A crowd

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In a Rush to bring Moshiach

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In a Rush to bring Moshiach

United Lubavitcher Yeshiva Annual Melaveh Malkah 5771

An extremely inspiring evening honoring a Teacher that has taught in Tomchei Tmimim for fifty years. Mr. Gershon (George) Landberg. Joining him at the Dais were, Rabbi Avrohom Nochum (Noochie) Gross the Alumnus of the year, Mr. Aron Szanzer Parent of the year, Mr. Landberg's son, & his Chairman at Touro College Dr. Lieberman. The Guest speaker Rabbi Simon Jacobson, & the Menahel Rabbi Shmuel Dechter.
The program was very smooth, opening with the recital of the Rebbe's Kapital & Kapital  Chof for Eretz Yisroel, Talmid Yehoshua Lipkind. The MC kept the evening flowing, & as a special surprise to Mr. Landberg "Benjilini" the performer a former student of Mr. Landberg. All the speakers spoke of the praises of Mr. Landberg even though he is a teacher of Secular studies, he has given us so much & taught us so many lessons. All the speeches can be heard on www.shiur.us the file is labeled Melaveh Malkah. Mr. Landberg relates the Great Moifos he had with the Rebbe.
RYYH
ULYOP
In a Rush to bring Moshiach

Fwd: picture of class of 65

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In a Rush to bring Moshiach

Is your name Here? Picture soon to follow

.)
GRADUATING CLASS OF 1965
From left to right - (Top row) M. Pinczevski, I. ·Minkowifz, C. S. Portowicz, Y. Blesofsky, G. Eisenberger, S. Goldstein, R. Eisenberger, A. Einhorn, J. Grunfeld.
(Middle row) J. Deitsch, A. Pinson, Dov Nagelblat, J. Feldman, Y. landa, C. Strassberg, K. Dubov, G. Gordon, Y. Rosenfeld, J. Chitrik, I. Wegh, W. Fried.
(Bottom row) M. Furst, J. Shusterman, Y. Cukier, G. Teitelbaum, Rabbi S. Fogelman, Mr. G. lane/berg, David Nagelblat, Y. Yarmush, C. Bryski.
RYYH
ULYOP
In a Rush to bring Moshiach

Gut Shabbos_ Melaveh Makah Next week- Mazal Tov

Mazal Tov to the Szanzer upon the marriage of their daughter. Please make you reservation for next weeks Melaveh Malkah 347 386-0500

This week we find Jacob (Yaakov) the 'Patriarch of Judaism' on his way to his Uncle, Lavan's house to face awesome difficulties in order to establish the Jewish people.

 

Jacob was aware of the challenges before him and the Torah tells us that before he reached his destination he put rocks around his head, lay down to sleep, got a vision of G-d, and upon awakening, declared that the rock will be "the House of G-d".

 

Rashi explains that Yaakov put these rocks around his head to protect him from wild animals and that the rocks united to become one rock which he called G-d's house.

 

What is going on here? Why did Yaakov surround just his head with rocks, why not his entire body? Why did the rocks unite? How can one rock be a house? And even more important; what does all this mean to us?

 

I would like to explain with a story.

 

December 1700. It was a cold winter in Poland and a blanket of snow covered the entire country. The city streets were bustling with rosy-cheeked people bundled up in fur coats and the countryside peasants were busy warming their homes with wood, and themselves with vodka. The holiday season was approaching, and everyone was in good spirits.

 

But in the Jewish Ghetto of Krakow gloom and fear filled the air and moaned from every corner; the children were dying of smallpox. The only thing that gave them a bit of joy was being taken from them.

 

It was the beginning of an epidemic. The doctors were helpless to stop it and the various home remedies did nothing. Every day the town was visited with more heartbreaking tragedies. The only one they could rely on, as usual, was their Father in Heaven, and He didn't seem to be helping much either.

 

The Rabbi of the community had declared a day of fasting and prayer, then another, then three days of prayer and self-examination. But nothing seemed to work. A week of supplication was announced, but before it began, the thirty elders of the community decided they had to make a "Shaalas Chalom" (a request from a dream).

 

It was a drastic move, but they had no other choice. They purified themselves, fasted, said Psalms non-stop, immersed in a Mikva, and then prayed to G-d according to ancient Kabbalistic formulas, that He send them some sort of sign that night in their sleep.

 

Early the next morning they met in the Shul (synagogue) and the results were frightening; The previous night they all had identical dreams!

