Editor's Note:
Dear Friend,
This week marks 72 years since the passing of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, father of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. A mystic, scholar, and chief rabbi of Dnipropetrovsk, he died in Kazakhstan, where he had been exiled by the Soviets as punishment for hisfearless efforts on behalf of Jewish people and their right to serve G‑d.
Russia is currently hosting a massive gathering of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries from all over Europe.
The conference is more than just a celebration of the present with an eye toward the future. It is a direct tribute to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, a prominent leader of the thousands of Chassidim who laid their lives on the line to preserve the flame of Judaism that Stalin and his minions tried to snuff out.
Throngs of Jewish leaders are proudly walking down the very same corridors of power where their predecessors walked shackled and silenced. A country where Judaism had been suppressed is now supporting a Jewish revival that extends far beyond its borders.
The blood, sweat, and tears of the previous generations were not in vain. The long-reaching effects of the efforts of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak and his brave comrades are still being felt today.
The Chabad.org Team
We Can Heal the WorldHow can we heal the world? By being one.
What does it mean to be one?
If, wherever you go, you carry there every other Jew in your heart, then all of us are one.
And when we are one, all the peoples of the world can live in harmony as one.
And then the world is healed. For we are the heart of the world.[20 Av, 5742.]
This Week's Features
The Exiled Rabbi and the Executed Poet: A Soviet Jewish StoryA telling interaction between Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson and Peretz Markish during the height of Stalinist terror by Dovid Margolin
20 Av
The Exiled Rabbi and the Executed Poet: A Soviet Jewish Story A telling interaction between Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson and Peretz Markish during the height of Stalinist terror by Dovid Margolin
Perez Markish, 1945, Moscow. (Photo courtesy of the Blavatnik Archive)Just before midnight on the evening of Jan. 27, 1949, seven agents of the MGB—as the KGB was known at the time—arrived at the central Moscow apartment of the renowned Yiddish poet and playwright Peretz Markish and arrested him. The arrest did not come as a surprise to the 54-year-old Markish; for a month prior, he had been followed by secret police, with agents even posted near his apartment.
“Our minister just wants to have a talk with your husband,” the arresting agents told the writer’s wife, Esther. She would never see him again.1
Markish was not the only one. Beginning in December of 1948, 15 Jewish intellectuals, all of whom had been associated in one way or another with the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC), were rounded up and arrested—a part of Stalin’s anti-Jewish campaign that began after the end of the Second World War and culminated with the 1953 Doctors’ Plot. The JAC had been set up during the early months of the war to help rally Jewish support for the Soviet cause in Russia and abroad, as well as raise much-needed American funds for the war effort. It became a near de facto communal representative of Soviet Jewry, headed by legendary Yiddish actor and theater director Solomon Mikhoels (born in Dvinsk as Shloime Vovsi).
But now the war was over, and Stalin had no need for influential Jews with a platform. So, on Jan. 12, 1948, he had Mikhoels killed in Minsk, the cold-blooded murder made to look like a car accident. By November of that year, Communist Party leadership ordered the disbanding of the JAC, stating that “this committee is a center of anti-Soviet propaganda and regularly submits anti-Soviet information to organs of foreign intelligence.”2
Nobody was fooled by the circumstances of Mikhoels’ death, and as the climate for Jews in the Soviet Union grew rapidly worse, those involved with the JAC felt their time was running out.
“Markish lost all hope,” his widow wrote in her memoirs. “He realized the end was near, that it was now only a question of time—days or, at best, months.”3
News of Markish and other Jewish literary figures’ arrests could not be kept quiet for long. Some, like Markish, were very well-known outside of the Soviet Union, and when they suddenly went silent, Jews around the world wanted to know why.
“Soviet Ambassador to the United States Ivan Panvushkin was requested today to verify with the Moscow government reports current here for some time that a number of leading Jewish writers in the U.S.S.R. have ‘disappeared’ without trace,” went a Jewish Telegraph Agency news bulletin dated July 14, 1949.“Among the writers reported to have vanished are [Yiddish poet] Itzik Feffer, who several years ago visited the United States as representative of the now-dissolved Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee of Moscow. Other writers whose fate is unknown include David Bergelson, prominent novelist; Peretz Markish, well-known poet and playwright … and others.”
It was these reports—appearing at the time in Yiddish newspapers—that reached Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson in Brooklyn, N.Y. The mother of the Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—Rebbetzin Chana had herself arrived safely in the United States just two years earlier, having alone illegally crossed the Russian-Polish border and traveled via Krakow, Pocking, Munich and Frankfurt to Paris, where she was met by her son, the future Rebbe. The Rebbe was by then living in New York and had flown to France to escort his mother back to the United States; the two had not seen each other in 20 years. They arrived together on American shores in the summer of 1947.
Rebbetzin Chana and her son (the future Rebbe) at a reception in their honor in Paris.A few months later, on the day after Rosh Hashanah, Rebbetzin Chana began recording her memoirs:
I am not a writer, nor the daughter of a writer. My desire is to record some memories of the final years of my husband, of blessed memory. I am unsure whether I will succeed. Firstly, will I be able to put all my recollections into writing? And secondly, will I have the peace of mind needed for such a task?4
She succeeded, despite her doubts, recording her painful personal memories while simultaneously painting a larger portrait of the state of Russian Jewry at the time. In clear, simple but often searing words, she powerfully communicates the heavy price paid by Jews in the Soviet Union. Yet from amid the sadness and fear, bright spots emerge as well—stories of the Jewish spark emanating from unexpected places.
As the wife of one the most prominent rabbis in the Soviet Union at the time, chief rabbi of Dnepropetrovsk Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, Rebbetzin Chana had witnessed things few others had. She writes about the Jewish building superintendent whose job it was to inform on the couple to the NKVD (a precursor to the MGB, itself a precursor to the KGB; while the name changed, its work didn’t), yet when asked, participated as the 10th man in a secret chuppah ceremony held at their home in the middle of the night. She also recalls the Communist factory boss who requested that the rabbi secretly circumcise his son while he was out of town. And then there is the story of the internationally known poet, the handsome and celebrated Peretz Markish.5
“Today I read in the newspaper that the writer, Peretz Markish, has been exiled to some unknown location in the Soviet Union,” wrote Rebbetzin Chana in 1949. Her husband had been arrested in 1939 and eventually sentenced to exile in the barren solitude of Kazakhstan, where he was later joined by his wife, and where he passed away in 1944. Hearing of Markish’s arrest and (falsely) reported exile, she did not seem shocked by the rumors; she was all too familiar with the Stalinist reality. But it did trigger a memory: “This news also reminded me of an episode in the life of my husband, of blessed memory.”
A Rebel and Point Man
Peretz Markish was born in 1895 in the Ukrainian shtetl of Polonnoye. His parents, Dovid and Chaya, were strictly observant, and his father was a melamed in thecheder, teaching young Jewish boys how to read Hebrew. Young Peretz’s early education also took place in the cheder, and until his Bar Mitzvah he sang in a synagogue choir in Berdichev—a heavily Jewish city his family moved to at some point.6 His natural tendencies were rebellious, and, like so many of his contemporaries, he was drawn to the revolutionary spirit of the time. By age 15, he was writing poetry in Yiddish; he was published for the first time in 1917.7
Peretz's mother, Chaya Markish. (Photo courtesy of the Blavatnik Archive)“A man of stormy temperament, who instinctively loathed all that was static and conventional, he was enchanted by the very idea of launching an assault against the fortress of conservatism—a predisposition manifested also in the titles he gave his collections of poems, titles like Stam [Just Like That] or Hefker [Carefree],” writes historian Yehoshua Gilboa.8
Peretz Markish in 1912, age 17. (Photo courtesy of the Blavatnik Archive)Yet for all of his love of the unsettled and new, “Markish nevertheless appears at times … unable to discard his deep roots in Jewish life and tradition.”
Indeed, one of his most prominent early works is the tragic poem Die Kupeh, “The Heap”—the name referring to the heaps of the slain—which speaks bitterly of the brutal pogroms suffered by the Jews of Ukraine in 1919. Wrote Markish:
For you, the slain of the Ukraine that fill the land, the slaughtered that lie in a heap in Horodishch on the Dnieper’s banks—I say Kaddish!9
Markish left the Soviet Union in 1921, spending time in Warsaw and traveling the world, returning in 1929. By that time, Stalin was already consolidating power; he no longer had a need for unbound revolutionary fervor, nor, for that matter, anything else he could not control. True, Markish had already written many revolutionary works, yet Communist reviewers denounced the tenderness with which he overtly continued to treat many Jewish themes.
“He was charged with idealizing a life that was outmoded, reactionary, pious, patriarchal, whereas ‘Markish might have been expected finally to discard his former nationalistic idols,’ ” writes Gilboa, quoting negative Soviet reviewers. “He was censured … for the manner in which he depicts a group of Jews who happen to get together at an inn and ‘snatch’ a communal prayer [khap a minyan], or his description of a seder conducted in a regal manner … ”
“We do not find a single line that would indicate the author’s negative attitude to this patriarchalism,” wrote M. Kamenstein about Markish in Kharkov’s militantly anti-religious Shtern newspaper.10
With pressure to conform to the party’s vision, Markish fell in line, at least on the surface. New demands were being placed on him and other authors. They were to depict the successful construction of a new world—the hoped-for future as if it were today. Although Markish expressed disillusionment to his wife following a 1934 visit to Birobidzhan, Stalin’s Jewish autonomous republic, he nevertheless published an ode to the failed project a year later.11 Markish’s profile grew as his work became more and more kosher in Soviet terms, but, predictably, his work’s quality suffered. Elected to head a committee in the Soviet Writers’ Congress Yiddish section, he was soon living with his family in a large apartment in an upscale building.12 In 1939, Markish received the Order of Lenin, becoming the first and only Yiddish writer to receive the honor in the history of the Soviet Union.
Peretz Markish. 1919, Vilnius. (Photo courtesy of the Blavatnik Archive)It was in 1937—at the high point of both his fame and obedience—that Markish got news of his father Dovid’s death in Dnepropetrovsk. And it’s here that the story returns to Rebbetzin Chana’s narrative.
“His father was Torah-observant, and was a regular at our home,” she wrote. “Prior to his passing he left instructions that his burial be conducted in accordance with all of Rav Schneerson’s directives.”
Hearing the news, Markish and his sister quietly made their way to Dnepropetrovsk.
A Clandestine Burial
By 1937, it was too late. Stalin was not only in control, but had created a world where he was everything to everyone, cynically dressing his domination of all facets of life in Marxist jargon. If politics was history, then perceived deviation from Communist Party policy was a crime against history itself. What was the value of one life or a million lives when seen in the broad context of humanity’s forward march? It was in this climate that began Stalin’s purges, the wholesale arrest of millions of individuals on a variety of charges that had little relationship to reality. So prevalent were the arrests that people slept with their suitcases packed and ready near their bed.
And that’s when Peretz Markish arrived in Dnepropetrovsk to bury his bearded religious father. In utter secrecy, the poet sent his two sisters—one a Communist Party member who served as his secretary and had traveled with him from Moscow, and the other who lived in Dnepropetrovsk, and with whom their father had lived—with a message for the rabbi.
Photo of Dovid Markish, Peretz’s father. As described to us by Peretz’s son, Dovid Markish was a teacher a the local cheder in Polonnoe, where he taught elementary school aged children how to read Hebrew. (Photo courtesy of the Blavatnik Archive)“He wanted my husband to know that, although he couldn’t meet with him personally, the Rav should be aware that regardless of Markish’s personal ideology and prominent position, he held Rabbi Schneerson in the highest esteem and related to him with the greatest personal respect. This was based on his own experience and on his father’s frequent letters to him, which made a deep impression on him,” remembers Rebbetzin Chana.
Continuing to communicate everything regarding his father through his sister, he asked that everything be kept as quiet as possible. “All details of the burial, which was also in a favorable plot, were performed in the finest possible manner relative to the conditions of that time.”
With the funeral over, the writer and his sister prepared to return to Moscow. He had respected his father’s wishes during an exceedingly dangerous time, even communicating with a rabbi by the last name of Schneerson—which, judging by secret police interrogation transcripts, was more than enough reason to arrest someone. Yet there was something more the wealthy Markish chose to do, obviously of his own volition.
Before they left, writes Rebbetzin Chana, “the family donated large sums for the city’s clandestine Torah schools for children and the like, which were conducted at great personal peril to those involved.”Markish left town the night after the funeral. No one else in Dnepropetrovsk knew anything of the visit.
‘Remain One Entity’
The war years and relative freedom of expression allowed at the time by Stalin proved to be a boon to Markish’s work, as he began returning to the “nationalist” themes he had touched on earlier on in his career.
“Do not part from your rifle, Jewish soldier,” wrote Markish in a poem titled To the Jewish Fighter, “just as your forefathers have never parted from the Sefer Torah.” Gilboa noted that in the same poem: “He reminds the Jewish fighter of the Ten Commandments handed down on Mount Sinai, which have endowed the world with moral values, and which Jews still stand by, though their throats be butchered and their mouths incinerated.”
“Avraham Sutzkever wrote about Markish, and he describes him as someone who was powerfully involved with Jewish life,” explained Ruth Wisse, professor of Yiddish Literature and Comparative Literature at Harvard University and a senior fellow at the Tikvah Fund. “It seems almost characteristic of him that the worse things got during the war, the more Jewish he became.”
