Reb. Heshelis of "The Moon's Lost Light" Avaiable to Speak in America

Rebbetzin Devorah Heshelis, author of the book, The Moon's Lost Light, which addresses the issue some have with how women are portrayed in Chazal from a new perspective, based on the writings of the GR"A. She shows how events and movements in modern times, including the feminist movement, are related to the times of Ikvsa D'Meshicha.

She will be in the United States and available for speaking engagements from January 23 till February 23.

You may contact her while she is in the states at 718-339-3275 or anytime before or during her trip at dolinsky(at)actcom.net.il.

The Moon's Lost Light

Review of the book by Rabbi Meyer Twersky in Jewish Action

Guest Post here at Dixie Yid by Rebbetzin Heshelis on what lead her to write this book

-Dixie Yid

(Picture courtesy of livefromthehilltop)

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The Bracha of Kedusha - Audio Shiur with Reb Yerachmiel

Here is a an especially special shiur from Sunday night's Rav Pincus Chaburah with Reb Yerachmiel at the Community Kollel of Baltimore.

Sunday night's shiur covered the entirety of the third bracha of Shemoneh Esrei, Berchas "Kedushos". In explaining this succinct yet mysterious berchas shevach to Hashem, Reb Yerachmiel addressed numerous fundamental, yet lofty topics, such as the true definition of "kedusha" in the context of both Hashem Yisbarach and Klall Yisroel, Yaakov Avinu's connection to this bracha, and our partnership with the Malachim in praising Hashem. Finally, this shiur also includes fundamental aitzos to enhance not only our kavana of peirush hamilos, but also our kavana regard the reality of standing before the Divine Presence in Prayer.

You can listen to the shiur online HERE or dowload it directly HERE.

-Dixie Yid

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Koidinover Rebbe's Shalosh Sheudos Torah- Rabbi Chaim Brown's Summary

Great news! Rabbi Chaim Brown from Divrei Chaim has posted a summary of the Koidinover Rebbe's Shalosh Sheudos Torah from Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, NY this past Shabbos. Thank you R' Chaim!

Divrei Chaim: Koidinover Rebbe's Visit to the Five Towns - Shalosh Sheudos Torah

The world as we see it, teva, which has the same gematriya as Elokim, is a veil for Hashem’s infinite presence, which is the root of all creation. “Havaya hu Elokim” means that behind teva=Elokim is the infinite light of G-d, Havaya.

-Dixie Yid

(Picture of the Kapischnitzer, Rebbe, Reb Avrohom Yehoshua Heschel, courtesy of nishmas.org)

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I Want My Son to Go to THAT School!

A friend of mine told me about the affect his son's yeshiva is having on his 4 year old son, who's in kindergarten there. The other day after school, this boy got a splinter in his hand. While his wife was removing the splinter, this boy closed his eyes tight and was repeating, "Gam zu l'tova! Gam zu l'tova! Gam zu l'tova!" (This too is for the best! This too is for the best! This too is for the best!)

All I have to say is that I want my son to go to that yeshvia!

Our son, pictured above, will IY"H, be having his Upsherin in about 6 weeks and we're considering schools to send him to. Very scary and exciting decision to make!

-Dixie Yid

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Koidinover Rebbe - Shabbos Parshas Vaeira - Pictures & Torah

Received by e-mail from a reader:

This past Friday night, Parshas Vaeira, the Koidinover Rebbe from Bnei Brak had a tish at a home in Woodmere, NY. Before the Tish started, the Rebbe had a private session in Meor Einayim with a chevreh of about 10 guys. He went over the first part of Parshas Vaeira, in which Reb Nachum from Tshernobel taught that the avoda of a person in life is to relive Yetzias Mitzrayim. The Egyptian Exile, Galus Mitzrayim, was the exile of Daas, which means that the quality of connecting one's knowledge that G-d gives life and existance to everything absent.

When the Jewish people left Mitzrayim, they left behind that sepparation between the intellectual knowledge that Hashem is the source of life that constants wills all things to exist at all times, and the consciousness of thaat fact in daily life.

He said that when a person really sees how Hashem is the soul and root of every pleasure and desire in the world, he will never again desire anything physical. Why would you want the food, the physical garment of the G-dliness within the food, when you can connect directly to the ultimate pleasure of cleaving to that G-dliness?! Therefore, when one has Daas, a conscious awareness of the fact that Hashem is the constant source and life of all existance, then this awareness will cause you to cease having a desire for anything physical.

