist. And he brought him back to the Chinese aspects of martial arts and focused him on his meditation, diet. He had him sleeping on the floor. He changed that lifestyle within days and within a few days after that, he was throwing high kicks again. So he's really been a mentor to me. Sifu is well-known in the world of... his styles is called Torah Dojo, number of his black belts have volunteered their services for Kids Kicking Cancer especially in Israel. We're working with Jews and Arab kids which is such a beautiful thing to learn about this light together in a part of the world that knows way too much darkness. But the essence of the martial arts is really this light. And I once asked Sifu after I started studying for a number of years, I got into Penchak Silat It's really interesting how this happened. I was doing all of the teaching myself as Kids Kicking Cancer began and I had to leave the country and I needed a substitute. And one of the people was suggested to me was this fellow Jeff Davidson who I had heard was involved in Silat and frankly I knew nothing about Silat before that. I called up Mr. Davidson and I said hi, my name is Rabbi G and we have a therapy using martial arts. He said, where are you? I'm coming right over. I said, what? He said, just tell me where you are right now, I'm coming right over. So he came right over and he said, you have to understand, I just came back from the Philippines with this Guru Basar, his chief Guru in Silat and he's a very trained individual. He's trained Green Beret and he tells me that in his last trip, before he went home, his master told him, he said, Davidson you are too involved in the killing aspect of Silat. Silat can be a very violent, powerful martial arts. So you're too involved in the killing aspect, I want you now to discover the therapeutic aspect, the healing aspect of Silat. So he looks at me and he said, well how am I going to do this? I said, don't worry, it will come to you. And two days later he hears me calling him on the phone saying, we have martial arts as a therapy, can you help us? So he was over there right away. And since Jeff came on and that he's no longer working with us because he had other commitments but we've had probably over 160 martial artists from around the globe learn the therapy and we certify our artists to become martial arts therapists. Being able to work in hospitals, working in clinics, literally changing children from victims to victors. So as we go from one element to another element, I find myself really centered on the spiritual component of the martial arts. So it was so natural for me, having Sifu Sober as a mentor to really intuitively reach into that element. Of course, I personally believe that God puts the right things in your mouth at the right times and it was so transformational. If were to go and talk about spirituality, it's not gonna really get the interest of the children. We come in our black belts and we talk about chi or qi or tenaga dalam or whatever word our therapists are using based on their training. When we talk about the child's energy, well again thanks to Hollywood, they already know it's true. Cause it's quite a universal theme to the point where we started bringing our children to other children to teach them how to breathe in the light and blow out the darkness. And we saw that was so powerful. We did a study with the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta where we're working with children in Brooklyn University Hospital, children with cancer and sickle cell anemia. And sickle cell is a dreadfully painful disease and we had those children teach a group of children who were part of their obesity program how to breathe in the light and blow out the darkness. And we told those kids who're in the overweight program, we said look, these kids have it really tough. If you can actually focus yourself on the martial arts we're going to teach you and lose weight, well can you imagine what you're gonna do for these kids who are facing cancer and sickle cell? Could you do this for them? And the most interesting circle developed. The children with cancer and sickle had less pain cause they're helping the kids who are in the overweight program. The overweight kids, we were told, that in our pilot 20-week study, if we could keep their weight even, would be a win because they're growing taller so the BMI, the body-mass index, is improving.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure.
Rabbi G:
After 20 weeks, the average weight loss of the girls was 16 pounds. Why? Because they wanted to do it for the kids with cancer and sickle cell.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wow.
