Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, has two dreams. In the first, Pharaoh sees himself standing over the Nile River, “And, behold, there came up out of the River seven cows, handsome and fat of flesh and they fed in the reed grass. And, behold, seven other cows came up after them out of the River, ugly and lean of flesh and stood by the other cows upon the bank of the River. And the ugly and lean cows ate up the seven handsome and fat cows.” [Genesis 41: 18-20]

In the second dream, Pharaoh sees seven thin, shriveled ears of grain swallow seven fat ears of grain.

None of the wise men of Egypt can offer Pharaoh a satisfactory interpretation of his dreams. Then, the “young Hebrew slave,” Joseph, is summoned from his dungeon to the palace. Joseph interprets the dreams to mean that seven years of plenty, symbolized by the fat cows and fat grain, will be followed by seven years of hunger, reflected by the lean cows and the shriveled ears. The seven years of famine will be so powerful that they will “swallow up” and obliterate any trace of the years of plenty.

Joseph then advises Pharaoh on how to deal with the forthcoming crisis: “Now Pharaoh must seek out a man with insight and wisdom and place him in charge of Egypt. A rationing system will have to be set up over Egypt during the seven years of surplus,” Joseph explains, “in which grain will be stored for the upcoming years of famine.” [Genesis 41: 33-36]

Pharaoh is blown away by Joseph’s vision.

In Pharaoh’s first dream, he saw how the seven ugly and lean cows that came up after the seven handsome cows “stood near the other [fat] cows upon the bank of the River.” In other words, there was a moment during which both sets of cows coexisted simultaneously, and only afterward did the lean cows proceed to swallow the fat cows.

It was this detail of the dream that caused the wise men of Egypt to reject the interpretation that Joseph would later offer to Pharaoh and compelled them to present all types of farfetched explanations.

For how is it possible that plenty and famine should coexist? Either you have fat cows alone or you have lean cows alone, but you can’t have them both together! The seven years of famine cannot be present during the seven years of surplus. Either you have lots of food, or you have no food. But you can’t be both satiated and hungry at the same time.

All of us experience cycles of plenty and cycles of famine in our lives. There are times when things are going very well: We are healthy, successful and comfortable. Often, during such times, we fail to invest time and energy to cultivate genuine emotional intimacy with our spouse, to develop real relationships with friends and to create a sincere bond with G-d. We feel self-sufficient and don’t need anybody in our lives.

Yet, when a time of famine arrives, when a serious crisis erupts in our lives, we suddenly feel the need to reach out beyond ourselves and connect with our loved ones and with G-d.But we don’t know how.

Because when we do not nurture our relationships and our spirituality during our years of plenty, when the years of famine confront us, we lack the tools we so desperately need to survive the crisis.

This is the essence of Joseph’s wisdom: You must never detach the years of plenty from the years of famine. When you experience plenty, do not let it blind your vision and desensitize you from what is truly important in life.

The priorities you cultivate during your “good times” should be of the kind that will sustain you during your challenging times as well. If you are investing your time and energy in things that will prove futile when the climate of your life changes and will not hold you up when challenges come, you might want to re-examine your present choices. Why wait for the day you will have to say, “If I would have only realized…”

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the Director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches located at 4081 N. Federal Hwy., #100A, Pompano Beach, FL 33064. For all upcoming events please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

This story takes us back 2,100 years ago, to the year 164 BCE, some 150 years before the birth of Christianity and two centuries before the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans. Israel was then under the rule of the empire of Alexander the Great. A Syrian ruler, Antiochus the 5th, ascended the throne and he was determined to impose his values on the Jewish people. He forbade the practice of Judaism, set up a statue of Zeus in the Temple and systematically desecrated Jerusalem’s holy sites. Jews who were caught practicing Judaism were tortured to death.

To put it into historical perspective, had Antiochus succeeded, Judaism would have died. Its daughter religions – Christianity and Islam – would never, of course, have come to be.

