Tag Archive | "Chabad"

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The Wave Function Collapse

Posted on 05 December 2019 by LeslieM

Fascinatingly, a parallel concept exists in science, known as the wave function collapse. 
Contrary to common sense, quantum mechanics has shown that matter and atoms can exist in several states at one and the same time. For example, we now know that sub atomic particles move clockwise and counter clockwise simultaneously. Yes strange it is, but it is today the prevailing notion in modern physics.
But here is the catch: When a person observes the atoms, they collapse all the states and the atom settles into one state of being.  That is why when we observe an object we only see it in one state, because our observation of it defines its reality.
This is one of the most exciting, perplexing, and extraordinary ideas in modern physics. As it turns out, the Rogatchover Gaon, who passed away in 1936, sees the origin of the idea in the Talmud.
The Tree
We have another illustration of this in the Talmud. This case concerns a tree on a boundary line where two property owners claim ownership. The roots of the tree are exactly on the boundary line. Who owns the tree? Shmuel says, split it in half between the neighbors. Rav disagrees. He says that would be unfair. As in his mind, the roots of the tree on the border is in a limbo-state and is not owned by anyone of them. So what do you do? He says this: The direction that the branches of the tree lean is dispositive of who it belongs to. If some branches lean toward one neighbor, he owns them. The branches leaning in the other direction belong to the person living in that direction. Wherever the limbo state leans, there it will be placed. 

Jonah’s Strategy
So Jonah is living in this limbo city, not fully in Israel not fully out. G-d shows up one day giving him this mission that he does not want. He is afraid that the gentiles will listen, and it will cast the Jewish nation in a terrible light. What to do? 
Jonah knew he could not run from G-d. But he also realized that, being that Tzidon is a city in limbo as far as Jewish law is concerned, if he decides to run to outside of Israel, he collapses the limbo state and the city becomes a non-Israel city for him. So powerful is man’s choice in Judaism that it can actually determine the statutes of a city in limbo. So too, Jonah collapsed the limbo state of Tzidon by deciding to leave Israel, and hence the city of Sidon has not become a route taking him outside of Israel.
That is why the opening of Jonah states: “And Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from before the Lord.” It does not say that he fled. It says that he arose to flee. What mattered here was his intention. He decided to leave from Sidon to Africa (Tarshish). As soon as his intention turned towards outside Israel, the city became non-Israel, and as a result, he was not considered a prophet since he was effectively not in Israel when he heard the voice. He was not a prophet once the limbo city was collapsed in favor of outside Israel!
What then did G-d do? G-d sent a storm and whale to fetch Jonah back. Once the fish spit him out in the waters of the land of Israel, it turned out that Jonah’s original destination when he boarded the ship in Jaffe was ISRAEL. Sidon, it turned out, was not a starting point to leave Israel, rather it was a route taking him ultimately back to Israel. Thus, retroactively Sidon became Israel, and he had the obligation to carry out the mission and message to the people of Ninveh, which he did effectively. 

The Message
of repentance
The Baal Shem Tov says: You are where your thoughts are. You are where your desire is. Do not underestimate the meaning of these words. If I am in a terrible, or not such terrible, lowly state, but I want to get out of it, then I am not in a lowly state any longer, even though I am technically still there.
It is not about where you are, but where you want to be. I may be suffering from addiction; from anger; insecurity; dejection; fear; or so many other difficult emotions. Granted. But at the end of the day what counts is where I want to be. If I want to be elsewhere, then I am elsewhere.
We often find ourselves on “borders.” We can go either here or there. Really every moment of our life we are standing on the border between truth and falsehood, holiness and profanity, good and evil, functionality or dysfunction, happiness or depression, connected to G-d, or disconnected, shallow or deep, real or fake. We get frustrated because we can’t define our state of being. We wish for more clarity.
Comes the story of Jonah and states that it all depends on your desire and intention. If your intention is truth, that is where you are.    
As we prepare for Yom Kippur we get in touch with a basic truth. G-d does not care so much about your spiritual bank account, how much you’ve saved up in your 401k. He simply cares about where you are intent on going. Are you moving closer or moving farther. Everything else is a weather report. 
The Rebbe Reb Yosef Yitzchak, as a child, was once standing in his class room, gazing outside. His beloved teacher, Rashbatz, told him a few words that stayed with him:
“It is far better to be on the outside looking wistfully in, then on the inside looking wistfully out. “
Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches, located in the Venetian Isle Shopping Center at 2025 E. Sample Rd. in Lighthouse Point. For all upcoming events, please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

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Who believes in prayer?

