tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39245595934696319702024-03-04T23:32:26.160-05:00Tikkun!Therefore, the pure righteous do not complain of the dark, but increase the light; they do not complain of evil, but increase justice; they do not complain of heresy, but increase faith; they do not complain of ignorance, but increase wisdom. - Rav KookShmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.comBlogger667125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-21815260476920421102015-12-07T09:30:00.001-05:002015-12-07T09:30:56.180-05:00It's *only* a minhag...?A very disturbing occurrence happened last night.<br />
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We were lighting the menorah for the very first night of Chanukah. I our home - as in many households all over the world - we made the blessings and began singing the various songs associated with the lighting. in the middle of <i>Ma'oz Tzur</i> we have a brief interlude by the passage of "<i>Yevanim</i>" where we change the tune from the regular singsong to a more festive faster paced melody and we dance in a circle for a few minutes before continuing with the standard tune.<br />
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For some reason, my eldest son sat out the dancing, and didn't participate in the singing altogether (he's six years old). When I asked him about it, he dismissively gestured and said something along the lines of "it's only a <i>minhag</i>."<br />
<br />
Admittedly, that was not one of my finer moments; I got very angry and responded to him harshly. Where had he learned such an attitude? Where did he even pick up such an idea? He certainly didn't learn it in our home and I don't know where he could have picked up such a sentiment. Of course I could see that he regretted saying that immediately in the face of my response but more than the isolated incident itself I was concerned as to where he could be getting that from. I was beside myself.<br />
<br />
Later, I tried to sit with him and explain that what sets us apart is not only our adherence to <i>halacha</i> but our respect and in some way fealty to <i>minhag </i>and <i>mesorah</i>. Even the <i>chag </i>of Chanukah itself is set apart from the other <i>chagim</i> because of it's inextricable ties to <i>mesorah </i>and communal consciousness, more so than any other holiday. How do you explain to a six year old that the <i>real </i>reason why we do things is so much more transcendent than the fact that it's all written down and laid out in a convenient code of laws and instructions?<br />
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Yeah, he's only six. But that concept didn't materialize out of thin air. Am I somehow demonstrating that the "way it's been done" isn't good enough or is somehow lacking?Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-88651967923694485792015-10-22T16:57:00.001-04:002015-10-22T16:57:35.228-04:00Restoring My SoulThe truth is, I'm still processing it.<br />
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I had the <i>z'chut</i> to attend the annual <i>hilula</i> (celebration) of my <i>Rebbe</i>, Reb Kalonymous Kalman Shapira <i>zya hyd</i> this past <i>motzei Shabbos</i>. It was such an incredibly moving event, the intensity of it all is still so overwhelming that I constantly found my thoughts drifting back to the words that Rav Moshe Weinberger spoke.<br />
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This year, the <i>hilula</i> coincided with the debut of a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Warmed-Kodesh-Rabbi-Moshe-Weinberger/dp/1680250221/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445544990&sr=8-1&keywords=warmed+by+the+fire+of+the+aish+kodesh">new book</a> that my good friend <a href="http://www.dixieyid.blogspot.com/">Binyomin Wolf</a> put out. A collection of the <i>ma'amarim </i>Rav Weinberger gave over the last 15 years since the inception of the <i>hilula</i> in 2000, this slim volume serves not only as an introduction to the Torah of Piaseczna, but that of Rav Weinberger as well. It's a beautiful addition to the legacy of the <i>Rebbe</i>, a strong homage to the message of the <i>Aish Kodesh</i>.<br />
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I consider myself fortunate. Lucky to have been introduced the the writings of the Rebbe during a particularly difficult time in my life and then later on - through my efforts to share his work with others - discovering the fount of Torah wisdom that is Rav Weinberger. It's no coincidence that the same praise and gratitude that Rav Weinberger himself attributes to the Piaseczna is said about himself by others. In this year's <i>ma'amar</i> (indeed, the motivation behind the book) Rav Weinberger addressed the phenomenon we are witnessing that people from all walks of life - Jews and non-Jews alike - are drawn to the Torah of the <i>Aish Kodesh </i>in ever growing droves. Soul searchers, academics, meditation enthusiasts, philosophers, people from various streams of Judaism - all come to drink from the wellsprings of Reb Kalonymous Kalman. What is it about the Rebbe? What is the appeal? Rav Weinberger discusses this and more, and it can be listened to <a href="http://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/842344/Rabbi_Moshe_Weinberger/Aish_Kodesh_Hilula_-5776-_-Tzaddik_Yesod_Olam-">here</a>.<br />
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For me, personally? As Rav Weinberger intimated, there are people who search for <i>tzaddikim</i> who can breathe life back into our souls. They feel deflated, defeated, lost in the chaos of a world moving at breakneck speed. They long to hear words of encouragement, to taste - briefly - the "dew of life" on their parched lips. They seek healing; some may be healers themselves, giving away their own vitality to others while wondering (doubting!) in the back of their mind whether they have anything to give.<br />
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I am such a person.<br />
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The Rebbe's writings - in the inimitable words of Rav Soloveitchik - address themselves to the reader's soul. Even if the passage itself is not relevant to my situation, the essence of the Rebbe permeates every word and touches me to my very core. His teaching are a touchstone for me, a guide for my daily living. And many times I don't internalize his words, and I don't feel worthy of considering myself a <i>talmid</i>, let alone a<i> chassid. </i>Still, because of who the Rebbe was, I can never stay far away from him. It is the conviction, the <i>knowledge</i> that the Rebbe is speaking directly to me from the perspective of one who has also suffered that comforts me when I'm confronted with the existential loneliness that we all share.<br />
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It's his words of fire and hope that illuminate my darkness, the same words that Rav Weinberger echoed in that darkened room this past <i>motzei Shabbos</i>.<br />
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It strengthens me, and I can take hold of myself once more and plunge back into the fray.Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-85365421519760429802015-05-29T12:49:00.001-04:002015-05-29T12:49:25.308-04:00Allowing ourselves to be loved<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/58/35/d5/5835d5c5847c59990e126adc37997830.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/58/35/d5/5835d5c5847c59990e126adc37997830.jpg" /></a></div>
Commenting on my previous post, my bestie Karma Dude expanded on the parable from the Ba'al Shem Tov, stating that at some point the "child" in question needs to succeed - and recognize that success - in order not to give up hope. Because if the child continues to fall down and fail without any insight into the rationale of the exercise or without understanding his "absent" father's intent, he'll come to see Him as forever distant and get distracted.<br />
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It's a really good point, and I think it does happen. A lot.<br />
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But I think a fundamental misunderstanding is at play here (although I'm not attributing this to Karma Dude) that makes the concern all the more real. The concept of a loving God - despite the fact that it's explicit in the texts that we say daily in our prayers - is a foreign one in our community; it simply isn't taught or acknowledged in any meaningful way. Our focus is primarily on our end of the relationship - we must love God, we must serve Him, and service performed out of love is the highest form of <i>avodah</i>. We need to be cognizant of that, ever-aware of our duty to arouse love within ourselves and others for our Father in Heaven in order to succeed in our this-worldly mission. But the other side of that coin is understanding that we are in a reciprocal relationship that <i>starts</i> with God's love toward His creations.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: white;">He (Rav Akiva) used to say – Beloved is man, for he was created in G-d's Image; it is indicative of a greater love that it was made known to him that he was created in G-d's image, as it is said: 'For in the image of G-d has He made man' [Bereshis 9:6]. Beloved are the people Israel for they are described as children of the Omnipresent; it is indicative of a greater love that it was made known to them that they are described as children of the Omnipresent, as it is said, 'You are children to Hashem, Your G-d' [Devorim 14:1]. - Avot 3:18</i></span></blockquote>
When was the last time a rebbi in Yeshiva gave a <i>shmuess</i> that focused on this point? I know many folks who had never heard the words "God loves you," until much later on in life when a mentor or a special teacher revealed that truth to them. I'm under the impression that this is a revelation for many, if at all, and that is very sad. This is something that needs to be articulated, explicitly stated, not assumed to be axiomatic or learned through some osmotic process. What can we do to achieve this paradigm shift?<br />
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Thankfully, there are contemporary sources and individuals that belabor this point. The reader is directed to the <i>sifrei Chassidut</i>, some of the latter-day <i>mussar </i>works, and Torah personalities such as Rav Tzvi Meir Zilberberg and the late Slonimer Rebbe. And we must strive to create more English language texts either translated or based on works from Rav Kook and others that deal with this matter extensively. One specific book that comes to mind is <i>GPS! Navigation for the Soul</i> based on the teachings of the <i>Nesivos Shalom</i> which is specifically geared towards teenagers and young adults, but can be read by anybody. The authors spill a great amount of ink making this point in an engaging manner.<br />
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And of course, teach your kids. Make it as immutable as anything else in their <i>chinuch</i> - equate it with your own unconditional love, and make it a reality for them.Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-88927186498470867902015-05-21T22:46:00.002-04:002015-10-23T13:06:05.556-04:00Moving Towards GodIf you don't understand what's happening, watching a parent teach his child how to walk can seem to be an exercise in cruelty. The child, off balance and teetering around, reaches out for the parent's hand - and the parent steps back, just beyond the child's reach. Of course, the parent is only trying to teach and prepare his beloved child with integral skills in this fashion, and we recognize this process for what it is. The child forgets about the rudimentary movements as his desire to be closer to his father, within his protective embrace temporarily distracts him from this physical task he is trying to master.<br />
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The Ba'al Shem Tov used this as a parable for our struggles in life. In those moments when God seems to be pulling away from us, just out of reach, we have to realize that He is teaching us how to walk towards him.<br />
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<br />Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-44547757968619760812015-03-03T11:08:00.002-05:002015-03-03T11:08:54.328-05:00Purim Appeal - Please Help!I have been very delinquent in posting here on the blog - I know that. It pains me, because I often write whole essays in my head about topical subjects and current events in the Jewish world and beyond. I wish I could say that I'm too busy; while I am working hard on certain projects, it's not the whole story. Part of it is lethargy and the inability to actually sit down and pen something. For that, I am sorry, and I will try to be more proactive in putting out fresh material.<br />
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With that said, I turn to my readers and anybody who comes across this posting to make a special request. A while ago, I posted about the drop-in center here in Passaic, NJ that myself and several other dedicated individuals started up over a year ago for the local teens. Thankfully, we entered our second year this past November and I'd like to say that we are experiencing some modest success. Of course, success isn't quantified by how many kids we "make frum" (we aren't doing <i>kiruv</i> in any active sense beyond modeling what appropriate behavior is and showing kids how religious adults act) but rather on the connections we make with our kids. We (the volunteers) have opened our hearts, our homes in some cases, and our wallets as well.<br />
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Unfortunately, money is an ever present issue, notably the lack of it, and the need for it to keep things running smoothly. We did a fundraising campaign just prior to the summer and raised a nice amount, but unanticipated events necessitated our going "on the road" for the whole summer, which depleted most of our funds despite our best attempts to be financially conservative.<br />
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Since the summer, we have expanded our program to accommodate the needs of our girls' programs; we have successfully placed some boys in schools/<i>yeshivot </i>and covered some of their tuition; we have begun liaising with local mental health organizations to provide some counseling for some our kids who have reached out to us, and we continue to run our programs throughout the week.<br />