Later on, at the Tish, before he handed out the Shabbos fish to everyone there, he asked why we eat fish on Shabbos. Although there are many reasons, he mentioned one which is that fish have the quality of always having their eyes open, which means that they always see the truth, what's really there. They never close their eyes to it, as we often do. Therefore, it means that on Shabbos, we can only see the truth, which is the fact that the neshoma and ruchnius are the ikar and are all that is real, and that all of gashmius, physicality, is a mere illusion, a garment for the spiritual. That is why the Zohar says that Shabbos is "yama d'nishmasa, v'lo yama d'gufa," "the day of the soul, and not the day of the body."

It tied in very nicely with the Meir Einayim, which focuses us in on the fact that Hashem is the "Chai Hachaim," the source of the continued life and existance of the world. The Rebbe said many other things at the Tish, but that was a major theme of the evening. May we all be zoche to appreciate everything for the G-dliness within it that gives it life and not to be focused only on the physical garments which clothe spiritual realities!

-Dixie Yid

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Indulging in Eating vs.Enjoying the Taste of Food

A Simple Jew: Question & Answer With Rabbi Zvi Leshem - Eating & Aroma:

Perhaps this can be seen as an opportunity to engage in avoda b’gashmiut, service through corporeality, which the Piaseczner Rebbe sees as the major chiddush of the Besht

-Dixie Yid

(Picture courtesy of thesecretingredients.com)

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Videos of Frum Juggler Magician

Amazing Frum Juggler/magician! Looks like you can get Sam Jacobs at your simcha/mosad for events too. Another great profession video of his can be seen HERE. This guy is good!

-Dixie Yid

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Mussar Thoughts from Daily Life

Modern Uberdox: Small Mussar Moments

They would often go into hardware stores and ask to purchase clothes, or go into clothing store and ask to purchase bread. These exercises were used to work on negating any trace of guy'vah (haughtiness). After these frustrating attempts, we resorted to eBay.

-Dixie Yid

(Picture courtesy of George O'keefe)

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Keeping Your Idealism In the Face of Smallness

Rav Gedalia Schor, in the sefer Ohr Gedaliyahu on Parshas Va'eira, taught an amazing thing. He brought down, from the Sfas Emes and the Sefer Toras Emes from the Ramak, that one of the things that Yetzias Mitzrayim (The Exodus) has in common with Brias Ha'olam (The creation of the world) is that in both cases, Hashem started out with the idea that He would like to conduct things with the midas hadin, the attribute of strict justice. And then, when he saw that the world/the Jewish people could not handle it, he "retracted" and decided to join the midas harachamim, the attribute of Mercy with the midas hadin, the attribute of strict justice. (Midrash Raba on the pasuk in Shmos 6:1, "וידבר אלהים אל משהוידבר אלהים אל משה, ולפי שנסתכל הקדוש ברוך הוא, שבשביל צער ישראל דבר כן, חזר ונהג עמו במדת רחמים, הדא הוא דכתיב: ויאמר אליו אני ה'") The Sfas Emes and the Ramak said that Hashem didn't just "change his mind," ChV"Sh. Rather, the Sfas Emes points out that it doesn't say that he "threw out" the attribute of true justice, but rather, that he mixed the attribute of mercy with it.

**The Sfas Emes says, according to Rav Schorr, that Hashem wanted davka and lechatchila to start creating the world with the attribute of true justice so that there would always exist within the thoughts and desires of man to live up to some true, unadulterated, pure goal, unaffected by compromise. Man's idealism should never be lost in the accommodations of practical life. Therefore, he started the creation of the world with midas hadin (strict justice) to build the mida of uncompromising idealism for what could and should be into mankind.**

He applies this idea to Yetzias Mitzrayim in that Moshe hoped that the Jewish people would be able to truly fulfill the reasons for which they had been sent to suffer in Egypt, by staying there through the full 400 years as promised by Hashem to Avraham. However, as the Midrash says, the Jewish people could no longer tolerate the slavery and suffering, and so Hashem had to adulterate the pure idealism of what was meant to be accomplished through their going through the full allotment of slavery (for more on that, see the 7th paragraph in this post).

