Editor's Note:
Dear Friend,
Who doesn't love rainbows? They are so beautiful and colorful. Catching sight of them before they fade is exciting.
But did you know that the rainbow has a spectrum of Jewish meaning as well?
In this week’s parshah, Noach, we read that after the epic flood that wiped out the entire known world, G-d showed Noah a rainbow as a sign that He will not destroy the world again. In fact, our sages teach that when a rainbow appears it is a message that our behavior is not so great, and that we really deserve to be flooded again.
For this reason, when you do see one (and I don’t mean the kind your lawn sprinkler makes) there is a unique blessing to say.
And it has another shade, perhaps less known. It is a reflection of G-d’s divine glory, which Ezekiel describes “like the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud on a rainy day.” Because of this, the sages of the Talmud caution that it is disrespectful to stare at a rainbow.
Either way, next time you see a rainbow stop for a moment, reflect on its meaning, and say the special blessing.
May your week be full of bright, shining colors!
Moshe Rosenberg
on behalf of the Chabad.org Editorial Team
Daily Thought:
Be Real
What is your job in this world? It is to be real.
Act real, mean what you say, think and really be thinking, talk to your Creator and let the words flow from your heart. Every cell of your body down to your fingernails should be real.
Yes, everyone knows there are so many things to accomplish in life and everyone agrees it’s better if they’re done with sincerity.
That’s not what’s meant. There’s just one thing you’re here to accomplish: To be real.(Hayom Yom, 20 Adar I.)
This Week's Features:
By Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, The Lubavitcher Rebbe
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2nd of Tammuz, 5716 [June 11, 1956]
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Blessing and Greeting:
I received your letter in which you ask the question "if a soul has come back to earth several times to complete its duty here, when Messiah comes in which form will the soul come back?"
I was pleased to note from your letter that you are taking an interest in your studies and follow the instructions of Torah as you are taught in the Yeshivah in New Haven.
As for your question, it was already asked a very long time ago by one of our great teachers of the Talmud, Rabbi Hizkiah, as mentioned in the holy book "Zohar" (Part 1, page 131a). The answer given there by another great teacher of the Mishnah, Rabbi Jose, is that the soul will come back to life in the body in which it has accomplished Torah and Mitzvoth during her lifetime on this earth, and that a body which did not practice Torah and Mitzvoth on earth will not come back to life. This answer must be considered in the light of a further explanation by the great Rabbi Isaac Luria, who lived about 400 years ago, and is known as Ari (the "Lion"). (About his life and work you may have read in the "Talks and Tales.") The saintly Ari explained that it is almost impossible for a Jew not to fulfill at least some Mitzvoth. Therefore, in accordance with the answer in Zohar, almost all bodies will come back to life. The question then is in which body will the soul return if it had been in more than one body. The answer, strange as it may seem at first glance, is that it will return in all bodies it had inhabited. To understand how this is possible, let us remember that the souls of mankind started from two people, Adam and Eve. Their souls included all the souls of the future generations, in a way a single seed includes in it future generations of trees, fruits, and seeds. In the same way the souls of parents are not just two souls, but they can split up into soul sparks, each of which is in turn a complete soul. Therefore, when a Jew performs a Mitzvah, the body takes part in it and it is no longer "dry wood" that rots away, but it will come back to life with a soul which is a Divine spark, and which was included in the original soul. Thus at the Time of Resurrection (after Messiah will come) all "parts" of a "general" soul will each have a separate body, just as parents will come back to life with all their children.
If you find the above a little difficult to understand, you can ask your teacher to explain to you more fully, or leave the question until you grow older. But you may be sure that no good deed, no Mitzvah, not even a single minute spent in the study of the Torah, is ever lost.
With blessing,
By [signed by the Rebbe's secretary]
BY RABBI MENACHEM M. SCHNEERSON, THE LUBAVITCHER REBBE
From a Letter of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.
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PARSHAH
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How a year plus eleven days makes a year
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
You've designated the weekend for some quality time with your family when the phone rings; naturally, it's an emergency at the office which requires your immediate involvement. You've set aside the evening for volunteer work in your community; instead, you spend it with your neighborhood mechanic attending to another eruption of car trouble.
Few of us, fortunately, have faced a "real" flood in which torrents of water threaten to engulf one's home. But we're all familiar with the experience of being flooded with the cares of material life, of being swamped with all sorts of matters demanding our attention just when we were finally getting down to the things which are truly important and precious to us.
The Chassidic masters explain that this is the contemporary significance of the great Flood which the Torah describes in the seventh and eighth chapters of Genesis. A basic tenet of Chassidic teaching is that the Torah is eternal, its "historical" events ever-present realities in our lives. Noah's Flood is the prototype for a challenge which we all face: the flood of material concerns which threatens to quench the flame of spiritual striving we harbor in our souls.
Indeed, our sages tell us that Noah's Flood began as an ordinary rainfall, which the misdeeds of man caused to escalate into the Flood. In other words, in their proper proportion and context as a regulated means to a higher end, the waters of materiality are a beneficial, life-nurturing rain; but when allowed to overstep their bounds, they become a destructive deluge.
The deeper significance of Noah's Flood is also reflected in the fact that it began and ended in the second month of the Jewish year, the month of Cheshvan.
The first month of the year, the festival-rich month of Tishrei, is wholly devoted to spiritual pursuits: the renewal of our commitment to the Divine Sovereignty on Rosh Hashanah, repenting our failings on Yom Kippur, celebrating our unity as a people and G-d's providence in our lives on Sukkot, rejoicing in our bond with the Torah on Simchat Torah. The following month, Cheshvan, marks our return to the "daily grind" of material life. On Cheshvan rain begins to fall in the Holy Land after the six rainless months of the summer season, signifying the return to a life that derives its nourishment from the earth. It is no coincidence that Cheshvan (also called Mar-Cheshvan -- mar meaning both "bitter" and "water") is the most ordinary of months -- the only month of the year without a single festival or special occasion.
The Jewish Calendar
Noah's Flood commenced on the 17th of Cheshvan in the year 1656 from creation, and ended on Cheshvan 27 of the following year.
The biblical commentaries explain that the Flood lasted exactly one year, and that the 11-day discrepancy in the dates represents the 11-day difference between the solar and lunar years.
This reflects the fact that different components of the calendar are based on a variety of natural cycles which do not easily lend themselves to synchronization. The month derives from the moon's 29.5 day orbit of the earth; the year, from the 365-day solar cycle. The problem is that 12 lunar months add up to 354 days -- eleven days short of the solar year.
Most calendars deal with this discrepancy by simply ignoring one or the other of the celestial timekeepers. For example, the Gregorian Calendar (which has attained near-universal status) is completely solar based. Its 365 days are divided into 12 segments of 30 or 31 days, but these "months" have lost all connection with their original association with the moon. There are also calendars (such as the Moslem Calendar) which are exclusively lunar-based, with months that are faithfully attuned to the phases of the moon. Twelve such months are regarded as a year, but these "years" bear no relation to the solar cycle (a given date in such a calendar will, in certain years, fall in the midst of summer and, in other years, in the dead of winter).
The Jewish calendar is unique in that it endeavors to reconcile the solar and lunar time-streams. By employing a complex 19-year cycle in which months alternate between 29 and 30 days and years alternate between 12 and 13 months, the Jewish calendar sets its months by the moon, its years by the sun, combining lunar time and solar time into a single system while preserving the integrity of each.
For the sun and the moon represent the two sides of a dichotomy which bisects virtually every aspect of our existence -- a dichotomy whose differences we must respect and preserve even as we incorporate them in a cohesive approach to life.
Light and Darkness
On previous occasions, we have explored various aspects of the solar/lunar polarity: the contrast between the surety and consistency of tradition on the one hand, and the yen for flux, innovation and creativity on the other; the male/female dynamic, which imbues us with the passion to give and bestow on the one hand, and the capacity to accept and receive on the other. On this occasion, we shall dwell on another aspect of this cosmic duality: the twinship of spirit and matter.
The spiritual and the material are often equated with light and darkness. Indeed, a number of religions and moral systems regard the spiritual as enlightened, virtuous and desirable, and the physical-material side of life as belonging to the "forces of darkness." The Torah, however, has a different conception of spirituality and materiality -- a conception embodied by the solar/lunar model.
The sun is a luminous body while the moon is a dark lump of matter. Yet both are luminaries. Both serve us as sources of light -- the difference is that the sun's light is self-generated, while the moon illuminates by receiving and reflecting the light of the sun.
Spirituality is a direct effusion of divine light. When studying Torah, praying or performing a mitzvah, we are in direct contact with G-d; we are manifestly revealing His truth in the world. But not every thought of man relates directly to the Divine Wisdom; not every word we utter is a prayer; not every deed we perform is a mitzvah. G-d created us as material creatures, compelled to devote a considerable part of our time and energies to the satisfaction of a multitude of material needs. By necessity and design, much of our life is "lunar," comprised of the "dark matter" of non-holy pursuits.
Dark matter, however, need not mean an absence of light. It can be a moon-dark matter serving as a conduit of light. It's all a matter of positioning. The moon is dark matter positioned in such a way as to convey the light of the sun to places to which it cannot flow directly from its source. Placed in the proper context, the material involvements of life can serve as facilitators of divine truth to places which, in and of themselves, are not in the "direct line" of spirituality and holiness. The proceeds of unavoidable overtime at the workplace can be translated into additional resources for charity; the unplanned trip to the mechanic can be the start of a new friendship and a positive influence on a fellow man.
A Complete Year
Our lives include both a solar and a lunar track -- a course of spiritual achievement as well as a path of material endeavor. These orbits do not run in tandem -- at times they clash, giving rise to dissonance and conflict. The simple solution would be to follow a single route, choosing an exclusively solar or exclusively lunar path through life. But the Jewish calendar does not avail itself of the simple solution.
Our calendar insists that we incorporate both systems in our time-trajectory: that we should cultivate a solar self -- thoughts and feelings, deeds and endeavors, moments and occasions of consummate holiness and spirituality; and that at the same time we should also develop a lunar personality -- a material life which reflects and projects our other, spiritual self.