Rabbi G:
And so we realized, wait a second. If we can create this circle and change people's lives because people want to have a purpose. They really, they want power, peace and purpose. If we can teach other kids how to do this, we can teach adults. We'll just talk slower. So we began to bring our little kids in their gis to companies. We have a whole stress seminar, you know stress kills people. And martial arts, all the martial arts is all about breathing. Breathing is the only part of the autonomic nervous system; that's the part that happens by itself. You can so easily control. So we developed what we refer to as the Breath Brake. We actually trademarked the term, that way if we catch people breathing, they have to help support Kids Kicking Cancer. I get these fights all the time of year, I saw you breathing, I have the 21:19 No, I wasn't breathing. You were breathing. But it's really... Unfortunately that doesn't work. But the Breath Brake does. Every time a person has a stress response, you know, and you could feel it. When you go into the ring and you're going into sparring and all of a sudden you feel that tightness. We need to be loose. Tightness is only at the very last second of impact. You need to create that circle. So that's what martial artists do though, to focus on the breath. Before we do a brake, we bring up that energy with our breath. Every time a person has stress, the body gets tight. Using the breath to relax the muscles in the body actually tells the brain to shut off these stress chemicals, these glucocorticoids, squirting out the adrenal glands. Teaching people how to use the breath to relax your muscles, which we do in our Breath Brake, actually helps people live longer. But when they see the little kids do it, it breaks through stuff like if this kid is focused and they're three years old, wow. I could do this. And of course, kids always get a standing ovation when they teach the adults and the adults go home different because they have this tool. The kids, they're different because it really has been proven to them that they are teaching the world. So we created this circle, it's interesting I did this and you can see it online in YouTube - you put in Pfizer, the drug company, and Kids Kicking Cancer - so the Jonas Brothers actually went and had this filmed for Cambio which was their website years ago. Kevin Jonas told me that when he told the Jonas Brothers about Rabbi G, they thought it was a rapper. So we did this thing for Pfizer and they actually filmed it so you can actually see it online on YouTube, Pfizer and Kids Kicking Cancer. And you see our little kids doing one form but knowing they can breathe in the light and low out the darkness and when the children hit the pad, we only use very soft pads as targets because kids with chemo could have very brittle bones. The children will focus, we explain to them the martial arts; it's so much about imagery. As a martial artist, before you do a break, you see the board or the brick break. If you see your hand breaking, it's not a good sign. But the ability to breathe in that light and to break through something, gives the children an opportunity. So we asked them, what is the target? And the kids will say my darkness. I'll ask the kids, well what's your darkness? And the child will say, that's my cancer, that's my anger, that's my pain, that's my fear of dying. It's amazing what the kids will say, never prompted. Sometimes the kids will say that's my brother but you know, kids will be kids.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Rabbi G:
But the ability to breathe in that light and break through the darkness and we all have this capability even a person who is not a well-trained martial artist can become and accept and integrate the theme of martial arts just by using the breath to bring in this light and then the exhale to relax the muscles and to focus our being. That particular Pfizer event was really cool because three days later I got a call from Pfizer Italy. When I come to Rome to teach the Breath Brake to Pfizer Italy which I was more than happy to do. They offered to put me up at a five-star hotel which I thought until that point that that would be like one step below Motel 6, but it really wasn't. It was really cool. But the coolest thing was at Pfizer in Italy got so behind the program, they introduced Kids Kicking Cancer to Bambino Gesu Hospital which is the Vatican Children's Hospital which I thought was like super, super cool because an Orthodox Rabbi needed permission from the Pope's office to teach an Eastern meditative technique to Vatican children and he gave it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wow.
Rabbi G:
So it's really been a journey but the journey to say to that child right away, Karate... Karate to me has always been, martial arts has really always been, about the essence of breathing in that energy or that light. It's not by coincidence that in Hebrew, the word for a breath is neshema which is the same word as neshama which means soul. No matter who we are, what we are, when we take that moment to breathe in that energy, what's really being engaged is the soul of a person. And again, one could call it qi, chi, tenaga dalam, prana or any other words you want, it really is the soul.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wow. That's so much great stuff in there. And I'm going to encourage people to go back and if not listen to this whole episode again, listen to that chunk especially that piece with, you know, an Orthodox Jew in the Vatican and the Pope and Eastern Philosophy and just so much that, on the surface, would be in opposition at least the way sometimes our modern media might portray it. In here, everything's coming together for the benefit of these children and...
