Letter: Please Shovel the Snow
CrownHeights.info received an email from a concerned member of the community with a letter addressed to the community. Please shovel the snow from the sidewalk in front of your house or building.
CrownHeights.info received an email from a concerned member of the community with a letter addressed to the community. Please shovel the snow from the sidewalk in front of your house or building.
NPR was reporting definitively that Representative Gabrielle Giffords had been shot dead, but The Associated Press was holding off. The lines into the A.P. offices, recalled A.P.’s executive editor, Kathleen Carroll, were buzzing with complaints: where was The A.P. on this story? How could it let NPR beat it?
Meanwhile, the lines into the New York Times offices were hot as well, said Greg Brock, senior editor/standards: where was The Times on this story?
A week has gone by since an “Installation Ceremony” crowned Rabbi Yosef Braun as the third member of the Crown Height’s Beis Din. The event, the culmination of months of backroom deals, private negotiations and heated public debate, should have brought an end to the discord and fighting that has plagued our community. Yet all was not as it seemed. Rabbi Osdoba, the senior member of the Beis Din, made a simple request – that Rabbi Braun show the two smichas mentioned in the psak. His request unfulfilled, Rabbi Osdoba was absent from the installation.
What happened, and what does all of this mean to us?
A Talmud story and President Obama’s inspiring talk to honor the victims and heroes of the Arizona shooting, reminds us all how to treat and respect children and adults.
We are living in modern times—not ancient times. This is true. In ancient times we had camels and tents, in modern times we have cars and houses. Out with the old, and in with the new. So if we drive the cars, live in the houses, carry the cell phones, and throw the clothes in the washing machine, should there be any thought about dating by religious principles (otherwise viewed as out dated, old fashioned, and ancient) ? That wouldn’t seem to make sense. We do after all live in modern times….or don’t we?
If we are to date differently because of modern times then shouldn’t we have developed entirely different emotions and feelings than our past ancestors? Shouldn’t our body and soul respond differently to relationships if we are behaving differently because we are modern? Shouldn’t we experience less pain and disappointments? After all, if we are going to be different in the way we date and marry, and not practice religious or traditional practices then shouldn’t we be doing this because we are benefiting in our relationships and as individuals?
From the Inbox: While I acknowledge that you are the person who was elected to lead all issues in the community, being a resident here for over 50 years there are a few things that I believe, and it is obvious that it needs to be brought to your attention.
The time is 1:35 AM. And I sit here with a renewed sense of passion. It’s not manic enthusiasm, but rather an more introspective, in depth, even auspicious sense of understanding. There is lust, and then there’s love. Lust is fleeting. It comes as a flood of impulse and emotion, but soon withers into oblivion, or worse, mediocrity. No. What I am experiencing in this moment is more than just a fleeting passion. It’s a feeling of intimidation and admiration mixed with immense pride and responsibility. A connection to something that surpasses any pain, overpowers any objection, which disables any doubt. It’s a love for more than financial gain, physical pleasure, or spiritual bliss. It’s a love… for life. True life.
So what is Shlichus? A mission? A way of life? A chance to conquer a city?
From the Inbox: This morning I came to my desk to find an envelope under my keyboard with my name on it. I opened it up to find $50 with a note that read, “Happy Chanukah,” signed by “A Parent.”
Chabad is good at many things. But accepting criticism is not one of them. Every column I publish praising Chabad is met with thousands of comments expressing mostly adulation. But offer a word of criticism and thousands of condemnatory posts ensue. No doubt this column will be greeted with the same. But when the New York Times publishes a major news item, the day before the second secular anniversary of the tragic murders in Mumbai, exposing a public and legal battle between Chabad and the Holtzberg family over Nariman house and the monies collected on behalf of Chabad of Mumbai, a wakeup is in order.
We have lost a friend. So young a man, so fine a Shliach, so short a life.
And even as we have accepted in faith all that has come to pass, “Baruch dayan emet”, we are still left unable to stem the flood of tears. We are left with a raw cry of pain.
Levi was such a powerful soul. He loved Shlichus, he lived Shlichus. Shlichus was the very air he breathed.
This past weekend saw two mammoth Jewish gatherings take place. The first was the General Assembly for the Jewish Federations of North America, and the other was the International Convention of Chabad Emissaries. Whilst both are awe inspiring in their grandeur and both are focused on Jewish continuity, the Chabad movement continues to rapidly grow at a spanking pace and the Federations appear to be largely stagnant.
Today marks two years since the lives of six precious Jews who were murdered al kiddush hashem in the terror attacks in the Chabad House in Mumbai. Rabbi Gavirel and his wife Rivkah Holtzberg, the Shluchim that ran the Chabad House, Rabbi Aryeh Leibush Teitelbaum, Norma Schwartzberg Rabinowitz, Yochved Orpaz and Rabbi Ben Tzion Korman.
Tonight I attended the international Chabad emissary conference – the Kinus Hashluchim HaOlami – for the first time in sixteen years. When I was the Rebbe’s emissary at Oxford University I came annually. But with my split from Chabad over my inclusion of non-Jewish students at Oxford, I stopped.
Recently I had the z’chus to attend a bar mitzvah out-of-town in the U.S.A. Shluchim made it for their son. And while there I witnessed something so beautiful, and sadly, so rare. Let me tell you about it.
I’ll call the Shliach who made the bar mitzvah Shliach A and his friend, Shliach B. Shliach B came, of course, Shabbos to Shul to celebrate the bar mitzvah. The boy lained, and spoke, and then came the grand Kiddush. As a gesture of closeness with his buddy, Shliach A, Shliach B took L’Chaim a few times and got the whole crowd, most of whom were not frum, to singing and dancing.
Last week at a Chof Cheshvan Lchaim-Farbrengen, I had the privilege of sitting with Rabbi Ephraim Piekarski, a well known Chosid and Tamid Chochom here in Crown Heights. We had a very nice pleasant warm Chasidisher Farbrengen, Baalei-Batim style.
After a few Lchaim’s Rabbi Piekarski announced that he’s on a high, he is very inspired by what he witnessed in the last few hours.
This government and indeed, this State, is all about more. More taxes. More spending. More debt. More unemployment. More crime. More corruption. More misery.
As long as Democrats are running the show, one thing is certain: we can continue to expect more: more of the same.