Showing posts with label Jacobson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jacobson. Show all posts

Sunday, May 14, 2023

The Secret of Pain: Why My Soul Chose ABUSE

Rabbi Y. Y. Jacobson


Your soul is so pure, and it said "I'm gonna go into this place -  and in order to go into this place, I can't remain in heaven. 

It's not only I have to go down, I have to become entangled = I have to become enmeshed. 

I have to allow myself  to become, so to speak, a victim - in order to be able to be inside that space."

And at that moment you have to know that the soul itself was never contaminated, never!  
It can't be.

But there are Souls that sign up for this journey and it seems like an incredibly painful journey -
because it is.

But really what's happening here is that these are the souls that destroy the impurity in the world, and the impurity in the community, and the impurity on the planet.

These are the souls.

It's a lot of courage.

You have to give yourself credit.

The neshama [soul] signed up for this.

People can suffer their whole life because of things that happened [to them], and they don't give themselves credit. 

Your neshama said "Ribono shel Olam.... I'll go there"

The tragedy is that you don't know you signed up for it and you blame yourself and you think you're evil.

But the truth is the exact opposite.


Friday, August 5, 2022

Trauma is Emotional Murder

Rabbi Y. Y. Jacobson, a 5 minute video that everyone should watch. Those who already understand will appreciate his explanation to those who do not yet really understand the meaning of "trauma".



Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Tuesday, April 5, 2022

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Purim and Putin

The Hidden Story: What Purim Teaches Us Today

Rabbi Simon Jacobson

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Queen Esther, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, & the Chabad Shluchim in Ukraine

Rabbi Y. Y. Jacobson

In this lecture, around the 17:40 mark, Rabbi Jacobson speaks about the Rebbe's last talk

which I blogged here: The Rebbe's Eerie Prediction


and a new Rabbi Mendel Kessin shiur: Purim and the Power of G-d 

Excerpt: Going to that king’s feast was their (the Jews’) display of loyalty to Persia. Why kill them? Obviously, they were loyal to Persia…were good citizens, so how could they, because of some Grand Vizir, due to his evil, how do they decide to kill the Jews? Imagine you awaken one day and you discover that the Congress decided to kill all American Jews. You’d go into shock…how could a nation that prides itself on just laws, do this? 

That’s exactly what the Jews felt. What they saw for the first time was that the laws of the nations of the world are bankrupt. Nations makes laws because of their self-interest. It serves them to have such laws. The Jews realized that the laws are based on what?--legality, NOT justice. If you violate the law, you’ve done something that violates law but, by violating the law, you may be exercising justice.


The Clothes Have No Emperor

Art: Vladimir Kush



Death of a queen

The opening chapter of the Purim Megilah is strikingly enigmatic.

Here is the story in brief: The Emperor of Persia, Achashverosh, throws a party in his capital city, Shushan, to celebrate the firm establishment of his kingship. On the seventh day of the feast, "when the heart of the king was merry with wine," he orders seven of his chamberlains to bring Queen Vashti before him, "to show off her beauty."

Vashti refuses to appear. The king becomes furious and he has her executed.

Why did Vashti refuse to appear before the guests? The Talmud explains [1], that when Achashverosh offered to show them his wife's beauty, the guests insisted that she appear without any clothes. Vashti, a wicked queen who found special glee in torturing and violating Jewish girls and women on the Sabbath day, was punished with leprosy on her skin. Under such conditions she naturally refused to expose her body.

But if so, why did Vashti not send a private message to her husband explaining that it would be humiliating for her and him if she were to expose herself before the guests. Though the king was intoxicated, it is hard to imagine that he would bestow a death sentence on a wife who has just spared him tremendous shame [2]!

Also, why does this story occupy the entire first chapter of the Megillah? Though it is a prelude to understanding how Esther, the hero of the Purim story, became the queen of Achashverosh, nonetheless, the detailed description of the event that brought about Vashti's execution seems superfluous in the story of Purim.

The power of evil

In the Kabbalah, where all biblical figures and episodes are depicted as parables for metaphysical realities, Achashverosh, the mighty monarch of a world power, serves as a parable for the King of Kings, the Creator of the universe [3]. Vashti, the wicked queen of Persia, symbolizes the reign of evil in the world [4].

Naked evil has no appeal or power to attract. In order for evil to gain popularity among the masses, it must be "packaged" well; it must be "dressed" in nice garments that will cover up its true identity.

The two evil monsters of the last generation, Hitler and Stalin, presented their colossal murderous strategies as moral and noble programs dedicated to healing the world of its diseases. This was true throughout history. The inventors and implementers of bloodshed and violence usually presented their schemes as ethical and humane endeavors.

This is valid concerning the evil we perpetrate in our personal lives as well. We embrace many of the destructive and immoral temptations we feel in our heart only because they package themselves outstandingly well. The glittering veneer of comfort and happiness that these temptations display lure us into their trap. If every unhealthy craving we experience presented itself without any masks, we would immediately cast it away.

Thus, the Kabbalah teaches [5] that man's daily challenge in life consists of choosing substance over packaging, inherent value over good PR. When one feels an urge to eat something, to engage in a certain intimate act or to say something, he or she ought to reflect whether this is an inherently healthy and moral thing to do, or is indeed hollow and empty, merely exhibiting itself as promising and enjoyable.

The hallmark of a spiritual life is one that always seeks to be in tune with the true essence of things, and not merely with their external appearance.

Removing the masks

This is how Jewish mysticism understands the symbolism behind the opening story of the Meggilah: Vashti, symbolizing the power of evil, can only retain her power and glory if she is garbed in garments that conceal her real identity. If Vashti removes all her masks, she instantaneously loses all of her appeal and charm.

Therefore, when the King of Kings insists that Vashti appear at His feast in her bareness, she must refuse Him. Because the "clothes" of evil have no "emperor" within them.

This brought about the end of the Vashtinian rule. When evil is called on its nakedness, its nothingness is exposed and its power lost [6].

