Mr. Webb: 0:00

What can we learn from children's books that are designed not just to entertain but to nourish the soul and inspire spiritual growth? How does one go from being a Harvard graduate to writing 41 spiritually uplifting picture books? And how important is being grateful to living a full life? Welcome to The Conservative Classroom, where we're teaching the truth and preserving our values. I'm your host, Mr. Webb, and I'm glad you're here. This podcast is a haven for conservative educators, parents and patriots like you, who believe in the importance of free speech, traditional values and education without indoctrination. Each week, we dive into issues that are plaguing our education system and keeping you up at night. In each episode, we offer common sense ideas to improve education in our classrooms and communities. You may feel like you're the last conservative educator or parent, but I want you to know that you are not alone. By the way, if you like what you hear today, please share this podcast with a like-minded educator, parent, or patriot. Together, we can teach the truth and preserve our values.

Mr. Webb: 1:23

In today's episode, you'll hear from a Harvard graduate and author who is currently living in Israel. She'll tell us what living in Israel is like during the Hamas attacks, as well as her liberal upbringing, her journey to the bright side and her 41 children's books. Now let's get started. Today, I'm excited to welcome a special guest to the conservative classroom Bracha Goetz. Bracha is a Harvard graduate and author. She's written 41 children's books and a memoir for adults about her journey. She's speaking to us from Israel today. Bracha, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you.

Bracha Goetz: 2:03

I'm really happy to be here.

Mr. Webb: 2:06

Before we get into your background, it's interesting to me that you're talking to me from Israel, because there's a war going on there, as you know. Can you speak to that before we get started? Tell us what it's like there? What's the feeling of the people?

Bracha Goetz: 2:23

Yes, yes, I never experienced war before, so this is the first time in my life. I had no idea. When I woke up that Sabbath morning, it was also the holiday of Simchat Torah and I had no idea what those, what the noises, were that I was hearing. I'd never really heard air raid sirens I mean maybe practice things in my childhood but this was so strange and it didn't stop. I couldn't figure out what was going on. I thought at first. I thought it was an ambulance that got stuck. The siren was stuck. I had no idea what was happening. My husband was in synagogue. In the synagogue the safe room is designed for 30 people and because it was the holiday, there were way over 100 people and they all had to squish into the tiny room. And here my apartment does not have a safe room. I just went into the bathroom when I realized I better get some place because the bathroom that I have has no windows. So I was just alone in there and it kept going. The sirens just kept going and we were in lockdown for, I guess, about two weeks here. We didn't leave.

Bracha Goetz: 3:56

We've had a number of terrorist infiltrations into the town that I'm living in. In other words, we live within a fence and we live in the Judea Samaria area, so we are surrounded by actually hostile Arab towns that are using the opportunity to infiltrate. They actually have stolen uniforms and they come in in disguise and try to. That's how they try to get in here and planting bombs, and so we have a significant army presence here now and police officers, and now just this week the citizens have been armed. A citizens patrol was started and they gave out arms because we're living in a dangerous place and my grandchildren were on the street when a, a a missus came in and a missile fell and they were traumatized from this. They did not get hurt. They got into a bomb shelter just in time, but still all the smoke when they came out and all the everything that was shattered, all the stores on the street. So they were very disturbed from this.

Bracha Goetz: 5:27

I have four little grandchildren here and, and just last week I was outside when missiles fell. That was the first time I was ever outside when this was happening. There were no air raid sirens, because it did. Usually. It did not fall on our street, it fell into the valley, so we were just outside with the explosions and what's interesting is that we didn't move. You know we were frozen. Nobody jumped to the ground. It's really interesting. A person never knows how they're going to react till it happens. You know so. So this is basically how we're living right now.

Mr. Webb: 6:09

I can't even imagine. Thank you so much for sharing that with us, and I know there's there's a whole country over here praying for Israel.

Bracha Goetz: 6:22

Thank you, thank you. We need every single prayer. It's so important. We appreciate it so deeply.

Mr. Webb: 6:31

And is there? Is there any message you would like to send in? My podcast is premier or my audience is primarily teachers and parents, mostly conservative leaning, and I think most conservatives you know support Israel than the other side there. There are some that that don't. I think they're misinformed, honestly, but do you have a message that you'd like to tell the teachers and parents listening?

Bracha Goetz: 7:06

I want to say that I listened to a previous podcast that you had. Actually, I didn't finish listening to it. I keep going over it because it's so fantastic. I listened to Carolina Simon that you had on. She was so informative. I learned so much from her too. There is so much miseducation out there. She is an outstanding expert. I hope she continues speaking all over, because we all need to be educated by people like her. She has an amazing wealth of knowledge and the misinformation is so widespread.