Posted on 05 September 2019 by LeslieM

In a small town in India, a person decided to open up a bar, which was right opposite of a Temple. The Temple and its congregation started a campaign to block the bar from opening with petitions and prayed daily.

Work progressed. However, when it was almost complete and was about to open a few days later, a strong lightning bolt struck the bar and it was burnt to the ground. The bar owner sued the Temple on the grounds that the Temple through its prayers was ultimately responsible for the ill fate of his dream project, either through direct or indirect actions or means.

In its reply to the court, the Temple vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection between their prayers and the bar’s burning down. As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork at the hearing and commented: “I don’t know how I’m going to decide this case, but it appears from the paperwork, we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer and we have an entire Temple that doesn’t.”

The Sidur

Let me share a story:

Simon Wiesenthal (1908 – 2005) was an Austrian Holocaust survivor who spent four and a half years in the German concentration camps such as Janowska, Plaszow, and Mauthausen.

After the war, he became famous for his work as a Nazi hunter. Wiesenthal dedicated most of his life to tracking down and gathering information on fugitive Nazis so that they could be brought to justice.

At a conference of European Rabbis in Bratislava, Slovakia the Rabbis presented the 91 year old Simon Wiesenthal with an award, and Mr.Wiesenthal, visibly moved, told the Rabbis the following encounter that he had with Rabbi Eliezer Silver.

Rabbi Eliezer Silver (1882 – 1968) was among American Jewry’s foremost religious leaders, and he is most noted for spearheading efforts in rescuing as many Jews as possible from Europe. He raised funds, requested exemptions on immigration quotas, offered to ransom concentration camp prisoners for cash and tractors – talks that freed hundreds from Bergen-Belsen and other death camps — and organized rallies in Washington. After the war, he traveled to Europe and worked tirelessly on the ground to assist his brethren.

It was in Mauthausen after liberation that Simon Wiesenthal was visited by Rabbi Silver when he had come to help and comfort the survivors.  Rabbi Silver had organized a special prayer service and he invited Wiesenthal to join the other survivors in praying. Mr. Wiesenthal declined and explained his position.

“When I was in camp, I saw many different types of people do things. There was one religious man of whom I was in awe. This man had managed to smuggle a Siddur (Jewish prayer book) into the camp. I was amazed that he took the risk of his life in order to bring the Siddur in.

“The next day, to my horror, I realized that this was no religious man. He was renting the Siddur in exchange for people giving him their last piece of bread. I was so angry with this Jew, how could he take a Siddur and use it to take a person’s last piece of bread away? So I am not going to pray, if this is how religious Jews behave.”

As Wiesenthal turned to walk away, Rabbi Silver tapped him on the shoulder and gently said in Yiddish, “Oy naar, naar.” Wiesenthal was intrigued why had the Rabbi called him childish. The answer wasn’t long in coming.

Rabbi Silver continued, “Why do you look at the manipulative Jew who rented out his Siddur to take away people’s last meals? Why do you look at that less-than-noble person? Why don’t you focus on the dozens of Jews who gave up their last piece of bread in order to be able to use a Siddur? To be able to talk to G-d? Why don’t you look at those awesome people who in spite of all their suffering still felt they can connect to their Creator?”

Wiesenthal joined the service and shared the story some 60 years later.

It is with immense gratitude to G-d that we are grateful for the miracles we just witnessed here in South Florida.

Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord!

Equally important: There is a lot of pain in the world and especially in the Bahamas right now. But so many of us have so much to be thankful for. We have so many blessings. Don’t forget the giver of these blessings. Express your gratitude to G-d.   

Try it out. Reopen a conversation with G-d, daily, weekly or bi weekly. Learn to say thank you for your blessings, and learn to share your concerns and pains.

Please Join us for High Holidays Services — Rosh Hashanah (Sept. 30 – Oct. 1) and Yom Kippur (Oct. 9).