A small group of Jews, led by the elderly priest Matityahu and his sons, rose in revolt. They fought a brilliant campaign and, within three years, they had recaptured Jerusalem, removed sacrilegious objects from the Temple, and restored Jewish autonomy. It was, as we say in the Hanukah prayers, a victory for “the weak against the strong, and the few against the many.” Religious liberty was established and the Temple was rededicated. Hanukah means “rededication.”

This was a remarkable event and an extraordinary triumph. We, the Jewish people, are here today only because of the courage and vision of this small group of determined Jews who would not allow their G-d and their Torah to be reduced to the dustbins of history by the Syrian-Greek tyrant.

Yet astonishingly, the Talmud, the classical text of Jewish law and literature, gives us a very different perspective on the Hanukah festival.

“What is Hanukah?” asks the Talmud (Talmud, Shabbat 21b.) The answer given is this:

“When the Greeks entered the Sanctuary, they contaminated all its oil. Then, when the royal Hasmonean family overpowered and was victorious over them, they searched and found only a single cruse of pure oil that was sealed with the seal of the High Priest — enough to light the menorah (candelabra) for a single day. A miracle occurred, and they lit the menorah with this oil for eight days. The following year, they established these [eight days] as days of festivity and praise and thanksgiving for G-d.”

So, according to the Talmud, the festival of Hanukah is less about the military victory of a small band of Jews against one of the mightiest armies on earth, and more about the miracle of the oil. The Talmud makes only a passing reference to the military victory (“when the royal Hasmonean family overpowered and was victorious”) and focuses exclusively on the story with the oil, as if this were the only significant event commemorated by the festival of Hanukah.

This is strange. The miracle of the oil, it would seem, was of minor significance relative to the military victory. Besides the fact that this was a miracle that occurred behind the closed doors of the Temple with only a few priests to behold, it was an event concerning a religious symbol without any consequences for life, death and liberty. If the Jews had been defeated by the Greeks, there would be no Jews today; if the oil would have not burnt for eight days, so what? The menorah would have not been kindled. Would the latkes taste any worse?

Unfortunately, the political and military victory of Hanukah did not last. What lasted was the spiritual miracle – the faith which, like the oil, was inextinguishable.

Strength founded on military power alone is temporary. It may endure for long periods of time, but ultimately, its might will wane and it will be defeated by another power. Strength that is founded on moral and spiritual light can never be destroyed.

Imperial Greece and Rome have long since disappeared. Civilizations built on power never last. Those built on care for the powerless never die. What matters in the long run is not simply political, military or economic strength, but how we light the flame of the human spirit.

So please, this holiday season, listen to the message of the candles – strengthen your faith and ignite the world with acts of goodness and kindness.

Join us at our Menorah Lighting ceremonies this Hanukah:

• Wednesday, Dec. 9 at 5 p.m. at Pompano Citi Centre in the courtyard near the carousel. Lighting with Mayor Lamar Fisher, music, latkes, doughnuts and crafts for kids. Free.

• Sunday, Dec. 13 at 5 p.m. at Deerfield Beach, across from the main lot and Fire Station. Grand Menorah lighting, Chanukah refreshments, music, crafts and entertainment. Free. Everyone welcome!

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the Director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches located at 4081 N. Federal Hwy., #100A, Pompano Beach, FL 33064. For all upcoming events please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

What can we do while the world is being terrorized?

The terror is intended to destroy and divide. The terrorist are looking for free nations that are united and looking to take away all that we believe in. How do we survive? How do we win? Can we win? Can we succeed in being a free people with good values who love and care for the world around us?

As a Jew, I can tell you yes – yes, we have survived until now and we will continue to not only survive, but thrive!

How?

Let me answer with a story:

Some time ago, Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman, the Rabbi of the city of Migdal Haemek in Israel was visited by Mutty Dotan, head of the Lower Galilee Regional Council. Dotan told him that he had just returned from Germany where he attended a ceremony in honor of the 25th anniversary of the twin cities pact between the regional council and the Hanover district in Germany. After the ceremony, German Bundestag (Parliament) member, Detlev Herzig, of the SPD party, approached him and related this story.

