R' Mendel Duchman lives in Los Angeles and is a businessman, business coach and motivational speaker.

He is also, to my mind, one of today's most outspoken motivators and cheerleaders for shluchim and Lubavitch around the world.

But while R' Mendel very much lives in "today," he is also a staunch defender of the idea of "gezhe," or the value of holding on to one's past that can be traced to the old home back in Russia.

While "gezhe" has come to mean all kinds of things today, in our conversation we discuss how the past is an important part of today's story and something that needs to be better understood, even celebrated.