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches, located in the Venetian Isle Shopping Center at 2025 E. Sample Rd. in Lighthouse Point. For all upcoming events, please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

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CLERGY CORNER: In remembrance lies the secret of redemption

Posted on 01 August 2019 by LeslieM

Each moment of life, taken on its own, is imprisoned. It is a fragment and, as such, orphaned from its meaning, like torn pages of a book scattered by the wind. Remembrance creates a gestalt, a wholeness in which all things are redeemed and complete.

The most essential example: You probably have noticed that all the mitzvahs (Biblical commandments) we do are zecher l’yitsiat mitzraim — “a remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt.” It is this memory that takes a mitzvah out of its particular context and brings it into the larger drama of redemption. Each mitzvah becomes another step in an ongoing Exodus that began in Egypt and culminates in the final redemption.

To put it another way: On its own, a mitzvah is just another deed. In the context of remembrance, it becomes redemption: A redemption of that person at that moment and another step in the redemption of the entire world.

[In reference to a parent who has lost a child]: The point at which your child was lost, I’m sure, was impossibly painful. Experiences such as these often become barriers between the present and the past. Memories are lost or tainted by the pain. But if you could see the entire picture as a whole, from beginning to end, the beauty would return to all of it.

I remember a music professor who would start the class by playing a chord on the piano and asking us to write down the notes. The chords became more and more sophisticated as the classes progressed: minor 9ths, suspended, augmented, 13ths… Then, one day, he played the ugliest chord imaginable — and, this time, not only were we asked to write the notes, but to tell him the era and composer, as well. All were convinced it was post-Wagnerian. Most placed it as “modern ugly — likely from the 1920s.” Several suggested Arnold Schönberg. Then he played us the entire piece. It was a fugue from J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavichord. The voices of the fugue fought their way into a crescendo of complexity culminating in the agonizing tension of that chord…and then smoothly resolved back into the sweetest baroque harmony. Of course, it was all beautiful. But the most beautiful was that which we had first heard as the most ugly.

May we all merit to hear the entire symphony fulfilled, sooner than we can imagine.(A portion of an article by Tzvi Freeman on Chabad.org.)

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches, located in the Venetian Isle Shopping Center at 2025 E. Sample Rd. in Lighthouse Point. For all upcoming events, please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

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CLERGY CORNER: The Rebbe and a Phoenix

Posted on 05 July 2019 by LeslieM

By Rabbi Tzvi Dechter

Saturday we mark 25 years since the ‘Rebbe’ — Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson — passed away.

One of the signs of a great leader is where others might have seen a spiritually dry person, a Rebbe saw the potential or the creation of the most beautiful and inspiring garden. He encouraged us to love him/her to pieces, embrace him with every fiber of our being, open our heart to him, cherish him and shower him with warmth and affection. He wanted us to appreciate him, respect him and let him feel that we really care for him, to see in him or her that which he or she may not be able to see in themselves at the moment. He wanted us to view him as a great human being and, you know what, he will become just that. 

Story: It was 1973 when the widow of Jacques Lipchitz, the renowned sculptor, had come for a private audience with the Lubavitcher Rebbe shortly after her husband’s sudden passing.

In the course of her meeting with the Rebbe, she mentioned that when her husband died, he was nearing completion of a massive sculpture of a phoenix in abstract, a work commissioned by Hadassah Women’s Organization for the Hadassah Hospital on Mt. Scopus, in Jerusalem.

As an artist and sculptor in her own right, she said that she would have liked to complete her husband’s work; but, she told the Rebbe, she had been advised by Jewish leaders that the phoenix is a non-Jewish symbol. How could that be placed, in Jerusalem — no less!

I was standing near the door to the Rebbe’s office that night said Rabbi Krinsky (my brother-in-law’s grandfather and secretary to the Rebbe), when he called for me and asked that I bring him the book of Job from his bookshelf, which I did. The Rebbe turned to Chapter 29, verse 18, “I shall multiply my days like the Chol.” And then the Rebbe proceeded to explain to Mrs. Lipchitz the Midrashic commentary on this verse which describes the Chol as a bird that lives for a thousand years, then dies, and is later resurrected from its ashes — clearly then, a Jewish symbol.

Mrs. Lipchitz was absolutely delighted and the project was completed soon thereafter. True to his nature, the Rebbe discerned the positive where conventional wisdom saw only negativism.

