Pesach Sheini teaches us to never despair; if there are areas of deficiency, we are always empowered with the capacity to rectify them. * Everything in exile that appears to be slipping out of our grasp should be revealed to be attainable, rectifiable, and those things that have in fact been lost should be recovered and corrected.
Now, of all times, as we face criticism from all directions regarding the path of Chabad in bringing all Jews closer to the Torah, or alternatively, the criticism thrown our way because we joined the ultra-Orthodox protests against drafting Torah scholars, we should be quite happy with our standing. We have a Rebbe who leads us according to the principles of Torah and the command of Alm-ghty G-d, not by passing trends and truths that change according to the shifting winds of coalition politics.
The bitterness within him grew more intense. Feeling that he had been deceived, he began to make problems for this esteemed Chassid. As the weeks passed, he went one step further: He took a chair and sat at the entrance of R’ Shmuel Betzalel’s inn, calling upon all passers-by not to patronize a business run by a liar and a fraud.
Buenos Aires is a large city that attracts numerous tourists including Israelis and many Jews. A Chabad house was opened just for them by Menachem Sharabi and his wife Rochel.
To mark Beis Iyar, the birthday of the Rebbe Maharash, we present this historical piece about the lobbying efforts made by the Rebbe Maharash in Petersburg in 5639-5642. * From the book “Toldos Chabad B’Peterburg”
…according to a Talmudic analysis, the average Jew whose life-span is 70 years actually spends only about 18 years in service of G-d. When we subtract the hours of sleeping, eating and other mundane activities we are left with no more than 18 years. However, when a Jew aligns all of his activities with G-d’s Will, even the time spent eating and sleeping are considered to be in service to G-d.
“There is no chance that you will have children. You don’t seem to understand that there are cases in which treatments can help but there are cases when they don’t help.”
When his friends were drafted into the US army and sent to fight in Vietnam, R’ Yaakov Stern began taking an interest in Judaism and went to learn in Hadar HaTorah. * He had yechidus and the Rebbe told him his life’s mission: to spread Torah and mitzvos in his job as an engineer. * The Rebbe displayed rare signs of fondness to R’ Stern and personally helped him with his parnasa as well as with difficulties with his parents.
What is the “straightforward path” (the easiest and fastest among all the paths of Torah) that all the Jewish people, who have concluded their service, should choose to realize the revelation and coming of Moshiach?
When my family and I moved to Crown Heights from Minnesota 22 years ago, one of my first concerns was to find a mashpia. A good mashpia should not only know Chassidus but also live Chassidus and be a shining example by the way he lives. You can identify him more from his personality than from his intellect. And there’s one more thing. As Rabbi Moshe Feller (my mashpia in Minnesota) said, the mashpia should be someone who cares.
May 2, 2014