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But we are broke. Really, really broke. I have put a lot of personal money into this endeavor, as have some of my colleagues, but it's not enough, and it's not sustainable this way.<br />
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We are appealing to everyone in the spirit of "<i>kol haposhet yado, nitan lo</i>" that exemplifies this time of year to please lend a hand. Every little bit helps of course; we have a monthly budget of $2000-$2500 and that's without rent. However, we anticipate being forced to go mobile again in the summer, which bumps our <i>weekly </i>budget up to nearly $1000 as we need to cover costs for food, travel, and activities.<br />
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PLEASE HELP US!<br />
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Checks can be made out to:<br />
<br />
The Chill<br />
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134 Boulevard #10<br />
Passaic NJ 07055<br />
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We are a 501 c3; and we can send a receipt if you need one.<br />
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<i>Tizku l'mitzvot!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Please share this!Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-30102126184202313412015-02-20T00:12:00.001-05:002015-02-20T00:12:09.463-05:00A Fire Burns in Teaneck<div><br></div>It's pretty rare that Rav Moshe Weinberger makes a foray into New Jersey, despite the fact that a few days a week he's just over the George Washington Bridge serving as <i>Mashpia </i>in Yeshiva University. It's rarer still when this blogger's schedule is clear at that opportune time when he comes out here to be able to attend whatever event it is. Hopefully this Sunday will be one of those "planet-aligning" times, as Rav Weinberger will be speaking in nearby Teaneck, New Jersey this Sunday night on the topics of Purim, simcha, and all other good things associated with this one of year.<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3G4LUGS6lK-HbTrWzTCyAhJjKv_hCQ9WORrWQYPxpbm2t5my3zuMckRvMolb2r4508morIeS6LJFZ6FsMh9cTVBDLlrobhU-E0rO0xo8W5GAr7Ua9iXuqTvcrI1OA57lsEGXK0rqgf5E/s640/blogger-image--1315406197.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3G4LUGS6lK-HbTrWzTCyAhJjKv_hCQ9WORrWQYPxpbm2t5my3zuMckRvMolb2r4508morIeS6LJFZ6FsMh9cTVBDLlrobhU-E0rO0xo8W5GAr7Ua9iXuqTvcrI1OA57lsEGXK0rqgf5E/s640/blogger-image--1315406197.jpg"></a></div>I'm very excited!</div>Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-55598867327196832022014-12-18T22:58:00.002-05:002014-12-18T22:58:49.479-05:00Some thoughts on the Jewish Action article on Neo-ChassidusBy now, most people have at least heard about the Jewish Action's cover story on "Neo-Chassidus". Over the few weeks that have passed since the issue came out, several folks have reached out to me about my response to the article and whether or not I agree with the article. In all honesty, I have mixed feelings about the overall tone of the article, although I remain hopeful and optimistic about the trend, as it were.<br />
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For the most part, I'm filled with excitement when I learn about peoples' move toward growth, especially in their relationships with each other and with God. When one makes a conscious decision to delve deeper into such a major component of their life, to simply not allow what <i>is </i>to just <i>be </i>but to grapple, to contend with it and to confront the existential elements that inform our everyday actions - I see that as a positive in general. If that brings a person closer to their roots, or draws them into a whole different world but gives them a healthy, meaningful perspective that allows them to actualize their spiritual potential then I fully support and encourage that exploration. That is what I believe is happening for many today, as they become exposed to the world of <i>pnimiyut</i>.<br />
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I have a long standing reluctance to use the term neo-Chassidism or its more well known alias neo-Hasidism; this is primarily because of its association with camps that exist clearly outside the realm of Torah Judaism. I would argue that one of the reasons why <i>chassidut</i> in general gets its bad rap nowadays (long after the hatchet has been buried between the so-called "camps", although there are a few clueless holdouts) and carries a reputation of being a twee, less-than-intellectually-serious <i>derech haChaim</i> is in no small part due to the neo-Hasidic movement with their romantic revisionism of what the <i>Chasidic </i>lifestyle was and what it was intended for. Why anyone would want to even bear a resemblance to that shameful miscarriage of a great and holy path of <i>avodah</i> is beyond me.<br />
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I find myself reluctant to even describe myself as a <i>chassid </i>without a prefix - if I do at times it's purely an aspirational thing.<br />
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Moreover, assuming the name neo-<i>Chassidut </i>effectively sets one apart from a great living tradition, a gestalt that has infused these last days of <i>galut</i> with light, joy and energy, not to mention volumes of astonishing <i>Torah </i>in all areas of study. I fear that this insistence on choosing a distinctive name stems from an egocentric place; I hope that I am wrong, although I have seen other indications that certainly point to a pronounced lack of <i>bittul</i>.<br />
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The article highlights the spread of <i>chassidut </i>in the Modern Orthodox world, but this is so much bigger than that. Indeed, there has been a renaissance of sorts in the past two decades <i>at least</i> even within the "mainstream" chassidic world. With teachers such as Rav Tzvi Meir Zilberberg, Rav Itchie Meir Morgestern and Rav Gamliel Rabinovitch - among others - dedicating their strengths to once again cultivate a more conscious approach to Judaism, more and more people are "buying in" in response to the phenomenon of "selling out" with a pale facsimile of monolithic Judaism. Instead the article focused on people within the movement for the most part, as opposed to the individuals leading the movement. Again, I'm concerned that this is indicative of a larger issue of people not understanding the need to have real leaders to rally around; neo-<i>Chassidut </i>has been described as a DIY (do it yourself) movement. While this can foster individual responsibility, it has many risk factors as well, especially in light of the youthful composition of the "movement's" adherents. There are not yet enough resources that make chasidic texts accessible to the initiate, although thankfully that is changing. Yet by and large, translations of major texts come from places and individuals who are not observant, and whose well-meaning attempts to translate and explain these fundamental aspects of <i>chassidut </i>fail miserably in so many ways. It's a very dangerous place to be, to enter into something as potentially powerful as <i>pnimiyut</i> without an experienced teacher and structure. Lord knows that I have so much lost time as a result of this. The JA article did not do justice to this warning.<br />
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We have to tread carefully and be very cautious in this area.<br />
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I was somewhat dismayed by the response in the various social media sites from both those within and without the neo-chassidut camp. There was some sort of triumphant horn-tooting and self-congratulating that came across to many including myself as immature, as well as premature. There was an impression of eliticism in response to those that didn't necessarily agree or appreciate the article (I saw "snag" and other derivatives of the word <i>mitnagid</i> bandied about); I have more to say on the general subject of the "right" way to serve God, but this post is too long as it is. Another time.<br />
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(I will mention one thing in particular: an individual who is a senior faculty member in RIETS has been ridiculed by many in response to his reported comments to JA. This individual is at least partly responsible for Rav Moshe Weinberger being at YU in an official capacity. At the very least he deserves some gratitude for recognizing what is "working" with many of the students and - despite his misgivings and skepticism - brought Rav Weinberger in as <i>mashpia</i>. The scorn leveled at him based on a quip that was quoted as part of a larger article is not fair, nor is JA's use of his on-the-record remarks to be set up as the "bad guy". Bad form.)<br />
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Many of the responses to the article have been so very cynical, even caustic in some instances. And while it is so natural to assume a defensive position and swat away at the attacks and criticism, we would do well to at least take heed to some of the more salient points that those critics make. It is precisely that opposition that keeps us on the straight and narrow and it behooves us to at least take it seriously, because there is a grain a truth in some of their words and we can learn from it.Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-8791219218619242872014-12-03T15:05:00.001-05:002014-12-03T15:09:55.629-05:00The Heart and the Wellspring: Maoz Tzur<object data="http://mediadownload.ynet.co.il/zeri/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.7.swf" height="296" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="408"><param name='movie' value='http://mediadownload.ynet.co.il/zeri/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.7.swf'/><param name='flashvars' value='config={"key":"#$82d88990cf33aa2235a","clip":{"url":"http://ynethd-f.akamaihd.net/z/0414/270414_Evyatarbanai_maoztzur.mp4/manifest.f4m","scaling":"fit","provider":"akamai","type":"video"},"plugins":{"akamai":{"url":"http://mediadownload.ynet.co.il/flowplayerlive/AkamaiFlowPlugin_v3_0.swf"},"controls":{"url":"http://mediadownload.ynet.co.il/zeri/flowplayer.controls-3.2.5.swf","autoHide":false,"height":26,"zIndex":1},"hiro":{"url":"http://mediadownload.ynet.co.il/flowplayerlive/Flowplayer_Hiro_Ynet_2_9_0_15409.swf","site_id":"45","flavor":"YNET","AllowRegScreen":true,"zIndex":2}},"logo":{"url":"http://mediadownload.ynet.co.il/flowplayerlive/ynetlogo.png","top":15,"left":15,"fullscreenOnly":false}}'/><param name='allowfullscreen' value='true'/><param name='quality' value='high'/><param name='cachebusting' value='true'/><param name='bgcolor' value='#000000'/><param name='wmode' value='opaque'/><param name='AllowScriptAccess' value='always'></object><br />
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Courtesy of Ynet, off the new(-ish) album <i>Achake Lo: Songs From the Ashes of the Holocaust</i>.Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-84997275463443378132014-11-26T14:49:00.000-05:002014-11-26T14:49:34.886-05:00Bris SpeechGood morning, everyone.<br />
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On behalf of my wife and myself, we would like to thank everyone who made the effort to come to our <i>simcha</i> and of course to the <i>Ribbono Shel Olam</i> Who has sustained us and brought us to this occasion, Whose kindness is a <i>bechina </i>of <i>ketonti m'kol hachasadim...</i><br />
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I'd like to say a few words about the <i>rach hanimol</i>'s namesake; I know that it's a workday and a school day, so I'll try to keep it short.<br />
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This particular <i>simcha</i> is very special for me personally, as this is the first time that I have merited to name a child after one of my own grandparents. My son is named after Reb Dov ben Reb Meir, my father's father, whom I was fortunate enough to know for a good portion of my life. Truthfully, I encountered my grandfather as an elderly man, but even at his advanced stage of life I was able to sense the uniqueness of his character, what my father one time described as <i>Oz</i>, might or strength.<br />
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My grandfather did not lead an easy life. A survivor and an immigrant, he escaped the fiery crucible of the Holocaust and withstood the melting pot of assimilationist America. His determination and resolve to not allow anything to get in the way of his commitment to Torah and Judaism enabled him to live in a spiritual desert and - along with my grandmother Liba - cause Judaism to flourish in the Pacific Northwest in Portland, Oregon. My grandfather made no compromises; one anecdote involved the "kosher" butcher in Portland refusing to show my grandfather his <i>shechita</i> knife - my grandfather went years without touching meat until innovations allowed for importing from Seattle or California.<br />
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I remember reading Holocaust memoirs and interviews conducted with my grandparents. At one point, my grandfather mentioned that as a young adolescent in Europe (before the war) he had "rebelled" and experimented with certain behaviors that ran counter to observant Judaism. For a long time I was unsettled by this anomalous "blip" in his lifetime, which didn't seem congruent with the man I knew and had heard about, growing up. But then I realized that this was precisely in line with who my grandfather was, as he exemplified the rebellious attitude that was necessary so many years later in America to survive and thrive as a religious Jew against the zeitgeist of acculturation. Perhaps as a youngster it manifested as inward facing rebellion against his own upbringing but ultimately he figured out how to channel it in the healthiest way...<br />
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Today, it is also somewhat an act of rebellion to live as Jews, indeed to bring children into the world, one that seems to be coming apart at the seams at times. But <i>ma'aseh Avot siman l'Banim</i>, and as we read the portions of the Torah at this time of year, that's all we have. We learn from our forbears' actions, at the way the <i>Avot </i>went against the grain amid a world that was chaotic and idolatrous and didn't allow themselves to be swayed left or right.<br />