How fitting, retrospectively, this beautiful metaphor of life … returning from the ashes. In his own divinely inspired way, the Rebbe had brought new hope to this broken widow. And in the recurring theme of his life, he did the same for the spirit of the Jewish people, which he raised from the ashes of the Holocaust to new, invigorated life.

May his memory be a blessing, and may we truly see the good in every one, thus making the world a better place.

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches, located in the Venetian Isle Shopping Center at 2025 E. Sample Rd. in Lighthouse Point. For all upcoming events, please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

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CLERGY CORNER: Shavuot

Posted on 06 June 2019 by LeslieM

A can of beans

Three guys are alone on a desert island: an engineer, a biologist and an economist. They are starving and don’t have a thing to eat, but somehow they find a can of beans on the shore.

The engineer says, “Let’s hit the can with a rock until it opens.”

The biologist has another idea, “No. We should wait for a while. Erosion will do the job.”

Finally, the economist says, “Let’s assume that we have a can opener.”

The Desert

What was the significance of the fact that Torah was given in a wilderness, in a barren and infertile desert, not in a civilized terrain, nor on soil conducive to human living and nature’s blessing. Why did G-d communicate His blueprint for life and enter into an eternal covenant with the Jewish people in the aridity and desolateness of a desert?

1. The Torah was given on soil not owned by any particular people or community, to signify that the Torah belongs to every single soul.

2. The giving of the Torah in the wilderness represents the idea that Torah is not a product of a particular culture and genre. It enriches all cultures, but transcends them. 

3. The function of Torah is to confront and refine the “barren wilderness” within the human psyche and the world.

The Bible relates that when Moses presented the covenant before the Israelites, they responded, “We will do and we will listen” (Exodus 24:7). This expression has always been a source of wonderment and surprise to rabbis and a refutation of the anti-Semitic portrayal of Jews as calculating and self-protective. “We will do and we will listen” implies a commitment to observe the covenant even before the Jews heard its details and understood its ramifications.

The Talmud tells a story about a Sadducee who once saw one of the great Talmudic sages, Rava, so engrossed in learning that he did not attend a wound in his own hand. The Sadducee exclaimed, “You rash people! You put your mouths ahead of your ears [by saying “we will do and we will listen”], and you still persist in your recklessness. First, you should have heard out [the covenant details]. If it is within your capacity, then accept it. If not, you should have rejected it!” 

His argument was logical. Imagine somebody offers you to invest a large sum of money in a developing company. To respond, “Sure, here is the money, and then, afterward, I will listen to the details” is ridiculous. If you do not know what the company is all about, why subject your money to possible loss? And, yet, in this case, the Jews declared that they were ready to embrace a life-altering covenant, even before they heard all the details and knew what Judaism was all about! Why? How?

Rava answered the Sadducee with these words, “We walked [into it] with our whole being.”

What Rava meant was this: By definition, a relationship with G-d cannot be created on our terms; it must be on His terms.

If there is something called Truth, if there is something called Reality, we cannot define it; it must define us. We cannot accept it on condition that it suits our senses and expectations. On the contrary, we must realign our condition to it. Once the Jewish people knew that G-d was communicating with them, they did not want to fit religion into their imagination; they had no pre- conditions for a relationship with truth. It was in the desert that the Jews can declare, “We will do and we will listen.”

 This process must occur each year anew. To receive Torah, we must have the courage to walk into a desert; we must strip ourselves from any pre-defined self-identity. We need to be ready to hear the sound beneath the sounds we are accustomed to. Torah is not merely a cute and endearing document filled with rituals, to satisfy nostalgia or tradition. Torah demands that we open ourselves up with our whole being and declare, “We shall do and we shall listen!”

Ten Commandments will be read at services Sunday at 11 a.m. Feel free to join our services.

Happy Shavuot 

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches, located in the Venetian Isle Shopping Center at 2025 E. Sample Rd. in Lighthouse Point. For all upcoming events, please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

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CLERGY CORNER: Poway and the Struggle for America’s Soul

Posted on 02 May 2019 by LeslieM

A portion of text written By Tzvi Freeman for Chabad.org in memory of the tragic events at the Chabad in Poway. Submitted by Rabbi Tzvi Dechter

If you’re a Jew in America today, there’s a good chance you’re concerned. First, the largest hate-driven massacre of Jews in American history occurred in Pittsburgh. Then, precisely six months later, with an almost identical fingerprint of hatred, was a deadly attack on a synagogue in Poway, California.