This is also the lesson implicit in the 365-day duration of Noah's Flood. The deluge of material concerns which threatens to overwhelm our lives can be mastered and sublimated. The Flood can be reconciled with the solar calendar and made part of a "complete year" in which lunar and solar time converge and the moon receives and conveys the light of the sun.
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More in Parshah:
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| • The Survivor (By Yossy Goldman) |  Everybody makes jokes about Noah and his Ark. Bill Cosby has a whole routine on the subject (which I must confess is uncannily faithful to our commentaries' understanding). Then there's the one about Noah being the first stock market manipulator in history -- he floated a company while the whole world was in liquidation! | The Rebbe saw Noah in a far more serious light. Noah was a survivor. | Noah was saved from the deluge of destruction that engulfed his world and his greatest contribution is that he set out to rebuild that world. We don't read about him sitting down and crying or wringing his hands in despair, although I'm sure he had his moments. The critical thing the Bible records is that after Noah emerged from his floating bunker he began the task of rebuilding a shattered world from scratch. He got busy and picked up the pieces and, slowly but surely, society was regenerated. | Only one generation ago a great flood swept over our world. The Nazi plan was for a Final Solution. Every Jew on earth was earmarked for destruction and the Nazis were already planning their Museum of the Extinct Jewish Race. Not one Jew was meant to survive. So even those of us born after the war are also survivors. Even a Jewish child born this morning is a survivor -- because according to Hitler's plan, which tragically nearly succeeded, he or she was not meant to live. | This means that each of us, like Noah, has a moral duty to rebuild the Jewish world. | When I was growing up in Brooklyn, I prayed in a small shul in Crown Heights where every other man at the morning minyan (prayer quorum) bore a holy number on his arm. They were concentration camp inmates and the Germans tattooed those numbers onto their arms. Sadly, today, the ranks of those individuals have been greatly diminished. Every time one of them would roll up his shirt sleeve to put on tefillin, the number was revealed. They seemed to hardly notice it, as if it was nothing special, but to me they were heroes. Not only for surviving the hells of Auschwitz or Dachau but for keeping their faith intact, for still coming to shul, praying to G-d, wearing His tefillin. | Today as I am older and more sensitive to the feelings of fathers and children, of family and friends, those men have gone up much more in my estimation. They have become superheroes. After all they went through, to be able to live normal lives again, to marry or remarry, to bring children into this world, to carry on life, businesses, relationships, are mind boggling achievements. | My own father was not in the camps but he is the only survivor of his entire family from Poland. Some years ago, he recorded his story and recently it was published in book form -- From Shedlitz to Safety: a Young Jew's Journey of Survival. We, his children, never knew half of what he went through. When I imagine him sitting as a teenage refugee in Shanghai, China and discovering that his entire family was wiped out and that he was left all alone in the world, I go numb. How did he continue? How did he stay sane? How did he keep his faith? Thank G-d he did and he started a family all over again, otherwise I wouldn't be here to write these lines. My own father has become a superhero to me. | Says the Rebbe, we all have that same responsibility -- because we are all survivors. | Who will bring Jewish children into the world if not you? Who will study Torah if not you? Who will keep Shabbat? Who will keep the Jewish school afloat? Who will rebuild the Jewish world if not you and I and each and every one of us? | In the smaller country communities of South Africa, where I make my home, there are still small bands of dedicated Jews who come together in someone's home to make a minyan, or who serve as an ad hoc chevra kadisha to bury the Jewish dead according to our tradition. These are not rabbis, cantors or cheder teachers. They are ordinary people. In the big city they would probably not be nearly as involved, but in their small town they know that if they don't do it nobody will. | We need that same conviction wherever we are. | Thank G-d for His mercies in that our world is, to a large degree, being rebuilt. Miraculously, the great centers of Jewish learning are flourishing today once more. But far too many of our brothers and sisters are still outside the circle. Every one of us needs to participate. We are all Noahs. Let us rebuild our world. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| • Children's Math (By Shimon Posner) |  How long since you had to look inside a math book? Because here's a question that might have got by you: | A down payment on a home costs $5,000. | Housing one brain-damaged man for a year costs $20,000. | How many families lose homes to mental retardation? | This extra-credit teaser comes from a Nazi-endorsed schoolbook (currency adjusted). It was the first step in curing society of the unneeded. Shortly after, with the country now ready, beautiful killings ("euthanasia" in Latin) began. | It is comforting to think that Nazis were demons rather than humans. But following their defeat you couldn't find an anti-Semite west of the Elbe. When questioned by Allied troops the mayors around Dachau professed no hard feelings to the Jews. They were not demons; they were people who legalized euthanasia. | Euthanasia makes sense. The animal kingdom, Greek culture and Darwinism all lend their credence. The only one withholding credence is a pesky verse in our parshah forbidding murder and suicide, "for in the image of G-d I have created you." An absurd abstraction in the face of home ownership. | What is this "image" of an allegedly formless being? | Who are you to tell me how to spend my money? | How to run our affairs? | You're nothing but a stranger amongst us. | Do you know the suffering of caring for this person? | Must we foot your bill? Who asked you anyway? | Many if not most Jews of Germany did not see themselves as bearers of any message. Regardless, the messenger with a bad message must be liquidated. | It seems so foreign: jackboots and German shepherds, J’s on Jewish stores, marches in the night. | It is so foreign, so unreal, so out of our context, so un-American. | True, it is also the very opposite of what this country was built upon. But... | Nothing ever happens in a vacuum. | The juxtaposition is so stark that the Talmud equates the lack of procreation with murder and spilling blood... Both at some level deny the G-dliness, the holiness, the sacredness of the human soul and form Always an abstract, vague undercurrent feeds into, and later evolves into, bold statements and policies. Just after this verse about the murder-image thing, follows the verse to be fruitful and multiply. The verse is repetitive and the juxtaposition so stark that the Talmud equates the lack of procreation with murder and spilling blood. Both at some level deny the G-dliness, the holiness, the sacredness of the human soul and form. | Logic it makes. If human image is divine then it must be furthered and multiplied. If it is not multiplied, then the sanctity is diminished -- and on some level -- questioned. | The highest birthrate in the world, I am told, was in the Jewish Displaced Persons Camps of Europe following the war -- a courageous and bold revocation and retort to the Final Solution. | My father was once challenged by a woman, "But I want my girls to have the good things in life, dance classes and party dresses. You can’t give them these things when you have too many kids." | "Would your kids prefer," asked my father, "to have one sister and four party dresses or two sisters and two party dresses?" | I have heard it said that having children could tie up free money. | To not have a child because of financial considerations? | Should we do the math? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| • Noach in a Nutshell |  G‑d instructs Noah—the only righteous man in a world consumed by violence and corruption—to build a large wooden teivah (“ark”), coated within and without with pitch. A great deluge, says G‑d, will wipe out all life from the face of the earth; but the ark will float upon the water, sheltering Noah and his family, and two members (male and female) of each animal species. | Rain falls for 40 days and nights, and the waters churn for 150 days more before calming and beginning to recede. The ark settles on Mount Ararat, and from its window Noah dispatches a raven, and then a series of doves, “to see if the waters were abated from the face of the earth.” When the ground dries completely—exactly one solar year (365 days) after the onset of the Flood—G‑d commands Noah to exit the teivah and repopulate the earth. | Noah builds an altar and offers sacrifices to G‑d. G‑d swears never again to destroy all of mankind because of their deeds, and sets the rainbow as a testimony of His new covenant with man. G‑d also commands Noah regarding the sacredness of life: murder is deemed a capital offense, and while man is permitted to eat the meat of animals, he is forbidden to eat flesh or blood taken from a living animal. | Noah plants a vineyard and becomes drunk on its produce. Two of Noah’s sons, Shem and Japheth, are blessed for covering up their father’s nakedness, while his third son, Ham, is punished for taking advantage of his debasement. | The descendants of Noah remain a single people, with a single language and culture, for ten generations. Then they defy their Creator by building a great tower to symbolize their own invincibility; G‑d confuses their language so that “one does not comprehend the tongue of the other,” causing them to abandon their project and disperse across the face of the earth, splitting into seventy nations. | The Parshah of Noach concludes with a chronology of the ten generations from Noah to Abram (later Abraham), and the latter’s journey from his birthplace of Ur Casdim to Charan, on the way to the land of Canaan. | © Copyright, all rights reserved. If you enjoyed this article, we encourage you to distribute it further, provided that you comply with Chabad.org's copyright policy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
YOUR QUESTIONS
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Sure, there are all those events that happened, the weather, geography, DNA. But we are the ones to string them together with meaning and direction. There is no story to life, until we tell it...
By Tzvi Freeman
Question:
My father was a hypocrite. He pretended to take on a religious lifestyle, but it was all fake. He never spent time with any of us and didn't seem to care less, so we all rebelled and left the whole Judaism thing.
Problem is, now I'm in college, I have some observant friends and I'm really attracted to Judaism and a Jewish lifestyle. But I can't go that way, because of my dad. Where do I go?
Answer:
You go where you want to go. But to do that, you need to rewrite your story. I'll explain:
When you were a little kid, did anyone ever read you Crockett Johnson's little book, "Harold and His Purple Crayon"? It's about this little boy in pajamas who starts drawing pictures on the wall, eventually creating a journey complete with roads and trees, towns and train tracks—and then becomes scared and lost because the creatures his crayon has drawn are so much bigger than him.
Making stories out of the events of life is every human being's favorite pastime. We like to imagine that our stories are no more than an account of life as it happens. Yet, truth be told, there's no story to life until we tell it. Sure, there's more than a wall and a crayon—there's all those events that happened one after the other, people with lives other than our own, the weather, geography, DNA. But we are the ones to string them together with meaning and direction, to create a narrative.