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There is an exhortation to ask <i>masai yagi'u ma'asai l'ma'asai Avosai, Avrohom Yitzchok v'Ya'akov</i>? If one can say such a thing, I would recommend to my newborn son - indeed, <i>all</i> of my children that they need not look that far back. They already have strong, courageous role models a generation back in our grandparents.<br />
<br />
May they bring honor to all of their namesakes.Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-53230454860071357612014-11-02T15:50:00.001-05:002014-11-02T16:17:56.810-05:00Moishele Good Shabbos<header class="_4g33 _5qc1" style="display: -webkit-box; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 10px 10px 0px;"><div class="_4g34 _5i2i _52we" style="display: -webkit-box; -webkit-box-align: center; -webkit-box-flex: 1; width: 0px;"><div class="_5xu4" style="-webkit-box-flex: 1;"><div class="_4g33 _52wc" style="display: -webkit-box; -webkit-box-align: start;"><div class="_4g34" style="-webkit-box-flex: 1; width: 0px;"><h3 class="_52jd _52jb _52jg _5qc3" data-gt="{"tn":"C"}" style="margin: 0px; padding: 1px 0px 3px; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: 17px;">From Reb Shlomo Katz's Facebook page: </span></h3><h3 class="_52jd _52jb _52jg _5qc3" data-gt="{"tn":"C"}" style="margin: 0px; padding: 1px 0px 3px; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: 17px;"><br></span></h3><h3 class="_52jd _52jb _52jg _5qc3" data-gt="{"tn":"C"}" style="margin: 0px; padding: 1px 0px 3px; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: 17px;">Dearest Friends,</span></h3></div></div></div></div></header><div class="_5rgu" style="padding: 0px 10px;"><div class="msg _599f _5t8z" style="margin: 8px 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A good story takes you back in time.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A holy story doesn't have to, it keeps on taking place.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="x-apple-data-detectors://1" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="1" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Tonight</a> is the yahrzeit of R’ Moshe Heschel, also (and mainly) known as Moishele Good Shabbos.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br>While attending a wedding of dear friends just a few years ago, our lives changed forever. Before telling you exactly why, PLEASE refresh your memory, and open your hearts to one of the most powerful moments in Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach’s life.<br><br>Reb Shlomo ztz'l:<br><br>I don’t want to tell you sad stories, it's not really sad, maybe a little bit, but it’s a gevalt. Every person needs a Rebbe. Sometimes you meet somebody and it mamesh reaches you so much that it mamesh carries you your whole life. So one of my Rebbes, which I saw just twice or three times in my life, was a Yid and his name was Reb Moshe.<br><br>My father was a Rabbi in Baden Bei Din, in Austria, and here comes 1938. I don’t want to mention their name, the other side began to take over. In Germany it was not so dangerous yet to walk on the street, but in Vienna it was mamesh dangerous from the first day on. Yidden couldn’t go to shul anymore, especially my father.<br><br>So on Shabbos morning it was only dangerous from <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://2" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="2" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">8 o’clock</a> on, but <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://3" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="3" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">between 5am and 8am</a> it was less dangerous, and my father would make a minyan in the house. People would come <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://4" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="4" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">at six o’clock</a> and would mamesh daven so fast. Kriyas Hatorah would also go by real fast because everyone wanted to be home before 8.<br><br>My brother and I were little kids. When you don’t see people all week long, you are mamesh hungry to see a person. So I remember my twin brother and I, we were nearly up all <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://5" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="5" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Friday night</a>. We couldn’t wait, we wanted to open the door for the minyan that would come in the morning.<br><br>There was usually a knock at the door, and we would see a yid standing there with such fear. I would open the door just a little bit and he would slip through the door, and then I would close it real fast.<br><br>But then one Shabbos, I remember it was Parshas Bamidbar. There was a knock, and I went to open the door. I’ll never forget it. I see a Yid with little peyis, and little beard. But this yid? He’s not afraid. He started singing:<br><br>Good Shabbos good Shabbos. Good Shabbos good Shabbos, Good Shabbos good Shabbos, Good Shabbos good Shabbos, Good Shabbos good Shabbos, Good Shabbos good Shabbos, Oy Good Shabbos good Shabbos, Good Shabbos.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">(<a href="https://m.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fcarlebach-legacy%2Fmoishele-good-shabbos-niggun&h=sAQGZT1QH&s=1" target="_blank" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">https://soundcloud.com/carlebach-legacy/moishele-good-shabbos-niggun</a>)<br><br>This Yid was mamesh in another world.<br><br>He walked in and he walks up and down and the whole time he is singing Good Shabbos good Shabbos.<br><br>Then he turns to me, I’m a little boy and he says to me in Yiddish, “what is your name, what is your name,”<br><br>I didn’t want to G-d forbid stop the melody, so I answered him back singing, “my name is Shlomo, what is your name.”<br><br>He said “Moishele, Good Shabbos, Good Shabbos, Good Shabbos, Good Shabbos, Oy Good Shabbos, Good Shabbos, Good Shabbos.”<br><br>So my brother and I called him “Moishele Good Shabbos”.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br>This Moishele came in for the minyan and we began to daven fast. Basically when it comes to Nishmas Kol Chai you are not permitted to talk, but obviously Reb Moishele, just couldn’t hold back. He said to the chazzan 'prayers are supposed to go up but the way you are davening is making everything go down because you are davening so fast.' And he was crying. ‘Yiddelach’, he says, ‘maybe this is the last Shabbos we will have in our lives. Is this the way to say <i>Nishmas Kol Chai</i>?<br><br>So the chazzan said, ‘I don’t know any better’.<br><br>I’ll remember it till Mashiach is coming. Moishele walks to the amud.<br><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He started singing: <i>Nishmas Kol Chai Tevarech Es Shimcha Hashem Elokeinu Veru'ach Kol Basar Tefa'er Useromem</i>... and he was using the same tune he walked into the house singing.<br><br>But you know friends, he davened the whole davening with this niggun. The repetition, kedushah, everything. Then they read the Torah, and by that time it was already <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://7" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="7" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">10:30</a>but nobody mamesh cared. Moishele mamesh lifted up everyone, nobody had fear anymore.<br><br>Finally the davening was over at around 11 and my mother brought in wine to make Kiddush. Now I want you to know, the windows were always closed and the shades were down. Moishele says, ‘when you make Kiddush, you have to open the windows. You have to say Kiddush for the whole world’.<br><br>People started saying ‘Moishele, this is just too much. The people in the street want to kill us’.<br><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">‘Who are they’ Moishele says, ‘the children of Esav? they are our cousins. You know why Esav is Esav? Because he forgot what Shabbos is. Maybe if some Yid would scream V’shamru B’Nei Yisrael Es Hashabbos, maybe Esav will remember what he learned by his father Yitzchak’.<br><br><br>He opened the windows and Moishele was standing by the window. You could mamesh see the Germans walking up and down the street. He mamesh had the wine outside of the window and he was singing with the same melody:<br><br>“V’shamru B’nei Yisroel Ess haShabbos…..”<br><br><br>After davening my parents invited him to eat with us and Moishele began telling us his story, with so much tzniy’us and anava (modesty), half telling half not telling. ‘I want you to know’ he says, ‘I am on the black list of the Germans’. It was then that my family realizes that we recognized Moishele. His picture was on every street corner. It said 'the most wanted Jew by the Furor.' What was his crime? If you remember, thousands of Yidden were arrested and nebech, their wives and children were dying from hunger. Moishele was up all night carrying food to every house.<br><br>This was Parshas Bamidbar, and on Pesach (approximately two months prior) he brought matza to two thousand families in Vienna.<br><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He told us that one night they caught him and hit him over the head but at the last moment, he said that the Ribbono Shel Olam gave him strength and somehow managed to turn away and run off. ‘So during the day I cannot walk on the street, so I’ll stay here till Shabbos goes out’.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br>Before he left he turned to us and said ‘I want to come again, most probably I’ll come <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://8" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="8" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Wednesday night</a>’. Now friends, I want you to know how shabbosdik he was. He says ‘I’ll come <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://9" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="9" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Wednesday night</a> and it will be around <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://10" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="10" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">4 o’clock</a> in the morning and I will knock on the door seven times l’Kovod Shabbos (in honor of Shabbos) and you will know it's me’.<br><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="x-apple-data-detectors://11" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="11" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Wednesday night</a> came and I mamesh could not sleep all night, waiting for Moishele Good Shabbos to come.<br><br>At around <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://12" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="12" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">4:30</a> we hear mamesh a subtle knock, seven times. We open the door and Moishele is standing by the door singing:<br><br>Good Shabbos, Good Shabbos, Good Shabbos, Good Shabbos, Good Shabbos, Good Shabbos, Good Shabbos<br><br><br>We asked him where is this niggun from. Moishele told us that he was in Lublin on Rosh Hashana, davening with the Breslover chassidim. He heard this Niggun from the old chassidim who told him this was the niggun which Reb Nachman himself davened too. It was the first time we ever heard of Reb Nachman.<br><br>He stayed in our house all night long singing. That was the last time I saw him.<br><br>We left for America and my brother I went to Mesivtah Toras VaDa'as. Everyone that came to the Mesivtah … we mamesh taught them Moishele’s Niggun.<br><br><br><br>Later on I had the privilege of meeting so many young people, especially in San Francisco. I had the house of love and prayer, it was a gevalt. I want you to know, this niggun turned on hundreds of thousands of people to Shabbos. Not to be believed.<br><br>The most important thing is that I taught all those kids that even <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://13" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="13" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">on Wednesday night</a> we say good Shabbos. We are living in an age before Mashiach, we cannot wait till Shabbos to say good Shabbos. You can say good Shabbos all the time.<br><br><br>Anyway, this all took place 1938, and in the meantime, time is flying. And I don’t want to tell you bad things but just open your hearts. A few years ago I was walking on the street in Tel Aviv on Ben Yehuda by street, by the Yarkon river. Suddenly a Yiddele from Vienna see me. ‘Aren’t you Shlomo Carlebach’, and I said ‘yes’. 'Do you remember Moishele, you know, Moishele from Vienna?'<br><br><br>Somehow it struck me and I said, ‘you mean Moishele Good Shabbos? Is he still alive?’<br><br>He says to me, ‘there’s a little park by the river, let’s walk down there and I’ll tell you the story.<br><br>I want you to know, I was one the closest friends of Moishele good Shabbos.<br><br>(By the way, I thought my brother and I were the only ones who called him Moishele good Shabbos. Obviously everyone called him that. All of Vienna called him Moishele good Shabbos)</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br>Moishele finally got himself a false passport, an English passport. Moishele had two children, a little boy and a little girl. He, his wife and two children were sitting on the train leaving Austria, with a passport to go to London. And this yidele says 'I was there on the train'. His wife kept on begging him Moishele, ‘please don’t sing’, and he was singing this niggun nonstop. ‘Please’, she said, ‘don’t make any noise. Wait until we go out of the border’.<br><br>The train is slowly leaving, but Moishele couldn’t hold back. ‘I have to sing Good Shabbos one more time to say so long to Vienna, I have to say goodbye to the city where my family had so many high moments on Shabbos’. He opened the window and started singing one last time ‘Good Shabbos Good Shabbos Good Shabbos Good Shabbos’.<br><br>The most heartbreaking thing happened. Since his picture was all over the city, one of the people on the train recognized him and called over one of the Germans. They stopped the train and dragged off Moishele. ‘And I swear to you’, this yidele told me. ‘Moishele didn’t stop singing Good Shabbos till that final whip which killed him’.