Overlooked sometimes in the modern view of Markish and some of his contemporaries was the deep impact they had on a Jewish people who had been cut off from traditional religious life and learning. With words, they recreated a world that had in large part been uprooted, offering generations of Soviet Jews a glimpse of what authentic Judaism resembled.
Peretz Markish’s pocket Torah scroll (appx. 4 inches in height), tefillin, and siddur that he always kept in his desk. (Photo courtesy of the Blavatnik Archive)“All of these authors had a huge effect on Soviet Jewish consciousness,” said Rabbi Boruch Gorin, chief editor of Moscow’s Knizhniki Publishing House and the editor in chief of Lechaim magazine.13 “After the war, Stalin quickly understood that Jews cannot become Soviet citizens totally, so Yiddish had to go. Even those thoroughly Soviet Yiddish writers had to go.”
It was a terrible end that they would face.
“Hitler wanted to destroy us physically,” Markish told a friend following Mikhoels’ murder. “Stalin wants to do it spiritually.”14
After their arrests, the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee activists were cruelly interrogated and tortured, with Markish’s treatment among the worst. He was interrogated two or three times a day, questioned all day, and then again from 11:30 p.m. until 5 the next morning, 96 times in all.15 Under torture at the hands of one of the MGB’s most sadistic officers, Markish signed a confession of guilt (he was accused of treason), effectively signing his own death sentence. On Aug. 12, 1952, after a sham secret trial at which they were all found guilty, 13 of the 15 defendants were executed with a bullet to the back of the head—a crime that has since become known as the Night of the Murdered Poets.16
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson was frail and ill when he passed away in exile in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Aug. 9, 1944, where he is buried. The date on the Jewish calendar of his passing is Chof Av, the 20th day of the month of Av. Markish’s yahrtzeit, along with the other victims of the Night of the Murdered Poets, is just one day later, on 21 Av. Markish’s KGB file identifies his “burial” place as a mass grave at the Donskoye cemetery in Moscow.17 The religious Lubavitcher rabbi and the Soviet Jewish poet—one a member of a then-disappearing breed of Russian Jew and the other thought to be thoroughly modern and secular—connected in life and in death.
Due to the scarcity of paper, during his exile in Kazakhstan, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak wrote his Torah thoughts on the margins of his holy books.Markish himself might have said it best. At a post-war memorial for the martyred Jews of Poland, one Yiddish writer noted that the gathering showed the “friendship of the Jewish peoples.”
“There are no two Jewish peoples,” Markish responded. “The Jewish nation is one. Just as a heart cannot be cut up and divided, similarly one cannot split up the Jewish people … Everywhere, we are and shall remain one entity.”18
Images of Peretz Markish, his family, and artifacts are courtesy of the Blavatnik Archive.
FOOTNOTES
1.Esther Markish, The Long Return, as cited by Zvi Gittelman, A Century of Ambivalence (New York, 1988), p. 234.
2.Shimon Redlich, War, Holocaust and Stalinism, as cited by Joshua Rubenstein,Stalin’s Secret Pogrom (Yale University, 2001), p. 41.
3.Markish as cited by Gittelman, p. 234.
4.Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson, Memoirs (Kehot Publication Society, New York).
5.Ibid.
6.Rubenstein, p. 107.
7.Yehoshua Gilboa, The Black Years of Soviet Jewry(Brandeis University, 1971), p. 123-130.
8.Ibid.
9.Ibid.
10.Ibid.
11.Ibid.
12.Rubenstein, p. 110-112.
13.In Nov. 2015 Knizhniki published an illustrated Russian translation of Markish’s Die Kupeh.
14.Arkady Vaksberg, Stalin Against the Jews, as cited in Rubenstein, p. 2.
15.Rubenstein, p. 51.
16.Lina Shtern was a world-renowned scientist who made several significant contributions to the study of human physiology and to medical research. She was sentenced to 5 years of exile and released shortly after Stalin’s death in 1953. Solomon Bregman, a deputy minister of state control for the Russian Federation who was also a member of the JAC, collapsed into a coma five weeks into the trial and died on Jan. 23, 1953. See Rubenstein p. 60, 251, 318-319.
17.See Sakharov Center website (Russian), http://www.sakharov-center.ru/asfcd/martirolog/?t=page&id=11299.
18.Yitzchak Yonasovich, With Jewish Writers in Russia(Yiddish), as cited by Gilboa, p. 130.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Your Questions
Why Does G-d Not Feed the Poor? by Aron Moss
Question:G‑d is surely not a hypocrite. If He tells us to do something, He should do it Himself as well. So shouldn't G‑d be obligated to feed the poor? Why doesn't He help His own children rather than commanding us to do it for Him?
Answer:
Imagine you know a family that can’t put food on the table. You want to help them. So you send a nice check inWhy doesn't He help His own children? the mail. But it never gets there, as the mailman keeps the check for himself.
So you order a meal online for them. But the restaurant gets the order wrong and gives the food to someone else.
Determinedly, you arrange a grocery delivery for them. But the delivery truck never shows up.
Exasperated, you go on to your bank app to do a direct transfer. And the app crashes.
Did you try to help? Yes. Were they helped? No. What went wrong? You were let down by the system. You may have the best intentions, but you rely on others to do their part. If they don't, the help doesn't arrive.
G‑d wants to help everyone. So He created a world that has all the necessary resources to feed every mouth. And he set up a system to deliver the goods to those who are in need.
There is enough money in the world for everyone to have what they need, enough love to give to every lonely person, enough time to help those who can’t help themselves. All that is required is goodwill and a sense of responsibility on the part of those who have, to share with those who have not.
We are the system. You and me. Doing our part to keep the system rolling is called tzedakah. Although generally translated as “charity,” this term actually means “justice,” since it is only right that we pass on the portion of G‑d’sFood is not all we need for nourishment bounty that is designated for others.
So why are there hungry people? Because we aren't doing our job. If we don't deliver, the food doesn't get to its destination. That is not G‑d's fault, it's ours.
Of course, G‑d could just cut out the middleman and feed the hungry Himself. But that would defeat the purpose of creation—to make a world of kindness, where people choose to use their gifts to help each other.
Food is not all we need for nourishment. We also have a need for meaning. In order to give us a life of meaning, G‑d gives us the opportunity to give. When I help someone more needy than myself, I am also being nourished. I am giving food, but I am receiving much more. I am receiving the gift of purpose.
Aron Moss is rabbi of the Nefesh Community in Sydney, Australia, and is a frequent contributor to Chabad.org.
Artwork by Sefira Ross, a freelance designer and illustrator whose original creations grace many Chabad.org pages. Residing in Seattle, Washington, her days are spent between multitasking illustrations and being a mom.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Your Questions
Why (and When to) Give Charity Before Prayer? by Yehuda Shurpin
Giving to charity before prayer is rooted in the Talmud, which notes that “the ways of G‑d are not like the ways of mortals. How is it among humans? If a man brings a gift to a king, it may be accepted or it may not be accepted. Even if it is accepted, it is still doubtful whether he will be admitted to the presence of the king or not. Not so with G‑d. If a person gives but a small coin to a beggar, he is deemed worthy to receive the Divine Presence, as it is written, ‘I shall behold thy face in tzedek (charity).’1 ” Accordingly, says the Talmud, Rabbi Eleazar used to give a coin to a poor man and immediately begin to pray.2So on an elementary level, giving charity before prayer is like giving a gift to the king before making a request. On a deeper level, it is with immense kindness that G‑d, who is infinite, provides for our finite (and sometimes petty) needs. We elicit G‑d’s kindness through giving charity and doing act of kindness.3
Rabbi Shmuel, the fourth rebbe of Chabad, would elaborate: Prayer must be with life. Through giving charity to a poor person and giving him life, one’s personal prayer is suffused with a great increase of 'aliveness.' " (When saying this, he motioned with his hand in an upwards gesture to indicate that the increase is beyond imagination.)
Indeed, his son, Rabbi Shalom Dov Ber, would often seek out a pauper to give him food before starting to pray.4
When to Give?
When exactly is “before prayer”?
In most instances in the Talmud and Code of Jewish Law, it is a reference to the Amidah (Silent Prayer). As such, some have the custom to give charity right before the start the Amidah.5
But it is somewhat problematic to actually make an interruption at that point in the prayers. Thus, others follow the custom of the Arizal, who (based on Kabbalistic reasons beyond the scope of this article) would give to charity while reciting the words ve’atah moshel bakol (“and You rule over all”) in Vayevarech David (“And David blessed . . . ,” pg. 35 in standard Kehot Siddur).6
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, however, notes that the reason for giving charity at that point is not the same as for giving charity before prayer. Therefore, the widespread custom is to give charity before the start of services and then again when saying ve’atah moshel bakol.7
The custom is to give charity before the morning (Shacharit) and afternoon (Minchah) prayers. Many, however, don’t give before the nighttime prayers (Maariv), based on the opinion of the Jerusalem Talmud8 and the Arizal9 that one should refrain from giving at night, since at nighttime the attributes of judgment are expressed powerfully and there is fear that the external forces may derive nurture.10 The Rebbe explains that this concern only applies to actively seeking out a charity box to give charity. If, however, you are approached by a needy person, you are always obligated to help him.11
Indeed, our sages tell us that “great is charity, for it it brings the redemption,”12 mirroring the words of Isaiah: “Zion shall be redeemed through justice, and her penitent through righteousness (tzedakah).”13
May it be speedily in our days!
Artwork by Sefira Ross, a freelance designer and illustrator whose original creations grace many Chabad.org pages. Residing in Seattle, Washington, her days are spent between multitasking illustrations and being a mom.
FOOTNOTES1.Psalms, 17:16.
2.Talmud, Bava Batra 10a.
3.For more on this, see Tanya,Iggeret Hakodeshepistle 8.
4.Hayom Yom, 2nd of Kislev.
5.See Shulchan Aruch Harav, Orach Chaim 92:10.
6.Pri Eitz Chaim, Shaar Hazemirot 5. See also Magen Avraham in Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 51:7 and Shulchan Aruch Harav 51:11.
7.For a discussion on this, seeShaarei Halacha u’Minhag, vol. 1, pg. 102-103.
8.Jerusalem Talmud, Shekalim 5:4
9.Shaar HaKavanot, Tefillat Arivit, derush 1.
10.Siddur of R. Shabtai of Roshkov.
11.For more on this, see Igrot Kodesh, vol. 2, letter no. 238. (English translation on our site available here ). See also Is it appropriate to give charity at night?
12.Talmud, Bava Batra 10a.
13.Isaiah 1:27.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Parshah
The Rhyme of No Reason By Mendel Kalmenson
During the closing days of Israel’s 1982 “Peace in Galilee” campaign in Lebanon, Tuvia Bolton was one of ten Chabad Chassidim who obtained authorization from the army to enter Beirut to cheer up the soldiers and assist them with their religious needs.One morning, at the crack of dawn, they got their tefillin ready, and began asking soldiers if they wanted to do a mitzvah and put them on for a minute.
Walking around looking for “customers,” Tuvia happened upon a line of about ten open-roofed jeeps with two soldiers seated in each. Their motors were running, and they were waiting in the chilly morning to go out on a mission.
“Tell me, Rabbi, if . . . if I put on tefillin, will G‑d protect me?”He approached a soldier in a jeep and asked whether he wanted to don tefillin.
The fellow looked straight ahead, without reacting to the question. Tuvia stood waiting for a reply. After a few seconds of silence, the soldier turned and said (loose translation): “Get out of my sight, you religious degenerate! If you don’t get out of my face, I’ll tear you to pieces!”
Tuvia got the message that the answer was no. He tried to force a smile and figure out something to say, when the driver of the next jeep in line suddenly called out in a desperate tone of voice: “Rabbi, rabbi! Come here. I want to put on tefillin.” Happy to get away, Tuvia began to walk toward the third jeep in the line. “Tell me, rabbi,” the soldier called nervously after Tuvia had taken a few steps and was still quite a distance from him. “If . . . if I put on tefillin, will G‑d protect me?”
The man was obviously very worried. Yesterday he was probably sitting in his hardware store selling tools, and here he was today about to enter the front lines.
“Listen, my friend,” Tuvia assured him, “G‑d will protect you whether you put on the tefillin or not.1 Don’t worry. He loves you unconditionally. But if G‑d protects you for free, why not do something for Him for free, and put on tefillin?”
It seems that the soldier who had been rude to him heard this exchange, because when Tuvia was done helping the other soldier with the tefillin, he called out, “Hey, rabbi! Come over here!”
Meanwhile he was rolling up his sleeve like he wanted to put on tefillin.
“What do you want? What happened?” asked Tuvia incredulously.
“What do you care?” he replied. “I want to put on the tefillin, too.”
“For real?”
“Listen, my friend. To put on tefillin in order to go to heaven, that’s not for me. But to put on tefillin for no reason . . . that I’m willing to do!”
Conditional Unconditionalism
And it will be, because you will heed these ordinances and keep and perform them, that G‑d, your G‑d, will keep for you the covenant and the kindness that He swore to your forefathers. —Deuteronomy 7:12
An interesting verse. Rather puzzling, even contradictory.
At first glance it appears to speak of a relationship with G‑d that is conditioned upon observance: “because you will heed these ordinances, etc.” It suggests that “G‑d will keep you” only if you keep Him.