This idea fits in so beautifully with what Rav Kook wrote about in not letting go of one's idealism in Ruchnius, no matter how much smallness he gets caught up in. Let me translate a little bit from Oros Hateshuva 14:38:

Sometimes the spirit falls into smallness, and the person's soul can find no rest because of his lack of good deeds and because he calculates how many sins [he has committed], and because of the paucity of his involvement in Torah. A person must strengthen himself in the area of thought and he should known that one who understands one thing from another [who holds onto pure and idea thoughts], his thoughts are considered before the Holy One as sacrifices and Elevation offerings (Zohar Naso 121b). If so, holy thoughts and elevated intellectual images have all of the benefits of Korbanos and all of the benefits of the practical services which are related to them... And it is possible that many of a person's failings come because he does not properly value the fundamental nature of his thoughts.

IY"H, may you and I both merit to maintain our idealism for what we can become and not to be discouraged at all by present or past failures.

-Dixie Yid

(Picture courtesy of oshorisk.dk)

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The Sudilkover Rebbe on Gerim

In my conversation with the Sudilkover Rebbe on Tuesday, he asked me what my Hebrew name and mother's name is. I told him that it is "Ploni ben Sarah Imeinu." So when he realized that I am a Ger, he was very happy and he told me a couple of thoughts about Gerus.

One thing he shared with me was that when he davens, he says, b'eima u've'yirah, "Elokei Avraham, Elokei Yitzchak..." But he said that the Avos seem so far away and so long ago. But he said that when he meets a Ger, who is mamash, literally, a son of Avrhaham Avinu, he feels like he is closer to the Avos than at any other time. (Wow.)

The other thought he shared with me was that the reason why the Torah says that a Ger can't be a Melech, a king (Devarim 17:15: "מִקֶּרֶב אַחֶיךָ, תָּשִׂים עָלֶיךָ מֶלֶךְ," "From amongst your [biological] brothers shall you appoint a king [to the exclusion of Gerim]"), is because the idea of the Jewish people having a king, according to the Torah, is something that originates when the Jewish people requested a King to be like the other nations. However, Gerim are literal children of Avraham Avinu, which preceeds the time in Jewish history when Malchus started, and therefore Gerim are above and preceeding the whole idea of Kings, which the Torah portrays as a certain kind of a bidieved, non-ideal situation (We did not discuss the issue of Moshiach being a king also).

IY"H, I hope to speak to him next week and at that time, as A Simple Jew reminded me, I hope to speak to him about this question that had bothered me from the Meor Einayim regarding Gerim. When we spoke on the phone, he spoke very highly of the sefer Meor Einayim. He said that he is very close to that sefer and learns it often. He said that this was not only because he is an Einikel of the Chernobyler, but also because, of the early sifrei Chassidus, he said that it is the most organized. He pointed to the fact that, within each piece, it has a strucure that is easy to follow. (Kasha [or kashas], yesod 1, yesod 2, yesod 3, and then teretz to the original kasha using the various yesodos he'd established as a basis to answer the question.) Other seforim like the Likutei Moharan, Toldods Yaakov Yosef, & Likutei Torah of the Baal Hatanya, he said, contain progressions from idea to idea which are much harder to follow.

-Dixie Yid

(Picture courtesy of Chabad Online)

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Koidinover Rebbe in 5 Towns Parshas Va'eira

Here's a heads-up for anyone around the 5 Towns. The Koidenover Rebbe shlit"a will be visiting the Five
Towns on behalf of his Mosdos from Friday January 4th- Sunday January 6th to inspire the community with the following events. Thanks again to Rabbi Shlomo Slatkin, who is organizing this trip, and keeping us in the loop!

Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Vaera (The Rebbe will be speaking in English)

Friday night davening:

4:30 pm Congregation Anshei Chesed of Hewlett
Dvar Torah before Maariv

8:15pm Tish at the home of Mr and Mrs Benyomin Wolf
888 Cambridge Rd., Woodmere.

Shabbos Morning Davening:
9:00 am Beis Medrash of Cedarhusrt (R’ Spiegel)

Shabbos Afternoon
4:10 pm Mincha and Shalosh Seudos at Aish Kodesh
Dvar Torah at Shalosh Seudos

Motsaei Shabbos
7:00 pm Father and son learning at the Yeshiva of
South Shore (in the Anshe Chesed Beis Medrash)

The Rebbe will be available for private meetings
at the home of Mr and Mrs Avi Hirsch, 135 Pine street,
Woodmere

Sunday Morning:
Sunday morning Shachris : 8:00 AM at Cong. Knesseth
Israel (White Shul)
The Rebbe will be available for private visits at 9:30
AM at the White Shul

The Rebbe will be staying at the home of our gracious
hosts Mr and Mrs Chaim Freud

To schedule an appointment to meet with the Rebbe or
for more information about other events please contact...