<br><br>Now I want you to know something incredible.<br><br>A few years later, I was supposed to go to do a concert in Manchester on Sunday. and the way to go to the concert was that I had to leave Tel Aviv <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://14" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="14" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Friday morning</a> and I was thinking of going to London and then Sunday I would go to Manchester.<br><br>While we are flying, they announce that there is a gas strike in London and they are landing in Zürich. Anybody who wants to go to London when they get to Zürich - they would take care of it and it would be a minimum16 hour delay, <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://15" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="15" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">on Friday afternoon</a>.<br><br>So one Yid who was sitting next to me says ‘why don’t you got to Antwerp for Shabbos and from there, there will be a ship that leaves <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://16" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="16" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">at six o’clock</a> in the morning and gets to London at 12 and from there go to Manchester’. This Yid who is sitting next to me on the plane invites me for Shabbos and I say yes, so I end up in Antwerp.<br><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It’s two hours before Shabbos, and I’m on the streets of Antwerp. Suddenly, someone walks up to me, I know this face, but I didn’t know who this person was. He was so sweet. He says to meet, ‘Shloime’le, come to my house for Shabbos’.<br><br>I told him ‘Thank you zise yidele, I’m already going to this Yiddele who I met on the plane but give me your telephone, if I have a Melaveh malka I’ll invite you’. So he writes down his name, Lazer Heschel.<br><br>After he left I said, I asked my host ‘who is this Heschel’. He said to me, ‘don’t you know, he’s the son of Moishe Heschel, Moishele Good Shabbos’.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Gevalt, I couldn’t believe it.<br><br>We have a Melaveh malka, and this Lazer Heschel shows up. I asked him, ‘do you know your tatty’s niggun?’</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">‘What niggun’ he says to me.<br><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The most heartbreaking thing was that he was too small to remember. Suddenly it became so clear to me that the whole gas strike in London was only that I should be in Antwerp and I gave him over his father's niggun.<br><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And then I remembered.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br>The last time I saw Moishele, before he walked out he was standing by the door for a long time and he sang with the his same niggun<br><br>“Tzur Yisroel Tzur Yisroel Kume Be'ezras Yisrael Ufdei Chinumecha Yehuda Veyisroel.…”<br><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He looked at us and said ‘promise me you will teach this Niggun to everyone you meet. Teach your children’, and then he said ‘teach my children’.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">What do we know friends?</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br><br>******<br><br><br>Back to 2010.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We were invited to the wedding of dear friends which took place in the outskirts of Beit Shemesh.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The wedding was awesome. The colorful range of Shtreimels and hippies singing and dancing together was .<br><br>Our dear friend and teacher, R' Sholom Brodt had the zchus to marry off the couple.<br><br>After the chuppa, a young chassidishe yid, a princely looking chassid came up to R Sholom asking him if he was using the tune of Moishele Good Shabbos for the brachas under the chuppa. R Sholom said yes and asked him why he is asking.<br><br><br>'I am Moishele great-grandson, it's my great-grandfather's Niggun, how do you know this niggun' replied this yid.<br><br><br>We all began to come up to this very young, shy and humbled yid. We couldn’t believe it… we felt we were all part of the story. One by one, we came up to him, bursting with utter simcha and total amazement. This chassid never saw anything like this, and hinted to me that this was very overwhelming for him.<br><br><br>How do I begin to explain to him who his great-grandfather is to us, and to thousands and thousands more? How do I begin to explain to him that thousands of yiddelach daven to his great-grandfather's niggun every day, every Shabbos, every holiday? How do I begin to give over to him who his great-grandfather was to our Rebbe?<br><br><br>He approached me a few minutes later and asked me if I was driving back home, and if I had room in the car for him, his wife and two children. Crazily enough, he only lives 15 minutes away from us. I was humbled beyond belief by the thought of driving him and his family home.<br><br><br>As we closed the door of the car, and a 25 minute ride approaching us, I began to seriously feel Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Succos, all at once. It was so beyond my wife and myself.<br><br><br>But then, thank G-d I remembered I had the audio of Reb Shlomo telling over the whole story of Moishele Good Shabbos. We put it on - and literally felt that we were being part of witnessing the past, present and future all meet in holy oneness.<br><br>This chassid, whose name is Eliezer Heshel, the son of Moshe Heshel, the son of Eliezer Heshel, the son of Moishele Heshel – thee Moishele good Shabbos… he had never heard the story before. He knew some facts and some stories about his great grandfather, but other than being familiar with the tune… he didn’t know much more.<br><br>He sat behind me, and all I could hear while Reb Shlomo ztz'l was davening away in the backround, was Moishele's great-grandson's amazement. Pshhhh…psssss. He was literally going out of his mind.<br><br><br>His wife (who is related to the kalla of the wedding we were at) gave me their home number. Eliezer told me that they have a picture in an old family picture album… one picture of their great-grandfather. He is going to dig it out of the storage in his parents house, and get it to us.<br><br>As he got out of the car and was about to walk into his home, he turned to me and said 'May the zchus of my great-grandfather Moishele stand for you, your family and your friends forever.'<br><br><br>I spoke to him a few nights later, and he told me that all they know is that Moishele's ashes are buried somewhere in Vienna. He then told me that Moishele's yahrtzeit is coming up, the tenth of Cheshvan, just six days before our Rebbe's yahzrteit.<br><br><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">‘Come by, I think I found something for you’.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I drove to his house with utmost excitement, wondering what he found.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The picture attached is what he gave me, a picture of his great-grandfather, Moishele Good Shabbos.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The eyes say it all.<br><br><br>Good Shabbos Good Shabbos<br><br><br>Shlomo & Bina Katz</span></p><div><br></div></div></div>Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-9660676675095514572014-10-28T13:24:00.000-04:002014-10-28T16:07:23.839-04:00ReBound...<i>Today is the 4th of </i>Ram<i> </i>Cheshvan<i>, the anniversary of death for the </i>Rebbe<i> of Piaseczna and all the other </i>kedoshim<i> that were part of the liquidation of the Trawniki labor camp.</i><br>
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So what am I missing? Simply to be a Jew. I see myself as a self portrait...Just one thing is missing: the soul. </blockquote>
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God! Master of the World, Who sees my innermost secrets! Before You I confess. You I beseech! I feel so cast aside and distanced from You and from Your holy Presence! Help me - I want to become a simple Jew! </blockquote>
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God! Save me from wasting the rest of my years and chasing the illusions of life! Draw me closer and bring me into Your innermost Presence! Bind me to You forever and ever in wealth of spirit and soul! - Rav Kalonymous Kalman, <i>Tzav v'Ziruz</i></blockquote>
Oh, Rebbe...<br>
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How is it that every word of your holy writings seems to speak directly to my core, the root of my <i>neshama</i>? No matter what my situation is at the moment I can find relevance in your wisdom.<br>
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I, too, want to be a Jew.<br>
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Unlike you, I am far from perfect, if not drastically so. So much so that I hesitate to look to you, to bind myself to your teachings and legacy, so as not to sully your reputation and <i>zchuyot</i> by association.<br>
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In honor of your <i>yahrtzeit</i>, I wanted to do <i>something</i> different, to separate this day from other days. But even that was a challenge that I struggled to surpass. So instead I decided to serve HaShem with simplicity today. To just pray to Him as I am. To be as real and honest as possible - accepting where I am but not resigned to the position - so that I can look forward, seek beyond the sky and clouds, and get a glimpse of the Throne of Glory and the Almighty King.<br>
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And maybe, you'll be sitting there as well, basking in the Divine. And you'll have some <i>nachas</i> from me...<br>
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<i>Behold, I attach myself in my prayers, to all the true </i>tzadikim <i>in our generation, as well as to all the holy </i>tzadikim <i>who rest in the earth. -- And specifically, to my holy Rebbe, the Sacred Fire Rav Kalonymous Kalman ben R' Eliezer and Chana Bracha, may his memory shield us, may God avenge his blood.</i>Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-63596882894789820932014-10-21T10:23:00.001-04:002014-10-21T10:23:04.531-04:00The Ocean of TearsText courtesy of Dixie Yid; Rav Moshe Weinberger said this story over a few years back at the end of <i>Pesach</i>. It's been on my mind a lot lately.<div><br></div><div><div style="text-align: start;"><i style="text-align: justify; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">There's an amazing story about what happened after Reb Ytzchok Vorker was Niftar. </i></div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="text-align: justify;"></span><div style="text-align: start;"><i style="text-align: justify; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Reb Yitzchok Vorker was very close to Reb Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. After his fathers passing, Reb Mendel of Vorka was very upset that his father had not communicated with him at all, not even in a dream. Some time after the shiva, he decided to go talk to his father's close friend, Reb Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. </i></div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="text-align: justify;"></span><div style="text-align: start;"><i style="text-align: justify; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When he got there the Kotzker asked him what his father had said. Reb Mendel told him there had been only silence. The Kotzker then said that he he had also heard nothing from the Rebbe, so he decided to go look for him in Shomayim. By purifying himself and using certain names of Hashem, he had been able to ascend to there. He was able reach the Heichal (palace) of the Avos. He asked if they had seen Reb Yitzchok of Vorke. They answered that he had been there but left. After that he had gone to see Moshe Rabbeinu ע"ה, but he received the same answer. The Kotsker then explained that he had gone from Heichal to Heichal visiting all the greatest Tzaddikim and everywhere he received the same answer "he was here but he left". </i></div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="text-align: justify;"></span><div style="text-align: start;"><i style="text-align: justify; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Growing increasingly desperate, the Kotzker had gone through unbelievable difficulties and trials, but was finally able to make it all the way up in Shamayim, to the Ken HaTzippor (the Palace of the Bird's Nest), where Moshiach sits and waits to bring the Geulah. And there he had asked Moshiach himself if he had seen Reb Yitzchok of Vorke. But the answer was the same "he was here but he left". The Kotsker asked what he could do to find him, and was told to look for him past the great forest that lies at the far edge of Shomayim. He started in that direction and soon found the thickest, darkest forest he had ever seen. It was extremely difficult to get through it, but with great effort he was able to make it. He finally reached a great ocean, with enormous and frightening waves all the way up to the highest levels. There he saw an old Jew with a shtekel, a walking stick, sitting perched on a cliff overlooking the frightening sea. He was sitting there quietly looking at the waves. The Kotzker got closer and realized it was his friend Reb Yitzchok of Vorka. </i></div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="text-align: justify;"></span><div style="text-align: start;"><i style="text-align: justify; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He approached him and asked him "Reb Yitzchok, what are you doing here? You could be with the Avos or in a palace learning Torah with Rabbi Akiva and Moshe Rabbeinu. I looked for you all over, in the places that are fit for a Tzaddik to reap the rewards of his place in the world to come. Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Moshe Rabbeinu, even Moshiach are looking for you. What are you doing here?" And Rav Yitzchok answered "Yes, I was by all of those places but I couldn’t stay there yet. So I left and I came here." He then asked "Do you know what this ocean is?" The two Tzadikim stared at the waves loudly crashing below them as they stood atop the rocks above.</i></div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="text-align: justify;"></span><div style="text-align: start;"><i style="text-align: justify; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Reb Yitzchak explained that the ocean was made of all the tears the Jewish people have shed throughout the years of their bitter Galus. "And I vowed to Hashem not to move from this place until the Galus is over and all the Jewish tears are wiped away". </i></div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="text-align: justify;"></span><div style="text-align: start;"><i style="text-align: justify; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We need to understand how much each of our tears mean to Hashem. </i></div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="text-align: justify;"></span><div style="text-align: start;"><i style="text-align: justify; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rav Yitzchok D'vorka kept silent in his last days in the aspect of "מא תיצעק אלי" (Why do you cry out to Me?), of "ואתם תחרישון" (and you will be silent). He was able to understand the times of "B'almim" because he had spent his whole life living with "B'eilim", doing for others and never giving up on a Jew. He waits silently by the Ocean of Tears, crying together with us as we await the thunderous end of the years of silence.</i></div></div>Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-44789437427140149482014-10-20T14:28:00.000-04:002014-10-20T14:28:03.450-04:00ZUSHA: EP release announcement/review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I am pleased to help spread the word that <i><a href="http://www.zusha.com/">ZUSHA</a></i> is set to release their debut EP this coming week, October 28th; a special release party is scheduled for the Sunday prior to that with folk singer Levi Robin.</div>