Nothing has greater impact on your life than those stories. The creatures of the story may be real, but it's you who decides the plot and theme. Are you the victim or the hero? Are you just passing through or are you the guy in charge? With a story you can imprison yourself within four walls, put an iron roof above your head and quicksand beneath your feet—or you can seat yourself in the cockpit of a rocket ship to your destiny. You are the author, and no matter how big the characters of the story may be, you will always hold the crayon in your hand.
My friend, you've written a narrative that brings you up against a brick wall. Let's go back and rewrite the story, this time scripting it to get you out of the back seat of your dad's car and behind the wheel of your own.
I'll keep it real simple: Your father tried to do teshuvah, to return to his Jewish roots. He wanted to be a good Jew, but he failed. You saw where he went wrong and you know how to do it right. Now, as you approach the exit to your own highway, you can choose to take it in the opposite direction or take over where your father left off. You can create your own future and heal his past and yours.
The characters of the story are prisoners of time. But the author is its master. As you rewrite the tale of your past, so your future will proceed.
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More in Your Questions:
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| • I'm Ashamed of My Husband's Kippah (By Aron Moss) |  Question: | I have been married for nearly a year now. My husband is a wonderful guy, and I feel extremely blessed. However, I have one issue that does not seem to be going away. When we were dating, we were both newlyHe wears his kippah all the time religious. He was slightly more observant than I was, but we both respected and understood each other. The one thing I haven't gotten over is that he wears his kippah all the time. It’s such a rarity in our social circles, so it makes me feel uncomfortable and, at times, even ashamed. As much as I wish I could simply not let this bother me, it does. Can you help me change my attitude? | Answer: | You need to examine why the kippah bothers you so much. Here's my guess: | Your husband's kippah doesn't bother you at all. It bothers other people, and you have internalized other people's opinions. So you feel ashamed. | Maybe someone in your family has made comments about it. Or maybe you have seen strangers giving him odd looks. Or maybe you think your friends think it’s weird. And maybe you are right. | But it's not your problem. It's theirs. | He does what he believes is right even though it is not the norm | We do this often. We take on other people's issues as our own, and we feel like we need to justify ourselves when others don’t approve. But we don't. | The problem is not yours—but the husband is. And just as you respect him for so many other things, you can respect him for this too, as soon as you quiet down the internal voices that are making you feel self-conscious. | And there is a lot to respect about your husband. He does what he believes is right even though it is not the norm. He isn't just following the crowd. He is himself in all situations, without needing to adjust his image to fit in. | The rarity of your husband is not that he wears a kippah, but that he is who he is, and he is real about it. There aren't so many guys like that around. Be proud of him, and be proud of yourself. You chose well. | You can find more information about why men wear kippahs here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
JEWISH HISTORY
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In the Middle Ages, many delusional beliefs about Jews gripped the European masses, some of which were later modernized by the Nazis. There were at least 10 such superstitions, traces of which can still be found today.
By Yosef Eisen
Popular Anti-Jewish Beliefs
In the Middle Ages, many delusional beliefs about Jews gripped the European masses, some of which were later modernized by the Nazis. There were at least 10 such superstitions, traces of which can still be found today.
The Blood Libel and Ritual Murder
In 1144, in Norwich, England, a 12-year-old child named William disappeared in Thorpe's Wood, a forest near the town, and was found dead. A Jewish convert to Christianity, a monk named Theobald, testified that the Jews tortured the child, stabbed him, and nailed him to a cross, reenacting Yeshu's death. Since this event took place around Pesach, and the Christian days of Good Friday and Easter, rumors spread that the Jews needed to sacrifice a Christian child on Pesach. William quickly became St. William, the first of many Christian child martyrs, and his tomb became a popular site for religious pilgrimages. As Christianity became more fixated on the power of Yeshu's blood, considering it even as the Korban Pesach, Jews were accused of slaughtering Christian children in order to obtain their blood for matzah and red wine of the seder. Pesach then became a dread time for Jews in Europe, for fanatic priests would whip up the masses into frenzied mobs.
Unlike the accusation of usury, which had a semblance of truth, the blood libel was completely false. Jewish law, as is well known, prohibits the consumption of even the smallest amount of blood, and not even one blood libel was proven to be true. Frequently, Christians killed one of their own children and tried to plant the body in a Jewish house. Although the popes repeatedly stated that this accusation was false, it remained entrenched in the mind of the general Christian public for centuries.
The ritual murder charge even appears in classic English literature. The great medieval English writer, Geoffrey Chaucer, relates such a story in his Canterbury Tales. The Prioress' Tale tells of a little Christian child who happily sang Christian hymns as he walked. Chaucer describes what happened when the child walked through the Jewish quarter of town:
The serpent, our first foe, who has his nest
Of hornets in Jews' hearts, puffed up and said,
"O Hebrew people, is it for the best
That a mere boy, just as he likes, should tread
Your street, and bring contempt upon your head,
And sing to such a purpose, for a cause
That is against the reverence of your laws?"
From this time on the cursed Jews conspired
This innocent boy out of the world to chase.
A murderer for their purposes they hired
Who in an alley had a secret place,
And as he went by at his childish pace,
This Jew seized on him, and held him fast, and slit
His neck, and threw his body in a pit.
Into a privy they threw the boy, I say,
A place in which these Jews purged their entrails.
O cursed people, unchanged since Herod's day,
What think you that your foul design avails?
Murder will out, for certain; it never fails,
The more so when the honor of G-d's name
May spread! The blood cries on your deed of shame!
The distraught mother, after much searching, found the child in the pit. Miraculously, the child, even with his throat slit, began to sing hymns. The amazed Christians called for the magistrate:
The magistrate at once put every Jew
To death with torment and with shamefulness.
He spared not one that of this murder knew.
He would not palter with such wickedness.
"He that deserves ill, he shall have no less,"
And so he ordered that wild horses draw
Their flesh, and then he hanged them by the law.
The child instructed the monks how to cause him to stop singing. After the child died again, he was buried as a holy martyr in a special tomb. Referring to another such child, Chaucer concluded his story:
Young Hugh of Lincoln, you who were also
Slain by accursed Jews, notoriously,
For it was a little while ago
Pray for us; in our fitful errancy...
From Norwich, the blood libel rapidly spread all over Europe. In 1171, after the Jews of Blois, France, were executed on account of such an accusation, Rabbeinu Tam declared the 20th of Sivan as a fast day. In all, more than 150 accusations of ritual murder are recorded, many leading either to massacre or expulsion of the Jews. From the 1200s to the 1400s, most of these cases occurred in Germany. Later, the blood libel moved to Poland and Russia. In 1840, a famous blood libel took place in Damascus, Syria, and in 1913, the notorious Beilis blood libel trial was conducted in Russia. The Nazis made it a cornerstone of their anti-Jewish propaganda. In 1946, the Kielce blood libel broke out in Poland, killing numerous Jews, including Chaim Hirschman, one of two survivors of the Belzec death camp, which itself took 600,000 victims. Sadly, the blood libel is still believed in many parts of the world, even in the United States. Tourists still visit the Child-Devouring Fountain in Berne, Switzerland (Kinderfresserbrunnen), dedicated to a young boy who vanished from the city in 1294, prompting a pogrom that killed all Berne's Jews. In the words of the Catholic historian Edward Flannery, "The ritual murder calumny stands in the judgment of history as the most monstrous instrument of anti-Jewish persecution in the Middle Ages."
Desecration of the Host
In 1215, the Church announced the dogma of transubstantiation, meaning that the consecrated wafers (host) and sacramental wine consumed by Christians represented the body and blood of Yeshu. Soon Jews were accused of stealing wafers from churches and torturing them by sticking pins in them, thus crucifying Yeshu again. According to some reports, blood gushed from such wafers as they moaned in agony. Other accounts had the hosts flutter in the air, producing butterflies, angels, and doves. The entire matter would be laughable, except that more than 100 such accusations were made, resulting in the massacre of countless Jews. In 1298, a notorious Jew-hater named Rindfleisch spread the calumny throughout Germany and Austria. Within a short period of time, 150 Jewish communities were destroyed, causing the deaths of more than 100,000 Jews.
Jews as Devils
The association of the Jews with the devil can be detected in the Christian Bible, which describes the devil as the father of the Jews. In the Middle Ages, when superstition was rampant, the devil was a terrifying reality to the masses of Christians. Jews were portrayed in woodcuts as pigs (Judensau), depicted as swarthy and hook-nosed, and presumed to have a tail and horns. Jews were seen as sorcerers and magicians, expert in the black arts of the occult. The Nazi newspaper Der Sturmer reproduced a number of such woodcuts, reinforcing this belief in modern times. Many eyewitnesses report that Germans regularly asked : "Are you Jews? You are human beings who work! Where are your horns?"
The Jewish Smell
Since the Jews were associated so closely with the devil, they were believed to share his characteristics, notably his smell of sulfur. If Jews did not smell of it, Christians claimed they used Christians’ blood to rid themselves of it. Indeed, the belief about a unique Jewish odor was so powerful that it not only persisted throughout the ages, but also became the object of study by Nazi scientists.
The Wandering Jew
The Christian Bible relates that Yeshu cursed a Jew to endless wandering who had mocked him. The mythical Wandering Jew became known by the name of Ahasverus (sic), and reports of his sighting spread throughout Europe for hundreds of years. In 1602 a German Lutheran minister published Brief Description and Tale of a Jew Named Ahasverus, and the book became so popular that it went through 50 editions in just a few years. This myth, too, has persisted throughout the ages. The Wandering Jew was reported in Upper New York State in 1898. In 1940, a man believing himself to be the Wandering Jew visited the New York Public Library and had his borrower’s card printed as T. W. Jew.
Polluted Jewish Blood
Christians in the Middle Ages believed that the Jews were sickly and weak people, possessing blood diseases that could only be cured by an infusion of Christian blood. Thus, the Jews were always looking for opportunities to intermarry with pure Christians and pollute their lineage. This canard became the most powerful of all Nazi beliefs about the Jews, and it was employed as a justification for annihilating the entire Jewish people.