 

An old man in a white robe appeared and said: "SHLOMO THE BUTCHER MUST PRAY BEFORE THE CONGREGATION!!".

 

It was clear what they had to do.

 

The thirty of them solemnly walked to Shlomo's home and knocked on the door. When his wife opened, she almost fainted at the sight of them.

 

"Ye..yes?" She stammered, pushing her loose hair under the kerchief on her head.

 

"We want to speak to your husband. Is he home?" said one of them as pleasantly as possible. "May we come in?" asked another.

 

She told them to wait and in a few moments Shlomo himself came to the door, shook everyone's hands and invited them in. He ran around for a few minutes looking for chairs and when he found a few and everyone was seated one of them began;

 

"Shlomo, we made a Dream request yesterday. We asked G-d to tell us what to do about the epidemic and last night we all had the same dream. We dreamed that you have to lead the prayers today."

 

Shlomo was dumbfounded. If it weren't such a serious matter he would think it was a joke.

 

"I...should lead the prayers?" stammered Shlomo " Why I....I can't even read properly. I can't…. I mean, what good will it possibly do?"

 

The elders looked at poor Shlomo, then at each other and then took turns trying to convince him. "Listen Shlomo, just come and do what you can. You don't have to really lead, just pray in front of everyone. Maybe there will be a miracle, maybe you will begin to read. We don't understand it either but…. just come and give it a try. Everyone is in the Shul (synagogue) waiting. Just come and say a few words. Anything is better than what we have now."

 

So Shlomo, with no other choice, left his house and accompanied them. But no sooner had they entered the crowded Synagogue that Shlomo suddenly broke away, ran back outside and by the time they realized what happened and ran outside after him he was nowhere to be seen.

 

What could they do? He disappeared. They didn't even know where to look. They had no choice other than to wait.

 

About half an hour later the door opened and in came Shlomo pushing a wheelbarrow covered with a cloth.

 

All eyes were on him as he went up to the podium, pulled off the cloth, and lifted an old set of scales out of the barrow. He brought his butchers scales into the Shul!

 

They were heavy but he lifted them over his head and although his face was red and contorted with the effort, it was obvious that he was crying.

 

"Here" he yelled out to the ceiling. "Here, G-d! Take them! Take the scales! That must be why you want me to lead the prayers, right? So take the scales and heal the children! Just heal the children. Okay?!!"

 

He was crying pretty loudly by then and so was most of the congregation. A few men rushed over to help him put the scales on a table on the podium and the congregation began praying.

 

The next day all the children got better.

 

You can imagine the joy and festivities that followed. They even made a nice glass case for the scales and left the whole thing there permanently for all to see.

 

But after a few days when the excitement died down, the elders had to admit that they couldn't figure it out. What was so special about Shomo's scales? After all, there were tens of shops in the Ghetto that had scales and all of them were owned by G-d fearing Jews. What could be so special about THESE scales?

 

The answer was soon in coming. When they went around checking all the other scales, they discovered that every one of them without exception was a bit off, certainly never enough to constitute bad business, but inaccurate nevertheless.

 

It seems that Shlomo would check his scales twice every day, "That's what G-d wants" he explained, "I just check and don't ask questions", while the others checked only occasionally.

 

The legend has it that these scales remained proudly displayed in that Shul for over two hundred years until the Germans destroyed everything in WWII.

 

That answers our questions.

 

Yaakov was founding the Jewish people. He knew that the essence of Judaism is Avoda; sanctifying the world through devotion to HaShem in even the most mundane matters and despite all obstacles.

 

But he also knew that crooked Lavan was a seasoned charlatan and master of worldly affairs that would try his best to make him compromise his goals.

 

Therefore he surrounded his head with rocks; he protected his thoughts and ideals with unquestioning service of G-d (like Shlomo the butcher in our story), and that was sufficient protection to enable him to unify all that he would do (all the rocks became one) to the Creator of the Universe.

 

But that isn't all. His real goal was to pave the way for the Jews in generations to come to reveal G-d down here, first of all on Mount Sinai, then in both Holy Temples, and finally in its most complete form, with the arrival of Moshiach.

 

Then the entire world will see the manifestation of what we Jews have been saying twice daily for over three thousand years "Listen Israel (referring also to Jacob our forefather whose name was also Israel) G-d is our G-d, G-d is ONE"

 

Namely that all this time G-d has only been 'our' G-d but in the future with the arrival of Moshiach the entire world will see and feel the goodness, nearness and unconditional love of the Creator of the Universe.  (See Rashi on Deut.6:4).  