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<i>ZUSHA</i> is guitarist Zacharia Goldschmiedt, percussionist Elisha Mlotek and singer Shlomo Gaisin. These three friends combine their energies and draw from a wealth of influences to create a sound that is at once familiar and fresh. A mix of world music combined with the heart and soul of <i>chassidut</i>, <i>ZUSHA</i>'s eponymous EP is a welcome addition to my playlist.<br />
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Gaisin (who may be familiar to readers as half of the creative team behind JudaBlue) has demonstrated considerable growth as a vocalist. His soulful crooning has a transcendent effect as the tracks progress from a simple setup into a melodical exploration that almost begs the listener to sway along with the music. Most of the tracks are <i>niggunim</i>, wordless meditations that provide a tapestry upon which the listener can project his own personal meaning. My only real criticism at this point is directed toward the three tracks that have lyrics: while the music/lyrical content are indeed complementary, I always struggle when I hear the same verses/lyrics used time and again (the second track "Peace" uses the oft-repeated expression of Rebbe Nachman <i>Ein yi'ush b'Olam b'chlal </i>as one example). I recognize that the causal link is because there is something significant about those particular expressions, but it can also be indicative of a superficial familiarity with the source material. But I digress - young musicians becoming drawn in to the world of <i>chassidut </i>is a good thing, and I choose to view this as an expression of neophyte excitement.<br />
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"Yoel's Niggun" evoked strong feelings that continued long after the initial listen; the best way to describe it is <i>hirhurei Teshuva</i>, making me glad I heard it before <i>Hoshana Rabbah. </i>The final track "Tzion" is a personal favorite; the <i>a capella</i> version below is only a taste a what it is.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="392" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/AGIFVq3W874" width="697"></iframe><br />
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One last comment: the band's bio describes them as neo-Chassidic, which is more often a term used to describe groups in the Renewal movement and other groups outside of Orthodoxy. Association is a strong thing, and I don't identify with the need to distinguish myself as a neo-Chassid. Just an observation.<br />
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Overall, the debut EP is a strong offering, and I'm looking forward to see what the group does after their tour following the release.<br />
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<br />Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-5086374481136556622014-10-07T23:37:00.001-04:002014-10-08T10:39:24.429-04:00Sukkat shalom...״וחמושים עלו בני ישראל...״ (שמות יג:יז )<div><br></div><div>Rav Tzvi Meir Zilberberg quotes the <i>sefarim hakedoshim</i> that explain that "<i>chamushim</i>" (armed) has the root word חמש, which serves as an acronym that reminds us of the three major festivals. Pesach is the time of חירותינו; Shavuot is מתן תורתינו; and Sukkot is known as שמחתינו. These three descriptions in fact refer to the different "weaponry" we Jews have at our disposal - the last one which is associated with Sukkot is the "skill" of joy and comes to us as we draw ever closer to the days of Moshiach. An emphasis needs to be placed on this particular quality as we encounter a progressively darker world.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm reminded of this every year as we emerge from the Days of Awe and segue into the whirlwind of activity that is the month if Tishrei. It resonates with me especially now as I attempt to find balance amid the many aspects of my life that constantly vie for my attention.</div><div><br></div><div>I had a difficult time preparing adequately for the <i>Yomim Nora'im</i>; a part of that is definitely attributed to the consequences of moving further away from a time when I was immersed in relatively unfettered pursuit of spirituality of my <i>yeshiva </i>years, but it's not only that. Husbandry, parenthood, professional responsibilities, and even the obligation of maintaining the rigorous schedule of <i>Daf yomi</i> all tend to eclipse my other <i>limmudim</i>. I find it considerably more difficult to find time to learn the things that speak to my <i>shoresh neshama</i> although audio <i>shiurim</i> do provide an outlet.</div><div><br></div><div>I also become increasingly, painfully aware of my limitations and weaknesses in both the <i>Bein Adam l'makom </i>and <i>l'chaveiro</i> areas. My davening hasn't improved, and I still find myself thinking petty thoughts about my peers even if I hold myself back from reacting to them.</div><div><br></div><div>Moreover, I find myself in unfamiliar positions, perceived as a representative of the mainstream and an authority figure in the drop-in center among not only the kids we work with but my fellow volunteers. I have to struggle with an urge to "show" that I'm <i>not</i> the Man and it's surreal.</div><div><br></div><div>I went into Rosh HaShana feeling somewhat low; the first day was so difficult. The second day a felt a slight lifting of my spirit, but nothing that raised my spiritual Geiger counter needle significantly.</div><div><br></div><div>Yom Kippur was a mix. I found myself unable at times to concentrate even marginally, and that hurt. Surrounded by people shedding tears even as a conceit (as recommended regarding <i>Ne'ila</i>), I couldn't bring myself to do so, either.</div><div><br></div><div>But last night I went to purchase my <i>lulav </i>and <i>etrog</i>. I buy from a relative of my wife's who is a special person, a genuinely nice <i>talmid chacham</i> who enjoys what he is doing and desks with people with infinite patience. We discussed <i>Sukkot</i>, <i>shmitta</i>, and a number of topics as we looked for "my" <i>lulav. </i>The whole process took a little less than an hour, but at the end as I left with my new <i>minim</i> (species), I felt confident that I had found the right match. Inexplicably, I felt a sensation of lightness as a returned to my car and carefully placed the lulav in the passenger side. Something about preparing for the <i>mitzvot</i> of the <i>Chag </i>gives me a lift; late last night I prepared the rings that we use to bind the <i>lulav</i> and the process was a meditative one.</div><div><br></div><div><i>Sukkot</i> shares a similar quality with the <i>mitzvot</i> of living in the Holy Land and <i>mikvah</i> - all three are performed by involving the entire body in the act. The seven species are a prominent theme in the decor of the Sukkah, and serve to remind us of where we really belong. All these things fill me with a feeling of nostalgia, and as I spend the majority of my time in the Sukkah over the course of the <i>Chag </i>this little hut becomes more of a refuge for me from all of the insanity of the world throughout the year.</div><div><br></div><div>I think Sukkot has displaced Chanukah as my favorite holiday...<br><div><div><div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div>Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-54755543597926317742014-09-01T09:48:00.001-04:002014-09-01T09:48:12.438-04:00Open Letter: Fresh Starts<div>I don't know if you left yet and whether or not you'll get this, but I just wanted to wish you lots of success in this upcoming school year. I hope you're excited about the new opportunity in a school where very few (if any) people know you; I remember that that was one of the things you complained about regarding schools in our more immediate area - that the reputation resulting from your family's problems follows you wherever you go. Hopefully you've found that anonymity and can use it to your advantage to grow. </div><div>You had a great summer - as much as we helped facilitate that by getting you into XXXXXXX, the real credit goes to you for making a conscious decision to seek and have a positive experience. You can do that again, you can continue having great experiences by continuing to make responsible choices. </div><div>It will be hard. Your reality and your environment for the time being basically guarantees that, and there will be many instances when it will be the easier choice to take a path of least resistance and do what's familiar and what "feels better" in the short run. But I promise you that if you keep making the effort to grow, you will become a better person for it. You will mature. You will be more compassionate for others who are struggling, and you may even be a happier person as well.</div><div>It is so important to find a positive role model in your school environment and continue checking in with people. Don't hold things inside where they can fester and eat you up - remember that there is always more room on the outside than there is on the inside. </div><div>You have an opportunity right now in the next few weeks before Rosh HaShana to establish the direction that the coming school year will take for you. While things can always change later on, it's always better to set off in the right direction than to change course later in the journey when you have to struggle against momentum and time lost.</div><div>I'm only telling you this because I believe in you and your desire to do good, to be good. I'm sure you're going to rock!</div><div>With blessings or success and a wonderful year!</div>Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-57907820839752640932014-08-04T13:22:00.001-04:002014-08-04T13:31:23.446-04:00Grandmother's Prayer<i>Lord on high</i><div><i>Let my children be healed</i></div><div><i>Help them to keep their faith in You</i></div><div><i>Soothe their pain</i></div><div><i>Let my grandchildren know no more uprooting</i></div><div><i>Let them run barefoot and joyful</i></div><div><i>Once more</i></div><div><i>In a homeland free of blood-running</i></div><div><i>Stretch out Your wings over them</i></div><div><i>Envelope them in Your protection</i></div><div><i>Enable them to grow and to love</i></div><div><i>In spite of the evil in the world</i></div><div><i>And in our land.</i></div><div><i>Grant our leaders wisdom</i></div><div><i>And integrity</i></div><div><i>Bless our people</i></div><div><i>With peace</i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div>Toby Klein Greenwald, <i>In The Land Of Prayer</i></div>Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-76662465751032262192014-08-03T01:20:00.002-04:002014-08-03T01:20:29.792-04:00Getting Involved<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<i>The house doesn't look </i>so<i> bad; hopefully a few repairs here and there, a fresh coat of paint, and an aggressive marketing angle will make this stately old manor a </i>real<i> catch. </i></div>
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<i>But as the developer goes through one room after another, methodically examining the extent of disrepair he becomes increasingly more discouraged. Every floorboard pried up reveals mold and decay; behind the peeling wallpaper the walls are bowed and sagging. Broken piping juts out of the walls, caked with rot and rust.</i></div>
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<i>The situation is worse than the developer ever could have imagined.</i></div>
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Shortly after <i>Succot </i>this year, a few volunteers and I opened up a drop-in center for adolescents in our community who desperately needed a safe place to hang out and relax, a better alternative to the after-dark haunts of the local playgrounds and convenience store parking lots.</div>
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Until this point I had never been involved with such an undertaking from an "administrative" perspective; the amount of time, effort, actual physical labor and networking that went into our project before we even opened the doors was more than I had anticipated. Beyond that, once we got the program off the ground the activity never ended - I have learned that there is no such thing as maintenance with a drop-in center because there are <i>always</i> new things that crop up vying for attention <i>right now</i>. As much as I had expected to come with the territory, there are so many things that I couldn't have foreseen and this has been a steep learning curve.</div>