Rabbi G:
Yeah, it's really, Jeremy, it's all martial arts.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Sure.
Rabbi G:
That is the absolute essence of martial arts.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I wholeheartedly agree. Now you've had a chance to travel and you mentioned some names of some wonderful people and I'm sure that there's some quite a long list of others. And I'm wondering if maybe there's a story that you might want to share, maybe your time with one or more of them or something that just jumps out of you.
Rabbi G:
Well we have been blessed. Here in Detroit, our chief martial artist is Richard Plowden who is a very well-known in the Taekwondo world in the worldwide competition, Competition World. He was a five-time world champion, 5th degree black belt, great guy. I actually hired him because he and I look almost identically alike. It's uncanny. People are mistaking us all the time despite the fact that he's 6'5", an African-American, and you know, built like a house but people are always mistaking us for each other. In Boston, we just started a program and I was extraordinarily blessed because our chief martial artist in Boston is Joe Esposito who is Ed Parker's Prime Student, the number one student. I actually said number one because there are probably listeners and different Ed Parker students might... But he certainly was a great protégée and I don't know, really, too many of the other students. But I could tell you that Mr. Parker, in heaven, should be looking down and glowing because Joe is extraordinary in using his martial arts to teach children about light and the light that you see on Joe's face and his wife Cathy who is also a martial artist, equally involved and they got their whole school there involved in Kids Kicking Cancer, just beautiful people. But I have to tell you that to me, it's not about those black belts. We give black belts to children before they pass away because we explain to the children, now here we have a name Kids Kicking Cancer but what happens when the prognosis go south and the chemo's not working anymore? So we give black belts to kids and on the black belts we embroider the child's name on one end, on the other end the words Master Teacher. And we've given black belts in hospital rooms to children in clinics. One of our first black belts was to a young man by the name of Brandon Felsic. Brandon was extraordinary about using his meditation, his breath to stop pain even when the tumor was pushing out against his face. And that week, we were sitting together in a circle, Brandon, his two sisters and his mom, and we're doing a meditation about Brandon's chi, about Brandon's light. And we're all sitting together in this circle and Maureen, Brandon's mom, looks at Brandon and says Brandon, I feel your light. It's gonna be with me forever; don't be afraid. And all of a sudden, I saw Brandon open up his eyes and Brandon looked at mom and got it and his face changed. That Sunday morning, we're supposed to give Brandon Felsic his black belt and he was really at last the part of his life and he couldn't even stand up. So I told Doug who's still a member of our board and very involved in Kids Kicking Cancer, great guy, I told Doug that we'll come to the house and we'll do it in the family room and maybe grandparents could be there. So Doug told Brandon that we're gonna do that and Brandon said no, no, I'm going. We had arranged for a public school down the block on that Sunday morning to open out to give Brandon Felsic his black belt. And this little boy insisted that where he's gonna get his black belt. We walked in there, there were 300 people in the room, in the auditorium. And Brandon was carried in with his daddy, he couldn't stand, and you know, to be supported when he sat. However, when it came time to give Brandon his black belt, Brandon stood up on his feet to get his black belt. And I can't begin to describe to what it felt like when 300 people stood up on their feet to give this heroic little boy that standing ovation.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That... that's a story. Uhm, wow. I'm a little broken up here, trying to work through it. That's powerful. That’s just powerful as anything I've probably ever heard. Clearly, it works. Clearly, you're doing this in the right way. You're giving these kids something to stand up for.
Rabbi G:
The power, this power, is so extraordinary. I can tell you that we had a child in Westchester in a hospital that we're working with. And the first child had a very traumatic brain injury. The first time he stood up was to put on his gi. That martial arts is such an emblem, a symbol of inner power that it really drives people. And you know, I just wrote a book, if I can mention it Jeremy
Jeremy Lesniak:
Please.