 

What it means to us is of utmost importance: It all depends on us! Today, more than ever before, we need unquestioning and uncompromising faith that brings to action; just one more deed, word, or even thought, will fulfill Yaakov's dream, save the entire world and bring....          

Moshiach NOW!!

RYYH
ULYOP
In a Rush to bring Moshiach

RE: Gut Shabbos

Dear Rabbi Hecht –

 

Thank you for this e-mail.  Gut Shabbos to you and yours.

 

Best regards,

Ilya & Family

 

From: Rabbi Yitzchak Hecht [mailto:ryhecht@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, November 05, 2010 9:44 AM
To: ULY Blog
Cc: unitedlubavitchyeshiva@yahoo.com
Subject: Gut Shabbos

 

This week we learn of the battle between Esav and Jacob.

The word Torah means "teaching", positive teaching.

What positive lesson is the Torah teaching us here? What is the point of telling us that twin brothers, the sons of the holy patriarch of Judaism Isaac, couldn't get along? If they couldn't co-exist what chance have we got?

Also, in the end of the portion why did Isaac announce he would bless only one of them, Esav? Why couldn't he just bless both of them equally and put an end to the quibbling?

To understand this here is a story.

The rain was falling, the bus was waiting for them outside the gate and the Rabbis wanted to get home.

"HALLO!!" one of them who knew a bit of Spanish yelled at the gentile guard sitting in his little booth on the side; "Que Pasa?" Que Pasa el Porta?" But it didn't help, the guard refused to open up.

The scene is a cattle slaughtering house in Argentina. The bearded Jews were all Shochatim ('Sho/cha/tim); religious Jews trained in all the details of 'ritual' slaughtering. They had come from all over the world, about fifty of them, to work here for a few months, earn enough money to support their families and return to their homes.

The work was hard, with long hours, the slaughterhouse was a good hour's drive from town and they were tired. But … "Hey open the door already!!" one of them pounded on the gate. "Open!"

"No no!" the guard yelled back, followed by something in Spanish.

"He says he won't open the door till everyone is here" the Spanish-speaking shochet explained, "He says someone is missing and he's not opening till he's here."

"NO one is missing!!! He's probably drunk. Just tell him to open up!!" shouted one of the men. "He's making us crazy!! Open up already!! We want to go home and we have a long ride ahead of us!"

But the guard wouldn't budge.  So they talked it over between them; they had to come up with a plan of action.

"Listen," one of them suggested, "either we force him to open the door or we make a count and see if he's right. Maybe someone IS missing." And sure enough…. One man was missing!

NO one could figure how it happened, but they counted again and Zalman the Chabad Chassid wasn't there. Zalman was a quiet fellow so they didn't notice his absence, how the guard noticed no one could figure out, but now besides wanting to go home they began to get worried about their colleague. They went back to the factory to find him.

They searched and searched for a half and hour to no avail. He had disappeared into thin air.

"Hey! Maybe he didn't come today", one of them suggested.

"No, he was on my shift," said another. "I even talked to him today. But where is he?"

They looked in the offices, in the kitchen, in the restrooms, maybe he fell asleep. Until someone yelled out, "I found him! Here he is! Call an ambulance! Come quick!! Help!! Help!!!"

It seems that Zalman had entered one of the huge freezer rooms and while he was deep inside someone closed the door and turned off the lights. Maybe Zalman had become confused, or perhaps he tripped in the darkness, but in any case when they found him he was laying unconscious on the floor almost frozen to death.

They pulled him out, covered him with blankets and began rubbing his body, and by the time the ambulance arrived he was already on his feet, drinking hot soup and ready to go home. It was nothing short of a miracle and of course they couldn't stop telling Zalman how the guard was the one who saved him.

When they all returned to the gate the guard smiled, pressed the button that opened the door and everyone filed past shaking his hand and blessing him. No one knew Spanish well enough to explain to him what happened but when it came Zalman's turn he gave him a big hug, looked him in the eyes and said "Amigo."

But there still remained a few mysteries. First, how did the guard notice one Jew from fifty was missing? After all, they all looked and even dressed pretty much alike. Was he some sort of genius?

The shochet that knew Spanish went back to ask him and several minutes later returned with the explanation.

"The guard said that he has no idea which one Zalman is. Just that every morning when we arrived and everyone would file past him, the only one that would say 'hello' to him was Zalman. Then when we finished every day the same Zalman was the only one that would say goodbye to him on the way out!