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Nonetheless, we've been running since October, and it seems like we're gaining some traction, thank God. Due to the dynamics of the town where we operate, we've had to operate "under the radar" as it were, but slowly but surely the word-of-mouth network has come through and the people who need us know where to find us, how to get in contact with us, and hopefully that they can count on us.</div>
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There are so many problems; it would be foolhardy to think that any <i>one</i> issue causes kids to turn away from Judaism, to turn to drugs and delinquent behavior, and seek solace on the streets.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnPPFeu2eaZjC5ktYcf3gkddcA0VkUN-PoRH9SHw3t_b0OmUEpzIIVzWZacqqYvHhNPN7CcsUj0ce1sCv0rq0OTJgFt_T6j50G_vz4u01UdKY1yzqF8dgozoaASl2BkV5btYUDXGU3DrI/s640/blogger-image-1670060781.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnPPFeu2eaZjC5ktYcf3gkddcA0VkUN-PoRH9SHw3t_b0OmUEpzIIVzWZacqqYvHhNPN7CcsUj0ce1sCv0rq0OTJgFt_T6j50G_vz4u01UdKY1yzqF8dgozoaASl2BkV5btYUDXGU3DrI/s640/blogger-image-1670060781.jpg" /></a>For some it's finances, which can have far reaching effects in all aspects of the child's life. Others have intense dysfunction in their home. Others still suffer abuse, indifference, unavailability of important role models for a number of reasons. Many have some combination of these among many other bio-psycho-social problems that present risk factors in their ability to navigate the already difficult twists and turns of coming-of-age. </div>
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Not a night goes by since we launched that a number of us volunteers aren't on the phone - be it with each other, with a parent (a subject worthy of its own post), or someone else who is involved in some way or another (teacher, therapist, etc.). Many of the volunteers have lost countless hours of sleep, others have had to think on their feet as they struggle to properly assert boundaries without alienating the kids. It's a lively song and dance as we get to know all the steps, all the players, and all the venues. </div>
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My wife and I talk about it constantly - how can we help more? More effectively? </div>
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How can we do it without losing ourselves in the mix? How do you end a conversation with a kid who can't or won't go home? How do you draw the line so that you don't get caught in the middle of the tug-o-war between parent and child?</div>
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It's also been a very humbling experience for me personally.</div>
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I have a natural distaste for politics; anyone who's been a long tome reader would know that. But living in a small community like this (mentality-wise, not population) where there are a few very powerful people who call nearly all the shots and can very quickly squash a venture like ours means learning how to play nice with certain individuals. It's icky, but necessary. This has become even more apparent since the beginning of the summer when were forced to go mobile by our being kicked out of our basement to make way for a day camp. That has forced us to constantly find cost-effective diversions and activities for the kids, ending the night with taking them out for supper which puts us squarely in the center of attention. Because teens are LOUD, thank God! There has been an uptick of negative feedback from "concerned members of the community" about our endeavor since the start of the summer - that can be somewhat demoralizing, especially when we become a convenient scapegoat for angry parents.</div>
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But all this comes with the territory, and no matter how difficult or stressful that it has gotten so far, something in me keeps pushing me to strive...</div>
Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-32770438680310913112014-05-16T15:15:00.001-04:002014-05-16T15:16:18.537-04:00Torah Studies: Bechukotai<p class="co-summary" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">From Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' adaptation of the Lubavitcher Rebbe's <i>Likkutei Sichot</i>:</span></p><p class="co-summary" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The Sidra of Bechukotai begins with the words, “If you walk in My statutes,” and the </span><span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="13948" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%;">Sicha</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> is in effect a profound commentary—almost a meditation—on this single phrase. It explores two central themes: The nature of </span><span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="13608" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%;">Torah</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> learning, and the relationship between faith and understanding.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">1. “My Statutes”</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Our Sidra begins with the phrase, “If you walk in My statutes,”<a class="footnote_ref" name="footnoteRef1a110546" style="outline: 0px; vertical-align: super; text-decoration: underline;">1</a> and the <span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="13949" style="outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">Sifra</span> comments, “One might think that this denotes the fulfillment of the commandments; but when the Torah goes on to state, ‘and you shall keep My commandments and do them’ it is plain that in this passage the fulfillment of the commandments is mentioned. How then must I explain ‘If you walk in My statutes?’ (It means) that you should labor in the study of the Torah.”</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If “you walk in My statutes” referred to the commandments, we could understand why only statutes (<span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="13440" style="outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">chukim</span>) were mentioned, without referring to the other kinds of command, testimonies (edut) and judgments (<span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="11074" style="outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">mishpatim</span>). The reason would then be that these other commands, which have a rational explanation, should be performed with the same unconditional acceptance as statutes, which are beyond our understanding.<a class="footnote_ref" name="footnoteRef2a110546" style="outline: 0px; vertical-align: super; text-decoration: underline;">2</a></span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But since we must understand the phrase as referring to the study of the Torah, why is the word “statutes” used at all? The study of Torah is, for the most part, an act of intellect and understanding. The labor involved is not merely to learn, by rote, the details of the law, but also to understand their reasons, as explained in the Written and Oral Torah.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But, although statutes are beyond our understanding—as <span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="13823" style="outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">Rashi</span> says,<a class="footnote_ref" name="footnoteRef3a110546" style="outline: 0px; vertical-align: super; text-decoration: underline;">3</a> “It is an enactment from before Me; you have no right to speculate about it”—they form only a small part of Torah, the majority of which is susceptible to explanation.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Written Torah itself is small in comparison with the vast mass of oral tradition. And with the Written Torah, understanding is not crucial, so that a man must make the blessing of studying or being called to the reading of the Torah even if he does not understand what is being read. Whereas the Oral Torah does require comprehension if one is to make a blessing over it.<a class="footnote_ref" name="footnoteRef4a110546" style="outline: 0px; vertical-align: super; text-decoration: underline;">4</a></span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The quantitative difference between the Written and Oral Torah is further emphasized by the fact that the Written Torah consists of a specified number of words and verses. There can be no additions. But the Oral Torah is open-ended. A finite quantity has already been revealed. But new discoveries are always possible—“whatever a worthy pupil will come in the future to discover.”<a class="footnote_ref" name="footnoteRef5a110546" style="outline: 0px; vertical-align: super; text-decoration: underline;">5</a>To it, there are no limits.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Similarly, within the Written Torah itself, the “statutes”—laws for which no reason has been communicated to us—form a minority of the commandments.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So the question becomes more forcible: Why in the context of the study of the Torah, are only statutes mentioned? Why cite a minority instance to cover the whole of the Torah? And why, in an activity of understanding, cite precisely those cases which cannot be understood?</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">2. Learning and Engraving</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In <span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="6938" style="outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">Likkutei Torah</span>, the <span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="9407" style="outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">Alter Rebbe</span> explains that the word “statute” (<span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="14555" style="outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">chok</span>) is related to the word “engrave” or “carve out” (<span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="11527" style="outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">chakikah</span>). Thus the phrase in question uses the word “statute” to suggest that study must be an act of “carving out,” engraving the words of Torah on the soul.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">What is special about engraving as a means of writing?</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Firstly, the words are not added, as something extraneous, to the material on which they are written. Rather, they become an integral part of the material itself.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Secondly, and more importantly, the letters have no substance of their own. Their whole existence is in virtue of the material out of which they are carved.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So, when we are told by our verse that our learning should be “engraved” in us, we are not simply being taught that a Jew must become united with the Torah (unlike the superficial learning exemplified by <span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="14489" style="outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">Doeg</span>, of which the Rabbis comment<a class="footnote_ref" name="footnoteRef6a110546" style="outline: 0px; vertical-align: super; text-decoration: underline;">6</a> that it “was only from the surface outward”). For unity can sometimes come about by the joining of two separate things (as ordinary writing brings together ink and paper). And this, in learning, is not enough. Instead it must be “engraved,” meaning that the person learning should have no substance, his ego should have no voice whatsoever. His whole being must be the Torah.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The great example is <span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="13566" style="outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">Moses</span>, the first recipient of the Torah. So complete was his selflessness that he could say, “I will give grass in your field.”<a class="footnote_ref" name="footnoteRef7a110546" style="outline: 0px; vertical-align: super; text-decoration: underline;">7</a> “The Divine Presence spoke through his throat.”<a class="footnote_ref" name="footnoteRef8a110546" style="outline: 0px; vertical-align: super; text-decoration: underline;">8</a> He was a void filled by <span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="14703" style="outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">G-d</span>.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The same is true of Rabbi <span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="12954" style="outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">Shimon</span> <span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="14756" style="outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">ben</span> Yochai, who said: “I have seen superior men and they are but few. If there be a thousand, I and my son are among them. If there be a hundred, I and my son are among them. If only two, they are I and my son. If only one, it is I.”<a class="footnote_ref" name="footnoteRef9a110546" style="outline: 0px; vertical-align: super; text-decoration: underline;">9</a> These are words of self-praise; and self-praise is not the way of the righteous. He could say them only because he was so selfless, so filled with G-d, that it was as if he were speaking about someone else.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">3. The Explanations Related</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">All explanations in the Torah have an inner unity.<a class="footnote_ref" name="footnoteRef10a110546" style="outline: 0px; vertical-align: super; text-decoration: underline;">10</a> And the interpretation of “statutes” as “engraving” complements, rather than conflicts with, its literal sense, as laws which are beyond our understanding.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">To learn Torah as if it were composed entirely of statutes is to study in a state of unconditional commitment. This does not rule out the pursuit of understanding. Indeed, the point is to understand. But only if this is accompanied by commitment. Not “I will do when I understand”; nor “I will understand because I enjoy the search for knowledge”; but “I will do, and because I am commanded, I will try to understand.” This is true “labor,” meaning an effort undertaken beyond the promptings of pleasure.