Well Poisoning
In the mid-1300s, the Black Death swept throughout Europe, decimating perhaps 50% of the population. Jews, too, were greatly affected, although not to the same degree as the Christians, due to traditional Jewish emphasis on personal cleanliness and burial of their dead. Soon a rumor spread that Jews brought about the plague by poisoning wells. Although Pope Clement issued a papal bull contradicting the allegation, and numerous rulers stated likewise, the superstitious Christian masses believed that the plague was the work of the devil through his children, the Jews.
The populace also believed that the Black Death was Divine punishment for their sins. Christian penitents, known as flagellants, went from town to town, whipping themselves with iron rods until the flagellants bled, all to expiate their sins and those of the people. After performing in city squares to the awed attention of the populace, they then led the people against the real villains, the Jewish well poisoners. In countless communities, especially in Germany, nearly all the Jews lost their lives.
Jewish World Conspiracy
This belief, which is still quite prevalent today, originated in the Middle Ages. It was claimed that a council of rabbis from Spain met secretly every year to cast lots regarding which city should supply the Christian victim for the annual sacrifice required by the Jewish religion. Later, this myth changed the Jewish goal from human sacrifice to world financial domination, as found in the 19th-century publication of the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Currently, this lie is being spread by Arab regimes into countries that have had little or no previous encounters with Jews.
Jewish Stubbornness
Naturally, the Jews were seen as a stubborn people for absolutely refusing to convert and accept Yeshu as the Messiah. Such a refusal was particularly infuriating to the Christians, who believed that the Second Coming of Yeshu was contingent upon the Jews accepting Christianity. Thus, as the Jews were seen as blocking the Final Redemption, special effort has been expended through the ages to enable them to see the so-called light of Christianity, either by the Jews’ own volition or by force.
Jewish Laziness
This accusation held that Jews did not engage in productive occupations, preferring instead to live off honest Christian labor by engaging in money lending and shady transactions. (For their part, Christians were invariably seen as productive farmers and craftsmen.) What was conveniently forgotten was that Jews were not permitted any form of manual labor. Of course, the myth that Jews become rich at the expense of hard-working, poor Christians has persisted to today, and is strongly held by many people.
Expulsions
During the Middle Ages, the Jews were expelled at one time or another from virtually every country in Europe. Many times, they were driven out of a city and had to seek sanctuary in another town. Usually, these expulsions, even from entire countries, were not permanent, and the Jews were able to return after several years -- sometimes even sooner than that. However, when the Jews were expelled from England in 1290, they were not permitted to return until the late 1600s. (It is interesting to note that William Shakespeare, who caricatured Jews as rapacious in The Merchant of Venice, may have never seen a Jew.) Of course, the most famous of all expulsions is known as The Expulsion -- the forced departure of the Spanish Jews in 1492.
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MULTIMEDIA
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Jewish culture has always expected that even Jewish laypeople be well-versed in their religion.
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| • Do It Yourself Ark-Building (By Mendel Kaplan) http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/media_cdo/aid/1660431/jewish/Do-It-Yourself-Ark-Building.htm http://www.chabad.org/1660431 | ||
| • Words (By Dovid Taub) <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://embed.chabad.org/multimedia/mediaplayer/embedded/embed.js.asp?aid=749659&width=auto&height=auto"></script><div style="clear:both;">Visit <a href="http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/default_cdo/aid/591213/jewish/Video.htm">Jewish.TV</a> for more <a href="http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/default_cdo/aid/591213/jewish/Video.htm">Jewish videos</a>.</div> | ||
STORY
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The produce continued to dry up, animals were dying, and still, not a single cloud could be spotted in the sky.
By Shaul Wertheimer
The dry ground was cracking open, the leaves were fading on the trees and the animals were parched. It had not rained for months, and the area was suffering from a severe drought.
The sincere and G‑d-fearing people of one town decided to declare a day of communal fasting and spiritual accounting. (Jewish tradition and law state that a communal fast should be declared in times of serious drought.)
It had not rained for months
But nothing seemed to help. The produce continued to dry up, animals were dying, and still, not a single cloud could be spotted in the sky.
People began to wonder if this was it, if they were about to face the bitter end. Desperate for guidance and inspiration during this challenging time, they invited a well-known and respected maggid (preacher) to their town to share his wisdom.
Standing in the center of the synagogue, his face aflame, the maggid launched words of fury and vitriol at the crowd.
"You are all wicked!" he shouted. "Your sins have separated you from G‑d! Do you truly think that there is no Judge and no judgment?! Be thankful that you are suffering! May it cause you to return to Him with complete repentance!"
Men, women and children heard the maggid's words and burst into bitter tears.
Suddenly, a young man dressed in peasant clothing stood up in the crowd. "What do you have against Jewish people?" he questioned the maggid. "Jewish people are good."
The maggid glared at the young man.
Undeterred by the maggid’s harsh stare, the young man addressed the people in the synagogue: "My fellow Yidden! Stop crying! Let us dance, and it will rain by the time we have finished the afternoon prayers!"
The sincere townsfolk who were gathered in the synagogue weren't sure what to make of this. Who is this man, and where did he come from? they thought. Is he crazy? And how can we ignore the words of the respected maggid?
As if sensing their questions, the young man began quoting the sages in support of his seemingly wild statements. His sincere words penetrated everyone's hearts, and they started to dance.
And as they danced, at last the heavens opened up, and it began pouring rain.
Before departing, the mysterious young man showered the good townsfolk with blessings. People realized that he was no regular peasant and that he must be one of the hidden tzaddikim (“righteous ones”) of their generation.
Who was this young man?
When the rain tapered off, the man left the village and continued his wandering. In every town he visited, he would ignite the latent spark within everyone's heart.
Who was this young man with the beaming face and the peasant's clothing?
His name was Israel, and he would later become known to the world as the Baal Shem Tov.
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WOMEN
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Each year I struggle to make my father’s memory relevant to my children’s lives. I fight against time itself, which threatens to eradicate the deep connection I shared with my father.
By Tzippora Price
Had he lived, he would be 67 years old today. He would have two children, a son and a daughter, and two grandchildren, a grandson and a granddaughter. Both of his grandchildren, his daughter’s children, know him more intimately as a picture and a memorial candle than they ever knew him as a person. They know him as a memory, and the memory they know him from is mine.
Each year I struggle to make my father’s memory relevant to my children’s lives. He would be 67 years old todayI fight against time itself, which threatens to eradicate the deep connection I shared with my father. I fight against the disease which ate away at him before he died, and the death which ultimately claimed him.
Each year on his yahrtzeit (anniversary of death), I open the vault around my heart to let my children see the crater my father’s loss has created in my life. Most of the time I keep it hidden, but once each year I bring this loss into the spotlight. I do this for my children, despite the pain this causes me.
I want them to know that they have the mother they have because she had the father she did, because he took the time to hear her, to nurture her and to love her.
It wasn’t easy for my father to raise a teenage daughter in what he called his “bachelor’s pad,” the place he lived after divorcing my mother, with only an older son and a large, uncivilized dog to share his burden. It wasn’t always easy to be that teenage daughter, growing up in a man’s world with few signposts on the way to womanhood.
There were awkward moments and silent moments. There were questions I didn’t know how to ask, and questions he didn’t know how to answer. There was also a lot of laughter, and weekly trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Natural History Museum. There were endless rounds of word games such as Geography and Scrabble. My brother both promised and threatened me that someday I would outgrow my love of playing Geography, but he was wrong. Today I play with my own children, and I teach them the same crazy, obscure places my father taught me, like Timbuktu and Kalamazoo, places I was sure my father made up just to keep the game going.
Like many things I believed as a child, I was ultimately wrong that my father made up these bizarre names for places. I was also wrong that Shakespeare had taken the plot of King Lear from the bedtime story my father told me as a child.
What I was never wrong about was There were awkward moments and silent momentsthat my father loved me deeply, and that his love for me would continually lead him into situations he never dreamed he would be in, like arranging for his teenage daughter’s first trip to a gynecologist. Or having a conversation about how to acquire a first boyfriend. “Never play dumb,” he advised me. “Just don’t even go there; it is not a game you will be able to keep up indefinitely, so why even start?”
I followed my father’s advice through a series of suitably intellectual boyfriends—including the one who read Camus in the original French while also failing his high-school French class, while I read Camus in translation and struggled my way to success in high-school French, ultimately achieving a textbook-sounding verbal competency without the necessary accent to make it worthwhile.
I followed my father into a lifelong love affair with Shakespeare and independently owned bookstores, while he supported me through a series of increasingly unusual and inspired choices that ultimately lead to my decision to move to Israel and become a therapist and a writer. (Living in Israel provides an endless amount of material for both of these career options.) This last choice was one he never came to terms with, because he had a fear of flying—due to a plane crash in 1966, nine years before I was born—which forever prevented him from acting on his desire to visit me or relocate closer to my husband and myself.
In fact, the one time my father visited was for my wedding, and although he was already sick, the experience was one of the highlights of his life—even as it brought him a searing pain from the knowledge that my marriage to an Englishman would only solidify my commitment to life abroad.
My father could never understand why the whole world dreams of coming to New York while his own daughter left New York for good. However, ultimately, his inability to understand my decision didn’t matter to our relationship. It didn’t interfere with his ability to love me, or our ability to keep on having the endlessly evolving conversations that began in my adolescence.
My father and I could talk about anything. Even when we didn’t agree, we could keep on talking about it. More than anything else, that is what saved us. We both believed in the ability of words to redeem and to inspire, and to build bridges strong enough to span oceans and religious debates. We believed that as long as there were words to connect us, our bond could never be broken.
Six years after his death, I am left to carry on this monologue alone as I try to explain to my children who my father was. So much of what it means to me to be their mother is shaped by what it meant to him to be my father. This is the story I tell my children—that love is a form of energy which cannot be created or destroyed. Therefore, the story of their grandfather’s love for their mother is also their story as well.
