I’m an Orthodox Rabbi. Ask Me Anything

A red-headed rabbi in a black yarmulke sits at a table on the Venice Beach boardwalk. A sign in front says, “I am an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. Ask me anything.”

“Why are Jewish people considered rich and have connections to a lot of people?” one man sits down to ask.

“Did the Jews kill Jesus?” another person asks.

“Why is everybody just blindly on the Palestinian side?”

With patience and respect, Rabbi Elchanan Shoff answers each question in detail, no matter how preposterous or offensive it seems. He talks to passersby about everything from the supposed colonization in Palestine, to the relationship between Christians and Jews, to the Kabbalah, and kosher food. Some exchanges are heartwarming, others are astonishing, and one, where Rabbi Shoff explains why he can’t eat at the local taco place, is hilarious. He is proudly Jewish, firm in his beliefs, and open to all sorts of questions, no matter how funny or serious they are.

“This kind of thing always came natural to me,” he told Aish. “In yeshiva, I enjoyed the Talmudic process. I enjoyed the debate.”

Now, the video, produced by Think Good Media, has more than 55,000 hits on YouTube – and Joseph Abehsera, the 23-year-old go-getter who came up with the idea is dedicated to putting out more content like it.

Venice Beach: A Homecoming for the Rabbi

Rabbi Shoff grew up going to the Shul on the Beach, formerly known as the Pacific Jewish Center, an Orthodox Jewish synagogue on the Venice Beach boardwalk. While observant families would be praying inside, skateboarders, bodybuilders, street musicians, and tourists would be roaming around outside.

There would be anti-circumcision groups as well as missionaries who would set up outside the synagogue when Rabbi Shoff was coming of age.

“Around the time of my bar mitzvah, I used to go out to these people and get a lot of practice,” Rabbi Shoff said. “I would debate them. My friends would come out and watch me. They knew I was sharp.”

One time, a Jews for Jesus guy was there and he was missionizing hard. He said that the Talmud was not legitimate – only the Tanach, the Hebrew Bible was. He then started reciting verses to Rabbi Shoff to try to prove his point; but even as a teenager, the rabbi knew the man was cherry picking verses to fit his distorted narrative, and he told this man this without hesitation.

“Debating always came natural to me,” he said.

At the same time, Rabbi Shoff learned that it’s important to be friendly and kind while presenting your side of the argument, which is apparent in the video. He tells everyone they’re asking good questions and lets them share their point of view.

“It’s really necessary to be able to debate your point fiercely and take no prisoners and also be very gentle to people and build them up and make them feel good about their questions,” said the rabbi, who has a podcast and is the founder of Beis Knesses of Los Angeles synagogue.

Additionally, Rabbi Shoff believes in letting people say what they think, especially in a time when you can get canceled simply for speaking your mind.

“We should be allowed to say what we want to say,” he said. “It can be painful when you hear one side of a story, and you aren’t given a chance to speak up.”

How the Idea Came About

Content creator Joseph Abehsera is the brains behind the video and the YouTube channel Think Good Media.

Rabbi Shoff was Joseph’s 11^th and 12^th grade rabbi at YULA Boys High School in LA, and the two remained friends after Joseph graduated. He is a successful content creator with more than 400,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok and over 500 million impressions. He mainly talks about technology and launched Think Good Media to spread positivity about Judaism.

Joseph Abehsera

“I hope to capitalize on the attention on the Jewish people and shift it in a meaningful and good way,” he said. “I hoped this video would add light to the world at a time when it’s very necessary, and when people want to receive it.”

Rabbi Shoff’s video was the first in a series. One person said some antisemitic things, including conspiracies about the Jewish people, that Joseph kept in. He left out other parts of the conversations.

“There were some clips where people came and said crazy things we were not able to put in,” he said.

When Israel is the focus of conversation and the Jewish people are getting a bad rap in many circles, Joseph’s goal is to keep spreading awareness and positivity.

He plans to make more videos to showcase other Jewish figures who “can speak to the world. My bet is that they will continue to grow in terms of their viewership while simultaneously helping the world.”