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When learning is of this order, then it becomes “engraved.” The person learning, and the Torah which is learned, become literally one thing.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">4. “Going”</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This explains one part of the phrase “If you walk in My statutes.” But what of the word “walk?” “Walking” or “going”(<em style="outline: 0px;">halicha</em>) suggests a number of levels, and a progression from one level to the next. For example, in the emotional life, one “goes” or ascends from the lower to the higher form of love. But surely in absolute commitment, there are no levels. It seems like a state, rather than a process.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Alter <span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="13972" style="outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">Rebbe</span> writes that “going” relates not to a man’s task but to his reward. If one’s service is, in both senses, “in My statutes,” then the reward is “you shall go”—always higher. And true “going” is without limits.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">5. Faith and Understanding</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">However, the simple reading of the verse takes the whole phrase “if you walk in My statutes” as man’s task, and understands the reward as beginning in the next verse, “Then I will give your rains in their seasons.”</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It is written in Likkutei Torah<a class="footnote_ref" name="footnoteRef11a110546" style="outline: 0px; vertical-align: super; text-decoration: underline;">11</a> that the principal element in faith lies in those levels of G-dliness which are beyond the scope of comprehension. What can be, must be understood. Faith begins where understanding ends.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This is the distinctive quality of Jewish faith. It is a faith beyond, not because of, understanding.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now, intellect has its levels: “Days shall speak, and the multitude of years shall teach wisdom.”<a class="footnote_ref" name="footnoteRef12a110546" style="outline: 0px; vertical-align: super; text-decoration: underline;">12</a>And as one comprehends more, so one raises the threshold of faith. Yesterday’s faith becomes today’s understanding.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This is why “statutes,” too, have their levels. What was incomprehensible yesterday—a statute—is understood today and ceases to be a statute. So, for example, G-d said to Moses, “I will reveal to you the reason behind the Red Heifer.”<a class="footnote_ref" name="footnoteRef13a110546" style="outline: 0px; vertical-align: super; text-decoration: underline;">13</a> The Red Heifer is for us a statute. For Moses it was not, from that point onwards. It was not that Moses lacked the notion of “statute,” but that for him the threshold of incomprehensibility lay higher than for us.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This is the meaning of “If you walk in My statutes.” By “laboring” in the Torah, by straining to the limit, one daily raises one’s understanding, and thus one raises the stage at which a law is a “statute.” This is the “going”: The progression to an ever-higher faith through ever-higher understanding.</span></p><p class="maamor-text" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And the reward is then, “I will give your rains in their season …and make you go upright” which is the unlimited “going, from strength to strength” of the future revelation, and which leads, in turn, to what lies beyond the “going”—“to the day which is wholly <span class="glossary_item" glossary_item="11928" style="outline: 0px; background-image: url(http://w3.beta.chabad.org/images/1/global/glossary_underline.gif); cursor: pointer; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">Shabbat</span> and rest for life everlasting.’’<a class="footnote_ref" name="footnoteRef14a110546" style="outline: 0px; vertical-align: super; text-decoration: underline;">14</a></span></p><div><a class="footnote_ref" name="footnoteRef14a110546" style="outline: 0px; color: inherit; vertical-align: super; line-height: 0; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;"><br></a></div>Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-55398915850959283592014-05-14T01:20:00.000-04:002014-08-03T01:43:26.897-04:00ConfrontationThere he was.<br />
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My archenemy, after all these years. I hadn't been expecting to see him, but finally this epic moment that I had fantasized about for years had arrived.<br />
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For a long time I had imagined this moment when we would meet, so long after the hell this person had put me through, and he would see the well-adjusted individual that I became despite his best efforts.<br />
<a href="http://s420.photobucket.com/user/jewmaican20/media/Inigo25.gif.html" style="clear: left; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt=" photo Inigo25.gif" border="0" src="http://i420.photobucket.com/albums/pp284/jewmaican20/Inigo25.gif" height="187" width="320" /></a><br />
All the put downs, all the criticisms; all the countless times when I was unjustly punished and made to feel generally inferior, for no reason other than I didn't fit his conception of what a good student, a good Jew was. And now we're face to face.<br />
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I saw him before he saw me, and as he turned in my direction I stood up a little straighter, ready to stare him down as he realized who was standing before him. </div>
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His gaze came up and briefly locked with my own. In that millisecond, there was no hint of recognition whatsoever; our eyes met (perhaps) and he just kept going, surveying the room as he entered. </div>
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It was as if he had never seen me before!</div>
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Could the more than ten years since we had last seen each other changed my appearance so much? I didn't think so. Confused, I withdrew and returned to what I was doing before he had approached. But the incident stayed with me the whole time, distracting me. </div>
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How was it possible that this person who was such a source of pain in a particularly difficult point in my life could not even know who I was, these years later? I could pick him out from a crowd with my eyes covered; his every gesture and sound was burned into my memory, but when he saw me a few nights ago it was astonishingly clear that he did not know me. And something tells me that even if I had walked over to him and introduced myself, he might only have a vague recollection of who I was.</div>
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<br /></div>
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And just like that, over a decade's worth of animosity towards this particular individual dissipated. The realization that this is the kind of person who can make someone else suffer so and not forever be bound to that person by the shared experience left me feeling hollow and sad for him. </div>
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I'm a very passionate person and I have a strange habit of forming "relationships" with people when we've shared something. A fellow passenger on a particularly difficult flight - when I see that person in some other context I feel a kinship with him despite not knowing him bcause we've bonded in our shared experience. </div>
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<br /></div>
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With this former Rosh Yeshiva of my high school, I felt a toxic bond, a twisted relationship that stemmed from our constant run-ins. How could I <i>not </i>have affected him some way after all that we'd been through? How could what he had done to me <i>not</i> have left some impression that stayed with him forever? But if that was the case then he would have surely recognized me. The fact that he didn't demonstrated that I <i>really </i>didn't mean anything to him.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
And something in my mind clicked off, just like that. While a lot of my growth since that point in my life has been out of spite for those people from back then who said I would always be a failure I have tried to let go of that and focus on the present. But this one-sided enmity had been raging on deep down inside me. Seeing that I wasn't important to his person then, and certainly not now allowed me to finally give up on this person. I'm not saying that I'm totally healed from those years, but this incident has surely liberated another part of my psyche...</div>
Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-67852508564973535702014-05-08T10:14:00.001-04:002014-05-08T10:14:37.962-04:00Bringing back bakashot: HT to <a href="http://www.torahmusings.com/">Rabbi Gil Student</a>. I think this is great, on so many levels. It really warms the heart to see renewed interest coupled with the resolve to follow up with a sense of urgency. I have an especially soft spot in my heart for my <i>sephardic</i> brethren; I think I was one in a previous incarnation...<br /><br />
<a href="http://www.jta.org/2014/05/06/life-religion/bringing-back-bakashot-young-sephardic-jews-embrace-an-old-musical-tradition#.U2uQx2c8eiY.blogger">Bringing back bakashot: Young Sephardic Jews embrace an old musical tradition</a>Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-16967359880989641742014-05-05T09:00:00.000-04:002014-05-05T09:00:02.852-04:00Dr David Pelcovitz on happiness<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Pg_xbYzYMRI" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
I love this format of videos, which are very similar to the wonderful TED talks that you can totally go "down the rabbit hole" just learning great stuff.<br />
<br />
Dr Pelcovitz is a great guy, not only as a professional, but as a human being. I worked briefly at the Azrieli School of Jewish Education and Administration where Dr Pelcovitz is on the faculty, and had a few opportunities to chat him up. A real <i>mentsch</i> who is doing his part for the <i>klal</i>.Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-62398581386001938322014-05-04T10:35:00.000-04:002014-05-04T10:35:04.835-04:00Aish.com infographic about Israel<a href="http://www.aish.com/jw/me/Israel-by-the-Numbers.html#.U2ZPM-_ErOw.blogger">Israel by the Numbers</a>Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-20392355786418476632014-05-01T13:50:00.002-04:002014-05-01T13:50:43.065-04:00Nesivos Shalom - Erev Shabbos: The Sweetness of Longing<h2>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><i>Courtesy of Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It’s not icing on the cake.
It’s</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> </span><i style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">halachah.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">The emotional component in
readying ourselves for Shabbos is fixed in the literature of <i>halachah.</i><i> </i>Rambam writes[2] “Our Sages
command a person…to envelop himself in his<i> </i><i>talis,</i><i> </i>and sit solemnly, waiting
to receive the presence of Shabbos as if he were going out to receive the
king.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh012v2zEIHGzuyQAX2rXbK-JysuI18wZZBnf3ch3JuTgUjhHOb5bXCFJZjQxboygZwSssDKrXRxkYQ_LKtUJODC9m0e9Ac07-rQSMq1jPRHIOtpOTuRKmvuLpGwxBJhg3qye6TTq4cEEs/s1600/Zucker.Shabbat-Shalom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh012v2zEIHGzuyQAX2rXbK-JysuI18wZZBnf3ch3JuTgUjhHOb5bXCFJZjQxboygZwSssDKrXRxkYQ_LKtUJODC9m0e9Ac07-rQSMq1jPRHIOtpOTuRKmvuLpGwxBJhg3qye6TTq4cEEs/s1600/Zucker.Shabbat-Shalom.jpg" height="400" width="266" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">In the hours immediately
before Shabbos, both the various Worlds and the souls of the departed move to
higher places. How are we to relate to such a time?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">The Gemara provides us with
an important start at an answer. We find [3] two approaches. R. Chanina would
say, “Let us go out to greet the queen- bride.” R. Yanai, on the other hand,
would say, “Come, oh<i> </i><i>kallah;</i><i> </i>come oh<i> </i><i>kallah.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Shabbos is the<i> </i><i>kallah,</i><i> </i>explains the Maharsha,
citing a medrash, because all the days of the week had “mates,” as the six days
of Creation easily form three such “couples.” Shabbos gave the week an odd
number of days. To restore harmony, Shabbos needed a partner, and found one in
the Jewish people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">We experience the fullness
of this marriage on Shabbos itself, which is like<i> </i><i>nisuin.</i><i> </i>We instantly comprehend
that the<i> </i><i>avodah</i><i> </i>of<i> </i><i>erev Shabbos,</i><i> </i>then, is<i> </i><i>kiddushin.</i><i> </i>Shabbos, continues the
Maharsha, is the bride. She is also a queen, in that Bnei Yisrael all become
like royalty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">A groom ordinarily goes out
to greet the<i> </i><i>kallah,</i><i> </i>arriving to ready herself
for the wedding. So did R. Chanina, walking out to greet Shabbos. At the
wedding itself, the <i>chasan,</i><i> </i>ready to formalize the
entrance of the<i> </i><i>kallah</i><i> </i>into the new life they will
build, stands under the<i> </i><i>chupah,</i>and bids the<i> </i><i>kallah</i><i> </i>approach. The entrance of
the kallah into the symbolic house of the<i> </i><i>chupah</i><i> </i>will be followed a short
time later with the groom’s bidding her enter their actual domicile. R. Yanai
took up this role, in his doubled “come, oh<i> </i><i>kallah.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Rabbenu Chananel adds a
nuance to the Gemara’s description of R. Chanina. The Gemara offers that
description in the context of a legal discussion, one that limits liability of
people rushing about on<i> </i><i>erev Shabbos.</i><i> </i>When they inadvertently
damage others, halachah frees them from the obligation to make restitution,
arguing that “they rush about with legal approval.” The Gemara points to R.