His father had died a few weeks before and, before his demise, he confessed to his son his part in the Holocaust. He explained that since there are many Holocaust deniers today, he wanted to share the truth with his son.

He told his son that he had been an officer in the German air force, the Luftwaffe, during World War II and handed him an envelope. Upon opening the envelope the astonished son found a Wehrmacht army officer’s certificate, wrapped in a strange wallet made of parchment.

His father explained that while destroying a synagogue with his Nazi comrades during the war, he encountered on the floor a scroll made of high quality parchment. The Nazi officer cut out a piece of the scroll to use as a wallet, in which he placed his celebrated officer’s certificate.

Later he discovered that the scroll of parchment was something very sacred to the Jews, it was their Torah scroll. He told his son to give over the evidence to the first Jew he would meet and ask him to deliver it to a holy Jew in Israel who would know how to use it properly.

Upon returning to Israel, Dotan decided that the one who fit the description best was Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman, founder and Dean of the school network Migdal Ohr, Chief Rabbi of Migdal Haemek, and recipient of the 2004 Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement.

Rabbi Grossman took the wallet in his hand. There it was: Made of the parchment of a Sefer Torah, a Torah scroll, this Nazi officer fashioned a nice wallet for himself. Trembling and gripped with emotion, Rabbi Grossman observed that the Nazi had cut out a piece of the Torah from the book of Deuteronomy.

The Rabbi began to read the words inscribed in ink on the parchment of the Torah scroll. They were the terrifying words of the chapter of rebuke in Deuteronomy 28, in which the Torah warns of the terrible consequences if the Jews would abandon their covenant with G-d, if they would reject their Torah.

Then the Torah continues to say in Deuteronomy 29:9 and right there on that wallet: “You are all standing today before G-d.”

Rabbi Grossman remembered what the great Biblical commentator Rashi explains, that after hearing the horrifying words of rebuke, the Jews were terrified they would not survive. So Moses comforted them and said: “You are all standing today before G-d. Just as G-d cannot die, you too will never die.” These were the words inscribed on the wallet.

Imagine: Nazis come in to a synagogue, murder the Jews and desecrate the Torah scrolls — as was their routine. One of them has the chutzpah [audacity] to cut off a piece and use it for his personal wallet. At last, Hitler triumphed over the Jews and their G-d.

Six decades later that very wallet ends up in the hands of a Rabbi in Israel who has thousands of Jewish children studying from the very Torah they desecrated in his schools. This Rabbi now kisses the holy parchment, quotes the divine promise that we will never perish.

Through all the destruction in every generation G-d says clearly (Deuteronomy 29:9) “You are all standing today before G-d,” stand together and nothing can happen to you!

So I turn to each and every one of you and I am telling you: “Stand united, that’s how we will win this war!”

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the Director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches located at 4081 N. Federal Hwy., #100A, Pompano Beach, FL 33064. For all upcoming events please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

When we are born from a male and female union we are given life. Life includes things such as health and intelligence (physicality), which is part of our ‘nature’ – things beyond our control. As we grow up, the world around us nurtures us (spiritually); many things are directly affected by this including our knowledge and our emotions. Nature and nurture can affect our future. We will be given choices in everything we do, and the choices we make will or will not be inspired by our nurture or our nature. The outcome can be positive or negative, but, one thing all our choices will have in common is, no matter the person, their parents or their upbringing, we make the final choice. We didn’t choose our nature or nurture, but we do chose to use the nature and nurture either as an excuse or as a reason for the choices we make. We can choose to do the opposite of what our nature and nurture dealt us.

If you had every excuse in the world to be the worst type of person in the world because of your nature and nurture, what would you choose?

Here is what one person did.

Dr. Bernd Wollschlaeger has the ultimate skeleton-in-the-closet, and he’s not shy about sharing it.