Bracha Goetz: 7:48

You know, all we have this is the only Jewish country, and it's so sad when we see all the protests happening around the world.

Bracha Goetz: 7:59

There's a book I don't know the title is something like people love dead Jews, you know. I mean like when, when the attacks happened here, we had sympathy mostly around the world, but as soon as we started to really attack back at Gaza and Hamas attack back at Hamas for what they are doing with their violence and their sadistic violence to try to put a stop to it, then the sympathy ended and there's such a lack of understanding that Hamas is using human shields and the Jewish people do not want to be harming any innocent people. We don't want to be harming babies and children and elderly people. We really only want to be harming the terrorists, but they use innocent people as human shields on purpose. They want that kind of news. They want the world's sympathy in order to go against the Jewish people here. It's so sadistic and you could almost flame the news for giving in to what they're trying to create by building their weapons under the playgrounds and the schools and the mosques and the hospitals. It's so vile that we can't even imagine doing such things.

Mr. Webb: 9:45

It's a shame that they use innocent people as human shields. The title of the episode that you were talking about with Caroline Simon was the beginning of that title was "alling Evil, Evil. That's really what it is it is evil.

Bracha Goetz: 10:06

As she explains, we've learned not to talk about evil. That's what the education system is about. I studied at Harvard. I was brought up in a very liberal household. Somebody asked me online. It was really funny. They asked me online was Harvard as radical when you went to it? My answer was I really can't answer that because I was radical too then. That's the kind of school I wanted to be in at that time and it made me even more radical.

Bracha Goetz: 10:45

I went through a huge transformation in my life. I believed all those people. I would have been right out there with the pro-Palestinian protest. Now I was just saying that to my husband. We both would have been there had we not learned about our ancient wisdom, had we not come to value our heritage. We became religious as young adults and this was not how we were brought up. I didn't even understand why it was important to perpetuate Judaism. I was not into doing that. I was running away from my own heritage. It's a whole new perspective that I have, but it gives me an appreciation for what the other side is saying. I've been there and done that already.

Mr. Webb: 11:42

That's a perfect segue into the way I usually start these interviews. Can you tell us a little about yourself, your background and, in your case, what led you to writing children's books?

Bracha Goetz: 12:00

Yes, it started when I read the Diary of Anne Frank. I started writing then and encouraged me to write. That book had a very big effect on my life. I kept thinking. Actually, it gave me my first appreciation of Judaism why would the Jewish people singled out? Why would they singled out on the Holocaust? Why did Hitler want to erase the Jewish people? Why now too? Why does evil concentrate on erasing the Jewish people? What is it that they're trying to erase? That's it. That's what evil does. It tries to erase light, the pureness that we want to spread in the world, the ethics, the morality. That's where it came from. That's what Christianity is based on, the Judeoethics. Islam is based on it too. But things are getting really hijacked now. Originally, that's where it came from.

Bracha Goetz: 13:18

My memoir is based on the writing that I started at age 12, which was my diary entries. I took my diary entries and then they became journals as I got older, went to Harvard, and then the letters that I wrote after that, when the transformation started, then I filled in the missing pieces. So my memoir covers 20 years, from age 12 to 32. It's my process of actually developing food addictions and then overcoming them, because I see the food addictions as a symptom of. I had a starving soul. My starving soul was searching for spiritual nourishment and I did not know what was missing in my life until I finally found it in my own heritage. That's the story of my book, which is called Nourish the Soul. The subtitle is Filling the Emptiness Within, because I was trying to fill it with addictions. This is how people fill that emptiness with addictions, with social justice, with relationships, experimenting with all kinds of things. This is how I was trying to fill it. In fact, I feel nowadays the social justice movements have become a substitution for religion and morality. This is their morality fighting there they feel they're fighting for social justice in the world, with very little education and just repeating the same lines that they're being fed and not exploring deeply, which is what I did, because I actually went to Harvard, because I was searching for ultimate wisdom and I didn't find it there. I actually got sicker and sicker in my addictions while I was there, because the desperation became even stronger. While there I knew Bill Gates, the Kennedys, rockefellers, moynihans. I knew I got to meet all these really famous people. Bill Gates was not famous at the time, but these were the children, the rest of the powerful and famous people. Getting to the top and seeing there's really nothing up there was a huge gift in my life because I got to know that that's an illusion the wealth, the power, the prestige but I didn't know what does fill the soul. I was still lost in that way.

Bracha Goetz: 16:04

Luckily, after graduating from Harvard, I went on to medical school. I wanted to become a psychiatrist. By then, the addictions which are hidden nobody knows what you're going through were getting worse and worse. I had a six-week break between my first and second year of medical school. I went to Israel for six weeks and I did not come back. I began to learn about my heritage. I came back 10 years later with my husband and a whole bunch of children. Then we lived in America for 30 odd years. Now we're returning to live in Israel, my husband and I, my children have grown and they all have families. Now we're coming back to where we first met and first got married.