My father taught me that words can build bridges and sustain worlds, and Torah supports this lesson by referring to a human being as a medaber (a speaker). The Torah defines our very humanity by our ability to speak, and we define ourselves through the words we choose. To honor my father, I choose my words carefully, and the words I choose are those that will honor his legacy, and best allow my children to know him.I am left to carry on this monologue alone
Yet my relationship to my father is defined by much more than my words. It continually defines and refines my choices, such as when as I head out late at night to pay an unexpected shivah call to a friend who just lost her own father. This is a mitzvah I do with silence. I come to listen to my friend, to honor her father with my silent presence and with my ability to listen.
My experience has taught me that my friend is also embarking on a journey, a transition from dialogue to monologue that is defined by clear halachic markers during the first year of mourning, but ultimately is defined by our ability to hold on to the enduring legacy of a father’s love.
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| • The Beauty Queen of South Africa Finds the Beauty of Judaism (By Tzippy Koltenyuk)
“Every Friday when I light Shabbat candles, I can actually hear Shabbat coming in. I feel the peace and the holiness of Shabbat in every fiber of my soul. Afterkiddush I get up, look at the candles with tears of joy, and thank G‑d that He let me become a Jewish woman.”
In 1973, Ellen Peters, a Protestant biracial woman, was chosen as South Africa’s beauty queen. Today, she goes by the name Ilana Skolnick, and she is an observant Jew. I spoke with Ilana about her unique journey to Judaism.
Ilana was born in Cape Town, South Africa, the fourth of seven biological children and one adopted child. Ilana’s mother was a seamstress with a mostly Jewish clientele, and her father worked for a carpet company that was owned by Jews. And so, from a young age, Ilana had a positive association with Jews. But who would ever have believed that one day she would convert and become Jewish herself?
Ilana speaking at an International Conference of Emissaries
When Ilana was born, apartheid was still in effect, and “whites” and “blacks” were kept strictly apart, the whites leading more privileged lives. Ilana’s family was neither black nor white. Her mother’s grandparents were from Scotland and Indonesia, and her father was black, so her family was considered “colored.” Under apartheid, “coloreds” had many more privileges than blacks, but many fewer privileges than whites.
“We were considered second class,” Ilana explains. “In our neighborhood we didn’t feel inferior. The laws of apartheid weren’t kept strictly there, and we had all kinds of friends. But when we went into the big city, we felt the racism. Housing was divided into white and black neighborhoods. Buses for white people were marked as such, and it was forbidden for us to board them. We had to wait for a bus meant for blacks, even if meant waiting while several empty buses marked ‘For Whites’ passed by. Most restaurants were exclusively for whites. The whites could eat there with their dogs, but we weren’t allowed in. We were considered less than dogs.”
Ilana couldn’t go to any places of public entertainment and didn’t even have regular access to official buildings like the post office and government offices. She and her family had to stand in the lines for blacks and coloreds. The lines for the white people moved faster, and they got quicker and better service. It’s hard to believe that all this occurred less than 30 years ago!
“After I converted,” Ilana says, “I read stories about the discrimination that the Jews endured during the Holocaust. I really related to them, since I could remember the horrible racism that I experienced in my childhood.”
“Your people are my people and your G‑d is my G‑d”
When Ilana reminisces about her childhood, she recalls her spiritual home life. Her mother was particular about the children saying grace before meals, and she was careful to burn or throw away nail clippings because they were considered impure. They never ate pork, as it was considered an impure animal. Their home was a home of generosity and kindness, and her mother used to prepare huge quantities of food which were donated to the needy.
When Ilana was eight years old, her class reenacted the story of the famous convert Ruth, and her mother-in-law, Naomi. All the students were required to learn by heart what Ruth said to Naomi: “Your people is my people, and your G‑d is my G‑d; where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried . . . Only death shall part us.”1
“I felt a strong connection to those verses,” Ilana says. “I felt that they lit something in my soul. Even after the teacher tested me on them, I continued to repeat them to myself all the time.”
When Ilana underwent her official conversion process, she was required to say these verses, and she remembered them from when she was a child. In retrospect, she sees that from the time she was born, there were many signs that she had a Jewish soul.
“One day I’ll come visit you in Israel”
“I was considered pretty since I was young, and I used to receive many compliments. My older brother was a newspaper photographer, and he would occasionally take photos of me. I loved the attention. The photos came out very well, and my brother was frequently complimented on them. He and another brother convinced me to register for the Miss South Africa beauty pageant.
“Apartheid affected the beauty pageants, too. It was only 40 years ago, and it’s hard to believe, but there were separate competitions—one for whites, and one for coloreds and blacks. Obviously, I was in the latter. In 1973, when I was 17 years old, I became South Africa’s black beauty queen.
“We had a Jewish neighbor then, and in honor of my success, he brought me a special present, a chain with a Star of David pendant. I had no idea what it symbolized, but I loved the little decoration and wore it around my neck.
“After I won the competition, I got a lot of modeling contracts, and together with the white beauty queen, I represented South Africa in the Miss World Beauty Contest. I placed 9th out of 54 contestants. During the competition, I became friendly with Israel’s beauty queen. I even have a newspaper clipping that appeared in the South African paper at the time, and in it, I’m quoted as telling her, ‘One day I’m going to go to Israel to visit you.’
The newspaper clipping from those days
“I never dreamed that I’d really go to Israel one day, not just to visit but to stay, and to become Jewish and Israeli.”
From the World of Physical Beauty to the World of Spiritual Beauty
“After the beauty pageant, I worked as a member of the ground crew for Trans World Airlines, and I also modeled. I accompanied a group of tourists to Greece and then lived in Athens for a time. One day, I received a very strange phone call from my friend. He told me that he had a friend who had come from abroad. This friend had bought many flowers for guests he was expecting, but in the end they couldn’t come. My friend asked if I’d like the flowers for my apartment. I was so distracted, and it was such a strange suggestion, I told him that we’d discuss it later.
“A few minutes later, the phone rang again. This time it was my friend’s friend, the one who had bought the flowers. He had an unusual accent, and I could tell he was very charismatic, even over the telephone. He convinced me to let him come the next day and bring the flowers.
“The next day, when this man came to my house, we looked at each other and he said to me, ‘You’ve been sent to me by G‑d. Be a part of my life.’ He was a Jewish Israeli, and I was a Protestant South African. I was in my twenties, and he was in his fifties. There was no logical reason for this, but from the moment we laid eyes on each other, we felt in the depths of our hearts that we were meant to be together. His name was Na’aman Skolnik.
“Once, after we had gotten to know each other a little, I saw that he had askullcap in his bag. I asked him what it was, and he explained that it was something that Jews put on their heads to remind them that the Creator is above them.
“‘Then why is it in your bag?’ I asked. ‘Put it on your head!’ He put on the skullcap, and when I looked at him, something in my soul lit up.”
Na’aman returned to Israel while Ilana stayed in Athens a little longer. When she returned to South Africa, it became clear that Na’aman hadn’t given up on her. He’d phoned her mother to ask permission to marry Ilana. He didn’t care whether or not she converted.
“I was very uncertain about our relationship. I asked my mother what she thought, and she said that it was up to me. Since I was a Protestant, I had a very strong connection to G‑d. I prayed to Him, asking Him to help me make the right decision. After a while, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to marry Na’aman, but not as a Protestant. As a Jew. I decided to leave the world of outer beauty, to give up my career in modeling, and to invest in my soul. I wanted to draw closer to the beauty of Judaism, as well as to understand the signs I’d been getting all my life. In the first stage of my journey, I gave up all Protestant practices, rituals I had punctiliously observed since infancy. It wasn’t easy, but I knew that I was doing the right thing.”
A First-Rate Jew
As soon as she got to Israel, Ilana went to the Rabbinate to apply for a conversion, where she met with Rabbi Frankel, the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv at the time. Until that moment, she had imagined that as soon as she gave up Protestantism and decided to become Jewish, the process would be smooth and easy. She was disappointed to discover that the conversion process would be complex and arduous.
“At the Rabbinate, I was interrogated. They thought I wanted to convert only so I that could marry Na’aman. I told them that Na’aman had asked me to marry him without asking me to convert. He had told me we could get a civil marriage and skip the Jewish one. I told them that I’d been attracted to Judaism since I was small, and that I’d already given up my Protestant practices months ago so that I could become a Jew.
Ilana spent the next two years learning what she needed to know to convert. Sometimes she was sure that the rabbis’ objection to her conversion stemmed from her being colored. She didn’t realize that Jewish law has very high standards for converts. She didn’t know that rabbis must discourage potential converts over and over again in order to test their sincerity and resolve. At the end of the process, when she was 28, Ilana said the words that she’d rehearsed 20 years earlier, when she was an eight-year-old student in a Protestant school in South Africa: “Your people are my people and your G‑d is my G‑d.” And then she was a Jew.
A Visit to the Rebbe
A visit to the Rebbe
Ilana and Na’aman had a Jewish wedding. After the wedding, they flew to New York and arranged a visit with the Lubavitcher Rebbe. “When I looked at the Rebbe, I saw a man who was completely connected to G‑d. I discerned the aura of light around him and was filled with emotion. The Rebbe spoke with me and my husband, and we asked him to give us a blessing for children, which he did.”
Until their meeting with the Rebbe, Ilana and Na’aman led a traditional Jewish lifestyle. “The visit to the Rebbe filled my heart. Until today, I can remember every moment of that special visit. When I met the Rebbe, I knew that I wanted to be a practicing Jew who kept all the mitzvahs. In the beginning, my husband adamantly refused, but after I read a letter that the Rebbe wrote to the women of Chabad, in which he said that the atmosphere in the home is created by the woman, I decided that I wanted to run with that thought. I told my husband that, beginning on the 11th of Nissan (the Rebbe’s birthday), which was two weeks from then, I would start keeping Shabbat in its entirety, and I did.”