This arrangement is straightforward: keep G‑d’s will, and He will keep yours.Here we encounter the alleged classic mode of interaction between deity and worshipper, identical to the standard give and take which characterizes any commercial relationship, except that in this case the supplier can be relied upon to deliver.
This system is clearly articulated in the second paragraph of the most central Jewish prayer, the Shema (recorded later on in the same Torah portion):
And it will be, if you hearken to My commandments that I command you this day . . . I will give the rain of your land at its time, and you will gather in your grain, your wine and your oil. And I will give grass in your field for your livestock, and you will eat and be sated . . .
Beware, lest your heart be misled, and you turn away and worship strange gods . . . And He will close the heavens and there will be no rain, and the land will yield no produce, and you will perish quickly from the good land that G‑d gives you.
This arrangement is straightforward, containing no hidden fees or clauses: keep G‑d’s will, and He will keep yours.
The thing is, we are taught by the sages that there’s more to our relationship with G‑d than cold business.
An inherent and unconditional bond binds G‑d and Jew, operating entirely independent of their respective performances. Jewish history is living proof of this deeper connection—a thousand times over. Just imagine if Jewish survival were linked to observance, or if Jewish devotion to G‑d depended on our people leading the good life . . .
The metaphor of covenant, achieved through an oath, is applied by the Torah to this unbreakable tie. For both a covenant and an oath are, by definition, unconditional, necessary only for moments of low or no performance.
This leaves us wondering about the above-quoted verse: “And it will be, because you will heed these ordinances and keep and perform them, that G‑d, your G‑d, will keep for you the covenant and the kindness that He swore to your forefathers,” which implies that our unconditional connection with G‑d is itself conditional!
Choices to Make
Before unlocking the secret to understanding this enigmatic verse, an introduction is in order.
The rather unusual Hebrew word used here for “because [you will heed . . . ],” eikev, is related to the Hebrew word for heel.
Is our relationship with G‑d a game of mathematics or economics? One for me, one for You?Thus the unusual word choice leads Rashi to interpret the verse thusly: “If you will heed the minor commandments, those which a person tends to trample with his heels . . . [then ‘G‑d will keep His promise to you . . .’].”
What Rashi is saying here is that this verse isn’t referring to the quantity of divine service, but to its quality. This is about attitude, not amount.
Are mitzvot our way of paying G‑d for a service?
Are the good deeds we do our calculated trade for health, wealth, and happiness?
Is our relationship with G‑d a game of mathematics or economics? One for me, one for You?
If it is, we are bound to trip on our heels. When observing the Torah, we will come to pick and choose. And even if we choose all—because we want all—a means to serve G‑d has essentially become a means to serve ourselves.
This is not to say that the math doesn’t add up. It does. Just see the second paragraph of Shema. But good math can merely satisfy, not infatuate; it can produce money, but not love.
For love begins where mathematical equations end.
This brings us to the inner meaning of the verse: “And it will be, because you will heed these ordinances and keep them and perform them”—as Rashi explains, in the way of lovers, who skip math and discard heels—“that G‑d, your G‑d, will keep for you the covenant and the kindness that He swore to your forefathers.” G‑d will reciprocate accordingly.
Proverbs teaches: “As in water, one face reflects another, so is the heart of a man to a man.”
Our verse adds: So is the heart of G‑d to man.2
Rabbi Mendel Kalmenson is the rabbi of Beit Baruch and executive director of Chabad of Belgravia, London, where he lives with his wife, Chana, and children.
Mendel was an editor at the Judaism Website—Chabad.org, and is also the author of the popular books Seeds of Wisdom and A Time to Heal.
Artwork by Sefira Ross, a freelance designer and illustrator whose original creations grace many Chabad.org pages. Residing in Seattle, Washington, her days are spent between multitasking illustrations and being a mom.
FOOTNOTES1.Author’s Note: This does not negate the fact that putting ontefillin does, indeed, grant its wearer added protection in battle. The verse says (Deuteronomy 28:10), “And all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of G‑d is called upon you, and they will fear you,” and the Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni) explains that this refers to the enemies seeing the “tefillin on the head.” Furthermore, the Rosh (Halachot Ketanot, Laws of Tefillin 15) says that in the merit of the mitzvah of tefillin, soldiers will see the fulfillment of the verse (Deuteronomy 33:20), “And he will tear off the arm [of his enemy] together with the head.”
Nevertheless, though tefillin adds an extra measure of protection, G‑d protects and loves each and every one of us, regardless of our degree of observance, and whether or not we don tefillin.
2.Based on the Rebbe’s teachings, Likkutei Sichot, vol. 9, pp. 71ff.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Parshah
The Seven Species and Seven Attributes Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
For the L-rd your G‑d is bringing you to a good land: ... A land of wheat, barley, grapes, figs and pomegranates; a land of oil-yielding olives and [date] honeyDeuteronomy 8:8
Our sages tell us that, originally, all trees bore fruit, as will also be the case in the Era of Moshiach. A fruitless tree is a symptom of an imperfect world, for the ultimate function of a tree is to produce fruit.
If "man is a tree of the field" (Deuteronomy 20:19) and fruit is the tree's highest achievement, there are seven fruits that crown the human and botanical harvest. These are the seven fruits and grains singled out by the Torah as exemplars of the Holy Land's fertility: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates.
The 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat is the day designated by the Jewish calendar as the New Year for Trees. On this day, we celebrate the trees of G‑d's world, and the tree within us, by partaking of these seven fruits, which typify the various components and modes of human life.
Food and Fodder
The Kabbalistic masters tell us that each and every one of us has not one, but two souls: an animal soul, which embodies our natural, self-oriented instincts; and a G‑dly soul, embodying our transcendent drives--our desire to escape the I and relate to that which is greater than ourselves.
As its name implies, the animal soul constitutes that part of ourselves that is common to all living creatures: the instinct for self-preservation and self-perpetuation. But man is more than a sophisticated animal. There are qualities that are unique to us as human beings--the qualities deriving from our G‑dly soul. The point at which we graduate beyond the self and its needs (How do I survive? How do I obtain food, shelter, money, power, knowledge, satisfaction?) to a supra-self perspective (Why am I here? What purpose do I serve?) is the point at which we cease to be just another animal in G‑d's world and begin to realize our uniqueness as human beings.
This is not to say that the animal self is to be rejected in favor of the divine-human self. These are our two souls, both of which are indispensable to a life of fulfillment and purpose. Even as we stimulate the divine in us to rise above the merely animal, we must also develop and refine our animal selves, learning to cultivate the constructive aspects of selfhood (e.g., self-confidence, courage, perseverance) while weeding out the selfish and the profane.
In the Torah, wheat is regarded as the mainstay of the human diet, while barley is mentioned as a typical animal food (cf, Psalms 104:15 and I Kings 5:8. See also Talmud, Sotah 14a). Thus, "wheat" represents the endeavor to nourish what is distinctly human in us, to feed the divine aspirations that are the essence of our humanity. "Barley" represents the endeavor to nourish and develop our animal soul--a task no less crucial to our mission in life than the cultivation of our G‑dly soul.
Excitement
Wheat and barley, the two grains among the Seven Kinds, represent the staples of our inner make-up. Following these come five fruits--appetizers and desserts on our spiritual menu--which add flavor and zest to our basic endeavor of developing our animal and G‑dly souls.
The first of these is the grape, whose defining characteristic is joy. As the grapevine describes its product in Yotam's Parable (Judges 9:13), "my wine, which makes joyous G‑d and men."
Joy is revelation. A person ignited by joy has the same basic traits he possesses in a non-joyous state--the same knowledge and intelligence, the same loves, hates, wants and desires. But in a state of joy, everything is more pronounced: the mind is keener, the loves deeper, the hates more vivid, the desires more aggressive. Emotions that ordinarily show only a faint intimation of their true extent now come out into the open. In the words of the Talmud, "When wine enters, the concealed emerges."
A joyless life might be complete in every way, yet it is a shallow life: everything is there, but only the barest surface is showing. Both the G‑dly and the animal souls contain vast reservoirs of insight and feeling that never see the light of day because there is nothing to stimulate them. The grape represents the element of joy in our lives--the joy that unleashes these potentials and adds depth, color and intensity to everything we do.
Involvement
We might be doing something fully and completely; we might even be doing it joyously. But are we there? Are we involved?
Involvement means more than doing something right, more than giving it our all. It means that we care, that we are invested in the task. It means that we are affected by what we are doing, for the better or for the worse.
The fig, the fourth of the Seven Kinds, is also the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil--the fruit which Adam and Eve tasted, thereby committing the first sin of history. As Chassidic teaching explains, knowledge (daat) implies an intimate involvement with the thing known (as in the verse, "And Adam knew his wife"). Adam's sin derived from his refusal to reconcile himself with the notion that there are certain things from which he must distance himself: he desired to intimately know every corner of G‑d's world, to become involved with every one of G‑d's creations. Even evil, even that which G‑d had declared out of bounds to him.
Adam's fig was one of the most destructive forces in history. In its equally powerful constructive guise, the fig represents our capacity for a deep and intimate involvement in our every positive endeavor--an involvement which signifies that we are one with what we are doing.
Deed
"Your lips are like a thread of scarlet," extols King Solomon in his celebration of the love between the Divine Groom and His bride Israel, "your mouth is comely; your temple is like a piece of pomegranate within your locks" (Song of Songs, 4:3). As interpreted by the Talmud, the allegory of the pomegranate expresses the truth that, "Even the empty ones amongst you are full of good deeds as a pomegranate [is full of seeds]."
The pomegranate is not just a model for something that contains many particulars. It also addresses the paradox of how an individual may be empty and, at the same time, be full of good deeds as a pomegranate.
The pomegranate is a highly compartmentalized fruit: each of its hundreds of seeds is wrapped in its own sac of pulp and is separated from its fellows by a tough membrane. In the same way, it is possible for a person to do good deeds--many good deeds--yet they remain isolated acts, with little or no effect on his nature and character. He may possess many virtues, but they do not become him; he may be full of good deeds, yet he remains morally and spiritually hollow.
If the fig represents our capacity for total involvement and identification with what we are doing, the pomegranate is the fig's antithesis, representing our capacity to overreach ourselves and act in a way that surpasses our internal spiritual state. It is our capacity to do and achieve things that are utterly incompatible with who and what we are at the present moment.
The pomegranate is hypocrisy in its noblest form: the refusal to reconcile oneself to one's spiritual and moral station as defined by the present state of one's character; the insistence on acting better and more G‑dly than we are.
Struggle
For most of us, life is synonymous with struggle. We struggle to forge an identity under the heavy shadow of parental and peer influence; we struggle to find a partner in life, and then we struggle to preserve our marriage; we struggle to raise our children, and then struggle in our relationship with them as adults; we struggle to earn a living, and then struggle with our guilt over our good fortune; and underlying it all is the perpetual struggle between our animal and G‑dly selves, between our self-oriented instincts and our aspiration to transcend the self and touch the Divine.
The olive in us is that part of ourselves that thrives on struggle, that revels in it, that would no more escape it than escape life itself. Just like an olive, say our sages, which yields its oil only when pressed, so, too, do we yield what is best in us only when pressed between the millstones of life and the counterforces of a divided self.
Perfection
As the fig is countered by the pomegranate, so, too, is the olive in us contrasted by our seventh fruit, the date, which represents our capacity for peace, tranquility and perfection. While it is true that we're best when we're pressed, it is equally true that there are potentials in our soul that well forth only when we are completely at peace with ourselves--only when we have achieved a balance and harmony among the diverse components of our souls.
Thus the Psalmist sings: "The tzaddik (perfectly righteous person) shall bloom as the date palm" (Psalms 92:13). The Zohar explains that there is a certain species of date palm that bears fruit only after seventy years. The human character is comprised of seven basic attributes, each consisting of ten subcategories; thus, thetzaddik's blooming after seventy years is the fruit of absolute tranquillity--the product of a soul whose every aspect and nuance of character has been refined and brought into harmony with oneself, one's fellow and one's G‑d.
While the olive and date describe two very different spiritual personalities, they both exist within every man. For even in the midst of our most ardent struggles, we can always find comfort and fortitude in the tranquil perfection that resides at the core of our souls. And even in our most tranquil moments, we can always find the challenge that will provoke us to yet greater achievement.
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson; adapted by Yanki Tauber.
Originally published in Week in Review.
Republished with the permission of MeaningfulLife.com. If you wish to republish this article in a periodical, book, or website, please emailpermissions@meaningfullife.com.
Artwork by Sefira Ross, a freelance designer and illustrator whose original creations grace many Chabad.org pages. Residing in Seattle, Washington, her days are spent between multitasking illustrations and being a mom.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Parshah
Manna, Food of Starvation By Elisha Greenbaum
A family friend once told me that she would notice a peculiar quirk whenever her father-in-law, a Holocaust survivor, would stay at her house.Every night before retiring to bed, Zeide would wander into the kitchen and unobtrusively check out the contents of her pantry.He could not go to sleep unless there was bread in the houseIf there was bread on the shelf, he’d relax and head off to his bedroom. But if there was none, he would invariably leave the house to buy a loaf.
He never made a big fuss about it, and she does not remember whether he ever explicitly said that he could not go to sleep unless there was bread in the house, but that was his custom.