Rabbi G:
The book is called A Perfect God Created an Imperfect World Perfectly. It's 30 life lessons from Kids Kicking Cancer. And in the book, at the back of the book, there is a quote. And this quote came about because the Optimist Club made a party, a holiday party, they've been doing it for years now, for Kids Kicking Cancer. So it was December and this was the Optimist Club of Macomb County in Michigan made this beautiful party for us and there really is an optimist club. Like the Lions and the Rotary Club, there's an Optimist Club. I'm sure there's a Pessimist Club also, those were optimists with experience, right? So they make these beautiful party for us and at the end of the party, we have this 11-year old boy, not yet 11, being pushed in his wheelchair to the front of the room by his twin sister, Brittany. And Bernard asked the emcee for the microphone. And in a loud voice, Bernard says hi, my name is Bernard. And everybody stops, a bunch of people in the gym looking at this little boy in the wheelchair. He says, I want to thank you Optimist to make the most, greatest party for us and wonderful presents. And I want to thank Kids Kicking Cancer, you guys are a family. But I want to teach everybody here what they teach us in Kids Kicking Cancer because for us, every child's a teacher. And that is, no matter what you're facing in your life, you can breathe in the light and blow out the darkness. And he proceeds to teach how to do a power breathing, a Breath Brake. He lifts up his body with his breath and he holds it then he lets it all out and he sees his muscles relax. And he looks out again and he says, remember no matter what you're facing in your life, you can breathe in the light and blow out the darkness. And then they gave me the microphone. And this was the boy sitting there, beautiful African-American child with a beautiful smile on his face and I had to take a breath brake because I couldn't talk. You see, every one of us knew that Bernard's mother ran away when he was a baby. His dad died when he was 8 years old. His uncle died when he's 9 years old. And that was the year he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor that was slowly stealing any movement from his body. And that little child is sitting in this wheelchair, holding the microphone with his one good arm and the most beautiful smile and telling everybody there, no matter what you're facing in your life, you can breathe in the light and blow out the darkness. So I looked at this audience and I said to them after I took my own breath brake, I said, I just want you to know that Bernard has defined optimism. But optimism does not mean that everything is going to be great. The definition of optimism is that we can respond to everything with greatness. And that goes on the back of my book, this quote inspired by Bernard Johnson who received his black belt, unfortunately, just a few weeks later. But this is really, to me, what martial arts is all about. It's the realization that every time we fall is an opportunity to get up stronger, more focused, unafraid to accept, to be mindful of our weaknesses but more mindful of the greatness that lies inside of every one of us. And Jeremy, what's really cool about the book, if I could advertise
Jeremy Lesniak:
Please, do. And just so everyone knows, we are going to link to that over on the show notes, whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Those of you that have been around know that we do that but in case there's anybody new listening. Yeah, please.
Rabbi G:
So again, it's available on Amazon.com and all those places but every chapter has some meditation that's attached to it. So there's a QR code by every chapter. And we tell people if you know what a QR code is then here's the web link for it. And if you know what a web link is, you probably have no stress anyway so don't worry about it. But every time somebody listens to meditation, the numbers go up in from of our kids, letting them know that they're inspiring the world. I just signed the publicist two weeks ago so I haven't really publicized the book yet but I do have opportunity to speak a lot even though I left the act of rabbinate, my greatest joy in life, personally, is to hear myself speak so I do a lot of that. The number's almost 11,000 cause these kids really are teaching the world. So every time somebody has an opportunity to take that brake, to breathe in that light and blow out the darkness, it really does make a difference.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wonderful. That book sounds great and I'm gonna have to pick a copy of it myself. Like I said, linked over on the website. So let's move on. I mean, as you've probably figured out our questions are getting a little blurry here and that's perfect, that's great. That's how I love the show to go. So I'd like you to think about somebody other than the children, because I know that that would be the answer to this next question, who would you say has been most influential in your martial arts career?