"So today he remembered that he had heard a 'good morning' but no "good bye' so it wasn't hard for him to figure out that someone was missing! Zalman's greetings saved his life.

But that wasn't the end of it. They had another question. Zalman was probably the most introverted of the entire crowd!

"Of all people, why was it you that always said hello?" they asked him.

"I'll tell you why" Zalman answered. "Did you ever see the Lubavitcher Rebbe giving out dollars, (for several years tens of thousands of people would file by the Rebbe every Sunday morning to receive directly from him a blessing and a dollar to give to charity) or saying "Lechiam" to thousands of Chassidim, one by one? Well I did and it really impressed me.

"I thought to myself, if such a great person as the Rebbe can give so much time and attention to everyone, I should at least be able to say hello to people.

"So I decided that even though it's completely against my nature, I'm going to do it. And it saved my life."

This answers our questions.

The Chassidic classic "Tanya" (chapt. 9) compares Jacob and Esav to two opposite 'drives' or 'souls' present in every Jew (and to some degree in every person). One is called the Natural Soul and the other the G-dly  soul.

The Torah is telling us that just as these two brothers fought each other even in their mother's womb so these two souls fight constantly within each of us for control over our actions, speech and thoughts. But only ONE can win.

Just like Zalman in our story. His NATURAL tendency was to be quiet, but he felt it his G-dly task to be friendly. And because the latter was victorious his life was saved….from freezing. (The natural soul strives to cool us off and make us frozen to anything that deals with Torah and Judaism).

The reason Issac wanted to bless Esav, however is much deeper.

The Talmud (Shabbos 89b) states that the future redemption will come only in Issac's merit and in books of Chassidut (see Torah Ohr, Toldos) it explains why.

Isaac dug wells. He revealed water where there was none; transforming deserts and wastelands to fertile oases.

So the Moshiach will transform even the 'living water' within even everyone to serve only the Creator and accept His commandments (even the evil people as we say thrice daily in the prayer 'Alenu').

That is why Issac wanted to bless Esav. He thought the time had come for redemption and that even the evil in him could be transformed. But Jacob knew better. He foresaw that it would have to wait.

But now the time has arrived.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe announced that the world is ready for transformation. Now it is easier than ever to transform our natural desires to G-dly ones. And soon even the evil forces of destruction will be transformed to serve the Creator and improve His creation. All the gentiles, even the enemies of the Jews, are ready to hear about the seven Noahide commandments and admit the eternal truth of the Torah.

That is the eternal message of our section; today we can succeed in doing what Isaac began some four thousand years ago and bring...

Moshiach NOW!!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
RYYH
ULYOP
In a Rush to bring Moshiach

Gut Shabbos

This week we learn of the battle between Esav and Jacob.

The word Torah means "teaching", positive teaching.

What positive lesson is the Torah teaching us here? What is the point of telling us that twin brothers, the sons of the holy patriarch of Judaism Isaac, couldn't get along? If they couldn't co-exist what chance have we got?

Also, in the end of the portion why did Isaac announce he would bless only one of them, Esav? Why couldn't he just bless both of them equally and put an end to the quibbling?

To understand this here is a story.

The rain was falling, the bus was waiting for them outside the gate and the Rabbis wanted to get home.

"HALLO!!" one of them who knew a bit of Spanish yelled at the gentile guard sitting in his little booth on the side; "Que Pasa?" Que Pasa el Porta?" But it didn't help, the guard refused to open up.

The scene is a cattle slaughtering house in Argentina. The bearded Jews were all Shochatim ('Sho/cha/tim); religious Jews trained in all the details of 'ritual' slaughtering. They had come from all over the world, about fifty of them, to work here for a few months, earn enough money to support their families and return to their homes.

The work was hard, with long hours, the slaughterhouse was a good hour's drive from town and they were tired. But … "Hey open the door already!!" one of them pounded on the gate. "Open!"

"No no!" the guard yelled back, followed by something in Spanish.

"He says he won't open the door till everyone is here" the Spanish-speaking shochet explained, "He says someone is missing and he's not opening till he's here."

"NO one is missing!!! He's probably drunk. Just tell him to open up!!" shouted one of the men. "He's making us crazy!! Open up already!! We want to go home and we have a long ride ahead of us!"

But the guard wouldn't budge.  So they talked it over between them; they had to come up with a plan of action.

"Listen," one of them suggested, "either we force him to open the door or we make a count and see if he's right. Maybe someone IS missing." And sure enough…. One man was missing!

