Dear Friend,
Is the World Ready for Moshiach?
YES, more than ever before!
We live in a time when goodness spreads quickly, Torah reaches across the globe with a single click, and acts of kindness inspire people we may never meet. Even the challenges of our generation push us to look deeper, search for clarity, and strengthen our connection to the Almighty.
Last week we experienced a moment of inspiration when one college student who recently began putting on Tefillin daily was inspired to sponsor a pair for a friend away at college who did not yet have his own pair. Now this student away at college not only puts on Tefillin himself, but helps his Jewish roommates and friends use his Tefillin every as well.
Jewish students with no formal Jewish education, in their first year of college are focused on connecting, praying, proudly celebrating Jewish life and helping others do the same.
Chassidus teaches that just like the darkest time of the night is closest to dawn, the darkest moments in life also come right before the light. The intensity we sometimes feel is not a sign of distance, but of closeness — the world is shifting, preparing for something much greater.
Every mitzvah, every positive choice, every moment of helping another person adds real light to the world and moves us closer to the redemption of the entire world.
The world is ready! It's just a matter of perspective. Let's fill the world with goodness, until we reveal the light that’s been waiting all along.
Sincerely,
Rabbi Mendel & Elke Zaltzman
Shabbos Times
Friday, November 21
Candle Lighting: 4:15pm
Evening Service: 4:20pm
Saturday, November 22
Morning Service: 10:00am
Kiddush Lunch: 12:15pm Mincha Service: 4:05:pm
Shabbat ends: 5:18pm
Kiddush sponsored by
The Kiddush Fund
A Bissele Humor
After seventy years of communist oppression and seven hours of flying, Boris, a burly immigrant from Moscow steps off the plane in a free land to begin his new life in his new home, Israel. Standing at the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, a young and enthusiastic Israeli reporter plunges a microphone in front of him with a level of excitement that is only seen when an inside scoop is about to be caught. The reporter asks with focus: “Tell me, what was life back in Russia like?”
To which the Russian immigrant replies: “I couldn’t complain.”
An obviously unexpected answer, the young reporter continues to probe: “Well how were your living quarters there?” To which the Russian responds “I couldn’t complain.”
Not expecting this answer either, the reporter decides to hit him with a question that is bound to get the answer he is looking for: “What about your standard of living?” To which the Russian replies again: “I couldn’t complain.”
At this point, the reporter’s frustration with the new immigrant’s answers reaches a crescendo, and so in a derogatory tone the reporter yells out, “Well, if everything was so wonderful back in Russia, then why did you even bother to come here?”
To which the new immigrant replies with gusto: “Oh, here I can complain!”
WEEKLY eTORAH
These are the generations of Isaac, son of Abraham, begins the reading. We learn of the birth of Jacob and Esau, how they go their different ways and how, rather circuitously, Isaac bestows the all-important blessings on Jacob. The commentaries explain that this was not merely a blessing but the symbolic handing over of the Jewish legacy to the next generation. Isaac was passing the baton of destiny on to Jacob. (Can you imagine if Esau received those critical blessings and would have become one of our founding fathers? Surely that would be "The Weakest Link"!)
Long ago, one of the sages of the Talmud said he had "learned much from his teachers, more from his colleagues, but the most from his pupils." I can go along with that. Some time back, a man for whom I had great respect came to see me to discuss certain issues he wanted his rabbi to clarify. This was a gentleman who had reached the apex of his profession, a highly intelligent and sensitive human being—and amongst other things, he said he had a confession to make. Now we rabbis have no experience at taking confessions—we refer people directly to G‑d for that sort of thing. But this man voluntarily wanted to share his most personal disappointment in life with me and I was profoundly flattered to have been found deserving of his trust.
This was his story. He came home from the wedding of his eldest daughter and, inexplicably, found himself crying. His wife said, "Why are you crying? You should be bubbling with joy." He answered, "I'm crying because I have just given away a daughter I don't know to a man I don't know." It had suddenly struck him with the force of a ton of bricks that he'd spent years and years building up his business but he had neglected his family. And suddenly the daughter he didn't really know was leaving the family home forever.
Thank G‑d, this man resolved to rectify the situation and went on to succeed admirably. But his story made a deep impression on me.
It is not only from a family point of view but also from a Jewish faith perspective that we need to know our children well. We tend to mistakenly assume that whatever positive feelings of faith, morals and yiddishkeit we imbibed as children from our parents will somehow automatically be transmitted to our own children. Wrong! It does not happen genetically. It takes lots of hard work and years of intimate, personal guidance by dedicated parents.
It's a new generation, folks. The influences on our kids' lives today are dramatic, powerful and not always pleasant. Internet, television, movies, computer games and even cell phones are making our children more sophisticated and grown-up at increasingly younger ages. If once upon a time young people were spared the test of assimilation by staying in a secure social circle, today one can get chatted up by anyone in the whole wide world right in the family study on the computer through the internet.
Tragically, children from the finest homes have gone terribly astray. If we don't transmit a healthy value system to the next generation, the vacuum will very likely be filled with other willing teachers, many of whom we may not approve of.
The good news is that our kids actually do want our guidance. As autonomous as they may appear, they actually crave direction in life. And at the end of the day, what they learn at home will make a far more lasting impression than what they pick up at school, or dare I say, even at shul.