Rabbi G:
Severely, that does go back to Sifu Sober, the use of energy. I used to bring him up to camp when I ran this camp in New York, at Camp 39:27 and I would give Sifu a break or a hard rock, you know, which is not so challenging to slam and break it. He would hold it in his hands and breathe in. When he breathes out, it pulverized on his hands. It was the most amazing thing to watch - his presence of chi - and he just had such an ability. I was privileged to go with him using chi and seeing how it impacts patients, how it abled to create that sense of warmth, that sense of energy inside of a person. And when I was called to Karmanos, to the bone marrow transplant ward, cause I had given a lecture locally in one of the hospitals, so they had this 11-year-old boy who was lying there, Fred Stringer and I'm turning around in my chair looking at a poster of Fred on the wall and Fred was three weeks post-transplant and he was refusing to get out of bed. Anybody who told him anything, he just totally non-compliant. You know, the kids get poked and just that their whole live's changed. Sometimes their sense of power is to be non-compliant and say no. So Fred, anytime anyone walked into the room, he would close his eyes and just lie down on the bed and make believe you weren't there. So I walked into Fred's room because the doctor called me and said Fred, we sent in PT-OT psychiatrist, psychologist. He's developing pulmonary edema, he's getting fluids in his lungs, it's gonna kill him. And obviously, they can't like pick him up to walk. Could you help? So I came to Fred's room, it was a glass panel in Karmanos. I could looked inside and Fred's propped up watching TV. So I open up the door and he looks, closes his eyes, slinks back into bed, and I walked over to his bed and I said Fred, my name is Rabbi G. I'm a black belt. I want to teach you some Karate because your doctors are cool but you can learn your own power to help you get out of here, faster. I must have piqued his curiosity so he opened up his eyes and he saw a short balding funny-looking guy there with a skullcap on, like he probably thought he was having a nightmare, he closed his eyes again. And I just leaned over and I rubbed my hands together and put them near Fred's face. And I have this picture sitting here in my room with Fred, his face turned towards me and his eyes closed. And I said to him Fred, all I want you to do is feel this chi, this energy. It's really your power. I want you to tell me when you feel this energy. And maybe 30 seconds, 40 seconds passed and Fred said, warm. Then he said, hot. Then he said, hotter. I said Fred, this is your power. We're gonna push this through your body. Right now you're tired but you'll see this after and you're gonna feel this energy, you're gonna feel this chi. They called me back from the nurses' station the next morning, would you come back? Fred walked yesterday. And Fred became an active member of our program. And when he had to have his hip replaced, not because of too many years of martial arts, but because of all the radiation that he went through, he could do it 150 percent better with his martial arts, when his Sensei was with him. And so Fred started doing the Jackson moon dance at our event and he's gone off to college. But when I saw it from Sober, what I've seen from great martial artists across the world and what I see from the children, it's really all the same - that we can reach in and find this energy. Martial arts gives people the ability to know it's there and sure there are all different forms and all different styles and you know, it works itself out doing 43:51 etcetera. But the process of finding that energy is the clearest. So my mentor, Sober, when I was talking about Silat, so I asked him what he thought about it. We were driving and he glanced at me and he said, Elimelech, I want you to know: go to wedding and there's chicken, rice, and peas. Now there are 200 ways to serve chicken, rice and peas but it all boils down to its essence. And what I learned from Sifu is this really is the essence of the martial arts.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah. One of the sayings that I'm prone to offering quite often is that if you breakdown the words martial arts, the noun is really art.
Rabbi G:
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That it's so much more than the combative and of course most of us know that but as martial arts changes and shifts around and takes on some modern interpretations, sometimes that art piece is getting lost and so I think it's absolutely fantastic that you're focusing on the art aspect, the breath, the energy.
