English Blog

I Received $36000

Thursday, January 25, 2024 - 9:20 AM

This week, my son’s school, Yeshivat Mayan Torah, ran a fundraising campaign. It’s not an easy time to be raising money. Times are tough; everyone’s feeling the squeeze. But somehow, despite the struggle, they managed to raise $206,000. Even more impressive, all that came from only 700 donors.

As a parent, I wanted to contribute. We all have an obligation to give charity—even rabbis. The campaign was coming to an end and I didn’t have the means to do anything substantial, but I wanted to give a meaningful amount. I dug deep, well beyond my capacity, and gave $3600.

Now, that is quite a large donation, and as good as I felt for having given it, I also felt bad for no longer having that money!

But I reassured myself with the Torah teaching that when we give charity, Hashem pays us back tenfold. When you do a mitzvah, there is no way you will lose out, we are promised. Yes, it may be tough in the moment, but Hashem never remains in debt. I truly believe that.

Not only do I believe it, I encourage people to donate and support all the wonderful work we do at Chabad Israel Center with that assurance. So, I guess I have now practiced what I’ve been preaching.

I gave the donation at 7.00pm. Ten hours later, I logged into my bank account and, lo and behold, there was a deposit of—you guessed it—$36,000! I was astounded. Not because I didn’t think Hashem would pay me back (I knew He would) but by the alacrity of the payment.

Usually Hashem has His own timetable about when and how to repay us. But here I saw it in real time, less than a day after giving well beyond my comfort zone. Incredible!

So, who sent the $36,000? I’m still not sure. I had to email my bank asking them for more details and I’m waiting to hear back. It might be a government grant for one of our programs, but I actually have no idea.

What is clear, however, is that Hashem is the boss of the world. He is in full control. Sometimes we don't or can’t appreciate that, but he is in charge of every aspect of our lives. And He loves us. Oh boy, does He love us. And even though we don’t usually see repayment with the kind of immediacy that I just experienced, He never remains in our debt.

So go ahead, do a mitzvah, and watch the miracles unfold before your eyes!

Tunnels of Love From 770

Thursday, January 18, 2024 - 1:59 PM

I was in Israel just two weeks ago. We were there to inspire and get inspired.

At the Palmachim Air Force base we were privileged to witness one of our wounded IDF soldiers being reunited with the helicopter pilot who evacuated him to Tel Hashomer hospital and saved his life. It was an extremely emotional reunion which we will not forget!

The pilots described for us how they evacuate wounded soldiers from Gaza, often under fire, in record time. Our wounded soldier, for example, was in the hospital undergoing surgery within an hour of being injured! These people are true heroes.

At the end of our tour, I asked the head of the Palmachim Air Force if he’d put on tefillin yet that day. He hadn’t, and I offered to do it with him right then and there. He agreed.

I rolled up his sleeve—I know how to do it pretty quickly at this point!—and in under a minute we were reciting the Shema and connecting his soul to the deepest levels of G-dliness.

Then he shared with me, “You know, I would love to be in Helsinki right now. My nephew—my brother’s son—is having his bar mitzvah.” He grabbed his phone and pulled up a picture of his brother Tal and his nephew Omri putting on tefillin. We immediately recognized their rabbi, Rabbi Binyamin Wolff, who runs Chabad in Helsinki.

It turns out that his brother is the Israeli attaché in Helsinki. They were supposed to celebrate Omri’s bar mitzvah in Israel with their entire extended family, but due to the war they decided to do the bar mitzvah in Helsinki. Without family, however, it just was not the same!

What are the odds that we would visit Palmachim on the exact day of the bar mitzvah, and that I would have the privilege of putting tefillin on with this holy pilot, enabling him to truly celebrate with his nephew in spirit? Clearly, Divine providence was at play!

Thank you to our group leader, Bentzi Sasson, for capturing the moment.

This weekend, we mark Yud Shevat—the day that the Previous Lubavither Rebbe passed away in 1950, and the day that his son-in-law became Rebbe and leader of the Chabad movement in 1951. The Rebbe created the greatest army in the world. From Brooklyn, NY, the Rebbe created tunnels that run the length and breadth of the world. Tunnels that connect every Jew, wherever he or she may be. Tunnels of love connecting us in New York, Helsinki, and the Palmachim air force base.

The Rebbe sent emissaries out all over the world with a single mission: to spread love and kindness and to inspire others to make ourselves and the world a better place. The Rebbe entrusted that mission to us, and it’s up to us to keep it going.

So look around your sphere and ask yourself: Who can I reach out to? Where do my tunnels lead? Go ahead, and connect. Invite someone for a Shabbat meal. Ask a friend to tag along to shul. Offer Shabbat candles to your neighbor. Spread the light, spread the love; continue the Rebbe’s mission.

How Was Israel Caught So Off Guard on October 7th?

Thursday, January 11, 2024 - 3:45 PM

On our recent trip to Israel we toured the devastated areas and got a real sense of the tremendous tragedy that befell our nation.

But the question we can’t shake, the question on all of our minds is: How was the mighty IDF caught so completely off guard on October 7th? How were 3000 bloodthirsty terrorists able to take us by surprise and overrun all our defenses? How could this happen in Israel, whose intelligence capabilities are among the best in the world?

