By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO, Calif—Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort of Chabad at La Costa debuted last night as an admittedly excited host of a new hour-long radio program on Radio KCBQ, AM 1170, which he calls "LeChaim, To Life, with Rabbi E."  The program's theme song, as you would expect, is that one from Fiddler on the Roof sung by the character Tevye: "To life, to life, L'chaim."

Eilfort, in this weekly  8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday evening broadcast, divided the show into short segments. In one, he  imparted a little Torah knowledge, in another he offered listeners the opportunity to win a prize for answering a Jewish trivia question; in another he voiced his pro-Israel, anti-Hamas and anti-Fatah views, and throughout the show he plugged such projects of the Chabad Lubavitcher movement as his own synagogue on La Costa Blvd in Carlsbad;  the Chabad Hebrew Academy in the Scripps Ranch of San Diego, where he sends his children, and the www.askmoses.com website on which he and his wife, Nehama, answer questions about Judaism.

Apparently when you start a show, you want guests whom you know and trust.  Eilfort interviewed the secular principal of the Chabad Hebrew Academy in a segment on the institutions of the Jewish community, and the owner of  Star Tech Motors—where he has his own family cars tuned up—for the business segment.  The interviews were non-adversarial and in fact so friendly, they sounded like extended plugs.  Principal Kelly got to tell of her doctorate in school administration from Harvard University and of her love for the Chabad Hebrew Academy's emphasis on providing its 250 students with a "moral and ethical foundation."

Next Star Tech Motors owner Lance Ponce, who was interviewed from Hawaii where he was vacationing, was asked whether he works on hybrid cars (A: "we're learning more and more about alternate fuels...) and what are his specialties (A: transmissions, brakes, electronics...even upholstery.).  When Eilfort asked whether the situation is common that people will go to a mechanic for something simple, and be told they need something far more complicated, the interviewee responded that indeed some times extensive work really is needed.  But he advised, people need to question their mechanic, put them on the spot.

Putting them on the spot was definitely not what Rabbi Eilfort was doing with his guests, but okay, perhaps in time, he'll pick not only friends but people with whom he has disagreements to interview.  This after all was just his first show—and while rough in some spots and corny in others ("I've got a face for radio"), Eilfort in an engaging way taught a little bit about Judaism to an audience that is probably mostly Christian.  He also stated a case for Israel, and gave away a free oil change (at Star Tech, of course) to the first person who answered his trivia question correctly.  I'll rephrase the question  for you:  A is kosher.  B is not kosher.  A and B were mixed together.  Afterwards A was not kosher, and B was kosher.  What were A and B?

The answer: A was kosher salt.  B was unkosher meat.  After washing the meat and rubbing it with the kosher salt, to soak up all the blood, the salt became unkosher because it was mixed with blood.  The meat on the other hand became kosher because it had been cleansed of blood.  Jewish law forbids the consumption of blood.

The rabbi also explained that the Torah is the Hebrew Bible and that "Torah" comes from the Hebrew word for teaching.  He described the Torah as "God's instruction manual for human kind," adding that all people are from the same God.  Therefore,  whatever people's beliefs, they all are "brothers and sisters."  If people would focus on each other as spiritual beings, rather than as physical beings, there would be no more wars and the world be a Gan Eden (Garden of Eden).

Illustrating just how far from that we are today, Eilfort introduced his segment on Israel by quoting a story from the Miami Herald .  It said, in essence, that a  report carried in the international media  falsely  reported  that Hamas had agreed implicitly to recognize Israel by agreeing with Fatah to support the so-called "prisoner's document."  

In fact, according to Eilfort, the document drawn up by Palestinian prisoners held by Israel  for terrorist acts  contains various clauses which Israel repeatedly has rejected. One of these is that Palestinians shall have the right to return to the homes they or  their ancestors left during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. The right of return for these Arabs, would be "demographic suicide for Israel," Eilfort opined.

The Chabad rabbi also told a Chassidic story, which I shall paraphrase.  The super-wealthy father has three sons, but only one can succeed him as the CEO of a his business.  He gives each of the sons $1,000 (only a thousand?  This must be a very old joke) and an empty warehouse, and tells them to buy whatever they want but to fill as much of the warehouse as they can.  Son #1 buys a big lot of garbage cans that Walmart was trying to get rid of, because new models were coming in.  They took up about one half the warehouse.  The second son purchased styrofoam peanuts, which have the express purpose of filling up space. He filled up 2/3rd of his warehouse.  The third son, a Torah scholar, gave his father back his $1,000 then walked to the middle of the darkened warehouse. There, he lit a candle.... and filled the warehouse with light. 

In his excitement over hosting the show, Rabbi Eilfort forgot to add that the father gave the job to son #3, but we got the point.  Perhaps, more importantly, we also got a mini-sermon, that as light chases away darkness, so too does good banish evil, and knowledge conquer ignorance.

So how would we rate Eilfort's show?  Good in concept, needs work in execution (he forgot a promised phone-in segment) and far too timid in its choice of guests. I know Rabbi Eilfort; he writes a column for this website, and I have every confidence that the show, with patience, time, and a little daring, can succeed.