20 Questions for Shmuel Botnick and Yosef Herz  

Moment columnists Shmuel Botnick and Yosef Herz work together on rounding up the buzz in the frum world for Mishpacha readers weekly. Shmuel lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he writes for a living. A contributing editor of Mishpacha, he is the second seder shoel u’meishiv in the Mesivta of Cincinnati and has authored an ArtScroll biography about Rav Nota Greenblatt.

Yosef Herz is an attorney in a transactional law firm in Lakewood, New Jersey. In addition to The Moment, he writes full-length features. Between the two of them, they offer a weekly smorgasbord of inspiration and uplift, capturing the moments that make us proud to be part of our nation.

My ideal work environment

YH: In my house, late at night when there are no incoming emails or distractions, and I can just focus on writing.

SB: Coffee, chocolate, couch ’til I can afford a massage chair.

Deadlines make me…

YH: Suddenly motivated.

SB: Daven.

I learned the most from writing about

SB: I was zocheh to do Question and Answer articles with several gedolim including Rav Dovid Cohen, Rav Reuven Feinstein, and Rav Uri Deutsch. The experience with Rav Dovid Cohen was surreal as it was in person (the others were on phone or Zoom) in his home in Yerushalayim, and he showed me every source inside the text.

YH: A car shortage in Lakewood. It was a rather benign topic, but it was one of my first features, and Deputy Editor Gedalia Guttentag pointed out certain elements that need to be included, advice which has helped me in structuring many articles since.