Born in 1954 in Brooklyn, Gabbai Seth Fishman grew up in a secular Jewish home though always felt spiritual. He was shaped by the social and political forces of the late 1960s and 70s. He received a B.A. from Yale in Music in 1976 and an MBA from Wharton School of Business in 1986. In 1989, he met Reb Zalman and began working for him as a gabbai the following year. Married with two daughters, he is active in the Jewish Ritual life of Bucks County, Pennsylvania where he davvens, studies and teaches Ḥasidus.