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A few weeks ago, I translated a letter written by A Simple Jew's rebbe, the Sudilkover Rebbe. In it, he discussed how we find ourselves at a very important time in the process of the redemption and how we have to daven stronger than ever that Moshiach come now, and not to waste this chance.
P.S. I translated another article by the Sudilkover Rebbe very early in this blog's history. It was on the topic of the meaning of Chassidic stories. You can read that translation in two parts here:
I asked Yoseph Robinson, who Gruntig recently posted about, to write a guest post about his journey and how he discovered Yiddishkeit. It is an interesting introduction. Feel free to ask Yoseph any questions you have about his fascinating journey.
In Hollywood you would think we had it all, and in a manner of speaking, we did. I lived in Beverly Hills, I alternated between driving a Hummer, Bentley and a Jaguar convertible, and went to the wildest party scenes. I mean I went to Jamie Fox's house, I double dated with Jay Z, I met Shakheil O'neal, Kobe Bryant, Usher, Steve Harvey, and many, many others.
Holywood life, however, and the music industry included, could be summed up in one word: plastic. The stereotypes are accurate. The hip-hop music culture centers on money, girls, drugs, cars, money, jewelry, money, and EGO. I was leading a life of unabashed and unfettered self-indulgence. It was all-consuming and it was pointless.
We felt our talent and creativity entitled us to all the pleasures of the world and then some. Sure, we also worked hard but our arrogance and sense of entitlement knew no bounds. I'm a contemplative person by nature, and the hedonistic lifestyle was wearing me down psychically, and even physically. In addition, tensions in my music company were brewing and the loyalty of those closest to me were suspect.
I decided to leave the world of Hollywood behind and the only option was to make a total break from my previous life. I would say discovering Judaism was merely coincidental, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it seems, had a plan for me. The story is quite simple.. I walked into a book store and asked to buy a Bible. It turns out, I was in a Judaica store and I bought a Hirsch English edition of the Chumash. I was immediately hooked. I was moved, I was inspired, and I felt connected to something deeper and greater than anything I had ever encountered in my entire life.
I took Judaism classes for a period of two and a half years at Toras Hashem and the conversion itself was conducted by the Beis Din of North Hollywood headed by Rabbi Zvi Block. I live in Brooklyn, New York and I daven at the Agudas Israel of Ave L.
I am currently writing a memoir. It starts with my childhood in Jamaica, my street life in Brooklyn and then in Philly, my move to LA, and my journey to Judaism, which is ongoing. I hope my story can entertain, as well as inspire. I also hope that my circumstance can help facilitate communication and sensitivity between all races, cultures, and religions.
Thanks for reading and I hope you come along for the ride!
Yoseph Robinson
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In his latest shiur on the topic of berchas "VeLerushalayim Ircha" in Shmoneh Esrei, Reb Yerachmiel of the Baltimore Community Kollel discussed the basic and more elaborate meanings of the words "Bekarov Beyamainu" ("soon and in our days"), as well the related phrase "Bimhaira Beyamainu" ("speedily in our days").
Additionally, using a yesod borrowed from his Rebbi, Rav Shmuel Brazil shlita, Reb Yerachmiel suggested a more novel upteitch to inspire us all to not only yearn for Moshiach's arrival in our days, but to help bring it (i) "with the quality of our days" ("beyamainu"), (ii) "with our desire for Kirvas Elokim" ("bekarov") and (iii) "with the middah of Torahdik haste" ("bimhaira").
CLICK HERE to get the shiur by either listening right away by left clicking or right clicking and selecting "Save Target As."
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I wrote yesterday about how being brought up with negative associations with Yiddishkeit can lead to children/teenagers/young adults going off the derech, leaving the path of halachic observance.
But the truth is, one must ask himself what kind of Yiddishkeit was there in his home to begin with? Was there really that much for the child to leave? Or was it all a mile wide and an inch deep?
Faranak Margolese, in her book Off the Derech, addressed the problems of "empty Yiddishkeit" in chapter 11. She talked about some people never grow up with all kinds of bad or horrible experiences in their families or with Yiddishkeit. They left observance, but it did not follow divorce, abuse, yelling parents, condemning principles, Morahs or Rebbeim. They had a relatively happy, normal time growing up. So what was the problem? Why did they leave observance behind?