Koidenov descends from the dynasties of Lechovich and
Karlin-Stolin. The Rebbe is reviving what was once a
thriving Chassidus in White Russia and has recently
rebuilt the first Koidenover yeshiva since the rise of
Communism. His Mosdos are also heavily involved in
kiruv and chesed projects such as the Pre-Pesach maos
chitim campaign. The Rebbe's bais midrash on Dizengoff
Street in Tel Aviv attracts Jews of all backgrounds.
This marks the Rebbe’s first visit to the Five Towns.

-Dixie Yid

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Watch Lots of Interesting People Discuss Learning the Blueprint for Creation

Click here to view Aish.com's new video (short 2 minute trailer or 15 minute version)which has some very interesting people talking about learning Torah, the blueprint for the world.

HT to Beyond BT.

-Dixie Yid

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Rav Dessler's Yartzeit - His Contributions to Orthodoxy Today

Neil Harris at Modern Uberdox: 24 of Teves; Rav Dessler's Yartzeit

One of Rav Dessler's greatest contributions to Hashkafic thought was explaining to the Torah observant world that it is giving that leads us to love, not love that leads us to giving.

-Dixie Yid

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My Conversation With the Sudilkover Rebbe - The Non-Jewish New Year

B"H, I was priveliged to speak yesterday with the Sudilkover Rebbe, Reb Areye Wohl by phone. Of course, I have to thank A Simple Jew, who is very close to that tzadik and was kind enough to introduce me to him.

I called him early in the afternoon yesterday, the Secular New Year. First, he thanked me for translating his essay on the importance of Chassidishe stories that are meant to teach something.

He told me an interesting story regarding how he spent his "New Year's Eve." First, he told me the teaching from the Apter Rov about New Years. He said, partially based on that, that he makes it a point of going out at midnight on "New Year's Eve" and wishing gentiles "A Happy New Year!"

He said that the night before, he asked his gabai and driver to take him out to the only place in Monsey he knew of that he would be able to find any gentiles, the 7-11. There, he made it a point of wishing "A Happy New Year" to several of the non-Jews that he saw there. Once outside, he saw one particularly unhappy person walking by just after midnight. He wished him "A Happy New Year!" A few minutes later, the man came back to find him. He asked the Sudilkover if he was a rabbi. When the Rebbe answered in the affirmative, he asked if he could have his picture taken with the Rebbe. He answered him that he very much does not like having his picture taken. "Why," the Rebbe asked, "do you want to have your picture taken with me?" The man answered him that the Rebbe was the first person to wish him "A Happy New Year," all year, and it made him very happy, especially considering the fact that he knew that this was not the Jews' new year and that they had their own. So the Rebbe agreed to have his picture taken with the man.

He said that as long as we live among the goyim, our blessings somehow come through them and that this is connected to the Apter Rav's vort. He also said that it is good because if the non-Jew is a sonei Yisroel (an anti-semite), then the greeting will hopefully make him less of a sonei Yisroel. And if he is parve, and doesn't feel one way or the other about Jews, the greeting may make the person an ohev Yisroel (one who likes the Jewish people). And if the person is already an ohev Yisroel, then this will make him an even bigger ohev Yisroel and will give him another story to tell his friends, who may not like the Jewish people as much.

He also told me something about Gerim which I will, IY"H, share tomorrow.

-Dixie Yid

(Video of interview with the Sudilkover Rebbe in Hebrew is from Chabad Online)

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Birkas Gevuros - Melech Meimis U'Mechayeh - Audio Shiur

Here's the latest installment of Reb Yerachmiel's Baltimore Community Kollel Rav Pincus Chaburah from Sunday night.

In this fourth and final shiur on Berchas "Gevuros" (the 2nd bracha of Shemoneh Esrei), we concluded our analysis of this beautiful bracha and studied dirve Chazal regarding Biblical sources for, and the "Who, When and Why" of, Techias Ha'Maysim, may it come bimhayrah beyamaynu.

You can listen to it online HERE (watch out for the ads!) or download it directly HERE.

-Dixie Yid

(Picture courtesy of avakesh)

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