Footnotes

1. Megillah 12b.
2. The Talmud (ibid. Quoted in Rashi to Esther 1:12) explains, that Vashti sent her husband humiliating messages, thus kindling his wrath to an extreme. What follows is the mystical interpretation of the story, as it is presented in the writings of Chassidism.
3. Midrash quoted in Meoray Or 1:182. Cf. Rikanti to Genesis 29:10, quoted in Mechir Yayin to Esther 1, 12:13. Erkay Hakenuyim under the entry of Achashverosh.
4. See Or Hameir Megiilas Esther. Likkutei Levi Yitzchak Megillas Esther p. 79. Toras Levi Yitzchak p. 17.
5. See Tanya chapter 16.
6. See Tanya chapter 29.

The nucleus of this explanation was presented by the Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760, founder of the Chassidic movement). It is quoted in his name by Rabbi Zee'v Wolf of Zhitamir (a disciple of the Maggid of Mezrich, heir to the Baal Shem Tov) in his Chassidic work Or Hameir on the Meggilah. Reference to it is made in Or Hatorah (by Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, the Tzemach Tzedek, 1789-1876) Megilas Esther p. 72.

Monday, June 7, 2021

When Will Eliyahu Ha Navi Show Up ?

No-one gives a shiur like Rabbi Jacobson.   

When will Eliyahu Ha Navi show up indeed.... and what will he do?

For Source sheets click here


Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Monday, December 30, 2019

Rabbi Jacobson on Anti Semitism in America


''It starts with the Jews, but doesn't end with the Jews. We must keep Torah values among ourselves and the rest of the World.''

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Blessing the President


Rabbi Y. Y Jacobson makes a bracha on President Trump at a NY Fundraiser.

HT: Yaak

Read more at YWN


Sunday, September 1, 2019

The Complainer

by Rabbi Y. Y. Jacobson - The Yeshiva.net


The Raah Bird

This week’s portion Reah repeats—for the second time in the Torah[1]—G-d’s “Kosher List,” of mammals, fish and birds, suitable for Jewish consumption. In the category of birds, the Torah enumerates twenty-four species of birds which are not kosher. One of them is called by three names—the Raah, Dayah and Ayah.[2]

The Talmud explains[3] that these are three names for the same bird. The Torah specifies all of them, because if it would mention only one name, then if someone knows the bird by one of its names not mentioned in the Torah, he might have entertained the idea that it was kosher.

What type of bird is this Raah/Ayah/Dayah creature? Many have translated it as the Vulture or the Hawk. Yet, after all the research, it seems that the most accurate translation for the Raah bird is the Kite, or in its scientific term—the Milvus. Indeed, in Arabic the Kite is known as the “Chadaa” (חדאא), quite similar to the biblical Dayah.[4]

Three Names

Why three names for the same bird? “Raah” stems from the verb “to see.” “Dayah” is from the verb "to fly, sore, or glide." “Ayah” is from the verb “to wail, scream, cry.” All these names describe characteristics of this bird. This Kite indeed is scattered all over the Middle East, feeding chiefly on smaller birds, mice, reptiles, and fish. In the capture of fish the Kite is almost as expert as the osprey (the “Shalach” in the biblical language), darting from a great height into the water, and bearing off the fish in its claws. The wings of the Kite are long and powerful, bearing it through the air in a peculiarly graceful flight. That is why it has been called the Glede or the Kite, representing its gliding movements.

The sight of this bird is remarkably keen and piercing. From the vast elevation to which it soars when in search of food, it is able to survey the face of the land beneath, and to detect the partridge, quail, chicken, or other creature that will become its food.

Should the Kite suspect danger near its nest, it escapes by darting rapidly into the air, soaring at a vast height above the trees among which its home is made. From that elevation it can act as a sentinel, due to its incredible eyesight, and will not come down until it is assured of safety.

The Talmud’s Observation

What is remarkable is that seventeen centuries before all of the scientific research, the Talmud described it in a few words: [5]

אמר רב אבהו, ראה זו איה,ולמה נקרא שמה ראה? שרואה ביותר. וכן הוא אומר [6] נָתִיב לֹא יְדָעוֹ עָיִט, וְלֹא שְׁזָפַתּוּ עֵין אַיָּה. תנא עומדת בבבל ורואה נבלה בארץ ישראל!

Rabbi Abahu said, the Raah bird is the same as the Ayah. Why is this bird it called "Raah?" Because it sees exceedingly well.

The Talmud proceeds to prove this from a verse in Job:[7]"There is a path which no bird of prey knows; and which the kite’s eye has not seen." The very fact that the biblical verse underscores the fact that the Kite’s eye has not perceived the hidden path indicates that the kite usually possesses piercing vision.

The Talmud continues to illustrate the kite’s keen eyesight:

We have learnt that this bird stands in Babylon, and sees a carcass in the Land of Israel!

Now, that’s impressive, being that the distance between Babylon (present day Iraq) and Israel is some 500 miles.[8]

Three Questions

The obvious question is why the Talmud uses such a strange illustration: “This bird stands in Babylon and sees a carcass in the Land of Israel!” It could have used so many more examples of what he bird is capable of seeing and where it is capable of seeing it?

Another, more substantial question: The reason some animals are not kosher is because the negative characteristics these animals possess can have a negative impact on their consumer. “You are what you eat” is not only a cliché. It is why we are instructed to abstain from eating certain animals whose traits we would not wish to incorporate into our psyche. Kosher animals, on the other hand, are characterized by peaceful traits that are worth imitating. [9]

But why, then, is this bird not kosher? Surely keen eyesight and perception are worthy traits. Shouldn't this bird then be kosher? [10]

What Do You See?

The Talmud is not only illustrating the keen vision of the Kite, or the Raah; it is also explaining to us why it is not kosher: “This bird stands in Babylon, and sees a carcass in the Land of Israel!” When you gaze at the land of Israel, you can see many things, including many positive and heartwarming items; yet what does this bird see? Corpses! Being a carnivorous bird, which kills, devours and eats the meat of other animals, its eyes gaze at Eretz Yisroel but observe only one thing: the carcasses in the land! [11]

This is what makes it a non-kosher animal—because this quality is prevalent among some people as well, and we do not want to “eat” and incorporate this type of behavior into our psyche.

Helpless Critics

Some people are simply chronic complainers. They will gaze at their wife, children, relatives, community members and all they will see are flaws, deficiencies, mishaps and negative attributes.

Some people never stop criticizing everybody and everything. While some see the good in everybody, even in the worst situation or person, these characters manage to somehow see the evil in everybody and in everything. They can always show you how everyone has an “agenda,” and everyone is driven by ulterior motives; there are smelly carcasses everywhere.