Whose problem is this?

The Jewish people are no weaker for these attacks. Synagogues are not about to empty out because of a handful of disturbed, poisoned minds and much to the contrary. As for those whose lives were taken, all very special Jews, all missed terribly: Don’t call them victims. There’s an honored title in Jewish tradition for any Jew who lost his or her life simply for being a Jew: a Kadosh, a holy Jew. Jews don’t die as victims; we die with dignity. That is why we are still alive.

My contention is that this is not a Jewish problem. It’s the world’s problem. Both these attacks, along with many other violent crimes of hatred in recent years are symptoms of a malicious disease spreading unabated in America, in Europe, and in the world at large. But that’s a problem that we, as Jews, are going to have to assist in healing, for our own best interest, as well as for the interest of this country and for the entire world.

America is suffering. According to FBI figures, hate crimes rose 17 percent last year, with similar increases over the previous two years — all this while other forms of violent crime continue to decrease. Something’s wrong.

Jews are an obvious target. Like the canary in the coal mine, we tend to get hit the hardest. And, yes, these are acts of rabid Anti-Semitism. But, if we want to solve anything, we need to take a broader perspective. Muslims, Christians and others have been under siege as well. Just a few days before the Poway shooting, a young war veteran plowed into a crowd crossing the street in Sunnyvale, CA. He told police he thought they were Muslims. Is there a medicine for this plague?

In the 60s, 70s and 80s, violence was increasingly on the rampage in America in a way not seen since the days of the Wild West. Ideas for quick fixes and long-term solutions abounded. The Rebbe’s prescription, unique and counterintuitive, was this: Fix the education system. How? Introduce a moment of silence every day into the school curriculum and take it seriously.

Why do I think that’s a good fit for today’s plague of hate-driven violence?

Think about it: America is divided over gun law restrictions, yet there is one point that enjoys universal consensus: Gun restrictions alone are not enough because the problem is not the gun. The problem is the mind of the person that holds the gun.

What has the American school done for the mind of that criminal?

We taught him how human beings first appeared on the planet. Did we teach him to be a human being [or] to respect another human being?

We taught him to use his mind to solve problems with numbers. Did we teach him to apply his mind — rather than his fists to solve problems with people?

We taught him anatomy. Did we teach him that a human life is more than the sum of blood, guts and bones? Or did we, perhaps, inadvertently, teach him that the notion of a human soul has no place in the educated mind?

We taught him about laws and prisons. Did we teach him that even if you’re so smart that you don’t get caught, you’re still wrong? Did we give him a conscience?

Did we ever demonstrate to him that these are the things that really matter in life — more than math, more than science, even more than the niftiest technology? Did we ever give him a chance to stop and think about himself, about his life, about his family, about everything that bothers him in life? Is there a space and time for thinking about life in his school?

That’s all that a moment of silence in school is about. And, yes, it works wonders. Ask those who work in schools where it’s been implemented.

They will tell you that a moment of silence means that a child will go home and ask [parents] what he should think about. It means that a child will share with his teacher the troubles he’s going through. It means the school becomes a place not just for the child’s mind, but for his heart and his soul.

Jews have to adapt to the times. The knee-jerk reaction, reinforced through thousands of years of history, has been to huddle down and strengthen the internal steel grid when under attack. But America in 2019 is not Shushan, not Rome, not medieval Spain, not Poland.

It’s that attitude that prompted some Jews to believe that if Judaism were to be safe in America, G d had to be kicked out of public school. They failed to realize that, in the times we live in, the opposite is true. A moral society demands a notion of an objective, supreme judge, an “eye that sees and an ear that hears”—even if you don’t get caught by the police or the media. When that notion is lost, so is America’s soul, and that’s when the madness begins.

A moment of silence doesn’t impose prayer or belief in a Creator on anyone. But it opens the child’s mind to search for meaning, and, hopefully, for G d’s presence in the world. And there’s a good chance the child will talk to parents and grandparents, and discover that they once had faith in their lives.