Obviously, his war experience influenced this behavior. We who have never been really hungry cannot possibly fathom the effect of the years of privation that he and his generation suffered in the ghettos and camps. But I can imagine, in an abstract sense, the anxiety of never really knowing where one’s next meal is coming from.
The Food of Starvation
We find a parallel concept in this week’s Torah reading. The manna that fell from heaven throughout the 40 years in the desert is referred to by the Midrash as “starvation food.”1 On the face of it, this doesn’t seem to make sense. The manna was the food of miracles, falling every day and feeding the nation. Every single person received an exact portion, sized to satiate one’s hunger, and it had the miraculous property of tasting like whichever food one desired. What could be more satisfying than that?
However, on reflection, it’s understandable that if you had to rely on a daily miracle to eat, you’d always feel hungry. Imagine going to bed every night for 40 years nervously wondering if G‑d would send food again the next day. You might have been fed today, but how confident would you be of the next day’s sustenance? You’d always be thinking about food.
The Food That Satisfies
It is interesting to note, however, that in the first blessing of Grace After Meals, we quote the words “You shall eat, be satisfied and bless the L‑rd your G‑d,” which according to our tradition is a reference to the manna.
Now, that’s really strange. Is the manna satisfying or not? Is it the bread of starvation or the food that fills you up? How can one foodstuff, miraculous as it may be, be variously described in such different ways?
Because the feelings a person has towards the manna are influenced by his perspective on life and his relationship with G‑d.
From one perspective, the food you buy with the money you’ve earned is far more satisfying than the potential manna still to fall from heaven. Your resources are measurable and quantifiable, and you can relax in the knowledge that you have enough to eat today. However, from another perspective, the money you’ve got right now and the food that you can buy with it is limited. There is only so much that you will ever be able to achieve on your own.Your resources are measureable and quantifiable
G‑d, however, is infinite and has unlimited resources to share. No matter how difficult it is now and how tough your current circumstances, you can feel confident that things can and will improve. Even in times of loss and suffering, you can look forward to a better tomorrow, with hope and confidence that G‑d will provide the resources for your salvation.
The manna that comes to us as a gift directly from G‑d is the truest and most satisfying food one can possibly receive. And the sprinkling of G‑dliness that falls in our life is the daily bread of faith that sustains our body and spirit forever.
Rabbi Elisha Greenbaum is spiritual leader of Moorabbin Hebrew Congregation and co-director of L’Chaim Chabad in Moorabbin, Victoria, Australia.
Artwork by Sefira Ross, a freelance designer and illustrator whose original creations grace many Chabad.org pages. Residing in Seattle, Washington, her days are spent between multitasking illustrations and being a mom.
FOOTNOTES
1.Kohelet Rabbah 5:10.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Eikev In DepthA condensation of the weekly Torah portion alongside select commentaries culled from the Midrash, Talmud, Chassidic masters, and the broad corpus of Jewish scholarship.
Parshat Eikev In-Depth
Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25
Parshah Summary
Like the other parshiot in the Book of Deuteronomy, theparshah of Eikev ("Because") consists entirely of Moses' final address to the people of Israel, begun on the 1st of Shevat in the year 2488 from creation (1273 BCE), and concluding 37 days later on the 7th of Adar, the day of Moses' passing.
In this segment of his "repetition of the Torah" Moses extols the blessings of the land that the people are about to enter (without him), but warns that these blessings are dependent upon the people remaining faithful to the covenant they entered into with G‑d at Mount Sinai to keep His Torah and fulfill its commandments (mitzvot):
If the people remain true to G‑d, they have nothing to fear from their powerful enemies:And it shall come to pass, because you hearken to these laws, and keep, and do them; that G‑d your G‑d shall keep unto you the covenant and the kindness which He swore to your fathers.And He will love you, and bless you, and multiply you; and He will bless the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your land, your corn, and your wine, and your oil, the increase of your cattle, and the flocks of your sheep, in the land which He swore to your fathers to give you.You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a sterile man or barren woman among you, or among your cattle. And G‑d will take away from you all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, upon you; but will lay them upon all those who hate you.Confidence
The only danger they pose is the spiritual one:If you should say in your heart: These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them...?Do not be terrified by them; for G‑d your G‑d is among you, a great and awesome G‑d.
With abundance and plenty, however, come the danger that "your heart grow haughty," andThe carvings of their gods shall you burn with fire; you shall not desire the silver or gold that is on them, or take it to you, lest you be snared with it, for it is an abomination to G‑d your G‑d. Neither shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you become accursed like it; you shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is taboo.All the mitzvah which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which G‑d swore to your fathers.And you shall remember all the way which G‑d your G‑d led you these forty years in the wilderness... He afflicted you, and suffered you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you know not and which your fathers did not know; in order to make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by the wordthat proceeds out of the mouth of G‑d doesman live.Your garment grew not worn upon you, nor did your foot swell, these forty years.You shall consider in your heart, that, as a man chastens his son, so G‑d your G‑d chastens you.The Blessed LandG‑d is bringing you into a good land, a land of water courses, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills.A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil, and [date] honey.A land in which you shall eat bread without scarceness, you shall not lack any thing in it; a land the stones of which are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig brass.You shall eaten and be replete, and bless G‑d your G‑d for the good land which He has given you.
No less dangerous is to begin to believe in one's own righteousness:You will say in your heart: My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth...
Later in the parshah, we hear more about the uniqueness of the Land:Speak not you in your heart: Because of my righteousness G‑d has brought me in to possess this land...Not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart do you go to possess their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations G‑d your G‑d does drive them out from before you, and that He may perform the word which G‑d swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Moses reminds the people, "Also in Horeb you provoked G‑d to anger, so that G‑d was angry with you to have destroyed you."The land into which you go to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence you came out, where you did sow your seed, and did water it by foot, like a vegetable garden. [Rather,] the land into which you go to possess it is a land of hills and valleys, and drinks water of the rain of heaven.A land which G‑d your G‑d cares for: the eyes of G‑d your G‑d are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.The Sin of the Golden Calf
Moses describes what happened when he came down from the mountain:When I was gone up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which G‑d made with you; then I abode in the mountain forty days and forty nights, I neither ate bread nor drank water...And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that G‑d... said to me:"Arise, get you down quickly from here; for your people which you have brought forth out of Egypt have become corrupt; they have quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image."And G‑d spoke to me saying: "I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Let Me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they..."And I fell down before G‑d, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water; because of all your sins which you sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of G‑d, to provoke Him to anger. For I feared the anger and wrath with which G‑d was angry against you to destroy you. ButG‑d hearkened to me at that time also.
After destroying the idol, Moses returns to the summit of Mount Sinai for a third 40 days to receive the Second Tablets from G‑d:So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. And I looked, and, behold, you had sinned against G‑d your G‑d, and had made a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly out of the way which G‑d had commanded you.And I grabbed hold of the two tablets, and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes...
Nor was this the only time that Moses had to intervene with G‑d to save them:At that time G‑d said to me: "Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me into the mountain, and make for yourself an ark of wood. And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you did break, and you shall put them in the ark."And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and went up to the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand.And He wrote on the tablets, according to the first writing, the ten Words which G‑d spoke to you in the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly: and G‑d gave them to me. And I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they were, as G‑d commanded me.
"And now, Israel," says Moses, "what does G‑d your G‑d require of you, only to fear G‑d your G‑d, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve G‑d your G‑d with all your heart and with all your soul; to keep the commandments of G‑d, and His statutes, which I command you this day for your good?"And at Tav'erah, and at Massah, and at Kivrot-Hatta'avah, you provoked G‑d to anger. Likewise when G‑d sent you from Kadesh-Barnea, saying, "Go up and possess the land which I have given you"; then you rebelled against the commandment of G‑d your G‑d, and you believed Him not, nor hearkened to His voice.You have been rebellious against G‑d from the day that I knew you.G‑d's Way
Your generation, Moses also tells them, occupies a unique place in Jewish history: you saw it all yourselves.
"But your own eyes have seen all the great acts of G‑d which He did."I speak not with your children, who have not known, and have not seen the chastisement of G‑d your G‑d, His greatness, His mighty hand, and His stretched out arm --And His miracles, and His acts, which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land --And what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots, how He made the water of the Sea of Suf overflow them as they pursued after you; and G‑d destroyed them unto this day --And what He did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place...
In the Parshah's closing verses, Moses once again calls upon the people to love G‑d, fulfill His commandments and "walk in all His ways, and cleave to Him."And it shall come to pass, if you hearken diligently to My commandments which I command you this day, to love G‑d your G‑d, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul;that I will give you the rain of your land in its due season, the early rain and the late rain, that you may gather in your corn, and your wine, and your oil.And I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be full.Take heed to yourselves, that your heart not be enticed, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them. Then G‑d's anger be inflamed against you, and He shut up the heavens that there be no rain, and that the land yield not its fruit; and you will perish quickly from off the good land which G‑d gives you.And you shall place these words of Mine in your heart and in your soul; and bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they will be astefillin between your eyes.And you shall teach them your children, speaking of them when you sit in your home, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise.And you shall write them upon the door postsof your house, and upon your gates.In order that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which G‑d swore to your forefathers to give to them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.
From Our Sages
Because you hearken to these laws (Deuteronomy 7:12)
The commentaries dwell on the Hebrew word eikev in this verse—an uncommon synonym for “because.” Many see a connection with the word akeiv (same spelling, different pronunciation), which means “heel.”
Rashi interprets this as an allusion to those mitzvot which a person tramples with his heels—the Torah is telling us to be equally diligent with all of G‑d’s commandments, no less with those that seem less significant to our finite minds.
Ibn Ezra and Nachmanides interpret it in the sense of “in the end” (i.e., “in the heels of,” or in the sense that the heel is at the extremity of the body)—the reward being something that follows the action. A similar interpretation is given by Ohr HaChaim, who explains that true satisfaction and fulfillment comes at the “end”—the complete fulfillment of all the mitzvot, and byRabbeinu Bechayei, who sees it as an allusion that the reward we do receive in this world is but a lowly and marginal (the “heel”) aspect of the true worth of the mitzvot.
Baal HaTurim gives a gematriatic explanation: the word eikev is used because it has a numerical value of 172—the number of words in the Ten Commandments.
Tzemach Tzedek (the third Chabad rebbe) sees it as a reference to ikveta d’meshicha, the generation of “the heels of Moshiach” (the last generation of the exile is called “the heels of Moshiach” by our sages because: a) they are the spiritually lowest generation, due to the “descent of the generations”; b) it is the generation in which the footsteps of Moshiach can already be heard).This is the generation that will “hearken to these laws,” as Maimonides writes: “The Torah has already promised that the people of Israel will return to G‑d at the end of their exile, and will be immediately redeemed.”
The Lubavitcher Rebbe says: Our commitment to Torah should be such that it permeates us entirely, so that also our heel—the lowest and the least sensitive part of the person—“hearkens to these laws, observes them and does them.” In other words, our relationship with G‑d should not be confined to the holy days of the year, or to certain “holy” hours we devote to prayer and study, but should also embrace our everyday activities. Indeed, this “lowly” and “spiritually insensitive” part of our life is the foundation of our relationship with G‑d, in the same way that the heel is the base upon which the entire body stands and moves.
more
If you should say in your heart: These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them? You shall not be afraid of them (7:17–18)
When you understand that the nations are more numerous than you, and that you, with your own power, cannot defeat them, but are totally dependent on G‑d’s help, then you need not fear them. But if you begin to believe that you can defeat them on your own, then you indeed have great cause for fear.
(Maasei Hashem)
The simple meaning of the phrase “all the mitzvah” is the entire body of divine commandments—all the mitzvot. The Midrashic interpretation is: do the whole mitzvah. If you begin a good deed, finish it, for a mitzvah is credited to the one who concludes the task. Thus it is written: “Joseph’s bones, which the children of Israel took out of Egypt, they buried in Shechem.” Yet it was Moses himself who took Joseph’s bones out of Egypt (Exodus 13:19)! But since he did not conclude the task, and the children of Israel concluded it, it is called by their name.
(Rashi)
All the generations of history labored to bring Moshiach, and certainly their contribution is greater than ours. Nevertheless, we are the “generation of redemption,” since “a mitzvah is credited to the one who concludes the task.”
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
He afflicted you, and suffered you to hunger, and fed you with manna . . . in order to make you know that man does not live by bread alone (8:3)
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was asked by his disciples: Why didn’t the manna come down for Israel once a year?He replied: I shall give a parable. This thing may be compared to a king of flesh and blood who had an only son, whom he provided with maintenance once a year, so that he would visit his father once a year only. Thereupon he provided for his maintenance every day, so that he called on him every day. The same with Israel. One who had four or five children would worry, saying: Perhaps no manna will come down tomorrow, and all will die of hunger? Thus they were found to turn their attention to their Father in Heaven.
(Talmud, Yoma 76a)
For forty years the children of Israel were sustained by “bread from heaven,” instilling in them the recognition that sustenance comes entirely from G‑d; that no matter how much a person toils to earn his livelihood, he receives no more and no less than what has been allotted him from Above.The challenge is to retain this recognition also after entering the Land and making the transition to “bread from the earth.” Even when we are nourished by bread which we earn by “the sweat of our brow,” we must remember that, in truth, our sustenance comes from G‑d, and that we never receive an iota more or an iota less than what is allotted us from Above.