Are they right? They may be partially, or even completely correct. Every person has flaws. Even the greatest saint has demons; even a great man usually has some skeleton—a corpse—in his closet. That is why we need a Torah to guide us, and that is why the Torah asks of us to never stop working on ourselves, to challenge our conventions, to scrutinize our motives, to refine our behavior, to make amends of our mistakes. But why is that the only thing you manage to observe?

The “Holy” Preacher

A story:[12]

A renowned Maggid (traveling preacher) arrived one day at the hometown of Reb Shmuel Munkes, a noted disciple of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, who was a deeply pious man with an incredible sense of humor. After reading his letter of approbation, lauding him as a tzaddik wont to wander from town to town for the sole purpose of inspiring fellow Jews, the townspeople—who were simple, G-d fearing, innocent Jews—invited him to preach.

Throughout his sermon the Maggid berated his fine audience, chastising them for “dreadful sins.” He rebuked the, for being such terrible, lowly and horrendous Jews, evoking G-d’s wrath. He proceeded to describe in vivid detail the severe punishment that awaited them as a result of their evil ways. When finished, the proud orator quickly retired to his room, leaving his crestfallen audience to wail over of their horrific moral state and the Divine retribution about to befall them.

No sooner had he made himself comfortable, when a man walked into his room. It was Reb Shmuel himself.

Reb Shmuel took out a long knife and a sharpening stone entered his room. He proceeded to sharpen his knife.

After a few tense and wordless moments, the Maggid broke the silence. “What’s this all about?” he asked with a look of astonishment.

His eyes still trained on the sharpening stone, Rabbi Shmuel Munkes replied in mock sincerity: “As the honorable Maggid knows, we simple folk never had the merit of having a righteous scholar in our midst. Who knows, perhaps it is because of our wanton sins you just described.”

Bemused as to where this was heading, the Maggid replied, “Yes, yes, but what does any of this have to do with the knife you are sharpening?”

“Well,” retorted Reb Shmuel, “We were taught by our parents that before Rosh Hashanah one should pray at the gravesites of the righteous. And sadly, we never had in our cemetery the grave of a righteous man. All of our residents—as you have eloquently described us—have been utterly wicked.”

“Of course, of course, nodded the Maggid. But why the knife!?”

“It's rather simple,” explained Reb Shmuel calmly. “The nearest burial site of a tzaddik is very far from our town. It is extremely cumbersome for the townsfolk to make the yearly trek. We decided that we finally need to have a righteous man buried in our midst.

“After hearing your speech,” Reb Shmuel continued in a straight face, “I know there is no one more holy and righteous than you in our entire region. So I decided to… slaughter you and bury you right here in our very own cemetery. Finally, before Rosh Hashanah, we will be able to come pray at your sacred grave site.”

As the grim reality began to set in, the Maggid adeptly switched course. “Come to think of it,” he stammered, “I am not all that righteous after all. I have committed some small sins here and there; they were obviously all inadvertent.”

Reb Shmuel dismissed the Maggid's confession: “Honored Maggid! You are still very righteous and learned. As for the transgressions? They are so minor; who would even know that these were sins. Your humility is nothing but proof of your exceptional righteousness. Besides, relative to our heinous sins—which you have just described in your sermon—you are, trust me, a complete tzaadik! You are the man we need buried here.” By now, Reb Shmuel was done with the sharpening of the knife. The “holy preacher” began to panic. “On second thought,” stuttered the Maggid, “Some of my transgressions were a bit more serious, such as…” He went on to share some immoral things he has done in his life, which disqualified him from being a tzaddik. Rabbi Shmuel quickly dismissed these as well: “To us you are still a great Tzaddik. You are far better than anything we have.” Finally the Maggid confessed to some rather ugly and embarrassing transgressions. He admitted that in truth he was far from the great tzaddik that he portrayed himself to be. He was actually a disgraceful low life. Now, it was Rabbi Shmuel’s turn to preach: “How dare you admonish these beautiful, innocent and pure Jews, when you yourself are a despicable, immoral charlatan! How dare you cause such fine, lovely, well-intended Jews so much anguish. It is you who needs to transform his life; it is you who needs to repent for all of his transgressions. 

The Maggid got the message. He left the town in deep inner shame. He never again rebuked his audiences with stern, harsh words. The Mirror How did Reb Shmuel know that this guy was really playing a game and that he was far from holy? The answer is simple: When you are pure and holy, you see innocence and purity in others. When you are in touch with your own soul, you sense the soul in others. When you have a genuine relationship with G-d, and your appreciation of the G-dliness within every person far more palpable. When you don’t suffer from an inflated ego, or from terrible insecurity, you will truly appreciate the goodness in others. To be sure, there are corpses, skeletons, demons and ghosts in almost every human person; that is what makes them human. Even the Holy Land has its share of carcasses—physical and psychological. But when that is the only thing you see, it means that you are a non-kosher person. You need your own cleansing. The Bias toward Israel Today This insight of our sages concerning the non-kosher Raah bird is so relevant today when it comes to Israel. Is Israel a perfect country? We all know the answer. Israel has many challenges and problems. Is the government perfect? Only a fool can think so. Over the last three decades the Israeli leadership has made some historical errors which might take generations to fix. But there are those who when they look at Israel see nothing but “corpses.” In our own day and age, with modern technology we were all blessed with the eyesight of the kite. We sit in our homes in Babylon (or US, or Canada, or Europe, Australia, South Africa, or anywhere else in the world), and with the help of CNN or BBC or other news cameras we can see Israel. But often, all the reporters, journalists, bloggers, academics, politicians see in Israel are stinky corpses. When they report on Israel, you would think that the country does nothing besides producing Palestinian Children corpses. And this is how you know how terribly biased and unfair they are. When someone criticizes Israel—that is legitimate. There is much to comment and argue about. But when one has nothing but criticism for Israel, when there is nothing good to say about Israel, when Israel is portrayed as the most racist country—then you know it has nothing to do with Israel; rather, the person spewing the hate is treif. At the end of the day, it is all a matter of perspective. Each of us has to choose what we are going to see—in ourselves and in the world around us. 