Chanina as the source of this legal approval. Rabbenu Chananel paraphrases the
Gemara, and speaks of him as “dancing onwards, proclaiming ‘come, oh<i>kallah.’”</i><i> </i>While we don’t see the
dancing in the words of the Gemara, Rabbenu Chananel did. He understood that
the rushing about sanctioned by Chazal is not born of the pragmatic
considerations of getting much done in a short period of time Friday afternoon.
Rather, it is made of the same stuff as R. Chanina’s Shabbos-greeting ceremony:
emotionally charged, unbridled enthusiasm for the approach of Shabbos, akin to
the emotive release of dance. It was the heart that dictated R. Chanina’s
behavior, not his wristwatch ticking off the little time remaining before<i> </i><i>shkiah.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">The customary recitation of
Shir Ha-Shirim is perhaps the clearest expression of the air of expectancy
surrounding<i> </i><i>erev Shabbos.</i><i> </i>Elsewhere, the loving
relationship between Klal Yisrael and HKBH is framed in terms of the
parent-child relationship. <i>“Banim atem”</i><i> </i>[4]– your are children to
Hashem. Shir Ha-Shirim takes the love to the next level – that of a couple,
both smitten with lovesickness. It is reminiscent of Rambam’s definition of the
proper way to love Hashem: “One should love Hashem with a very great love, so
that his soul should be bound up to His love…as if afflicted by
lovesickness…All of Shir Ha-Shirim is a<i> </i><i>mashal</i><i> </i>to this state.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">More specifically, the
recitation of Shir Ha-Shirim sharply defines the key difference between how we
experience<i> </i><i>erev Shabbos</i><i> </i>relative to Shabbos itself.
If Shabbos is a time of intense<i> </i><i>devekus</i><i> </i>to Hashem, then erev
Shabbos is the time that we are consumed with longing for that<i> </i><i>devekus.</i><i> </i>(This is part of the intent
of the verse [5] “And they will prepare what they bring.” We arrive at Shabbos’<i> </i><i>devekus</i><i> </i>to Hashem only by preparing
ourselves, by anticipating the imminent connection to Hashem through intense
longing.) Within the orbit of love-related feelings, it is longing that most
characterizes the mood of Shir Ha-Shirim.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">The Ohr Ha-Chaim [6]
offered a beautiful mashal for this thought. A king divorced his queen. As far
as all in the realm were concerned, the divorce was final. He would not have
distanced her unless he had completely lost all feeling for her. Their son,
however, suspected otherwise. Speaking to his father, he determined that the
king still had much love for the ex-queen. When he spoke to his mother, he
detected the same feelings of love for her former spouse. To remedy the
situation, he composed two songs or verses. One expressed the love of the king
for the queen, and the second her love for the king. He sent each song to its proper
recipient, and restored the closeness between them. This is why, explained the
Ohr Ha-Chaim, the work is called Shlomo’s Shir Ha-Shirim, and not simply
Shlomo’s<i> </i><i>shir.</i><i> </i>It is literally a song of
songs, a song that merges two songs – one of the King and the other or His
queen. Between the two versions, we understand the bond between Hashem and His
people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">R. Elimelech of Lizhinsk
famously stated that were it not for the sweetness of Shabbos itself, he would
not be able to contain within himself the sweetness of<i> </i><i>erev Shabbos.</i><i> </i>Our approach makes sense of
this. Shabbos and<i> </i><i>erev Shabbos</i><i> </i>each bring us to a
different emotional place. The longing and desire of<i> </i><i>erev Shabbos</i><i> </i>disappear when Shabbos
arrive, because we then achieve the object of our desire, as the longing gives
way to<i> </i><i>devekus!</i><i> </i>Each experience is sweet in
its own way – and potentially overpowering. R. Elimelech meant that he would be
overcome by the strength of the<i> </i><i>erev Shabbos</i><i> </i>feeling if it did not come
to an end by morphing into the very different feeling of Shabbos itself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">We should mention yet one
more aspect of the pre-Shabbos longing. The Ohr Ha-Chaim [7] sees a connection
between the word<i> </i><i>veshamru</i><i> </i>and a similar expression of
“And his father shamar - kept the matter in mind.”[8] Part of our attitude
towards Shabbos should be keeping it in mind at all times. We should look
forward to it at all times during the week, impressing upon ourselves that all
our other activity pales in comparison to the elevated state that we experience
on Shabbos. A Jew should spend his entire week with Shabbos!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">We are instructed in the<i> </i><i>Aseres Ha-Dibros</i><i> </i>to “remember the Shabbos
day.” [9] The commentaries tell us that this means that we should mention it
all through the week.[10] According to our thinking, however, it may mean more
than that. We should live our lives suffused with Shabbos, making Shabbos the
central and most important experience of our week.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">We relate to the land of
Israel in a similar manner. The Gemara[11] [says, “Both he who is born there,
and he who longs to see it.” Here, too, the longing and desire are part of the
mitzvah.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Through our loving
anticipation of Shabbos, we make it the central pillar of our week. By doing
so, we draw from the<i> </i><i>ohr</i><i> </i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">of Shabbos, allowing it to
enter all facets of our lives.</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">[1]
Based on Nesivos Shalom v.2 pgs 40-43<br />
[2] Shabbos 30:2<br />
[3] Bava Kamma 32A<br />
[4] Devarim 14:1<br />
[5] Shemos 16:5<br />
[6] In his Rishon Le-Tziyon on Shir Ha-Shirim<br />
[7] Shemos 31:16<br />
[8] Bereishis 37:11<br />
[9] Shemos 20:8<br />
[10]See Ramban, ibid., that we should count the days of the week towards
Shabbos<br />
[11]Kesubos 75A</span><br />
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Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-531822863431911292014-04-30T11:28:00.001-04:002014-04-30T11:28:57.593-04:00Just opened: The Creative SoulThe <a href="http://thecreativesoul.org/">Creative Soul</a> is a gallery/gathering place/art house where Jewish artists can come together and express their creative energies.<br />
<br />
The curator is <a href="http://www.moullyart.com/">Yitzchok Moully</a>, and features a number of artists from all over.<br />
<br />
The Wall Street Journal had an article about it <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303380004579520331784835804?KEYWORDS=creative+space&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303380004579520331784835804.html%3FKEYWORDS%3Dcreative%2Bspace">here</a>.Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3924559593469631970.post-17236831139399631932014-04-13T10:13:00.001-04:002014-04-14T13:20:28.636-04:00Twenty-nine years a slave It's been a while since I've posted anything original, personal, or meaningful to the blog. A number of (good) things have made my life incredibly busy and so I find myself in front of the computer at increasingly sparser intervals.<div><br></div><div>Also, a number of (not so good) things going on in the world around me have been happening, and to blog would probably equate to blogging about said events. God knows that there is enough commentary out there without me adding to the mix; there's the additional factor that the particular issues at hand are so emotionally laden that they evoke surprising (read: saddening) responses from the most surprising places. While that's not a reason to avoid discussing an issue per se (which often takes us in interesting directions during therapy and makes me "unpopular" with my clients), in this instance it boils down to a matter of <i>toelet</i>, and I just don't see any in addressing an issue without providing/suggesting a solution.</div><div><br></div><div>So I've gone through somewhat of a writer's block, but really it's a resistance to forcing myself to write something. With Pesach approaching however, it's all the moreso important to say a few words in preparation.</div><div><br></div><div>One of my favorite lines in any song comes from Bob Marley, of course:</div><div><br></div><div><i>Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our mind.</i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div>Initially that lyric was my banner of rebellion; later it became a guiding point as I attempted to reintegrate. Still now it's a rubric for my decisions even as I willingly submit to others' in the face of my own inexperience and ignorance.</div><div><br></div><div>And yet, when this time of year comes along - our <i>zman cheiruteinu </i>- I find myself doing more of a spiritual accounting than even during the Days of Awe. After all, this time of year is what Rav Kook calls <i>aviv ha'olam</i>, symbolizing rebirth - and as can be expected I find myself wanting.</div><div><br></div><div>I am still a slave.</div><div><br></div><div>Still a slave to subjective notions of what is right and wrong.</div><div><br></div><div>Still a slave to my own animal soul, my urges and impulses.</div><div><br></div><div>Still a slave to others' perception of me (an irony that has not been lost upon me).</div><div><br></div><div>Still a slave to that smallness of the mind that is so startling clear when I judge others for doing the same.</div><div><br></div><div>Still a slave to all the distractions jockeying for position when I can't even focus on my priorities.</div><div><br></div><div>Still a slave to seeng the world through an egocentric prism, to the effect that even when I'm helping others, I'm gauging how it makes <i>me</i> feel.</div><div><br></div><div>The <i>sefarim hakedoshim </i>describe the Exodus as this singular, sudden event in which God brought us out of bondage without us necessarily doing the necessary actions to merit the redemption. In other words, the velvet rope was lifted an we were ushered through as quickly as possible. We tap back into that every year at this time. Even if we "don't" deserve it, each of us has the opportunity to break the shackles of our own personal <i>shibud</i>.</div><div><br></div><div>So in this time of our freedom, I say another prayer that can hopefully gather up all the orphaned prayers that I've let drift over the past few months. I ask the Holy One to help me out of my own personal slavery, to finally be free; to help all of us get beyond the slave mentality that makes us keep our heads cast down , our backs bent, and out of breath.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Shmuelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623549507370220071noreply@blogger.com0