He was born in 1958 and was raised Catholic in Germany. As a young boy, he admired his father, Major Arthur Wollschlaeger, who was a tank commander in World War II and awarded the Iron Cross by Adolf Hitler.

Dr. Wollschlaeger said, “My father was a hero, I had no doubt. The fact that he was a Nazi didn’t mean anything to me because I was a child.”

But as he got older, he had questions that his dad didn’t answer. He was determined to know the truth. So, as a teen, he took a trip to Israel.

“What I learned about the Holocaust shocked me, not only from the fact of history I didn’t know, but also the contrast to my father’s stories of heroism. That was not a hero,” he said.

About his father, he said, “He admired Hitler during the war. The treatment of the Jews … he never used the term ‘murder,’ never used the term ‘extermination.’”

Dr. Wollschlaeger admits his attraction to the Jewish faith was driven by his discovery of the truth.

“There’s no question that my initial step towards Judaism was motivated by guilt and shame as a young German. How could that happen? How could my people do that?” he said.

He turned his guilt into conviction, and, ultimately, action. Seven years after starting his spiritual search, he converted, became an Israeli citizen and joined the Israeli army.

“I felt comfortable in a family of choice, the Jewish community, versus a family of origin, which rejected me,” he explained.

Over the years, his relationship with his father deteriorated.

“He was bitterly disappointed that his son betrayed him, the son whom he wanted to raise to be a good German,” said Dr. Wollschlaeger.

He moved from Israel to South Florida more than 20 years ago, where he now practices medicine. He hopes the next generation never forgets. He has taken his daughter to the concentration camps, which he calls “the entrance to a man-made hell.”

Dr. Wollschlaeger said, “We, as human beings, have the capacity to do tremendous good and do horrific and horrible things.”

But, it is rare to have both so uniquely intertwined in one family’s history.

Dr. Bernd Wollschlaeger will be speaking Tuesday, Nov.10 at the Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort. R.S.V.P. at Chabadoflighthousepoint@gmail.com or www.JewishLHP.com.

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the Director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches located at 4081 N. Federal Hwy., #100A, Pompano Beach, FL 33064. For all upcoming events please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

We have different names, different colors, different shapes and different sizes. We eat different foods and enjoy different sports. We have different houses of prayer and we have different books of prayers.

Are we really that different? There seems to be a never-ending cycle of hate and war throughout the world based on these differences. There also seems to be an ever-growing divisiveness within our own communities. How do we change that? Are humans really just different, separate beings that will always clash? Does being human mean being different? What is it that divides us and what is it that can unite us?

I propose we go back to the beginning …

When G-D created the first human being, the Bible describes it like this: “And the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and He breathed into his nostrils the soul of life’, and man became a living soul.” [Genesis 2:7]

So what divides us is the physical body. We are different people with different histories. Let me explain what unites us with a story: The story is told of an opera singer who was known for his readings and recitations from the Classics. He always ended his performance with a dramatic recital of Psalm 23. Each night, without exception, as the actor began his recitation, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…” The crowd would listen attentively and then rise with thunderous applause, in appreciation of the actor’s ability to bring the psalm to life.

One night, just before the singer was to offer his customary recital of Psalm 23, an old man from the audience spoke up. “Sir, would you mind, if tonight, I recite Psalm 23?” he asked.

The actor was surprised by this unusual request. However, he invited the old man to come onto the stage to recite the psalm, curious to see how the ability of this man weighed against his own talent.

Softly, the old man began to recite the words of the psalm. His voice was parched and weak, and his tune pretty lousy.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want … Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff-they will comfort me. Only goodness and kindness shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the House of the Lord for many long years.”

When he was finished, there was no applause. There was no standing ovation as on other nights. All that could be heard was the sound of weeping. The audience had been so moved by the man’s recitation that every eye was tearful.

Amazed by what he had experienced, the opera star queried, “I don’t understand. I have been performing Psalm 23 for years. I have a lifetime of experience and training — but I have never been able to move an audience as you have tonight. And frankly, you have a horrible voice and can barely carry a tune. Tell me, what is your secret?”