Bracha Goetz: 17:00

Why I'm writing children's books is because I wanted to give children the books I wished I had as a child. These are the books that teach children early on in life how to have a happy life. What are the happiness skills that you truly need in order that will fill your soul and help your soul to shine. I teach guidelines for living a moral life. I also teach other. Like my background.

Bracha Goetz: 17:36

I was pre-med, so I love public health. I studied at Harvard Medical School and the Graduate School of Public Health as an undergraduate. I have books also about fighting abuse, protecting children from abuse, swimming safely, eating healthy Because all of this too, if a healthy body is also so important for someone's soul to be able to shine, then I have books like Explaining About Spirituality to Very Young Children, like the Invisible Book, where we recognize that there are invisible things like gravity, time, feelings, thoughts. We accept all of that because we see their effects. The same thing with our souls and God. These are just because we can see God. We can see our souls. These spiritual forces are just as strong and we can see their effects in our life, just like invisible gravity, invisible time. I'm making it more real to very young children and, thank God, the books are very popular in hundreds of thousands of homes and this is how I'm making an impact to help to spread joy, which is so needed in our world.

Mr. Webb: 19:04

Your story makes me think of. One of my favorite quotes is from Zig Ziglar, and it's "appiness isn't pleasure, happiness is victory.

Bracha Goetz: 19:16

Wow.

Mr. Webb: 19:18

And to me that speaks to folks that are going through addictions, because sometimes I don't know if this was your experience, but sometimes addictions are brought on by seeking that pleasure in life and happiness isn't pleasure, happiness is victory. In that case, it's when you overcome those addictions. And then the other thing is when you were talking about all the folks at Harvard and how you went to Harvard in search for I think you said in search for wisdom, and that made me think of a great question and I know you'll have great insight to this what's the difference between knowledge and wisdom? Yes, I'm sure you got a lot of knowledge at Harvard.

Bracha Goetz: 20:06

Yes, exactly, and I heard a quote thinking of quotes that we are drowning in knowledge but we're starving for wisdom. Oh, that's great.

Bracha Goetz: 20:19

There's so much knowledge, how do we know what to listen to? We really have to attune our brains to understand what works and I got tons of knowledge there at Harvard Absolutely, but I kept searching more and more desperately for true wisdom, what would fill my hungry soul? And it's a genuine hunger that we have. So what? Why do we have addictions? Like you said, we are looking for lasting pleasure. God made this world full of pleasures for us to enjoy Natural pleasures, all the natural foods being in nature, music, movement. These are all natural pleasures we could have had like a tasteless pill to eat every day, or we didn't even need any food at all. It's all really designed. All the natural foods are designed for art. It's an amazing pleasure to experience them. Like I love to give the example of an orange, an orange, like all the food, are green. They're camouflaged in with the leaves until they are ready for us, and then they become bright and beautiful. They become their most vivid colors when they're ready for us. They're called, we're ready, they're beautiful, they're beautiful.

Bracha Goetz: 21:52

They smell beautiful, yeah, and then you know, it's kept. All the sweet juiciness is kept in it's individually packaged with this amazing wrapper of the peel of the orange. When we peel it, we experience the sweet juiciness, and then we get to the end and we're left with the seeds, the seeds of eternity. The seeds have become an infinite amount of trees, an infinite amount of more oranges. You know, we compare that with, like an orange flavored, tangy tapi, where even the wrapper pollutes the environment. You know, when God makes things, it's with infinite intelligence, infinite wisdom. So that's the kind of wisdom that we're looking for, to have that sense of wonder about life.

Bracha Goetz: 22:52

When the low, what I learned about is something which transformed my life, was the pleasure ladder. Speaking of pleasure, the pleasure ladder has five rungs on it, which I believe it corresponds to our five fingers, to show us that we can bring real pleasure into our lives at any moment. We have that ability, and the reason why people have addictions is they feel they have a scarcity of pleasure in life. They don't trust the world, they don't trust themselves, they don't feel it's a good world with ultimate goodness in mind, and so they feel there's a scarcity of pleasure. And so a person will just keep stuffing their faces for that immediate pleasure to keep lasting. It's so temporary and in order to get it lasting, that's why people overdo, they get stuck at their addictions with a sense of scarcity when we recognize there's an abundance of pleasure in this world.