Footnotes and Source: click here

Friday, July 12, 2019

Stalin vs Schneersohn

The [6th] Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson (1880-1950)



by Rabbi Y. Y. Jacobson




A Vain Battle


 If there was ever a battle fought in vain, this was it. Or at least, so it seemed at the time.

The year is 1924. Vladimir Lenin, the father of the communist revolution, is dead; over 900,000 people pass through the Hall of Columns during the four days and nights that Lenin's body lay exposed to the public.

Josef Stalin succeeds him as the new leader of the Soviet Union. During the following thirty years, he would murder 50 million of his own people. Jews and Judaism would be one of his primary targets. He sets up a special government organization, the Yevsektzye, to ensure that Russian Jewry in its millions embrace the new ethos of Communism, introducing a paradise constructed of bullets and gulags.

Stalin would rule with an iron fist till his death in March 1953, when four million people would gather in Red Square to bid farewell to the tyrant still revered and beloved by much of his nation and by many millions the world over.

At his home in Leningrad (today Petersburg), a 44-year-old rabbi, heir to some of the great Jewish thinkers and leaders of Russian Jewry, summons nine young disciples. He offers them an opportunity most would refuse: to take responsibility for the survival of Judaism in the communist Soviet Union; to ensure that Jewish life and faith would survive the hellish darkness of Stalin’s regime. He wants them to fight—in his words—“till the last drop of blood.”

They embrace the mission. He gives his hand to each of them as a sign that they are accepting an oath, one that would transform their destiny forever. "I will be the tenth, he says; together we have a minyan"...

An Underground Revolution

The nine men were dispatched throughout the country. With assistance from similar minded colleagues, they created an impressive underground network of Jewish activity, which included Jewish schools, synagogues, mikvaot (ritual baths used by Jewish woman for spiritual feminine reinvigoration), adult Torah education, Yeshivot (academies for Torah learning for students), Jewish text books, providing rabbis for communities, teachers for schools, etc. Over the 1920's and 1930's, these individuals built six hundred (!) Jewish underground schools throughout the U.S.S.R (1). Many of them last for only a few weeks or months. When the KGB (the secret Russian police) discovered a school, the children were expelled, the teacher arrested. A new one was opened elsewhere, usually in a cellar or on a roof.

One of the nine young men was sent to Georgia. There were dozens of mikvaot there, all shut down by the communists who buried them in sand and gravel. This young man decided to do something radical. He falsified a letter written supposedly by the KGB headquarters in Moscow, instructing the local offices in Georgia to open two mikvaot within 24 hours.

The local officials were deceived. Within a day, two mikvaot were open. Several months later, when they discovered the lie, they shut them down again.

And so it went. A mohel (the person performing the mitzvah of circumcision) was arrested, and another one was dispatched to serve the community; a yeshiva was closed, and another one opened elsewhere; a synagogue was destroyed and another one opened its portals in secrecy. It is a chapter in Jewish history unbeknownst to most.

But it sure seemed like a lost battle. Here was an individual rabbi, with a small group of pupils, staging an underground rebellion against a mighty empire that numbered in the hundreds of millions, and aspired to dominate the world. It was like an infant wrestling a giant, an ant attempting to defeat a military tank. The situation was hopeless.

Finally, in 1927—ninety two years ago—they lost their patience with this man. The rabbi behind the counter-revolutionary work was arrested and sentenced to death by a firing squad. Foreign pressure and nothing less than a miracle convinced the KGB to alter the sentence to ten years in exile. It was then converted to three years, and then—quite unbelievable in the Soviet Regime where clergy and laymen alike were murdered like flies—he was completely exonerated. The 12th and 13th of the Hebrew month of Tamuz (this year it is July 15-16), mark the 92nd anniversary since he was liberated from Stalin’s death sentence in 1927.

The individual behind the spiritual mutiny was the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (1880-1950), who became the leader of Chabad in 1920, after the passing of his father. He selected nine of his young pupils to wage battle with him. The one sent to Georgia, falsifying the KGB document, was my grandfather, Simon Yakabashvili, my father’s father (1900-1953). He, together with hundreds of his colleagues, Chassidim throughout the Soviet Union, was arrested in 1938, tortured mercilessly and given a 25-year sentence in the Gulag. Most of his eight colleagues who accepted the oath never made it out of Stalin’s hell. They perished in the Soviet Union.

(My grandfather, Reb Simon, made it out of the USSR, but died several years later at the age of 53 in Toronto. He died on 2 Tamuz 5713, 1953, leaving behind there young sons, Gershon, Bezalel and Sholom. My father died in 2005, my uncle Bezalel died six years ago. Their mother, Freida, passed on in 1954, one year after her husband. She was 44. One child remains, may he enjoy many long and healthy years).

Investing in Eternity

More than nine decades have passed. This passage of time gives us the opportunity to answer the question: Who won? Stalin or Schneerson?

one century ago, Marx's socialism and Lenin’s communism heralded a new era for humanity. Its seemingly endless power and brutality seemed unbreakable.

Yet one individual stood up, a man who would not allow the awesome war machine of Mother Russia to blur his vision, to eclipse his clarity. In the depths of his soul he was aware that history had an undercurrent often invisible to most but discernible to students of the long and dramatic narrative of our people. He knew with full conviction that evil might thrive but it will die; yet goodness, holiness, G-dliness—embodied in Torah and Mitzvos—are eternal.

And he chose to invest in eternity.

He probably did not know how exactly it would work out in the end. I am not sure he believed he would survive. But he knew that his mission in life was to sow seeds, though the trees were being felled one by one.

Cynics scoffed at him; close friends told him he was making a tragic mistake. Even many of his religious colleagues were convinced that he was wasting his time and energy fighting an impossible war. They either fled the country or maintained a low profile. Some great rabbis at the time felt he was trying to do the impossible and it was futile.

But 90 years later, this giant and what he represented have emerged triumphant. Today, in 2019, in the republics of the former Soviet Union stand hundreds of synagogues, Jewish day schools, yeshivot, mikvaot, Jewish community centers. Since communism fell, the Lubavitcher Rebbe (the son in law of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe who was liberated in 1927) sent hundreds of ambassadors to create a Jewish renaissance. They span the entire length and breadth of the country, from Siberia to Tashkent; from Tbilisi till Krasnoyarsk. Over the last 30 years they have built more than one hundred (!) full-time Jewish day schools, in which more than 100,000 Jewish children received a Jewish Torah education. As this summer season began, dozens of Jewish day camps opened up throughout the former Soviet Union with tens of thousands of Jewish children who will enjoy a blissful summer coupled with the celebration of Jewish life.