It is "empty Yiddishkeit," or as Mrs. Margolese calls it, "neutral" Judaism. It is clear that leaving observance often is the result of having a Yiddishkeit that is void of spirituality, passion, or love of G-d. My rebbe always quotes Tzav V'Ziruz #9 (from the Piaczena Rebbe, Rav Klonymous Kalmish Shapira) in this regard for an absolutely fundamental point that one must understand in order to successfully raise one's self and one's children (adaptive translation):
The soul craves excitement and sensation. This does not only apply to joyful feelings alone. Rather, it merely loves "feeling." It even desires sadness and crying. People love to watch horrifyig scenes, and to hear scary stories, even to the point of causing one's self to cry, just in order to feel something. This is an absolute requirement of the soul, like any of a person's other natural needs.
Therefore, only one who fulfills this requirement with Avodas Hashem and with exciting Torah and tefillah will guard his soul. But if someone does the work of serving Hashem without feeling, then the soul will gratify its need for excitement with other, cheaper things, even through aveiros, just in order to fulfill its fundamental need for excitement. Or, if it is unable to achieve excitement through anything at all, it will become diseased, as it would if any of its other physical needs were not met.
I think of this teaching often and I think I need to re-read it even more frequently. It is fundamental to understand its principle not only for the way I bring up my children, but also for how I live my life as a Jew personally.
If I do not bring up my children in such a way that mitzvos, learning, chessed, davening, Seudos, Shabbos, brachos, etc. are exciting, then the question will not be whether they will simply continue living without that excitement or not. Rather, they WILL achieve excitement. The only question is: Through what?
If my kids see me getting excited and jumping up and down at a baseball game, but falling asleep whenever I pick up a sefer to learn, where will they learn they can fulfill their soul's need for excitement? If they see my wife's eyes light up when new furniture is delivered or when buying a new dress, but if they never see her saying Tehillim or speaking words of Emunah with great feeling, then where will they learn that exicement can be found?
If one looks at his (or her) own feelings and finds that avodas Hashem/Yiddishkeit is not one's main source of joy/pleasure/excitement in life, then *this is a major problem,* both for one's own situation and for how one's children will grow up. It should be a wake-up call to start taking whatever steps fit the predilictions of one's own soul to start reorienting one's hopes and dreams about what will give him fulfillment and excitement in life.
Once a person at least gets on the right track by moving in the right direction in avoiding empty Yiddishkeit, and moving toward a fulfilling Yiddiksheit, then he will take a major step in avoiding that particular cause that could lead to one's children going off the derech.
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IY"H, I'm having a guest post at A Simple Jew soon about eating, specifically on Shabbos. I thought this video, created by MyJewishLearning.com and Judy Prays was very interesting.
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Gruntig posted this beautiful video. This is a feature story from a sports TV show about Alan Veingard, who played for the Greenbay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys, and whose team won the Superbowl in 1993. He's now a very frum, Erlicheh Yid who davens and learns at Chabad of Coral Springs, FL. The Chabad rabbi there is interviewed as well. Check out Gruntig's post too, he has some other links to videos and other websites about Alan and his journey back to Yiddishkeit.
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This was a letter that a recently rebellious son left for his father after they had started to reconcile with one another:
Dear Father,
We are both blind. You don't always see how much I have done for you and I don't always see how much you taught me. But you think that I took the Tablets and I just threw them to the ground. That's not what happened. They were too heavy and they simply dropped from my hands.
First, I have to say that I definitely have to recommend Off the Derech to every parent, future parent, teacher, or future teacher. As I have written before, I think that no one can afford to take for granted that any given child will always stay "on the derech" and therefore one helpful strategy that should permeate parenting is keeping in mind some of the factors that are commonly associated with kids going off the derech, and then planning out one's life and parenting so as to avoid those mistakes.
That being said, I would like to darshen this young man's words a little bit. If observance ("The Tablets") really were too heavy to carry, then everyone would go off the derech. The problem is not that they are too heavy. The problem is when they are made to seem too heavy, or that to a specific child/young person, they seem too heavy.
As I said the comment section of my recent post on why people to away to hotels for Pesach, any amount of avodah seems burdensome when it is merely seen as drudgery. When parents and teachers create a Yiddishkeit that is full of negative associations, guilt, pressure and judging, then halachic observance will feel "too heavy" and may slip out of the hands of the next generation.