Bracha Goetz: 23:58

That's how the Almighty made this world for us to live within it in gratitude. That's the entire concept. That I definitely didn't learn at Harvard and I was never taught until I began to learn about the ancient wisdom in my own heritage that we are here on earth to experience gratitude. That's what God made us for, to have a relationship and to recognize that we are receiving every moment and to all we have to give back really is gratitude, enjoy and appreciate all that we have. So the lowest level of pleasure on this pleasure ladder are all the natural physical pleasures in this world that were designed for us to experience with gratitude, and that there's four more levels, which is? Do you want me to explain what the other?

Mr. Webb: 24:56

four levels are yeah, that would be great. Okay, thank you.

Bracha Goetz: 25:00

Thank. The next one up is love. Now, love, you would think it's. How could that be empowering? It's dependent on someone else. But really the Jewish definition is focusing on the virtues of another. What do we appreciate about someone else? That's love. And a person could do that in prison. A person in solitary confinement could focus on a grandmother that once did a kindness for them and they could be inspired to become better. It's that warm emotional feeling when we focus on someone else's virtues. Again, it's a connection now, not to a natural thing, to another.

Bracha Goetz: 25:41

Building that connection Cause in addiction or anxiety or depression, we feel a lack of connection. So this is building that connection in gratitude. And then the next level up is meaning doing something meaningful in the world. So I was on another show and the person said that the host said he was eating pizza all by himself. He had two slices of pizza and he was about to plow through the whole box of pizza and there's a knock on his door. His neighbor needs his help for two minutes. When he comes back in he doesn't want the pizza anymore. What happened? He just filled up in gratitude that he could help someone else did something meaningful. So that's an even greater connection, a more lasting pleasure up the ladder and, what's even higher, than doing something meaningful.

Bracha Goetz: 26:43

This is surprising. It's creativity. It's when we put a unique part of ourselves into the world. When we're in the creative zone, doing something good and positive in the world, we don't feel like eating or sleeping and time it's like beyond time. We're on a very great high. When we're putting that unique part of ourselves that the Almighty made us unique, each one into the world. It's a tremendous pleasure and we're giving back in gratitude. And the highest level of all is called transcendence. It's unity. It's when we see that we're really all connected. We don't have these divisions between us. We see what we all have in common. It's like when the veils of separation lived and we can feel connected. Like all the vegetation is giving us the oxygen that we need and we're giving it the carbon dioxide we need. Like this whole world was made to work in synergy like that. But we were put in this amazing garden. But we forget this. We don't appreciate the abundance of gifts that we all have in our lives already, every single moment.

Mr. Webb: 28:11

You are a very motivating person to talk to. I'm sure you've been told that before.

Bracha Goetz: 28:17

Thank you.

Mr. Webb: 28:19

You should start your own podcast. You don't already have one?

Bracha Goetz: 28:24

Thank you. I'm so busy doing what I love all day, which is such a joy and mainly helping children, because then they don't have to play catch-up like the rest of us. If you know these skills early on in life, how to live a grateful life what a different life it is.

Mr. Webb: 28:46

That correct me if I'm wrong. Your memoir is Nourish the Soul.

Bracha Goetz: 28:50

Yeah.

Mr. Webb: 28:51

And just in talking to you I feel like that's a great title and I'm sure it's very motivating to see your story. Did I see I could be wrong on this? It seems like what was the first title of what was the original title of Nourish the Soul.

Bracha Goetz: 29:10

Yes, it was exactly right. It was called Searching for God in the Garbage.

Mr. Webb: 29:15

Yes, I couldn't remember exactly. But yeah, talk about that and how that morphed from that to Nourish the Soul.

Bracha Goetz: 29:25

Yes, it was a very provocative title, but I felt it was a bit too negative so I wanted to change it. Years, what happened is the public, we finally got the rights to publish it back from the original publisher. So now my children are publishing it, and we changed the title. When we did that, because through the years of speaking about it and it's been a really successful book I wanted to. I see it in a whole different light now. So I was focusing then on the negative aspect. I was searching for God in the garbage. You know that's really what was happening Searching everywhere through all kinds of garbage, literally and metaphorically, in order to nourish my soul. But now I wanted to focus on the Nourish the Soul part. So that's the emphasis of the new title.

Mr. Webb: 30:22

Yeah, Do you feel like you're overcoming addictions, as you were talking about, and your personal struggles and how you were raised versus, I guess, when the light bulb came on? How does that come through in your children's books, do you think?