I have a cousin, Rabbi Yerachmiel Garelick, who serves as the Chabad ambassador to Western Siberia. Jewish women had to travel for seven hours to visit a mikvah. He just completed building a magnificent mikvah in Tuman, Siberia!

And the Chabad couple in Birobidjhan, located on the Trans-Siberian Railway, near the China-Russia border, where Stalin wanted to exile millions of Russian Jews, opened a Glat kosher restaurant there.
Last Chanukah, a large menorah stood tall in the Kremlin, casting the glow of Chanukah on the grounds where Stalin walked with Berya and Yezhov. On Lag Baomer (a Jewish holiday), thousands of Jewish children with kippot on their heads marched the streets of Moscow with signs proclaiming, "Hear oh Israel... G-d is One." Jewish life is bustling in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, Uzbekistan, etc.

Visiting Russia last summer, Russia’s chief Rabbi, Berel Lazar, pointed to a massive Jewish school he built in Moscow stretching over a full block. “Right across from here were some of the main offices of the KGB, where the orders to decimate Judaism came from,” he said.

Across the street was a massive Jewish museum, one of the nicest I have ever seen, attracting thousands of weekly visitors, telling the story of the Jewish people and its heritage. “How did you get the money for this?” I asked Rabbi Lazar. He smiled and said that the first million came from the private charity of Vladimir Putin. "The rest was easy."

I then entered, two streets over, the Marina Rashtze synagogue in Moscow, a massive and beautiful 8-story structure. Hundreds of Jews were praying and studying Torah.

Comrade Stalin is dead; communism has faded away as hopelessly irrelevant and destructive. The sun of the nations is today a clod of darkness. The ideology of the Soviet Empire which declared "Lenin has not died and Stalin will not die. He is eternal," is now a mockery. Stalin and Lenin are as dead as one can be. But the Mikvaot built by the Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1927, they are still here, from Siberia to Moscow, to Tashkent.

If you will visit Russia this coming Shabbos, I am not sure you will find anybody celebrating the life and vision of Stalin, or even Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Andropov. But you will find tens of thousands of Jews celebrating the liberation of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1927 and the narrative of one holy man’s triumph over one of the greatest mass-murderers in human history, sharing his vision, committing themselves to continue saturating the world with the light of Torah and Mitzvos.

So on this Shabbos, two days before the 12th of Tamuz, lift up your glasses and say L’chayim! L’chayim to a Rebbe who inspired such heroism in so many disciples, many of them who paid the ultimate price. L’chayim to the incredible Jews of Russia who maintained the embers burning for seven decades, and then—when opportunity came—fanned them into glowing flames. L’chayim to my dear Zeide, Reb Simon, whom I never met but whose life-story is engraved in the core of my heart.

Today, we have many battles to fight, and plenty of darkness to conquer. It is easy to become cynical or depressed, leading to emotional paralysis. But our greatest leaders always knew better. They never allowed the mask of evil to define the narrative of history; they ensured that another story would dominate our imaginations and actions.

So can we.

1) This figure was given to me by Rabbi Sholom Ber Levin, chief librarian of the Central Lubavitch Library in Brooklyn, NY.

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Jews, Wake Up!


A Massacre in Pittsburgh: When Jacob Must Don the Cloak of Eisav

By: Rabbi YY Jacobson

Dedicated by Daniel Brenkler, in loving memory of all the Jews killed in Pittsburgh, Shabbos,  To read this article at the source, click here.

Horror and Grief

Our hearts bleed. How is it that in 2018 we are seeing images of Jews gunned down in their house of worship?

On Shabbas morning, October 27th, 2018, the Jewish day of rest, a middle-aged man burst into a Pittsburgh synagogue. What followed was the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history. Eleven men and women, who had come only to celebrate and pray, were gunned down, their blood pooling around their scattered prayer books. A heroic team of local police officers charged the Shul under heavy fire. Though many sustained severe injuries, the massacre was finally brought to an end and the gunman captured.

Taking the Blessings

The twin brothers Jacob and Esau [Yaakov and Eisav] occupy the leitmotif [theme] of this week’s Torah portion, Toldos.

Rebecca [Rivkah] loves Jacob [Yaakov], the child dwelling in the tents; while Isaac [Yitzchak] loved Esau [Eisav], the “skilled hunter, the man of the field.” As the story progresses, Isaac grows old and his eyes become dim. He expresses his desire to bless his beloved son Esau before he dies. While Esau goes off to hunt for his father's favorite food, Rebecca summons her son Jacob and instructs him to go take his father’s blessings. She dresses Jacob in Esau's clothes, covers his arms and neck with goatskins to simulate the feel of his hairier brother, prepares a similar dish, and sends Jacob to his father with the food. The Torah quotes her saying:[1]

And now my son, listen to my voice, to what I am commanding you.

Go now to the flock, and take for me from there two choice kids, and I will make them tasty foods for your father, as he likes.

So Jacob drew near to Isaac his father, and he felt him, and he said, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau."

Jacob receives his father's blessings for "the dew of the heaven and the fat of the land" and mastery over his brother. Once Esau returns with the food, it is too late. Jacob has already obtained the blessings.

The Mysteries

This is a deeply complex narrative, or to paraphrase Winston Churchill who said of Russia, "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."

Here are five of the most thundering questions. How did Isaac and Rebecca allow themselves to grow so far apart in their perception of their children, to the point that Isaac favored Esau, and Rebecca insisted that Jacob receive the blessings? Why would she deceive her husband rather than speak to him? Why did Jacob employ cunning and stealth to deceive an unsuspecting brother? When Isaac discovers the trick, he seems shocked and bewildered. Why did he never chastise his wife or son?

Finally, when Jacob entered Isaac’s chamber, and his father felt him, Isaac declared: "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau." Clearly, Isaac identified this man as having Jacob’s voice. So why did he give him the blessings? Why did he not investigate who is the person standing before him?