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
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Man does not live by bread alone, but by the word that proceeds out of the mouth of G‑d does man live (8:3)
At the core of every existence is a divine utterance that created it (“Let there be light,” “Let the earth sprout forth vegetation,” etc.), which remains nestled within it to continuously supply it with being and life. The soul of man descends into the trappings and trials of physical life in order to unite with and elevate the “sparks of holiness” buried in the food it eats, the clothes it wears, and all the other objects and forces of the physical existence it interacts with. For when a person utilizes something, directly or indirectly, to serve the Creator, he penetrates its shell of mundanity, revealing and realizing its divine essence and purpose.Therein lies a deeper meaning to the verse (Psalms 107:5): “The hungry and the thirsty, in them does their soul wrap itself.” A person may desire food and sense only his body’s hunger, but in truth his physical craving is but the expression and external “packaging” of a deeper yen—his soul’s craving for the sparks of holiness that are the object of its mission in physical life.
(Rabbi DovBer, the Maggid of Mezeritch)
This explains a most puzzling fact of life: how is it that man, the highest form of life, derives vitality and sustenance from the lower tiers of creation—the animal, vegetable and mineral? But the true source of nourishment is the “divine utterance” in every creation, and, as the Kabbalists teach, the “lowlier” the creation, the loftier the divine energy it contains. In this the universe resembles a collapsed wall, in which the highest stones fall the farthest.
(Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi)
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You shall consider in your heart, that as a man chastens his son, so the L‑rd your G‑d chastens you (8:5)
When a father punishes his child, the suffering he inflicts on himself is greater than anything experienced by the child. So it is with G‑d: His pain is greater than our pain.
(Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev)
Asked Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov: The Torah repeatedly warns against pride and extols humility. Nevertheless, this precept is not counted as one of the 613 commandments. Why isn’t it a mitzvah to be humble?
Answered the Baal Shem Tov: If humility were a mitzvah, the ego of man would count it among its achievements.
Who led you through that great and terrible desert . . . [a place of] thirst where there is no water (8:15)
The “Holy Ari” (master Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria, 1534–1572) writes that the last generation of the galut(exile) is the reincarnation of Moses’ generation—the “generation of the desert.”Indeed, ours is a generation of “thirst without water.” It is a generation that thirsts for the truth, thirsts for meaning and purpose in life. But the water to quench this thirst, the knowledge to address the why and how of existence, is elusive to them, sealed behind barriers of ignorance and alienation.
But the thirst is there, awaiting satisfaction. Ours is a generation prepared to drink, if only they would be provided with the water they know not where to seek.
(from an address by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, summer of 1957)
G‑dliness is a blazing flame; Torah study and prayer require a flaming heart. Between coldness and heresy stands an extremely thin wall.
(Rabbi Shalom DovBer of Lubavitch)
The chassid Rabbi Nechemiah of Dubrovna told:I once saw a Russian soldier being whipped. His crime? While standing watch on a winter night, his feet had frozen in their boots. “Had you remembered the oath you took to serve the Czar,” his commander berated him, “the memory would have kept you warm.”
“For 25 years,” concluded Rabbi Nechemiah, “this incident inspired my service of the Almighty.”
Better a sinful person who knows that he has sinned, than a righteous person who knows that he is righteous.
(“The Seer of Lublin,” Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Horowitz)
The tablets were each six handbreadths long and three handbreadths wide. Moses held two handbreadths [of the tablets’ length], G‑d held two handbreadths, and in between were two handbreadths of space. Moses’ hands prevailed, and he grabbed hold of the tablets and broke them.
(Midrash Tanchuma)
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Thus I fell down before G‑d forty days and forty nights . . . because G‑d had said He would destroy you (9:25)
There was not a corner of the heavens with which Moses did not grapple to attain G‑d’s forgiveness of Israel . . .When Israel committed that act, Moses arose to appease G‑d and said: “Master of the Universe! They have given You an assistant, and You are annoyed with them? Why, this calf which they have made will be Your assistant: You will cause the sun to rise, while it will cause the moon to rise; You will look after the stars, and it will see to the constellations; You will cause the dew to descend, and it will cause the winds to blow; You will make the rains come down, while it will be responsible for the growth of plants.”
Said G‑d to him: “Moses! You err as they do! For there is nothing real in it.”
Said Moses: “If this is the case, why should Your wrath burn against Your people?”
(Midrash Rabbah)
I prayed to G‑d, and said: “O G‑d, destroy not Your people . . . which You have brought out of Egypt” (9:26)
What was his idea in mentioning here the going out of Egypt? Because it was thus that Moses pleaded: “Master of the Universe, see from which place You have brought them forth—from Egypt, where everyone worships lambs.”
Said Rabbi Huna in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: It can be compared to a wise man who opened a perfumery shop for his son in a street frequented by harlots. The street did its work, the business also did its share, and the son’s youth likewise contributed its part, with the result that the son fell into evil ways. When the father came and caught him among the harlots, he began to shout: “I will kill you!” But his friend was there, and he said: “You were the cause of this youth’s corruption, and you shout at him? You set aside all other professions and have taught him only to be a perfumer; you skipped over all other districts and opened a shop for him just in the street where harlots dwell . . .”
This is what Moses said: “Master of the Universe! You passed over the entire world to have Your children to be enslaved only in Egypt, where all worshipped lambs. . . . Bear in mind whence You have brought them forth!”
Another interpretation:
This is what Moses said: “Master of the Universe! When I asked You what their merit was that You should redeem them, since they are idolaters, You said: ‘You see them only now as idolaters, but I can foresee them departing from Egypt, and My dividing the Red Sea for them, and bringing them into the wilderness, and giving them the Torah and revealing Myself unto them face to face, and them accepting My kingship—yet denying Me at the end of forty days by making the calf!’ (This is the meaning of what G‑d said to Moses at the burning bush, “I have heard their cries”—I hear already their cries around the calf).
“Since You have told me of their making a golden calf long before You did deliver them,” argued Moses, “why do You seek to slay them now that they have made it?” It was for this reason that Moses mentioned the exodus from Egypt in his plea for mercy.
Another interpretation:
It can be compared to a king who had an uncultivated field and who said to a tenant-laborer: “Go improve it, and convert it into a vineyard.” The laborer went and tended the field and planted it as a vineyard. The vines grew and produced wine, which however became sour. When the king saw that the wine had become sour, he said to the laborer: “Go and cut it all down; what is the use to me of a vineyard that produces vinegar?” But the laborer pleaded: “O my lord and king! Consider what sums you invested before the vineyard was planted, and now You want to cut it all down! Do not give me the reply ‘But its wine becomes sour,’ for this is due to the newness of the vineyard, and a freshly planted vineyard cannot produce good wine.”
Similarly, when Israel made the golden calf, G‑d intended to destroy them, but Moses pleaded: “Master of the Universe! Did You not bring them forth from Egypt, a place of idol-worshippers? They are yet young, as it says (Hosea 11:1), ‘When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.’ Be patient with them yet awhile and go with them, and they will yet perform good deeds before You.”
(Midrash Rabbah)
Moses pleaded: “Master of the Universe! Why are You angry with Israel?” “Because they have broken the Ten Commandments,” said G‑d. “Well,” said Moses, “they possess a source from which they can make repayment. . . . Remember that You tested Abraham with ten trials? Let those ten serve as compensation for these ten.” This is why Moses said, “Remember Abraham . . .”
Another interpretation:
Moses spoke thus: “Master of the Universe! Do the dead live [in the world to come]?”
Said G‑d: “Moses, have you become a heretic?”
But Moses answered: “If the dead are not brought to life in the world to come, then You are free to do all that You intend. But if they be alive, what will You say to the Patriarchs when they will arise and seek from You fulfillment of the promise which You have made them? What answer will You give them? For did You not promise them that You would increase their children as the stars of heaven?”
(Midrash Rabbah)
I made an ark of shittim wood (10:3)
According to the Talmud, the shittah was a type of cedar; in Rabbi Saadiah Gaon’s (Arabic) translation of Torah it is rendered shant, or “acacia.”
Chassidic teaching sees the word shittim as related to the word shetut, “folly”—an allusion to the fact that the function of the Mishkan was to transform the folly of materialism into “folly of holiness”—commitment to G‑d that transcends the rationale and normalcy of “the way things are.”
Just as those days, [the first forty days, to receive the first tablets,] were with [G‑d’s] good will, so were these with good will. But the intermediate [forty days], when I remained to pray for you, were in anger.
(Rashi)
moreMoses absolved his Creator of His vow. When Israel made the calf, Moses began to persuade G‑d to forgive them, but G‑d said: “Moses, I have already taken an oath that ‘He that sacrifices unto the gods . . . shall be destroyed’ (Exodus 22:19), and I cannot retract an oath which has proceeded from My mouth.”
Said Moses: “Master of the Universe! Did You not grant me the power of annulment of oaths? (See commentaries to Numbers 30:3.) If a jurist desires that others should respect his laws, he must be the first to observe them. Since You have commanded me concerning the annulment of vows, it is only right and proper that You should follow this procedure Yourself.”
Whereupon Moses wrapped himself in his tallit and seated himself in the posture of a rabbinical judge, and G‑d stood before him as one asking for the annulment of his vow; for so it says, “Then I sat on the mount” (Deuteronomy 9:9) . . .
What did Moses say to Him? A most difficult thing. Rabbi Yochanan said: The difficult thing he said was: “Do You now regret Your vow?” G‑d replied: “I regret now the evil which I said I would do unto My people.” When Moses heard this, he proclaimed: “Be it absolved for You, be it absolved for You. There is neither vow nor oath any longer . . .”
(Midrash Rabbah)
Is fear of G‑d a minor thing? Yes, for Moses it is a minor thing.
(Talmud, Berachot 33b)
At first glance, the [Talmud’s] answer is incomprehensible, since the verse says “What does G‑d ask of you” [not of Moses]!But the explanation is as follows:
Each and every soul of the house of Israel contains within it something of the quality of our teacher Moses, for he is one of the “seven shepherds” who feed vitality and G‑dliness to the community of the souls of Israel. . . . Moses is the sum of them all, called the “shepherd of faith” (raaya meheimna), in the sense that he nourishes the community of Israel with the knowledge and recognition of G‑d . . .
So although who is the man who dares presume in his heart to approach and attain even a thousandth part of the level of the faithful shepherd, nevertheless, an infinitesimal fringe and minute particle of his great goodness and light illuminates every Jew in each and every generation.
(Tanya)
What kind of bribe might G‑d take? Even if a completely pious person commits a transgression, G‑d does not deduct from his merits to compensate for his sin, but will punish him for the sin and give him full reward for his good deeds.
(Nachmanides)
Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov would say:
There are two types of fields: an irrigated field, and a field watered by rain.
The scholar’s soul is an irrigated field, devotedly developed and nurtured by her farmer. The soul of the simple Jew is a rain-nourished field, surrendering herself to the whims of the heavens, humbly awaiting blessing and stimulation from above.
The irrigated field yields a harvest that is superior, in quantity and quality, to that of her passive sister. But the rain-watered field is a truer, purer reflection on her heavenly Maker.
For the land . . . is not like the land of Egypt . . . where you did sow your seed, and did water it by foot, like a vegetable garden . . . [rather,] it drinks water of the rain of heaven (11:10-11)
“Rain” represents the reciprocal relationship between heaven and earth. “A vapor rises from the earth” to the heavens, and the heavens return it as rain which “quenches the face of the land” (Genesis 2:6). This represents the spiritual truth that “an arousal from below evokes an arousal from above”—that G‑d responds to the efforts of man, reciprocating our prayers, yearnings and deeds with nurture from Above.This is the doctrine of the rain-watered land. Egypt, however, was nourished not by descending rain but by the overflow of the Nile, which would periodically flood the land. The spiritual “Egyptian” is one who does not recognize the heavenly source of the blessings of life. He believes that all is generated from below—that everything he has and has achieved is of his own making.
The people of Israel had been subjected to the Egyptian mentality for four generations. Thus they had to spend forty years in the desert, during which they were subjected to a diametrically opposite set of circumstances, in which one’s daily bread descends from heaven and one’s own efforts have no effect on the result. Only after this lesson in the true source of life could they enter the land that “drinks water of the rain of heaven”—where man’s efforts are crucial and significant, yet are permeated with a recognition of, and dependence upon, the true Source of All.
(The Chassidic Masters)
What is the service of the heart? This is prayer.
(Talmud, Taanit 2a)
One should begin praying only in a contemplative state of mind. The early chassidim would meditate for an hour before praying.
(Talmud, Berachot 30b)
When Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi neared his twentieth year, he decided—with the consent of his wife, Rebbetzin Sterna—to travel to a center of Torah learning and service of G‑d.At that time (1764) Vilna and Mezeritch were the great Jewish capitals of Eastern Europe. Vilna was the seat of Rabbi Eliyahu, the famed Gaon of Vilna, and Mezeritch was the hometown of Rabbi DovBer (the “Maggid”), leader of the chassidic movement.
Related Rabbi Schneur Zalman: “I debated as to where I should go. I knew that in Vilna one was taught how to study, and that in Mezeritch one could learn how to pray. To study I was somewhat able, but of prayer I knew very little. So I went to Mezeritch.