The old man humbly replied, “Well, sir, you know the psalm … but I know the Shepherd.”

My dear friends, get to know the Shepherd within each and every one of us!

What unites us is our Creator, our Shepherd, our G-d. Get to know the shepherd and you will get to know the song of life. When we sing the Psalm, it will bring unity — peace, love and tolerance!

We humans were created with a body and a soul. The soul was given in order to bring unity, not to divide us! So, if we see another human, we must realize his uniqueness, which is his soul, is a part of G-d, our G-d, and that’s exactly what unites us!

So, next time you want to hate or divide, just stop and think that what makes us human is not the body, but the soul!

[Malachi 2:10] – Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why should we betray, each one his brother, to profane the covenant of our forefathers?

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the Director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches located at 4081 N. Federal Hwy., #100A, Pompano Beach, FL 33064. For all upcoming events please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

To be productive today, you must have learned to use computers and phones. You must be so fluent in using them that you can do anything while still using it. I just read in a recent study that most moments are captured by a person through a phone camera. For example, if you were to go to a sports game and there is a high fly ball to center field – snap, snap, snap – or if you go to a park and there is baby taking her first steps – snap, snap, snap. Those moments are seen and captured forever.

The good thing about being so tech savvy is that we accomplish a lot more in less time. We can send things across the globe in a flash. We can do amazing research on anything and have instant answers to any question we have on any subject. All this has made us much more productive than we ever were. It has made anything possible. So many wonderful things have started because of technology. Relationships, friendships, partnerships, cures are just a few examples of some of the great things the modern world has brought us.

With all that said, there are some negative things as well. I won’t go through the list, but I will point out one which I think we can work on. And that is the lack of personal attention and focus which, before technology, we were forced to have. Say you wanted to tell something to your mom, you would go down the block to your mom’s house and tell her in person. Today, you would text five words. Say you wanted to tell your child “I love you.” In the past, you would have had to tell them in person while looking in their eyes. Today, you text them while you are at work ‘Iluvu.’

We have lost all personal communication and have forgotten how to enjoy each other. We have forgotten how to sit across from each other and be the social, loving and caring creatures that we are!

We need to fix this, but the question is how?

Sunday, Sept. 27, Jews across the world began the seven day Holiday of Sukkos [or Sukkot]. After Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the Torah says we must dwell in a Sukkah. (A Sukkah is a hut. It has four walls and a roof made from tree branches). How does one fulfill the mitzvah of dwelling in the sukkah? One should eat, drink and live in the sukkah, both day and night, as one lives in one’s house on the other days of the year: for seven days, a person should make his home his temporary dwelling, and his sukkah his permanent dwelling.

“In Sukkot, you shall dwell for seven days,” instructs the Torah, “…in order that your generations shall know that I made the children of Israel dwell in a sukkah when I took them out of the land of Egypt.” (Lev. 23:42-43).

According to Chabad.org, our sages, noting the Torah’s use of the verb “to dwell” in the above verses, define the mitzvah of sukkah as a commandment that, for the duration of the festival of Sukkot, the sukkah is to become our primary dwelling place. Everything ordinarily done in the home should be done in the sukkah.

So every autumn, just as the weather is turning inhospitable, we move outdoors. For a full week, we exchange our regular home for a home which leaves us at the mercy of the elements, demonstrating our trust in G-d’s providence and protection, as our ancestors did when “following Me in the wilderness, in an uncultivated land.” (Jeremiah 2:2).

Dwelling in the sukkah for seven days is a beautiful and inspiring experience. Perhaps this is the solution to our problem. Leave the modern world and enter into the ancient world. Surround yourself with family and friends … talk to them, spend time with them, learn with them, sing with them, eat with them, play with them, read with them. Experience G-d’s timeless solution to a modern problem. Happy Sukkos.

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the Director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches located at 4081 N. Federal Hwy., #100A, Pompano Beach, FL 33064. For all upcoming events please visit www.JewishLHP.com.