19 Years Since the Lubavitcher Rebbe's Passing

Today marks 19 years since the passing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe - a great man who loved the Jewish People, no matter their Jewish background. It is because of his dedication that you will find a Chabad House in just about every corner on Earth, there to service every Jew in need. It is truly one of my regrets that I was not able to meet him.

The Rebbe

Recognizing and Appreciating the Good

Posted on Facebook by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Four years ago today [June 10], Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns died heroically in the line of duty protecting Museum staff and visitors from a brutal attacker, avowed racist, and antisemite. The memory of Officer Johns's outgoing personality, affection for people, and irrepressible optimism continues to inspire us to counter hate. His memory occupies a permanent place in our hearts, as do our thoughts for his family. We will never forget you, Officer Johns.

HaKarat HaTov - recognizing the good - is a central concept in Judaism. I was so glad to see this post up for all to see. This brave man gave his life to protect others. He must have known that by serving in a public Jewish museum that he was putting himself in danger. We honor him by remembering what a sacrifice he made.

If I can use this chance to make another point --
Recognizing the good can change your life for the better. It is easier to notice all the bad around us (especially if you watch the news regularly) than it is to see the good in general - or the good that happens to us in our own lives.

I would also say that recognizing the good is only the first step. The second step would be to appreciate the good that is done for us. To fully appreciate something takes time. It would require us to do something that we don't truly do anymore - take a quiet moment for ourselves.

I would suggest that we each take a moment at the end of the day with an empty notebook - take only 5 minutes if that's all you have (or more if you can) - and list the good that happened to you that day. At first it may be hard, but try to come up with one to begin with. Build from there. Do not include your sports team winning or that you're glad the day finally came to an end. Try to be positive. Before you know it, you will be needing a new notebook. This exercise will change your whole attitude toward life.

It's so easy to see the bad, the negative and let that drag us down. But that's not why we are here. G-d gave us each a special talent to make the world a spiritual place, a positive place - a place where G-d would like to dwell with us. To uplift our corner of the universe, to turn the negative into positive is the point of living.  Let us begin by recognizing the good done for us - and hopefully appreciating it as well.

For another idea: Thanksgiving and Shabbat Dinner

Birthright for Moms!

This is fantastic. A Birthright trip for mothers - a brilliant idea. To inspire mothers in their Judaism is to bring Judaism to the whole family. I love it!

Women bond on Birthright for Moms trip

Parshas Korach - The Power Is In Your Hands

While reading through the parsha this week, I came across this interesting thought by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. I'm including it in it's entirety here. Enjoy.

The Name of the Parsha 

It is written in Proverbs, "The name of the wicked will rot" (10:7), on which the Talmud comments, "Let mold grow upon their names, for we do not use their names" (Yoma 38a). 

This begs the question: How could the Torah eternalize the name of Korach, a wicked man who did not repent in his lifetime, by calling an entire parsha by his name? 

While Korach was indeed wicked in his deeds, he nevertheless harbored a desire which is appropriate for every Jewish person to emulate: He wanted to be the High Priest.  As Rambam writes, "Any type of person...whose spirit inspires him, and he resolves in his mind to set himself apart [from worldly pursuits], to stand before God and serve as His minister, to work for Him, and to know God; who [then acts upon his resolution and he] goes in amorally upright manner - following his inherent, God-given disposition, and he discards all the numerous concerns that people are normally preoccupied with - then he will attain the holiness of the Holy of Holies" i.e. the spiritual level of the High Priest. 

Thus Korach was not corrupt in his ideology, but only in his method of implementation. His desire to be High Priest was well founded, as Moshe confirmed, "I too want this" (Rashi to 16:6); his only mistake was attempting to achieve this goal by usurping Moshe, rather than following him. 

So it is appropriate that our Parsha is named after Korach, for his desire for spirituality is something we should all learn from. 

Nevertheless, we see that most of the Parsha speaks of Korach's actual mistakes, rather than his good intentions, to the extent that we are warned, "not to be like Korach and his company" (17:5). Where then, is the positive message in Korach's sin and punishment? 