“The Almighty blessed me with making the right choice. I became a devoted chassid of our rebbe, and upon my return to Vitebsk, I guided my disciples in the teachings of Chassidism, which were well received by them.”
(Likkutei Dibburim)
moreSaid Rabbi Judah in the name of Rav: A person is forbidden to eat before he feeds his animals, for it is written, “[I will give grass in your fields] for your livestock,” and only after that, “that you may eat and be full.”
(Talmud, Berachot 40a)
You will perish quickly from off the good land which G‑d gives you. And you shall place these words of Mine (11:17–18)
Also after you are exiled, you must distinguish yourselves with the mitzvot: put on tefillin, makemezuzot, so that these will not be new to you when you return. Thus [the prophet] says (Jeremiah 31:20): “Establish for yourself signs.”
(Sifri; Rashi)
You shall place these words of Mine in your heart and in your soul; and bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as tefillin between your eyes. And you shall teach them your children . . . (11:18–19)
Just as it is incumbent upon every Jew to put on tefillinevery day, so is there an unequivocal duty which rests upon every individual, from the greatest scholar to the most simple of folk, to set aside a half-hour each day in which to think about the education of his children.
(Rabbi Shalom DovBer of Lubavitch)
In the land which G‑d swore to your forefathers to give to them, as the days of heaven upon the earth (11:21)
The verse does not say, “to give to you,” but “to give to them”: from here we derive a reference to the resurrection of the dead from the Torah.
(Sifri; Rashi)
He is merciful; you too should be merciful. He does acts of kindness; you too should do acts of kindness.
(Rashi)
G‑d clothes the naked, as it is written: “G‑d made for Adam and for his wife coats of skin, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21); so should you too clothe the naked.G‑d visits the sick, as it is written: “G‑d appeared to him by the Oaks of Mamre” (Genesis 18:1); so should you too visit the sick.
G‑d comforts mourners, as it is written: “It came to pass after the death of Abraham that G‑d blessed Isaac his son” (Genesis 25:11); so should you too comfort mourners.
G‑d buries the dead, as it is written: “He buried him in the valley” (Deuteronomy 34:6); so should you too bury the dead.
(Talmud, Sotah 14a)
Is it possible to say such a thing? G‑d is a “consuming fire”! But the meaning of this commandment is this: cleave to the students and sages of Torah, and it shall be considered as if you cleaved to Him.
(Rashi; Sifri)
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VIDEO
How to Avoid AngerMy scary drive in a car that was overheating. by Chana Weisberg
Watch (2:21)
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Giving of OneselfThe passing of the Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Schneerson, is marked on the 20th of Av. He was imprisoned and exiled to Kazakhstan for his stance against Soviet efforts to uproot Jewish learning and practice.
Watch (7:17)
http://www.chabad.org/therebbe/livingtorah/player_cdo/aid/3024077/jewish/Giving-of-Oneself.htm
http://www.chabad.org/3024077
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The Jewish Art of GratitudeHow the name Jew ('Yehudi') reflects our very character.
By Yacov Barber
Watch (4:10)
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://embed.chabad.org/multimedia/mediaplayer/embedded/embed.js.asp?aid=3412192&width=auto&height=auto"></script><span style="clear:both;" class="lb" id="lbdiv">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>.</span>
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Contemporary Life
The Lessons She Left Me by Carin M. Smilk
This was her season; she liked summer. She liked its warmth and freedom, its ability to feel encouraging, uplifting. It somehow feels wrong to relish the long, sunny days without her here to enjoy them.My friend and former work colleague passed away a little more than six months ago after years of It feels wrong to relish the long sunny days without herbattling cancer that seeped into her bones and stuck there. She was 52, too young to leave this world in these times. I missed the funeral (I was in Israel and she was in the States), so in a way, it never really happened.
She just seems inaccessible, not gone for good.
She dealt with pain well, or so it seemed. She did it for her children, for her husband, but also for herself. She wasn’t going to succumb to sadness. Life was too short; there was too much to do. There was kindness and concern; that took precedence over anything. There was generosity; she was the first to offer help or advice. There was laughter, something she gushed like a sprinkler; it lit her from within and spilled over to anyone who happened to be nearby.
In Judaism, there are very specific guidelines on how to mourn a parent, a child, a family member. They are described in the utmost detail, out of tradition, of course, but probably also to preoccupy the mind of the mourner. But what about a close friend—someone who feels like family? There are no said standards for that. We sit on the sidelines, gripped by the same loss, the same emotional pain.
I find myself picking up the phone sometimes to call her, to hear her voice. (In fact, I have yet to take her number off my speed dial.) Her Facebook page is still up, and I visit it sometimes to visit her, see the pictures and read the notes and savor the life of a person who touched so many other people in positive ways.
I have discovered that you never really lose someone; you take them with you. Their stories. Their gifts. Even their predilections for little things.
Like her appreciation of ful over hummus (she lived in Israel for more than a decade). It’s in the beans (fava over garbanzo).
Because of her, I jump at the chance to eat quinoa (she loved it). I stopped using shampoo that doesn’t lather well (she didn’t love it). I look for chances to use the word “yoga,” to make a baby smile, to eat something really (really) healthy or take a walk around the block for a burst of air or to get out of your own head. To look at people and notice their moods, what they’re wearing, how they move fast or meander on their way. How some clutch coffee cups from this place or that, sipping with determination, or gesture wildly in the air, phone headsets strapped on, aloof to all.
Because that’s what she gave me. And that’s how I reach her.
But how can I be a friend still? How can I conjure her up at a moment’s notice—not because ofHow can I be a friend still? something I see, but something I do?
I can say something kind. Lift someone up when they’re down, when they are mired in life’s predicaments. I can cook a meal for someone in need, visit someone who is sick, call a friend or family member to let them know that they’re not alone. I can be a cheerleader for others the way she was for me.
That’s how we not only hold on, but move forward. Move forward, with them by our sides.
Carin M. Smilk is a writer and editor in the news division of Chabad.org.
Artwork by Sefira Ross, a freelance designer and illustrator whose original creations grace many Chabad.org pages. Residing in Seattle, Washington, her days are spent between multitasking illustrations and being a mom.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Contemporary Life
Yanir's Search for Meaning in All the Wrong Places An epic musical, mystical search that spanned India, China, Argentina, and Israel
by Shlomo Rizel
Yanir in China.During Yanir Kolinsky’s search for meaning, he never expected that his personal journey to truth and contentment would be so long and winding, taking him through many countries and cultures. In the end, he came full circle, and found what his soul was thirsting for.
From Argentina to Israel and Back
Yanir was born in Eilat in 1981 to parents who had emigrated from Argentina. When he was four years old, they decided to return there. “They’d fled because of the junta,” says Yanir, “and when the situation got better, they decided to return to the country they were used to.”
Growing up in Argentina, they were completely estranged from Judaism. They didn’t know about Shabbat, kosher or the festivals—even Yom Kippur was just nominally celebrated. “Yom Kippur was like a regular day for us. Everybody went to work and gathered in the shul at the end of the day to eat. In Israel, my father learned about the Passover Seder, and he wanted to introduce it to his family, but they were against it and he gave up.” The only mitzvah that Yanir saw in his house was his father putting on tefillin every weekday and reciting a short prayer.
“As far back as I can remember, I was looking for meaning, for spirituality. Something was burning in me, and I knew there must be more to life. This inspired me to become an activist for the good of animals, the world, the green movement, and other things that I thought would provide meaning, but the meaning wasn’t there, and I was left feeling empty.”
Looking for the Meaning of Life in India
Yanir returned to Israel when he was 19, living in an artists’ village in Ein Hod. “I spent time helping a local artist with his work. When he murmured some words before eating, I asked him what he was doing, and he told me that he always said a few words of thanks to the Creator of the world, who gave him his food. This was when I realized I was on track to find the meaning I was searching for, that I was about to touch the vast, hidden well that gave life its purpose.” Yanir’s friend explained that he had lived in India for a long time, and there he had learned about the purpose of life.
Yanir says that he did have religious friends, but he didn’t believe that Judaism had the spirituality he was looking for. “I saw things through the perspective of most secular Israelis; I thought they were ignorant and that the mitzvahs they did were primitive mumbo-jumbo, without any real connection to true spirituality or the higher meaning of life.”
But Yanir’s encounter with his artist friend inspired him—enough that within a week, he was on a plane back to Argentina to ask his parents for money and permission to travel to India. They refused, worried about his safety in such a big country that suffered from poverty and disasters. But with little argument, they agreed to let him travel to any eastern country except India. Yanir opened a map, saw a large country, pointed to it and announced that he wanted to go there. When his parents saw that this was China, they agreed.
Yanir landed in China with no knowledge of the country and no one to show him around. “I walked straight into the streets. I gave myself the freedom to get lost in the different planet that was China and to search for myself.” This wandering led him to the some of the more far-flung places in China—monasteries, Buddhist temples, distant villages. He thought he had finally found the meaning he was seeking. He accepted Buddhism, dressed as a monk, studied meditation and offered incense. His time in the monasteries also revived his childhood love of music.
But after a time, he started to feel that, in spite of the sense of peace and spiritual meaning it gave him, “this wasn’t it. Buddhism teaches you to separate yourself from everyday life, and I wanted to integrate spirituality into my daily life.”
Exotic Instruments in India and Studying the Koran in Cyprus
Yanir began wandering again, crossing the border from China to Nepal and traveling to Laos and Thailand. In the end, he decided, in spite of his parents’ wishes, that he had to go to India. He lived for a while in Varanasi in northern India—the holiest site in the world to Hindus—and there he connected deeply with Hinduism. Here, too, music helped him connect. He learned to play the sitar, and was so good at it that he was asked by the Hindu priests to play it during religious ceremonies held on the Ganges River. After a period, Yanir decided to return home as a Hindu priest. But this only lasted a couple of weeks, as he realized that Hinduism also involves disconnecting from the world and the inability to live a regular life, especially with regard to having a family.
“But I didn’t give up. I was convinced that there must be a religion that I could live with in the real world. Another period of searching brought me to a tribe of Indians living in southern Argentina. I felt a strong connection to them, with their belief in a simple life and connection with nature. Even though in the Far East I had also met people who believed in these things, this felt more real, more pure. But very soon I realized that I hadn’t found what I was looking for with the Indians either; I found myself more connected to the land, and less to the spirit, and I continued my search.”
Then he met a Muslim Sufi. “We’re talking about a sect of Islam that believes in reincarnation, mystical dances and a lot of special music. What really grabbed me was their remarkable music, a type of music that I hadn’t heard anywhere else, a music that gave me a feeling of very high spirituality, of connection to G‑d. When one of my mentors realized that I was Jewish, he told me that according to their tradition, this music came from the Holy Temple, and that was why it was so special and holy. Much later, I connected this with the fact that the Jews were exiled to Babylon (modern-day Iraq), and after that to Persia (modern-day Iran). The non-Jews in those places had borrowed this music from us.” Here, too, Yanir learned to play various exotic instruments, and after a short while he flew to northern Cyprus, the heartland of the Sufis whom he had connected to.
The Wake-Up Call
In Cyprus, Yanir lived in a mosque and spent a good part of his time studying the Koran. He repeatedly traveled back and forth between northern Cyprus and Argentina, spending some months in religious studies in Cyprus and other months among the Argentinean branch of the Sufis who had introduced him to Islam. “My parents were extremely frustrated, and I think they were in despair. I had already converted to Islam, and I wore a Muslim cap and white clothing. I was only willing to marry a Sufi, and was certain that I would die a Muslim.”
But then things changed: “On that day, I was in the Sufi mosque in Argentina. I was learning the Koran and I reached the chapter where it’s written that you can leave the Jews alive, but you have to subjugate them until they accept upon themselves the religion of Islam. This shook me up. I told myself, ‘I can live as a Muslim, but what about my parents, who aren’t willing to accept the Muslim religion? Do they have to be subjugated and oppressed all their lives for it, and by my very hands?’ Several days later, I came to the chapter of the Koran that describes how the trees and stones will give up the Jews who hide behind them, calling out to the Muslim pursuers, ‘There is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him!’ At that moment—the first time in over seven years of traveling and searching for myself—my mind conjured up the image of my father wearing his prayer shawl and tefillin. I realized that I might have gone too far, and I decided to think carefully before I took a step from which there was no return.”
And then another thing happened to bring Yanir back. On his way to Cyprus, he stopped in Israel for a family event. He was hitchhiking to some relatives but dozed off in the car and woke up in the Golan. “This was the first time I had ever been to the Golan, and despite having seen any number of breathtaking sights, at that moment I saw beauty beyond anything I had ever seen before. On one side were the green hills of the Golan; on the other side, the blue waters of the Kinneret. I was completely blown away. There are no words to describe how beautiful it seemed. For the first time, I decided that I wanted to live out my life in this land.”
This experience, together with his earlier experience reading the Koran, gave him a desire to learn more about Judaism. Yanir remembered what he had been told about the “theft” of the music from the Jews, and now it began to dawn on him that many elements of other religions had been borrowed from the Jews, and so it was worth going to the source. He decided to speak to a rabbi. The rabbi spoke and spoke, but Yanir quickly lost interest. “He tried to persuade me, and it turned into an argument. I ended up leaving in anger.