Bracha Goetz: 30:46

Yes, because I feel there's a lot of unnecessary pain that people go through in life. You know, like you were saying, painful things happen. There are challenges and they're all ultimately for our benefit as we overcome them, as we climb the mountain, as we give birth. Those are painful. We go through pain in order to achieve things. Sometimes, definitely, but there's unnecessary pain Pain. I didn't have to go through really the addictions, the disorders, the lack of morality that I lived with. It really wasn't necessary. So this is what motivates me to create the books for children. They don't have to go through that unnecessary pain that I went through and if you live a joyful life in the beginning, you can accomplish so much more in life, you can spread so much more love and joy, and it just decreases a tremendous amount of suffering. Today there's kind of an entitlement epidemic that's breeded amongst children, where children are taught to think they're entitled to this and that and it also creates a lot of materialism. But none of that breeds lasting joy in life. Lasting joy comes from developing gratitude skills early on in life, and one of my newest books has a very funny title. It's called Don't Read this Book, this book.

Bracha Goetz: 32:37

It took me 30 years to write why I did not have the ending for the book. I didn't have the last piece of wisdom that I finally found last year. So I had the title. I had most of the book written for years, but I knew it wasn't finished until I recognized this.

Bracha Goetz: 32:58

The book is written by that voice in our heads. Everybody's got the voice. It's the voice, it's the self-destructive voice that's telling you oh yeah, you have this, but you're lacking that, so you're missing this. It gets you to focus on what you're lacking. What you're missing. It's trying to get you to be miserable all day long. This is and here's what I figured out. I mean this is the ending. That voice, it's like a dumbbell. It's like the weights that we're lifting off and pushing off of us. We grow our gratitude skills by pushing off that voice, and the amazing thing that I came to learn is that voice is put inside of all of us, by the Almighty as well. It's for our benefit. That voice really doesn't want you to listen to it. It really wants you to push it off. It wants you. And when you push it off, each time you do, you grow your gratitude muscles, because if you go down a road that nobody's traveled on before. It's a very rocky, gravelly road. It's hard to go on, but once you've been on that road before, it gets easier and easier. It's hard at first to build your gratitude muscles. It's a lot of weight to push off because you're in the habit of listening to that negative voice.

Bracha Goetz: 34:33

When you begin pushing it off and you recognize it, awareness is so much of the battle. When you recognize oh my gosh, it's you trying to get me miserable? When you recognize that, then you push it off. It goes away easily the minute you recognize that. And then that's how you create the neural pathways too, like in the back of your brain, the lower brainstem and actually the top of your brainstem, but the lower part of your brain is the part of you that they fight or flight reaction. You're very scared. So you got to keep eating or you got to keep doing this addiction or that addiction or buying stuff in order to feel that immediate pleasure and get rid of that fear of scarcity. Get rid of that fear of scarcity. I got to keep stuffing my face.

Bracha Goetz: 35:31

So what happens is when you recognize there's an abundance and then the neurons go up to the prefrontal cortex, the front of your brain and they go. Oh, my goodness, I can be grateful for this. I could be grateful for that. I couldn't be grateful for this orange. I could be grateful for this person. I could be grateful that I can be giving in the world, that I can create things that we're put in this amazing garden. All together, we have so much infinite amount of things to be grateful for, and that changes the entire perspective. So this is how, once we get used to doing that, we build the gratitude muscles and the neurons and the nerves keep firing. It wires our brain to become grateful people. This is how we transform ourselves into joyful people that can accomplish so much more in this world.

Mr. Webb: 36:29

And tell us how you came up with that title, because that's very intriguing. Don't read this book.

Bracha Goetz: 36:36

Because it's that boys doesn't want you to read the book. It doesn't want you to learn its tricks. Here I'll start the book. Don't read this book. You can still close it fast or soon. You may know way too much. You're still reading. Oh no, this book should be more. Do not touch, you won't put it down. Please. Just don't turn the page. My secrets will be out. Uh oh, and if you read this entire book, you may learn to get rid of me. No, deke, you're here and you see the next words that hurt me so much. It's a shame. It says right here when you do something wrong, that it's really me who's to blame. All I do is whisper, though I whisper all day in your head, but it's not my fault if you do what I say. You could choose to do something else instead. You got me now One secrets out. I'm a really big sneak. You don't see me, I make no sound, but you still hear me speak. Okay, that's the beginning of the book.

Mr. Webb: 38:11

So is there a theme in your? Was it 41? Is that correct? The 41 children's books?

Bracha Goetz: 38:17

Yeah, actually a new book came out this week, so there's 42 children's books Ah 42.

Bracha Goetz: 38:22

Awesome, yeah, and my one book for adults. The theme of all the books, what they all have in common, is they all help children's souls to shine, and whether that's being physically healthy or whether it's spiritually healthy, it's both. We have to nourish our hungry souls and that's what all the books are about. Like I have books about let's appreciate everyone helping children that are not so neurodiverse to interact and be more inclusive of children with disabilities.