After the wedding, Ilana wanted to become pregnant, but she couldn’t. The doctors told her and her husband that they would never have children together. But soon after their first visit with the Rebbe, Ilana became pregnant. It was a miracle. The baby was born in the month of Tishrei. She was a sweet, healthy baby, and she filled their home with light. When the baby was two months old, Ilana woke up one morning to find that the baby wasn’t breathing. She had died of SIDS in the night. “I gave her a kiss and told her that I was freeing her, and that we’d meet in heaven. I was crushed, and I miss her even today, but I know she was a special soul who only needed two months to complete her mission on earth.”
With her daughter
Ilana and Na’aman went to the Rebbe again, and the visit gave them the strength to deal with their tragedy.
“I said to myself and to my husband that if G‑d could hurt us so badly, it was a sign that we should learn something, and change. Working together, we got to the stage where we could say proudly, ‘We are Chabadniks.’”
Return to South Africa
Ilana and her husband lived together in friendship and love for 27 years. They lived in Tel Aviv and would travel together to visit her family in South Africa. Her family respected her conversion. Like Ilana, they had felt that she was different since she was young. They were happy that she was happy, and they loved Na’aman, who loved and respected them in turn.
Over the years, Ilana has traveled all over the world, telling her story. Many Jewish women have been inspired by a woman who has gone to such lengths to become Jewish, a woman who has exchanged the world of external beauty and fame for a world of inner beauty and soul work.
Telling her story
Na’aman passed away four years ago, at the age of 82.
“I asked Na’aman what I should do after he left me. He told me to return to South Africa and to continue my mission, and that’s exactly what I did.
“After 30 years of living away from South Africa, I returned to my childhood home. My family gave me a large house right next door, with my own kitchen and a private entrance.”
Ilana continues to travel around the world, speaking to Jewish women, encouraging them in their dedication to Torah and mitzvahs.
“I love speaking to Chabad girls. I call them ‘the Rebbe’s girls’ and feel that in inspiring them, I’m paying the Rebbe back just a little bit for the inspiration he gave me in the unforgettable meetings that we had with him.”
Ilana’s return to her childhood home is a kiddush Hashem (a sanctification of G‑d’s name). The neighbors watch her behavior with wonder as she takes her mother, who has Alzheimer’s, for walks around the neighborhood. She feeds her mother, tends to her and speaks to her, trying to care for her mother as Ilana was cared for when she was a child. In caring for her mother, Ilana is following the directive of the Rebbe, who told converts to maintain good relationships with their families.
“Every Friday evening, I light candles in my childhood home with my mother by my side. I feel privileged to have joined the chosen people. I love Shabbat, and feel it in every fiber of my soul. I thank G‑d for having allowed me to become a Jewish woman, and I thank the Rebbe, who lit the spark in my soul and helped me find my place in the world.”
Watch Ilana tell her story at the International Conference of Emissaries.
Translated by Esther Rabi
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| • Choose Six (By Sarah Chana Radcliffe) |  I’m not sure exactly how it works, but I think it may go something like this: Just before sending us down to earth, G‑d says to each of us, “I will be giving you joy and challenge in every area of your life. I want you to take advantage of both in order to become the best person you can be.” This is, as far as I can tell, the only logical explanation for why marriage is the way it is. I mean, as much as we like to “fall in love” and enjoy a “happily-ever-after” lifestyle, all of us encounter times of frustration and disappointment in our marital relationships. We don’t like to blame ourselves for this, so we naturally point to our spouse and all of his or her faults and foibles. | Nails on the Chalkboard | Now, it’s no accident that our spouse has these exact faults and foibles. In fact, G‑d makes a very precise calculation, titrating our spouse’s flaws to our unique vulnerabilities. For instance, if we have an intense need for control and orderliness, G‑d will see to it that our spouse turns out to be a free-spirited person who abhors cleaning. Or, if we cannot stand the feeling of deprivation, our spouse may very well be averse to spending a cent on anything other than the bare necessities of life. In all cases, what might seem like a minor personal failing to an outsider will actually be an excruciating thorn in our own side, since our spouse is specifically designed to help us overcome our own intolerances, judgments and other rough edges. It’s truly a match made in heaven. It’s just not exactly what we imagined it would be. | Be Strong and Carry On | Despite the difficulties, the Torah urges us to be strong and carry on with our marriages. The difficulties are all part of the package and are certainly no accident. In rare cases of abuse and addiction, the objective is to do whatever is necessary to actually extricate ourselves from the relationship. However, in most cases, the objective is to change ourselves enough to be able to live comfortably with our spouse. The goal of marriage is not to change our spouse—although we will certainly impact his or her own process of change, for better or worse. Rather, the goal is to learn how to love an imperfect human being, just the way G‑d loves us with all of our own imperfections. | Choose Six | Assuming then, that our spouse must have imperfections, the question is, what will they be? Imagine that G‑d gives us a large shoebox containing dozens of folded slips of papers. Written on each paper is a specific personal failing. We are told that we must close our eyes, reach into the box and pull out at least six of these slips. (G‑d may ask individuals to pull out even more than six.) These are the flaws our spouse will possess. Some of the flaws will present enormous challenges, while some will be comparatively easy for us to deal with. G‑d will guide our hand to pick whatever is right for the development of our soul. | On the lid of the shoebox are the words: “Your spouse will be . . .” | And here is a sampling of what is written on the slips of paper: | physically aggressive (throws objects, slams doors, punches walls) | violent (pushes, hits) | verbally abusive (swears, shouts, insults) | controlling and/or intimidating | addicted to Internet porn | inclined to stare at other women | flirtatious with other women | guilty of adultery | overly attached to his family of origin or his mother | a negligent parent (not involved, frequently absent) | an abusive parent (overly harsh and punitive) | an absent, negligent or inattentive spouse (tends to the kids but not to you) | a smoker | a gambler | an alcoholic | a soft-drug addict (needs daily dose of weed) | a hard-drug addict (street drugs) | a shopaholic (spends more than appropriate) | a hoarder | a liar and/or dishonest in business or other matters | severely mentally ill (e.g. psychotic disorders, bipolar I, severe depression, personality disorders, health-threatening eating disorders) | moderately mentally ill (e.g., depression/anxiety disorders, bipolar II, OCD, PTSD, habit disorders) | mildly mentally ill (e.g. ADD/ADHD, tic disorders, mild autistic spectrum disorders) | critical and/or negative | unable to earn a living | irresponsible (stays up too late, spends too much, doesn’t do necessary paperwork, etc.) | unable to get up in the morning by himself | careless with hygiene (doesn’t shower often enough, brush teeth, clean nails, etc.) | inconsiderate or selfish | a poor dresser or otherwise unattractive (appearance impaired) | unromantic | too quiet (doesn’t like to talk, share ideas) | insensitive (doesn’t understand, fails to listen, not empathic) | uninterested in the things you are interested in | unaffectionate physically (not the cuddly type) | unaffectionate verbally (doesn’t convey affection in writing or speech) | unaffectionate in action (short on gifts and/or thoughtful acts) | forgetful, unreliable (doesn’t carry through on commitments or promises, is often late) | careless, accident-prone and/or impulsive (makes poor decisions) | not as great a parent as you are | uncouth (chews loudly or makes other unpleasant noises) | not social enough (doesn’t like to go out with people or have guests) | a homebody (doesn’t want to go on vacations) | boring | immature or socially inappropriate (makes inappropriate comments, awkward, etc.) | This is not a comprehensive list of possible flaws, but there are enough to give you an idea about what is out there. Think about your spouse for a moment and look at this list again. Which slips of paper did you pick out of that box? Keep in mind that everyone must pick a minimum of six papers from the box—everyone is living with a flawed human being. You will notice that some people get dealt a difficult hand and others get off relatively easy. How would you describe your own situation? Keep in mind, too, that everyone must struggle to cope well with the hand they are dealt. Some people will have to learn how to set boundaries (including the act of divorcing when necessary), while others may have to give up trying to control another person or being so intolerant. Either way, there will be challenge and, hopefully, change—for that is the purpose of the struggle. | And fortunately, there is also another shoebox with another set of papers for us to choose from—the list of blessings that our spouse will bring into our lives: “Your spouse will be . . . funny, caring, thoughtful, helpful, generous . . .” And, of course, your spouse also dipped into the shoeboxes to pull out the mixture that is you. What did your spouse get? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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LIFESTYLE
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With Lemon Tahini Dressing
Get healthy after the holidays with this vibrant salad.
By Miriam Szokovski
After a month of Jewish holidays—and all the eating that inevitably goes along with them, I'm sure lots of us are ready for some lighter eating. This vibrant, delicious salad will leave you feeling healthy and satisfied. You can also add some chopped chicken or flaked fish over the top to make it more filling.
You'll need purple cabbage, parsley, red apple, sunflower seeds and slivered almonds. The colors along are enough to entice the palate—look how beautiful! Toss the ingredients together and set aside while you prepare the dressing.
Make sure to wash and check the cabbage and parsley for bugs.
The dressing requires tahini—the kind you find in the refrigerator section. Or, if you buy the paste, buy the seasoned one, prepare it according to the directions and then measure out 6 tablespoons to use for the dressing and continue from there.
Mix the tahini with salt, honey, lemon juice and garlic powder. Use immediately or store in the fridge for later. It keeps well for a good 2 weeks.
Drizzle the dressing over the salad immediately before serving.
 Salad Ingredients
Dressing Ingredients
*NOTE: This dressing calls for prepared tahini—the kind you would find in the refrigerator section.
Directions
What are your go-to healthy meals?