NO one could figure how it happened, but they counted again and Zalman the Chabad Chassid wasn't there. Zalman was a quiet fellow so they didn't notice his absence, how the guard noticed no one could figure out, but now besides wanting to go home they began to get worried about their colleague. They went back to the factory to find him.

They searched and searched for a half and hour to no avail. He had disappeared into thin air.

"Hey! Maybe he didn't come today", one of them suggested.

"No, he was on my shift," said another. "I even talked to him today. But where is he?"

They looked in the offices, in the kitchen, in the restrooms, maybe he fell asleep. Until someone yelled out, "I found him! Here he is! Call an ambulance! Come quick!! Help!! Help!!!"

It seems that Zalman had entered one of the huge freezer rooms and while he was deep inside someone closed the door and turned off the lights. Maybe Zalman had become confused, or perhaps he tripped in the darkness, but in any case when they found him he was laying unconscious on the floor almost frozen to death.

They pulled him out, covered him with blankets and began rubbing his body, and by the time the ambulance arrived he was already on his feet, drinking hot soup and ready to go home. It was nothing short of a miracle and of course they couldn't stop telling Zalman how the guard was the one who saved him.

When they all returned to the gate the guard smiled, pressed the button that opened the door and everyone filed past shaking his hand and blessing him. No one knew Spanish well enough to explain to him what happened but when it came Zalman's turn he gave him a big hug, looked him in the eyes and said "Amigo."

But there still remained a few mysteries. First, how did the guard notice one Jew from fifty was missing? After all, they all looked and even dressed pretty much alike. Was he some sort of genius?

The shochet that knew Spanish went back to ask him and several minutes later returned with the explanation.

"The guard said that he has no idea which one Zalman is. Just that every morning when we arrived and everyone would file past him, the only one that would say 'hello' to him was Zalman. Then when we finished every day the same Zalman was the only one that would say goodbye to him on the way out!

"So today he remembered that he had heard a 'good morning' but no "good bye' so it wasn't hard for him to figure out that someone was missing! Zalman's greetings saved his life.

But that wasn't the end of it. They had another question. Zalman was probably the most introverted of the entire crowd!

"Of all people, why was it you that always said hello?" they asked him.

"I'll tell you why" Zalman answered. "Did you ever see the Lubavitcher Rebbe giving out dollars, (for several years tens of thousands of people would file by the Rebbe every Sunday morning to receive directly from him a blessing and a dollar to give to charity) or saying "Lechiam" to thousands of Chassidim, one by one? Well I did and it really impressed me.

"I thought to myself, if such a great person as the Rebbe can give so much time and attention to everyone, I should at least be able to say hello to people.

"So I decided that even though it's completely against my nature, I'm going to do it. And it saved my life."

This answers our questions.

The Chassidic classic "Tanya" (chapt. 9) compares Jacob and Esav to two opposite 'drives' or 'souls' present in every Jew (and to some degree in every person). One is called the Natural Soul and the other the G-dly  soul.

The Torah is telling us that just as these two brothers fought each other even in their mother's womb so these two souls fight constantly within each of us for control over our actions, speech and thoughts. But only ONE can win.

Just like Zalman in our story. His NATURAL tendency was to be quiet, but he felt it his G-dly task to be friendly. And because the latter was victorious his life was saved….from freezing. (The natural soul strives to cool us off and make us frozen to anything that deals with Torah and Judaism).

The reason Issac wanted to bless Esav, however is much deeper.

The Talmud (Shabbos 89b) states that the future redemption will come only in Issac's merit and in books of Chassidut (see Torah Ohr, Toldos) it explains why.

Isaac dug wells. He revealed water where there was none; transforming deserts and wastelands to fertile oases.

So the Moshiach will transform even the 'living water' within even everyone to serve only the Creator and accept His commandments (even the evil people as we say thrice daily in the prayer 'Alenu').

That is why Issac wanted to bless Esav. He thought the time had come for redemption and that even the evil in him could be transformed. But Jacob knew better. He foresaw that it would have to wait.

But now the time has arrived.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe announced that the world is ready for transformation. Now it is easier than ever to transform our natural desires to G-dly ones. And soon even the evil forces of destruction will be transformed to serve the Creator and improve His creation. All the gentiles, even the enemies of the Jews, are ready to hear about the seven Noahide commandments and admit the eternal truth of the Torah.

That is the eternal message of our section; today we can succeed in doing what Isaac began some four thousand years ago and bring...

Moshiach NOW!!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
RYYH
ULYOP
In a Rush to bring Moshiach