Dozens of interpretations have been offered. Today I wish to present one perspective—it is an extraordinary insight presented by the late Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik (1903-1993).[2]

The Ashes of Isaac

Isaac was the first person to be born a Jew. At the most defining moment of his life, he lay on the altar, bound up, about to be sacrificed. He was moments away from death. Only in the eleventh hour did the angel command Abraham: “Do not lay your hand on the lad.”

It was, at that moment when he lay on the altar, that Isaac understood the magnitude of sacrifice that Jewish existence would require.[3] He knew that to be a Jew would be far from a simple feat. His people will endure fire and water. “Fire will not burn us; water will not drown us,” goes a famous Russian Chassidic song. But fire and water it is! Jewish survival ought never to be taken for granted. “In each generation they rise up against us to annihilate us,” we say in the Passover Haggadah, “and G-d saves us from their hands.”

The Mission

That may be one reason Isaac, the man who understood sacrifice, had a special affinity for Esau: “And Isaac loved Esau because [his] game was in his mouth,” the Torah states.[4] “Esau was a man who understood hunting, a man of the field, whereas Jacob was an innocent man, dwelling in tents,” the Torah tells us.[5] Isaac understood that for the Jew to survive he will need not only to “dwell in the tents” of study and scholarship,[6] not only to reside in the citadels of the spirit, in the mansions of moral contemplation and ethical explorations, but also learn how to hunt in the field, how to take a weapon in his hand and battle with viscous aggressors in the killings fields of a harsh terrain. In the worlds of the Talmud: “He who comes to kill you, kill him first.”[7]

But it’s not only about security. The mission of the Jew is to transform the physical and material world into a divine abode. To achieve this, he must enter into the real world and impact it. He must enter the open fields of society and live proudly as a Jew: His ambition coupled with integrity, courage coupled with sanctity, physical might permeated with spiritual vision. He must integrate heaven and earth.

A Perfect Partnership

In Isaac’s mind, a partnership between the twins Esau and Jacob will guarantee an eternal people. Jacob will grant the people its soul, spirit, conscience, and moral GPS; but Esau will guarantee it survival in a material and harsh world and will become the facilitator of Jacob’s spiritual wisdom in our physical world.[8]

The tragedy, of course, was that Esau did not see himself as a partner of Jacob. His material prowess, his hunting skills, his field-manoeuvers have become divorced from his spiritual, soulful core. His body was severed from his soul. “And Esau came from the field, and he was exhausted.” Esau was ambitious and skilful, but spent. He craved to conquer the entire “field,” to own the world, but he remained internally worn out, emotionally exhausted, detached from his own metaphysical roots. His internal universe was chaotic, distraught, and frenzied. Isaac yearned that Esau’s enormous strength be harnessed to facilitate the spiritual goals of his brother Jacob. He wants to bless, empower and sublimate Esau.

Rebecca’s Vision

It is Rebecca, the Jewish mother, who understands the calling of the moment—and the calling of history. “Now my son, listen to my voice, to what I am commanding you. Go now to the flock, and take for me from there two choice kids, and I will make them tasty foods for your father, as he likes.” My dear Jacob! It is time to leave your tents of study and go out to the field (where the goats are.[9]) It is time for you to learn how to garb yourself in Esau’s cloaks and gear—you can’t always remain sheltered in your sweet cocoon of spirituality. Sure, your tents of study and prayer will remain your eternal compass; they will guide your direction in the field and navigate your movements in the outside world, but you must not run from lifting up Esau’s sword to protect your children, you must not be afraid to stand up to your fierce enemies with unwavering resolve; you must never apologize for your right to exist and flourish in G-d’s world and in your homeland, and you must never allow your hyper sense of morality and ethics to turn you into the punching bag of the United Nations and the European and American Intelligentsia. You can’t allow your enemy to axe you with knives, gun you down with rifles, and you are always on the defensive. It is time for you to go on the offensive and let your enemy be frightened for his life.

My dear Jacob! You are a good, sweet boy. You despise violence, loathe conflict, and believe that everyone wants peace; that negotiations and compromises will bring out the best in your former enemies. That is what makes you so wonderful and noble. You never give up on the dream of peace. But Jacob, your father is right. You will remain a sacrificial ram, unless you stand up for yourself in the battlefield of ideas and in the battlefields of life.

We are the people of the book, not of the sword. Yet, there are moments in history, says Rebecca, when we will have no choice. David will need to stand up to a Goliath; in the Persia of old, during the edicts of Haman, Jews will need to engage in moral violence to fight off their blood thirsty foes. In the days of Chanukah, the Jews will once again need to take up arms to save their people and faith. Time and time again, Jews will need to learn how to fight back. In June of 1967, and numerous times before and after, Israel will need to wage war to save a beleaguered people from the enemy’s quest for our annihilation.

Do you want dead Jews who are seen as ethical, or living Jews whom the UN condemns as shylocks? Do you want Jews strewn in rivers of blood with the world condemning the atrocities against them, or do you want powerful, healthy and vibrant Jews who strike fear into the hearts of monstrous killers who have no qualms to butcher innocent humans whose only crime is that they woke in the morning and went to synagogue to pray to the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?

My dear Jacob—said his mother—one day, Esau will become your partner. One day, the Moshiach will come—and may it be speedily in our days—and you will return to your tents of spiritual ecstasy, as the “spirit of impurity will be removed from the world,” and the entire “earth will be filled with Divine consciousness as the waters covers the sea.” There will be a time when, in the words of Isaiah (2:4), “He [G-d] shall judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift the sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”

But till that glorious day, my dear Jacob, you can’t allow Esau to own the marketplace of military power, technology, science, medicine, wealth, influence, and physical strength. You are not Esau, you are not a man of war and violence; you are a prince of G-d, a man of wisdom, integrity and faith. But you must dress like Esau, you must don his gear. For your enemy is brutal, ruthless, and bloodthirsty. He is promised 72 pies of pizza for becoming a “shahid,” a martyr, and as long as you duck, the international community somehow empathizes with his murderous plans. The world respects Jews who respect themselves; the world admires Jews who are not afraid of doing everything it takes to stop immoral violence and bloodshed.

What is more, says Rebecca. Your duty as a Jew is to create a fragment of heaven on earth, to sanctify physical life, and to sublimate all aspects of the material world. Jacob, in the absence of a brother to assist you, you must learn to achieve this feat.