Bracha Goetz: 39:02

Basic guidelines that nobody's ever explained, you know, like when you meet someone in a wheelchair, sit down next to them so you're on the same level. And basic guidelines like when children see other children with visible disabilities, they tend to stare and that's totally normal because they're curious. But if they add another five-letter word like stare, that also begins with an S and that word is smile. If they add their smile, that builds a connection between you, who's staring, and the child who's being stared at. It builds a bridge of connection. So it's teaching children many different ways so they can learn how to interact more effectively with children who would have disabilities, who are usually the loneliest children.

Mr. Webb: 40:01

Yeah, and you said a few minutes ago that you're writing the books that you wished you had as a child.

Bracha Goetz: 40:08

Yes.

Mr. Webb: 40:10

So what do you mean exactly by that? Are you talking about the nourishing of the soul, or is there something specific that you'd like to get across to the listeners?

Bracha Goetz: 40:20

Yes, I didn't know I was a soul. I didn't know that my essence was spiritual. I didn't know. That's the real you. That is who you really are. The body is a covering for the soul, but we are souls placed in this physical world for a very limited amount of time to do as much good as we can and to experience this world in grateful joy. The whole purpose that we were made. What I learned this is from ancient mystical wisdom is that God couldn't do anything. But God made an illusion of retracting retracting in order to make the space for another. And by making the space for another, god can have a relationship with us. And what's our part of the relationship? To experience this world in gratitude. So that's when I'm teaching in all my books. My books are when is God? My books are I Want to Be Famous. I Want to Be Famous.

Bracha Goetz: 41:32

Is this boy? Like so many children? He wants to be famous and he gets famous the way anybody could nowadays. In a YouTube video he's doing something ridiculous. He becomes famous overnight. He loves it, he's having a blast, and then somebody else could do it even better than him. He's not famous anymore. Then he realizes within us is a spotlight. We don't have to go after that spotlight from outside to get that outside validation. We got to nurture that spotlight within us and get it shining. That's what life is about nourishing that beautiful, unique soul that each of us has.

Mr. Webb: 42:21

I can't wait to check out some of these books.

Bracha Goetz: 42:27

Oh, and also people on my website. My children designed my website. It's so beautiful and people can download a free copy of the pleasure letter chart that I was describing with the five levels and they can put that chart on their cabinets or their refrigerator to remind them. There are so many ways to bring pleasure into your life at any moment Really deep, lasting pleasure, because I didn't say this before that the price to pay to climb the pleasure ladder is just one thing. That price is gratitude. That is all we need to pay to climb the ladder that really brings us lasting pleasure in life.

Mr. Webb: 43:17

I love that idea and I'll make sure and include a link to your website in the show notes. I make find the exact link to download and include that as well, to make it even easier for folks to do that.

Bracha Goetz: 43:34

Yeah, I think what people have to have to go to the website and there's a place where it shows you where the pleasure letter is and they put in their email address and that's how they can download it.

Mr. Webb: 43:44

Yeah, Okay, gotcha.

Bracha Goetz: 43:46

Yeah.

Mr. Webb: 43:47

Now you mentioned this is going back to very early in our conversation that the change that you experienced started with reading the diary of Anne Frank.

Bracha Goetz: 44:01

Yeah.

Mr. Webb: 44:02

And was there a aside from that? Was there a pivotal moment that just sparked your transformation in your young adult years? And exactly what age did that happen? Was it when you first read that? Was it after you graduated from Harvard? What? What are we talking about there?

Bracha Goetz: 44:23

Yes. When I first read that, I was 12. That's when I started my diary and that's when I started asking questions why, why, like, why, why was why? Were the Nazis focused on the Jewish people? I couldn't understand this. What was? Was there something unusual about us? Why, why, like? Why are we different? That got me questioning. So the questioning kept going.

Bracha Goetz: 44:49

I mean, I, I searched in many ways. I got involved in Buddhism, I got involved in all different kinds of things. I didn't think that I would find answers in my own heritage. I didn't even know that there was spiritual sustenance there at all. So I went searching in many places and one turning point that I describe in my memoir was a garden party at Harvard, my boyfriend. I got invited to it because my boyfriend and it was like it's kind of like elitist party where no Jewish people would be invited. Like I felt if they knew I was Jewish, I would not have gotten into this party.

Bracha Goetz: 45:29

I'm like very preppy kind of party. So there were Kennedys there, moynihans, it was like a very, you know, elite kind of people. And I'm there and I'm looking around and I realized this is it Like. Now I've made it, this is the top and I'm realizing that the people there seem just as bored as anybody else, like they're just looking for something more too, like this pinnacle that I thought was a pinnacle is not really anything much, you know.

Bracha Goetz: 45:59

And then what happened is, on this beautiful day in May, the sky suddenly filled up with storm clouds and there was a huge thunderstorm. And I'm thinking to the whole party it was a garden party, it was over. That was the end of that. And I'm thinking all these famous rich, powerful people they can't stop the rain from coming down on their party. Like there's something more. I know there's something more. This is proof. But I have no idea what that more is.