“The rabbi saw that we weren’t speaking the same language and asked me to speak to a Jew in Jerusalem. So I found myself in the home of Chabad chassid Rabbi Yonadav Kaplan. I was very suspicious of him and we barely spoke, but I did observe the running of a Jewish household and realized that I’d found what I was looking for, a life of holiness, where spirituality and belief infuse everyday life. When I saw Rabbi Kaplan saying a blessing before eating, it gave me shivers. I realized I had come full circle, back to where I was when I began my search almost eight years earlier. I thought through all the religions I had seen during all those years and realized that only here, in Judaism, was there complete integration of spirituality and physicality, the ethereality of religion with the humdrum details of everyday life.” Rabbi Kaplan directed him to Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg. They spoke heart to heart, and Rabbi Ginsburg supplied him with answers to his many questions.
Harmony of Marriage
One of the things that especially attracted Yanir to Judaism was the harmony between spouses. “Buddhist priests don’t marry; Hindus generally do marry, but they focus mainly on the spiritual world and not so much on their wives. The Muslims do not have very much respect for their wives, and the fact that they allow a man to marry several wives makes it almost impossible to form the special, close relationship that makes a successful marriage. The only place I found true, mutual respect was in Jewish marriages—a firm and loving marriage that dovetails the spiritual pursuits of both husband and wife. Only Judaism showed me how you could combine spirituality with daily life.”
But like many who are attracted to the way of Chabad and admire their daily efforts to bring the light of Judaism to all the Jews of the world, he realized that he still hadn’t completed his mission. “I saw many teenagers, including religious ones, who were bored with life and seeking adventure. So I started a series of performances called ‘Stories of the Way’ to tell about my search for meaning and truth. Another reason I did it is that there’s a religious obligation to spread Jewish knowledge and spirituality.”
Part of what is special about these performances is the many instruments Yanir brings, several from each country and culture he encountered on his journey. The instruments include a sitar—a Hindu instrument made out of pumpkin and fruit trees, with 20 strings; a rideau—a primitive instrument from Thailand made from a eucalyptus tree that’s been eaten by termites, and only makes one sound; an erhu—a Chinese violin with two strings that sit on a snakeskin, which produces unique sounds and can also be used to imitate animal noises; an avloosi—an Indian harp made from squash and bamboo, which produces touching melodies in three tones; a sentor—a sophisticated wooden instrument the size of a small table, with 66 strings; a nye—a flute made from ordinary reeds that sounds a distinct call; a kamchatka—an ancient Turkish harp used to play a special, rare melody; and a duduk—an Armenian pipe that has been called the father of the clarinet.
“The different melodies bring my spiritual journey alive for my listeners . . . It’s amazing how perfectly each instrument and tune typifies the spiritual outlook of each culture, faith or country. It helps me to show that what we have here, our Jewish birthright, is the best thing in the world and there is nothing like it anywhere else, neither in religion nor land.”
Shlomo Rizel is a Chabad chassid who works for Radio Kol Hai in Israel and speaks on behalf of charitable organizations.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Story
Save the Orphans by Elisha Greenbaum
Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin, known universally as the Brisker Rav, lived in Jerusalem for the last 20 years of his life, where he devoted himself to the physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing of thousands. He established Talmudic academies, soup kitchens and other charitable institutions—the most famous of which was the Diskin Orphanage of Jerusalem.Surely prevention is better than a cureOne day, the rabbi summoned a number of reputable sofrim (scribes) to his office and deputized them to fan out through the streets of holy city, knock on local doors and offer the residents the opportunity to have their mezuzahs checked for errors or faded letters. Rabbi Diskin paid the sofrim from the funds of the orphanage.
People trusted the rav and accepted his judgement implicitly. Yet a number of those present were troubled by his seemingly cavalier attitude toward corporate money management. On the face of it, as important as it might be to ensure that people have kosher mezuzahs hanging on each door, it was hard to justify how this could be fulfilling the purpose for which those funds were donated. How could the rabbi claim to be supporting orphans with this money?
Rabbi Yehoshua Leib understood their disquiet and explained: “It’s very simple. We say every day in the Shemah, ‘And you shall inscribe them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates, in order that your days and the days of your children may increase, in the land which the L‑rd swore to your forefathers to give them.’1 Kosher mezuzahs saves lives!
“Surely prevention is better than a cure. Those generous donors who are moved toHow could the rabbi claim to be supporting orphans with this money? support orphans would surely prefer that there were fewer orphans to support. Rather than wait for tragedy, I am attempting to forestall the deaths of mothers and fathers in this city, in this land which G‑d has given us, and thus spare their innocent children from suffering in the first place.”
G‑d gives us an easy prescription for saving lives, and it is it our duty and privilege to follow His instructions to the letter.
We are approaching the month of Elul, when people traditionally have their mezuzahs and tefillin checked. Call your rabbi or arrange for them to be checked directly with the sofer. It could save a life!
Rabbi Elisha Greenbaum is spiritual leader of Moorabbin Hebrew Congregation and co-director of L’Chaim Chabad in Moorabbin, Victoria, Australia.
Artwork by Sefira Ross, a freelance designer and illustrator whose original creations grace many Chabad.org pages. Residing in Seattle, Washington, her days are spent between multitasking illustrations and being a mom.
FOOTNOTES
1.Deuteronomy 11:21.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Story
The Stranger From Spain by Menachem Posner
For centuries after the expulsion of Spanish Jewry in 1492, pockets of Jewish people clung to their faith in secret. While giving the appearance of being devout Christians, they maintained Jewish practice in hiding.Some of these crypto-Jews held positions of great prominence in Spanish government, finance, culture and academia. One such Jew was a very high official in the royal court who enjoyed a close relationship with the reigning monarch.
But the day came when the powerful arm of the church caught up with him, and he was accused of living as a Jew. He was summarily tried and sentenced to death byauto-da-fé.
Since he had many important duties, he asked the king to defer his punishment for a year so that he would be able to put the kingdom’s affairs in order before being burned. Although the king rarely involved himself in church matters, he requested that his friend be granted a year, and his wish was honored.
The year passed all too quickly, and the king once again asked that the punishment be delayed by one month. This was followed by a request for an additional week and then a day.
Finally, word was given that the treacherous Jew, who had pretended to be a faithful Catholic, would be put to death by burning in the city square.
People gathered from miles around to witness the event. The pyre was burning, and the priests were performing their last rites.
Suddenly, the ground shook. Buildings crumbled. The bleachers wobbled. The crowd dispersed in panic as the city was gripped by an earthquake. In the mayhem, the accused managed to slip away from his captors.
A few weeks later, he escaped out of Spain to safety.
Well versed in classical philosophy, the Jew knew no rest. Was the earthquake sent by G‑d just to save him, or was it simple happenstance? Could it be that G‑d was intimately involved in his personal affairs and cared about him?
After giving the matter some thought, he decided to further contemplate the issue. If he would conclude that it was simple coincidence, then he would continue to live his life in the relative safety of his non-Jewish persona. If, however, he would come to understand that G‑d had ordained the earthquake for his personal protection, he would have no choice but to live according to G‑d’s will, as an open and proud, practicing Jew.
He immediately began discussing the issue with the philosophers and thinkers whom he met in Germany, where he had come to reside. He always talked of a theoretical minister, never letting on that it was he himself who had experienced such an amazing turn of events.
The opinions flew fast and furious, and every wise man had his say, but there was no answer that satisfied the stranger from Spain.
In desperation, he decided to travel eastward to seek the council of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, the leader of the nascent Chassidic movement.
As the travel-weary man came to the courtyard of the famed rabbi, he saw a man stroking the horses. It was none other than Reb Volf Kitzes, one of the Baal Shem Tov’s star pupils.
In response to the Spaniard’s query, Reb Volf indicated that the Baal Shem Tov was inside the house.
As soon as the stranger entered, even before he was able to speak, the Baal Shem Tov called out, “Welcome, minister from Spain!”
Shaken by the fact that the Baal Shem Tov knew who he was without being told, he stood silently. “Regarding your question,” continued the Baal Shem Tov, “you would do well to speak to my student, Reb Volf. He’s the one you met outside stroking the horses.”
After hearing the man’s story, Reb Volf explained: “It is entirely conceivable that this earthquake had been preordained since the beginning of time. However, the fact that your punishment had been timed just so that it happened neither before nor after the earthquake is clearly a miracle that G‑d has brought about through His many messengers.”
Satisfied at last, the man began to live openly as a Jew and as an adherent of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings.
Source
Adapted from Otzar Sippurie Chabad, p. 119-120.Rabbi Menachem Posner serves as staff editor for Chabad.org.
Artwork by Sefira Ross, a freelance designer and illustrator whose original creations grace many Chabad.org pages. Residing in Seattle, Washington, her days are spent between multitasking illustrations and being a mom.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Lifestyle
Seared Tuna with Avocado Puree & Charred Corn Salsa by Miriam Szokovski
There's not much to say about this one. If you like good, fresh food, and clean, summery flavors, I imagine you'll enjoy it.
The only thing I've left up in the air is whether to grill the pineapple or not. You'll be grilling the corn to add a charred flavor, and the pineapple is up to you. When the pineapple is sweet and ripe, I prefer to leave it raw, but if it's not a good one, I like to grill it. You can also do half and half, which is what I've done here.
For the Tuna:1 lb. (500 grams) raw sushi-grade tuna
salt
pepper
1-2 tbsp. oil
Cut tuna into rectangular blocks. Sprinkle salt and pepper on all sides. Heat oil in a pan and sear tuna for 30-60 seconds on each side. Remove and allow to rest several minutes before slicing.
For the Salsa:
3 corn cobs
2 jalapenos, seeds removed, diced
½ large purple onion, diced
1 cup diced pineapple
handful of cilantro, leaves picked
juice of ½ lime
salt to taste
Grill the corn on an outdoor grill or a stove-top grill pan. Cut the kernels off and set aside to cool. You may wish to grill some or all of the pineapple, too. If it's sweet, I prefer it raw. If it's not the sweetest, I like to grill it. Toss all ingredients together and serve.
For the Avocado Puree:
2 avocadoes
juice of ½ lime
5-6 stalks of cilantro, leaves picked
1 tsp. kosher salt
2-3 tablespoons cold water
Blend all ingredients until smooth. Pass through a fine-mesh strainer. Serve with the fish.
Miriam Szokovski is the author of the historical novel Exiled Down Under, and a member of the Chabad.org editorial team. She shares her love of cooking, baking and food photography on Chabad.org’s food blog, Cook It Kosher.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.-------
Lifestyle
Decorating My Candle-Lighting Area With Thoughtful Art by Yael Trusch
I’ll admit that concentration during prayer is not one of my strong points (OK, forget concentration, it’s hard enough to sit and pray altogether). However, the few minutes of prayer after I light Shabbat candles are some of the most focused and intense moments of my week.After I ask for all the specifics, I always end with a prayer for the immediate Redemption.
Over the years, I’ve worked on visualizing the Beit Hamikdash (Holy Temple) in my mind, as it really helps me focus on my prayer. So I wanted to somehow use the image that I had in my mind during those intense moments of candle-lighting as inspiration for the art that would go in the nook where I light my Shabbat candles.
I needed something that was visually attractive to me. Art is so personal, I know. I happen to love color. I also love the juxtaposition of modern art in an otherwise classic or traditional interior.
I couldn’t have just any piece of art. A mirror would not do, as we cannot pray in front of a human image. Therefore, a portrait was also out of the question. And, of course, I wanted the art to be Jewish art. So, once I had defined the style and subject matter, there was still one problem . . .I couldn’t afford to purchase a large-scale art piece. So how could I get art of the Beit Hamikdash that still reflected my aesthetics and my current budget? By creating it! I decided to play around on Photoshop with a picture of a Beit Hamikdash model that I found online.
Ideally, I would have created a large piece and then played with color, but I couldn’t find a high resolution file of the Beit Hamikdash. So I used the size I had available and decided to make multiples in different colors, creating one entire piece.
Using Photoshop, I created different files of the same image, each with different hues and saturation levels. I tried to keep it inconsistent and varied, and not to be too strict with it. I’m no Photoshop expert, and I’m sure one could make this into a more sophisticated piece, but to me it feels like art, and that’s what matters. Albeit not perfect, I am beyond thrilled with it.
The piece reflects the various lenses with which we perceive the world. Unfortunately, most of us live our lives as though the reality of a Holy Temple and a Messianic Era is totally foreign and abstract. But I believe that if we open our eyes and adjust our lens, we can actually see how real the Redemption is. By bringing this to the forefront of our consciousness—allowing it to be part of our current reality—I believe we make it into reality.One day, I might take this piece to the next level, but for now, it does the job of taking my Shabbat prayers to the next level.
I love that the piece screams Jewish tradition while being totally modern. But more importantly, I love that it expresses my personality and aesthetics—a girl with a love of color and an even greater love of Judaism!
Yael Trusch is a mother, and author of the lifestyle blog, Jewish Latin Princess, where Jewish femininity takes a Latin twist. On her bi-lingual blog, Yael creatively inspires women to combine the physical and spiritual in everything they do. She holds women’s classes in Spanish and teaches brides and bat mitzvah girls.