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| • Sticky Beef Ribs with Dried Fig Wine Sauce (By Kim Kushner) It doesn't get stickier, richer or more delicious than this. Slow cooked beef ribs infused with deep figs, red wine and a touch of rosemary. The neighbors will come knocking! |  It doesn't get stickier, richer or more delicious than this. Slow cooked beef ribs infused with deep figs, red wine and a touch of rosemary. The neighbors will come knocking! | Serves: 4 to 6 | Ingredients | 5 pounds beef spare ribs | ½ cup honey | ½ cup ketchup or tomato paste | ½ cup soy sauce | ¼ cup olive oil | ¾ cup dry red wine | 3 garlic cloves, minced | 2 tablespoons dried rosemary | 1 cup dried Turkish figs, stemmed and halved | Directions | Place the ribs in a large roasting pan. Combine the honey, ketchup, soy sauce, olive oil, wine, garlic, rosemary and figs in a small bowl and pour over the ribs. Cover tightly with foil and marinate in the refrigerator overnight. | Preheat the oven to 400°F. Bake the ribs, covered, for 30 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350°F and bake for 2 hours more, until the ribs are sticky on the outside and soft on the inside. The figs will likely melt into the rib sauce. The ribs can be made in advance and frozen in the marinade for up to 1 month, or refrigerated overnight and reheated in a 300°F oven the next day. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
• Goat Looking at the Moon
Watercolor on Paper
Artist’s Statement: The Rebbe Rashab (fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe) once said that what we understand of the Tanya (the Alter Rebbe’s book of chassidic teachings) is what a goat understands of the moon from staring at it. This image of wonderment resonates with how we all wonder about G‑d and this universe we live in.
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JEWISH NEWS
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Chabad emissaries and volunteers in Nepal have been fielding frantic calls from parents, assisting stranded tourists, and helping friends and relatives receive information and grapple with the loss of loved ones.
Chabad.org Staff
For the past week, Chabad emissaries and volunteers in Nepal have been fielding frantic calls from Israel, assisting stranded tourists, and helping friends and relatives receive information and grapple with the loss of loved ones after an unexpected blizzard hit climbers trying to cross part of the Annapurna trail in Nepal, a country that attracts hordes of young Israelis every year.
More than 400 hikers were out last week when the sudden snowstorm caught up with them on Tuesday, stopping them in their tracks as they aimed to cross the Thorong La mountain pass and stranding many of them. To date, nearly 40 were reported killed, including four Israelis, and some 250 rescued, with a growing list of those missing.
Rabbi Chezky Lifshitz, who runs the Chabad House of Katmandu and the Chabad House of Pokhara in Nepal with his wife, Chani, has been working to connect Israelis still in the country to their families in Israel. Parents have been contacting the couple since the news broke, trying to get information on children known to be part of the climbing group. Many young Israelis were in Nepal over the Jewish High Holiday season.
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“We are working round the clock,” says Chani Lifshitz, who has been with the wounded since the tragedy began. “Everyone needs help in some way. People are coming to us with absolutely nothing. They lost everything they own in the snow, so we are giving them everything they need: clothing, supplies, baggage, even spending money.”
“There is an (Israeli) Air Force delegation here to assist trauma victims,” Rabbi Lifshitz told the Israeli web site, Arutz Sheva, adding that he escorted injured Israelis to local hospitals and accompanied many to the airport to fly back to Israel for treatment. “People continue to flow to the area at all times, but there are still a number of missing persons, and as you know, we were all fearing for the life of one of them,” referring to missing hiker Michal Gili Cherkasky of Givatayim, Israel, whose body was found on Tuesday morning, nearly a week after the blizzard first struck.
Rabbi Chezky Lifshitz has been working to connect Israelis still in the country to their families in Israel. Parents have been contacting the couple since the news broke, trying to get information on children known to be part of the climbing groups.
The loss was a personal one. Chani Lifshitz earlier told Israel’s Channel 10 news of a meeting with Cherkasky before she left to travel the mountain pass. Cherkasky told her that she was hiking in memory of a friend who had died during a trek in the Himalayas back in 2001.
A Difficult Week
“Over Shabbat and the holiday (last Thursday and Friday), we made kiddush in the hospital for the injured, and had mixed feelings of joy and sorrow,” Rabbi Lifshitz recounted to Arutz Sheva. “[There is] joy for those who survived and sadness for those who did not. There were those who understood that if they stayed with their friends, they would die, and there were those who helped their friends, but were killed [in the process].”
He added that “we tried to celebrate the holiday, but there were such mixed feelings. There were people whom we saw on Yom Kippur and left the next day for the hike, with the intent to return on Simchat Torah.”
“Unfortunately, not all of them came back.”
The other Israelis who have been confirmed dead are Nadav Shoham of Mitzpe Hoshaya; Agam Luria, 23, of Kibbutz Yifat; and Lt. Tamar Ariel, 25, of Masuot Yitzchak.
The additional bodies identified were determined to be trekkers from Canada, India, Poland, Slovakia, Japan and Nepal.
Seven injured Israelis were flown to Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport on Saturday night. They are being treated at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem and Tel Hashomer Hospital, mostly for issues related to frostbite.
Those wishing to help in the relief effort can contact Chabad in Nepal here.
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| • Q&A: The Story Behind the Storyteller: Rabbi Yerachmiel Tilles (By Karen Schwartz) |  Rabbi Yerachmiel Tilles, co-founder of the Ascent Institute in Safed, Israel, has recently published a collection of 33 stories of Kabbalah sages, Chassidic masters and other Jewish heroes titled “Saturday Night, Full Moon.” | Rabbi Yerachmiel Tilles, co-founder of the Ascent Institute in Safed, Israel, has recently published a collection of 33 stories of Kabbalah sages, Chassidic masters and other Jewish heroes titled “Saturday Night, Full Moon.” | Rabbi Yerachmiel Tilles is a co-founder of the Ascent Institute in Safed, Israel, where he teaches, writes and edits, but mostly directs KabbalaOnline.org, affiliated with Chabad.org. He also moderates Ascent’s question-and-answer forums in its print and electronic publications. Originally from the Bronx, N.Y., he is a graduate of SUNY Binghamton, where he majored in philosophy (and was also co-captain of the basketball team). He moved to Israel with his family in 1978, living in Safed nearly the entire time. Rabbi Tilles has recently published a collection of 33 stories of Kabbalah sages, Chassidic masters and other Jewish heroes. Titled “Saturday Night, Full Moon,” it’s the first of a three-volume set. | Q: You’ve been telling Chassidic stories to people of all ages and backgrounds for decades. What is it about these stories that make them such a powerful means of communication and teaching, and so central to Chassidic folklore, in particular? | A: I try to tell stories that are real. I don’t look to tell a story primarily because of its message; I look for stories that readers can believe that the people in them are real. Telling stories of the great Jewish spiritual leaders is very important. One of the great Chassidic Rebbes, Rabbi Yisroel of Ruzhin (son of Rabbi Sholom Shachne, son of Avraham the Angel, son of the Maggid of Mezritch, successor to the Baal Shem Tov) said there will come a time—he was speaking 200 years ago—of double darkness, where people won’t know that there’s a creator behind the creation, and secondly, they won’t know that they don’t know because they will be such firm believers in nature and scientists. The way to break through this, he said, is to tell stories of the tzadikim, Jews who have a special Divine inspiration or even power over nature, or whose lives are so inspiring that we can understand that there’s something beyond the material world. | RELATED | Related News Stories | Safed Institute Welcomes Influx of Tourists | Chabad Centers | Ascent - Inner Dimensions of Jewish Life | More on Chabad.org | The Unpopular Tzaddik | If people can believe in them, then it gives them a whole different slant on Judaism because it shows that it is something that’s alive, that’s been going on for centuries, and that’s still going on strong. And there were once very special Jews and there are special Jews now in the world—spiritual giants to look up to—which means that Judaism must have something going for it. | Q: How does it feel to be a teacher in the holy city of Safed, Israel, the fountainhead of so much of our mystical wisdom? Are many of the stories you tell based on the lives of the sages who lived there? Who are some of your “favorites”? | A: It’s a very great privilege to live in the holy city of Safed, and even more so a privilege to be a teacher in this holy city. In my book, the first four stories are about some of these great Kabbalists, these mystical sages in Safed. Most of the other stories are Chassidic stories. | I work at Ascent, a seminar center for people interested in finding out more about Judaism, and we are in Safed, so Kabbalah is part of it. I often get asked, “How can it be that people can be learning Kabbalah if they’re less than 40 years old?” So I tell them the greatest authority on Jewish law in the last 1,500 years is Rabbi Yosef Karo, known as the author of the Shulchan Aruch. He was living in Safed, and he used to pursue Rabbi Yitzchak Luria and beg him to teach him Kabbalah. Rabbi Luria was only there two-and-a-half years, so he must have had a strong, magnetic personality, as well as have been an accomplished Kabbalist and Torah sage, to have some of the greatest scholars in that spectacular period in Jewish history wanting to sit at his feet and study with him when he was a relatively young man in his 30s. |  | The cover of the rabbi's latest book, the first of a three-part series. | I have a mailing list of Chassidic stories, and I send out one a week. This week, I’m sending out No. 880. That’s an awful lot of stories. From those stories I culled 100, and those are my basis for three books’ worth. The ones I chose are either original translations or personal transcripts. The first volume is already out, Saturday Night, Full Moon. | The second one, which I’m in the midst of, will be called Festivals of the Full Moon because it has all Shabbat and holiday stories. The first book has no holiday stories; I saved them all for the second. The third book will be called The Light of the Full Moon and will be similar to the first book, covering the entire spectrum of Jews in the world. | Q: We’re in the midst of the holidays of Sukkot and Simchat Torah. Do you have a good short tale to share or refer our readers to? | A: Well, one thing I’m known for is telling primarily long stories. The Rebbe (Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory) always shortened stories in order to get to the bottom line and the message … but in storytelling, my style follows the Frierdiker Rebbe (Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory) using lots of details to help it come alive and real. | So this is hard for me, a short story. | Here’s one: | One year around the time of the High Holidays, the daughter of the well-known tzadik, Rabbi Meir of Primishlan, fell severely ill. As Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur passed, her condition worsened, and she seemed closer to death than life. | On Simchat Torah, Rabbi Meir was fulfilling the commandment to dance and rejoice with the Torah