True, Anti-Semitism never died, even in America, but here we have a voice, a well-respected voice, and, therefore, a responsibility to our host country. Isn’t this why we were given a Torah? Isn’t this the core mission of our people here in this world — to be a light to the nations, who will finally come to realize that the world has a Creator who cares about how we treat His world?

We can use our voices to heal America. Let America’s schools nurture the humanness of America’s children. Let children know the meaning of silence, just enough silence that they can hear their own hearts pounding inside. Let America have a soul again.

This Saturday, join us in solidarity with the call of the Chabbad emissary, R Yisroel Goldstein of Poway; Jewish communities are filling the synagogues with pride, strengh and joy!

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches, located in the Venetian Isle Shopping Center at 2025 E. Sample Rd. in Lighthouse Point. For all upcoming events, please visit www.JewishLHP.com.


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CLERGY CORNER: Three necessary items for internal liberation: Wine, Maror, Matzah

Posted on 04 April 2019 by LeslieM

The three most important ingredients at the seder table [for Passover] are the wine, matzah and maror (bitter herbs) for these three items capture the three foundational ideas that can allow us to set ourselves free.

A) The first step is wine. Wine possesses deep potency.

“When wine enters, secrets come out,” says the Talmud. 

Wine represents the “secrets” in us — for wine itself is a “secret:” It is initially hidden and concealed within the grape, and it takes much labor to extract it from the source; the grapes have to be crushed and the wine to ferment. Wine, an intoxicating beverage, represents the deeply concealed powerful forces lingering within the human psyche.

The first step in setting yourself free is realizing how much more there is to you than what meets the eye. You must recognize your potential — what you were really meant to be, what you are capable of becoming — for you to break out of the chains.

B) This comes together with step two — maror, which represents the bitterness caused by slavery. In order to set yourself free, you have to be able to stare the pain you endured in the face. Repressing pain and making believe it does not exist, only buries it deeper into our psyche. On the night of our freedom, we have to return to the “maror.” We must gaze into our pain, feel it, sense it, grieve for our hurt and, then, as we are staring into the pain, we will find the inner, secret spark of hope and light buried within it.

If we avoid the pain, we can’t discover its inner light. Only when we gaze at it, can we extract the ember hidden within the ashes.

C) Then we have the critical step of matzah. We eat the matzah, says the Haggadah, because the Jews did not have time to wait until the dough had risen; they rushed out of Egypt. I want to ask you … They waited for 210 years… They could not wait another few hours? What was the rush? And even if they were in a rush, why is that such a central theme in the narrative that for thousands of years we are eating only matzah and avoiding all leavened bread? What happened to the virtue of patience?

Answer: The greatest enemy to setting yourself free is delaying things: tough decisions and bold moves. The message of matzah is when it comes to setting yourself free, you have no time to wait even an extra 18 minutes. Do it now! Make that call now. Send that e-mail now. Make that move now. Set up that meeting now. Make that decision now. Start the new behavior now. Confront the situation now. Start doing it now. If it is worth doing, then do it now. Because, as my Rebbe would say, “We want Moshiach NOW.” We want redemption now.

Community Passover Seder — R.S.V.P. at www.JewishLHP.com.

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches, located in the Venetian Isle Shopping Center at 2025 E. Sample Rd. in Lighthouse Point. For all upcoming events, please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

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CLERGY CORNER: Purim & Unity

Posted on 07 March 2019 by LeslieM

In the Purim story, read on Purim in the Book of Esther, the Persian Prime Minister, Haman, persuades the Persian king Achashverosh, to consent to a genocidal plan to annihilate the entire Jewish people. Haman offered the king a huge sum of money.

Reish Lakish said: It is revealed and known in advance to G-d that in the future Haman was going to weigh out shekels against the Jewish people; therefore, He arranged that the Jewish people’s shekels preceded Haman’s shekels.

What does this mean?

This Shabbos, Jews the world over read, in addition to the weekly Torah portion, an extra Torah, the “portion of the coins.” This section of the Torah records the mitzvah incumbent upon the people of Israel, to make a yearly contribution of a half shekel to cover the cost of all communal Temple offerings.