Of course, everything in this world ultimately comes from G-d; nothing happens without Him. But I wanted to know what the army thought—how did they explain this massive breach?

As we visited and spoke with people in the border towns, I asked this question multiple times.

And then, at the site of the Nova music festival, right by the picture of Raz Mizrachi who was brutally murdered there, I saw an old friend who is now in the army. I posed the question and he gave me the best answer I’ve heard so far: “We thought they wouldn’t dare.”

“We simply thought they would not dare. We had grown accustomed to living side by side on the Gaza border, literally a mile apart,” he explained. In Kfar Aza, our tour guide described to us how he would travel daily to the Erez junction and give rides to sick Arabs, taking them to hospitals for treatments. “We thought they were our friends; we were so nice to them!” he said.

Israel had clear intelligence from multiple sources indicating that Hamas was going to attack, but the higher ups in the army completely ignored it. They truly believed they wouldn’t dare.

I thought this was the best explanation that I’d heard. Obviously the army will have to learn its lesson and institute new protocol, but it strikes me that there is a tremendous lesson here for each and every one of us.

You see, we all have a yetzer hara, an evil inclination that tempts us. But the yetzer hara acts like he is our friend. And he starts by tempting us with the smallest things. First he gets us to wake up late, telling us that we’ll have a better day if we skip davening and get some more sleep. Then he gets us to eat a small little piece of non-kosher, all the while explaining to us how it’s no big deal. Next he convinces us to violate Shabbat, and that it’s no skin off our backs to steal some money that’s owed to us. The sums become bigger and bigger and slowly but surely—without our even realizing—we’re trapped. He has us firmly in his grasp.

And we thought he was our friend! We never imagined he would dare do this to us!

But the yetzer hara dares.

And Hamas dared. Oh boy, did they dare. They showed their colors in an unparalleled and indescribable display of evil and brutality.

So it’s up to us. We need to recognize evil for what it is: evil. And there can be no compromise when it comes to evil—the yetzer hara inside of us and the evil around us. It needs to be completely eradicated.

We pray for a day that G-d will erase all evil from this world, and for the safe and immediate return of all our hostages from Hamas captivity. Amen.

Shabbat Shalom

Our Mission To Israel Was Just Wow!

Thursday, January 4, 2024 - 4:32 PM

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve been to Israel, but the trip I just returned from was unlike any other. The sights I saw, the people I met, the devastation and the unity—it will stay with me forever.

This visit was not a pleasure trip or a tourist opportunity. It was a mission. I went with a group and our goal was to show solidarity and provide as much assistance as possible.

We started at Kfar Aza—a town right on the Gaza border that was hit one of the hardest on October 7th. As much as I’d heard and read and seen about the brutality and devastation, it was nothing compared to being there in person, seeing it first hand, and hearing about it from those who lived through it and somehow survived.

Our guide walked us through the attacks in horrifying detail, showing us exactly where the Hamas terrorists paraglided into Israel, where the fences were breached, where the first murders happened, how everything played out. We saw, heard, and breathed every excruciating detail. It felt like we were living it all over again.

The homes in Kfar Aza have been left exactly as they were on October 7th—bloodied, burned, plundered, riddled with bullets. We could still smell the smoke.

We met hundreds of survivors. Everywhere we went, we saw pain. Everyone has a story, everyone is a survivor.

We visited the site of the Nova music festival, which has become a makeshift memorial. We listened to the stories of the soldiers who were wounded there, saving as many lives as they could under heavy fire. We cried.

We went to Sderot, which has been hit by hundreds of missiles, and saw the police station that was completely overrun by terrorists on October 7. We saw the Chabad house playground which was also struck. We heard first-hand accounts of those who witnessed the unbearable slaughter of our people.

We visited an airforce base where we witnessed a deeply emotional reunion between a soldier who was wounded in Gaza and the pilot who saved his life. It was impossible not to cry.

We hosted BBQs for soldiers stationed on the front lines and saw the critical equipment Belev Echad helped purchase. At Belev Echad headquarters and Tel Hashomer hospital we met with a devastating amount of wounded soldiers, hearing story after story of pain and heroism.

We visited the family of Raz Mizrahi, just to be there in their time of pain. We cried with her parents and cried at her grave.

We went to the Western Wall, where we prayed and cried and cried and prayed.

The pain is endless, the suffering unfathomable.

But at the same time, I met so many other Jews who had come specifically to show their solidarity and support. Group after group, all there to say, “We care. We share your pain. We’re here to help.”

The message I’m bringing back from this trip is: These are our brothers and sisters, putting their lives on the line every single day for all of us. Their pain is our pain, their suffering is our suffering. We feel it now more acutely than ever. So this is the time to turn to Hashem and say: “Look how united your children are! We are “Belev Echad” — with one heart! It’s time to bring Moshiach and the Final Redemption. We have suffered enough.”

We must demand it, and do everything we can to make it happen. Light Shabbat candles, put on tefillin, reach out to another Jew … surely we are at the tipping point where our mitzvah could truly be the one to launch us into the era of Moshiach and true peace.