Rabbi G:
I like that analogy of the spelling of the word and one of the chapters in my book, I used this metaphor to teach people how to live together as husband and wife. And the name of the chapter is Martial Arts, Marital Arts: The Only difference Is Where You Put The I.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's wonderful. I love that. So obviously we know a lot about a section of your relationship to the martial arts. But I want to try and fill out a little bit more of what we know of you. Are you interested in martial arts movies, at all? Are you a movie guy?
Rabbi G:
I'm really not a big movie fan. We don't have a television in our house. And I rarely go to the set. But we have been involved in Hollywood. A number of Hollywood people have taken on our cause. And we don't have a PR person, at least until I just signed two weeks ago for publicity. But we have been mentioned as and honored as heroes in People Magazine and CNN last year, we were one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes. So I travel in this world of Hollywood a lot. One of my dear friends, he's mentioned frequently in the book, he's Gerard Butler who himself, he's quite a powerful guy and he's been studying martial arts and a lot of Hollywood today. Gerry's been very involved in a program Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Jessica Biel, Demi Moore, Miley Cyrus, they've all done stuff for the kids. But I've seen that and I've been invited to several of the sets and I could see that not only, if you're ever seen a movie being filmed, it's frankly the most boring thing in the world. But at the same time, sitting on the side, as very often, the martial arts trainer of the stars. Because many of the stars like to do their own moves or even preliminary to the moves, how to be set-up in a certain way, so they'll have their trainers there. So martial arts, really, is every big in the world of Hollywood. Jackie Chan who I only know indirectly, never met him personally, but he does all his own moves in the movies. So if I were to enjoy a movie, Ip Man and things like that in the world of, you know, Tai Chi and Kung Fu and the inter-space between them would draw my greatest attention. If I did that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Certainly. I'm guessing you're more of a reader, then?
Rabbi G:
That...
Jeremy Lesniak:
You're an author, you're probably a big literary fan?
Rabbi G:
Absolutely. But I find my book so hard to put down I just... No, I'm just joking.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How about any martial arts-themed books that you may have drawn some inspirations from over the years?
Rabbi G:
I have to admit to you that I've rarely had time to read fiction or even the non-fiction world of martial arts. So I'd disappoint you in that regard. I do feel that what we're doing and being surrounded by martial artists is really been an honor for us. Our guy in California runs our program, Bruce Rush. Dr. Rush is a psychologist who is also a decorative black belt and his PhD thesis was Zen and the therapeutic relationship. That book took my attention and we took his because he was involved as a martial artist and he teaches Dawn Barnes Karate School. I don't know if you're familiar with Dawn Barnes but she probably teaches more kids than anybody else in the planet. She has a whole string of martial arts schools, mostly in California, but a great lady and one of the first people in our board. So he was teaching for Dawn and heard about Kids Kicking Cancer so every Sunday in Santa Monica, Dawn Barnes Karate School, we have the Kids Kicking Cancer program. Not to mention at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. And now we just started last month at Children's Hospital of Orange Country. So I must admit Jeremy that I am not your average interviewee because what propels me is really the inner essence theme of martial arts. The fact that, you know, kicking and punching, I still love, I still enjoy just because it's great health and it centers us and the meditation is, clearly, still part of my repertoire. I should workout more since I'm surrounded in my office with all these great black belts. But the bottom line is, the children believe in the martial arts. And we live off of martial artists giving up their time learning how to do what we do. We do hire a number of martial artists but most of the people, almost everyone starts as a volunteer and most remain volunteers because one or two people in a region are the people that we hire. And then we're able to be effective because when volunteers start working with the kids, they realize that much more than we give the children they give us. And it really rounds off a particular element of being a martial artist when you can transfer that energy to a child. And when that child lights up with that energy on their face, there's no greater reward as a martial artist than anyone could experience.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Wow. I agree. So if people wanted to help, if they wanted to get involved and certified to teach or make a donation or any of those things, how could they learn more?
