What sets Rabbi Elchanan Shoff apart from his colleagues and predecessors is his unquenchable desire to find out everything about everything.

On his YouTube show, the 32-year-old San Diego native and professor at UC Irvine practices what he preaches.

For decades, his life has been focused on doing good and influencing others.

“It’s an extension of finding a place to eventually articulate my meta-mission of being a guide for people on their Jewish journeys.”

In this complicated moment with Israel, he tries not to be divisive from the bimah. “There is a famous saying about rabbis – afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. I really have tried not to afflict.”

One of Rabbi Schaffer’s important goals is for his students to be able to craft and help them grow in their own Jewish context, empower them to create their own meanings.

“Whenever there is a communal issue, our concept is, ‘let’s try doing it as a community.’ Not just Young Israel. Young Israel is one piece of it.”

“The more I was studying Judaism, especially Torah, thinking about what I would be teaching as a rabbi, the more I saw parallels between Judaism and poetry. I think Judaism is a big poem.”