This mitzvah given to the Jewish people in the desert applied to all following generations as well. In every generation, every Jew was required to make an annual contribution of half his country’s standard coin, to cover the cost of the communal offering brought in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

So Reish Lakish is telling us that since G-d knew that in the future Haman was going to weigh out a hefty number of shekels—15,000,000 shekalim against the Jewish people, He arranged that the Jewish people’s shekels precede Haman’s shekels, to cancel out the power of the money which Haman gave to the Persian monarch.

Although this mitzvah is not applicable today, since we have no Temple, it is still a custom in Jewish communities to read this Torah portion at this time of the year. In the U.S., we contribute a silver 50-cent piece, since the dollar coin is our country’s standard coinage, just as the shekel was during the time of Moses.

This seems quite bizarre, to insist on Jews giving an imperfect gift!

The Torah wants each of us to contribute a whole complete shekel. But if I were instructed to contribute a complete shekel on my own, I could begin to think that I am a complete being in and of myself, since I have contributed a complete coin.

The Torah is attempting to teach us that you and I are really one. For me, the real me, the G-dly me, to contribute a complete shekel, I must contribute just a half shekel, allowing the other half to be contributed by my fellow Jew. When you and I contribute each a half shekel, each of us has, indeed, contributed a complete shekel.

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CLERGY CORNER: Motivation

Posted on 03 January 2019 by LeslieM

The great Jewish thinker, Maimonides, wrote in the 12th century: “Caring for the health and well-being of the body is one of the ways of serving G d.” And he immediately explains why: “One is unable to think clearly and comprehend truth if he is unwell.”

If your mind is cloudy, you may lack moral clarity to know what’s right. While battling with illness, we may not find the stamina to battle the ills of the world. That’s why we need to look after our bodies. A healthy body is not in itself our life’s purpose; it helps us fulfill our purpose. It is a vehicle that transports us towards goodness, but it is not the destination.

Jewish tradition provides no excuse for being unhealthy. On the contrary, it gives the best reason possible to live healthy: life has meaning and purpose, and each day is precious. Only if life has meaning is it worth taking care of. The risks of high cholesterol, heavy smoking and drug use are a concern only to one who values life. The threat of a shorter lifespan means nothing to someone who sees life as pointless.

We are the healthiest generation in recent history, and our life expectancy is reaching biblical proportions. This means we have more time and energy to fulfill our purpose — to elevate our corner of the world, and tip the scales towards true goodness.

Are you lacking the “motivation” to work out? Have personal trainers, buying exercise class cards, paying for a monthly gym membership and posting motivational quotes on your refrigerator not worked? Are you feeling guilty? Fear not! Perhaps a spiritual approach to working out can get you going. Deeper motivation and insight into the spiritual value of fitness can elevate your experience of working out, which will help you develop a positive relationship with it.

Your body is valuable — and not entirely yours

You were created by a power greater than yourself. Your body is not yours; it is divine “property” entrusted to your care and responsibility. Your body is, therefore, sacred. Thus, working out and keeping your body healthy is not just good for you; it is a critical component in your obligation of protecting and maintaining the treasured gift you were entrusted with: your body. Just as you are charged with protecting and preserving your environment and definitely not harming it, you must also not take your own body for granted. It is your cosmic responsibility to treat your body with respect in every way, which includes getting regular exercise.

Working out helps you to live a meaningful life

When you are healthy, you can concentrate on the things that are important to you. Most significantly, a sound body allows you to focus on your soul, enabling you to fulfill your divine mission in the world and live a meaningful life. Just as the body needs exercise, sleep, proper nutrition, and occasional vitamins or medicine, the soul needs nourishment. This nourishment includes an awareness and connection to a transcendent power, and a unique purpose in life. It’s important that your physical fitness have a spiritual component — an appreciation of the higher purpose of maintaining good health.

Exercise

When exercising think about your body as a sacred entity: You are fine tuning the “vehicle” of your soul’s journey on earth.

Happy New Year and good luck keeping your resolutions.

Special Thanks to my friend and colleague Rabbi Simon Jacobson from Meaningful Life Center — A great source of meditation and information from a Torah perspective.

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches, located in the Venetian Isle Shopping Center at 2025 E. Sample Rd. in Lighthouse Point. For all upcoming events, please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

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CLERGY CORNER: 80 years since Kristallnacht Chanukah – The Miracle

Posted on 06 December 2018 by LeslieM

For me, this miracle is most vividly expressed in the following episode.