Rabbi G:
So we have a website called kidskickingcancer.org. They could contact us, we're always looking for martial artists as therapists and can work in quite a few places. We want to grow every place. We do have a strategy, we call it our TOSS Strategy where we TOSS out a program, it's not just to bring a person into the hospital but it's teach, observe, supervise, and support, like acronyms. And we get the right group of people in a committee then we grow the committee and I've been so privileged to work with some great martial artists and not just the children but the Senseis for allowing the children to become teachers is really exquisite. So we certainly, definitely live on donations. We always pray for those to come in as well. It's not expensive, what we do, but even though we reach about 2600 children a year, there are tens of thousands of children that are needlessly in pain and now we have a Hero Circle Program for kids with all types of pain, well beyond cancer. But there's so many kids needlessly in pain and we're not going to rest until we get enough martial artists from all over the globe to let every child know that he or she is a teacher. And so no child should leave this world without knowing that he or she had a purpose in his or her life. And when we write the words Master Teacher on the black belt for that child, there's no doubt that that child's been a teacher. But the good news, Jeremy, is the vast majority of our kids do great. They heal. They do great. And so sometimes, the greatest fear of martial artists is okay, you know, I could spar of take on somebody with a knife on the street. I'm not sure I could take care of a child who's dying. And the truth of matter is, rarely, of course we'll never throw anybody new into that experience, it has to be totally voluntary when we get to that point, but most of the time, about 85% of our time is dealing with children who actually feel better, heal better, and become better because they become teachers, because of the beauty and the gift of martial arts. So anyone who has lived martial arts, who enjoys martial arts as martial arts as their hobby or their vocation or their essence, can really turn that into something that becomes therapy for a lot of kids. And until we reach every single child in pain, we haven't fully done our job.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's quite a daunting goal but one that I'm hoping many of our listeners will be willing to step up and help a bit. Of course you and I will talk a bit after the episode and I've got some things that I’d like to volunteer of myself. But we always end on the same note. What advice do you have for the people listening?
Rabbi G:
I believe that the three words - power, peace, purpose - is the same for a child at five years old in the hospital as for an adult who's 55 years old or 65 or 75 years old who is just going through life. Unless you stop to bring in that power that surrounds us, unless you can focus on that inner peace and the beauty of the moment that you're in, you'll never really live your purpose. But if you can bring in that power, create that peace, you'll be surprised. You don't require a whole dojo to be a teacher because your kids are watching you and your spouse, your boss, your clients, your customers, you patients, it doesn't matter who, people are watching. And when we go through what sometimes is described as the darkness and knowing that as martial artists we can break through the darkness, and that's what our children teach every single day, and bring in the light. When you bring in that light through darkness, that really is the essence of being a martial artist. And then the people around you are learning from you; you become a teacher. And Sensei, Rabbi, it doesn't matter what word you use, there's no greater purpose in life than teaching others.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Thanks for listening to episode 42 of whistlekick Martial Arts Radio and thank you to Rabbi G. Head on over to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com for the show notes with links to everything we've talked about including all of the Kids Kicking Cancer links. This is an organization that we’re sporting and we hope that some of you will be willing to do the same. There’s talk of doing more in the future and we'll definitely keep you informed than that happens. If you want to be a guest on the show or you know someone who'd be a great interview, please fill out the guest form at our website and don't forget to subscribe to our exclusive newsletter so you can stay up on everything we do. If you want to follow us on social media, we're on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, all with the username whistlekick. If you like the show, please subscribe or download one of apps so you never miss out in the future. And if we could trouble you to leave us a five-star review wherever you download your podcast, we'd appreciate it. Remember, if we read your review on the air, just contact us and we'll get you a free pack of whistlekick stuff. And don't forget to share this show with your martial arts friends. Remember the great stuff we make here at whistlekick like our shin guards, available over at whistlekick.com. So until next time. Train hard, smile, and have a great day.