Our job as Jews is to live a Yiddishkeit and teach a Yiddishkeit to our kids that is positive, full of love, and is designed al pi darko, specifically for each person so that no one feels like they are a square peg being shoved in a round hole. That way, we can avoid bringing up our children in an environment of "negative Yiddishkeit."
Negative Yiddishkeit is one major problem when raising our children and ourselves. Empty Yiddishkeit is another major problem that I want to write a little bit about tomorrow. I would say that negative Yiddishkeit is a larger problem in the "frummer" parts of the frum community and that empty Yiddishkeit is the larger problem in the more modern or less frum parts of the frum community. Although I think that much of the time, both problems exist in both communities.
More tomorrow...
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I would like to share this shiur on Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh Vol. 2, Ch. 11 by Rabbi Boruch Leff. As you can see by following the link on Rabbi Leff's name, he has been speaking and writing a lot on the teachings of Bilvavi in Baltimore and in various magazines and newspapers.
I am pleased to present Rebbetzin Yehudis Golshevsky's first shiur in her series on Breslov Chassidus on Sefiras Haomer. For Women Only. The following sources were covered in the shiur:
Over Shabbos, Rebbe spoke (based on a piece in Tiferes Shimshon [Pincus]) about the idea that one's potential self is actually "created" before he is. Not only that, every mitzvah, every bit of Torah, Tehillim and Chesed that one does is created before he or she is, in Shamayim. Then Hashem creates each of us with our own unique kishronos, talents and kochos, abilities, in order to bring those mitzvos that Hashem put in shamayim down to the earth. And he said that when we fail to do that mitzvah, learn that Torah, do that chesed, or when we fail to become the pre-created self that exists in Heaven, that mitzvah or Torah in shamayim is destroyed by our failure to reach our potential. When we don't become or do what we should, we should not only mourn for our failure to do something that we could have done. We should also mourn for the destruction of that image in shamayim of what we should have brought into the world.
I saw a similar idea in the 2nd piece in Tzav V'zeiruz, by the Piaczetzna Rebbe, Rav Kalonymos Kalmish Shapira. He says that every year one should write out a picture of what he plans to be the next year. One should write out what his attainments will be, what kind of avodas Hashem he will have, what aveiros he won't be doing, what he will have learned, how his davening will be, etc. Let's say a person's name is Chaim. He should use that picture of the year 2010 Chaim as a measure against which he should gauge how he's doing throughout the year. He can ask himself whether he actions, as they are going now, are such that they will allow him to become the 2010 version of Chaim that he set out at the beginning of the year.
He says that if, after the year, he sees that he has not even reached the heels of that 2010 Chaim that he imagined a year ago, then it comes that that this 2010 Chaim's life was shortened by a year. If one hasn't grown or worked at achieving an elevation of himself over the past year, then perhaps when one is 30 years old, the only "Chaim" that he will have brought to the light of this world will be the Chaim of 13 years old, when he was Bar Mitzvah.
What will happen when a person dies at the "ripe old age of 85?" If that person only worked on himself for about two years of his life, then the real him that he brought into the world only made it to the age of 15. And when someone dies at the age of 15, it is a big tragedy. That person should mourn the loss of the death of his potential at the age of 15.
In contrast, it says about Avraham, "And Avraham was old, he came with his days." What does this mean? He came to his death with all of his days up to that age. There was a potential Avraham in Shamayim that Avraham should have brought down into the world by the time he died and he succeeding in bringing all of those days with him as he approached the grave.
Rav Weinberger told over a story he heard from Rav Shalom Swadron in 1980. He said that Rav Shalom told a "ma'aseh she'haya," a true story, that all of the souls in heaven were given 30 minutes to come back to this world. During this time, they all rushed around to apologize to people they'd wronged during their lifetimes, to learn Torah, to say Tehillim, to give Tzedaka, to return a stolen object, etc. They had no time to talk to anyone because in the world of truth, they understood the value of these things and didn't want to lose a second. A bas kol came down announcing how much time they had left and they rushed more and more vigorously as the clock would down trying to squeeze in every good deed they could before they ran out of time. And as Rav Shalom reached the point when the bas kol was about to announce that the 30 minutes were up, he paused for a long time and then said...
"And nu, what would be so bad if we have more than half an hour in this world to take advantage of...?"
Picture of Rav Shalom Schwadron courtesy of ohrdaniel. Click here to get Dixie Yid in your e-mail Inbox or here to subscribe in Google Reader.