Bracha Goetz: 46:33

So it just got me actually feeling more desperate to know what is significant in life, what really has meaning, what really brings lasting pleasure, although I still didn't know what that was. But I was glad that I got the illusions ended at that point and I was left actually feeling more despondent and feeling like, oh then there's no purpose to life at all. If this illusion means nothing, then I don't know what does you know? So I actually went to the Harvard Divinity School. I tried to look into the Bible, but in their classes at Harvard they were talking about how this person wrote this part of the Bible, this post, and wrote this Like there was nothing about God. God was being erased even back then, so it definitely wasn't filling my soul and I ended up. I was auditing that class and I just dropped out. This is not what I'm looking for. I just kept searching.

Mr. Webb: 47:38

So it was a divinity class that didn't mention God.

Bracha Goetz: 47:42

Yes, wow, that just blows my mind. Yes, I mean it was all intellectual. It was that. It's like an intellectual understanding and what we learned. One of the things I wrote in my memoir was how I learned how to get A's. On every paper you just write, the ending has to be that everything's relative. There are no absolutes in this world. I knew I learned exactly how to get an A. You know.

Mr. Webb: 48:15

So, turning the conversation back towards teachers, teachers and parents, what are some things that teachers and parents can do to nourish the souls of their students?

Bracha Goetz: 48:35

Beautiful. It's really, really important. I feel that the concepts that I'm explaining to in my children's books are universal concepts that children need to absorb and engrave on their souls as early as possible. That's what's so amazing about children's books. I don't people don't realize this, but every single age reads a children's book the young children, the adults reading the books to the children, the grandparents reading the books to children, and even teenagers. They find the books laying around and they read them when no one's looking. So it's the only kind of book that reaches every single age.

Bracha Goetz: 49:25

It's such an important way to get deep messages across in a joyful way, and that's what changes happens. You know there was a study done at a Christian college. It said that it takes like 200, oh no, 400 repetitions to form new synapses in the brain, but it only takes 10 to 20 repetitions when done joyfully. So how do we create new habits in children? The quickest way is to do them in a positive way, through joy, through gratitude, through instilling gratitude. This is the best way to overcome bad habits and instill good habits in young children, appreciating healthy, healthy eating, like. One of my books is Hashem's Candy Store. It's God's pharmacy that I made into Hashem's Candy Store. It's teaching children how amazing are our fruits and vegetables. These are things, the wonders of them, how even the directions for which part of the body they help are written on many fruits and vegetables. Like if you ever saw a walnut, it looks like a brain, it's so big for the brain.

Bracha Goetz: 50:53

You know, yeah, a tomato if you cut it open, you see that it looks like a heart. The carrot if you slice a carrot, what do you see? The eyes. The carrots are so good for our eyes. Like the Almighty is just joyfully showing us all these wonderful things about fruits and vegetables and how they're individually packaged the pear, the apple, the peach for us to just take them with us anywhere. It's amazing. And little grapes, little candies, like the junk.

Bracha Goetz: 51:29

Food really is designed to be delicious and addictive, while the food that's made by the Almighty is designed to be delicious and nutritious. It's a totally different kind of thing. The junk is kind of like food, like substances. It's not really food, because food is what nourishes us. So the more we can teach this to really young children, the joys in schools early on, we can make huge effects.

Bracha Goetz: 52:05

I know that my books have had a huge effect in curbing the abuse of children because I've written two books now for safety books for children. It's had a tremendous effect. Again, like in hundreds of thousands of homes, it's made a transformation and I'm hoping that the books about healthy eating will make that transformation as well. Even in public schools we can teach about this, if we have to be careful about certain spiritual concepts, but I think we can still teach children about gratitude. That's universal, and if you can't bring God into a public school, you can still teach them about having gratitude for all the gifts we've been given, all the natural gifts. There are still ways to explain that to children in every setting, whether in private school or in a public school.

Mr. Webb: 53:05

So I've got maybe a tough question. Might be an easy question Out of the 42 books, what's the one book Parents and teachers should start with?

Bracha Goetz: 53:18

Oh, my goodness, that is hard for me. I don't know which to pick. Really, you can pick any book I've described already. I think a teacher could figure out what is the biggest need in my classroom right now. Is there a child with a disability that we need to have more understanding for? Are the children obsessed with famous people? Are they getting off track? Do they need to? Sometimes there's a problem with abuse in the community. The invisible book explains to children in a kind of a scientific way about how we're all, how all these scientific things that we accept that are invisible as well. We are spiritual beings too that are invisible. So I don't know which one to pick, but they're all useful and I think teachers can figure out which book is more. The most applicable, would be most helpful to a particular classroom.

