E-TORAH
MAY 30th – 25 IYAR
CANDLE LIGHTING 8:01 PM
SHABBOS ENDS 9:10 PM
What Is New @ FREE
Friday Night Live! Mark your calendar! June 6th at 8:30 PM is our next Friday Night Live! Come & Bring Your Friends For A Special Evening of Delicious Food, Great discussions, Socializing, and More!
Mazel Tov! We extend a heartfelt Mazel Tov to Yuriy Indman upon his engagement to Anya Pyrkh may they have much mazel & bracha.
Ethics of Our Fathers! Join us every Wednesday evening at FREE of Chicago for an in depth class on Pirkei Avos, Ethics of Our Fathers from 8:30 - 9:30 PM.
Refreshments will be served, Men & Women Are Welcome.
HebrewSchoolGraduation! FREE Hebrew School will be having an End of the Year Ceremony on Sunday, June 1st 2008, 11:00AM. Students will be presented with year-end awards, and get a chance to display some of their hard work. Parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and friends are invited to attend this wonderful event.
A Torah Thought!
Throughout the thousands of years of Jewish history, countless men, women and children have willingly given up their lives rather than deny their Jewishness. Not only scholars and learned Jews went to the auto-da-fe‚ with the "Shema" on their lips; simple and untutored Jews also chose to die sanctifying G‑d's name without hesitation.
This irrational willingness to give up one's life for the sake of G‑d seems odd in light of the dictum which states that "nothing can stand in the way of repentance." With the sword at their throats, who could have faulted our ancestors had they agreed to bow down to whatever idol worship was being forced upon them? Why didn't they save their lives by uttering some meaningless phrase or performing some other seemingly insignificant gesture demanded by their tormentors? Could they not have later fully repented and returned to G‑d?
This question may be answered by understanding the special nature of the Jewish soul and the relationship it enjoys with G‑d. That inner spark of Jewishness, described in Chasidut as "an actual part of G‑d above," exists on a plane above time and space. It cannot bear to be severed from its Source for even a moment; the threat of separation from G‑d is always utter and absolute. The willingness to give up one's life rather than lose that connection is a consequence of the soul's very nature.
This concept is well illustrated in this week's Torah portion, Bamidbar, in which G‑d commands that a census be taken of the Jews. Rashi, the great Torah commentator, notes that because of the great love G‑d has for His people, "He counts them at every moment."
This comment must be interpreted beyond its literal meaning, for since the exodus from Egypt, there have only been nine censuses of our people. The tenth census will be taken after the Final Redemption. What then, does it mean that G‑d counts the Jews "at every moment"?
The act of counting reduces the objects being counted to their common denominator; both great and small are counted as one. The common denominator among all Jews, without regard for educational status, societal standing or wealth, is the Jewish soul, which exists in every Jew to the same extent and renders all Jews equal.
G‑d unceasingly "counts" His children and holds each of them dear, all the time. This love is so overwhelming that the Jew cannot endure being cut off from it for even a moment, even with the knowledge that his later repentance has the power to restore the relationship to what it had been. It is G‑d's perpetual "counting" of His children which reveals the innate power of the Jewish soul.
Adapted from the works of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Rabbi Meir of Premishlan was a great tzadik (righteous person) whose holiness was acknowledged by Jews from far and wide who sought advice and blessings from him.
One day a woman was admitted into his study. As soon as she set eyes on the tzadik she burst into tears. "What is troubling you?" Reb Meir asked. The sobbing woman could barely speak, but she managed to get out the words, "Rebbe, I have no children; please give me your blessing."
The Rebbe was full of compassion for the woman's pain and he replied to her, "May it be G‑d's will that your request be fulfilled."
Armed with the holy man's blessing, the woman confidently went home and waited for his words to be realized. Not a year had passed by when Rabbi Meir received a letter from a distant city from a person he did not know.
When he read the letter and removed the papers contained in the envelope, he was shocked to find a bank note for the tremendous sum of three hundred rubles.
The letter read: "My wife has just given birth to a child thanks to the Rebbe's blessing. I beg the Rebbe to accept this gift in gratitude."
Far from being pleased, Rabbi Meir's distress was apparent, as he extended his hand to put the bank note on the far side of the table as if he wanted to remain as distant from it as possible. Then he called his sons to come to him at once to discuss an important matter.
When they arrived, he brought them into his room and pointed to the letter: "Today I received a letter which is brimming full of errors and falsehoods. For one thing, it refers to me as a holy man, a tzadik, and that is patently false. Secondly, the entire premise of the letter is false, for this man credits me with the birth of his son. How ridiculous! What do I have to do with such lofty matters as birth and death? Am I a tzadik that I have control over these things? I have therefore decided to return the money to him at once."
His sons were shocked. The eldest spoke first. "Father, we are very poor. Perhaps G‑d has taken pity on us and decided to end our poverty through this man. Maybe it would be wrong and ungrateful of us not to make good use of it." Everyone agreed.
Only the Rebbe staunchly maintained that the money must be returned to the misguided sender.
They turned the matter over this way and that, but it became clear that no consensus could be reached. The family decided to bring their dilemma to a rabbinical court. The judges listened to both sides of the case and then reached their decision: The Rebbe should keep the money. It was true that Reb Meir was such a modest man that he denied being a tzadik whose blessings could have helped the childless woman, but the woman and her husband obviously thought differently. In their estimation it was the Rebbe's prayers that brought about the birth of their child, and they gave the money purely as a gift from their hearts. Therefore, it was perfectly fine to keep the gift.
The Rebbe and his sons left the rooms of the rabbinical court in very different moods. The sons were satisfied that their opinion had been upheld by the judges. The terrible poverty in which they lived would be alleviated at least for a time. Their father, however, was brought no peace by the decision. For although the rabbinical court had ruled that he was completely justified in keeping the money, his own heart was uneasy. He decided to take the problem to his wife, the rebbetzin.
As his life's companion and a woman whose vision was always clear, she would be the final arbiter of this case, for he trusted her judgment completely.
The Rebbe and his sons entered the house and asked the rebbetzin to come and sit with them; they had something of great importance to discuss with her. When the family was seated around the table, the Rebbe filled her in on all the details of the problem, leaving out nothing, but stressing his own unease with the reason for receiving the gift.
Her sons, on the other hand, stressed how much easier their lives would be now, since G‑d had clearly wanted to help them out of their troubles by sending them this money.
She listened wordlessly to both sides and then turned to her husband. "My dear husband, all your life you have guarded yourself from even tasting food that had a question about its kosher status. Even when you discovered that it was a hundred percent kosher you refrained from eating it, because its permissibility had been in question. Now we are faced with the same situation, the only difference being that the question is on the kosher status of money and not on food. Why should you act any differently now?"
Rabbi Meir smiled at her. He stood up, walked into his room, took the bank note and put it into an envelope which he addressed to the sender. That very day it was deposited in the post and the hearts of the tzadik and tzadeket were content.
Have A Wonderful Shabbos!!