In truth, however, even Korach's downfall tell an uplifting message to those who ponder its significance deeply. For be placing us in this world with free choice to act wisely or foolishly, God has ultimately granted us the greatest possible gift to strive for holiness (to be a "High Priest") by utilizing our talents and skills for the good on our own, with our own free choice. 

Thus, from Korach's well meaning failure, we can learn: a.) To emulate his good intentions; and b.) The possibility of real failure (which Korah suffered) means that freedom of choice is totally in our hands, and consequently real success is an option for us all.
-- (Based on Sichas Shabbos Parshas Korach 5750)
The Gutnick Edition, Chumash, The Book of Numbers, pg. 129

Here is also a link to Chief Rabbi Sacks on Parshas Korach 

Good Shabbos! Shabbat Shalom!

A New Online Jewish Magazine

I came upon this online magazine by accident, but it looks interesting. It's called Mosaic: Advancing Jewish Thought. So far, reading and skimming through the articles, it looks like it is worth more than just a few minutes looking at it.

Honoring Our Jewish Veterans

I really enjoyed this article, a fascinating article about the Jews who fought for the Soviet Union during World War II.

A Rabbi Honors the Red Army's Jewish Veterans

Parshas Shelach - The Sin of the Spies

Parshas Shelach is a pretty famous chapter, most well known for the sin of the spies, which resulted in the Jewish People wandering in the desert for the next 40 years.

Let's recap the narrative here. The Jewish People are at the edge of the Land of Israel, about to enter. G-d tells Moshe that he can send spies to go into the Land and see what the situation is. The 12 spies go into the Land, take a look around and come back with a report. 10 came back with a negative report, 2 - Yehoshua (Joshua) and Calev (Caleb) came back with a positive report.

As the 10 spies were relating to the People what they had seen, they said something that I find fascinating. "We cannot ascend to that people for it is too strong for us (Numbers 13:31) ...we were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and so we were in their eyes." (Numbers 13:33)

Remember that these were the people who saw G-d destroy the Egyptians, take them out of Egypt, split the sea, pass them through the sea on dry land, feed them supernaturally with the mannah, and give them the Torah. How is it possible that they don't think that G-d will help them conquer the Land of Israel?

I think that the key is found in the statement: "...we were like grasshoppers in our eyes..." In other words, they had such "small" image of themselves that they assumed they would not be able to do what was asked of them, namely to conquer the Land. It seems that this bad self-image was enough to negate the amazing things that they saw.

I think that there's a lot to be learned from this episode in our history. Self-image is nothing to be sneezed at, and perhaps we have to think about how a self-image is formed. Self-image is created through accomplishment. People feel good about things they have done themselves. Small children beg to do the smallest things "themselves" without help. Adults feel good when they check off things on their 'to do' lists. It's a feeling of accomplishment. These Jews had everything taken care of for them even before they left Egypt.

In Egypt we were slaves, which means our basic needs were taken care of. When G-d took us out of Egypt to be His People, it was G-d who took care of everything. As much as the time in the desert was spent well and necessary learning Torah and becoming a Nation - we never had a chance to create a sense of accomplishment for ourselves.  As a result, when we were asked to spy out the Land - we weren't able to see ourselves as capable of doing what was asked of us - we were "small" in our own eyes.

There are many commentaries on why the spies came back with a bad report about the Land. One of the main ones argues that the reason why they did come back with such a report was because they had been living a purely spiritual existence in the desert and they did not want to give that up when they would enter the Land. They were to become workers of the Land and do things in a natural way versus the supernatural way that things were up until that time - they weren't ready to let that go.

This week's parsha also includes other mitzvot - my favorite, Shabbos and others.

Shabbat Shalom. Good Shabbos.

Make sure to print these dvar Torahs out before Shabbos so you can read them on Shabbos!
Enjoy!

Chief Rabbi Sacks Dvar Torah
The Generation Gap - Chabad.org