Rabbi Nachman Seltzer’s recent rare U.S. speaking tour, including numerous appearances in Baltimore, presented me with the opportunity to meet one of the most accomplished writers and inspirational speakers in the Torah world today. Rabbi Seltzer has impressively authored 28 books in the past 17 years, in addition to other important pursuits. It was a pleasure to chat with a kindred spirit in this exclusive Where What When interview
Where are you from originally and where do you live now?
I’m originally from Brooklyn. My parents made aliya when I was 14. Presently, my wife and I and our four kids, ka”h – two girls and two boys, aged 16, 15, 12, and 9 – live in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
I understand that you had no formal training in writing. When did you start writing and what was your career path?
I wrote in elementary school, but at age 23 – not having gone to high school or studied writing – I decided to write my first book. One motzei Shabbos, in Har Nof, I said to my mother-in-law, ‘I want to write a book.’ She said, “Here’s a pad of paper and a pen,” and I started writing my first book, The Edge. It was based on a story that a friend told me while I was in kollel about a friend of his. I wrote four pages a day, by hand, for the next three or four months, and then I had a book.
How do you get all of your amazing stories?
From people like you; everywhere I go, people tell me stories. They call, email, or meet me.
Do you write all day?
I divide my time between learning, teaching, music, and writing. I’ve had the same chavrusa for 12 years. I learned in the Mir for 15 years, most of the time with that chavrusa. Now we learn in a kollel in Ramat Beit Shemesh. I go to a great 6:15 a.m. Daf Yomi shiur, learn, and then teach in seminaries and yeshivos in Eretz Yisrael. Usually, I teach one or two classes a day every week in Peninim, Tomer Devorah, Tiferet, Bnos Melech, and Yeshivas Arzei Levanon. Sometimes I am asked to teach or speak in others, such as Darchei Bina, Chedvas, and Scharfmans. Sunday and Monday nights, I have practice for my Shira Chadasha Boys Choir. Whenever I am not doing any of those things, I am writing. The writing is the default setting; the learning is in the morning, but before my chavrusa calls, I can knock off three pages, in theory. I also write for Hamodia’s Inyan magazine.
How did you get involved as the founding director of the Shira Chadasha Boys Choir?
I was in the Miami Boys Choir as a kid in the 1990s. I asked Rav Nissin Kaplan from the Mir when I should start my choir; after about 15 years, I’ve made five CDs with the boys.
It doesn’t sound like you have any spare time.
I really don’t, but I love reading and spending time with my wife and kids; we go on a lot of trips together. I also like hanging out with my friends for cholent on a Thursday night.
How did you meet your wife?
It’s a great story, which I actually wrote for Hamodia. I called it, “The Half-Century Plan.” I was learning with a bachur in the Mir. I wasn’t so happy about it since I wanted to learn with someone my own age, but I needed the money. Nevertheless, I stopped learning with him and started with my new chavrusa, the same one I’m with today. I said, “Hashem, I’ll make a deal with You: If you want me to learn, You are going to have to send me more money because I only have enough to last me until Sukkos.”
Sukkos came, and was I waiting to see if I was going to get that much-needed money. Then, on Chol Hamoed, my future wife’s grandparents, Irving and Helen Maisel – originally from Far Rockaway, now from Har Nof – made their annual party for their children and grandchildren. In the middle of the party there was a knock at the door, and in walked Moshe Katz and his wife from Lawrence, New York.
Moshe Katz and my wife’s grandfather have been best friends for 50 years. The Maisels moved next door to the Katzes and every Shabbos the families would eat together. Moshe was in construction, and together, the two friends built buildings: the Young Israel of Far Rockaway and others. At the end of the party, Moshe Katz came over to me and said, “Reb Nachman, I love your writing. I want to write a book about my family – we were 10 kids, and nine of us survived the Holocaust. Come to my hotel after Yom Tov. I want to talk to you about this.”
I went to the King Solomon Hotel and made a deal with Moshe Katz. He gave me a check on the spot, and for the next half-year, a check came in the mail every month. Before the half-year was over, I had taken on other projects and, baruch Hashem, I never looked back. The serialized story I wrote for Mr. Katz, “Nine Out of Ten,” which became a book, led to another project, which led to another project.
It was more than I needed to support myself in subsequent years, after my marriage, when I was learning in kollel. This all started 50 years before, when Hashem brought Moshe Katz and Irving Maisel together, putting a whole line of things into place – including my meeting my wife!
You are quite a storyteller. Did you tell stories when you were growing up?
I was always a storyteller. At camp, I was an actor and the leader of the Grand Sing. I went to a lot of camps – Torah Vodaas, Daas Yeraim, Dora Golding, Romemu, Agudah – and I was the head counselor of Machanayim. I love camp!
How long does it take you to write a book?
Three or four months. I work on writing whenever I have a chance. Baruch Hashem, I write fast.
Do you have a favorite story?
There is a story in my book, Incredible, that I love; it’s one of my favorite stories in the world. It reveals the fascinating details that led up to Moshe Reichmann’s 1986 parlor meeting in Olympia & York, in Manhattan, to help Rabbi Yossi Wallis raise three million dollars for Arachim within one hour. Rabbi Wallis said he learned a few things from this experience: that you can raise $3,000,000 in one hour; who Rav Shimshon Pincus was; and that if you really believe in your message, everyone else will believe in it, also.
Would you recommend writing to a boy as a parnassa?
I’m not telling you that you can’t make a parnassa, because I do. If you are prepared to be very single-minded towards your goal and to work really hard – if you are very self-disciplined and can be your own boss, and if you have what to say, then, yes, go for it! But you also have to be careful about what projects you pick. You can’t say that you’re going to write a book about hilchos netilas yada’im, because there are several books out there on the subject. You also have to know who your target audience is. I would recommend that if you want to write, write stories. People want them. The Torah writing world has developed, with so many newspapers and magazines. We will always need writers. I write three of four books a year as well as articles in Hamodia, and private projects, such as family memoirs, and I am very, very disciplined. So, if you want to do this, and you want to make parnassa out of it, it doesn’t happen by itself.
What is your overall theme when you speak to audiences?
The same as in my writing: being positive. I always leave my audience with homework – recognizing the gadlus of every human being. You are a great person, and you have potential to be great and do great things in the world. Torah is life, chaim, not just words on a page. It affects you in your life, today. I tie together a lot of Torah, gemaras, midrashim, and stories, so you can walk out with a very positive message.
Lastly, what does writing do for you?
I look at writing as what Hashem wants me to do. This is my job; this is my mission. I get up in the morning and I want to write; the day is not the same when I don’t get to write. I feel that I was given an opportunity to influence the world through my Inyan articles and the hundreds of thousands of books in print. I made a conscious decision to have my writing focus on the positive – not on the negative, not on the problems. Hakadosh Baruch Hu (G-d) is wonderful; life is great. Be positive, think positive. See the yad Hashem (hand of G-d) in the world. I feel siyata d’shmaya (help of Heaven) a lot. My goal is to bring a certain hashkafa (outlook) into the world. The more you read a certain type of thing, the more it affects your thought processes. I aim to influence klal Yisrael in our generation – people spanning from the not frum through the modern, Litvishe, Mizrachi, chasidish, etc., on a broad scale. To me, that is huge, and worth all the money in the world. I could be doing real estate but this is so much more rewarding!