Scrolls, doing so with great enthusiasm, as every year. Great happiness prevailed among all the dancers. | But then, a small delegation of Chasidim burst through the doors of the synagogue in haste, and approached him to disclose that his daughter appeared to be in her final moments, G‑d forbid, and he must do something. | The Rebbe hurried home and entered his daughter’s room. When he perceived how critical the situation was, he immediately stepped out, stood by himself and proclaimed: | “Ribono Shel Olam, Master of the Universe! You commanded us to blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, so Meirel blew. You commanded us to fast on Yom Kippur, so Meirel fasted. You commanded us to live in a sukkah on the festival of Sukkot, so Meirel lived in a sukkah. You commanded us to be joyous on Simchas Torah, so Meirel is joyous. | “But now, Ribono Shel Olam, Master of the Universe, You have made my daughter to be critically sick, and Meirel is obligated to accept this tragedy with joy, as it is written (Talmud Berachot, Chapter 9), ‘A person is required to bless on something bad that happens to him in the same way as he is required to bless on something good,’ and the Talmud explains that this cannot refer to the wording of the blessings since their texts are different, so it must be that it is our attitude that has to be the same—that is, to be joyful towards the bad event just as towards the good. So Meirel accepts his daughter’s illness with joy, as You have commanded. | “However, Ribono Shel Olam, Master of the Universe, there is also an explicit law that we are not supposed to mingle one joy with another, so what shall I do?” That was his prayer, and his daughter got better. | Q: Please describe some of the most interesting feedback you’ve gotten from a live audience or via email, based on your talks or writings? What interests or confounds people the most? | A: Usually, they say, “It’s very inspiring,” or “I enjoyed it very much.” Or they ask, “Is it really true?” Someone communicated with me just the other day and said, “I want you to know you’re part of our family.” I asked, “What do you mean?” And he said, “All my children know you because every night I read them one of your stories before they go to sleep.” | Sometimes, they’ll ask me, “What does it mean?” I refer them to the Chassidic principle that we don’t try to explain stories, but sometimes I give in anyway and give it a try. |  | Rabbi Tilles enjoys telling Chassidic and other types of Jewish stories in Safed, where he lives. | Q: When somebody presses the question and asks: “Hey, Rabbi, did that really happen?” What do you tell them? | A: People like to ask, “Did the story really happen?” I try to restrict myself to stories that I believe happened. I mean, stories that took place centuries ago, it’s impossible to verify if they did or didn’t. So I try to use reliable sources, and with the more modern stories, I try to provide references to enable verification that it’s really true. The last story in Saturday Night, Full Moon, for example, is the one in the book that sounds the most unbelievable. I tell the story and when people express disbelief, I say that it happened to a person at a store just around the corner, here in Safed—you can ask him. That blows people away. But maybe I tell that story too often; I think the man there is getting a little tired of people coming in and asking him. | Really, it depends on the story. Some stories I can say I know that it happened. And some stories I say, “You know what? I believe it’s true because my source is a very reliable person,” and sometimes I say, “Well, even if it didn’t happen, it could.” | You’ve heard of the Chofetz Chaim, a great sage. It happened that there was a court case and he was cited as a character witness for somebody, and the judge wanted to know, “Why should I believe what this rabbi says?” | The defense lawyer says, “Judge, this rabbi, the Chofetz Chaim, is such a holy and honest person that one time, when he was about to take a letter to the post office to mail when somebody came by going to the town he was sending the letter to and offered to take it for him. The Chofetz Chaim gave it to him, but took the stamp and tore it up so the post office wouldn’t lose money on it. | The judge said, “Come on, you can’t expect me to believe that?” | The lawyer replied: “Judge, I don’t know absolutely if that story is true or not, but I know they’re not telling that story about you and me.” | So today, for example, people tell lots of stories about the Lubavitcher Rebbe. And sometimes, they sound too fantastic to believe. But one thing’s for sure—they’re not telling those same stories about anyone else! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| • Helping Put Food on the Holiday Tables of Israelis in Need(By Faygie Levy) |  An ''Eshel Card'' and letter from Colel Chabad and the State of Israel, which went out to Israelis before the Jewish High Holidays and festival of Sukkot so they could purchase food items. | An "Eshel Card" and letter from Colel Chabad and the State of Israel, which went out to Israelis before the Jewish High Holidays and festival of Sukkot so they could purchase food items. | More than 12,000 people were able to put some extra food into their shopping carts before the Jewish High Holidays and the festival of Sukkot, thanks to the efforts of Colel Chabad and the State of Israel. | The oldest continuously operating charitable organization in Israel worked with the nation’s government to hand out thousands of “Eshel Cards”—a type of prepaid debit card—to single parents and senior citizens in need of financial assistance. Worth 330 shekels, or a little under $100, the cards were good for purchases at Israel’s five largest supermarkets. | “This project is part of our ongoing relationship with Israel’s welfare department,” says Rabbi Menachem Traxler, Colel Chabad’s director of volunteering. “They came to us once again to implement [this donation] and see to it that all families that need assistance receive it.” | RELATED | Video | Israel's Oldest Charity | Israel's Oldest Charity | Related News Stories | Jerusalem Food Pantry Packs a Punch | Emergency Shabbat Food to Southern Israel, With the Help of Colel Chabad | Chabad Centers | Colel Chabad | The card came along with a letter written in Hebrew that said, in part: “The Talmud teaches that the world is a wheel. We hope that what we give you now you will soon be able to give to others. With blessings for a sweet new and successful year.” | Traxler noted that many of the recipients have called the information number listed on the card itself. | “The hotline number on the cards has been ringing off the hook,” Traxler said, noting that the sentiment was almost always the same. “Many said ‘How did you know we needed the help? We didn’t apply with any organization for assistance. This was a surprise straight from heaven. We can’t express how appreciative we are to know that there is someone that cares.’ ” |  | Thousands of boxes were stored in a food-bank warehouse prior to delivery. | Colel Chabad was established in 1788 by the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. | Providing the cards to those in need was just the latest joint venture between Colel Chabad and the Israeli government. This summer, as rockets fired by Hamas in Gaza rained down on towns in southern Israel, the government turned to Colel Chabad to help provide 30,000 meals including Shabbat meals to people in the war zone. | The “Eshel Cards” were only one part of Colel Chabad’s pre-Rosh Hashanah assistance program for families in need, with more than 20,000 families receiving packages of foods from the organization. The food bundles included two crates of groceries, one crate of vegetables, and vouchers for meat and chicken. | Additionally, Colel Chabad’s 23 soup kitchens around the country offered meals to thousands of people on Rosh Hashanah and before Yom Kippur. Sukkahs were even set up outside the soup kitchens so that people who need a hot meal over the Sukkot holiday could have a place to go. | While most of the care and aid were focused on ensuring that people had enough to eat during the holidays, several donors also stepped up to provide funds for new clothes and other incidentals. | “The project has been such a success that there are already plans for a Pesach distribution as well,” according to Colel Chabad director Rabbi Sholom Duchman. “We won’t stop until everyone can enjoy the chagim [holidays] in a dignified manner.” |  | Groceries, vegetables, and vouchers for meat and chicken were packed into boxes that were distributed to those in need. |  | Volunteers helped drop off the boxes to homes all over Israel. |  | City workers filled the backs of their trucks and also delivered holidays boxes of goods. |  | The back of the "Eshel Card," which worked similar to a debit card and could be used in major Israeli supermarkets. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| • Par for the Course: A Florida Sukkah Fitted on a Golf Cart (By Chaya Schley) |  Mobile sukkahs are nothing new; they can be found on trucks, bikes and trailers. But the community of Palm Aire in West Pompano Beach, Fla., is celebrating the festival of Sukkot with a novel interpretation of the traditional hut: a sukkah on a golf cart. | Rabbi Lipa and Chaya Benjaminson, co-directors of Chabad of Palm Aire in West Pompano Beach and the designers of the golf-cart sukkah, say the idea was more logical than innovative. | “We live on a golf course, basically,” explains Rabbi Benjaminson. Palm Aire, where the couple has lived for the past two years, is a collection of some 10,000 homes that surround several large golf courses. | When the Benjaminsons contemplated designing a mobile sukkah they could drive around to visit residents in the community, a golf cart seemed like a natural fit. | A sukkah is a temporary hut used during the festival of Sukkot, which this year began on the evening of Oct. 8. Jews eat, drink, pray and socialize in the sukkah during the week-long celebration, which is followed by the holidays of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. | When Benjaminson went to a local golf-cart dealer last week, he says he wasn’t sure how the proprietor would react to his plans for the vehicle. “I was scratching my head, wondering how to explain to the owner why I needed a golf cart. But he immediately said, ‘I know. You want to build a sukkah-mobile.’ ” |  | Rabbi Lipa Benjaminson and Steve Levy with the lulav and etrog | The dealer even helped the rabbi come up with a design for the sukkah, which they built using a wooden frame with printed vinyl banners for the walls. | Benjaminson says the golf-cart sukkah has seen more than 100 visitors over the several days that he, Chaya and other volunteers have been driving it around Palm Aire. People have flocked to sit in the sukkah, take photos, have a snack, and shake the lulav and the etrog—a special holiday mitzvah. Kids have also enjoyed hitching a ride around town on the golf cart. | “People have been very excited. The golf-cart sukkah was a big twist,” says the rabbi. “Many of our residents had never seen a sukkah before, let alone one on a golf cart.” |  | Belinda Wolowitz takes time out to perform a holiday mitzvah. | Benjaminson points to another advantage to their contraption. | Many Palm Aire residents are elderly and could find it difficult to enter a sukkah mounted onto a larger vehicle. “Older folks might not be as comfortable climbing into a sukkah on a pickup truck, but with a golf cart,” notes the rabbi, “they can walk right in.” | And while Sukkot is drawing to a close, Palm Aire residents won’t have to wait long to see the golf cart back in action. | Come Chanukah time, the Benjaminsons assure that it’ll be roving around again—this time, with a giant menorah on top. |  | A local golf cart dealer even helped the rabbi come up with a design for the sukkah, which they built using a wooden frame with printed vinyl banners for the walls. |  | Haley Nazinitsky, Zachary Riback and little Miriam Benjaminson enjoy the golf-cart sukkah. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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