It was the eighth night of Chanukah in Kiel, Germany, a small town with a Jewish population of 500 (Germany at the time had a Jewish population of 500,000). That year, 1931, the last night Chanukah fell on Friday evening, and Rabbi Akiva Boruch Posner, spiritual leader of the town, was hurrying to light the Menorah before the Shabbat set in.

Directly across the Posner’s home stood the Nazi headquarters in Kiel, displaying the dreaded Nazi Party flag in the cold December night. With the eight lights of the Menorah glowing brightly in her window, Rabbi Posner’s wife, Rachel, snapped a photo of the Menorah right before Shabbat, and captured the Nazi building and flag in the background.

Mrs. Posner wrote a few lines in German on the back of the photo:

Chanukah, 5692 (1931). ‘Judea dies,’ thus says the banner. ‘Judea will live forever,’ thus respond the Chanukah lights.

If you lived at that time in Kiel, or anywhere in Germany, what seemed to be more powerful and everlasting? The menorah or the swastika? One year later, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and the Nazis held a torch-lit procession through the famous Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to celebrate Hitler’s seizure of power (on Jan. 30, 1933).

That gate became the symbol of the Nazi regime. Dozens of parades, motorcades, celebrations and rallies were held by the Brandenburg Gate. Hundreds of thousands of German would gather at that beautiful site, the symbol of Berlin’s splendor and power, to salute the Fuhrer and his 1000-Year-Reich.

Then came the onset of the Holocaust and the Final Solution — 80 years ago, on Nov. 9, 1938, with Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” when 30,000 Jews were deported to Concentration Camps, hundreds beaten to death, thousands of shuls, Jewish homes, and stores burnt to the ground.

80 years have passed. A few nights ago, I spoke to my colleague, Rabbi Yehudah Teichtel, Chief Rabbi of Berlin. And this is what he shared with me.

A few days ago he went to visit the President of Germany, Frank Walter Steinmeier, to discuss the 80th anniversary since the onset of the Holocaust.

Rabbi Teichtel shared with the German President the words that he heard from the person who sent him to Berlin, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, that in the place where we saw the greatest darkness we must bring in the greatest light.

So the President of Germany said to the Chabad Rabbi of Berlin that he wants Germany to put up this coming Chanukah (which falls out a few weeks after the 80th anniversary) a massive grand Menorah right at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, in the exact spot where Hitler stood and gave his fiery speeches on the urgent need to rid the world from the bacteria of the Jewish people, their Torah and their G-d. [The menorah was put up and lit starting Dec. 2].

And then the German President asked Rabbi Teichtel if he himself can have the honor to light the menorah?!

And the good Rabbi said, “Yes, of course. You will be lighting the Shamash, that first candle from which we kindle all the other candles.”

So, this Chanukah 2018, [people could] go to the Brandenburg Gate and observe the President of Germany lighting the Shamash of the Chanukah menorah of Chabad in Berlin in the spot where the greatest enemy of the Jewish people stood just a few decades ago.

So, now, friends come back with me to the photo taken in 1931, in Kiel Germany. A wise Jewish woman, Rebbetzin Rachel Posner, wrote on her photo: Chanukah, 5692 (1931). ‘Judea dies,’ thus says the banner. ‘Judea will live forever,’ thus respond the Chanukah lights.

I ask you: Who was right?!

And by the way, both the menorah lit in Kiel in 1931 and the photo survived World War II, because the Rabbi and his wife fled to Israel in 1934, and their grandson Yehudah Mansbuch inherited both and donated them to Yad V’shem.

Yehudah lives today in the city of Haifa with a large family. And each Chanukah, Yad V’shem delivers to his home for eight days the Menorah used by his grandfather in Germany, on the window sill opposite the Swastika. There, in home, in the eternal Jewish homeland, he lights the menorah with his children. And he shows them each year the photo his grandmother took and her inscription.

So I ask you, who was right?! Who triumphed the swastika or the menorah?

Special thanks to my friend and colleague Rabbi YY Jacobson for putting this story on paper.

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches, located in the Venetian Isle Shopping Center at 2025 E. Sample Rd. in Lighthouse Point. For all upcoming events, please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

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