Mr. Webb: 54:35

I think what you said what's the greatest need? I think that's a great question to ask ourselves, either as a parent or a teacher, when looking at your books. What's the greatest need in my household right now? What's the greatest need in my classroom? That's a great way to figure out where to start. Maybe this question will be a little easier, usually in the episode with a few key takeaways. So, braco, what's the one thing you want the listener to remember, if they don't remember anything else about this episode?

Bracha Goetz: 55:11

Okay, it's a little story that has a big effect. There was a guy about to jump off a building and this lady sees him from across the street and she goes whatever you do, don't jump. And he said why not? My life is miserable. And she goes. I'm sure you have so many problems in your life right now. What if, in addition to all your problems, what if you were also blind? And what if, right now, you were given the gift of sight? Would you still jump? And he said of course not. And she said okay, here you have it. You are blind. You have been blind despite all your problems. You have so much to be grateful for. You got up to this rooftop, you can see, you can move, you can breathe. There is so much still in your life to be grateful for. So now, open your eyes. You are no longer blind. Be grateful for the infinite amount of blessings that you have in your life right now. That's my message to everybody.

Mr. Webb: 56:22

That's a great message and I noticed that's a theme gratitude in our conversation today. I'll have to incorporate that into the title of the episode, I'm sure.

Bracha Goetz: 56:33

Yeah, I want to say one more thing. Sure, that's the essence of the word Yuhudi. Yuhudi is a Jewish person. So the essence, what I learned, the essence of being a Jew, is being grateful. That's what we are. We're grateful people from morning till night. The minute we get up, we're saying words of gratitude. That's how it goes until we go to sleep. That's what I learned. I didn't know that growing up, I wasn't taught this about my heritage, but I made blessings before I eat, after I eat, even after we go to the bathroom, we say a blessing, thanking God that our bodies are working right. Our mission is to spread light in the world. That's all we want to do. Back to the beginning of the conversation. We just want this one homeland. That's all we want. And we want to live here peacefully and everybody could live here with us. We're totally happy. The Israeli Arabs are happy here. They have a wonderful life. We just don't want to live with violence, and that's what we want to spread light and peace.

Mr. Webb: 57:49

As we wrap up the conversation, Bracha, can you share with our listeners where they can find more information about your books, any upcoming books or projects, how they connect you with your own social media? Basically, this is your time to promote or plug anything you want to.

Bracha Goetz: 58:08

Thank you so much. My children. After 40 books, my children took over as the publishers of my books. They decided we're all going to be a family business, so they created the website. It's an amazing website my youngest son and daughter-in-law so I hope you'll visit it. It's called www. goetzbookshop. com and gets a spelt of funny way G-O-E-T-Z. So if you go there, you'll make my children really happy visiting the website. And I just want to tell everybody please keep praying. We need every one of your pure prayers. So much Thank you.

Mr. Webb: 58:54

Thank you so much and I'll make sure and include a link to your website in the show notes, and I can't thank you enough for joining us today. It's been a total pleasure having you on the conservative classroom and I know that my listeners appreciate your insights on gratitude.

Bracha Goetz: 59:15

Thank you so much for this opportunity. You're a wonderful person, thank you.

Mr. Webb: 59:19

Thank you. That's it for today's episode of The Conservative Classroom. Thank you for tuning in and I hope you enjoyed it and learned something. If you liked what you heard, please don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. That would really help the podcast out. Most importantly, share this podcast with a like-minded educator, parent or patriot. You can also connect with us on social media and share your thoughts on today's topic by sending me an email at TheConservativeClassroom@gmail. com. We'd love to hear from you.

Mr. Webb: 59:59

If you feel that education without indoctrination and teaching the truth is important to preserve traditional values, then support my efforts to keep the conservative classroom running. I'm a full-time teacher and dad and part-time podcaster. I invest a lot of hours at my own hard-earned money each week to bring you quality content, but I need your help. Check out the links in the show notes and on the website to support the podcast with a one-time or recurring monthly donations. Every little bit helps.

Mr. Webb: 1:00:35

You can also visit our merch store to get your own clothing, coffee mugs, stickers, backpacks, book bags and more with The Conservative Classroom logo or one of our many other conservative slogans, such as "Age Appropriate Does Not Equal, banning Books, defundf the Teacher's Unions. Keep Politics Out of the Classroom and more. If you want to support common sense and education without pushing your politics, check out our products with the Red Schoolhouse logo on it. We know it's hard to be openly conservative in some school districts, but your silent show of support will let you know that you are doing the right thing. Until next time. This is, mr Webb, reminding you that you are not alone. See you next time on the conservative classroom, teaching the Truth, preserving Our Values.