A Radiant Field

To his credit, Jacob obeys. He may not understand why. But he knows that mother knows best. He learns to enter the field. He learns to don the clothes of Esau. And when he enters the chambers of his father, something remarkable happens.

And he [Isaac] said, "Serve [it] to me that I may eat of the game of my son, so that my soul will bless you." And he served him, and he ate, and he brought him wine, and he drank.

And his father Isaac said to him, "Please come closer and kiss me, my son."

And he came closer, and he kissed him, and he smelled the fragrance of his garments, and he blessed him, and he said, "Behold, the fragrance of my son is like the fragrance of a field, which the Lord has blessed!

Isaac tells his son that his fragrance is one of a field blessed by G-d. Esau was a man of the field. Jacob was not. But when Jacob was forced to enter the field—to enter into the material, physical and earthy reality where Esau lives and succeeds; when Jacob is forced to learn how to use a rifle and drive a jeep; when Jacob is compelled to battle a war for survival; when Jacob is compelled to live and function in a secular world—it has “the fragrance of a field, which the Lord has blessed!” It is not a field which causes exhaustion and loneliness; it is a field that mirrors the radiance of the Divine. Jacob’s field is filled with sanctity, harmony, and spiritual depth. Jacob is capable of introducing holiness into Esau’s cloaks and vocation. The field must not remain a place of vulgarity and bruteness; it can become a garden of G-d. Jacob can hold his book in one hand, and his plow in the other; his book in one hand and his sword in the other—realizing that the material too belongs to the oneness of the Divine. As Moses tells his people:[10] “For the Lord, your G-d, goes along in the midst of your camp, to rescue you and to deliver your enemies before you. Therefore, your camp shall be holy…”

An Integrated Jacob

Isaac, at lasts, acknowledges the possibility of Jacob fulfilling his mission for eternity, even while Esau is not yet ready to serve as a partner. “So Jacob drew near to Isaac his father, and he felt him, and he said, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau." At this moment, Isaac experienced that wondrous synthesis in his child. His voice is the voice of Jacob—a voice of Torah, of wisdom, of spiritual truth, of justice, compassion, ethics, sacred nobility, and moral values. It is the “Yiddishe Shtime,” the voice of Yiddishkeit. “But the hands are the hands of Esau”—this same boy is capable of standing up to a cruel enemy with unapologetic resolve, unwavering moral clarity, unrestrained determination, and undeterred strength to preserve its life. His mind, heart and soul will be defined by Torah; but when the moment calls for it, he will know to go out and change the world.[11]

Indeed, the opening of Isaac’s blessings to Jacob is: “And may the Lord give you of the dew of the heavens and [of] the fatness of the earth and an abundance of grain and wine.” He blesses him not only with the heavenly dew but also with the fatness of the earth. He empowers him not only to be holy in heaven, but also to bring holiness to the earth. Not to shy away from his power to conquer the earth and bring G-d into the earth.[12]

Wake Up!

The relevance to our times is clear. The Jewish people are facing numerous enemies who want us dead. Who would believe that on the terrain of this great country, eleven Jews would be gunned down on a beautiful Sabbath morning in synagogue?!

The voice of Jacob remains our greatest power—the voice of Torah study, the voice of prayer, the voice of celebrating Mitzvos and Judaism. This is why we are here today, 3300 years after our inception and 3300 years after almost every Empire tried to get rid of us.

But let us at this moment not forget our moral duty with the “hands of Esau.” We must protect ourselves. Every synagogue, every school, every Jewish center, and every Jewish community must guarantee the highest level of physical security. Not minimal security, but the maximum level of safety.

Heaven forbid, if another Jew hater tries to do something similar, we do not want to scratch our heads and ask ourselves why we didn’t learn from the Pittsburgh bloodbath.

This is not a time for fear, but for resolve, courage, determination, and absolute clarity about our duty at this moment to ourselves, our children, and our communities.

This is true in the US, in the entire world, and of course in Israel. While we do not look for wars, we are a nation which loves peace, searches for peace, and respects and loves all people, if someone attacks us, we ought to respond with all our might. “One who is merciful to the cruel becomes cruel to those who deserve mercy,” say our sages.[13]

Meir Uziel, an Israeli comedian (and grandson of former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ben Tzion Uziel), once quipped: In the competition for Ms. Ethical among the 200 nations of the world, we always come in last place, since we are the only ones who show up!

Lessons from the Holocaust

The late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin once wrote:

“I believe the lessons of the Holocaust are these. First, if an enemy of our people says he seeks to destroy us, believe him. Don’t doubt him for a moment. Don’t make light of it. Do all in your power to deny him the means of carrying out his satanic intent. [Note: one month later, Begin dispatched Israel’s Air Force to destroy the Iraqi nuclear facility at Osirak.]

“Second, when a Jew anywhere in the world is threatened or under attack, do all in your power to come to his aid. Never pause to wonder what the world will think or say. The world will never pity slaughtered Jews. The world may not necessarily like the fighting Jew, but the world will have to take account of him.

“Third, a Jew must learn to defend himself. He must forever be prepared for whenever threat looms.

“Fourth, Jewish dignity and honor must be protected in all circumstances. The seeds of Jewish destruction lie in passively enabling the enemy to humiliate us. Only when the enemy succeeds in turning the spirit of the Jew into dust and ashes in life, can he turn the Jew into dust and ashes in death. During the Holocaust it was after the enemy had humiliated the Jews, trampled them underfoot, divided them, deceived them, afflicted them, drove brother against brother, only then could he lead them, almost without resistance, to the gates of Auschwitz. Therefore, at all times and whatever the cost, safeguard the dignity and honor of the Jewish people.

“Fifth, stand united in the face of the enemy. We Jews love life, for life is holy. But there are things in life more precious than life itself. There are times when one must risk life for the sake of rescuing the lives of others. And when the few risk their own lives for the sake of the many, then they, too, stand the chance of saving themselves…”

Begin missed one point. For Israel to retain its deterrence power, it must be convinced of its moral right, of its spiritual mission in this world, of its destiny as G-d’s people. Only when the voice if the voice of Jacob, will his hands be able to deliver the punch it needs to. Without it, Jacob become apologetic, weak, frail and perceived as someone who can be defeated with enough pressure, lies, and terror.