Pictures by Elisheva Golani Photography.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Lifestyle
Art: A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey by Yoram Raanan
For G‑d, your G‑d is bringing you into a good land - a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and figs and pomegranates, a land of oil-producing olives and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are of iron, and you can dig copper out of hills. When you have eaten and are satisfied, you praise G‑d your G d for the good land He has given you. ” (Deuteronomy 8:7–11)The green verdant land flows with milk and honey, streams and brooks, with hints of sacred fruits and golden grains. The abundant resources are highlighted by the expressionist freedom in the paint itself. As the land of Israel thrives before us, we continue to bless and praise G‑d for the good He gives in every moment.
Yoram Raanan takes inspiration from living in Israel, where he can fully explore and express his Jewish consciousness. The light, the air, the spirit of the people and the land energize and inspire him. His paintings include modern Jewish expressionism with a wide range of subjects ranging from abstract to landscape, biblical and Judaic.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.
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Jewish News
New York Father of Three Receives Kidney, Thanks to Rabbis by Faygie Levy Holt
Jack Hananya of Long Island, N.Y., underwent a kidney transplant at Weill Cornell Medical Center after battling kidney disease for two decades. His donor was a Chabad rabbi. Hananya, a native Israeli, stands with his three sons, from left: Yuval, Guy and Tomer.By the time most people on the East Coast had finished lunch and returned to work, Jack Hananya of Long Island, N.Y., was in recovery in a Manhattan hospital room, having just received a life-saving gift thanks to two Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries and a little matchmaking.
Hananya, 56, a married father of three boys, underwent a kidney transplant at Weill Cornell Medical Center after battling kidney disease for nearly two decades.
“I was diagnosed with kidney disease when I was 32,” Hananya said on Monday, less than 24 hours before the surgery. “At that stage, it was just beginning, and I was under treatment to maintain it, so that it wouldn’t hurt me for a long time. About two, two-and-a-half years ago, things got worse.”
Hananya, who is originally from Israel but has lived in the United States for many years, was put on the National Kidney Registry in June 2014—joining nearly 100,000 others who are in need of a kidney transplant, according to the National Kidney Foundation. By February 2015, he was on dialysis several times a week.
During this time, he met Rabbi Boruch Sholom Wolf, co-director of Chabad at the Medical Centers in New Hyde Park, N.Y. Wolf—who donated a kidney when he was 25—began searching for someone who would be a match for Hananya.
“It’s important when one sees death, especially a slow miserable death, and one has the ability to do something about it, to do something. I was in a unique position to contribute to the solution,” says Wolf. “And being that my existing Chabad was a niche Chabad at the Medical Centers, it was made-to-order for me to get involved. It was actually my witnessing people in my day-to-day encounters who were suffering from this disease and not being adequately helped—who were resigned to their fate of death—that drove me to start my kidney work.”
Thanks to Wolf’s efforts and those of some other individuals, a donor for Hananya was found in June 2015.
Rabbi Boruch Sholom Wolf, co-director of Chabad at the Medical Centers in New Hyde Park, N.Y.But complications arose, and the surgery had to be postponed. Nevertheless, the donor remained committed to helping the Hananya family.
“I think he is an angel. He waited for me for a year, and now we are going to go for the transplant,” said Hananya. “It is the ultimate gift that someone can give without expecting to get something back. There are no words to express how I feel.”
Rabbi Zalman Sandhaus, co-director of the Pardes Chabad Center for Jewish Life in Fishkill, N.Y., acknowledged that he has long admired those who have donated their kidneys to others. When he learned that he himself was a match, he said: “How can I not give it if a guy’s life is on the line?”
Hoping to Inspire Others
According to the National Kidney Foundation, most people with one normally functioning kidney have few (if any) related physical issues, meaning donors can go on to live a normal life.
The transplant surgery lasted a little more than three hours. Doctors told Hananya beforehand that he should be back to his old self in no time. In a show of appreciation, Hananya said he is determined to help others in similar situations by telling them about Wolf’s efforts.
“Living with dialysis three times a week—where you have to sit in a machine for four hours every time—is not pleasant. But this is the least of the problems. You feel bad, feel as if you are choking because you have too much fluid in your body,” explained Hananya. “Those who come forward to donate are angels. They help not only one person, but everybody—family, friends, everybody.”
Added Sandhaus: “I hope it serves as inspiration for other people to donate their kidney.”
For information about organ donation, click here.
Rabbi Zalman Sandhaus, co-director of the Pardes Chabad Center for Jewish Life in Fishkill, N.Y.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.-------
Jewish News
Israel’s Ambassador to U.S. Inspires in Jerusalem by Chabad.org Staff
Some of the 200 participants at the Shabbat unity dinner at Chabad of Baka in Jerusalem, along with emissaries Rabbi Avraham Hendel, second from right, and Nechama Dina Hendel, third from left, and their children. Guest speaker Ron Dermer, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, lauded the work of Chabad in helping immigrants to Israel acclimate to their new home. (Photo: Harold Bergstein)New immigrants in Jerusalem had something to celebrate: a center that for the past eight years has provided them with an ongoing minyan, in addition to a wide range of classes and outreach activities. To fete the work of Chabad of Baka, co-directed by Rabbi Avraham and Nechama Dina Hendel, nearly 200 people came together on Aug. 12 for a Shabbat unity dinner, representing a thriving community of English-speaking olim from the United States and around the world.
Singles, couples and families gathered at the Euphoria wedding hall to mark the anniversary and strengthen in unity before the holiday of Tisha B’Av.
The highlight of the dinner was a surprise guest of honor: Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer, who attended with his wife, Rhoda, and their children. Dermer, who lives in Jerusalem when not serving Israel overseas, addressed the enthusiastic audience, opening with “We love Chabad!”
In his talk, Dermer focused on two of the virtues that the Chabad movement aspires to and encourages, according to the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory: tolerance and pride. It’s these values that the ambassador stressed to the diverse crowd of olim from around the world, emphasizing that “our mission today is to bolster our tolerance and Jewish pride.”
Dermer noted that Chabad practices an admirable “double standard”: lovingly accepting other Jews, non-contingent upon their observance of mitzvot, while maintaining the highest standards of Torah-observant Judaism.
Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer“Regardless of affiliation or background, every Jew feels welcome at Chabad,” said Dermer, “and can connect to Judaism in a comforting and non-judgmental environment.” Together with that, he pointed out how Chabad exemplifies Jewish pride, as can be seen clearly by the public manner in which they share Judaism with the world. “Picture the size of the menorah which is lit by your local Chabad house,” said Dermer. “That’s an illustration of their powerful pride.”
He then connected the attributes of tolerance and pride to the destruction of both Temples and the route to the rebuilding of the Temple in our days. “The first Beit Hamikdash was destroyed because of idolatry,” he shared, “which stems from a lack of Jewish pride.” He noted that when you are searching in other places, that’s a sign that you are not proud enough of the faith you have. The second Beit Hamikdash was destroyed, he pointed out, because of baseless hatred and a lack of tolerance for others.
“Tolerance is one of our greatest challenges today,” Dermer acknowledged, “especially in Israel, where every level of Jewish observance is apparent, and there are so many different customs and backgrounds.” He stressed the importance of respecting one another, and remembering that Jewish strength lies in unity.
Singles, couples and families gathered at the Euphoria wedding hall in Jerusalem to mark the eighth anniversary of Chabad of Baka. (Photo: Harold Bergstein)“I have met many ambassadors in Washington, but I have yet to meet the ambassador of Babylonia or the ambassador of Imperial Rome,” noted Dermer. He emphasized that while the nations that destroyed the Jewish Temples have come and gone, it is the Jewish nation and the Land of Israel that are eternal, and the way to merit the rebuilding of the third Temple is “through tolerance and Jewish pride.”
Dr. Charlotte Goller, an active member of Chabad of Baka, shared the group’s sentiment when she said: “It’s comforting to know that Mr. Dermer is our ambassador!”
Lighting the Shabbat candles. (Photo: Harold Bergstein)
Volunteers helped prepare for the dinner. (Photo: Harold Bergstein)© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.-------
Jewish News
Boys From Soviet-Era Homes Run Summer Camp in Kharkov by Chabad.org Staff
Girls and boys in Kharkov, Ukraine, enjoyed a summer of entertaining and educational activities at the Chabad-run Camp Gan Israel, made even more special by the fact that some of the counselors used to be former campers there and returned to give back to local youth.Communists forbade them to study Torah; now, their children are teaching Torah to a new generation.
The parents of Zalman Antomonov, Efraim Kolpak and Michoel Manochin once lived under an oppressive Soviet regime. They could never have imagined that one day, their sons would be running a Gan Israel summer camp in their own hometown of Kharkov, Ukraine.
The three were all students of the Ohr Avner Jewish Day School in Kharkov and went on to study at the Chabad-Lubavitch yeshivah in Moscow. But before that, each summer when the days grew long and the weather warm, the boys would board a bus and head to Camp Gan Israel, located on the Rohr campgrounds in the countryside outside of Kharkov.
Now grown, the three have chosen to give back to a place that gave them so much. They spent this past academic year raising money for such things as prizes and treats for campers, and creating an entertaining and educational Jewish program that would make a lasting impression on the youngsters.
Gan Israel director Rabbi Yaakov Yakimenko, once a camper himself, says the generational development is a win-win: “When the campers see counselors who just a few years ago were just like them, fully embracing Yiddishkeit with energy and enthusiasm, the gain is for everyone—the entire community.”
Thanks to the help of the Federation of Jewish Communities (FJC)-Ohr Avner, the Chabad-run camp was a possibility despite the economic collapse Ukraine has experienced in the last two years.
Kharkov, the second-largest city in Ukraine, has a population of about 1.5 million people. Located in the northeastern part of the country, the city was affected in the early days of war in Ukraine, but has since stabilized.
The girls’ camp was run by Shoshana and Devorah Leah Moskovitz, teenage twin daughters of Chabad emissaries Rabbi Moshe and Miriam Moskovitz. Other local Kharkov teens served as counselors. As a result of the camp season, some girls signed up for Jewish day school, and many received Jewish names.
Chief Rabbi Moskovitz, head Chabad emissary of the region, started Kharkov’s first-ever Jewish summer camp 25 years ago—and Gan Israel is still going strong. In earlier years, counselors were flown in from the United States and Israel. Decades of Jewish educational work in Kharkov and the rest of the former Soviet Union has allowed the camp to today be run by locals.
Many former Kharkov campers and counselors are now married, reports Moskovitz, and serve as Chabad emissaries around the world, their places having been taken by young adults like Zalman, Ephraim and Michoel.
(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)
(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)
(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)
(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)
(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)
(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)
(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)
(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)
(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)
(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)
(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)
(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)
(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)
(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)
(Photo: Camp Gan Israel Kharkov)© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.-------
Jewish News
Chabad Couple Aids Baton Rouge Residents Returning Home After Floods by Menachem Posner
Jewish volunteers have been helping residents affected by recent flooding in Baton Rouge, La. More than 24 inches of rain fell in a matter of days, submerging homes and parts of the city.As floodwaters recede in most of Baton Rouge, La., residents are returning to abandoned homes to assess the damage, and Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries are doing their part to help.
“People were left with the shirts on their backs last week,” says Rabbi Peretz Kazen, co-director of Chabad of Baton Rouge with his wife, Mushka. “Now they are starting to make their way back to assess the devastation and see what they can salvage.”
Noting that a nourishing meal can often do wonders for the body and soul, Mushka Kazen has been cooking hot kosher dinners for members of the community to eat at home, in addition to inviting people to her own home for dinner.
The couple is also planning a community-wide Shabbat dinner for people to “enjoy the feeling of not being alone, and to express thanks to G‑d for our lives and the goodness we have.”
Meanwhile, the Kazens have been coordinating volunteer efforts to help people move valuables and furniture out of waterlogged homes. They have also been distributing emergency funds to help people with food, clothing and other short-term needs.
The historic flooding that battered Louisiana has left at least 13 dead, with 30,000 people rescued and 40,000 homes damaged throughout the state. In Baton Rouge, only a fraction of homeowners have flood insurance. The American Red Cross called the flooding the country’s worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy four years ago.
The American Red Cross called the flooding the country’s worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy four years ago.The flooding in Louisiana has closed government offices, schools, businesses and roadways, leaving uncertainty in some areas about when they will reopen. Authorities have been going house to house checking that residents are accounted for since more than 24 inches of water begin falling last Thursday night.
Mushka Kazen was just a teenager when Hurricane Katrina unleashed its vengeance on Louisiana and flooded her family’s hometown of New Orleans in the last week of August 2005. Back then, she helped her Chabad emissary parents in a massive effort to assist residents as they struggled in the wake of that devastating storm, trying to put their property and lives back together.
In an experience that she describes as “eerily familiar,” she and her husband are now doing much of what her parents did a decade ago.
Click to contribute to Chabad of Baton Rouge’s flood-relief efforts.
Chabad-Lubavitch emmisaries Rabbi Peretz and Mushka Kazen have been organizing people of all ages to help in the aftermath. The rabbi, center, and others have been bringing food into homes, and moving damaged items and soiled clothing out of them.
Homeowners are in the process of assessing what can be saved, and what needs to be replaced. Government offices, schools, businesses and roadways in the city remain closed.
Community members lend a hand in the cleanup. The Kazens are holding a community-wide Shabbat dinner on Aug. 19 and have been delivering cooked meals to individual homes.© Copyright 2016, all rights reserved.-------
Chabad.org Magazine - Editor: Yanki Tauber
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