Today Jacob must increase his voice and must don the gloves of Esau to eliminate through absolute strength and deterrence every vestige of terror in its midst.

May G-d bless the people of Pittsburgh, may G-d comfort the mourning in Pittsburgh; may G-d give us the resolve we need to stop ducking and start demonstrating authentic strength. And may G-d bring redemption to our people, our land, and our world, now, Amen!

To comment on this essay at Rabbi Jacobsons' Yeshiva site, please click here.

[1] Genesis 27:8-18:

[2] The Rav shared this at a convention of the Mizrachi movement, in Atlantic City, in 1961.You can read the original insight here: http://hebrewbooks.org/2813. Go to pp. 12-14. I included some other ideas to clarify some details.

[3] The end of Vayikra [26:42] reads: “V’Zocharti es brisi Yaakov, v’af es brisi Yitzchok, v’af s brisi Avraham ezkor. I will remember My covenant with Yaakov; also my covenant with Yitzchak, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember.” The term Zechirah, the word for Remembering is mentioned in connection with Yaakov, and it is mentioned again with Abraham, but it is not mentioned with Yitzchak. Why? The great Biblical commentator, Rashi, offers the midrashic insight (Rashi to Lev. 26: 2).: “Why does Hashem use the term ‘Remembering’ for Abraham and Yaakov but not when he speaks of Yitzchak? Because in the case of Yitzchak, ‘Remembering’ is not necessary. The ashes of Yitzchak always appear before Me, gathered up and placed on the Altar!” Yitzchak remains the symbol of Jewish sacrifice, the readiness of the Jewish people to dedicate their lives as an offering for G-d. Yitzchak’s symbolic ashes stand before my eyes every single day, says G-d. The sages define Yitzchak as an “olah temimah”—a wholesome offering, whose sanctity required he never leave the borders of the Holy Land.

[4] Genesis 25:28

[5] Ibid. 25:27

[6] See Rashi to Genesis 25:27

[7] Sanhedrin 72a

[8] See at length the commentary of Netziv to the story.

[9] Esau is represented by the goat, “saeir,” while Jacob by the sheep, “hakvasim hifrid Yaakov.” (Or HaTorah Vayishlach vol. 1).

[10] Deut. 23:15

[11] Of course, when the community has enough manpower to fight the enemy on the battlefield, it is an awesome merit for the army and the community to allow Jews to be dedicated completely to Torah study—the lifeline of our people. But if more manpower is needed, it is a grand mitzvah for every single capable Jew to don arms and go fight. And concerning war, the Torah states, “your camp shall be holy,” as your rifle is part and parcel of your spiritual holiness.

[12] What is fascinating is that Jacob beloved’s son Joseph, will dream up, years later, a storm. "And Joseph dreamed a dream and told his brothers… 'Listen now to this dream, which I have dreamed: Behold we were binding sheaves in the middle of the field, when, behold! -- my sheaf arose and also remained standing; then behold! -- your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf.' "So his brothers said to him, 'Will you reign over us? Will you dominate us?'. And he again dreamed another dream, and he related it to his brothers, and he said: 'Behold! I have dreamed another dream, and behold, the sun, the moon and eleven stars were prostrating themselves to me'… His brothers envied him, but his father awaited the matter."

Joseph's double dreams take him from the plane of agriculture to the realm of the celestial. First, he dreams of himself—and his brothers—embodied as sheaves of a field where their sheaves bow to his. Yet as his dreams progress, he views himself and his family as heavenly lights: the son, the moon and the stars. Joseph defines here two roles for himself and his family: He will be the great economist, leading a nation to a prosperous agricultural future, sustaining the land with earthly food. But simultaneously he sees himself guiding the sun, moon and starts—granting vision, light, and direction to the planet.

The two are not contradictory in his world—as Jacob was given both the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth. The voice must be the voice of Jacob, and the hands must employ the skills of Esau.

[13] Tanchuma, Parashat Metzora 1. Yalkut Shimoni Shmuel 1 #121.

Thursday, July 26, 2018

The Longest Eclipse


The longest eclipse of the 21st century can be seen Friday nigth/Saturday morning.

Video: Rabbi Simon Jacobson 
Some of life's greatest lessons can be derived (learned, gleaned) from the cosmos. We can learn much from just looking up at the heavens (sky) and watching the celestial bodies in space. This is especially true for the moon, which has always mesmerized the human race. Its close proximity to earth, its haunting glow, its phases and effects on our tides and plants -- have fed science, religion and folklore, and our quest to better understand ourselves and the world in which we live. 

During the night of the full moon this month (on July 27/the 15th of Av) the longest total lunar eclipse of the century will fill the sky (it won't be visible in North America, but most of the Eastern Hemisphere will see it). Totality will last for 1 hour and 43 minutes! 

Please join Rabbi Jacobson for this special full moon edition, and learn fascinating lessons - personal, spiritual and psychological - (personal, spiritual and psychological lessons from this historic lunar eclipse. Discover the deeper meaning of the moon as an archetype reflected in each one of us, and how the lunar cycles and eclipses illuminate and teach us extraordinary personal, spiritual and psychological lessons for our lives and our relationships. 


Monday, December 11, 2017

Are We Doing Enough to Spread the Noahide Laws?


With all the confusion out there regarding this topic, Rabbi Jacobson answers the question: ''Are we doing enough to spread the Sheva Mitzvot Bnei Noach?'' [ @ 24:20 on the video] and ''Can Chassidus be taught to non-Jews? '' ......  also Chassidus applied to Chanukah..... and more topics

Rabbi Simon Jacobson


Sunday, May 7, 2017

Judaism and Abusive Marriages - Reality Check


What do you do if you're an orthodox Jewish woman and you're in an abusive marriage?  You go to your rabbi and he tells you that you must do everything you can to save your marriage, and Hashem ''never gives you more than you can handle'' etc etc - so do you stay in the marriage and continue to be abused, thinking that this is Hashem's Will ?

Rabbi Yossi Jacobson has all the answers in this audio.


Friday, May 5, 2017

Adults vs Children


Re-blogging because it's been this kind of a week.
Send this to someone who needs to hear it.

 

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